Zork Nemesis

Last updated
Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands
Zork Nemesis cover.png
Developer(s) Zombie LLC,Activision
Publisher(s) Activision
Director(s) Cecilia Barajas
Producer(s) Cecilia Barajas
Designer(s) Cecilia Barajas
Mark Long
Programmer(s) Michael H. Douglas
Paul Gallagher
Ben Diamand
Gary Jesdanun
Andrew G. Silber
David Chien
Mason Deming
Edward Clune
Ted Huntington
Brian Dean Jennings
Artist(s) Mauro Borrelli
Scott Goffman
Jack Burton
Writer(s) Cecilia Barajas
Nick Sagan
Adam Simon
Composer(s) Mark Morgan
Platform(s) Windows 95, MS-DOS, Macintosh
ReleasePC
Macintosh
1996
Genre(s) Graphic adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

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. [3] 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.

Contents

The game received favorable reviews, despite some criticism of the puzzles and lack of relevance to the Zork setting, and won the 1996 Spotlight Award for "Best Prerendered Art". [4] The MS-DOS edition of the game was later released by GOG on their website, who made it compatible for use with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Gameplay

Zork Nemesis operates from a first-person perspective and uses a simple point-and-click system. The cursor fundamentally allows for interaction with the player's surrounding, changing to symbolize what can be done; an arrow going forward or back allows for movement; arrows for side-to-side or up-and-down allow for examining locations from different viewpoints; a gold arrow allows for interaction with objects; and a hand icon allows for objects to be picked up or to symbolize where objects can be used. Each location, ranging from corridors, small rooms, and vast halls, can be viewed in panoramic 360-degree to find objects to examine and interact with, with a still screen used when zooming in to examine an object in more detail (i.e. a book). Items collected by the player are stored in a simple inventory that be cycled through the right mouse-button.

Puzzles in the game generally require the player to find clues that will help them solve it, ranging from finding certain objects or triggering something in the right combination; a score system mostly denotes when a player has completed a section of the game's story.

Story

Setting

The game takes place in the fantasy world of Zork, with players initially solving puzzles and exploring the Temple of Agrippa, a large complex situated in a mountainous region within the Forbidden Lands. Later the player has the ability to travel and explore the following locations: Frigid River Branch Conservatory - a musical school and performance hall near to Flood Control Dam #7; Steppinthrax Monastery – an abandoned monastery in disrepair; Grey Mountains Asylum – a mental institution in the frigid, frozen peaks of the Grey Mountains; Castle Irondune - a military fort with private museum of battles, situated in the Irondune desert.

Characters

Plot

Following the demise of Agent L. Bivotar, Vice Regent Syovar the Strong assigns the player with the task of continuing their investigations within the region known as the Forbidden Lands, in which Bivotar had been instructed to discover what had happened to four prominent figures of the Empire who went missing – Doctor Erasmus Sartorius, General Thaddeus Kaine, Bishop Francois Malveaux, and Madame Sophia Hamilton - while determining if rumours of a mysterious curse that had emerged from within the region were substantiated, and investigate possible illegal magic being conducted. Travelling to the Temple of Agrippa, an ancient temple within the Eastlands that Bivotar had learnt about during their investigations, the player uncovers a message left behind by the spirit of Alexandria Wolfe, a young woman who seeks help to deal with a great evil that resides within the temple.

Entering the main building of the temple, the player uncovers information revealing that Sartorius, Kaine, Malveaux and Sophia were operating in secret as alchemists, each mastering one of the four elements: Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. The group had been seeking the mysterious fifth element called "the Quintessence", until a mysterious entity known as the Nemesis killed them. After finding each member's corresponding element, the group explain that Nemesis not only killed them but also Alexandria, Francois' daughter, and Thaddeus' son Lucien. Using their combined power, the group stop Nemesis from attacking the player, and advises them to visit their homes and seek out the elemental metals aligned to each of them. Using a special planetarium, the player travels to each member's home – Steppinthrax Monastery, Castle Irondune, Grey Mountains Asylum, and Frigid River Branch Conservatory – and find the pure samples of each metal within each alchemist's personal laboratory.

Whilst in each of these locations, the player slowly learns more about the Alchemists' work and the identity of the Nemesis, through visions and various letters. The player learns that Sartorius sought to complete the research of his father into the Quintessence which could grant eternal life. Learning that it required mastery of the four elements and their pure metals, both of which he could not accomplish on his own, Sartorius recruited the assistance of Sophia, Francois and Thaddeus, each for their own reasons: Francois sought to avoid his death from an incurable disease; Thaddeus sought power to win a war against a rival; and Sophia sought to live forever, having fallen in love with Thaddeus. The group soon learned that they needed to create a child, who had to be born when an alignment of planets, each corresponding to each alchemical element, occurred at the same time of a solar eclipse, who would lead them to finding the fifth element.

Sartorius sourced the child, Alexandria, from one of his patients at his asylum, and left Francois in charge of raising her. Alexandria was taught a special song by Sophia, unaware it would purify her soul for a ritual the group would perform on her. However, the alchemists had not foreseen Lucien falling in love with Alexandria when he attended one of her concerts, thus Thaddeus had him arrested on a false charge of draft-dodging. Knowing the fifth element would be theirs at the next solar eclipse, the group lured Alexandria to the Agrippa Temple for sacrifice. Lucien, learning of their plan, escaped from his cell, but arrived too late to save Alexandria. Angered, Lucien killed the group in revenge, and became the Nemesis in order to find the fifth element himself, and revive Alexandria with it. When the player returns, having revived the group, the alchemists attempt to convince them to drink from a chalice, but seeing them not willing, chose to send them away, while resuming their ritual.

Lucien, knowing they must not find Alexandria's body, beseeches the player for help since they know the truth, and passes on a gold ring. Entering a hidden chamber below the temple, the player creates a special Alchemy symbol, representing Infinity, from both Lucien's and Alexandria's rings. With the rings now purified and imbued with the fifth element, representing pure love, the player quickly uses it to stop the Alchemists. The resulting power from the fifth element kills them, revives Alexandria, and destroys the temple. This ends the curse in the Forbidden Lands, and the game ends with Lucien and Alexandria walking away together to live in peace.

Production

Zork Nemesis employed technology Activision dubbed "Z-Vision Surround Technology," which gives users a simulated 360-degree view of each location visited. It was one of the first games to employ such technology, though Zork Nemesis only allows panning in either horizontal or vertical where both panning options are available, unlike in later games such as The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time or Myst III: Exile . Furthermore, details were far more difficult to make out in the panoramic scenes than in the still screens; the sequel, Zork: Grand Inquisitor , made significant improvements to the Z-Vision system. Technical director Laird Malamed felt the game suffered from time constraints, saying that once the advanced game engine was completed, the team didn't have enough time left to implement anything more than simple control panel puzzles. [6]

Like other adventure games of its time, Zork Nemesis made use of live actors. The game features a significant amount of screen-time for the actors, thanks to its use of flashbacks at key locations (or objects) and the use of monologues in which characters address the player explaining and justifying their actions.

The game's plot was written by Cecilia Barajas, Nick Sagan and Adam Simon and is a departure from the series usual comedic treatment in its games, by featuring a much darker and less humorous story than previous games. [7] The budget of Zork Nemesis surpassed $3 million. [8] The live-action scenes contributed to this cost, which ultimately rose to around USD$3.5 million. [7] The game was heavily marketed, with an estimated $1 million spent on this aspect. [8]

Reception

The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. [9] Next Generation said, "With 3D sound and stunning graphics (the game is almost worth the price just to examine the fantastic architectural environments), this game was destined for five stars, until the puzzles – and these are what really count, to us, anyway – dragged the game back down." [16]

Zork Nemesis placed 10th on PC Data 's monthly computer game sales chart for April 1996. [23] It secured positions 12 and 11 the following two months, respectively. [24] By November 1996, Zork Nemesis had sold above 100,000 units. [25] According to Activision, strong sales of the game during the 1996 holiday shopping season contributed to high revenues in the company's third quarter, which increased 78% over the third quarter of 1995. [26]

Zork Nemesis won the 1996 Spotlight Award for "Best Prerendered Art" from the Game Developers Conference. [4] It was also nominated for the 1996 "Adventure Game of the Year" awards of Computer Games Strategy Plus , PC Gamer , CNET Gamecenter and Computer Game Entertainment, but these went variously to The Neverhood , The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery and The Pandora Directive . [27] [28] [29] [30] PC Gamer highlighted Nemesis's "charm and vitality", and called it "graphically gorgeous". [29]

In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Zork Nemesis the 51st-best adventure game ever released. [31]

See also

Related Research Articles

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.

<i>Zork</i> 1977 video game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Meretzky</span> American video game developer

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.

<i>Return to Zork</i> 1993 video game

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.

Legend Entertainment Company was an American developer and publisher of computer games, best known for creating adventure titles throughout the 1990s. The company was founded by Bob Bates and Mike Verdu, both veterans of the interactive fiction studio Infocom that shut down in 1989. Legend's first two games, Spellcasting 101: Sorcerers Get All the Girls and Timequest, had strong sales that sustained the company. Legend also profited from negotiating licenses to popular book series, allowing them to create notable game adaptations such as Companions of Xanth and Gateway. Legend also earned a reputation for comedic adventures, with numerous awards for Eric the Unready in 1993. As the technology of the game industry changed, Legend continued to expand its game engine to take advantage of higher graphical fidelity, mouse support, and the increased media storage of the compact disc.

<i>The Lost Treasures of Infocom</i> 1991 video game

The Lost Treasures of Infocom is a 1991 compilation of 20 previously-released interactive fiction games developed by Infocom. It was published by Activision for MS-DOS, Macintosh, Amiga, and Apple IIGS versions. It was later re-released on CD-ROM, and in 2012 on iOS.

<i>Zork: Grand Inquisitor</i> 1997 video game

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.

<i>Titanic: Adventure Out of Time</i> Point and click adventure game

Titanic: Adventure Out of Time is a 1996 point-and-click adventure game developed by CyberFlix and published in the United States and United Kingdom by GTE Entertainment and Europress respectively, for Windows and Macintosh. It takes place in a virtual representation of the RMS Titanic, following a British spy who has been sent back in time to the night Titanic sank and must complete a previously failed mission to prevent World War I, the Russian Revolution, and World War II from occurring. The gameplay involves exploring the ship and solving puzzles. There are multiple outcomes and endings to the game depending on the player's interactions with characters and use of items.

<i>Beyond Zork</i> 1987 video game

Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor is an interactive fiction video game written by Brian Moriarty and released by Infocom in 1987. It was one of the last games in the Zork series developed by Infocom. It signified a notable departure from the standard format of Infocom's earlier games which relied purely on text and puzzle-solving: among other features, Beyond Zork incorporated a crude on-screen map, the use of character statistics and levels, and RPG combat elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Bates</span> American computer game designer

Robert Bates is an American computer game designer. One of the early designers of interactive fiction games, he was co-founder of Challenge, Inc., which created games in the 1980s for the pioneering company Infocom. After Infocom's dissolution in 1989, Bates co-founded Legend Entertainment to continue publishing games in the Infocom tradition, but with added graphics. Notable games that he has designed, written, or produced include Unreal II (2003), Spider-Man 3 (2007), and Eric the Unready (1993), listed as Adventure Game of the Year by Computer Gaming World magazine and also included on the 1996 list of "150 best games of all time". In 1998 he wrote the award-winning game Quandaries for the U.S. Department of Justice. He has twice been the chairperson of the International Game Developers Association, which honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Bates has written extensively about game design and development in works such as the 2001 book Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games, which is commonly used as a game design textbook in college courses. From 2011–2014, Bates was Chief Creative Officer for External Studios at Zynga. He continues to work as an independent consultant with various publishers in the games industry.

<i>The Space Bar</i> 1998 video game

The Space Bar is a 1997 graphic adventure game developed by Boffo Games and published by Rocket Science Games and SegaSoft. A comic science fiction story, it follows detective Alias Node as he searches for a shapeshifting killer inside The Thirsty Tentacle, a fantastical bar on the planet Armpit VI. The player assumes the role of Alias and uses his Empathy Telepathy power to live out the memories of eight of the bar's patrons, including an immobile plant, an insect with compound eyes and a blind alien who navigates by sound. Gameplay is nonlinear and under a time limit: the player may solve puzzles and gather clues in any order, but must win before the killer escapes the bar.

<i>Return to Krondor</i> 1998 video game

Return to Krondor is a role-playing video game set in Raymond Feist's fictional fantasy setting of Midkemia. A sequel to 1993's Betrayal at Krondor, it was released for Windows on the PC in time for the 1998 Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Within the game, the player commands a group of heroes with different attributes, strengths, and weaknesses which the player may upgrade over the course of the game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Blank</span> American game developer

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.

<i>Rama</i> (video game) 1996 video game

Rama is a point and click adventure game, developed and published by Sierra On-Line, and released on DOS and Microsoft Windows in 1996; PlayStation version was released in 1998, but exclusively in Japan. The game is based upon Arthur C. Clarke's books Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II, combining elements of their plots with a story that sees the player assuming the role of a replacement crew member for an expedition to investigate an interstellar ship and uncover its mysteries.

<i>MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat</i> 1995 video game

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat is a vehicle simulation game developed and published by Activision, released in 1995 as part of the MechWarrior series of video games in the BattleTech franchise. The game is set in 3057, and is played as a tactical simulation that incorporates aspects of real-time first-person combat and the physical simulation of the player's mech. It is a game recreation of the "Refusal War." The player can join one of the clans, Clan Jade Falcon or Clan Wolf while engaging in up to 32 missions.

Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom is a collection of 33 computer games from interactive fiction pioneer Infocom, and the top 6 winners of the 1995 Interactive Fiction Competition, released in 1996. All 39 games are combined on a single cross-platform CD-ROM, which also includes PDFs of all the Infocom games' instructions, maps, and hint booklets.

<i>Qin: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom</i> 1997 video game

Qin: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom is a Myst-like graphic adventure computer game developed by Learn Technologies Interactive published by Time Warner Interactive and released for Windows and Macintosh systems.

<i>Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny</i> 1997 video game

Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny is a 1997 action role-playing game, second installment of the Lands of Lore series, a sequel to Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos. It brought about a drastic change in gameplay style from its predecessor, opting away from the original's D&D turn-based style in favor of more action elements. A sequel, Lands of Lore III, was released in 1999.

<i>Nemesis: The Wizardry Adventure</i> 1996 video game

Nemesis: The Wizardry Adventure is a 1996 adventure and role-playing video game developed and published by Sir-Tech. It is a spin-off of the Wizardry series of games. Ports for Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows were released in Japan in 1998.

<i>Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder</i> 1996 video game

Santa Fe Mysteries: The Elk Moon Murder is a video game, the first in the Santa Fe Mysteries series, followed by Santa Fe Mysteries: Sacred Ground. In The Elk Moon Murder, a famous Native American artist named Anna Elk Moon is murdered in the American Southwest.

References

  1. ↑ "Up to 30% Off Software". Winona Daily News . March 29, 1996. p. 20. Retrieved December 20, 2023. Zork Nemesis CD-ROM for DOS/Windows 95//$49.99
  2. ↑ Gurrin, Graham (April 11, 1996). "The future of fun and games". Surrey Herald . p. 17. Retrieved December 20, 2023. Activision has just released a pair of blockbusters - Spycraft: The Great Game (let's not be too modest!) and Zork Nemesis - but top of the range CD ROM owners only need apply, as the system requirements for both games are a little on the weighty side.
  3. ↑ "NG Alphas: Zork Nemesis". Next Generation . No. 13. Imagine Media. January 1996. p. 96. Retrieved July 24, 2020. The game has a much darker feel than previous Zorks ...
  4. 1 2 "Archive / 1997 Spotlight Awards". Game Developers Conference (Press release). Santa Clara, California. April 28, 1997. Archived from the original on July 3, 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Zork: Nemesis (Video Game 1996)". IMDb .
  6. ↑ "NG Alphas: Zork: Grand Inquisitor". Next Generation. No. 32. Imagine Media. August 1997. p. 72.
  7. 1 2 Kasvi, Jyrki J.J. (May 1996). "Vain 3 500 000 dollarin tähden". Pelit (in Finnish). pp. 60–61.
  8. 1 2 Sengstack, Jeff (June 24, 1996). "Activision: Reorganized, Redefined and on the Rebound". NewMedia. Archived from the original on January 28, 1998.
  9. 1 2 "Zork Nemesis for PC". GameRankings . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 20, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  10. ↑ Gmiterko, Christina (November 5, 2004). "Zork Nemesis review". Adventure Gamers . Archived from the original on September 17, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  11. ↑ Yans, Cindy (1996). "Zork Nemesis". Computer Games Strategy Plus . Strategy Plus. Archived from the original on July 4, 2003. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  12. ↑ Ardai, Charles (August 1996). "Four Funerals And A Wedding (Zork Nemesis Review)" (PDF). Computer Gaming World . No. 145. Ziff Davis. pp. 124–126. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  13. ↑ Fletcher, Irwin (1996). "Zork Nemesis Review". GameRevolution . CraveOnline. Archived from the original on June 6, 1997. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  14. ↑ Chronis, George (May 3, 1996). "Zork Nemesis Review". GameSpot . CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Zork: Nemesis". GameZone. October 1996. Archived from the original on June 5, 1997. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  16. 1 2 "Gruesome: Zork Nemesis". Next Generation. No. 19. Imagine Media. July 1996. p. 87. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  17. ↑ Wolf, Mike (July 1996). "Zork Nemesis". PC Gamer . Vol. 3, no. 7. Imagine Media. Archived from the original on December 21, 1999. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  18. ↑ "PC Review: Zork Nemesis". PC Zone . 1996.
  19. ↑ Svetkey, Benjamin (May 17, 1996). "Zork Nemesis". Entertainment Weekly . No. 327. Time Inc. Archived from the original on November 18, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  20. ↑ Mooney, Shane (July 1996). "Deep-Thinking Puzzlers for the Adventurous Gamer: Zork Nemesis". PC Magazine . Vol. 13, no. 15. p. 458.
  21. ↑ Mooney, Shane (June 1996). "Zork Nemesis". PC Games. Archived from the original on October 18, 1996.
  22. ↑ "⎛⎝CoehX⎠⎞中国钟表网欢迎您！汇集-钟表,表,手表,钟,时钟,配件,名表,钟表企业,钟表黄页等钟表类信息". Archived from the original on 1996-10-18.
  23. ↑ "Top Software Best-selling Titles: Games". Orlando Sentinel . Tribune Publishing . June 29, 1996. Archived from the original on April 2, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  24. ↑ GamerX (August 8, 1996). "June's top 30 games". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on February 5, 1997.
  25. ↑ Brown, Ivy (November 30, 1996). "More Than Bit Parts". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  26. ↑ "Revenue Roundup". PC Gamer. Imagine Media. January 24, 1997. Archived from the original on October 12, 1997.
  27. ↑ "The Gamecenter Awards for 1996: Best Adventure Game". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on February 5, 1997. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
  28. ↑ "Computer Games Strategy Plus announces 1996 Awards". Computer Games Strategy Plus. Strategy Plus, Inc. Archived from the original on June 14, 1997. Retrieved November 2, 2010.
  29. 1 2 "PC Gamer Awards: Best Adventure Game". PC Gamer. Vol. 4, no. 3. Imagine Media. March 1997. p. 82.
  30. ↑ "The Computer Game Entertainment Awards 1996". Computer Game Entertainment. No. 1. July 1997. pp. 54–58.
  31. ↑ "Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games". Adventure Gamers . December 30, 2011. Archived from the original on June 4, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.