[Sage]

I mean, why not? The original five Zork adventures have proven good stories with clever twists, challenging puzzles, and enough humor to satisfy even the most finicky adventure fan, but even I don't have the patience to slog through a game without graphics.
Since the last Zork adventure was released seven years ago, and Cyan will soon be done with the Myst series, these two seem like a match made in Heaven...unless there's some bad blood left over from when Cyan published Manhole through Activision.
Any thoughts or suggestions on this?

[Glenn Epic]

I moved the thread to adventure

[Sage]

Mea Culpa. I thought that since this was pure speculation on my part it might be more appropriate for "Chit Chat", but either/or is fine with me.

[Glenn Epic]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

Mea Culpa. I thought that since this was pure speculation on my part it might be more appropriate for "Chit Chat", but either/or is fine with me.

The adventure forum is full of speculation. As long as its adventure games speculation then its okay in AG's books

[jjacob]

Good idea and I hope someone is there to make this because I'd invest in it without a moment's hesitation I hope more people here get into game developing here..

[SakSquash]

Originally Posted by jjacob

Good idea and I hope someone is there to make this because I'd invest in it without a moment's hesitation I hope more people here get into game developing here..

There you go again.

Anyway, I think they should do it as well, but I think working with old licenses are tricky. They pass through so many hands that it can be confusing who owns what. But with funding from jjacob, where can they go wrong?!

[jjacob]

Originally Posted by temporaryscars

There you go again.

Anyway, I think they should do it as well, but I think working with old licenses are tricky. They pass through so many hands that it can be confusing who owns what. But with funding from jjacob, where can they go wrong?!

Hey you wanna beat me to it? feel free LOL

Did I mention how flexible thinktanks can be, btw?

[Tramboi]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

I mean, why not? The original five Zork adventures have proven good stories with clever twists, challenging puzzles, and enough humor to satisfy even the most finicky adventure fan, but even I don't have the patience to slog through a game without graphics.
Since the last Zork adventure was released seven years ago, and Cyan will soon be done with the Myst series, these two seem like a match made in Heaven...unless there's some bad blood left over from when Cyan published Manhole through Activision.
Any thoughts or suggestions on this?

Good story? In Zork?
Nostalgia is making you lose your sanity my friend

It was more of a collection of puzzles, and I don't think anybody wants a MAZE any more!

Better leave those in the past (I replay them sometimes)

[Naveed]

Originally Posted by Tramboi

Good story? In Zork?
Nostalgia is making you lose your sanity my friend

It was more of a collection of puzzles, and I don't think anybody wants a MAZE any more!

Better leave those in the past (I replay them sometimes)

Very true. It is indeed nostalgia, let Zork live in the imagination, in graphics it will be will be a disappointment.

[LeisureSuitedLooney]

Well, from the standpoint of the publisher, (playing devil's advocate here) there have already been 3 Zork games with graphics, and two of them did did revisit the locations contained in the classic text games. In Return to Zork, for example, you had The White House, The Troll, Grue references...it was a pretty good representation of the original games. Also, Zork: Grand Inquisitor had the various Treasures of Zork, even more Grues, the Dragon(although,maybe not THE dragon from Zork 1)...maybe if there were a really original new concept, involving the old locations, they'd do it.

Or, maybe, they could do what Sierra did with KQ1, and just do what you're suggesting, a total revamp and rerelease. Either way would be interesting, but it all comes down to how well those other Zork graphic adventures sold. If the potential profit's there, they'll come around to it eventually.

[stepurhan]

[nostalgic old fogey mode]Having played some of the old Zork games first time around, graphic remakes are soemthing I wouldn't be keen on. I have clear memories of how I imagined the locations to look when I played these games (of course, our imaginiations were low-res and black and white in my day. ) so any remake would almost certainly feel wrong to me because the locations wouldn't be the way I remember them "looking".

I haven't played any of the games that have revisited earlier locations so my memories are as yet untainted.[/nostalgic old fogey mode]

But if graphics and sound are what it takes to bring some of these games to a new generation then maybe it's a good thing.

[Outasync]

Let me ask this. Would it be a good idea to remake Casablanca or Citizen Kane? I think most would agree it would not. The same I believe is true for those early adventure games. Quite frankly there IS no upside to remaking these games.

Remakes would do two things. They would further convince new players that pure adventures are not worth their time, and upset old player for ruining the game's purity. Activision managed to squeeze every bit if life left out of the Zork franchise, and then some. Grand Inquisitor was supposed to be the first of a new trilogy of games but they canceled the last two after poor sales and twice threatened to make a Planetfall game that never got off the ground, thankfully.

I say leave the text adventures in the past for old players to be nostalgic about and for young players to discover as a buried treasure.

[Sage]

I do see your points, Stepurhan and Outasync, but both "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane" were stunningly visual movies, not books* (*a once-popular entertainment medium similar to text adventures, for all the younger folks. ), and DO NOT need to be re-made.
However, even the most imaginative books can be translated to the visual medium if the right art director is hired. Examples? I'll give you three:
"Interview With The Vampire"- I went to see this movie with great trepidation and fear, but was absolutely blown away! From the New Orleans townhouse where Louis and Lestat lived to the Theatre de Vampires to the catacombs of Paris, every shot looked almost exactly as I had pictured it when reading the book.
The first two "Harry Potter" movies- With an appropriate location and good CGI, even magic can be brought to life.
The "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy- Who would have ever believed that these books could be made into movies that actually captured the spirit and lush imagery that the books provide? Every scene looks just as it is described in the books, if not better.
An art director who restrains himself to potraying only what is described, the way it is described, and who only creates enough extraneous detail to add verisimilitude to the scenes and story, could bring the original "Zork" text adventures to an entirely new audience.

[Antoinetta]

Why limit it to Zork? I would imagine that most of the text and older graphic adventures would be good candidates to be remade and issued on CD with modern graphics and sound. I could see Altered Destiny (Accolade, 1988) redone with the Syberia engine; it would be a vastly improved game.

Antoinetta

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Scott, I think a graphical Zork would be only one way of going about it, actually.

First, I think there are potential 'hazards' to look at. One is that a graphical version of a Zork game would defeat the purpose of why text based games hold such magic to their fans and to many others who have experienced them. Like novels the visualizations take place in your head, like a daydream. Using computer graphics to 'realize' a Zork world would be fine, but then you'd be using only one person's (or a small staff's) imaginings of what that world looks like, and that would be rather dismissing others' imaginings. Kinda not fair, is it? But then who knows? Maybe the world realized in a graphical version could surpass everyone else's idea of what that world could look like.

Then there's the idea of Zork as manifested in CG form. I think using the actual original Zork (and its sequels) verbatim would be rather redundant, don't you think? Instead, why not use the Zork world as a template for a new kind of game (continuing the Zork 'legacy'), an extension of the original world but with new things to see and do? If money weren't an issue, use the Half-Life 2 Source engine and allow for physics based puzzles. I remember playing Zork a long time ago, and some of the challenges involved trying to find out how to defeat monsters. Why not allow a little bit of turn-based combat, where you can freeze the action and figure out how to strike or defend yourself next, and even then let it be more intellect based than reflex or strength oriented. This would be a natural extension of using the text parser.

And there's one alternative, where it would stay text based, but the presentation would be highly polished. Perhaps the font used for the text could be beautiful, original calligraphy exclusive to the game. Then there could be gorgeous environmental sounds, like howling winds and crashing waves done in a 3D positional way, where, say, if the game tells you that to the east is an ocean you can hear the waters in your right speaker, and to the west is the entrance to a cave and you can kinda hear the echoes in your left speaker and the sounds move around you accordingly as your progress?

[Kero]

I LIKE what Intrepid Homoludens suggested in his last paragraph. Keep it text based but jaz it up with sound effects and perhaps background music. It could even be done as a graphic novel! As you can see - I lean toward keeping the original Zork text adventures just that - text adventures. It would be like turning the old "Shadow" radio adventures into movies. They tried it once and it fell flat. There is nothing to compare with one's own imagination.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

And there's one alternative, where it would stay text based, but the presentation would be highly polished. Perhaps the font used for the text could be beautiful, original calligraphy exclusive to the game. Then there could be gorgeous environmental sounds, like howling winds and crashing waves done in a 3D positional way, where, say, if the game tells you that to the east is an ocean you can hear the waters in your right speaker, and to the west is the entrance to a cave and you can kinda hear the echoes in your left speaker and the sounds move around you accordingly as your progress?

Surely sounds are also part of an individual's imagination? If I read the words "A bell chimes in the distance", for instance, this may sound very different in my mind to yours. Personally, I don't like this, though I respect where you're coming from. And I suspect that original calligraphy is not something that a lot of gamers care too strongly about...

Anyways, ignore me .

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by Thrift Store Scott

I do see your points, Stepurhan and Outasync, but both "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane" were stunningly visual movies, not books* (*a once-popular entertainment medium similar to text adventures, for all the younger folks. ), and DO NOT need to be re-made.
However, even the most imaginative books can be translated to the visual medium if the right art director is hired. Examples? I'll give you three:
"Interview With The Vampire"- I went to see this movie with great trepidation and fear, but was absolutely blown away! From the New Orleans townhouse where Louis and Lestat lived to the Theatre de Vampires to the catacombs of Paris, every shot looked almost exactly as I had pictured it when reading the book.
The first two "Harry Potter" movies- With an appropriate location and good CGI, even magic can be brought to life.
The "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy- Who would have ever believed that these books could be made into movies that actually captured the spirit and lush imagery that the books provide? Every scene looks just as it is described in the books, if not better.
An art director who restrains himself to potraying only what is described, the way it is described, and who only creates enough extraneous detail to add verisimilitude to the scenes and story, could bring the original "Zork" text adventures to an entirely new audience.

My emboldening. Too many adaptations are disappointing (or worse) because they don't have someone with an appreciation for the source material in charge. It's one thing saying something could be great but past experience tells us it will more likely be mediocre or downright awful. It is a rare art director that "only creates enough extraneous detail to add verisimilitude to the scenes and story" without wishing to make their own mark.

Even taking the good adaptations you've referred to, there are things that are changed and omitted, without any clear reason. Take the frist Lord of the Rings film. The flight to Rivendell should have been Glorfindel but it was Arwen instead. A case of a star demanding more screen time? Elves turn up at Helms Deep in the second film. Not in the book they don't In fact, the battle of Helms Deep is much shorter as a proportion of the book than the film made it. Was making the battle such a major part of the film to attract the action-hungry blockbuster audiences?

Films cannot have scenes that look "just as it is described in the books, if not better." since any individual reading a book will picture each scene in a different way. Every shot of Interview with a Vampire may look as you imagined it but, for me, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise do not look anything like the Louis and Lestat I had in my head.

Re-makes, be they updates of an original or portraying in a different medium, rarely, work. I'd much rather play something new and original than see somone do a rehash of a classic. Let's not turn into the pop music industry, fueled by "cover versions" of old games and devoid of fresh ideas.

[Sage]

Eek, you caught me, Stepurhan! I purposely didn't mention the casting choices of any of those movies.
Anne Rice herself has said often that the character Lestat was written with Rutger Hauer in mind, but he was too old for the part by the time the movie was made. In fairness, Tom Cruise did a far, far better job of portraying Lestat than I or anyone else could have imagined, but there had to have been better choices who read for the part. In my opinion, Brad Pitt would have been much better cast as the moody but gorgeous seventeen-year-old vampire Armand than the perpetually whiny and angst-ridden Louis ("Oh, poor me! I'm going to live forever and I have to drink blood!"). In reading "Interview With The Vampire", I pictured Louis as looking more like a young Pierce Brosnan than Brad Pitt, but any number of slender, dark-haired actors could have played the role, including the wildly mis-cast Antonio Banderas.
In the "Harry Potter" series, the actor who portrays Ron Weasley has only red hair in common with his character's description in the book. Richard Harris, who's acting credentials are above reproach, was far too old and feeble to play Dumbledore who is described several times in the books as having great energy that belies his age; I always pictured Patrick Stewart as Dumbledore myself, but this dream-casting would require Mr. Stewart to don contact lenses to turn his brown eyes the bright blue alluded to in the books.
I've only read the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy once, and remembered the scenarios far better than I did the characters or finite points of the plot.

[DaveGilbert]

Originally Posted by Tramboi

Good story? In Zork?
Nostalgia is making you lose your sanity my friend

It was more of a collection of puzzles, and I don't think anybody wants a MAZE any more!

Better leave those in the past (I replay them sometimes)

This is unabashedly true. What story? You wonder around caves, solve puzzles, and collect treasures. The closest the original trilogy came to a story was Zork II, and the extent of that was "Ooh, evil wizard! Must destroy." Zork wouldn't benefit from a remake.

I'd love to see remakes of the infocom mystery games like "Deadline" or "Witness." In those games you play a detective who talks to suspects, gathers evidence, and tries to solve cases. The visual element would add a lot to the experience. It wouldn't add anything to the original Zorks.