<!--
	Title: Planetfall
	Author: Carl Firman
	Source: Analog Computing, #18
	Date: May 1984
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

**PLANETFALL<br>
by Steve Meretzky<br>
INFOCOM, Inc.<br>
55 Wheeler 51.<br>
Cambridge, MA 02138<br>
32K Disk $49.95**

Would you like to send a post card from another
planet to one of your friends? You would! Well,
you'll find three of them in the Official Document
File (ODF) that comes with the latest (and best)
science fiction adventure from Infocom, **Planetfall**.
These are real 11Oth-century post cards; the one
from "Historic Ramos II" is my favorite (they even
have old fashioned rocket ship rides there).

As you prowl through the ODF you will find out
more about the Third Galactic Union (TGU). The
TGU exists in the year 11,344. The TGU has the
honor of being the LBG (Largest Bureaucracy in the
Galaxy). You can't stand the TGU's LBG, and have
decided to escape by enlisting in the Stellar Patrol
(SP); you know, the one with the recruiting poster
that says, "The Patrol's Looking For A Few Good
Organisms.",

If you want to know more about the SP and
Planetfall, I will have to get my Magnetic Briefing
Disk (MBD) out of my ODF and boot it. OK, here
we are in 11,344, ODF's, the TGU, LBG and 15-page
income tax forms (short form). Now you find
out that Planetfall was written by a person known
as the "Bearded Oracle of Yonkers" (real name,
Steve Meretzky) and uses the ancient, but still famous,
Infocom Interlogic operating system from the
20th century. With Interlogic, you can now communicate
with your computer using complete sentences
and a 600 word plus vocabulary -- all text
(bureaucracies like the TGU love text), no pictures.

You also discover that you are an Ensign 7th Class
in the SP and that you have an official, authorized
J.D. card to prove it. It will quickly become obvious
that the recruiting posters that you read did not tell
you everything. Ensign 7th Class is the lowest of the
low. You're a deck-swabbing, brass-polishing member
of the Special Assignment Task Force on board the
SPS Feinstein.

Life is cruel on the Feinstein, mostly because of a
certain Ensign 1st class Blather. When you meet
Blather, your first impulse will be to render his molecules
into a mass off disassociated atoms. Well, keep
smiling at Blather; his time as a functioning group of
associated molecules is short!

Shortly you find yourself plummeting towards the
surface of a planet in one of the Feinstein's escape
pods. Through the pods viewport, you will see the
whole SPS Feinstein disassociate -- including Blather
and all your shipmates. You are the sole survivor!

Well at least you won't have Blather to worry
about any more. In fact, you are about to land on a
water world with two small islands. Ah, dreams of a
tropical paradise like Teegy 5.

Splashdown! Dreams of paradise are shattered
quickly; as you climb to the top of the first island,
you find yourself alone. A little exploring and you
discover a large, deserted, technological complex.
Where are all the people? Why aren't they here?
Well, you're not discouraged -- are you? After all,
you've got your official (authorized also) mop,
bucket, survival kit, and of course your Towel*
(towels are very important on strange planets). Night
comes, and with it tiredness -- you head for the
deserted dormitory you found earlier and bed down.
Surely tomorrow will bring some answers (Ensigns
7th Class are notorious for being overconfident).

When you wake, you start to feel the loneliness even
Blather's company would be welcome right
now. You are of course hungry so you eat some of the
food goo in the survival kit. You feel better after
eating, but not quite up to SP standards. You decide
to learn as much about your environment as possible.

Now -- The real adventure begins. You have a
whole world to explore. Even though it only consists
of two small islands, there is a lot to learn and a great
dilemma to solve -- yours and the planet's (hint
from TGU central -- the planet really is falling). You
will find elevators, underground shuttles, helicopters
and teleport booths. These all require official
authorized access cards. Then there are some questions
to answer -- Where are all the people? Did they
leave? Why do you feel slightly ill?

In the course of your exploration you will find a
room full of robots. One of them is "Floyd". Floyd
is slightly cockeyed with a strange lopsided grin but
he will prove to be as staunch and true a companion
as E.T. was to Eliot. In fact Floyd is critical to
your survival -- so take good care of him.

You have one immediate priority -- food. You
have to eat, and the quickest way to die in the 110th-century
is to starve. The second thing you will need
is access cards, and Floyd can help you here when
he's not reciting the first six hundred digits of Pi.
Access cards will provide food and transportation seek
them out. There are also computers to use (even
some game tapes), alien laboratories and a library; all
will provide additional clues to your dilemma. Exercise
good Ensign 7th Class logic and you will be a
"Hero" and save this water world from destruction.
I am going to put the MDB back in your ODF you'll
probably find it mixed up with the post cards.

There is one cardinal rule for people stranded on
strange worlds to remember; when all seems lost
always remember where your towel* is and everything
will be fine.
