Marc Blank is an American computer game designer and game programmer. He is best known as part of the team that created one of the first hit text adventure computer games, Zork. A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... A game designer is a person who designs games. ... John Carmack is one of the most widely recognized and influential game programmers. ... Zork, an early work of interactive fiction, running on a modern interpreter Interactive fiction, often abbreviated as IF, is a simulated environment in which players use text commands to control characters. ... This article needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... Zork can run on modern Z-machine interpreters, as well as the older models it was made for originally. ...

Blank first encountered Don Woods and Will Crowther's Adventure game while he was studying at MIT in the mid-1970s, where the game was played on mainframe computers. Don Woods is a perennial hacker and computer programmer. ... William (Willie or Will) Crowther is a computer programmer and caver. ... Look up adventure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary An Adventure (from Latin res adventura, a thing about to happen) is a wild and exciting undertaking, especially where there is a chance of danger. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, is a research and educational institution located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. MIT is a world leader in science and technology, as well as in many other fields, including management, economics, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. ... Mainframes (often colloquially referred to as big iron) are large and expensive computers used mainly by government institutions and large companies for legacy applications, typically bulk data processing (such as censuses, industry/consumer statistics, ERP, and bank transaction processing). ...

Blank was frustrated by the computer's tiny vocabulary, so when it parsed user inputs few words were recognized. After thinking about the problem during his undergraduate years, he started work on an his own adventure game using MDL, a computer language invented at MIT. Blank and a handful of friends wrote the original version of Zork on a PDP-10 while he was attending medical school at Albert Einstein in New York. MDL may mean: The minimum description length principle for inductive inference. ... The PDP-10 was a computer manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from the late 1960s on; the name stands for Programmed Data Processor model 10. It was the machine that made time-sharing common; it looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the 1970s by many... Albert Einstein, by Yousuf Karsh Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born Jewish theoretical physicist of Swiss and American citizenship, who is widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. ... State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki (R) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ...

The free-play university version of Zork first became available on the Einstein PDP-10 in June 1977. It was then distributed by the Digital Equipment Corporation DECUS program and spread to many colleges in the United States and Canada. 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering company in the American computer industry. ...

Blank graduated from medical school in 1979 but the call of Zork was irresistible. He and several friends spent the next year developing a specialized computer language that they could use to program text adventures like Zork on the new microcomputers. This page refers to the year 1979. ... A computer language is a language used by, or in association with, computers. ... Apple IIc Generally, a microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor (µP) as its CPU. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space. ...

The Apple II's limited RAM required them to cut half of the original version of Zork. The new Zork for the Apple and the Radio Shack TRS-80, had a 600-word vocabulary. They founded the new company Infocom to publish the game and more like it. The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... This article is about the animal, sheep; for other meanings of Sheep, see Sheep (disambiguation). ... RadioShack Corporation (formerly Radio Shack) (NYSE: RSH) runs a chain of electronics retail stores in the United States, as well as parts of Europe. ... TRS-80 Model I with Radio Shack graphic (non-standard monitor). ... Zork universe Zork games Zork trilogy Zork I Zork II Zork III Enchanter trilogy Enchanter Sorcerer Spellbreaker Wishbringer Beyond Zork Zork Zero Return to Zork Zork: Nemesis Zork Grand Inquisitor Encyclopedia Encyclopedia Frobozzica Miscellaneous Timeline   Calendar   Magic Double Fanucci Companies Infocom   Activision Infocom was an American software company, based in...

Marc Blank remained with Infocom until shortly after its sale to Activision in 1985. Activision, Inc. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1993 he teamed up with former Infocom writer Michael Berlyn to found Blank, Berlyn and Co.. The company's name was later changed to Eidetic. They initially published productivity software for the Apple Newton. Eidetic's Notion: The Newton List Manager became a hit and was ultimately bundled in all Newtons. 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Photographic memory or eidetic memory is the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with great accuracy and in seemingly unlimited volume. ... The Newton was an early personal digital assistant (PDA) developed by Apple Computer and sold from 1993 to 1999. ...

Marc returned to text adventures in 1997 when Activision producer Eddie Dombrower asked Blank and Berlyn to create a small promotional game, Zork: The Undiscovered Underground as promotion for the release of Activision's graphical game Zork: Grand Inquisitor. 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Categories: Stub | 1997 computer and video games | Interactive fiction | Mac OS games | PC games | Zork ...

As Newton sales faded, Eidetic changed gears to focus on PC and PlayStation games, producing the hit Syphon Filter in 1999. In 2000 Sony acquired Eidetic for an undisclosed sum. PC may stand for: Coastal Patrol, according to its US Navy hull classification symbol P Chidambaram, finance minister of India Parsec, written pc PC, a Mazda piston engine Penn Central - a railroad in the United States (AAR reporting mark PC) Percent or per cent, written Personal computer is a computer... The PlayStation (Japanese: プレイステーション) is a video game console of the 32-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid 1990s. ... Syphon Filter screenshot. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... Sony Corporation (Japanese katakana: ソニー) (TYO: 6758), NYSE: SNE is a global consumer electronics corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ...

Marc left Sony in 2004, although he remains a consultant. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...