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Zork III

by Dave Lebling and Marc Blank

About the Story

An old, oddly youthful man turns toward you slowly. His long, silver hair dances about him as a fresh breeze blows. "You have reached the final test, my friend! You are proved clever and powerful, but this is not yet enough! Seek me when you feel yourself worthy!"

Zork III: The Dungeon Master draws you into the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the Great Underground Empire. Nothing is as it seems. And the one responsible for the shadow and darkness - the Dungeon Master - embodies the greatest mystery of all.

In this test of wisdom and courage, you will face countless dangers. But what awaits you at the culmination of your odyssey is well worth risking all.

Difficulty: Advanced

Page Update History

  v.21: 27-Dec-2024 21:42 - Dan Fabulich (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed download links
v.20: 20-Dec-2022 21:08 - Downhill2k01
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v.19: 09-May-2022 02:41 - Paul O'Brian
Changed external review links
v.18: 27-Sep-2021 09:26 - Petter Sjölund
Changed IFIDs
v.17: 11-Apr-2021 12:22 - Zape
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v.16: 23-Aug-2020 00:39 - Zape
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v.15: 21-Apr-2019 05:32 - Tristano
Changed download links
v.14: 31-Jan-2017 05:42 - Denk
Changed cross-references
v.13: 07-Apr-2013 13:38 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links, cross-references
v.12: 06-Mar-2013 11:29 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links
v.11: 10-Jun-2010 19:58 - RedHatter
Changed download links
v.10: 10-Jun-2010 19:32 - RedHatter
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v.9: 31-May-2009 11:45 - jmkoehn
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v.8: 27-Jan-2009 21:00 - Befuddled
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v.7: 27-Jan-2009 20:58 - Befuddled
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v.6: 27-Jan-2009 20:29 - Befuddled
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v.5: 02-Nov-2008 04:15 -
Changed external review links
v.4: 02-Nov-2008 03:37 -
Changed genre
v.3: 02-Nov-2008 03:36 -
Changed version number, genre, forgiveness, external review links
v.2: 25-Oct-2008 08:16 - Markus Peter
Changed IFIDs
v.1: 19-Feb-2008 19:39 - Emily Short
Created page

4 Off-Site Reviews

Adventure Classic Gaming

In some ways, Zork III: The Dungeon Master is the original Myst clone. There is a sliding blocks puzzle and some mechanical puzzles, all in the context of little plot and lots of ambience. There are also some standard inventory based problems, and a few very strange people to deal with. As such, there is not much of a story to propel you through the dungeon, just your love of exploration.
-- David Tanguay
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SPAG
Gloom and emptyness
It is hard to put a label on the mood of Zork III -- "brooding," perhaps, but that would make it more ominous than it is. If anything, it seems like a T.S. Eliot scene, with its barren landscapes and wisps of mist and enigmatic encounters with unidentified characters. (...) The adjective "gray" never appears, as far as I can tell, in any of the room descriptions in Zork III, and yet there is a grayness about the game environment that makes the feel of the game far more real, more coherent, than the other two, even if the scenes themselves are less picturesque than those of Zork II.
-- Duncan Stevens
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SynTax
A smaller game than Zork I and II and this time you are not collecting treasures. The parsing is good and the descriptions of locations excellent as usual, with plenty of atmosphere.
-- Joan Dunn
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>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction
Where parts 1 and 2 were light, playful, and adventurous, Zork III feels austere, somber, ominous. If not for the appearance of the brass lantern and the Elvish sword, it would hardly seem like it belonged in the same set as those other games...

What’s going on here? Primarily, I think it comes down to the fact that the Infocom Implementors had run low on pieces of the mainframe Zork to adapt for microcomputers. Zork I and Zork II covered the vast majority of that original mainframe game, leaving just a few set pieces for Zork III — pretty much just the mirror box, the royal puzzle, and parts of the endgame. As a result, they could create a game with its own sense of thematic unity, freed (mostly) from the hodgepodge aesthetic of mainframe Zork.


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Game Details

Language: English (en)
Current Version: Release 17 / Serial number 840727
License: Commercial
Development System: ZIL
Forgiveness Rating: Cruel
IFIDs:  ZCODE-17-840727
ZCODE-15-840518
ZCODE-16-830410
ZCODE-15-830331
ZCODE-12-821025
ZCODE-10-820818
ZCODE-17-840727-2E7A
ZCODE-25-860811
TUID: vrsot1zgy1wfcdru

Sequel to Zork II, by Dave Lebling, Marc Blank
Adapted from Zork, by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling