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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) |