I don't know how many people know about this but Activision did a port of the classic Zork to the PS1 and Sega Saturn but it seems to have been a Japan only release. What is interesting about this version is that it's still a text adventure just with a little graphic in the background to give you a idea of where you are and a zork 0 style border, commands seems to be handled by picking letters and words from either a list or from the game's text.. you know it's really hard to explain so I'll just link a video of the Saturn version in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o2LF51mtuE

I have this one on Saturn. The interface is pretty annoying, although it makes sense with the way japanese works: essentially you pick up important objects and places rom the text, and put them together with suffixes and prepositions from a list. It's difficult to play. I went on for a while (my japanese is basic, but I played the old Zork so I knew a bit about it), and eventually got stuck. Loading times are kinda meh, especially when switching to different areas.

Some of the images were nice though, and the tracks fit the mood well. I wonder if someone would ever take the art and music, and try to juxtapose them to the english version somehow.

Indeed, I saw that at the game store when I was in Japan many years ago, but I didn't pick it up at the time. I was too busy looking for the PS1 version of Ultima Underworld (Which I traveled all over the country to find, only to finally buy it a block away from my apartment). It did have a very simplified interface from what I've seen, and it had some graphics. In a way, it kind of reminds me of the current version of the Infocom classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy being hosted by the BBC now with both descriptions and illustrations.

Yeah I've seen it too in Japan, but Galaxy Force II looked way more sexier to be honest. Although what I'd really want is the interpreter for the RT-11/PDP-11..