* Zork III: The Dungeon Master, a 1982 computer game

*** Zork III: The Dungeon Master ( 1982 )

* The Zork Trilogy ( 1986 ; contained Zork I, Zork II & Zork III )

* The Zork Anthology ( 1994 ; contained Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork & Zork Zero )

* Zork Special Edition ( 1997 ; contained Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork, Zork Zero, Return to Zork, Zork: Nemesis, and Planetfall )

( In each trilogy, there is a sense of assumed continuity ; that is, the player's character in Zork III is assumed to have experienced the events of Zork I and Zork II.

Activision briefly offered free downloads of Zork I as part of the promotion of Zork: Nemesis, and Zork II and Zork III as part of the promotion for Zork Grand Inquisitor, as well as a new adventure: Zork: The Undiscovered Underground.

Dungeon, the mainframe precursor to the commercial Zork trilogy, is generally assumed to be in the public domain and is available from The Interactive Fiction Archive as original FORTRAN source code, a Z-machine story file and as various native source ports.

He named the game MUD ( Multi-User Dungeon ), in tribute to the Dungeon variant of Zork, which Trubshaw had greatly enjoyed playing.

The implementors briefly named the completed game Dungeon, but changed it back to Zork after receiving a trademark violation notice from the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons.

Late 1977 the Zork authors had decided to rename Zork to Dungeon, and Supnik subsequently released his port as Dungeon in January 1978.

Somewhere in 1978 the Zork developers received notice from Tactical Studies Rules, who claimed that the name Dungeon infringed their trademark rights, and they subsequently changed the name back to Zork.

Hence in the early text-adventure game Zork, also known as Dungeon, the user could mung an object and thereby destroy it ( making it impossible to finish the game if the object was an important item ).

An interactive fiction game known as Zork, sometimes called Dungeon, was first written in MDL.

Beyond Zork bears many similarities to a simplified role-playing game or Multi-User Dungeon, particularly in the implementations of character statistics and levels.

* Dungeon, an alternative name for Zork, a computer game

Years later, DECUS distributed another game named Dungeon, a hacked prototype version of the text adventure game Zork that would later become the model for early MUDs.

* Download and play the original mainframe version of Zork, as well as a 1982 map of the Zork universe.

Activision finally shut down the Infocom division in 1989, although they released some titles in the 1990s under the Infocom Zork brand.

Infocom games were written using a roughly LISP-like programming language called ZIL ( Zork Implementation Language or Zork Interactive Language — it was referred to as both ) that compiled into a byte code able to run on a standardized virtual machine called the Z-machine.

Inspired by Colossal Cave, Marc Blank and Dave Lebling created what was to become the first Infocom game, Zork, in 1977 at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.

Although Infocom started out with Zork, and although the Zork world was the centerpiece of their product line throughout the Zork and Enchanter series, the company quickly branched out into a wide variety of story lines: fantasy, science-fiction, mystery, horror, historical adventure, children's stories, and others that defied categories.

* The Gallery of Zork an updated version of the Infocom Gallery with higher-resolution photos, more material, such as more photos of earlier packaging, and online playable versions of the Infocom games.

In addition, Zork was written on the PDP-10, and Infocom used several PDP-10s for game development and testing.

Three of the original Zork programmers joined with others to found Infocom in 1979.

Personal Software published what would become the first part of the trilogy under the name Zork when it was first released in 1980, but Infocom later handled the distribution of that game and their subsequent games.

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

* Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz ( 1981, Infocom )

** Beyond Zork: The Coconut of Quendor ( 1987, Infocom )

** Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz ( 1988, Infocom, text with some graphics )

** Zork Quest: Assault on Egreth Castle ( 1988, Infocom, interactive computer comic book )

** Zork Quest: The Crystal of Doom ( 1989, Infocom, interactive computer comic book )

* Return to Zork ( 1993, Infocom / Activision, graphical )

* Zork: The Undiscovered Underground ( 1997, written by Michael Berlyn and Marc Blank ( original Infocom implementors ) and released by Activision to promote the release of Zork Grand Inquisitor )

Enchanter was originally developed as Zork IV ; Infocom decided to instead release it separately, however, and it became the basis of a new trilogy.

Among the games bundled in The Lost Treasures of Infocom, published in 1991 by Activision under the Infocom brand, were the original Zork trilogy, the Enchanter trilogy, Beyond Zork and Zork Zero.

* The Dungeon Master, the 1985 non-fiction book by William C. Dear regarding the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III

Secret of Mana was an influential game in its time, and has remained influential through to the present day, such as its customizable AI for player characters being used by many later games, its ring menu system still used in modern games ( such as The Temple of Elemental Evil ) and its cooperative multiplayer mentioned as an influence on games as recent as Dungeon Siege III.

* Anjali, A character in Dungeon Siege III.

In some cases, a standalone expansion such as Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death, or Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna includes the original game.

* Dungeon Siege III ( 2011 )

Original Dungeon Masters Guide ( TSR, 1979 ); Cover art by David C. Sutherland III

The original Dungeon Masters Guide ( sic ) was written by Gary Gygax, and published by TSR in 1979 as a 232-page hardcover with a cover by David C. Sutherland III.

The cover, a painting by David C. Sutherland III, of the 4th printing of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide shows an efrit grasping a damsel while engaged in combat with a fighter and a magic-user.

In June 2008, Chris Taylor announced to Eurogamer that Dungeon Siege III was " in the works " and would focus on a single player character rather than a group.

* Dungeon Siege III

At E3 2010 it was announced that Obsidian would be developing Dungeon Siege III for Square Enix ; the game was released in 2011.

On September 1, 2011, Square Enix announced that the Treasures of the Sun DLC for Dungeon Siege III was forthcoming, with an anticipated release in October 2011.

Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax was released in 1988, and Barbarian III was in the works.

There are eight different town alignments available in Heroes III: three " good " towns ( Castle, Tower, and Rampart ), three " evil " ( Inferno, Necropolis, and Dungeon ), and two " neutral " ( Fortress and Stronghold ).

Secret of Mana's co-op gameplay was considered innovative in its time, as it allowed the second or third players to drop in and out of the game at any time rather than players having to join the game at the same time, which has remained influential on titles as recent as the upcoming Dungeon Siege III.

He was responsible for composing the soundtracks to three top-selling role-playing games in 2002, those of Dungeon Siege, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and Neverwinter Nights ; Morrowind earned him his second Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences award nomination.

Ridings has also provided voiceovers in video games, including the voice of Sarge in Quake III, the Mentor in Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon Keeper 2, Roach in Heavenly Sword, and ex-lawman Giles the Farmer in Fable II, on the Xbox 360 video game console.