I used to play text-based RPGs all the time as a kid.

Back then all we had was a crappy old Amstrad into which you had to program 300 lines of code just to make the screen change colour a few times. And the only games we had were seriously low-res classics like The Hobbit and Jaracanda Jim (both of which I still love. I never completed either of them because they were both too difficult for 8 year old me to figure out, but killing the roller-skating postman was always a lot of fun, even if trying to persuade Thorin to get in the bloomin’ barrel for the umpteenth time was a never-ending source of pre-pubescent gamer rage.

My current favourite games are The Witcher 2 and The Sims, but text-based RPG games will always hold a special place in my heart and I do still play them from time to time. In fact, this week I’ve decided to have a go on one of the biggest text RPGs out there, which astonishingly passed me when I was first getting into gaming – Zork 1.

If you’re interested, you can actually play Zork 1 online. The custom dungeon map I’m creating to go along with the game is based off the specific version I’ve linked above, just in case you find any discrepancies with other versions of the game hosted elsewhere. Other maps I’ve found have been a bit off, with rooms or directions missing or wrong.

My map isn’t finished yet, but I’ll update is as soon as I finish the game. It might take me a while though – Zork is difficult (but fun)!

Custom Zork 1 dungeon map