<!--
	Title: Rendezvous between the stars
	Subtitle: An insufferable computer with a neat line in sarcasm helps Noel Williams pilot the Starcross to a meeting with destiny
	Author: Noel Williams
	Source: Micro Adventurer, #12
	Date: October 1984
	Transcription by Steve Derby
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Infocom has a reputation second to none in the world of text adventures, but
in *Starcross* I think they have forgotten something. Why doesn't the package (disc,
booklet and starmap) contain a screwdriver? If I had a screwdriver I could get
into that infernal computer and turn the (expletives deleted) thing off. Some people
might think its supercilious remarks are clever, even humourous (the computer
itself obviously thinks so), but when you have just struggled for half an hour to
land your ship on the temptingly mysterious planetary body ("not your
ordinary asteroid" says the computer, helpfully) where, I ask you, is the humour
in being told "The ship is at rest, but unfortunately, so are you." My ship was
grabbed by an alien artifice and the resulting bump proved fatal.

If you want a computer that runs the whole range of useful comments from
surly self-satisfaction ("Maybe next time you'll listen to me") to downright
sarcasm ("Other than that things have been pretty dull around here"), you want to get
on board the starship M.C.S. Starcross, Even if you don't you will find that
Infocom's latest offering is another winner.

<img class="float-left" src="/public/img/articles/ma-rendezvous-between-the-stars/spaceship1.jpg" alt="A random stock picture of a spacecraft">

From the same stable as the ever-popular *Zork*, this game is very similar in
presentation, structure and feel. The instructions booklet is virtually the same
as for *Zork*, being Infocom's standard guide to text adventuring, which is fair
enough as the text processing, command structure and version of English is
identical to that of *Zork*. This means several sentences can be in one line of
input, objects can be coupled together by the use of AND, indirect objects, such as
'in the cage' are allowed (but only one per sentence) and you can ask questions
beginning 'What' or 'Where'. Sometimes this leads to odd output, like the response
"What do you want to what?" but there has been a great effort to ensure reasonable
response to the majority of likely commands. All this will be familiar to
previous Infocom addicts but the delights of sophisticated input commands just are
not appreciated by enough adventurers. In particular there is much less of the 'guess
what two word combination works in this room' syndrome than in most adventures,
as in several cases different words are allowed for the same action. Infocom
deserve even wider recognition than they presently receive.

There is one major difference between *Starcross* and *Zork*. As you may have
guessed, you can talk directly to the computer which (or rather, who) controls
most of the happenings on your starship. Because you never invested in complete
interfacing of computer to other ship's equipment (as it will readily remind you)
you have to communicate with it through a natural language interface. (In more
primitive times we used to call this 'talking' -- you might have heard of it.) Well, this
is what makes *Starcross* something special. Any command can be prefaced by
"Computer" in which case it is taken as a direct converstional gambit directed at the
computer. The conversation is not intelligent (in other words it is purely
conditioned by whether you feed it key commands) but the vocabulary is so large
(I have no reason to doubt the claimed 600 words) and the allowed sentence
structures so flexible (compared with the painful and familiar two word format)
that many of the exchanges seem perfectly natural. I must admit I have spent most of
my time enjoying the comments of the computer rather than actually exploring
the game. Probably this will become boring after a while, but not before you
are well into the game and caught by its special set of problems.

The other thing that makes *Starcross* a little different from *Zork* is the map
supplied with it. It shows the position of various 'masses' around your ship at the
start of the game. These objects include asteroids, planets, ships and mystery
objects. The player can steer the ship to any object once he or she has discovered
how to pilot the thing (don't bother asking the computer). In this way you
'move' to different sets of locations and different problems. The only trouble is
that the objects themselves are moving and the map becomes invalid after move 64, so
you have an additional task, navigating around the heavens based on partial
information. The map includes the headings of the objects at the start of the
game, so you should be able to figure out where they are later on. Well, you may be
able to, but I'm having a little difficulty. In effect this is a game with moving rooms --
a good idea and one sufficient to renovate the tried and trusted text
adventure formula. I would not say that it feels like piloting a ship around the stars,
but certainly some of the difficulties you encounter make the imaginary world that
bit more enjoyable.

<img class="float-right-half" src="/public/img/articles/ma-rendezvous-between-the-stars/spaceship2.jpg" alt="Another random stock image of a spacecraft interior">

The initial scenario is perhaps a little hackneyed now for science fiction
adventures. I have lost count of the number of times I have awoken as the
only crewmember of an empty spaceship apparently knowing nothing about how
to operate the ship or where things are. And some of the 'problems' are rather
trivial, like remembering to stand up or to get out of your bunk. Taken to extremes
this kind of necessary command could lead to adventures which require you to
'PLACE FOOT' each time you want to walk or to 'MOVE EYES' before
attempting to read something. These are legitimate actions and could be adventure
commands but they only bore the player and add nothing to the feel of the game.
But such unoriginality and triviality is the exception in *Starcross*, especially
once you get into the meat of the problem, solving a riddle set aeons ago.

As is usual with Infocom the room descriptions are excellent. Who needs
graphics? Some descriptions are so long that they will not fit on the screen, and all
are intriguing, humorous and give plenty to think about. Not only this but they
are correctly spelt (making due allowance for colonialisms). There is one slight
drawback, of course, with such a large game -- it is only available on disc. It is,
however, almost worth investing in a disc drive to be able to play such games. I had a
little difficulty loading my copy and once, when loaded, it crashed mid-program.

<table class="float-right article-sidebar-box"><tbody>
<tr><td>Adventure</td><td>Starcross</td></tr>
<tr><td>Micro</td><td>Commodore 64</td></tr>
<tr><td>Format</td><td>Disc</td></tr>
<tr><td>Price</td><td>£11.99</td></tr>
<tr><td>Supplier</td><td>Commodore UK</td></tr>
</tbody></table>

Other than this I could find no serious bugs in the game, though I must admit I
have not solved it yet and am not likely to without many more hours play. The
need to access the disc slows things down a little on occasions and disc access does
happen rather frequently. If your drive is prone to errors, you might want to leave
this game alone as nothing could be more frustrating than a head crash midway
through such a game, but the delays during normal operation are no greater than
many games which involve decoding text.

All in all another winner from Infocom.

