The Murky Origins of Zork's Name 70
mjn writes "Computational media researcher Nick Montfort traces the murky origins of Zork's name. It's well known that the word was used in MIT hacker jargon around that time, but how did it get there? Candidates are the term 'zorch' from late 1950s DIY electronics slang, the use of the term as a placeholder in some early 1970s textbooks, the typo a QWERTY user would get if he typed 'work' on an AZERTY keyboard, and several uses in obscure sci-fi. No solid answers so far, though, as there are problems with many of the possible explanations that would have made MIT hackers unlikely to have run across them at the right time."
Trivia (Score:2, Interesting)
"Zorch" sounds exactly like "Zork" when you pronounce the "-ch" as a "k" like the word chemistry. Could've been wordplay that became viral, like when people use "guise" instead of "guys".
The general definition of "zorch" is to destroy or render unusuable, esp with electrical current of improper or fatal voltage or current.
Calvin and Hobbes' Spaceman Spiff carries a futuristic sidearm, which was eventually named Death Ray Blaster, or Death Ray Zorcher.
Re:What about Kroz? (Score:3, Interesting)
Crappy or not, Kroz ultimately brought us Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, etc. Scott Miller founded Apogee with the release of Kingdom of Kroz, and the rest is history.
Hello Sailor (Score:3, Interesting)
Obligatory (Score:2, Interesting)
Obligatory nerdcore song. MC Frontalot- It is Pitch Dark [youtube.com]
Re:Tjaden4815 (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:I didn't say 'zork'. (Score:4, Interesting)
Twisty Little Passages by Nick Montfort (Score:2, Interesting)