Other Zork goods, Zork Books, Zork History

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More Zork Stuff:
Zork Petition (Return To Zork....Again)
Original 2001 Hotel New Zork
Encyclopedia Frobozicca Download
The Zork Compendium: The History of Zork, Encyclopedia Frobozzica (Unabridged Abridged Version) and Maps
How to Distract a Grue: A Cumulative History of Zork Download
Zork Font (Morpheus): Windows / Mac
Dugneon Font: Windows
Z-Machine Interpreter (Use one if you are not playing a .exe version of Zork, such as .z1 to .z8 files):
Z-Machine for DOS/Windows: Frotz15
Z-Machine for PalmOS: Kronos147

[DataAngel]

The Forces of Krill:
* Author: S. Eric Meretsky
* Release Dates: 1983 (American edition), 1984 (British edition), 1985 'Las fuerzas de Krill' (Spanish edition)
* ISBNs: 0812579755 (American edition), 0140317554 (British edition)
* Length: 126 pages
* Number of Endings: 20

Krill's wizardy is great -- and totally evil. Unless you can find the three magical spheres of power, and deliver them and the Sword of Zork to Syovar, the rightful ruler of the peaceful land, the entire population will be enslaved -- forever!

American releases:


British release:



The Malifestro Quest:
* Author: S. Eric Meretsky
* Release Dates: 1983 (American edition), 1984 (British edition), 1985 'La búsqueda de Malifestro' (Spanish edition)
* ISBNs: 0812579801 (American edition), 0140317562 (British edition), 081257981X (Canadian edition)
* Length: 127 pages
* Number of Endings: 18

Malifestro, a powerful wizard from a neighboring land, has imprisoned Syovar, the rightful ruler. He demands as ransom half the land and 10,000 slaves. Only you can rescue Syovar and save the kingdom!

American releases:


British release:



The Cavern of Doom:
* Author: S. Eric Meretsky
* Release Dates: 1983 (American edition), 1984 (British edition), 1986 'La caverna del destino' (Spanish edition)
* ISBNs: 0812579852 (American edition), 0140317570 (British edition)
* Length: 127 pages
* Number of Endings: 17

A newly discovered underground realm has caused great trouble and grief for Syovar, the ruler of the land. The explorers and adventurers who have entered it have never been seen again.

Only you can rescue them and uncover the underground realm's vast riches!

American release:


British release:



Conquest at Quendor:
* Author: S. Eric Meretsky
* Release Dates: 1984 (American edition), 1986 'Conquista en Quendor' (Spanish edition)
* ISBNs: 0812559894 (American edition), 0812559908 (Canadian edition)
* Length: 127 pages
* Number of Endings: 17

Unless you can find the magical Helmet of Zork, the kingdom will be plunged into total war. Jeearr, a very strange being, seems helpful at first. But should you trust him? The fate of Zork may depend on your answer!

American release:



Wishbringer:
* Author: Craig Shaw Gardner
* Release Date: 1988 (American edition)
* ISBN: 0380753855 (American edition)

Simon never wanted to meet an ogre. He never wanted to face a town full of terrors armed with an Acme Kitchen Wonder. But Simon was a con man who got caught and sentenced to deliver mail in the lovely town of Festeron.[/list
[list]It would have been an easy sentence if Festeron hadn't turned into the town of Witchville. Suddenly, Festeron wasn't lovely any more. The postmaster wanted to cancel him. The librarion wanted to shelve him. The Boot Patrol wanted to kick him. And Gloria, sweet Gloria, the girl of his dreams, was dating the entire Patrol.

Armed with a magic radio and a kitchen appliance, Simon must face ogres, grues, wraiths, and one really mean librarian to turn Witchville back into Festeron again.

Enchanter:
* Author: Robin W(ayne). Bailey
* Release Date: 1989 (American edition)
* ISBN: 0380753863 (American edition)

Anesi was the grandson of the wizard Stribel Wartworth, but he'd never really studied magic. His father had pulled him out of the university after less than one semester. Anesi wasn't even allowed to use the little magic he knew.

Then the entire Thriff Guild of Enchanters came to his family's little house in the woods. The whole world was threatened by the evil of the Great Terror, and they were helpless before it. To fight the Great Terror would require a magical prodigy, one who was untouched by the petty temptations of a wizard's life.

It would require Anesi. With his friends at his side -- Fidget, Cubby the brogmoid, and Tyrillee the dryad -- he began his march to the south to face the greatest danger his world had ever known.

The Zork Chronicles:
* Author: George Alec Effinger
* Release Date: 1990 (American edition)
* ISBN: 038075388X (American edition)

Mirakles is a hero who can face the challenge of Zork with nothing more than his sword and faithful companion Glorian. With Glorian prodding him ever onward, Mirakles descends into the Great Underground Empire where he encounters Spike the Protector, the Dragon's Lair, the Wizard's Workroom, the winged vampire were-unicorn, and, of course, the Warm Boot of Frobozz.

The Lost City of Zork:
* Author: Robin Wayne Bailey
* Release Date: 1991 (American edition)
* ISBN: 0380753898 (American edition)

Dark days have come to Quendor and the city of Borphee. Caspar Wartsworth, a would-be adventurer and part-time barbarian, gets more than he bargained for when he stumbles into town. First he's arrested. Then he's sent to war as a galley slave.

Surviving a shipwreck, Caspar begins assembling a party of adventurers: an incompetent wizard, a sleeping princess, and an inexperienced thief. Their quest -- to free the Borphee Guild of Wizards!

But if encounters with kobolds, cutthroats, an enchanted castle, and an ugly old witch are more than they bargained for, how are they going to defeat King Duncanthrax -- and the whole army of Quendor?

[DataAngel]

CHAPTER ONE: The Bellicose King

In 659 GUE*, the Kingdom of Quendor was relatively small, encompassing seven-and-a-half provinces on the western shore of the Great Sea, an agrarian land whose major products were rope and mosquito netting. It was the thirty-first year of the reign of Zilbo III, part of a dynasty dating back more than six centuries to Entharion the Wise, the first king of Quendor. However, that dynasty was about to end with the ascension of Duncanthrax to the throne of Quendor on the final day of 659.

Little is known about what became of Zilbo after 659. Some say he was killed during a palace revolt, or simply died from too much reveling while celebrating the upcoming New Year. There is evidence that he was exiled to a villa where he invented the card game Double Fanucci.

Likewise, historians disagree about Duncanthrax’s life prior to 659. A petition signed by palace guards in 657, asking for an increase in the mosquito netting allotment, bears a signature that looks suspiciously like “Duncanthrax”. Some historians insist that Duncanthrax was general of the Royal Militia. One legend even suggests that Duncanthrax was a demon who assumed human form. Another legend describes him as a former rope salesman.

Whatever his origins, Duncanthrax quickly developed a reputation for cruelty, bloodthirstiness and aggressiveness, thus earning himself the nickname “The Bellicose King”. He raised a tremendous army and began a systematic conquest of the neighboring kingdoms. Within three years, Duncanthrax ruled an empire that controlled virtually all the land between the Great Sea and the Kovalli Desert.

*Adding “GUE” after a year did not become common practice until the latter part of the eighth century.

CHAPTER TWO: An Empire Goes Underground

In 665, the forces of Duncanthrax vanquished the Antharian Armada at the famous battle of Fort Griffspotter. The island-nation of Antharia was, at the time, the world’s premier sea power, and his victory gave Duncanthrax undisputed control of the Great Sea and put the superb ship-building facilities of Antharia at his disposal. (The conquest of Antharia also gave Duncanthrax possession of Antharia’s famed granola mines. Unfortunately, no one in Quendor liked granola).

Within months, Quendor’s navy was returning from voyages with tales of a magical land on the distant eastern shore of the Great Sea. Duncanthrax was incensed that this vast land existed outside his dominion, and spent many nights storming the halls of his castle bellowing at his servants and advisors. Then, one day, he had a sudden inspiration: assemble a huge fleet, cross the Great Sea and conquer the lands on the eastern shore. Not only would he extend his empire, but he’d finally have a market for all that useless granola.

As Duncanthrax’s invasion swept across the new lands, he made a startling discovery: huge caverns and tunnels, populated by gnomes, trolls and other magical races, all of whom loved granola. Even as Duncanthrax’s conquered this region, his imagination was inspired by this natural underground formation. If these caverns and tunnels were possible in nature, so might they be formed by humans! Duncanthrax realized that by burrowing into the ground he could increase the size of the empire fivefold or even tenfold!

The Frobozz Magic Construction Company (the forerunner of the modern industrial giant FrobozzCo International) was formed to undertake this project in 668. For the remaining 20 years of Duncanthrax’s reign, cavern-building continued at a breakneck pace. The natural caverns in the eastern lands were expanded tremendously, and new caverns and passages were dug in the western lands, chiefly in the vicinity of Duncanthrax’s castle, Egreth. By the time of his death in 688, Duncanthrax ruled virtually all territory in the known world, above and below ground.

CHAPTER THREE: The Flatheads

After Duncanthrax, the throne was occupied by a long series of his descendants. These were unspectacular rulers, who took on the surname Flathead, for obscure reasons not necessarily related to the planar shape of their pates. During this period, there was very little change in the Empire, as the conquered kingdoms were assimilated into Quendor and the frantic pace of tunneling gradually abated.

In 770, nearly a century after the death of Duncanthrax, his great-great-grandson, Dimwit Flathead, assumed the throne. Lord Dimwit, as he liked to be called, was a colorful character, but was also the single worst ruler the Empire ever produced. His vanity was surpassed only by his outrageous sense of proportion. For example, his coronation took 13 years to plan (and therefore took place two-thirds of the way through his reign), lasted an additional year and a half, and cost 12 times the Empire’s GNP.

Dimwit was the first king to call Quendor “The Great Underground Empire”, and within a few years the new name had completely displaced the older one. Dimwit also renamed the Great Sea “the Flathead Ocean,” and seemed to prefer the newer lands on the eastern shore. He even moved the Empire’s capital from Egreth (in the westlands) to Flatheadia (in the eastlands).

While Dimwit certainly inherited Duncanthrax’s ambition and ingratiating personality, he directed them in a somewhat less productive fashion. Whereas Duncanthrax used his power to expand his empire, Dimwit was motivated to realize his bizarre whims. Raising the kingdom’s tax rate to just over 98%, Dimwit began a series of grandiose projects that soon earned him the title “Flathead the Excessive.” Among these projects: the construction of mammoth Flood Control Dam Number Three (a massive edifice with virtually no useful purpose, since it has never rains underground), the creation of the Royal Museum (to house the crown jewels), the defoliation of four hundred thousand acres of lush forest (to erect a nine-bloit-high statue of himself in the Fublio Valley) and the production of the enormous granola smelters of Plumbat.

Just before his death in 789, Flathead was rumored to be planning his greatest dream: the creation of a new continent in the center of the Flathead Ocean. The outline and contours of the new continent would have been a gigantic reproduction of his own visage.

CHAPTER FOUR: Fall of the Empire

Although Dimwit was certainly the most fragrantly indulgent ruler of The Great Underground Empire, most of the Flatheads who followed him did their best to uphold the tradition of excessiveness. The high level of taxation continued, although the money was increasingly spent not on massive construction projects but on extravagant parties and long vacation trips for members of the Royal Family.

In 883, after countless years of decadence and overtaxation, The Great Underground Empire collapsed, the Royal Treasury was sacked and everyone moved somewhere else.