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	Title: (Games Gallery) Stationfall, Lurking Horror, Moonmist
	Author: Harvey Bernstein, Rick Teverbaugh
	Source: Antic, v6(10)
	Date: February 1988
	Transcription by Steve Derby
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Infocom's most recent all-text adventures cover a wide variety of
interactive fiction experiences.

**Stationfall** picks up five years after the popular Planetfall adventure,
when you were a lowly Stellar Patrol ensign who became shipwrecked on
the planet Resida. While saving it from destruction, you met and
befriended Floyd, a somewhat dizzy robot who'd often go off and play
hide-and-seek. Now as a reward for your heroism, you're a lieutenant --
but things aren't a whole lot better.

Your new assignment is to pick up a load of forms from a nearby space
station. Fortunately, you get to requisition a robot to take along. (Guess
who?) You and Floyd discover the station abandoned: the crew had towed
in a derelict spaceship containing a mysterious device -- which affected all
the machinery aboard the station. Even now, you can no longer rely
upon Floyd.

The game is written with the same light-hearted tone that made Planetfall
such a delight. In-jokes and references to earlier Infocom games are
commonplace. The puzzles are of average difficulty, and the one involving
decoding an alien message is especially clever. Stationfall is a story full
of challenge, humor and suspense.

You'll want to play **The Lurking Horror** if you prefer the creepy feeling
of something not-quite-human under the bed. Infocom's first all-out
horror tale is written in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King.
Unfortunately, it's rather disappointing.

You're working late in the computer center at G.U.E. Tech. When you
accidentally access a file belonging to the Alchemy Department,  you end up
in the deepest recess of the school's basement. You must find your way
out of a supernatural world filled with giant rats, demons and sacrifical
rituals.

While well-written, Lurking Horror is as heavy as Stationfall is light, and
that is its main problem. The text is dry and uninvolving. I yearned for the
standard touch of Infocom humor. Rather than being a part of the sotry
and feeling chills down my spine, I never lost the feeling that I was just
interacting with words on a screen.

**Moonmist** is Infocom's first gothic romance. Your friend Tamara's letter
from a castle in Cornwall was full of hope, joy and anticipation -- she's
engaged to marry Lord Jack Tresyllian. But the next letter, just four days later,
contains none of that joy. Tamara thinks someone just might be a
ghost, so she wants you to come and help.

Deceased Uncle Lionel has hidden a treasure in the Cornwall castle. Any
of the people currently lodging there might murder for the treasure. That,
at least, would be a more down-to-earth explanation of the attempts on
Tamara's life than a ghost -- or would it?

The Tresyllian Castle is the perfect place for such an adventure. Secret
passages, doors and rooms add to the challenge and create an aura of mystery.
In some games, once the mystery has been solved, the game goes on the
shelf for good. Not so with Moonmist. There are four different versions
of the game on disk, each with a different guilty party -- perhaps -- and
slightly different plot details. Which version you play depends on your answer
to a question upon arriving at the castle.

Most of the riddles in Moonmist are in the form of limericks or puzzles left
by good old Uncle Lionel, who wanted to make the treasure-hunters
*work*. The riddles themselves aren't difficult, but applying them to finding
the treasure is a different matter entirely. Another interesting aspect of
Moonmist is that you can play as a male or female character. Jack, Tamara and the
guests in the castle react to you according to your sex. The game's parser
is flexible and does a good job of letting you know what it doesn't understand.
Save the game often. There aren't many dangers to your personal
safety, but the blind alleys you could (and will) stumble into will waste
precious time.

$39.95 each. Infocom, 125 CambridgePark Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140. (617)
576-3190.
