Zork, excerpts, by ErWenn.

When I saw this brilliant idea, I knew I had to submit a map of my own. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t really remember the layout of most of the games I played, with the possible exception of Super Mario Bros. worlds 1-1 and 1-2. And then I remembered Zork I! There’s a game I’ve made dozens of maps for. I made a mistake when I originally mapped the maze as a kid, so I didn’t know about the room with the <SPOILER>cyclops</SPOILER>. As a result, I couldn’t finish the game, and I so I ended up playing it off and on for years, until I found a hint-through that put me right.

When I decided to do my map here, I first tried to do it the way I originally made my maps, as a grid of boxes with names connected in particular directions, but after a few minutes I realized that while I knew the white house backwards and forwards, and I knew numerous details about the objects and puzzles, the game’s world made no geographical sense whatsoever and thus I had no idea which rooms went where. Is the loud room next to the circular room? Where is Flood Control Dam #3 in relation to the rainbow?

So I scrapped the original map and decided to go for an ultra-detailed version of the initial above-ground region (although I’m just wild guessing on the forest), including all the objects. Some of those descriptions stick with me to this day: “an elvish sword of great antiquity”, “a glass bottle (containing: a quantity of water)”, etc. To this day, I am bedeviled by the lack of description on the “lunch”. What kind of lunch is it?