Zork Zero

D
MS-DOS 0 subscribers

0 plays 1988 #Adventure

Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz is an interactive fiction video game, written by Steve Meretzky over nearly 18 months and published by Infocom in 1988. Although it is the ninth and last Zork game released by Infocom before the company's closure, Zork Zero takes place before the previous eight games (Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Enchanter, Sorcerer, Wishbringer, Spellbreaker and Beyond Zork). Unlike its predecessors, Zork Zero is a vast game, featuring a graphical interface with scene-based colors and borders, an interactive map, menus, an in-game hints system, an interactive Encyclopedia Frobozzica, and playable graphical mini-games. The graphics were created by computer artist James Shook. It is Infocom's thirty-second game.

Previous games by Infocom used a parser evolved from the one in Zork I, but for Zork Zero, they designed a new LALR parser from scratch. Zork Zero's parser has some innovative features. If it notices if a player is having trouble with it, it offers helpful suggestions, such as sample commands.

Three of the four graphical mini-games are based on older logic puzzles. Peggleboz is a version of peg solitaire, Snarfem is Nim, and the Tower of Bozbar is Towers of Hanoi. Other puzzles based on established logic puzzle types include a river-crossing puzzle with a fox, a rooster, and a worm, and a Knights and Knaves puzzle in which violently xenophobic Veritassi and Prevaricons are truth-tellers and liars respectively, and peaceful Wishyfoo are alternators.

From Wikipedia's article Zork Zero, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Controls

This is a PC game: it uses the keyboard the way it did under MS-DOS, and the mouse where the game supports it. Click the game screen first so it gets your key presses.

Many DOS games start with a menu or ask a question first — read the screen and answer with the keyboard. Arrow keys, Enter, Space, Ctrl and Alt are the usual game keys.

Emulator help & troubleshooting

Comments

Live chat

Connecting…

Chatting as a guest · Sign in to use your name
0/300

Controls

This is a PC game: it uses the keyboard the way it did under MS-DOS, and the mouse where the game supports it. Click the game screen first so it gets your key presses.

Many DOS games start with a menu or ask a question first — read the screen and answer with the keyboard. Arrow keys, Enter, Space, Ctrl and Alt are the usual game keys.

Emulator help & troubleshooting

No reviews yet

We found no critic scores for this game, and too few players have rated it.

Review scorecard

  1. Graphics — Not scored Unavailable
  2. Sound — Not scored Unavailable
  3. Control — Not scored Unavailable
  4. Fun Factor — Not scored Unavailable

No category score or overall rating is available for the unscored slots.

Full reviews

GamePro face key

  1. 1.0Wake me up when it's over0+ out of 100
  2. 1.5Wake me up when it's over+ thumbs-up40+ out of 100
  3. 2.0Could be better50+ out of 100
  4. 2.5Could be better+ thumbs-up60+ out of 100
  5. 3.0Good job68+ out of 100
  6. 3.5Good job+ thumbs-up75+ out of 100
  7. 4.0Great job!80+ out of 100
  8. 4.5Great job!+ thumbs-up85+ out of 100
  9. 5.0Outstanding!90+ out of 100

GamePro named the five whole-number faces; a thumbs-up adds half a point to the same caption. GamePro’s original rating-face design, adapted from Ryan Quintal’s 2018 vector recreation; cleanup for YouConsoles.

Lane Mastodone vs the Blubbermen MS-DOS 0 plays • 1988
Zork Quest 2: The Crystal of Doom MS-DOS 0 plays • 1988
James Clavell's Shogun MS-DOS 0 plays • 1988
Arthur: The Quest of Excalibur MS-DOS 0 plays • 1989
Zork Quest: Assault on Egreth Castle MS-DOS 0 plays • 1987
Journey: The Quest Begins MS-DOS 0 plays • 1988
Plundered Hearts MS-DOS 0 plays • 1987
Bureaucracy MS-DOS 0 plays • 1987
Laura Bow: The Colonel's Bequest MS-DOS 0 plays • 1989
The Lurking Horror MS-DOS 0 plays • 1987
Stationfall MS-DOS 0 plays • 1987
Border Zone MS-DOS 0 plays • 1987
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor MS-DOS 0 plays • 1987
The Secret of Monkey Island MS-DOS 384K plays • 1990
Leather Goddesses of Phobos MS-DOS 0 plays • 1986
Ballyhoo MS-DOS 0 plays • 1986
Circuit's Edge MS-DOS 0 plays • 1990
Moonmist MS-DOS 0 plays • 1986

Save to...