Zork Dog Names

Those who are passionate about their gaming history will have no problem looking for Zork dog names to give to their new puppy. However, what happens if someone asks where the name originated? Sometimes, it can be embarrassing to tell someone that a name came from a video game you used to play back in the 1970s as a child or even an adult.

Fortunately, a dog in pop culture shares the same name as someone relating to the computer game Zork. Don is both a talking dog and a computer programmer who worked on Zork. Firstly, we will talk about Don Woods, the programmer.

During the development stages of Zork, Will Crowther released a primary treasure hunt game called Colossal Cave Adventure. The game utilized a two-word parser that became so effective that adventure games imitated the format in the years to come. The game was also a success in its own right, and players spread it around their community so that everyone could play it. Don Wood was one of those people.

Don used a Stanford University computer in 1976 and saw the game was a little rough around the edges but had potential. He got in touch with Will Crowther, who agreed for Don to make an improved version to send to different locations, including on the PDP-10 system at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Improving on Zork’s Colossal Cave Adventure was also not Don’s first rodeo. As a perennial hacker and computer programmer, he’s best known for this role but has had several others. He also produced the INTERCAL programming language, worked at the Stanford AI lab, and co-authored the Hacker’s Dictionary.

Don from Zork also shares the same name as the German hunting dog who was a famous 20^th-century vaudeville act. Don could vocalize eight German words, including his name, hunger, yes, no, rest, have, and the names of his owners.

According to The Salt Lake Tribune in 1911, zoologists had assessed Don, only to find he was the real deal - a genuine prodigy. However, the 1912 journal known as ‘Science’ reported that the production of sounds produced illusions in the hearer. Nonetheless, Don, the talking dog, was an intelligent animal – much like Don the hacker and computer programmer.

Don, the talking dog, traveled the world with his valuable skills and even helped to save a man from drowning at Brighton Beach. Don retired to live the life of luxury in Germany and died in 1915.