First Impressions

[Pix]

#10256

I’m finally making a start on this. Hard to talk about the game and keep it spoiler free but I’m quite liking it so far. The world seems a bit on the needlessly large and empty side but I’m learning my way around without having to draw a map so it’s manageable.

I’m not so sure about the need to eat, sleep and the arbitrary time limit. They aren’t getting in the way too much yet but I’m assuming that I need to be efficient to beat this thing. The influence of Colossal Cave is evident still.

I had thought I was going along nicely, got myself up to 28 points, until I suddenly discovered one of my access cards didn’t work. Pretty certain I know why but I’ve basically been in a lengthy dead end for most of the game! This stuff is all very oldschool.

To be fair this is about as old as DOS gets at 1983 and it’s actually hinting at a puzzle solution in quite a clever way. A hint that wouldn’t be needed if one of the descriptions was less obtuse but still. At least the game seems short enough that replaying isn’t too arduous. I’ve bounced off Zork in the past but this is way less abstract and much more fun as a result. I might actually be able to beat this one.

[ericiseasytosay]

#10257

I just got passed what is probably the first real puzzle in the game and I admit I had to look up the solution, despite forcing myself to think on it for a couple days first. I felt like the solution made sense but was a pretty big stretch (or in this case, a curve).

I’ll keep plugging away at it but if the first puzzle had me stumped, I’m not too hopeful that I’ll be able to tackle the rest without hints.

[Pix]

#10259

I’m fairly sure we are both complaining about the same puzzle there. The description of that particular object was less than helpful. I think the access card getting scrambled is the clue that’s supposed to help you out but it’s really obtuse, may never happen and you could just assume it was scrambled when you picked it up. The good news is I’m not running into anything else like that so far.

[Pix]

#10264

I made it to the end. It’s curious, there aren’t all that many puzzles really. There was another leap of logic required right at the end but on the whole it’s a lot more beatable than I might have expected. There is a massive information dump late on at which point the world starts to make a lot more sense. I expect goofy humour from Meretzky but the tone of the game was largely serious sci-fi, except for Floyd’s personality.

The limitations of the engine of the time are somewhat apparent but it’s easy to see why these games were so popular in the early days of PC’s. I’ve been playing this on the 5150 for authenticity and it runs great. Just text genuinely does create a better world than the graphics of the time. There’s a timeless quality as a result. The parser still impresses me now and according to the box, this only needed 48K of RAM to run. It seems to understand near enough everything I try and I was never fighting it.

I’ve only spent any real time with Zork 1-3 + a handful of the later Infocom games – the text got more verbose in those later games which is a good thing. It’s hard to have much actual narrative with the limited space in Planetfall and it’s more about world-building but Meretzky still manages to get some story and character in there. This was so much better than the Zork games as far as I’m concerned. I really need to play through the rest of the Infocom catalog one of these days.

As an aside, I’ve heard talk about Space Quest’s Roger Wilco being stolen from Planetfall over the years. This seems to be based on the cover more than the game given that you aren’t even a janitor so I’m not seeing it. Seems like more of an urban legend to me.

[ericiseasytosay]

#10281

I haven’t finished it yet but I think I’m making decent progress. I find myself thinking about it when I’m doing other things, so that’s a good sign.

[ericiseasytosay]

#10288

I got myself into a walking dead situation and I’m going to have to start over. Thankfully having built out a well-annotated map should have me back to where I was before long.