Zork I: The Great Underground Empire (Infocom, 1980)

The original classic, Zork I is arguably the most important computer game ever released as it completely changed the way that people viewed both computers and computer gaming. Instead of action games or shoot-em-ups, Zork I was an adventure game designed by adults for adults with incredibly descriptive prose and a parser that would accept and recognize full English sentences. While only a treasure-gathering game like the earlier Adventure, Zork I paved the way for all future adventure games, and certainly must be played to see how the computer gaming industry truly began. While it doesn't have much of a story beyond the hunt for twenty treasures, it needs to be recognized most for its contribution to the industry. Though it may seem unpolished or incomplete, this is due to the fact that the storage media of the era wasn't capable of holding all three chapters of Zork, but shouldn't stand in a way: this is still a classic game, and worthy of play today.

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