Zork: Grand Inquisitor

Zork: Grand Inquisitor is a graphical adventure game, developed by Activision and released in 1997 for the IBM compatible PC and Macintosh (by MacPlay). It builds upon the Zork and Enchanter series of interactive fiction computer games originally released by Infocom. The cast includes Erick Avari, Dirk Benedict, and Rip Taylor. It is a 'point-and-click' game on 2 CD-ROMs (or one DVD that also includes Zork Nemesis) that allows the player to look around in a full circle of 360 degrees at each pre-rendered location (called 'Z-vision'). This visual freedom applies to the horizontal axis only; looking up and down is restricted, although possible in some locations.

Zork Grand Inquisitor was one of the first computer games to include true closed captioning so that the hearing impaired could play without missing any of the sound effects and spoken dialog in the game.

The original release included a feelie poster with a timeline of the history of Zork up until the events of the game, with pictures and short descriptions of major events, including the backstory of some of the characters; this encompasses all released Zork games except Return to Zork, which takes place 580 years after Grand Inquisitor.

Much of the humor in Zork Grand Inquisitor stems from the ludicrous Inquisition policies and propaganda. Example quotes:

• 'Shun magic, and shun the appearance of magic. Shun everything, and then shun shunning.' - the Grand Inquisitor (Mir Yannick), played by Erick Avari.
• 'This is a paid announcement: "The Grand Inquisitor rules!"' - voice of the Inquisition, played by David Lander.
• 'And never forget who is the boss of you—Me! I am the boss of you!' - The Grand Inquisitor (Mir Yannick), played by Erick Avari.

The game also makes frequent use of self-parody, and contains numerous references and asides to staples and clichés of the traditional adventure genre; for example, two items almost invariably found and heavily used in almost all Zork games, a tattered map and an elven sword, are to be found in a glass case at the start of the game, with the notice "In case of adventure, break glass!". When the player dies, the game cuts to a computer terminal on which the player's fatal action and its consequences appear in prose form, in the fashion of the original Zork trilogy.