Honestly I don't know of many really good text adventures prior to the first King's Quest. I think The Hobbit was pretty horrible to play though the C64 disk version(superior to the very stripped down, DOS inferior, tape version) had very nice colourful graphics. But surely Infocom had the most intelligent text adventures during that period, after all, the founders had been working on the Zork series, adding to it, while college students in the '70s. Anyhow, I didn't play Planetfall right through until a few years ago, but it's got to be one of the best text adventures. What's more, I got through the game with almost no help from online and after having played the Zork trilogy I wasn't complaining about it being too easy! Actually I like Zork 1:The GUE very much and DID manage to complete that without the internet, but it took about four years of me and a friend working away at it and finally finding all the treasures!
18-05-2021 08:46 PM
AndrewJFisher
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumpy
One of the better games from Infocom. This game seems to have influenced the Space Quest series.
Yeah Mark Crowe denied being aware of Planetfall until Space Quest was about to be released and he was like "Oh crap, someone's already used the idea of a sole survivor janitor saving the world!". Scott Murphy didn't comment on that during the interview. I figure that they both must have been aware of Infocom and Zork at least.
14-04-2011 04:39 PM
bugmenot
this the one that started it all
Planetfall was "the" game/application that got me hooked on computers forever. Before that I had little to no interest in computing, my aspirations were pointed in *very* different directions (artisan, teacher, monk, wondering bum). Now computers are the very foundation of my livelihood and recreation. Go figure.
09-10-2009 11:27 PM
Doc Savage
****SPOILER WARNING**** CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Just finished it and it's a great game. The thing that bugged me the most was doing the translating. The short stuff wasn't that big of a deal but for the long entries on the library computer, it was just a whip. So, for your reading pleasure here it is:
LIBRARY LOBBY
On the machine:
1. History
2. Culture
3. Technology
4. Geography
5. The Project
6. Intergalactic Games
Selection 1 (History)
0. Main Menu
1. Racial Origins: The ancient legends say that ships from the Second Union once filled our skies and will one day come again. Modern scientists, who once dismissed such legends and felt that life evolved here on Resida, now feel that our planet was really settled by men of the Second Union. For more detailed information on this topic, consult the librarian for the appropriate spools. Type zero to go to a higher level.
2. Great Hiatus: Whether or not the legends of the Second Union are true, archeologist are certain that a period of high technological and social development existed thousands of years ago, but for some reason civilization slid into a dark age lasting centuries. For more detailed information on this topic, consult the librarian for the appropriate spools. Type zero to go to a higher level.
3. Rise of the New “Teknakrasee”: Within the last five centuries, the rise of the New Teknakrasee has returned civilization to the level attained before the Hiatus. Social historians think that when the Disease struck, our race had achieved a level of sophistication equal to the pre-Hiatus. For more detailed information on this topic, consult the librarian for the appropriate spools. Type zero to go to a higher level.
Selection 2 (Culture)
0. Main Menu
1. Literature: Many volumes on the development of Residan literature are on file in the library. Also, copies of all great works of writing, some dating back to the mystical days of the Second Union, are located here. For more detailed information on this topic, consult the librarian for the appropriate spools. Type zero to go to a higher level.
2. Art: Historical studies and reproductions of Residan art are available here for all three major periods of art development: the Primitive period, the Renaissance period of the early post-Hiatus, and the most recent period of video and laser art.
3. Music: Recordings of all important compositions for the last five hundred years are located in the library databanks.
Selection 3 (Technology)
1. Medicine: All major diseases have been curable for over a century. The development of cryogenics now allows doctors to put patients in stasis until a cure is found. Average Residan life expectancy is now 147 revolutions.
2. Agriculture: Dirt farming is all but obsolete, with most food coming from the hydroponics complex or the underwater algae farms.
3. Transportation: Planetary travel is normally private scooters for short hops, and airbus for longer trips. Space travel has recently been revolutionized with the invention of nuclear-fueled engines.
4. Robotics: Untold centuries ago, entire teams of robots were required to perform even the simplest tasks… one robot would handle visual functions, one robot would handle auditory functions, and so forth. Now, thanks to advances in miniaturization, the tasks can be performed by singular robots, such as the multipurpose B-19 series.
5. Planetary System: The primary Planetary Systems are Core Control (for maintaining an ideal climate), Defense (for destroying potential dangerous meteors), and the recently added Project Control (for monitoring progress of The Project).
Selection 4 (Geography)
1. Planet Landmasses: Since the stabilization of the orbit of Resida, presently 47.79 percent of the planet’s surface is land. The land is divided into two primary landmasses, Andoor and Fruulik, plus six lesser landmasses. The global capital, Pilandoor, is on the eastern coast of Andoor.
2. Undersea Region: The first undersea habitats were opened in 2992, and today, nearly two centuries later, about 9 percent of Resida’s population lives in one of the twenty sprawling undersea cities.
3. Space Colonies: Although settlements have been established on Fristin, and on several of the moons of the gas giant Blustin, the vast majority of off-worlders live in the space colonies established at Residans troojin points.
Selection 5 (The Project)
1. Origins of the Disease: The origin of The Disease has been linked to the Center for Advanced Cryogenics Research, which was conducting research into ways of extending the Cryogenic period indefinitely. Although this research was a success, somehow The Disease was released and began spreading.
2. The Installations: The two complexes were established on the twin peak plateaus of Kalamontee and Lawanda. These locations were chosen because their height would make transportation and communications easier, and so that the vast reactors and cryogenics chambers could be constructed in the mountains below.
3. Project Control: Phase One: the construction of the Kalamontee and Lawanda Complexes. Phase Two: mass cryogenic freezing of Residan population. Phase Three: simultaneous monitoring of cryogenics while automated research is conducted by incredibly sophisticated computerized facility. Phase Four: revival and inoculation of the population.
Selection 6 (Inturelajik Games)
1. Zork: The Zork trilogy, an adventure classic, takes place in a delightful but dangerous underground setting.
2. Deadline and Witness: Deadline is the first great mystery of the computer age, and Witness is its worthy successor.
3. Starcross and Suspended: Starcross is Infocom’s mind-bending science-fiction adventure. Suspended is a cryogenic science-fiction nightmare.
1
19-06-2009 06:11 PM
gumpy
One of the better games from Infocom. This game seems to have influenced the Space Quest series.
06-05-2009 06:21 PM
DarkStar88
Sending that dear, playful, innocent Floyd into a room full of mutants and coming back to die in my arms was one of the rare moments when a video game not only made me cry but feel downright awful. I couldn't have felt like a bigger heel if I'd sent a puppy to go fetch something from a yard guarded by rabid pit bulls.
Amazing job. This text adventure is nothing short of a legend.
24-04-2007 10:49 PM
acheron
Best text adventure ever. Maybe adventure game of any kind.
22-04-2007 02:01 PM
Geezer
I made a mistake in the review regarding how to start the game. If you are using WinFrotz to play Planetfall you need to navigate to and open PLANETFA.DAT. You can play the game without using WinFrotz by running PLANETF.BAT.
21-04-2007 07:22 PM
Geezer
Sorry about some of the scans being so large. The original documents were too big to fit on my scanner so I took them to a copy shop and they tried to reduce them first but that didn't turn out very well so we scanned them at full size. If you try to read them in your browser (by left clicking the link) you will probably have to magnify them to 150% to make them more legible reducing the size seems to make them hard to read. I suggest right clicking the links and then clicking "save target as". When you open them using the standard Adobe and not the browser plug-in they will render much clearer. At least they do on my PC.
The pages of the personal diary have begun to yellow with age a bit.
The qualification test at the end of the recruitment brochure is a laugh. Try it.
Some of the most important commands are ...
Look (or look at)
Examine
Up (U) to climb something as in stairs
Down (D) to descend stairs etc
North (N) travel north
South (S) travel south
East (E) travel east
West (W) travel west
Open
Close
Inventory (I)
Take
Drop
Wait (W) important to let time pass at certain point in the game
Save (save game)
Restore (restore saved game)
Restart (restart game)
there are more that you will figure out as you go. The game does a pretty good job of understanding phrases, also.
If you are absolutely stuck and need a hint there is a pretty good hint system at the web site
