~5 minute readDimmer Dungeons: Classic Adventures From The Past
Zork Zero
RealmsHead Inn is alive with the chatter of weekend diners. Those cursed azure bonds have faded, and the throbbing in your arm has finally ceased. You should turn your attention to the savory roast fowl sizzling on your plate, but for some reason you cannot. Your head lolls backward, your eyelids droop. Fatigue permeates your being, dulling your senses so that you barely feel a gentle touch on your shoulder. The hand rests for a moment, then releases you, only to be replaced by another touch, stronger and imbued with soothing warmth. Your weariness lessens, and you open your eyes to see a man gazing at you, his grey eyes compassionate as only a healer's can be. He wears the deep scarlet tunic of the Rilian Order, and his ancestry is impossible to guess. Human surely. but only in part, and the rest...?
"This is Alairic," says Maeve from the chair next to yours. You don't recall when she sat down, so you feel a bit confused. "I've never known anyone he couldn't make better," she continues, "and you are welcome to dine with us. Our other friends will be here shortly."
Excitement replaces lethargy. You knew she must be part of an adventuring group, but you hardly dared hope to meet them. "Th-th-thank you," you manage to stammer in Alairic's direction. "I' d be honored to join you, and I' m normally not such poor company, as Maeve can tell you. I think I must still be battle-weary from my last campaign. All that endless fighting, and then searching, only to fight again. Oh, I wish there were more adventures where the mind was mightier than the sword, where the key to success was to conquer by wit instead of force."
A look of nostalgia passes over Maeve's face. Running one delicate finger around the rim of her glass and gazing into the water as though it contained images, she speaks:
Grue in the Stew
Fools they were, young one, but divine fools, and for one glorious space of dungeon time, the whole adventuring world danced to their tunes. Infocom â a name to conjure upon, about, with. At first they were known only in the shrouded halls of mainframes, but then their text adventures flared onto every machine, regardless of format. All who thirsted for richness of word and plot were fed in the Great Underground Empire, and then in strange and wondrous worlds beyond. Everywhere adventurers met, one magic password was whispered: "Zork."
Bright days those were, before your time entirely, and a great portion before mine, and over all too soon. Gaming wasn't serious enough, you see, and the creators of G.U.E., like their ambitious King Duncanthrax, had aspirations of "better" things â "real" programming. Cornerstone it was called, but truer in faith if it had been named "Gravestone." Its failure dealt a harsh blow, yet might have been survived if the company had not ignored the nearly universal cry for graphics.
One Picture Is Worth???
Things were far different than they are today, when most programming energy, especially for the Amiga, is put in graphics and sound, usually at the expense of plot, leaving trite stories and contrived characters. Infocom would never have tolerated such dulling of the gamer's mind, but they weren't quick enough to act when it seemed possible that text adventures might live. They did not, and Infocom was sold to - Mediagenic. (I whisper this accursed name, for they are the ones who will not market Amiga versions of their product, and this inn is full of loyalists.) The first effect of this change was the addition of the much needed graphics.
Infocom fans hoped then, and perchance made offerings to whatever powers they revered, but mostly in vain. The first products were mediocre at best, with the exception of one or two gems among the stones. Brightest shone Zork Zero, which was a "prequel," returning the adventurer to the pinnacle of the Great Underground Empire, where all would thrive except for the curse of Megaboz, an ill-tempered sorcerer with a distaste for Flatheads. You, and you alone of course, could restore peace to the realm if you could only find all 24 of the Flathead artifacts and throw them into Megaboz's cauldron, which he conveniently left in the castle's banquet hall.
Surely, You Jester
Naturally, you cannot let the empire suffer, so you are off on the most devilish clever scavenger hunt ever devised. Even the copy protection will enthrall you, since it is a Flathead calendar which gives clues to the nature of these artifacts, two per Royal Family member. It also provides necessary clues which the on-screen hints won't divulge, leaving the 512K disk easily copyable and installable on hard disk. You can even multi-task with this adventure, but I doubt you would. It should take your full attention to get through such puzzles as the "Construction Site" and "Catching the Flies."
If you hate traveling alone, don't fret. You'll have a companion â sort of â Wurb's jester, who challenges you with riddles, plagues you with annoying tricks, and forces you to compete against him in perplexing games, including a round of nerve-wracking Double Fanucci. The jester even helps occasionally, just to be ornery.
We're Closed; Next Ticket Window, Please
Does this sound exciting? It is, but don't be misled. The graphics are simple and few, and you will have to read the encyclopedia in the library to view some of them. Sound is non-existent as well, and the mapping feature is a series of boxes and lines. If you want glamour, you'll have to create it in your mind, and, oh, with the strength of the story and the slickness of that famous Infocom parser, how easy that is!
Want to go, my young friend? Of course you do, but that may place you on a second scavenger hunt, as Triton Products has been disbanded, and they were Infocom's clearing house. If you can find a copy of the game, it should please your pocketbook with a price tag under fifteen dollars. It's worth a search. More than the Great Underground Empire suffered with the demise of the "old, unimproved" Infocom. Adventure realms everywhere grew a bit duller, a shade darker, and that evil spell is yet to be broken.
She turns her attention to the arrival of a handsome blond Paladin accompanied by a heavily bearded dwarf You consider what you may have been missing by not knowing the legends surrounding Zork. You would like to see the Great Underground Empire for yourself, but how will you manage it? You can't even manage to keep your napkin on your lap instead of the floor. As you duck under the table to retrieve it, you notice a figure in motley sitting cross-legged under another table directly opposite yours. He winks, and then vanishes. The cloth napkin crackles in your hand like crisp paper. You open it and find a hastily scribbled parchment note. It's unsigned, but you' re sure of the author the moment you read it: "Meet me at the West Ruins tomorrow at dawn. Lots of fun awaits. By the way, how are you at Double Fanucci?"
This article appeared in
Enchanted Realms
Mar-Apr 1991
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These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.
