Starcross

Starcross'es box

Back of Starcross'es box

"STARCROSS, Infocom's science fiction mind-bender, launches you headlong into the year 2186 and the depths of space. And not without good reason, four you are destined to rendezvous with a gargantuan starship from the outer fringes of the galaxy. Upon docking with the strange craft, you must succeed in gaining entry to its mysterious interior. Once within, you will encounter a microcosm of the galaxy, peopled with both harmful and helpful beings. But the great starship serves a far larger purpose than mere cultural exchange. It bears a challenge that was issued eons ago, from light-years away- and only you can meet it."

bugs

                      BUG
        VERSION   1 2 3 4 5 6
       15/820901  Y Y Y Y Y N
      *17/821021  N N Y Y Y N

In version 15, you were able to get the red rod from the rat's nest by typing "NEST, DROP RED ROD." [NZT] In version 15, you can turn off the beam of energy in the Laboratory by typing "BEAM, GO WEST", generating the reply "The beam leaves the room." -- Graeme Cree In versions 15 and 17, you can put the red disk on the blue disk, then put the blue disk on the red disk. This causes them both to disappear, along with anything else that was on either of them. Similar bugs appear in early versions of a few other games (such as Zork I and Infidel) that have items acting as containers. Climbing the tree and typing "THROW HANDS" results in, "The pair of hands sails away, drifting in a long arc towards the ground." The bunk on the Starcross is not openable, yet if you try to PUT THE TAPE LIBRARY IN THE BUNK, you will get the response "The bunk isn't open." -- Graeme Cree Trying to shake an object would put the game into an infinite loop. Reader response:

Dear XYZZYnews: I have found a bug in Spellbreaker which is not listed on the bugs list: If you have water in the bottle then casting tinsot on any body of water except for the one in the Oubliette will give the message "The water and bottle freeze and shatter into a million pieces!" and destroy the bottle even if the bottle is not in the same room or if it is inside the closed zipper. If that's not clear, here's a concrete example. At the Enchanters' Retreat I dropped the bottle which contained water. I then blorpled the earth cube and went west then south to get to the Ruins Room. I then cast tinsot on the water there and received the message about the bottle shattering. Going back to the Enchanters' Retreat I found that the bottle was gone. I found this in version 87/860904 of Spellbreaker. Paul rizzo@best.com

known versions

• starcros-15.z3: Infocom game data (Z-machine 3, Release 15 / Serial 820901)
• starcros-17.z3: Infocom game data (Z-machine 3, Release 17 / Serial 821021)
• starcros-17h.z3: Release 17 Copyright (c) 1982 by Infocom