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  • Winchell Chung ⚛🚀nyrath@spacey.space
    Sep 29, 2026, 7:44 PM

    @TerryHancock

    Article about a 1983 Infocom text adventure game named "Planetfall", found in a 1983 issue of Softline magazine.
    It was ground breaking at the time, but now is common place.

    "I don't think you should go inside," Floyd says. "We'll need card there to fix computer. Hmmm... I know! Floyd will get card. Robots are tough. Noth-ing can hurt robots. You open the door, then Floyd will rush in. Then you close door. When Floyd knocks, open door again. Okay? Go!" > Open the door. Floyd plunges into the bio lab. Immediately, he is set upon by hideous, mutated monsters! More are heading straight toward the open door! Floyd shrieks and yells to you to close the door. ➤ Close the door. From within the lab you hear ferocious growlings, the sounds of a skirmish, and then (turn to page 30)
    a high-pitched metallic scream. >Wait. Time passes.... You hear three fast knocks, followed by the distinctive sound of tearing metal. >Open the door. Floyd stumbles out of the bio lab, clutching the mini-booth card. The mutations rush toward the open doorway! >Close the door. Not a moment too soon! You hear a pounding from the door as the monsters within vent their frustration at losing their prey. Floyd is badly torn apart, with loose wires and broken circuits everywhere. Oil flows from his lubrication system. You drop to your knees and cradle Floyd's head in your lap. Floyd looks up at you with half-open eyes. "Floyd did it... got card. Floyd a good friend. huh?" Floyd smiles with contentment, and then his eyes close. You sit in silence for a moment over the brave friend who gave his life that you might live. Floyd was a good robot. He was helpful. He was courageous. He was fun-loving. Your friend is gone and you're alone. How do you feel? You don't feel like that very often. Maybe after you read Charlotte's Web. Maybe when they shot Bambi's mother. Maybe when Raskolnikov got religion in the Siberian slave labor camp. But this scene is from a computer game. A game!
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