From: galley@think.com (Stu Galley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Zork/Dungeon (LONG)
Date: 16 Oct 1992 22:28:34 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, Mass., USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: django.think.com
Keywords: history Zork Infocom

THE NEW ZORK TIMES - SUMMER 1985 - Vol. 4 Nr. 3
(c) 1985 Infocom, Inc.

The History of Zork -- The Final (?) Chapter: MIT, MDL, ZIL, ZIP

by Stu Galley
Special To The New Zork Times

The year: 1979.  As Tim Anderson has recounted in previous
installments in this series, Zork was one large computer game, about a
megabyte in size -- as large as it could be and still fit in its
original home, a DECsystem-10.  Marc Blank and Dave Lebling designed
and wrote the program, with the help of Bruce Daniels and Tim.  They
had met and worked together in a research group at M.I.T., and now the
group was losing valuable talent through graduation and the lure of
"the real world."  Several members of the group believed that they
could still produce outstanding computer-based products in almost any
category -- from programming languages like MDL (an important
influence on modern Lisp) to data bases, electronic mail and
artificially intelligent systems -- if only centrifugal force didn't
separate them.

The problem: What sort of product could the group work on together,
and to whom could they sell it?  As early as 1976, they had discussed
the potential marketability of various computer games that had been
designed or implemented by group members just for fun.  Now their
attention was focused on various potential products based on
mini-computers, some involving custom hardware as well as software.
The group was ignoring the potential of a mass market for
micro-computers, not only from lack of experience with them (the
group's unofficial motto is "We hate micros!") but also from serious
concerns about software piracy.

Joel Berez had graduated from the group and was working in his
family's business in Pittsburgh.  Marc had finished medical school
(and moonlighting on Zork development) and was starting his medical
residency in Pittsburgh.  These two had long been friends, and they
liked getting together for a Chinese dinner and conversation.

One topic of conversation was "the good old days" at M.I.T., and one
reason that the old days were good was Zork.  They wished that Zork's
wonderfulness (or "taste and winnage" in M.I.T. jargon) could somehow
be brought to more people.  But very few people had access to the
large computers that could run Zork.  More and more people were
beginning to buy personal computers -- like the Radio Shack TRS-80
Model I or the Apple II -- but those computers were too small to run
Zork.  Or were they?

Joel and Marc began some seat-of-the-pants design work (much of it on
Joel's parents' coffee table) on how much Zork could be compressed,
and how to do so in a flexible way to allow for different,
incompatible personal computers in the future.  They considered using
available "portable" tools for programming, like UCSD Pascal, but it
soon became clear that Zork had too much text in it.  (Keep in mind
that a standard personal computer at this time came with 16K bytes of
memory and no disk drive.)  They finally concluded that, by inventing
a programming system specifically for Zork, they could fit about half
of it into a computer with 32K bytes of memory and one floppy-disk
drive.

Meanwhile, the group at M.I.T. was in the process of forming a
corporation -- choosing "Infocom" as the name least offensive to
everyone -- and searching for a project that would quickly produce a
product to start generating income for the company.  Among the
projects they considered were systems for keeping track of documents,
handling electronic correspondence, and processing text.  When Zork
was added to the list of possibilities, Joel and Marc worked
intensively during the summer and autumn creating the programming
tools for their design.  And they had to work for IOUs, since the
company treasury -- which started with only $11,500 -- could afford to
pay only for the hardware they needed at the time.

The key to their design was an imaginary computer chip called the
"Z-machine." This chip would be able to run Zork (or at least part of
it) if the program were coded in a special, very compact language.
Then the design called for each personal computer to have a program
(called a Z-machine Interpreter Program or ZIP) that would interpret
the special Z-machine language and make the computer act the same way
that a real Z-machine would.  In order to get Zork written in this
special language, another language was invented, called Zork
Implementation Language (ZIL), similar in many ways to MDL.  Marc
built a two-stage translator program that would translate a ZIL
program, first into an assembly language and then further into the
Z-machine language.  He also built a ZIP so that a DECsystem-20 could
emulate the Z-machine.

There was still the problem of cutting Zork in half.  Dave examined
his complete map of Zork and drew a boundary around a portion that
included about 100 or so locations: everything "above ground" and a
large section surrounding the Round Room.  The object was to create a
smaller Zork that would fit within the constraints established by the
design of Joel and Marc.  Whatever wouldn't fit was to be saved for
another game, another day.

In the process of being converted from MDL into ZIL, the program
became "cleaner" and friendlier. The geographies of the maze and the
coal mine were simplified so that the connections were less arbitrary,
and in other places complexity was removed whenever it didn't serve a
justifiable purpose.  For example, there was originally a barrel
sitting near the top of Aragain Falls, but it was just a red herring;
its only purpose was to lure unsuspecting adventurers inside and carry
them over the falls to destruction.  The Rainbow Room had its name
changed to On the Rainbow, and that meant removing the silly joke
about Rockefeller Center and the NBC Commissary.  Since the Land of
the (Living) Dead (the word "Living" was removed in order to fit the
name on the status line) no longer led to the stairway where Zork III
later began, the crystal skull (a brand-new treasure) was put there
instead.

By late 1979, Joel and Marc had both moved back to Boston.  Joel had
been elected president of Infocom and started business school, and
Zork I was shaping up as lnfocom's first product.  Zork I first saw
the light of day on a DECsystem-20 on which the company was renting
time, then on the PDP-11 in Joel's bedroom.  Scott Cutler (who had
graduated from the group a couple of years before) used his TRS-80
Model II to create a ZIP for a TRS-80 Model I.  As 1980 dawned,
Infocom spent a large portion of its bank account to purchase a Model
I, and Scott and Marc demonstrated that Zork I was alive in it by
starting the game and actually collecting points with the incantation
"N.E.OPEN.IN." (It's certainly no less inspiring than "Come here, Mr.
Watson; I want you!")

Mike Dornbrook was enlisted to test Zork I for bugs and other bad
features, because he had some experience with computers but no
experience with the original Zork, exactly like our intended audience.
(One of his contributions was the alternate -- and, some say, more
logical -- solution to the Loud Room puzzle, which was added only
after the first users of Zork I asked so often for hints for that
puzzle.)  He played it so much that he memorized the entire geography,
and he fell in love with the game.  He was convinced that it would
attract a cult following, although others thought it would last maybe
a year on the market and then fade away, like a video game.  He urged
the company to start planning spin-off products, like maps, hints,
posters, T-shirts, etc.  So the first published release of Zork I had
another feature added, a "small piece of paper" in the artist's studio
that said something like "Write to Infocom, P.O. Box 120, Cambridge,
Mass. 02142 for info on other products, including Movement Assistance
Planners (M.A.P.s) and Hierarchical Information for Novice Treasure
Seekers (H.I.N.T.S.)." Besides leaving the door open for an
after-market in Zork accessories, we wanted to start building a mailing
list of customers for future direct mailings (like the one you are
reading!).

Now that the company had a flesh-and-blood product, how could a small
group of hackers market and sell it?  One possibility was to produce it
ourselves and distribute it through computer chain stores.  But that
meant devoting time and energy to finding suppliers, producing
packages, supporting users, and so on.  Another possibility was to
contract with a software publisher, but which one?  Joel contacted
Microsoft, but they were already publishing the original "Colossal
Cave" adventure game -- the one that inspired Zork -- and by the time
Zork fan Bill Gates heard of our offer, Infocom was deep in
negotiations with Personal Software Inc. (PS).

PS had several good features: it was the first true publisher of
software developed by others; it was the leading publisher of computer
games at the time; and it had strong ties to Software Arts Inc., where
VisiCalc was invented (_requiescant_in_pace_), and where Zork I was
demonstrated in February 1980.  PS agreed in June to publish Zork I
and sent us an advance on royalties, our first bonafide income!  Sales
began in December, and over the next nine months PS sold about 1500
copies of the TRS-80 version. *

Also in June, we paid for a search of trademark records in preparation
for registering "Zork" as our own trademark.  We discovered that
Mattel Inc. had registered "Mighty Zork" in 1973 for a toy model
motorcycle, but that registration was cancelled in October 1979.
Other trademarks discovered in the search were the likes of Zorr,
Zorak, Zark, and Zowees (all by Mattel); Zogg, Zon, Zak, Zok, Zot,
Zonk, and Zerak; and variations on Mork and Ork (by Paramount
Pictures).  Not to mention the Zork Hardware Company of El Paso and
Albuquerque.

We had another product in which PS had no interest: the PDP-11 version
of Zork I.  We sent product announcements to various places, including
a newsletter for PDP-11 users, and as a result, the first copy of Zork
I sold was a PDP-11 version!  It came on an eight-inch floppy disk
with a manual that I wrote and Joel had reproduced from a typewritten
master.

By the end of 1980, the version of ZIP for the Apple II had been
created by Bruce, who had designed puzzles for the original Zork
before graduating from M.I.T. and going to work for Apple Computer
Inc.  Apple Zork I proved more popular than the TRS-80 version; PS
sold over 6000 copies in eight months.

The first press reviews of Zork I were encouraging.  In February 1981,
BYTE magazine said, "No single advance in the science of Adventure has
been as bold and exciting as the introduction of Personal Software
lnc.'s _Zork,_The_Great_Underground_Empire._ . . . That the program is
entertaining, eloquent, witty, and precisely written is almost beside
the point. Unlike the kingdoms of the Adventures for machines with 16K
bytes of memory and far from the classic counter-earthiness of the
Colossal Cave in the original Adventure, Zork can be felt and touched
-- experienced, if you will -- through the care and attention to
detail the authors have rendered. . . . [A] most excellent and
memorable work of computerized fiction."

Mike Dornbrook was enlisted again to fulfill mail orders for
personalized hints.  Joel collected orders from the post office box,
passed orders for maps and posters to his Significant Other for
fulfillment, gave requests for hints to Mike, and gave me the numerous
small checks to deposit in the bank.  Mike created personalized hints
off the top of his head, typing them on an old office typewriter.
(When Mike started business school in September 1981, he founded a
separate company, the Zork User's Group, and took over all mail-order
sales.  Only then did he computerize the operation.  In 1983, Mike
came back to work for Infocom, bringing Z.U.G. with him.)

Meanwhile, Dave was designing Zork II. At first, the most
straightforward approach seemed to be to use everything left out of
Zork I and simply convert it from MDL to ZIL.  But Dave's active
imagination kept inventing new puzzles that virtually begged to be
implemented.  So the final design left out the Royal Puzzle and the
"end-game" (both to appear in Zork III) and instead included the
Wizard of Frobozz, the garden, and the new diamond maze.  (The last
was re-oriented to the compass based on Mike's belief that "southpaw"
should be a hint.)  The last of the original puzzles -- the long slide
and "sending for the brochure" -- were left out of Zork III and didn't
reappear until Sorcerer.

Zork II was offered to PS in April and licensed in June 1981, about
the same time that Joel graduated and became Infocom's first salaried
employee.  But we had serious concerns about PS's commitment, even to
Zork I.  After an initial rush of advertising, Zork I seemed to join
PS's range of products as just another game.  We were eager to make
new versions and new titles -- including Zork III, "Zork: the Mystery"
(Deadline), and "Zorks in Space" (Starcross) -- but not if our
publisher wasn't also eager.  The fact was that PS was planning to
drop its line of entertainment software -- since their titles neither
sold well over the long term nor brought in enough money to satisfy
them -- and to change its name to Visicorp in order to identify
closely with its "Visi-" series of business products. **

It now appeared that we had two choices: to negotiate and contract
with another publisher (and to hope for more satisfaction), or to take
the plunge and _become_ a publisher.  We definitely preferred the
second choice, but that required office space, production facilities,
an advertising agency, and so on -- and most of all, money.  But we
threw caution to the wind, and hired Mort Rosenthal (who later founded
Corporate Software Inc.) as marketing manager, who found a time-shared
office in Boston's venerable Faneuil Hall Marketplace, a time-shared
production plant in Randolph, an ad agency in Watertown, an
order-taking service in New Jersey, a supplier of disks in California,
and so on.  The money came both from the company's founders and from a
bank loan that they personally guaranteed.

We announced Zork II and our new role as publisher with a Christmas
promotion as eye-catching as we could afford.  Thanks to our ad
agency, we had a new style of packaging for both Zorks (the
stone-built letters that are still in use), a counter display for
stores, ads in major computer magazines, and direct-mail ads for
dealers.  We also bought PS's entire inventory of Zork I (except the
TRS-80 version, which they still wanted to sell) to prevent them from
"dumping" it on the market at bargain prices and lowering the public's
image of "Zork" in general.  Our first shipment went out just in time
for Christmas sales.

On New Year's Day 1982, we moved the company to larger space at the
far end of Cambridge -- 55 Wheeler Street.  Now we had office space
for everyone, especially for Marc (now vice-president for product
development) to finish Zork III.  And we had enough space to set up
all the personal computers -- instead of shuffling them from one
person's home to another -- for testers to use, and for programmers to
create or adapt ZIPs for Atari, CP/M, IBM PC, and other machines.
Zork III was finished in the autumn, about the same time that the
company began hiring people to begin developing its first business
product.  But that's another story.

* Zork I came under the wing of PS's New Products Manager, a fellow
named Mitch Kapor, who later founded Lotus Development Corp.

** In December 1984, after a long legal tangle with Software Arts over
VisiCalc, Visicorp eventually merged into one of its own spin-off
companies and disappeared.

[end]

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers