My earliest memories of interacting with the computer are those of playing Zork with my father. When I grew older and learned how to program, my most ambitious project in high school was a text based adventure game engine written in Common Lisp. I utilized the natural language parser that Paul Graham Details in _On Lisp_ to parse game instructions. Game elements like the Loud Room (where every command just echos until you say the magic word) or the maze drove me to create numerous game permutations.
I love Zork so much. So many good memories with that game.
To go meta, see "Inform 7". It's a system in which one programs guess-the-verb text adventures by using a guess-the-verb semi-natural largely-declarative programming language.
I never got to play Zork but I did play Return to Zork. I always loved adventure games. my list of finished games is quite extensive: full throttle, the dig, prisoner of ice, goblins (2 and 3), grim fandango... never finished return to Zork though. one day ill probably will.
King's Quest
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
Zack McCraken and the Alien Mind Benders
Myst ()?
The Longest Journey
Monkey Island
Deponia
As one of the developers on this, and the first game that I worked on, it made me smile to hear that you and others liked it. I’m glad it brought you good times, even if it took 25 years to find out!
"who is there like us? a damn few. an they are all dead"
I started watching a playthrough on youtube the other day, but I stopped the video where I left when I last played the game. I'll give it one more try before I gave up completely and watching the whole story on video
I love Zork so much. So many good memories with that game.