Short but entertaining, Zork: The Undiscovered Underground is the first Zork text adventure to be produced under the auspices of Infocom since 1987's Zork Zero. Changes in the entertainment world since then mean that the text game that couldn't exist as a marketable product in its own right (or so believes Activision) was produced for the sake of the graphic game Zork: Grand Inquisitor, as a teaser/prequel. While I can't comment on the worth of ZGI, I do think there's more than enough in ZTUU to make it an enjoyable game, with or without the larger game, and the whole thing feels appropriately Zorklike.

That it should, as it happens, because the writing comes courtesy of original Implementors Marc Blank and Mike Berlyn, while our own (the IF community's, that is) G. Kevin Wilson did the programming, in Inform. The mechanics of the collaboration aren't clear--to me, anyway--but it's skillfully done: there are very few slips that I can see 'twixt writing and programming (a room description beginning "As you step through the door...", for example). The game is awash in references to Zorks of old--there are 69,105 seats in a theater, you carry an "ersatz-Elvish sword of no antiquity whatsoever"--and there are several responses that mimic the original trilogy (notably, ZORK still yields "At your service"),though I missed the variety of snappy retorts to JUMP. (YELL, unaccountably, yielded nothing at all. I thought that was in one of the Inform libraries.) At any rate, ZTUU also reproduces the atmosphere of the earlier games: the setting is an abandoned "cultural complex" with plenty of details about the Flathead influence (there is a backstage scrim for Uncle Flathead's Cabin), and plenty of funny self-reference. The game is set after the fall of the Empire and the end of the Age of Magic (the Age of Science is now underway)--the year is 1066--and the sense of rediscovering the crumbling underground world is just as strong as in the originals: the game strives more for Zork II-style silliness than Zork III-style desolation, but there is some of both, for example in the "fifty-story triumphal arch" leading into the ruined theater.

The puzzles are few and not particularly hard, with the exception of one toward the end that requires some intuition (though there's an odd parallel with one of this past year's competition entries.) The main problem is that the whole thing is a little directionless--your initial instruction is to "explore, enjoy yourself, and bring back news," though the objective soon becomes getting out. But you don't plan your escape so much as solve a series of puzzles, the last of which happens to give you a rather unlikely escape route (clued, but not in a way that most would guess). This isn't a huge setback--after all, it's consistent with the "go-wander-around" feel of Zorks I and II--but given that the game never really goes anywhere, plot-wise, it's a little odd to consider this a "teaser." It certainly didn't tease me into buying ZGI (though that was probably inevitable, since it would require that I buy a new computer as well), nor could it, really, since there are no cliffhangers, nothing intriguing that won't be resolved until the later game. (I was expecting ZTUU to leave me in some perilous place, or afford me a glimpse of something tantalizing.)

The most interesting element of ZTUU, to my mind, was what it indicated about Activision's view on the continuing IF community. The amount and variety of references to the older text games--and the simple fact that it was produced in Inform by a member of that community--suggested to me that any promotional effect this might have for the graphic-adventure crowd was incidental: the point was to hype ZGI to the die-hard text fans (though, again, I'm afraid it didn't do that well). After all, those most comfortable with point-and-click wouldn't be likely to catch on to the parser quickly enough to make the game worthwhile. (Reinforcing that, when the Implementors make their obligatory appearance: one of them recalls the "virtues of ZIL, but offers the opinion that a faster compiler would have been nice." Cute, and obviously directed to the latter-day programming crowd. Blank and Berlyn have their fun with the project: the room where you find the busts of the Implementors goes on at some length about the "Golden Age of Text Adventures," and then notes that "it is clear that an attempt was made to commercialize what remains, for now, above the busts, is a sign reading, 'Consult the Oracles - 10 Zorkmids.'") It is worth wondering, though: if the attention of the latter-day text-IF community is important enough for Activision to produce freeware as promotion, even short freeware, might the company secure the services of Blank and Berlyn for a full-length commercial text game again? (I know I'd buy it.) Alas, probably not, for a few reasons. For one thing, piracy would be too easy--data files for text games are small enough to transfer here and there quickly, and copy protection in the old Infocom style could be easily duplicated. (As far as I can tell, the existing community has been reasonably honest about not giving away copy-protection secrets even for the Masterpieces games, but that's not exactly something that Activision can bank on.) More importantly, it's not clear that the market is big enough to make such a project worthwhile--spending some extra money on a game likely to make plenty from the graphics crowd is one thing, relying on text-gamers to make a game profitable on their own is another. Finally, the sheer size of the free- and shareware IF market would probably discourage anyone from trying to market a new commercial game, since text fans don't really need any one new game for a fix (and those who have exhausted the resources of the GMD archive are probably few). It'd be nice if there were a way to convince Activision that enough of us would buy a new text Zork entry to make it profitable, but I'm afraid it probably ain't so. (And yet...if there were another freeware teaser that actually worked as a teaser, except leading to a larger _text_ game...well, one wonders.)

At any rate, though there isn't a lot there, ZTUU is a charming return to the Zork universe in text form: those who appreciated the humor then are sure to enjoy it even more now. With more to do and more of a plot, further text offerings from Activision might even be commercially viable.