| The Zork Anthology | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Infocom |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Series | Zork |
| Engine | Z-machine |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Windows, Mac OS |
| Release | 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Text adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The Zork Anthology is a text adventure video game compilation developed by Infocom and published in 1994 by Activision for the PC. A version compatible with modern computers was published by digital distribution platforms GOG.com and Steam in 2011 and 2017 respectively.
Developed by Infocom and published by Activision for MS-DOS, Windows, and Mac OS, The Zork Anthology is a six-game compilation containing the original Zork trilogy (Zork I, II, and III), Beyond Zork , Zork Zero , and Planetfall . [1] [2] The collection was originally a free bonus disc with Return to Zork at the end of 1994. It was then sold as its own retail release at the start of 1995. [3] [4] [5] The package included printed maps and InvisiClues that were originally offered separately by Infocom. [6] [7]
The Zork Anthology was re-released digitally for more modern operating systems via GOG.com on January 18, 2011 [8] [9] [10] and Steam on April 18, 2017. [11] [12]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Next Generation |   [13] |
| CD-ROM Today |  [1] |
| CD-ROM Magazine | [14] |
| Computer Player | 8/10 [4] |
| PC Power | 80% [15] |
Next Generation reviewed the compilation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Zork Anthology is an enchantingly nostalgic as well as a welcome return to the past". [13]
Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called Cornerstone.
Zork is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and split the game into three titles—Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz, and Zork III: The Dungeon Master—which were released commercially for a range of personal computers beginning in 1980. In Zork, the player explores the abandoned Great Underground Empire in search of treasure. The player moves between the game's hundreds of locations and interacts with objects by typing commands in natural language that the game interprets. The program acts as a narrator, describing the player's location and the results of the player's commands. It has been described as the most famous piece of interactive fiction.
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary is an adventure video game developed and published by Interplay Productions in 1992, based on the Star Trek universe. The game chronicles various missions of James T. Kirk and his crew of the USS Enterprise. Its 1993 sequel, Star Trek: Judgment Rites, continues and concludes this two-game series.
Steven Eric Meretzky is an American video game developer. He is best known for creating Infocom games in the early 1980s, including collaborating with author Douglas Adams on the interactive fiction game of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the first games to be certified "platinum" by the Software Publishers Association. Later, he created the Spellcasting trilogy, the flagship adventure series of Legend Entertainment. He has been involved in almost every aspect of game development, from design to production to quality assurance and box design.
Return to Zork is a 1993 graphic adventure game in the Zork series. It was developed by Activision and was the final Zork game to be published under the Infocom label.
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Zork: Grand Inquisitor is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Activision, and released for Windows in 1997; a second edition for Macintosh was released in 2001. The game is the twelfth in the Zork series, and builds upon both this and the Enchanter series of interactive fiction video games originally released by Infocom. The game's story focuses on the efforts of a salesperson who becomes involved in restoring magic to Zork while thwarting the plots of a tyrannical figure seeking to stop this. The game features the performances of Erick Avari, Michael McKean, Amy D. Jacobson, Marty Ingels, Earl Boen, Jordana Capra, Dirk Benedict, David Lander and Rip Taylor.
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Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands is a graphic adventure game developed by Zombie LLC, published by Activision, and released in 1996 for Windows 95, MS-DOS, and Macintosh. It is the eleventh game in the Zork series, and the first title not to be marketed under the Infocom label, while featuring a darker, less comical story within the Zork setting. The story focuses on players investigating the sudden disappearance of four prominent figures and their children to the hands of a mysterious being known as the "Nemesis", and uncovering a sinister plot during their investigations that they must thwart. The game features performances by Lauren Koslow, W. Morgan Sheppard, Allan Kolman, Stephen Macht, Paul Anthony Stewart, Merle Kennedy, and Bruce Nozick.
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Marc Blank is an American game developer and software engineer. He is best known as part of the team that created one of the first commercially successful text adventure computer games, Zork. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.
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