Zork: The Great Underground Empire

Zork is one of the earliest interactive fiction/text-adventure and one of the most popular computer games ever created. It was developed initially in 1977–1979 for a DEC mainframe by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling. Infocom later rewrote it, ported it to home computers, and released it as a trilogy in the 1980s. The Great Underground Empire was the first chapter. It was published for Apple II, Commodore 64, Macintosh, DOS, and many other platforms.

Zork: The Great Underground Empire is a text-based adventure game where you must explore a vast underground world filled with danger, mystery, and treasure. The game is widely considered a classic in the adventure game genre and is still played and celebrated today, more than 40 years after its original release.

As a text-based adventure game, Zork relies on written descriptions to create its world and gameplay mechanics. You navigate the game world by typing commands, such as "go north" or "take lantern," and the game responds with text-based descriptions of your actions and surroundings. Zork became famous not only for the great story and written descriptions but also for the extremely advanced text parser, which could understand complex phrases.

The story of Zork revolves around a nameless adventurer who enters the Great Underground Empire in search of treasure. Along the way, you encounter various obstacles and enemies, including fierce monsters, treacherous mazes, and deadly traps. Your ultimate goal is to collect as much treasure as possible and escape the underground world before it's too late.

The Great Underground Empire was followed by Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz and Zork III: The Dungeon Master.