The folks who wrote the original Zork were AI Lab folks who were generally more interested in the technology than the game design. They weren't really that inte

The folks who wrote the original Zork were AI Lab folks who were generally more interested in the technology than the game design. They weren't really that interested in games as the end state. Which led to Cornerstone but that's another story. And, yes, computer resources were a big issue. I think you can find at least one presentation from Dave Lebling (maybe?) at GDC where he talks about some of this.