Zork Inspired Addicting Games by Iron Realms

Zork was awesome!+1

Zork was heavily based on the game "Advent" (also called Colossal Cave Adventure) by Willie Crowther -- in fact, large sections of Zork are directly lifted from Advent, including both the overall approach and design of the game, and many of the specific areas and challenges.  Advent predates most personal computers (it was written in 1976) but it tended to take over school and business computers once people who used them found it.  (citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure)

Thank you for the trip down memory lane. I actually still have a copy of King's Quest. :)

What oldtimers you are! :D I am intrigued though, and may try Zork.

Loved King's Quest and whatever the Halloween-themed ones were from the same company. Another good one is a BBS game called Legend of the Red Dragon.

Roguelike games have sucked up a huge amount of my time back in the day, nethack especially.  I kind of miss that game....

uhmm i never understood Zork.. and tried again recently in COD: Black ops.. but got stuck at the same point i did years ago i think hehe

sounds interesting

This was a lot of fun to read and learn about different things out there, even if they are old...

I never got to play Zork, a bit before my time... but I did grow up on ROM muds like Burning Mud and some old skool stuff. I own CoD Black Ops, and never knew of this Easter Egg! I now plan to make my buddy, (who thinks muds are 'wierd') this secret and see how he reacts. Hehe, I might even play Zork heh! And yes I know I can play on IRE (Altho supposedly Activison owns the rights to Zork, so I wonder how IRE can host it >.> ), but I really want to play from my ps3/ Black Ops >.>

Okay, we get it. You can stop saying "addicting" now.

I do think Camande has a point... But speaking addiction which one of these undead elven strippers has got the catci weed?

and I've been an Achaea addict for 10 years now.

Beware the grue!

I remember Compuserve's Black Dragon being the first text adventure game I'd seen.  The Gophers led me to a Swedish MUD; years later, I found myself in Achaea.  Nice article to read.

Aetolia was my introduction to computer RPG's. Before Aetolia or any of the others, I've strayed a few times to the graphic games.... but nothing I've seen comes close.

King's Quest was AMAZING

Never played any of them, but they all sound fun.

The first game I was really addicted to was King's Bounty - the original. But it was far later than any of the games mentioned in that article. Guess I'm not old enough...

Doesn't the IRE webpage have a copy of Zork on it, as an homage?

Were some of the first computer games I played, because they were the only games my computer with dialup internet were capable of downloading and playing.

Never played anything put in the artical..

Do I have problems? D:

I'd secretly love to be eaten by a grue in Achaea.

Those were the days, man. I remember Leisure Suit Larry. XD

Zorkies

Zork inspired credit addictions?

I'm still confused. Where did Zork come from?

I don't like Zork, but I wish that I did.

So, is Pong a text based game, too? It doesn't really have graphics, after all...

Edit - Seems like the minor error has been neutralized. Cheers!

Old games were really great and have a sense of nostalgia to them but they don't really compare to the games we have today. The games of the path led the way in groundbreaking advancements both in graphics and user interface and other areas to give us the games we have today.

I started text based games with Achaea, and am glad for it. Nothing else for me

It's so cool. I have a friend who was part of making one of the games in the series.

it was nice

lol, I showed my buddy Zork in Black Ops and he was like wtf

NEver played Zork, but I have a feeling I would of liked it.

I looked it up, looks fun

King's quest reminds me of Bopalopia.

But what about Colossal Cave Adventure?! XYZZY PLUGH PLOVER

I was never fond of Single player text only games. The closest I got was that strange-leaflet quest in Kingdom Of Loathing. ( Didn't even finish that)

Unusual article, but interesting way to position IRE games, but I disagree with Seth's emphasis on PvP in that article. IRE has much more which is what appeals to people too.

have to try some of these one day when I'm bored.

Yeah, pretty sure the only non-IRE text game I've played is Thy Dungeonman

Most of the early text based online games were horrible including zork, adventureland was good though.

Even my friends who think Achaea is strange love Zork, so... accessible! :D 

I think a newer, modern Zork would be great for helping students learn some topics in literature and history. They should totally make an educational game based on Zork!

Never played Zork, don't particularly want to. It's the other players that make IRE games fun.

I remember playing Kings Quest, and some other ancient text MMOs before that. They're a bit harder to follow than Achaea, but interesting enough to keep me hooked on text games for many years after.

I've never played Zork before, but I suppose I should try it.

I did a presentation on Text Games once for a class, used Zork as well as IRE for my examples, along with other games

I suppose I'll have to try Zork at some point

All your Zork's are belong to us!

Ultima IV (although not exactly text based but addictive enough in my commodore 64)

I'm a bit confused by all of the references to IRE games as "addicting games." Granted they're addicting, but the phrase is getting jarring.

The King's Quest I played was graphical, and my first mud was some dude in Indiana's pet project... a DIKU with mostly stock areas. I played Sojourn/Toril for a while, but that game was set up as a racket for the enjoyment of a select few.

I think if these people continue to call IRE addicting, there will, at some point, be a brand of illegal drugs using baggies with IRE logos on them. Can't we find a word that means something similar but doesn't have all the negative baggage?

:P

ftw

May the Zork be with you.

Good stuff

I would disagree, for example Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers 3 are two of the games I get the most fun out of even today.

Well, I can't agree that all players want those things. Gaming really didn't pick up in popularity until the consoles started displaying lots of smooth, vibrant and detailed images. That, and many would consider gaming to be rather dumbed down to appeal to more players.

I can't get anyone I know into playing older games, or text games for that matter. If it doesn't look nice, they don't want any part of it. It is such a shame too, since these text games tend to offer different things to do than the popular types of games. I believe that every gamer should try them, but these and older games certainly aren't for everyone.

I was never a part of the early gaming scene, but I can't say I don't like what it brought about.

but I failed to get very far. No intro to help out newbies, and no guides!

I loved the feel of it, though I never got too far. I much prefer Lusternia...

Zork is what got me into MKO.

Found an article on it back in dec 2010...hadnt played the game in years then I thought about what newer text games were out there and found ironrealms (and a few other competitiors, heh)

YAY for Zork

and Zork 2 and 3

Zork I could never hook into, I was too young to really appreciate a good text based romp. Not to say I didn't try, mind you... But Rogue! that was my game!

It is dark, you are likely to be eaten by a Grue

Trust someone to remind me of Sierra games, so many good times!

While peppering this article with the term "addicting games" in some kind of search engine optimisation attempt seems kind of hacky, Zork: Grand Inquisitor was the first computer game I paid cash money for as a teenager. It was fully graphical, not a text game. While it didn't have the full text game experience of "take boat", "push boat", "pull boat", "put anchor on boat", cycling through commands trying to find one that worked, it definitely had the atmosphere of a text game. One of the quests you had to solve involved, IIRC, filling a soda vending machine with pop rocks, to use the resulting explosion to blast open an unbreakable door. Lots of trial and error, and fun results. It was kind of a similar experience to Grim Fandango actually. Fun memories. I think I still have it in a dusty box somewhere.

Guess I have to check out what inspired the IRE team!

Moo

I still play the Zork games, and I have often name a character or two Zork, one of which is in Achaea now... also, Wishbringer was another one I like. I have most of them as flash games, so I can recapture the fun of playing them... frikin Gruus..

I never played zork but i was in love with all the Sierra games! Especially kings quest, space quest and quest for glory (hero's quest). Leisure suit larry was fun as well.

my intro to text gaming was Dawn and i could only get it at school on telnet.  when i came across achaea and nexus, i was so wowed at the fact you could see a compass of exits!

never played

And definitely worth looking into! Thanks for the sugestions.

even heard of this.

Yay, Zork! Never heard of it, but it seems we owe it something?