Early PC game whose nonsense working title stuck

ZORK

This text-based adventure began as a joke name inspired by a certain MIT programming language.

This clue refers to Zork, a classic text adventure game from the late 1970s that began as a project at MIT. The name "Zork" was originally a placeholder—just a silly, made-up word—but it stuck when the game was officially released. The clue plays on the idea of a "nonsense" title becoming permanent, which is a fun bit of gaming history. If you played early PC games, Zork is one of the most famous examples of this quirky origin.