Legends of Zork revived as a browser-based MMO

Written by Jack Allin — January 14, 2009 at 12:10

Zork is back! Well, sort of, anyway. If the thought of being eaten by a grue brings back fond memories rather than inspires dread, today's news is for you, as Jolt Online Gaming has announced that it is reviving the adventure classic in a browser-based MMO called Legends of Zork.

The world of Zork, last seen in Grand Inquisitor more than a decade ago, is now in trouble. In Legends, "the Great Underground Empire has recently fallen and the land is in disarray. The Royal Treasury has been sacked. The stock market has collapsed, leading even mighty FrobozzCo International to fire employees from throughout its subsidiaries. A craze of treasure-hunting has swept through the remnants of the Great Underground Empire. The New Zork Times reports that trolls, kobolds and other dangerous creatures are venturing far from their lairs. Adventurers and monsters are increasingly coming into conflict over areas rich with loot. It's a dangerous time to be a newly-unemployed traveling salesman, but it's also a great time to try a bit of venturing."

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Designed to be played with either a PC or iPhone with no downloads, this "persistent online adventure" casts players in the role of a "recently laid-off salesman and part-time loot-gatherer". It's unclear for now exactly what the gameplay will entail, and questions to Jolt have gone unanswered at this point, but the game's intentionally casual nature suggests it will be neither a full-fledged adventure nor typical online RPG, but rather a lite experience that falls between the two. Even that is only speculation, however, so we'll be sure to keep an eye on new developments in the coming months.

A Legends of Zork website has already been launched, though at the moment there's no additional information beyond today's initial announcement.