Zork: The Great Underground Empire

Zork: The Great Underground Empire is a classic text adventure game. The player begins as an "adventurer" standing near a white house in a nice forest, but soon descends into the Great Underground Empire, where most of the game takes place. The player's quest is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork.

As was typical for adventure games of its era, Zork does not use graphics. Instead, it communicates with the player via text, and the player interacts with the game by typing commands, such as "examine mailbox" or "take torch". For movement, the player types in geographical directions (such as "north" or "east" - or just "n" and "e"), and can check what items are being carried with the "inventory" command (or just "i").

The game was adapted from a larger mainframe version from the late 1970s, and is one of the first examples of its genre.

Followed By Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
Remade By 3D Text Adventure
Series Zork (1)
Added March 8, 2020
Published By Infocom, Inc.
Mastertronic Ltd.
Commodore Business Machines, Inc
Personal Software Inc.
Tandy Corporation
Commodore Business Machines (Canada) Ltd.
SystemSoft
Developed By Infocom, Inc.
Front Cover (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Inside Cover (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (Canada) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (Canada) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Media (Canada) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Inside Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United Kingdom) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United Kingdom) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Media (United Kingdom) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Inside Cover (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (Atari ST) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (Atari ST) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (Atari ST) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United Kingdom) (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United Kingdom) (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Media (United Kingdom) (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (United States) (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (United States) (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Media (United States) (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (Japan) from mobygames.com
Inside Cover (Japan) from mobygames.com
Back Cover (Japan) from mobygames.com
Front Cover (Japan) from mobygames.com
Map (Japan) from mobygames.com
Media (Japan) from mobygames.com
Header Image (Windows) from Steam
Starting location (Apple II) from mobygames.com
A curious introduction (Apple II) from mobygames.com
I've found a priceless treasure! (Apple II) from mobygames.com
Game start from mobygames.com
Found a grating from mobygames.com
Reading the leaflet in the starting location. (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Walking down a forest path (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Entered the house and in the kitchen (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
Facing a troll (Commodore 64) from mobygames.com
The starting location (DOS) from mobygames.com
Found an interesting treasure... (DOS) from mobygames.com
Entering the house (DOS) from mobygames.com
The grating is locked...of course. (DOS) from mobygames.com
Everything echoes in this room - even your thoughts. (DOS) from mobygames.com
Sloppy artists are one of the reasons Zork is a text-only game ;) (DOS) from mobygames.com
Defeating the first foe you encounter in the Zork universe - the Troll. (DOS) from mobygames.com
Zork's sense of humor is truly unique. (DOS) from mobygames.com
The cult phrase that Zork is famous for. You'd better get some light fast! (DOS) from mobygames.com
Performing exorcism is just one of the many tasks you will face in the game. (DOS) from mobygames.com
There's nothing a tube of Gunk can't fix. (DOS) from mobygames.com
The Thief is a tough opponent but definitely not unbeatable. (DOS) from mobygames.com
Ouch! I'm hurt - I'd better be careful. (DOS) from mobygames.com
Entering the mines with an open flame (e.g. a torch) is a pretty bad idea. Very noisy too... (DOS) from mobygames.com
Title (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Game start (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
South of House (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Behind House (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Kitchen (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Living Room (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Cellar (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
East of Chasm (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Gallery (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Game save (Macintosh) from mobygames.com
Starting location (Atari ST) from mobygames.com
Starting location (Amiga) from mobygames.com
Title screen from mobygames.com
Getting started. The famous description of the white house :) from mobygames.com
This is so funny! The game asks this question (in English!) if you just hit Return :) from mobygames.com
Okay, I typed "what" and the game didn't understand me. So I started swearing... but it didn't help :) from mobygames.com
Okay, finally some communication! I typed "look" and got a description! Hurray! from mobygames.com
What am I doing wrong? I said "open the door", it says "you can't"... from mobygames.com
To help you, there is a special object menu from mobygames.com
Later in the game; a long description! from mobygames.com
Your inventory is now huge... from mobygames.com
...and you can even see it graphically! from mobygames.com
Official Screenshot (Windows) from Steam
Official Screenshot (Windows) from Steam
Official Screenshot (Windows) from Steam
Official Screenshot (Windows) from Steam
Official Screenshot (Windows) from Steam
Official Screenshot (Windows) from Steam

Year of Release:
1980

Genre(s):
Interactive Fiction Traditional

Control Type:
Text Parser

Setting/Theme:
Fantasy

Available From: