AVG Preservation Society: The Gallery of Zork

Many of the games that appear on the 200 Most Acclaimed Video Games are fairly old. Naturally, playing older games can be taxing for a variety of reasons, whether it be expense, availability, compatibility, and so on. To this end, I will be periodically presenting a new column geared toward alleviating some of the pains of retro gaming. The first installment features The Gallery of Zork, a nifty website about Infocom's text adventures from the 1980s.

Infocom was one of the most successful computer game developers / publishers of its era. It was responsible for highly revered titles such as Zork: The Great Underground Empire, A Mind Forever Voyaging, The Lurking Horror, and dozens of other titles. The company was even able to attract author Douglas Adams, who co-designed the video game adaptation of his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- which is considered one of Infocom's finest achievements -- as well as the 1987 title Bureaucracy. Activision acquired the company in 1986 and closed it in 1989.

The Gallery of Zork preserves the Infocom brand by offering information about the company's games (including sales figures) and scans of instructions booklets as well as the various 'feelies' that were packaged with the games, echoing back to a time when game companies would offer something more than the thin, black-and-white instruction booklets that we are familiar with. Additionally, the site allows you to play every ever game released by Infocom online via Javascript. So whether you are looking to relive some of the fonder memories from your video gaming youth without having to first find a functioning Commodore 64, or if you merely want to explore the early history of the medium, The Gallery of Zork is a fantastic resource.

Enter: The Gallery of Zork

Note: The games hosted on The Gallery of Zork are classified as 'abandonware.' For a discussion of the legality of using abandonware, click here. This blog's official position on the topic is one of indifference.