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Return to Zork

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Return to Zork
Developer(s)Infocom
Publisher(s)Activision
EngineMADE
Platform(s)Macintosh, DOS, PC-FX, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, FM Towns
ReleaseAugust 20, 1993
Genre(s)Adventure game
Mode(s)Single player

Return to Zork is a 1993 adventure game in the Zork series. It was developed by Activision and was the final Zork game to be published under the Infocom label.

Gameplay

Unlike the previous games in the Zork franchise, which were text adventures, Return to Zork takes place from a first-person perspective and makes use of video-captured actors as well as detailed graphics; a point-and-click interface replaced the text parser for the first time in a Zork game. The overall gameplay style was somewhat similar to Myst, although Return to Zork predated Myst by a few months. Unlike Myst, which had no extraspatial dimensions of functionality, Return to Zork featured multiple ways of interacting with each object in the game world, as well as with several non-player characters also present in the world via a menu which appeared on the left side of the screen. It also offered multiple ways to "complete" the game, which encouraged reply.

Among the actors who appeared in the game were a number of instantly recognizable (by face, if not necessarily by name) character actors as well as a number of well-known younger actors: Robyn Lively of Twin Peaks as "The Fairy", Jason Hervey of The Wonder Years as "The Troll King", and Sam J. Jones from the 1980 film Flash Gordon as "The Blind Bowman" and A.J. Langer of My So-Called Life as fellow Zork explorer Rebecca Snoot whom the player encounters on several occasions.

Feelies

As a tribute to the original Infocom, Return to Zork included feelies. The feelies include:

  • A sweepstakes letter; some packages also included a sweepstakes letter written in French and/or German
  • The envelope for the sweepstakes letter
  • The 966 GUE edition of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica, which was combined with the game manual

Plot

The player's character is a sweepstakes winner who wins an all expenses paid holiday to the Valley of the Sparrows, in Zork. Upon arrival, however, the player quickly learns that the entire area has fallen under some dark and sinister influence, becoming decayed and dysfunctional. Whole buildings have mysteriously vanished, murderous vultures infest the land, people have frequent and disturbing nightmares featuring some dark being which refers to itself as Morphius, and many of those who have survived have become reclusive and paranoid. The player must survive countless perils whilst exploring the valley, investigating the causes of the powers that have gripped the land and ultimately putting a stop to them.

Notes

File:Wizard trembyle.gif
The Wizard Trembyle, inside a Tele-Orb

The game was packaged with an abridged version of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica (see above), which also served as the game manual and assisted in the game's copy protection scheme. (At various points during play, the player had to provide information from the Encyclopedia, although the information was widely-known trivia from the Zork canon.)

Throughout the game, the player could take photographs of the environment with a camera and record significant information with a tape recorder. The game also automatically generated a map as the player progressed, and took notes in a notebook as the plot unfolded through dialogue or events in the game.

Return to Zork is set in the year 1647 GUE, later than any other game in the fictitious history of Zork, including those made after it. Even the relevant backstory postdates all other games, beginning with the Great Diffusion in 1247 GUE. The sweepstakes letter included with the game implies that the events of earlier games and even the Great Diffusion, to a degree, had come to be regarded as mere mythology by this time, and touts exploration of recently discovered ruins of the Great Underground Empire as one of the holiday attractions.

The video introduction features a 3D animation, and the very first lines of text, of the famous opening scene of Zork 1, featuring the familiar White House and Mailbox.

Unlike earlier text-adventure games by Infocom, violence against innocent bystanders is possible. It is possible to kill several of the game's civilian non-player characters, whereas in every other Infocom or Zork game, such actions are either impossible to accomplish or immediately punished by death. Killing causes a masked vigilante who is also the "Guardian" to come and remove all the player's items, with the intention of rendering the game unwinnable. It is worth noting, however, that dropping all of one's items prior to killing circumvents this effect; the items will still be there after the Guardian comes and goes.

As in the Zork text-adventure games, there are several ways to make the game "unwinnable" by using or altering an object or item in an unintended manner. For instance, burning many items with the matches will usually result in an unsolvable game. The most commonly cited example of this occurs with the bonding plant by the side of the road near the beginning of the game. Although the plant is essential later on, it is very easy to unintentionally kill it, and the game gives little indication that the plant is important. (It is in fact possible to obtain a new one, although the secret is well-hidden and arguably makes little sense even after it is accomplished, a criticism that is often levelled at many of the game's puzzles, despite being clearly documented in the game's major source of hints)

Game bugs made some of the puzzles harder - or more specifically, stopped the game from providing the hints that would make the puzzles easier. A patch was released that fixed these bugs. However the patch also introduced a new bug that made an inventory item disappear, rendering an endgame challenge unsolvable by its intended solution, though alternate solutions exist.

Soundtrack

The game disc is also a 26-track audio disc. Each track on the disc plays in a specific location in the game. Some tracks are used in more than one location. In a few cases, a MIDI version of the music is used in the game instead of the CD recording. The tracks are as follows:

  1. (Game data; not a music track - a conventional CD player will play this as a blank track)
  2. Prologue: Opening of the Mailbox
  3. White House AND Vulture Pits
  4. Opening Credits (Journey to the Valley)
  5. West Shanbar AND Front of Lighthouse AND Road to the South
  6. Entering the Great Underground Empire AND Bel Naire Temple
  7. Closing Sequence at End of Game
  8. Mayor's Office AND Notebook AND Sliding Tiles Puzzle
  9. Guardian of Zork
  10. Dreaming of Morpheus AND Inside the Vulture Pits
  11. Fool's Memorial
  12. Hero's Memorial AND Boar's Memorial
  13. Hardware Store AND Ferryman's Dock AND Troll Defeat
  14. Troll Fight
  15. Gift Shop
  16. Boos Miller (unused - MIDI version used in game)
  17. Dwarven Mines
  18. Whispering Woods
  19. Entering the Citadel of Zork (unused - MIDI version used in game)
  20. Endgame of Survivor (unused - MIDI version used in game)
  21. Moodock's Armory (MIDI version used in game)
  22. Forest of the Spirits (this piece is the Pavane by Gabriel Fauré)
  23. Cliffs of Depression AND Bogs
  24. Blacksmith AND Incinerator
  25. Medley (apparently not used - a rejected version of the final credits?)

Appearance

Return to Zork has appeared in Homestarruner.com's SBEmail #190 in the floppy disk box next to the computer.

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