Playing Zork I, the game assumes a QWERTY keyboard layout, but the pyhsical keyboard is a QWERTZ one. Of course, at the Windows level, a QWERTZ keyboard layout is configured.
Why doesn't the game pick that up, too? How can I change the configured layout?

Another way is to use a modern interpreter, like or [url=http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/frotz/WindowsFrotz.zip]Windows Frotz. It should use the same keyboard layout as you use in Windows.

You need to get the game file from where you installed the game; it should be a *.dat file, likely ZORK1.DAT, and should reside in a DATA folder if it uses the standard Infocom installation structure. Simply start your interpreter and select that file to play it.

Gargoyle is usualy prefered for its soothing look and use of modern font rendering systems, but it has troubles with the graphical versions of the Infocom games, Zork Zero being one of them. Windows Frotz on the other hand is more compatible and will play all Infocom games without trouble. You still need the game file for that, but the graphic will need to be repackaged in Blorb format. Luckily for you, someone already did the work (those only contain graphic and sounds for the few Infocom games that supported them; the games themselves will need to be acquired somewhere else).

I'd say that you should keep both Gargoyle and Windows Frotz but you can also just keep Windows Frotz if you prefer.

Thanks, that worked. The mapper is a bit idiosyncratic. At first I simply bound key_z to "y" and key_y to "z", but that's not enough, one also has to delete the mappings of key_z to "z" and key_y to "y". Otherwise, both letters will appear when those keys are pressed. After having to do that, I'm surprised that the uppercase variants work as soon as the lowercase variants do. :-)

The mapper might be a little strange at first but it's actually quite powerful.

But listen to Gragt, try a windows interpreter. You might be surprised how much more fun the games become once they are more comfortable to read.

Some people like the ability to have 2 keys appearing when you press one. (combos etc)

You're welcome.

The mapper takes a few minutes to figure out but it's a very competent tool ;)

Setting line 190 in dosboxZorkNemesis.conf to

keyboardlayout=gr (for German)

should also work for DOSBox. It doesn't affect the game itself .

Country codes for DOSBox:
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/KEYB