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	Title: (SOFTWARE REVIEWS) Stationfall
	Author: David Langendoen
	Source: Family Computing, v5(12)
	Date: December 1987
	Transcription by Steve Derby
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HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: 64K Apple, IBM PC.<br>
PUBLISHER: Infocom<br>
PRICE: $35-$40

Here we go again. Not only has Infocom
come up with a sequel to *Planetfall*,
but it has delivered another
winner.

It's been five years since you and
your faithful and rambunctious robotic
companion, Floyd, saved the
planet Resida from destruction. No
longer do you have to scrub and rescrub
decks, or clean out grotch
cages while domineering, demonic
lieutenants glare at you. Now you're
a lieutenant first-class, and it's your
duty to perform one of the most vital
and important functions in the Stellar Patrol...
paperwork. There is so
much paperwork in fact that you
sometimes catch yourself daydreaming
about grotch cages. Look at today's
TOP PRIORITY assignment, for
example. You've got to fly a space
truck to a nearby space station and
pick up 24 pallets of "Request for
Stellar Patrol Issue Regulation Black
Form Binders Request Form Forms."
What you would do for a dirty deck
to scrub!

Things start looking up when you
discover that Floyd (and his paddleball)
will be going with you. When
you arrive at the space station, you
discover that something is wrong.
For one thing, why is it deserted and
the machinery acting strangely? And
for another, why is that hull welder
glaring at you malevolently? More
important, why does the Stellar Patrol
insist on stocking its survival kits
with "nutritious" multicolored goo?

Humor and challenge abound in
*Stationfall*. Half of the fun is performing
bizarre or stupid actions
and seeing how the computer responds.
As usual, Infocom's full-sentence
parser and vast vocabulary facilitate
communications with the
program. The main difficulty with
the game is that one of the problems
is fairly obscure and you could easily
become stuck.

If you do have any trouble solving
*Stationfall*, look on the bright side.
When you finally complete it, you'll
surely be promoted and assigned
new duties. What could possibly be
worse than paperwork?