| Beyond Zork | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | Infocom |
| Publisher | Infocom |
| Designer | Brian Moriarty |
| Engine | Z-code version 5 |
| Platforms | Amiga,Apple II,Apple IIGS,Atari ST,Commodore 128,MS-DOS,Mac |
| Release | Release 47: September 15, 1987 Release 49: September 17, 1987 Release 51: September 23, 1987 Release 57: December 21, 1987 |
| Genre | Interactive fiction |
| Mode | Single player |
Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor is aninteractive fictionvideo game written byBrian Moriarty and released byInfocom in 1987. It was one of the last games in theZork series developed by Infocom (titles such asZork Nemesis andZork: Grand Inquisitor were created afterActivision had dissolved Infocom as a company and kept the Infocom brand name). It signified a notable departure from the standard format of Infocom's earlier games which relied purely on text and puzzle-solving: among other features,Beyond Zork incorporated a crude on-screen map, the use of character statistics and levels, andRPG combat elements.
The game, Infocom's twenty-ninth, was available on theAmiga,Apple II,Atari ST,Commodore 128,IBM PC compatibles, andMacintosh.[1]Beyond Zork was one of 20 Infocom games bundled in the 1991 compilationThe Lost Treasures of Infocom published by Activision.
The player explores the Southlands of Quendor somewhat aimlessly at first. Soon, however, a task is bestowed by the Implementors, a group of godlike creatures jokingly based on Infocom's game designers. The Coconut of Quendor, a mighty artifact that embodies the whole of Magic, has fallen into the claws of an unspeakably foul beast: an Ur-grue. Rumoured to be the spirits of fallen Implementors, Ur-Grues can surround themselves in a sphere of darkness that only sunlight can pierce. The player must recover the Coconut from this monster's grasp or face the unthinkable consequences.
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Beyond Zork introduces the "Ur-grue", a being which game materials describe as the progenitor and ruler of the monstrous race ofgrues—the term "Ur-grue" combines the German prefixur- signifying "original" and "grue"—as well as the source of many other evil monsters. He is said to have originated as the shade of a "fallen Implementor".
The Ur-grue is revealed to be the primary villain of the story. The player, sent to retrieve the Coconut of Quendor from the Implementors, arrives at the Implementors' Luncheon on the Ethereal Plane of Atrii only to find he has been followed by the Ur-grue in shadow form, who takes the opportunity to steal it for himself. The player must then venture into the Ur-grue's extensive underground lair and retrieve it.
The Ur-grue is shown to be adungeon master of sorts, controlling huge parts of theZork underground and having accumulated an enormous hoard of treasure, of which the Coconut is his crowning acquisition. He has not only an army of grues at his disposal but also bizarre creatures of evil such as Lucksuckers, spirits who attack the player by draining his good fortune (reducing his Luck stat). The Ur-grue himself is surrounded by a pool of magical darkness that is capable of overcoming and destroying all artificial light sources, and is therefore only vulnerable to pure sunlight—the player, therefore, can only best him by using a series of mirrors to transmit a beam of light at him from outside the dungeon.
After doing so, the Ur-grue's shadowy form is dissipated revealing what may be his true form, that of a broken, withered old man. It is implied that the Ur-grue cannot survive long in this form and must possess others' bodies, like ademon, in order to survive—he attempts to possess the player. If he succeeds, a negative ending is revealed where the possessed player-character finds and strangles baby grues until he finds one strong enough to hold the Ur-grue's essence, implying that the Ur-grue's usual shadowy form is an enhanced version of a grue's body.
If the player's Compassion stat is high enough—represented by having done enough good deeds throughout the game—the Ur-grue is shown to be unable to possess the player, his evil apparently unable to coexist in the same body with an extremely pure or virtuous spirit, and the Ur-grue's old man form fades away. Whether this means the Ur-grue was permanently destroyed in this encounter is unclear, as is the possibility of others of his kind existing somewhere in the world, although, being magical in nature, it seems unlikely any Ur-grues could survive in Quendor following the Great Change.
Almost since the company's beginning, Infocom's games included "extras" (calledfeelies) in the packages, often serving a dual purpose of entertainment andcopy protection.Beyond Zork is no exception. The game package contained:
| Publication | Award |
|---|---|
| Computer and Video Games | C+VG Hit[2] |
A review inComputer Gaming World was pleased with some ofBeyond Zork's features, particularly the ability to definemacros and bind them to the function keys. The randomness of the game was described as frustrating, particularly as maps and item properties randomize upon restoring a previous game save. The review concluded by describingBeyond Zork as "a curious hybrid... mostly tough Infocom adventure with a patina of role-playing elements."[3] In 1993 the magazine stated that the game's "merging of CRPG with adventure does not mix as well as it should".[4] The game was reviewed in 1988 inDragon #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 stars.[5]Compute! stated that the game's combination of text adventure and RPG "introduces the next stage in interactive fiction". It concluded, "Beyond Zork reaffirms Infocom's position as king of the text adventures".[6]Antic stated that "thishack-and-slash approach is not what we have come to expect from Infocom". While approving ofUndo and other user interface improvements, the magazine disliked the loss of "exactly what Infocom writers do best—lots of descriptive text with a loving eye for detail that adds a sense of realism to good adventures". The reviewer concluded, "if adding these bells and whistles cuts into the heart of your product, is the trade-off worth it?"[7]
Macworld namedBeyond Zork runner-up (alongsidePolice Quest) toThe Colony as Best Adventure Game in the 1988Macworld Game Hall of Fame.Macworld called the game "a triumphant return by the Infocom adventure series to its dungeon roots, with myriad improvements on the original."[8]