Agree that everyone should play Zork to get an appreciation of the original genre and history. IIRC, the three Zorks were actually all part of the original Zork on the PDP and it had to be chopped into three parts to make it fit on the 8-bit micros of the 1970s-1980s.
Yep, the original Zork was a big sprawling game. I originally played the (pirate?) pdp version when I was like 6 years old. A few years ago I took one of the c versions (this one one was run through f2c and then cleaned up by Ian Lance Taylor) and ported it to wasm. I also added in a mapping system using my favorite dungeon map. You can play it at https://dungeo.org/
True, I just think they cut the 'less good' parts out of the micro Zork I and then put them in the sequels. (Although the balloon part was cool.) You may or may not like the game's aesthetic, but 75% of Zork I is pretty accessible.
