ZORK I

Overview

A faithful HTML5 recreation of the classic 1979 interactive fiction masterpiece Zork I. You stand west of a white house in an open field. The Great Underground Empire awaits your exploration. Solve puzzles, collect treasures, and survive the dangers of the underground world in this text adventure classic. Features a working parser, multiple locations, inventory system, and iconic early-game interactions including the mailbox, the white house, the kitchen, the living room, and the cellar.

History

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.

Release History

Platform: HTML5
Developer: Tronsoft Games
Installed version: 1.2.0

References

Zork — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Zork I The Great Underground Empire Addendum (1996)(J) — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/Zork_I_The_Great_Underground_Empire_Addendum_1996_J
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Zork I The Great Underground Empire (1982)(Infocom).atr — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/atr_Zork_I_-_The_Great_Underground_Empire_1982_Infocom
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Zork I - The Great Underground Empire — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/a2_Zork_I_The_Great_Underground_Empire_1980_Infocom
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire IBM PC Floppy Image — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/002038-ZorkITheGreatUndergroundEmpire
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Zork I The Great Underground Empire CSC (1996)(J)(color) — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/Zork_I_The_Great_Underground_Empire_CSC_1996_J_color
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire IBM PC Floppy Image — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/003308-ZorkITheGreatUndergroundEmpire
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Mini-Zork I The Great Underground Empire — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/d64_Mini-Zork_I_The_Great_Underground_Empire_1988_Infocom
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire — Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/d64_Zork_I_The_Great_Underground_Empire_1983_Infocom
Retrieved July 15, 2026

Timeline

1982-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1982)(Infocom)(US) Developed by Infocom, Inc. Released 1983 Also For Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple II, Atari ST, Browser, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, CP/M, DOS, Macintosh, Mainframe, PC-8000, PC-98, PC Booter, Tatung Einstein, TRS-80, TRS-80 CoCo Published by Infocom, Inc. Perspective Text-based / Spreadsheet Interface Text Parser Genre Adventure Setting Fantasy Gameplay Interactive Fiction / Text Adventure, Puzzle elements Description Zork: The Great Underground Empire is a classic text adventure game. The player begins as an "adventurer" standing near a white house in a nice forest, but soon descends into the Great Underground Empire, where most of the game takes place. The player's quest is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork. As was typical for adventure games of its era, Zork does not use graphics. Instead, it communicates with the player via text, and the player interacts with the game by typing commands, such as "examine mailbox" or "take torch". For movement, the player types in geographical directions (such as "north" or "east" - or just "n" and "e"), and can check what items are being carried with the "inventory" command (or just "i"). The game was adapted from a larger mainframe version from the late 1970s, and is one of the first examples of its genre. From Mobygames.com. Original Entry

1988-01-01T00:00:00Z — Mini-Zork I - The Great Underground Empire
Mini-Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1988)(Infocom)

1983-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1983)(Infocom)(US) Developed by Infocom, Inc. Released 1983 Also For Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple II, Atari ST, Browser, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, CP/M, DOS, Macintosh, Mainframe, PC-8000, PC-98, PC Booter, Tatung Einstein, TRS-80, TRS-80 CoCo Published by Infocom, Inc. Perspective Text-based / Spreadsheet Interface Text Parser Genre Adventure Setting Fantasy Gameplay Interactive Fiction / Text Adventure, Puzzle elements Description Zork: The Great Underground Empire is a classic text adventure game. The player begins as an "adventurer" standing near a white house in a nice forest, but soon descends into the Great Underground Empire, where most of the game takes place. The player's quest is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork. As was typical for adventure games of its era, Zork does not use graphics. Instead, it communicates with the player via text, and the player interacts with the game by typing commands, such as "examine mailbox" or "take torch". For movement, the player types in geographical directions (such as "north" or "east" - or just "n" and "e"), and can check what items are being carried with the "inventory" command (or just "i"). The game was adapted from a larger mainframe version from the late 1970s, and is one of the first examples of its genre. From Mobygames.com. Original Entry

1980-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I - The Great Underground Empire
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1980)(Infocom)[o]

1983-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1983)(Infocom)[a]
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1983)(Infocom)[a]

1986-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I The Great Underground Empire r88
Zork I The Great Underground Empire r88 (1986)(Infocom)

1982-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I: The Great Underground Empire [a]
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1982)(Infocom)(US)[a] Developed by Infocom, Inc. Released 1983 Also For Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple II, Atari ST, Browser, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, CP/M, DOS, Macintosh, Mainframe, PC-8000, PC-98, PC Booter, Tatung Einstein, TRS-80, TRS-80 CoCo Published by Infocom, Inc. Perspective Text-based / Spreadsheet Interface Text Parser Genre Adventure Setting Fantasy Gameplay Interactive Fiction / Text Adventure, Puzzle elements Description Zork: The Great Underground Empire is a classic text adventure game. The player begins as an "adventurer" standing near a white house in a nice forest, but soon descends into the Great Underground Empire, where most of the game takes place. The player's quest is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork. As was typical for adventure games of its era, Zork does not use graphics. Instead, it communicates with the player via text, and the player interacts with the game by typing commands, such as "examine mailbox" or "take torch". For movement, the player types in geographical directions (such as "north" or "east" - or just "n" and "e"), and can check what items are being carried with the "inventory" command (or just "i"). The game was adapted from a larger mainframe version from the late 1970s, and is one of the first examples of its genre. From Mobygames.com. Original Entry

1986-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1986)(Infocom)
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1986)(Infocom)

1981-01-01T00:00:00Z — Zork I: The Great Underground Empire IBM PC Floppy Image
The Good Old Days Floppy Collection - Zork I The Great Underground Empire - see accompanying information file

1988-01-01T00:00:00Z — Mini-Zork I The Great Underground Empire
Mini Zork I The Great Underground Empire (1988)(Infocom)

Preservation

Status: Unreviewed