Speaking as someone who's spent a lot of time reading the Zork source code and the Z-machine spec that allowed it to be ported to an huge variety of ancient platforms (http://gunkies.org/wiki/Zork), I have to say, your dismissive attitude is wildly inaccurate.
Both the game and its VM platform were incredibly intricate works of genius.
Both the game and its VM platform were incredibly intricate works of genius.