Video Games T-Z: 'Z' Trivia

1. As "Zork I" begins you are "standing in an open field". What are the first things you see?

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: A white house and a small mailbox

Upon opening the mailbox, you find and read an introduction to the game. When you enter and explore the house you find several interesting items. It's up to you to decide which are worth taking with you as you explore "Zork's" underground maze - the Great Underground Empire.

From Quiz Zaxxon

Answer: Fly through a space fortress while dodging obstacles and enemy fire

"Zaxxon" was loved (or hated) for its variety of challenges. It required evasive skills and thinking ahead, and featured attacks from many angles, as opposed to just picking off waves of monsters. This made "Zaxxon" more complicated than many other games.

From Quiz Zork I

Answer: Text adventure

The game required players to type words and read responses from the system. It required no joysticks or other accessories.

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: Non-text Graphics

The "Zork" games were Interactive Text Adventures. The player typed commands onto the screen in response to the game's description of locations and events. A typical command might be "move east". The game might respond by telling you what you see when you arrive at the east. Or, if you weren't aware of your surroundings, it might tell you that you stepped off a ledge and died.

From Quiz Zanac

Answer: Twelve

There are a total of twelve Areas in "Zanac". Each stage auto-scrolls from top to bottom. As the level progresses, various enemies swarm in to attack the player. At various points in each stage, the player will encounter a large ground installation as the game's mini and end bosses. In the early stages of "Zanac" you can either destroy these platforms or simply survive the battle during the time limit allotted. However, in the later stages you MUST destroy the platforms to be allowed to complete the stage, otherwise the stage will have to be repeated.

From Quiz Zaxxon

Answer: By destroying fuel storage drums

Perhaps contrary to logic, in "Zaxxon" you earned more fuel by blowing open cylindrical containers. This enabled the player to not have to land or stop in order to fill up.

From Quiz Zoocube

Answer: Align an incoming animal shape with a similar animal shape already on the Zoocube.

Most of the animal shapes are easily distinguishable from the others, but there a large quantity of them (thirty-six animals in total). If an incoming animal shape is placed on a dissimilar shape, the shapes will stack up on that side of the Zoocube.

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: DEC Mainframe

Originally known as "The Colossal Cave Adventure," "Zork" was written in the late 70s by members of the MIT Dynamic Modelling Group. For publication by Inforcom the original game was split into three games - "Zork I", "Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz", and "Zork III: The Dungeon Master". The "Zork" trilogy was eventually published in versions for virtually every personal computer and video game available through the mid-1980s.

From Quiz Zoocube

Answer: The animal appears at the top of the screen and it makes its signature noise (i. e. a lion roars).

The animations, like in many games, are novel and fun at first but they get old and annoying very quickly. Make sure that you don't have the volume too loud as others may be disturbed by the sound of elephants trumpeting or hyenas laughing.

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: Grues

Being eaten by a ferocious grue is a common way of ending a game of "Zork". Grues, however, fear light so it's best to keep a reliable light source with you when exploring the Great Underground Empire. When you enter a dark area, the game frequently warns, "You are likely to be eaten by a grue." The name "grue" was first used by author Jack Vance to describe a predator in his 'Dying Earth' series of books.

From Quiz Zanac

Answer: blue

The primary weapon of the "Zanac" starfighter is a simple one shot laser. This laser can be upgraded by collecting white pellets that can be found inside blue boxes that will drift by the ship. They will often come in bunches and the player has to shoot the boxes to reveal the power-up. The player can also take a gamble and crash into the blue boxes. If they are successful the laser will be instantly upgraded to level 5. If the player guesses wrong they will die. The max level for the laser will be obtained after collecting 18 white pellets.

From Quiz Zork I

Answer: Monster

You never get to see a picture of a grue. However, they had a nasty habit of killing the player.

From Quiz Zoocube

Answer: China Sea

The levels progress in difficulty and in the amount of points that you can obtain. The levels are all named after large bodies of water on the Earth and they include the China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean.

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: Bell, Book and Candle

"Bell, Book and Candle" starred Kim Novak as a witch and Jimmy Stewart as the object of her affection. In "Zork I" the player finds himself entering Hades. To escape a terrible fate, he must have collected the bell, book and candle artifacts so he can use them to exorcise the demons in Hades and move on with his quest. There's another movie connection with the "Zork" trilogy. In the film "The Martian" Astronaut Mark Watney discovers a copy of "Zork II" on another astronaut's computer.

From Quiz Zaxxon

Answer: A homing missile was launched at you

The game would be too easy if players could keep their ships out of harm's way for long periods of time. To prevent this, the game included something to force you to fly down again. The rocket was launched if you tried to stay at the top of the screen for more than a few seconds.

From Quiz Zoocube

Answer: Three

On the first four levels, shapes come from the top-center, bottom-left, and bottom-right of the screen. A very helpful feature incorporated in the game are icons that show what the next shape will be sent from that direction. This allows players to strategically stack shapes and rotate the Zoocube to the proper position before the shape has been sent.

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: The Flatheads

There were 12 rulers in the Flathead Dynasty. The game references the book "The Lives of the Twelve Flatheads" and some of the game's treasures relate to the Flathead rulers.

From Quiz Zaxxon

Answer: 1

The entire battle is fought against one vast fortress. Although you progress through different sections of it, you never move anywhere else. The player's ship is always in flight.

From Quiz Zoocube

Answer: The shape will "lock-on" and accelerate to the side of the Zoocube that it is heading toward.

The lock-on feature in the game works very well and its use is essential in completing the more difficult levels. Even if you rotate the Zoocube after accelerating a shape, the shape will remain locked on to the side that it was traveling to when it was accelerated. Accelerating shapes also double the points received for matching up animal shapes.

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: The elvish sword

The sword is the only weapon one needs in "Zork II". It's also useful for cutting and chopping. The lantern provides light in dark places which keeps ferocious grues away. Although the game's puzzles might drive one to drink, no wine is needed to complete "Zork II's" challenges. The jewel encrusted egg is an item that may be found in the game, but isn't with you as you begin. Zorkmids were the currency of the Great Underground Empire. You may find some as you proceed, but none are provided.

From Quiz Zanac

Answer: #2

When the player collects special item #2 the ship will be temporarily protected from enemies by a shield. When the shield is struck it will weaken and eventually wear off. You can increase the size and duration of the shield by collecting additional special weapon #2 icons that appear. All special weapons in "Zanac" can be upgraded by collecting more than one of its icons. Each special weapon also has a fixed ammo amount and will default back to #0 when it is depleted. Special weapon #4 is an energy disc that continuously oscillates back and forth in front of the ship. Special weapon #7 is an orange rapid-fire orb that can shoot forward of the ship and can shoot at a slight angle as well. There is no special weapon #8.

From Quiz Zaxxon

Answer: Your ship's altimeter

There was no such thing as a safe landing in the game--you exploded if you touched the ground. Thus it helped to be kept aware of your precise location.

From Quiz Zanac

Answer: orange

Area 1 of "Zanac" will place the player on an orange moon-like planet covered in craters. The planet also consists of large black chasms and yellow/gold metal support beams in between. There are three ground installations (bosses) that must the player must either destroy or survive the time limit. The first is a small installation with a single gun turret. The second is a larger installation that has four blind special weapon boxes on it. The final installation is a large square ground fortress with eight gun turrets to destroy.

From Quiz Zaxxon

Answer: There was none

Most games of the day contained some sort of electronic soundtrack. "Zaxxon," however, overlooked this practice, and included only the sounds of flight and battle in its auditory catalog.

From Quiz Zork I

Answer: The zorkmid

Zorkmid "replica" coins became highly valuable on the collectors' market. They showed things like emperors in the game world.

From Quiz Zoocube

Answer: Cow

Some animal goodies reward points while others give players special power ups. The yellow ice cream cone released by the restored cow will give the player a 150 point bonus.

From Quiz I Was Zorked!

Answer: 30

"Zork I" offers 28 ways to die. In "Zork II" there are 50 ways to meet your demise and 30 ways in "Zork III". Usually the first way a player discovers is by letting his light source go out which quickly leads to being eaten by a grue. You could also be killed by the thief or by a troll. Taking the cursed knife is a bad idea as is using a torch in the coal mine. Of the 108 ways to die, most "Zork" players discover a majority of them.

From Quiz Zork I

Answer: Nineteen

The items were hidden throughout the game. They comprised a variety of magical baubles.

From Quiz Zoocube

Answer: Too many shapes are stacked on one side of the Zoocube.

In the Classic Mode (on the standard difficulty), any side with five shapes stacked will turn gray. If an incoming shape collides with a side with gray shapes, the game is over.

From Quiz Zaxxon

Answer: A giant robot

The robot was named Zaxxon. If you won, you got to start the game from the first point, but the difficulty increased.

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