🧭 THE ARCHIVES

Quote of the day

The ship rocks from the force of multiple explosions. The lights go out, and you feel a sudden drop in pressure accompanied by a loud hissing. Too bad you weren't in the escape pod...

-- Planetfall

Factoid of the day

In Zork III, an earthquake occurs after about 150 turns. If you haven't completed a certain part of the story before the earthquake, the game cannot be finished. Frustratingly, there is no obvious way to know when the game has been soft-locked in this manner.

*The hostess of a lavish masquerade ball has just been brutally strangled. Fortunately, there's a suspect. Unfortunately, it's you.*
Nov 1985

Antic, v2(5)

~2 minute read

Aug 1983

PRODUCT REVIEWS

Starcross

Harvey Bernstein

Infocom, Inc. 55 Wheeler St. Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 492-1031 $39.95, 32K -- diskette

The first in the INTERLOGIC, text-only, adventure-game series from Infocom, Starcross is one of the most engrossing and engaging adventures I have experienced in a long time. This game was released just after the popular ZORK trilogy and it has been a favorite of mine for a while now. As a prose adventure, it is one of the great science fiction "interactive novels."

Starcross transports you to the year 2186, launching you headlong into the depths of space. As commander of the M.C.S. Starcross, your mission is to find and harness the energy of a black hole. Your ship is equipped with a computer that has taken over the functions of navigation and routine maintenance. A mass detector aids your search, along with powerful magnets. With such competent mechanical help, you relax and doze off into a deep sleep.

Suddenly, the alarm in the mass detector awakens you, and you head for the control room. Just outside the ship you spot an alien artifact and are presented with several challenging puzzles. How do you get inside it? How do you operate the device? You will also meet various inhabitants of the artifact. Zork players may even meet some old friends.

Starcross takes some surprising turns at this point and I wouldn't want to ruin the "plot" by saying any more.

Unlike most adventures, the text-only format here enhances the experience for me. No graphics could match the descriptions provided by the rich prose of the game. Adventurers new to the Infocom series should be forewarned, however. Room descriptions may refer to items previously undescribed. This proves to be the most frustrating aspect of the game.

About Starcross vocabulary: In no other adventure have I found such a wide range of commands that can be "understood" by the program. This program accepts almost all the words you type, and in plain English. Not everything you try will be effective, but that is the nature of the game.

Starcross is a welcome addition to any adventurer's collection. Next time someone asks you why you like all-text adventures, show them Starcross.

This article appeared in
Antic
Aug 1983

These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.