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ACTIVISION DEBUTS MARC BLANK'S ALL NEW ZORK TEXT ADVENTURE ON ZORK GRAND INQUISITOR WEB SITE

Legendary Infocom Designer Takes Gamers Back to Adventures of Old

Santa Monica, CA, September 10, 1997 -- For the first time in nine years, gamers will be able to play an all-new Zork text adventure written by one of the original founders of Infocom, Marc Blank. Entitled, Zork: The Undiscovered Underground, the new text adventure will be featured in Activision's upcoming adventure game, Zork Grank Inquisitor, and will debut on the game's web site, the New Zork Hotel, on September 11, 1997. A pre-quel to Zork Grand Inquisitor, the new text adventure will be available for download (along with original Zork I and Zork II text adventures) at https://www.activision.com.

Zork: The Undiscovered Underground commemorates the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular computer games series of all time. The new text adventure's characteristic abusive parser and general silliness harkens back to the Zorks of old. The year is 1066. You are a Private, Seventh Class, in the Inquisition Guard. After being relieved by Earl at the Port Foozle Inquisition Gift Kiosk, you find yourself standing in the Headquarters of Frobozz Electric. Gesticulating in front of you is the Pastor of Disaster, the Minister of Sinister, the Grand Inquisitor. It appears he has a very special mission for you . . .

The new text adventure is just one of the unique features of the New Zork Hotel web site which reads and plays much like an early graphic adventure game. The hotel is comprised of six main areas: the lobby, front desk, parlor, library, telegraph office and game room. A small image-mapped screen depicts the room currently occupied by the visitor and a text box beneath provides additional details, introduces situations and provides another means of navigating the site. Like the Zork games, the web site has an irreverent tone and visitors may, but will not be forced to, explore the site as if on a treasure hunt. The art for the site was created by Greg Pyros and his team at Pyros Pictures.

This November, gamers will have a brand new Zork adventure when Zork Grand Inquisitor hits retail shelves. In ZGI, players must join forces with the magic resistance and the disembodied spirit of a Dungeon Master to battle the Grand Inquisitor's regime. Players will time-travel back to three periods of Zork history, recover three magical treasures: the SKULL OF YORUK, the CUBE OF FOUNDATION and the COCONUT OF QUENDOR and ultimately restore magic to present day Zork.

Marc Blank is one of the original founders of Infocom. He co-authored the original mainframe version of Zork at M.I.T., and went on to become one of the pioneers in the field of interactive fiction. At Infocom, he co-authored The Zork Trilogy and Enchanter, and was sole author of Deadline, the first interactive mystery.

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Activision, Inc. is a publicly held developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS compatible, Macintosh and other computers, as well as Sony PlayStation, Sega and Nintendo game systems. Activision is headquartered in Santa Monica with offices in Madison, Wisconsin, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Australia.

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