<!--
	Title: Starcrossed Adventurer Queries Author
	Source: The New Zork Times, v4(2)
	Date: Spring 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

**Gentlemen:**

I would like to make some comments on your games. The first
one I bought was *Suspended*™, and I was quite taken with it. The only
modification I could suggest would be to fill the cavern with helium in
order to protect the electric circuits from corrosion, and to have the
protagonist sitting at a keyboard, and of course, unable to leave his
chamber. Just a little detail to lend verisimilitude.

<img class="float-right-half" src="/public/img/articles/nzt-starcrossed-adventurer-queries-author/starcross-saucer.jpg" alt="Starcross saucer packaging">

However, I was quite unhappy with *Starcross*. In the first place,
there seems to be no logic to the fourth bump. If you have read
*Rendezvous With Rama*, you recall that three was a key number to the
builders of Rama. Perhaps the builders of the artifact in *Starcross*
had four fingers, but how am I to know that?

Let me take the biology next. An exoskeleton is useful to retain body
fluids for small animals, which have a large surface to volume ratio.
However, an exoskeleton has the drawback that the owner must molt
in order to grow. Hence, I think you will find animals with endoskeletons
are better suited for ecological niches requiring large size. Unless,
of course, you believe in creation and not evolution. Also, how could
you tell that Gurthark was a mammal? I take it you didn't milk him.

Also, I think it is a general rule of ethology that animals will hide their
weapons when they intend to appease. A sea gull will turn its
beak away, and, while a man learns the action, he raises his empty
hands. A careful observation of Gurthark would have shown, I
think, that he was waving his palps, in a manner reminiscent of a male
jumping spider semaphoring a female to placate her, and that he
was not grinding his teeth at all. Moreover, surely a civilized gentleman
like Gurthark would never sidle into someone else's personal space
while they were talking. Actually, I found Gurthark the most
sympathetic character in *Starcross*, and was sorry that programming
limitations made it impossible to chat with him. However, I thought a
video tape recorder would have been of more interest to him, if he
had deciphered speech, and had been listening to broadcasts. I don't
know — is it easier to decipher broadcasts of pictures or of speech?

As for trading the space suit for the brown rod, I suggest you read
Chagnon's account of the Yanomamo, if you think it would be
easy to trade with a people who have been long isolated. I also doubt
if a single group is viable, as contrasted to several groups divided
into territories. I admit my view is gloomy in view of modern weapons,
but that doesn't prove it untrue.

Let me take the physics next. If one were to float from the center of
a rotating cylinder in a vacuum, one would certainly not accelerate.
There is no centrifugal force. One would move to the outer surface at
the same speed at which he left the axis. If the radial speed of the
cylinder were 250 km per hour, the effect would be the same as jumping
on a very large flatbed truck moving at 250 km an hour. However, I fail
to see any reason why the artifact should rotate at a speed designed to
give one earth gravity. If we assume a radial speed of 60 km an hour, or
about one quarter earth gravity, then of course, anyone landing on a flat
metal surface would be knocked arsy varsy when he landed, but I
imagine one could make such a jump. Of course, once one reached
radial speed of sixty km, one would feel as if one were in a quarter
gravity. I assume no structures on the rim, but a flat surface.

Of course, a ray gun has no recoil. Read *Earthman's Burden* by Poul
Anderson and Gordon Dickson. Of course, we must conserve momentum;
we don't want it to become extinct; and radiation has no rest
mass, and so no momentum.

Mostly, I objected to simple logic faults. I had inferred the green rod
was either in a planter, or in the garage, although I didn't know the
name. Surely one can sit on an object a meter long, and half a meter
high. Contrast this with the remark in *Sorcerer*™, when I tell the bat to
take the parchment scroll. After all, bats have claws, but the remark,
"You're batty," had enough wit to be unobjectionable. For example, you
might say, "The mouse won't do anything until you get off his back!"
or perhaps something a little more witty. After all, as Chesterton
remarked, one can believe in the impossible, but not in the improbable.
Father Brown cited the case of Gladstone offering Queen Victoria a
cigar, but I can't believe I need a theory to sit on an object the size of
a footstool. Of course, the edges of the container on the mouse's back
might be sharp. Another point — why does the program recognize the
word "planter"? Of course, I never obtained the red rod, so perhaps I
am missing something.

After all, the difficulties in *Starcross* require a rather specialized
knowledge of spherical coordinates, and nautical directions. I would
imagine anyone with that knowledge would also spot howlers.

*Planetfall*™ was campy enough that I suppose one can't really
criticize it. Also, I haven't finished it. However, I do think one shouldn't
weep crocodile tears over someone for whom one couldn't provide
covering fire. I did try to shoot the mutations, but the computer wouldn't
recognize the word. I felt that was the least I could do, since I
typed "KICK FLOYD" instead of "WAIT" in the elevator and the
shuttle.

I've only gotten to 205 in *Sorcerer* so it is satisfactory as far as difficulty,
and I've liked it so far. However, *Starcross* irritated me
enough so that I doubt if I shall buy any more of your games.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

<p class="right bold">John Wilson</p>

P.S. Let me note that the rule of ethology I mentioned above is
probably the result of evolution if the behavior is inborn. When one
animal of a species shows its weapons, then another must be
prepared to fight or submit. I don't think much of Freud's universal
symbols, but I imagine any animal that was the product of evolution
would not show its teeth as a gesture of friendship. If I am correct in my
inference that the red rod is to choose between oxygen, methane,
and ammonia, you are asking for a player who has a fairly wide
knowledge of science to accept a view of behavior which is, frankly,
nonsense. Perhaps you might be interested in David Snow's *Web
of Adaptation*, a book that every psychologist should read.

## ...and Lebling Answers

**Dear John,**

I was very interested to read your comments about *Starcross*. I thought
I'd respond just to clear a few misunderstandings about various
parts of the game.

**Bumps.** If you read the description carefully, you will find an analogy
with something far more obvious than the supposition that the artifact
builders had four fingers. The fourth bump is obviously the Earth, the
current destination of the artifact and your home. In short, it's more of a
test than an example of numerical obsession. (It's the fourth bump
because the large one representing the sun also counts.)

**Gurthark.** The whole point of the Gurthark "problem" is to see exactly
how species-centric the player is. Gurthark is obviously not a spider,
for the reasons you cited, but he's hairy and multi-armed and -legged,
and he lives in a room crisscrossed by wires (not webs, notice). He
seems rather spidery, and the solution to the problem is to deal
with him without worrying about his appearance.

**Weasels.** Actually, the Yanomamo are regarded by ethnologists as
possibly the most hostile, xenophobic tribe ever discovered, so I
wouldn't use them as an example. Besides, they aren't isolated. One
reason they are so warlike is that they have been driven by pressure
from other tribes into their present locale. I see the Weasels as living in
a more benign environment. Their only "natural" enemy would be the
Rat-Ants. You are probably right about the single group being nonviable
in the long term. On the other hand, the *Bounty* mutineers have
survived without significant outside contact or gene-pool contribution for
200 years.

**Physics.** You are absolutely right about floating from the center of a
rotating cylinder *in a vacuum*. However, the interior of the artifact
is not a vacuum. You would start slowly, then accelerate, not from the
force of gravity but from the "wind" produced by the interaction of your
inertia (following a straight path out from the center) and the inertia of the
air (rotating about the axis of rotation of the artifact). You would hit
hard but the effect of the wind would have speeded you up somewhat. I
assumed .5g, by the way.

**Ray guns.** Ray guns can have recoil. For example, the current best-known
"ray gun" is the design for the so-called *Star Wars* missile
defense, which starts by producing a large explosion whose energy is then
lased. It is possible to imagine ray gun technologies that work by
similar methods.

**Planters.** There are planters (and plants) in various halls, part of the
oxygen recycling system. The program, within limits, recognizes
the words it uses in descriptions.

**Mouse.** I agree the message should be better. In the current version it
says "You can't climb onto the maintenance mouse." It's accurate, if
inelegant. I will probably change it to say "The mouse whirrs and buzzes
unhappily. It much prefers to collect small pieces of debris."

**Teeth.** I know an animal that shows its teeth as a gesture of friendship:
man. What do you think a smile is? Gurthark is probably trying
his best to smile.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy *Starcross*. Perhaps if you take time to
finish it you will like it better. I don't think it has as many howlers as you
do.
<p class="right">
Sincerely,<br>
<strong>Dave Lebling</strong>
</p>