Come on, anyone born before 1975 has got to be familiar with this. I know I am, and I wasn't born until 1977!
Short and to the point... this is a reference to the Zork series of games -- if you don't know about it, I urge you... you must find out!
Zork is (was) such a great contribution to the world nowadays, it contributed to many different aspects:
- Technical world history - without it, the very first computers would have been totally boring.
- The computer gaming industry - Zork were some of the first computer games ever played, and thousands of games are/were based on, one thing or another, that Zork introduced.
- The table game industry - Zork was the first interactive game, which included a table game (Double Fanucci) that you did not technically need a table or a large stack of cards to play.
- It had it's own history and universe - yes, just like the Wizard of Oz, Zork had a history that included who its "god" was, who were underneath (i.e. the Upper Echelons), and things you needed to do to make sure you would not get eaten by a grue (or fall down a bottomless pit depending how old the game was), for doing something that displeased the Implementors...
- Encyclopedia Frobozzica [1]- Zork was one of the very first and few games, to have such vast history; that an encyclopedia had to eventually be printed to accommodate it.
Zork changed the world... plain and simple. And IS under-rated, like I believe Siouxsie is.... however, unlike Siouxsie; Zork has been forgotten for good... :(