The Zork Treasures

[Selk]

Ladies and Gentleman.

I may have a project in mind that could get me a place of honor in The Colossal Waste of Time Hall of Fame.

I am outlining an attempt to build replicas of the 20 treasures collected in the classic text adventure "Zork I: The Great Underground Empire".

Now. being that these treasures are made of precious metals like gold and silver and ivory, I have no intention of making them accurate. My plan is to make some of them out of resin, some out of glass. What I need here are suggestions on building materials.

Since this is a text adventure and essentially all of the treasures are created out of words, I have to find pictures on Google that most closely represented what I was going for (I'll post them when I get them all together):

The treasures:
* A Painting - I'm fair to middling with a paint brush so I may do this one by hand.

* A Leather Bag of Coins - I have a leather bag but I don't know if I should use plastic coins or buy some from a renaissance fair.

* A Platinum Bar - Small piece of metal, maybe with a large "F" for Flathead on it.

* A Gold Coffin - A daunting task. An Egyptian style coffin painted gold. The problem isn't the coffin, it is going to get it to be that perfect shiny gold paint. And I have no idea how to do it.


* A Sceptre - Simple. Whiddle a piece of wood into a staff and make it ornate, then add some jewels. But, like the coffin, I don't know to give that shiny gold coat of paint. I don't know what kind of paint that would be.

* A Pot of Gold - The easiest to make. A pot from the Halloween story filled with gold coin candy.

* A Beautifully Jeweled Scarab - Little bit tough. Where do I find a replica of a beetle that can be painted.

* A Crystal Skull - This will have to be carved out of glass and I know nothing about carving glass.

* A Large Emerald - A chunk of green glass, much like kryptonite.

* A Silver Chalice - Silver cup. Probably find it at Pier 1 or something.

* A Jewel Encrusted Egg - This will take some work. I'm envisioning something like a fabrege egg. And it will be even more work if I want it to be hinged.

* A Golden Clockwork Canary - This one may come last because it is so intricate. I have no idea where to even start with this one.

* A Bauble - Simple. A brass bedknob. Not so simple: where to find one.

* A Trunk of Jewels - Trip to Hobby Lobby for the trunk and then some junk jewelery to fill it with.

* A Crystal Trident - As with the skull this one would be made of glass, but I haven't the first idea of how to work with glass.

* A Jade Figurine - Figure molded in resin and painted milky green.

* A Sapphire-Encrusted Bracelet - Junk jewelry.

* A Huge Diamond - Like the emerald, a piece of clear glass. I'm thinking it would be rough cut.

* An Ivory Torch - I am thinking a piece of wood, painted white, smoothed down and carved to get an ornate look.

* An Ancient Map - A piece of vinyl with the game map drawn onto it.

 

[lint]

I would be interested to see what you come up with! You can search for my thread on cold-casting Zorkmids.

-todd

 

[Selk]

I would be interested to see what you come up with! You can search for my thread on cold-casting Zorkmids.

-todd

What did you make the zorkmids out of? I may need your expertise for the leather bag of coins.

 

[Shylaah]

I wanna do the egg! I wanna do the egg! err....I mean, help with the egg!! Love jeweled eggs!! I don't know nothing about Zork, but I do love treasures!!!!

Other stuff:
Huge Diamond--I have a souvenir one from Arkansas, it's not rough cut though, it's faceted engagement ring style cut....but maybe you could rough it up?? Bout as big as a small tea cup....

Jade Figurine--I don't know how big you're talking or the subject matter, but I see this kind of stuff all the time at the dollar store.....

Bauble--brass curtain rod finial....

Large emerald--I know how to make one out of alum!!

Jeweled Scarab--how big a beetle bug? Jewelry, a pin, perhaps could be found already jeweled or not.....

Maybe more ideas once I see the pictures.....

Shylaah

 

[Selk]

Maybe more ideas once I see the pictures.....

Okay, since there are many pictures, let me go one by one here. My pics came from google BTW.

The Leather Bag of Coins

The leather bag that I have is really not big enough. I want it to be more like the size of a cartoon burglar's bag (without the dollar sign on the front), about the size of a gallon of milk. Then fill it with coins, like the one pictured below.

 

[Selk]

I wanna do the egg! I wanna do the egg! err....I mean, help with the egg!! Love jeweled eggs!! I don't know nothing about Zork, but I do love treasures!!!!

Since the treasures in the game are make up entirely of words, I'm at the mercy of my own imagination. That takes some of the pressure off of having to do them to exacting details.

The Jewel-Encrusted Egg

I pictured kind of like a Fabergé egg make out of fake jewels and stuff. It doesn't have to be hinged - as it is in the game - it just has to be pretty. What is in this picture is a VERY broad ballpark of what I want to do with this. I'm open to all suggestions.

 

[Selk]

Huge Diamond--I have a souvenir one from Arkansas, it's not rough cut though, it's faceted engagement ring style cut....but maybe you could rough it up?? Bout as big as a small tea cup....

Ohhh, I'd like to see that.

A Huge Diamond

Since the diamond in the game is huge rough-cut diamond, I was thinking a large chunk of glass. I could mold it but I haven't the slightest idea how to mold glass.

Again, I am open to suggestions.

 

[Selk]

Jade Figurine--I don't know how big you're talking or the subject matter, but I see this kind of stuff all the time at the dollar store.....

A Jade Figurine

Something like what I have in the picture but a different style, I just need to know how to make a figure that looks like jade.

In my mind, Jade looks like a milky green color for a figurine.

 

[rollerboi]

In my mind, Jade looks like a milky green color for a figurine.

It tends to be, and is more recognizable as such.

 

[Shylaah]

The Big Diamond.....The one I have is kinda like this,
the clear, about the 3 inch size........
Sorry, I have no glass molding skills....

Jade figurine....Jade has a translucency to it. I don't think paint would do the trick......I'm thinking if you're wanting to sculpt something yourself, that fimo or sculpey maybe both make translucent clays, mix two greens and a white into a marbling effect..??

The egg....size? Ye ole plastic Easter egg, in whatever size you want. Hinge really easy to make--a strip of nylon ribbon inside and outside, would be covered then by the 'fancies'=all manner of scrumptious little delights from the craft and fabric store.....

Inspirations

More Inspirations

Shylaah

 

[Selk]

The Big Diamond.....The one I have is kinda like this,
the clear, about the 3 inch size........

I'm thinking of more of a rough-cut diamond. In the came, you put a pile of coal into a machine and out pops a huge diamond so I'm assuming that it would be rough cut.

Sorry, I have no glass molding skills....

It doesn't have to be molded glass, I'm open to suggestions.

Jade figurine....Jade has a translucency to it. I don't think paint would do the trick......I'm thinking if you're wanting to sculpt something yourself, that fimo or sculpey maybe both make translucent clays, mix two greens and a white into a marbling effect..??

Hmmm, interesting. This is going to be my first foray into making molds and using resin, so this is a good place to start.

The egg....size? Ye ole plastic Easter egg, in whatever size you want. Hinge really easy to make--a strip of nylon ribbon inside and outside, would be covered then by the 'fancies'=all manner of scrumptious little delights from the craft and fabric store.....

I'm thinking that it would be about the size of a chicken egg. However, since it has a golden clockwork canary inside, I am thinking maybe it is the size of a condor egg.

Shylaah

Thank you, Shylaah

 

[Selk]

A Bauble

There are different variations on what exactly a bauble could look like. In my mind, it looks like a bedknob, like the one in the picture. However, in terms of continuity, the game tells us that it was in the beak of songbird so I'm thinking it would be rather small.

 

[Selk]

A Trunk of Jewels

This shouldn't be a problem. I want a wooden trunk, like the ones sold at Hobby Lobby, then fill it with junk jewelry. However, I want to take it up a notch by painting the trunk so that it looks wet, like it has droplets of water on it. Plus I'm going to glue grains of sand near the bottom.

 

[Selk]

A Crystal Trident

This one is going to be really tough. It is suppose to be Neptune's Trident so I would assume that it is suppose to be very fluid in design. Plus, being that it is crystal, I would imagine that it would be like glass.

 

[juno]

God I loved that game. I so wanted an egg as well. Didn't the sceptre have a bigger description relating to it's rainbow effect?

 

[moviebuff5]

Gold for the coffin could be "gold" leaf, but applying that would be a daunting task. Michael's also carries "24 Karat" gold spray paint.

Crystal skull can be one of those plasma storm skulls if it does not need to be super detailed.

For the silver chalice look at goodwill, I see silver plated stuff there quite often.

Check eBay for the Jade figurine. You should be able to get a real one for less than $20.

For the clockwork canary, again try eBay.

Brass bedknob, eBay, Rockler, or Lee Valley

 

[Selk]

God I loved that game. I so wanted an egg as well. Didn't the sceptre have a bigger description relating to it's rainbow effect?

Well, let's see, the in-game description goes like this:

A sceptre, possibly that of ancient Egypt itself, is in the coffin. The sceptre is ornamented with colored enamel, and tapers to a sharp point.

With that, I can only assume that it is probably gold, Egyptian-looking with a point at the end.

 

[Selk]

Gold for the coffin could be "gold" leaf, but applying that would be a daunting task. Michael's also carries "24 Karat" gold spray paint.

I've been looking for that stuff but I haven't found one that gives me the look that want.

Crystal skull can be one of those plasma storm skulls if it does not need to be super detailed.

I would like it to be super detailed. If not, I can cut corners.

For the silver chalice look at goodwill, I see silver plated stuff there quite often.

Will do.

Check eBay for the Jade figurine. You should be able to get a real one for less than $20.

The game has no real description of the Jade Figurine. Examining it is no help. I'm going to have to actually make this one myself because I want to design it the way that I want it.

For the clockwork canary, again try eBay.

Ebay was a bust. This is going to be the one where I have to really compromise. I may have to just get a small plastic canary, paint it gold and then stick a small wind-up key in the side. It won't be functional but I never really expected it to be.

 

[Selk]

Brass bedknob, eBay, Rockler, or Lee Valley

Hmmm. I'm kind of back and forth on this one. In my head I imagine a brass bedknob but in the game it is called a Brass Bauble. When I look up pictures of a brass bauble on Google, it is totally different.

 

[Shylaah]

Well, let's see, the in-game description goes like this:

A sceptre, possibly that of ancient Egypt itself, is in the coffin. The sceptre is ornamented with colored enamel, and tapers to a sharp point.

With that, I can only assume that it is probably gold, Egyptian-looking with a point at the end.

Found this page that has a description of two different Egyptian sceptres, as found in Egyptian art.

Also has a nice little drawing of a scarab, you might could manipulated into your jeweled beetle if you don't find anything else.....

The Bauble....I have always thought of a bauble as a little "pretty" of some kind, not anything specific. But looked in the dictionary to see what "they" say is the actual definiton. In addition to it being called a trinket, it also said, "A mock scepter carried by a court jester." Maybe this is the kind of bauble the game is referring to--a fool's bauble--since the game also has another sceptre???

Shylaah

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