These kinds of free-to-play brower games are a dime a dozen, without even having to pay the dime. But how many of them are based on Activision's fondly remember Zork adventure games? From the FAQ for Legends of Zork:

You're a former member of the FrobozzCo International sales force. You've been fired. Times are hard. But there's plenty of opportunities out there for an aspiring adventurer. So you've pitched your tent in the midst of a camp of fellow treasure hunters. You seem to have all drifted to the same place: a white house with a boarded front door.

The gameplay is pretty typical for these sort of broswer games. You get 30 action points a day, each used for a battle or a trip back to base to heal up, sell loot, and buy gear. Everything is based on a percentage chance, modified by skills, spells, and equipment, which keeps it all pretty straightforward. There's a little basic rock/paper/scissors in terms of matching your attack stance to your opponent's defense stance, but it's mostly hands-off as you work your way out into a world map with encounters and events along the way. You can even set aside some of your action points for group adventures that happen automatically when you're away.

The overall goal of Legends of Zork is, of course, to get you to pony up some micropayments for a higher allotment of daily action points, for special ingame bonuses, and even to remove the ads in the browser window. But even if you choose not to fall for it purchase anything, it's a decent enough web browser game with cute artwork on every screen and a sense for the dopey humor that went into Activision's Zork games. For instance, upon buying new gear, you're greeted with the following:

Lord Nimbus walks into a bar. "Ouch", he goes, "Wrong place. I meant to go to the Armoury".

Use your Zorkmids to buy and sell Weapons and Armor here. And if you can find a better joke, please post it on the wall.

Were the jokes in the Zork games that bad?