A letter from Hermit Crab the President Racing See page 5 The Status Line See pages 6 & 7 Volume VI Number 2 Formerly The New Zork Times Summer 1987 The Lurking Horror and Stationfall Do panic! A demon on Floyd returns in boffoid the loose at GUE Tech sequel to Planetfall It's a dark and stormy night. The wind howls around When the results came in from the recent Status the monolithic buildings of G.U.E. Tech, sending Line poll, high on the list of favorite Infocom games the heavy snow into blinding swirls. In the Com- was Steve Meretzky's Planetfall®. We weren't sur- puter Center, you huddle over your terminal, strug- prised. Planetfall has long been popular with inter- gling to complete an assignment. active fiction fans. And Floyd, your mischievous Suddenly, strange images appear on the screen, robot companion in the game, easily takes the prize hinting at a ghastly fate close at hand. Darkness for best-loved Infocom character. overcomes you as you're drawn into a fiendish Planetfall is also a favorite of reviewers and crit- world full of unimaginable horrors. When you strug- ics. Meretzky won a Best Computer Software De- gle awake (for surely it must be a dream), you find signer award for Planetfall in 1983, and additional yourself clutching an object last seen in your night- awards include Best Adventure Game of 1983 from mare... InfoWorld. One reviewer mirrored the enthusiasm Thus begins The Lurking Horror™, Infocom's first of many when he said, "Planetfall is just about interactive horror story. worth the purchase of a computer." G.U.E. Tech Requests for Planetfall sequel In The Lurking Horror, you're a student at George Steve Meretzky has received countless requests Underwood Edwards Institute of Technology. Al- for a sequel to Planetfall. Now he has made every- though you're dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, one happy by writing Stationfall™. All the elements once you "awake" from your nightmare, you've got which made Planetfall one of Infocom's best-loved more on your mind than your term paper. As though games are here in Stationfall: the ever-efficient pulled by a powerful force within the object you've Stellar Patrol, the comical characters and situations, so mysteriously acquired, you leave your computer the amazing tools and machines of the future, the and venture into the dark nether regions of the Insti- ingenious puzzles, and the endearing little robot tute. Floyd. Although Planetfall fans will delight in meet- Now you're treading on dangerous ground indeed. ing old friends, it's not necessary to have played one For beneath the Institute lies a warren of dimly-lit game to enjoy the other. corridors and storage rooms, some so ancient that At the start of Stationfall, you're still enlisted in they contain only rotting piles of unidentifiable the Stellar Patrol. Your heroics in saving the planet junk. There are miles of decrepit tunnels, crumbling Resida in Planetfall earned you a promotion to That Lurking Horror package really makes eye into hazardous piles of timber and brick. But negoti- Lieutenant First Class, but that was five long years contact, doesn’t it? And the cover of Stationfall ating the terrain is the least of your problems. ago, and since then nothing has changed at all. features you in your new job as a member of the Shapes emerge from dark corners. Eerie sounds You've merely gone from a scrubworker to a paper- Stellar Patrol’s Paperwork Task Force. draw closer. Slimy passageways lead to sights so pusher. horrifying that they will feed your nightmares for And today promises to be just as boring as every weeks. A ghastly presence is at work here, commit- other day. You're being sent to a nearby space sta- ting unspeakably loathsome acts. Can you stop it... Marathons from tion to pick up a supply of Request for Stellar Patrol before it stops you? Issue Regulation Black Form Binders Request Form Forms. H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King coast to coast But wait... all is not lost. By a happy twist of fate, The Lurking Horror follows in the tradition of H. The motley crew of seven settled down at the two- your companion for the journey turns out to be your P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, as author Dave Le- foot-high table for the big game. Six-foot-four Steve old pal Floyd! That's right, it's the very same mis- bling turns an everyday world into a frightening web Meretzky was a bit uncomfortable on the 18-inch chievous little robot who was your playful buddy in of uncertainty. The numerous puzzles will challenge seats—but it did not matter. The stakes were high. Planetfall. both first-time and experienced players, and Le- "I'll raise you two paper clips and five rubber bling's chilling descriptions will leave you with im- bands," bluffed Tim Anderson. Another Monday Floyd and his paddleball ages you'll never forget. night of poker at Infocom? No, it was the first With Floyd and his paddleball set in tow, you're As with all Infocom games, the package includes "international" Marathon of the Minds, at the On- soon on your way to the space station. As you can items to introduce you to your role as the main char- tario Science Centre in Toronto. see from your packet of blueprints, the station has acter in the story. There's a copy of "G.U.E. at a As Infocom and Science Centre staff battled it out nine levels of offices and living areas, not to men- Glance," chock-full of photos, tips, and inside info with a deck of cards, 15 teams, representing high tion a huge plant for printing Stellar Patrol forms. on George Underwood Edwards Institute of Tech- schools from the entire Province of Ontario raced to Not included on the official blueprints, but fully nology. And to make sure you can get your deli- be the first to solve Stationfall. The overnight event visible from the spacetruck, is a space village, a cious dining hall lunch, there's also a genuine G.U. on March 6-7 was the eighth such grueling compe- seedy cluster of tubes, bubbles, and discarded rock- E. Tech student I.D. card. tition. In our last issue, Stu Galley reported on ets which has grown up around the space station in Please turn to page 4 Please turn to page 10 Please turn to page 4 Page 2 The Status Line Summer 1987 TSL Editor Susan >Read the letters Goldman resigns Gentlemen: Dear Editor You guys are just incredible! Can't find a name for (or Susan or whatever): "I must go, perhaps into oblivion, but to those with the stuff you design, huh? You've been working at The enclosed list of games was found in my clothes whom I've worked and sweated these past months I it for years, and you still don't know what it's dryer. Since I know for a fact that my socks enter say move forward without regret. Keep the proud called, eh? My god, if you would just take the effort the 8th dimension via the dryer, I assume that my name of The Status Line as a beacon to all those to remove your heads from the dark hole they are counterpart at the other end keeps his important who seek to interact. And remember, automatic stuck in, you would be able to see what this particu- papers in his dryer, thus indirectly proving the exis- hyphenation is just around the corner." With those lar forest is composed of. tence of Infocom as a metaphysical constant. words, Susan Goldman, editor-in-chief of TSL for "Interactive fiction." Great zot, the hypertensive Feel free to publish this in The Status Line, but the past year, bid a fond farewell to her former staff poobah who came up with that overinflated term please don't make any real games out of these with- and other assorted cronies at an intimate affair held ought to have some of the air let out of his ego. You out paying me lots and lots of real U.S. currency. in the TSL press room. see, it's quite simple to spot if you just put your Infocom Games from the 8th Dimension: Reacting quickly to the situation, Mike Dorn- minds to it. For no matter what you name them, A Mime Forever Voyaging: You're a mime on the brook, chief theorist of the TSL, announced, in a Planetfall or Suspended, Infidel or Trinity, they are Love Boat and you've got to convince people that terse communique, that "I am in control here." He one and all, all of the same class and species...by all you really are drowning in the pool and not just went on to say that Goldman's time at the TSL had that's holy, they are ZORKS!!! practicing your craft. Try to get saved without talk- been marked by great strides in both hard news and Really, folks, it's your term. Belongs to you, and ing. publishing technology. you thought it up, now use it. Why is every tissue a Bali Hai: You're stuck in an elevator and the re- Although Ms. Goldman's departure was a shock Kleenex, and every photocopier a Xerox, and every cord is skipping at Muzak. You've got to escape the to many of her co-workers, it was not totally un- cola a Coke? Because these great leading-edge elevator before you're driven mad.