ZORK I — TUTORIAL

The Great Underground Empire · Tronsoft Games · Version 1.1.0

How to begin

Launch the game from the Tronsoft Games library. You begin in an open field west of a white house. Type a command at the > prompt and press Enter, or click the buttons around the screen if you would rather not type.

A good opening: OPEN MAILBOX, then READ LEAFLET, then explore. The house is boarded at the front — try the back.

The screen

The display reads top to bottom, and the story always comes first.

Area	What it holds
Status bar	Game title, your current location, the turn count and the clock
LOCATION pane	Room name, a short summary, and a button for every exit
STORY pane	The narrative and your command prompt
PLAYER pane	Your meters — score, treasures banked, light and carried items — and your inventory
Context actions	Bands of ready-made commands, directly beneath the story
Quick row	Map, Journal, Inventory, Save and Settings

Controls

Play by typing, by clicking, or by mixing the two. Every button has a typed equivalent, shown as a tooltip when you hover it.

Input	Effect
Type at the prompt	Enter any command, then `Enter`
`↑` / `↓`	Recall previous commands
Exit buttons	Travel in that direction
Context-action buttons	Send a complete command such as `Open Mailbox`
Quick row	Open the map, journal, inventory, saves or settings

Context-action bands

The bands beneath the story are the heart of click-play. Each button is a complete composed command — Go North, Attack Troll with Sword, Put Emerald in Case — not a verb waiting for a target.

Band	Contents
Movement	Every exit from the room you are standing in
Objects	What you can see here: examine, take, open, use
Characters	Talk to anyone present, and ask them about topics
Inventory	Contextual actions for what you carry, such as `Turn On Lamp`, `Light Candles` or `Tie Rope to Railing`

The bands are rebuilt from the state of the world after every turn, and a band with nothing useful in it is hidden. In the dark, the Objects and Characters bands vanish entirely — you cannot act on what you cannot see.

Talking to people

Three characters will answer you: the troll, the thief and the cyclops. Use TALK TO THIEF, or ask about something specific with ASK THIEF ABOUT EGG. The Characters band offers both as buttons whenever someone is present, and everything said is kept in the Talk Log tab of the Journal.

Settings

The Settings dialog offers a green or amber phosphor theme, four text sizes, and quick access to Help, About, Hint and Restart. Your theme and text size are remembered between sessions.

Essential commands

Command	What it does
`LOOK`	Describe the room again
`EXAMINE <thing>`	Inspect something closely (also `X`)
`TAKE` / `DROP <thing>`	Pick up or put down an object
`INVENTORY`	List what you are carrying (also `I`)
`NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST UP DOWN`	Travel (also `N S E W U D`, and `NE NW SE SW`)
`ENTER` / `CLIMB`	Go into or up something
`OPEN` / `CLOSE <thing>`	Operate doors, containers and windows
`MOVE <thing>`	Push or shift something aside
`TURN ON LAMP` / `TURN OFF LAMP`	Control your light source
`ATTACK <foe> WITH <weapon>`	Fight
`SAY <word>`	Speak a word aloud — some places listen
`PUT <treasure> IN CASE`	Bank a treasure for points
`HELP` / `HINT`	Command list / graded hints for where you are

The parser is forgiving. It accepts synonyms, corrects near-misses (TAKE SWROD → “Did you mean the sword?”), examines a bare object name, and suggests what actually works if you try a verb it doesn’t know.

Turn order

ZORK I is turn-based and waits for you indefinitely. One command is one turn. The move counter advances on actions that change the world; looking things up (HELP, QUESTS, SCORE) costs nothing. There is no timer and no real-time pressure — think as long as you like.

Movement and mapping

The world is 48 rooms connected by compass directions plus UP, DOWN, IN and OUT. The left panel always lists the exits from your current room, and the right panel shows a regional map and your treasure count. Some passages are one-way: once the trap door slams behind you, you must find another way home.

Light is life. Most underground rooms are pitch dark. Entering one without a light gives a warning; moving again in the dark ends the adventure in the jaws of a grue. Take the brass lamp from the living room and TURN ON LAMP before you descend. The ivory torch also lights your way — and is itself a treasure.

Combat

Combat is puzzle-like, not statistical. There are two fights, and each needs the right tool: a troll blocks the passages east and west (the elvish sword settles it), and a thief guards his hoard (the nasty knife from the attic). The cyclops cannot be fought at all — he must be frightened away by a name he remembers from an old story.

Scoring

The maximum score is 237, made up of:

Points for the first time you pick up each of the fifteen treasures.
Further points for placing each treasure in the trophy case.
A final bonus for entering the stone barrow.

Type SCORE at any time. The top bar shows your score, the maximum, and your move count; the quest panel tracks how many treasures you have banked.

Winning

Recover all fifteen treasures and PUT each one IN CASE in the living room (OPEN CASE first). When the last treasure is banked, a hidden panel reveals a map to a stone barrow. Travel to West of House, go SOUTHWEST, and ENTER the barrow to win with a perfect score.

Losing

You can die by walking in the dark, or by pressing the blue button in the maintenance room and flooding it. Death ends the story; type RESTART to begin again or RESTORE to return to a save. There are no unwinnable states caused by lost objects — the thief’s hoard can always be recovered.

Saving and restarting

`SAVE`	Save to the slot named “quick”
`SAVE <name>`	Save to a named slot
`RESTORE` / `RESTORE <name>`	Reload a save
`SAVES`	Open the save manager (create, restore, delete)
`RESTART`	Begin the adventure again
`TRANSCRIPT`	Review or download your session log

The Save button in the quick row opens the save manager, where you can create, restore and delete named slots. Saves live in your own browser under the key tronsoft_zork_i_saves, with theme and text size under tronsoft_zork_i_theme and tronsoft_zork_i_textsize. They are local to your machine and are never transmitted anywhere.

If you get stuck

Type HINT. Hints are graded: the first nudges, the second points, the third tells you outright. They are chosen from where you are standing and what you have already achieved, so ask again after you move.