<!--
	Title (Gameline) Starcross
	Author: David Durkee and Roe Adams
	Source: Softline, v2(2)
	Date: November 1982
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

**Starcross**<br>
By Dave Lebling

You are humanity's newest brand of pioneer, the space prospector.
Unlike your counterpart in the Old West, you are equipped
with highly sophisticated instruments to help you find that one big
strike that will make you rich for life—not gold, but a black hole.
Until then, you put up with what little you have: your one-person
ship, which needs repairs badly, and a terribly irritable computer
that is your only distraction from the long hours and the vast loneliness
of space.

Suddenly, the alarm bell on the mass detector starts clanging.
Your first puzzle, as your computer prompts you impatiently, is to
turn off the alarm. After that, you must find the object that triggered
the alarm, give your computer the navigation data necessary
to get to it (one of those things you can't yet afford is an interface for
your mass detector), and turn on the drives. When you arrive at your
destination, you will find not a black hole, but something altogether
more intriguing and potentially profitable: an immense alien
spaceship, apparently derelict. Now how do you get on board?

So opens *Starcross*, Infocom's first science-fiction entry into the
text adventure market. Written by David Lebling, Starcross evokes
more with text than many hi-res adventures do with the most advanced
graphics.

Based on the conventions of science fiction rather than fantasy,
*Starcross*'s puzzles will appeal to the scientifically minded. You must
get into the alien mind and determine the meaning of cryptic machine
labels. Fortunately, the labels are done in symbols rather than
in an alien language. This makes the puzzles reasonable,
but still challenging.

*Starcross* requires you to be a scientist, an engineer, an astronaut,
an explorer, and a diplomat. It expects you to have the judgment
to know when to shoot a gun and the wisdom to know when
not to. You must instinctively be able to know what actions are productive
and what can get you killed. You will experience the farthest
reaches not only of space, but of your own imagination as well.
For the ultimate mystery is the origin of the giant spaceship; before
you understand its purpose, how can you know what to do with it?

What *Starcross* doesn't do is give you pointless puzzles to solve,
like which synonym for ray gun it understands. Of course, it won't
know every word you throw at it, but with a vocabulary of more
than six hundred words and error messages that indicate precisely
which word it doesn't grok, you'll find the program more of a help
in playing the game than a hindrance.

With *Starcross*, Infocom continues its new flamboyant merchandising
technique that started with *Deadline*. Each disk is packaged,
appropriately enough, in a reusable flying saucer. You also get
a manual and a deluxe, multicolored map of your area of the solar
system, which is an integral part of the game.

*Starcross* was obviously a labor of love for Lebling. It is a sheer
pleasure to play.

Apple II, Apple II Plus; 48K. Atari 400 or 800; 32K. TRS-80. Commodore. IBM
pc. CP/M 8-inch. Osborne. DEC. NEC. $39.95 from Infocom, 55 Wheeler
Street, Cambridge, MA 02139; (617) 492-1031.