The Zork Classics Collection

by ACTIVISION

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004U8J9
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: September 20, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,847 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sorry to disagree, May 3, 2001

By 

Penner Theologius Pott "humpty-dumpty" (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zork Classics Collection (CD-ROM)

I'm sorry, but I have to very strongly disagree with most of the other reviews on this site. Yes, these games are VERY good. I would go so far as to call them brilliant. Which brings me to the question of them being "dated." These games are not "dated." They are as fresh and innovative today as they were when they were first released. Unfortunately, there are many who are overwhelmed with an industry whose reviews focus more and superficialites such as graphics and sound rather than gameplay. To call these games "dated" is tantamount to saying that there is no market for books anymore because movies are so popular. These games are remarkable. They are solid games. They are edgy and intelligent. These are qualities which do not "date." We live in a society that prefers mindless pointing and clicking to the open-endedness of exploring a literary world. But the qualities of this literary world are timeless.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a collection of legendary classics..., September 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Zork Classics Collection (CD-ROM)

...but make no mistake, it's dated and probably won't appeal to much of today's audience.

It's all text: no graphics at all. You interact with the game by reading (and imagining!) your surroundings and control your character in plain English sentences.

They used to call this genre "interactive fiction". It's like being the main character of a novel. If you're in the "movies are rarely as good as the book" camp, enjoying your own conjured up images more than someone elses, then maybe this set of games is for you. I've never been so immersed in a game as when I played these the first time.

Story-wise, these games are set in a unified fantasy world. Sword and sorcery stuff. However, with one exception (you have to kill a troll early on in zork1), violent behavior is anathema. These are not d&d/ultima/everquest type games. There's certainly an occultish underpinning, draw your own bias.

The charm is from the engaging and humorous stories and the puzzles of course. Most puzzles in this set are classics and logical, not the blind "try-x-on-y, nonsensical even after you've solved them" ones.

Personal faves- zorkII and spellbreaker.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Repackaged classics, September 23, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Zork Classics Collection (CD-ROM)

I saw this in the Amazon catalogue but could find no mention of it on Activision's web site or on the interactive fiction newsgroups. And as I write this, there is not one word of description of this item on Amazon's website, beyond the title and cover picture. So I bought it to see what it was. The box and CD are labelled "Zork Classics -- Interactive Fiction" (I don't know where Amazon got the title "The Zork Collection" from) and the games included are: Zork I, II and III, Enchanter, Sorceror, Spellbreaker, Wishbringer, Beyond Zork and Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz. Packaging is all but non-existent -- a CD rattling around in a box, but there are Acrobat files on the CD with manuals, maps and other paraphernalia (the calendar etc. from Zork Zero is there, for example, which I think is required to solve the game).

If you like interactive fiction and are looking for a way of getting hold of these classic Infocom games, this is one way.