Walkthrough was written in response to Disquiet Junto Project 0361: Zork Diaries.
Step 1: Zork is the title of one of the earliest interactive text adventure games. The complete text of a spoiler-laden full run of the game is at the following URL, housed at Georgia Tech, or the Georgia Institute of Technology: http://bitly.com/junto-zork 2
Step 2: If you’re not familiar with Zork and/or with interactive text adventures, consider reading up. Otherwise, just think of the script as exactly that: the bare-bones narrative of a story.
Step 3: Compose a score (along with, if possible, sound effects) for the first page or so of Zork. It is suggested that you begin with the fifth line of provided text (“West of House”) and end about a page down, where it reads “The door reluctantly opens to reveal a rickety staircase descending into darkness.”
I remember playing the Colossal Cave Adventure long ago, never getting to the end. I was able to finish a number of the Scott Adams adventure games, and even wrote one of my own as an exercise to see how much I could fit into the 16k RAM of my TI-99/4A.
I like the concept of writing music for a text adventure game and have broken this initial part of the game into three movements, Adagio, Andante, and Allegro.
Walkthrough was written for Violin, Viola and Cello.
Walkthrough
Walkthrough – Score
— Adagio —
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
>open mailbox
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.
>read leaflet
(Taken)
“WELCOME TO ZORK!
ZORK is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it you will explore some of the most amazing territory ever seen by mortals. No computer should be without one!”
>drop leaflet
Dropped.
>go south
South of House
You are facing the south side of a white house. There is no door here, and all the windows are boarded.
>go east
— Andante —
Behind House
You are behind the white house. A path leads into the forest to the east. In one corner of the house there is a small window which is slightly ajar.
>open window
With great effort, you open the window far enough to allow entry.
>enter house
Kitchen
You are in the kitchen of the white house. A table seems to have been used recently for the preparation of food. A passage leads to the west and a dark staircase can be seen leading upward. A dark chimney leads down and to the east is a small window which is open.
On the table is an elongated brown sack, smelling of hot peppers.
A bottle is sitting on the table.
The glass bottle contains:
A quantity of water
>go west
— Allegro —
Living Room
You are in the living room. There is a doorway to the east, a wooden door with strange gothic lettering to the west, which appears to be nailed shut, a trophy case, and a large oriental rug in the center of the room.
Above the trophy case hangs an elvish sword of great antiquity.
A battery-powered brass lantern is on the trophy case.
>take lamp
Taken.
>move rug
With a great effort, the rug is moved to one side of the room, revealing the dusty cover of a closed trap door.
>open trap door
The door reluctantly opens to reveal a rickety staircase descending into darkness.
