Return to Zork

Return to Zork is a 1993 adventure game in the Zork series. It was developed by Activision and was the final Zork game to be published under the Infocom label.

Gameplay

Unlike the previous games in the Zork franchise, which were text adventures, Return to Zork takes place from a first-person perspective and makes use of video-captured actors as well as detailed graphics; a point-and-click interface replaced the text parser for the first time in a Zork game. The overall gameplay style was somewhat similar to Myst, although Return to Zork predated Myst by a few months. Unlike Myst, which had no extraspatial dimensions of functionality, Return to Zork featured multiple ways of interacting with each object in the game world, as well as with several non-player characters also present in the world via a menu which appeared on the left side of the screen.

Cast

Among the actors who appeared in the game were a number of instantly recognizable (by face, if not necessarily by name) character actors as well as a number of well-known younger actors: Robyn Lively of Twin Peaks as "The Fairy", Jason Hervey of The Wonder Years as "The Troll Leader", and Sam J. Jones from the 1980 film Flash Gordon as "The Blind Bowman" and A.J. Langer of My So-Called Life as fellow explorer Rebecca Snoot whom the player encounters on several occasions.

Soundtrack

The game disc is also a 26-track audio disc. Each track on the disc plays in a specific location in the game. Some tracks are used in more than one location. These tracks were recorded live based on original MIDI versions. It is not certain if every single track was recorded live and only these 25 tracks were used in the final game due to CD size limits (using actual CD audio as opposed to some sort of compression such as MP3. For example, every single dialogue line was recorded in live video, but only a handful of the live videos are used in the final game, even in the higher-quality MPEG version). While the MIDI versions play in their intended locations, not all of the live recordings are played in their intended locations.

The tracks are as follows:

Track	Game Use	original midi	intended game use
01	*game data	NA	NA
02	*unused	GENVO01	Generic: Valley Opening 1 (from unused start menu -- images and SFX and music still present in game data)
03	*Opening of the Mailbox (part of MOV, the cd audio itself is not played)	GENDI01	Generic DI01 (not certain what DI means)
04	*White House *Vulture Pits	GENVO02 GENVO03	Generic: Valley Opening 2 Generic: Valley Opening 3
05	*Opening Fly-By Credits (part of MOV, the cd audio itself is not played)	GENFF01	Generic: FF01 (disk version title screen)
06	*Lighthouse Exterior *Road to the South *West Shanbar	MP0RD01	Mountain Pass: Road 01
07	*Entering Great Underground Empire *Bel Naire Temple	WS0OM06	West Shanbar: Old Mill 06 (outside new mill when entering GUE for first time)
08	*Finale (part of MOV, the cd audio itself is not played)	CZ0FN00	Citadel of Zork: Finale 00
09	*File Cabinet *Notebook *Sliding Puzzle	WS0TH02	West Shanbar: Town Hall 02
10	The Guardian	GENGU01	Generic: Guardian 01
11	*Morpheus Dream *Vulture Pits Interior	ES0IN07	Generic: East Shanbar Inn 07 (Morphius Dream #2)
12	Fool's Memorial	DM0MI01	Dwarven Mines: Mine 01
13	*Hero's Memorial *Boar Statue	FS0BR01	Forest of the Spirits: Boar 01
14	*Hardware Store *Ferryman's Dock *Troll Defeat	RR0RR01	Underground Countryside Rural Road 01
15	Troll Fight	TC0IN01	Troll Caves: Interior 01 (Troll Fight #1)
16	Pawn Shop	WS0PS01	West Shanbar: Pawn Shop 01
17	unused	WS0OM01	West Shanbar: Old Mill 01 (Boos Myller)
18	Dwarven Mines	DM0EX02	Dwarven Mines: Exterior 02
19	Whispering Woods	WW0MZ01	Whispering Woods: Maze 01
20	unused	CZ0OR01	Citadel of Zork: Orc Room 01
21	unused	CZ0HS01	Citadel of Zork: Hall of Statues 01
22	unused (this is a minor-key version of "Barbara Allen")	ES0MM01	East Shanbar: Moadikum Moodock 01 (Armory)
23	Forest of the Spirits (this piece is the Pavane by Gabriel Fauré)	FS0MZ01	Forest of the Spirits: Maze 01
24	*Creeping Bogs *Cliffs of Depression	BOGMZ01	Bog: Maze 01
25	*Blacksmith *Incinerator	ES0BS01	East Shanbar: Blacksmith 01
26	unused (rejected version of credits?)	GENVO01 TB0EX0 FS0BR01 WS0OM06 FS0MP01 WS0WA01 CS0DK01 CZ0FN00(end)	Generic: Valley Opening 01 Temple of Belnaire: Exterior 01 Forest of the Spirits: Boar 01 West Shanbar: Old Mill 06 Forest of the Spirits: Mushroom People 01 West Shanbar: Waif 01 Canuk's Shack: Duck 01 Citadel of Zork: Finale (end portion only)