I'm wearing a black tee shirt right now that has the "West of the house" opening description printed on it!
Playing Colossal Cave (Zork pretty much) on a DG mini started me out in the tech world back in the '70s.
I've had a pretty good career run since then, a lot of fun. I think playing Adventure was the most fun, so eye-opening of what could be done with computers.
You hit me with a ton of nostalgia. Never played the original zork but I enjoyed the rest games of the franchise.
Unfortunately I couldn't play it again because of the archaic graphics.
What graphics?
I never played Zork, but on the MUDs that I have played (Viking Mud, Midnight Sun, Deeper Trouble) there were some ASCII 'graphics'. Perhaps this is what is meant?
Interesting, I've played exactly the same MUDs. Scandinavian fellow, eh?
Zork is interactive fiction though (or text adventure as it used to be called), not a MUD. It's completely textual.
I think the later games (maybe Zork 4) had graphics after INFOCOM sold off the IP. Something along those lines maybe. I've only played Zork 1 and that was text only.
Their ads used to say that they " put their graphics where the sun don't shine"