Zork II

Zork was originally an adventure game written on the DEC PDP-10 between 1977 and 1979, based heavily on the "original" Colossal Cave Adventure game, and the authors of Zork subsequently founded the company Infocom, and sold the game for play on personal computers.

Because personal computers of the time were so much smaller (in terms of memory) than the PDP-10, the original Zork was split into three sections and sold as Zork I, Zork II and Zork III.

These are some notes on playing Zork II.

Apparently the objective is to collect ten treasures (which I assume are the things you find which you get points for picking up) and then doing something with them.

Alternatively, there may be seventeen items you need to find… (in fact, both these statements are true).

Once you've found the valuable items and worked out what to do with them, you can get to the Crypt, and once you work out how to get out of it, the story leads you to Zork III

I've found the following 15 presumed treasures so far, with points for getting them. I've also added a column regarding whether the item is suitable for giving to the demon (which seems to be the purpose for any treasure not lost in the process of finding another one):

That's ten things which may be suitable to give to the demon, and that's the number you need. Unfortunately you need to give some valuable item to the gnome in the Bank in order to get out with the Zorkmid Bills and the Portrait, but fortunately it turns out that the sword you've been carrying around for some time is also valuable.

I've also worked out what to use the following items for (with points for doing so):

I've found the following items but not yet worked out what to do with them:

You get varying numbers of points for doing different things. In order of significance and alphabet, the ones I've found are:

Total points so far: 400 (of 400), assuming you give 10 things to the demon.

PS: Just as in Zork I, you lose 10 points for dying. If you do, it's worth visiting the Gazebo once you "recover". Make sure not to die again.

The sooner you get the correct button pressed in the Machine Room, the sooner you'll be able to navigate reliably around the rest of the place in general. I think the minimum number of moves to achieve this is 32 (with a further 10 to verify it's worked as well). However, once you've got as far as the Machine Room, it makes sense to spend another 15 moves to collect the Red Crystal Sphere and the Package of Candy while you're there, otherwise you'll only have to come back for them later.

The following areas can be visited once in order to accomplish everything necessary there:

Well

This is a good place to visit as quickly as possible, because it enables you to turn the Carousel Room off.

You need a Teapot full of Water before visiting here, and from the Well area you can obtain the Red Crystal Sphere, the Package of Candies and the Pearl Necklace.

Dragon Room

You'll need to deal with the Dragon before you can visit the Bank or the Volcano, or get the Gold Key.

Oddly-angled Rooms

These can be visited any time between stopping the Carousel and going to the Wizard's Quarters. You get the Wooden Club here, and expose access to the Cerberus Room.

Volcano

You'll need to have visited the Gazebo first. At the Volcano you can get the Books from the Library (although you only really need the Stamp), the Priceless Gold Zorkmid (and puzzle over what to do with the Rusty Box).

Bank

Once the Dragon is out of the way, you can visit the Bank and collect the Zorkmid Bills and the Portrait. There's a Large Stone Cube as well - I have no idea yet whether that does anything.

Wizard's Quarters

Once you have the two coloured Crystal Spheres, the Gold Key, the Wooden Club and the Candies, you can visit the Wizard's Quarters, put the three Spheres on their respective Stands and see what happens next.

What happens next appears to be that you can conjure up a demon who wants paying (with a "pittance of wealth") in return for performing some service. It turns out that a "pittance of wealth" actually means ten valuable items (things you got points for getting) you have managed to find around the place.

Some places need to be visited more than once, either because you can't do everything in one visit in the right sequence, or because you need item A from here to get item B from somewhere else, which you need to do thing C here, etc…

Dragon's Lair

This needs to be visited twice; once to get the Delicate Gold Key and once to get the Wrought Gold Statuette. You can't get the Statuette until you've really got the Wooden Chest open, and if you spend too long doing that on the first visit you lose the opportunity to get the Gold Key.

So far my recommendation is to:

1. fetch the Teapot and fill it with Water
2. visit the Well and turn off the Carousel (collecting the Package of Candy, the Red Crystal Sphere and the Pearl Necklace whilst you're there)
3. collect the Blue Crystal Sphere
4. collect the Brick and the String
5. deal with the Dragon so that you can get the Gold Key (and also visit the Volcano and the Bank)
6. fetch the Wooden Club
7. go up the Volcano and fetch the Stamp, the Crown and the Zorkmid
8. visit the Bank and get the Portrait and the other Zorkmids (in exchange for the Sword)
9. take the Club, the two Spheres and as many treasures as you can carry to the Wizard's Quarters

The puzzle of the maze of oddly-angled rooms is very strongly American-oriented, and without such a background it's unlikely you'll be able to solve it without help.

See point 3.16 on page 11 of Graham Nelson's Craft of the Adventure.

The key to it is that the light you can sometimes see through the diamond-shaped windows set into the floors of the rooms gets brighter as you follow the correct path.

The sequence is:

1. flickering dimly
2. dimly glowing
3. glowing
4. glowing brightly
5. glowing serenely

The "clues" (this is the bit you almost certainly won't get unless you're American, and even then not necessarily) to the directions you need to take between the rooms are:

• the shape of the windows set into the floors
• the compass directions associated with this shape when encountered in a popular American sport

I didn't even know that this sport used compass directions.

Once you've completed the path and heard the Strange Rusty Squeal, you'll find that the room you started in now has a ramp leading down to a new location.

The Bank Vault puzzle has been documented as being one of the worst puzzles in the entire Zork series, possibly in interactive fiction in general. Even the Infocom developers couldn't explain it.

The puzzle simply makes no sense, and more to the point, neither does its solution.

It is extremely unlikely that you will work out how to get to the vault (and then you have to work out how to get out again), because the information given to you is incomplete, misleading and inconsistent.

You definitely need to read the small, worn piece of paper found in the Safety Depository in order even to get a clue about what sorts of things you should try while you're in the bank.

There are in fact seven different locations you can get to from the Safety Depository - this is <sarcastic under-statement>not at all obvious</>.

See points 3.2 (page 7), 3.8 (page 8) and 3.13 (page 10) of Graham Nelson's Craft of the Adventure for specific reasons why this puzzle is terrible.

The thief from Zork I is replaced by a wizard in Zork II, but this time he's less of a downright nuisance and more of a combination between a help, a temporary hindrance, and a comedy act.

Whatever he does to you which gets in your way, just wait for a few turns, and it'll wear off.

Once you find the Black Crystal Sphere it seems that you can get the better of the wizard, and give commands directly to his demon.

I think I've found 84 locations, and this appears to be all there are - the map is self-consistent, aside from a single room which I can't recall how I found it…

On the other hand, someone claims that there are 86 rooms.

The lamp starts to get dim after being on for 200 moves. You can certainly get as far as 275 moves without it giving up, though.

I haven't yet come across 69,105 items of anything.

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