Zork Zero [Model IZ9-CO4]

Zork Zero © 1989 Infocom.

More than 90 years have passed since the great wizard Megaboz cast the Curse which destroyed Lord Dimwit Flathead the Excessive along with the other members of the ruling family, the Twelve Flatheads. Now, the Curse threatens to bring down the Great Underground Empire itself!

Wurb Flathead, the current occupant of the throne, has sent a clarion call to the remotest corners of the Empire: half the riches of the kingdom to the person who can allay the Curse. From every province of Quendor, courageous adventurers, scheming charlatans, and wild-eyed crackpots have streamed into the Imperial Capital of Flatheadia.

You are one such treasure-seeker, a peasant from an unheard-of village in an obscure province. However, you have an important advantage: an ancestor of yours, a servant in Dimwit's court (who you'll play during a brief prologue, witnessed Megaboz casting the Curse, and obtained a small scrap of wizardly parchment from the mage's pocket.

This parchment scrap has been passed down from generation to generation, and is now in your possession. Thanks to it, you know what none of the other would-be Cursebusters know; you alone know what must be done to stop the Curse!

By the time of your arrival at Flatheadia, most of the treasure-seekers have given up and returned to their homelands. In fact, you discover that most of the population, including all figures of authority, have fled to distant provinces. And when you awake on the hard floor of the castle on Curse Day, you find that even the looters and the most persistent adventurers have departed.

In fact, as you begin your desperate quest to find the relics of the Empire you need to stop the court jester, who spins rhymes for your amusement. Always appearing when you least expect him, the jester will confront you with riddles and games, spring some deadly tricks, and give you helpful nudges in the right direction and throughout, he seems to be laughing at some tremendous joke which you can't begin to fathom...

Zork Zero is the prequel to the Zork Trilogy, one of the most popular, best-loved computer games ever written. Zork Zero takes you back to the age of the Flatheads, where you can glimpse the Great Underground Empire during its heyday, and witness its monumental fall.