I don't know if this is what was being referred to, but this might interest you:
http://nwn2-zork.blogspot.com/
A Zork adaptation for Neverwinter Nights 2.

Oh, I have heard of that but I don't have NWN2. I was hoping for something different. Thanks though; that probably is what he or she was talking about.

It is unfortunate that Gargoyle does not work well with graphics-based Hugo games.

Fallacy of Dawn preceded the Gargoyle interpreter, and while I don't have the ability to change Gargoyle so it works properly with graphics, I will probably update Fallacy of Dawn to work in a plain text mode with it. Gargoyle is really a beautiful environment with which to play interactive fiction!

I had a real copy of the game with a manual. The manual just wasn't very helpful. It mostly just told me to figure it out myself. The IF wiki looks a lot better. Thanks for the link. If I had something like that, this probably would have been a lot easier. This was the only interactive text game I tried to play and it was back before the internet with nobody to help me.

Text games and puzzle games in general might not be my thing. I am mostly here for the role playing games and turn based strategy.

I love the idea of text adventure games, but they are difficult as hell for me. I have a hard enough time as it is with the more limiting nature of graphical adventure games (but at least I can usually solve them).

Basically a text adventure game goes like this for me:

The Office
You are standing in a small office. There are two desks in the room, one of which lies in front of you, in the west, and the other in the southern corner. The door is open behind you to the east.

There is currently nobody else in the small office, with the exception of you and a large potted plant, whose leaves are a sickly yellow, ready to fall off. You notice a nice summer breeze coming in from the window above the desk to the south, moving a few pieces of paper around. It seems the paperweight had been hastily left by itself on a corner of the desk.

The chairs were of a poor make and barely looked like it could contain your weight, and a motivational poster is peeling off the wall in front of you. The room smelled of cabbage, but you see no sign of any food here.

> x plant
The plant's leaves are a sickly yellow, ready to fall completely off.

> get leaves
I see no leaves here.

> take plant
The plant is too big to carry.

> x paperweight
You see nothing special.

> x west desk
It's a standard desk. Right now it is completely bare. There is a drawer, it is closed.

> open drawer
The drawer is locked.

> close window
You try with all your might, but the window fails to budge.

> read papers
You do not have the papers

> take papers
The papers do not interest you.

> move poster
The poster cannot be moved.

> x south desk
The desk in the southern corner is covered with papers, which are rustling due to the breeze coming from the window above. There is a paperweight off to one side. On careful inspection, you notice a key behind the paperweight.

> take key
The key seems to be glued to the desk.

> i
You are carrying:
A knife
A glass of water
$42 cash

> use knife with key
I'm sorry, I do not understand what you wish to do with the knife.

> cut glue
Using what?

> knife
I'm sorry, I do not understand what you wish to do with the knife.

> move south desk
The desk is too heavy to be moved.

> use water with key
I'm sorry, I do not understand what you wish to do with the glass of water.

> pour water on key
I'm sorry, I do not understand what you wish to do.

> FUCK
Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

> quit
Do you really wish to quit? Y
Goodbye! Your final score: 2 of 165.

Never played the Zork series, but now I can't pass on this opportunity: $1 per game. :)

Very nice pricing, GOG. And thanks, Activision.

These old text adventures should have been tied in with a release of Return To Zork. On that matter, I'm still looking for a re-release of Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor.

@GoJays2025:

The Zork game I tried to play was just like that. I never attempted another text adventure after that. Now that there is an internet to help me, I might try again, but I think I will wait for this Zork Anthology to go on sale.

This is awesome not only because of the release of the games themselves, but because of the commercial release of a text adventure game by a commercial outlet. I think this hadn't been tried in years. Was watching that Get Lamp movie, and they mention that. I'd like to see how well do the Zork games do, it'd be interesting if GoG releases some figures later on. IF is thriving, but not in the commercial front.

Coincidentally, I just stumbled across this old gem earlier today. Get it here.

Well I realized why I didn't play through Zork before. Plotless, directionless, themeless, and not a few situations that can make the game unwinnable. There is some decent humor, but this isn't "Interactive Fiction" as much as it is "random puzzles in a box". Brilliant programming for the time but there's a distinct lack of design.

These days the parsers have gotten considerably better, the puzzle design has become much better and the storytelling is light-years beyond this.

I don't know if the other games are much better. I suspect Planetfall might be a little bit better, but I haven't gone through that one either.

Here you go: a free for the [url=http://www.mschronicles.com/news/news.htm]Magnetic Scrolls adventures - including all the adventures as free downloads!

You also might like this site: PDD's Adventure Page

Ok I must admit that this made me laugh really really hard. Text games work like that for me too, but I still persevere. Apparently I'm a masochist.

Well written modern interactive fiction would quite easily understand the command "pour". (Indeed, I think even Zork understands the word pour). And if it didn't work, it would at least hint towards the correct solution.

If anyone's looking for a more modern IF game to play alongside the Zork, I can heartily recommend "Anchorhead". It's sort of like a text-based "Phantasmagoria", and compares very well to the aged graphical adventure.

It's playable in a web page , or you can download the game file and executable [url=http://www.dwheeler.com/anchorhead/]here for local play.

Completely agree. Can't understand why people would buy these types of games aside from nostalgia (can't even imagine what nostalgia there might be -- even when it was brand new)