Technology
Zork: Nemesis employed technology Activision dubbed "Z-Vision Surround Technology." This gave users a simulated 360-degree view of each location visited.
Nemesis was one of the first games to employ such technology. As such, although it added new depth to the gameplay, it appears dated and pixellated by today's standards. Nemesis only allows panning either horizontally or vertically at any position, not both at the same time as with later games, such as The Journeyman Project 3 or Myst III: Exile. Details were far more difficult to make out in the panoramic scenes in Nemesis than in the still screens. The sequel Zork Grand Inquisitor made significant improvements to the Z-Vision system.
Zork: Nemesis, like other adventure games of its time, made use of live actors. Each of the six major characters, plus several additional characters, were played by actors. The game features a significant amount of screen-time for the actors, thanks to its use of flashbacks at key locations (or objects) and the use of monologues in which a character addressed the player explaining and justifying his/her actions.
The player's character in Zork: Nemesis is never identified, but the hint book refers to the character as "she," and one male NPC looks at the main character and remarks, "Hey, you're beautiful!" - however, this response is a result of artificial mental stimulation, and so would likely happen regardless of the gender of the player.
Zork: Nemesis was one of the largest games of its time, occupying three CD-ROMs. This was due to the large amount of full-motion video and panoramic scenes. The disks were however organised to minimise swapping.
Read more about this topic: Zork Nemesis
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“Radio put technology into storytelling and made it sick. TV killed it. Then you were locked into somebody else’s sighting of that story. You no longer had the benefit of making that picture for yourself, using your imagination. Storytelling brings back that humanness that we have lost with TV. You talk to children and they don’t hear you. They are television addicts. Mamas bring them home from the hospital and drag them up in front of the set and the great stare-out begins.”
—Jackie Torrence (b. 1944)
“The real accomplishment of modern science and technology consists in taking ordinary men, informing them narrowly and deeply and then, through appropriate organization, arranging to have their knowledge combined with that of other specialized but equally ordinary men. This dispenses with the need for genius. The resulting performance, though less inspiring, is far more predictable.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“If we had a reliable way to label our toys good and bad, it would be easy to regulate technology wisely. But we can rarely see far enough ahead to know which road leads to damnation. Whoever concerns himself with big technology, either to push it forward or to stop it, is gambling in human lives.”
—Freeman Dyson (b. 1923)