More Games Like Zork

[Water Ｖａｐｏｒ Merchant]

I've been doing some digging trying to find more games like the first Zork, but it seems as though it's almost entirely unique in the way you interact with it, typing in information to be parsed and interpreted. Most interactive fiction games seem to have adopted the basic "Choose Your Own Adventure" strategy, giving the player a number of predetermined actions and selecting one.

I have an idea to make my own game like Zork, but I want more examples to draw from, to understand what works and what doesn't, and anything that doesn't play in roughly the same way isn't much help. The closest I've seen in modern day is 'The House Abandon', which combines the Zork-like gameplay with clever visuals to tell a short, but interesting horror tale.

[ein]

Most of the old Infocom games were good or great. Try out Planetfall, Suspended, Trinity, Enchanter, pretty much anything in the catalog. There's even one based on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which Douglas Adams coauthored, and a second game called Bureaucracy which was all him. Crazy game.

About 25 years ago there was a pair of of anthologies called The Lost Treasures of Zork, which between them had about 40 of these games. You'll have trouble finding these now, but they do show up on eBay. There was an iOS anthology available for a while, but it was removed from the store, and so far as I know there's nothing like it on the Google store either.

It's frankly weird how Activision refuses to makes these games available. They have even lost trademarks because of it - first Borderzone and now Planetfall - so there must be some spite involved.

The good news is people are still making text adventures, or interactive fiction as many prefer to call them. Most of these are released for free, and some of them are as expansive and sophisticated as the original Infocom games. You'll find archives as well as resources for making your own at some of the links below. I've been out of this loop for a long time so this list is by no means exhaustive or authoritative, just what I remember using several years ago.

http://www.ifarchive.org/
http://brasslantern.org/
https://ifdb.tads.org/
https://planet-if.com/
http://inform7.com/

[Walrick]

There's also Wishbringer and another which I played many years ago and was rather adult-themed. Basically most of the games made by Infocom, which is the company that made the Zork games and the others I mentioned before they were bought by Activision.

Games like this were very popular in the 1980s, and I think that even today's graphics can sometimes pale in comparison to a great description and the imagination.

[RetroBucko]

I remember playing the Time and Magik Trilogy when I was younger.

[tvil]

Sorry for the necromancy here, but I just played Anchorhead (available on Steam) and it was great. Pretty Zork-like. It's a Lovecraftian horror adventure.

[mb3]

Try the Lurking Horror, I really enjoyed that one.

[Puckertoe]

Bought my first computer c.1985 and my first game was “Enchanter”. This was when Infocom was on top and began its decline. To be in the midsts of that era was top notch though. What a great time playing all those great games. If you can hunt down and get the games. Although they’re IF, it still doesn’t distract from any of its greatness. As @mb3 suggests “Lurking Horror” is worth a try.

[🎃Sammy Hain🎃]

I can't recommend HHGTTG enough. The trick is it's basically impossible without using the hints, and that's intentional since most of the good jokes are in the hints.

[phimseto]

Thaumistry: In Charm's Way is a somewhat recent (2017 or so) text adventure by Infocom alum Bob Bates.

[Fetito Fazzito]

Wonderland by Magnetic Scrolls.

[Kevin (Boricua_Kevin on gta 5 O]

to Sammy Hain--you are talking about the game 'HITCHHIKER GAME TO THE GALAXY'
AND IT 'kind of play the same as zork---if you understand how to play zork...then HHGTTG, play 'kind' of the same

[Kevin (Boricua_Kevin on gta 5 O]

ALL GAMES LIKE ZORK (AND ZORK IS INCLUDED HERE TOO)

http://www.infocom-if.org/games/games.html


IF YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY ZORK...you know how to play most of these games....