{"id":816,"date":"2011-11-14T12:42:01","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T17:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=816"},"modified":"2011-11-14T12:57:46","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T17:57:46","slug":"retro-scan-of-the-week-beyond-zork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/816\/retro-scan-of-the-week-beyond-zork","title":{"rendered":"<span id=\"retro_color\">[ Retro Scan of the Week ]<\/span> Beyond Zork"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/beyond_zork_large.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/images\/retroscan\/beyond_zork_small.jpg\" alt=\"Atari 400\/800 BASIC Reference Manual Cover - 1979\" class=\"centered\"\/><\/a><span class=\"freecaption\"><em>That spot in the upper left is actually mold that grew on the paper.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>When is a text adventure game not a text adventure game?  When it&#8217;s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Beyond_Zork\" target=\"_blank\">Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Infocom&#8217;s fourth entry in the <em>Zork<\/em> series (actually the 8th if you count the related <em>Enchanter<\/em> series and <em>Wishbringer<\/em>) combined interactive fiction with light RPG elements such as equipment, stat sheets, an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mobygames.com\/game\/beyond-zork-the-coconut-of-quendor\/screenshots\" target=\"_blank\">on-screen map<\/a>, and character leveling to create a unique game that may be best compared to a single player <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/MUD\" target=\"_blank\">MUD<\/a> (a SUD?).<\/p>\n<p><em>Beyond Zork<\/em> sports procedurally generated maps in some areas, so replay value is theoretically infinite.  But randomness is a double-edged sword in this case: its magic items move around between saves and loads, and that can frustratingly break the suspension of disbelief (i.e. you see it, you die, you come back, and it&#8217;s gone).  Still, <em>Beyond Zork<\/em> is an amazing game that deserves more attention than it usually gets.<\/p>\n<p><center><em>[ From Family and Home Office Computing, November 1987, p.89 ]<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Topic of the Week:<\/strong> What&#8217;s your favorite entry in the <em>Zork<\/em> series?  Every <em>Zork<\/em>-related game counts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That spot in the upper left is actually mold that grew on the paper. When is a text adventure game not a text adventure game? When it&#8217;s Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor. Infocom&#8217;s fourth entry in the Zork series (actually the 8th if you count the related Enchanter series and Wishbringer) combined interactive fiction [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,7,27,26,9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-games","category-computer-info-and-history","category-regular_features","category-retro-scan-of-the-week","category-retrogaming","category-computers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}