June 29, 2007
Zork‘s History at Gamasutra
Matt Barton has written an article on Zork through the ages over at Gamasutra. You shouldn’t trust me, since Barton quotes me copiously and plugs my book, but it’s a nice piece. (Barton also talked to and quoted several more authoritative sources, including Zork co-author Dave Lebling and Infocom’s Steve Meretzky.) Check it out for yourself.
I’ll also note, as Barton does, that Tim Anderson’s “History of Zork” article is a good read on this topic. Anderson, a Zork co-creator, goes into more detail about the specifics of the creation of the original game and the trilogy based on it. What Barton’s article adds to this is insight into the contexts of Zork‘s creation and the influence it has had, following through Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, the all-graphical Activision Zork games and into the present day.
June 29th, 2007 at 1:30 am
Also, see the full interview responses from Barton’s work on this article.