Planetfall


                           BUG
                                     1
         VERSION   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
        20/830708  Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y N Y
        26/831014  N Y Y Y N Y Y Y N Y
        29/840118  N N Y Y N Y Y Y N Y
       *37/851003  N N N Y Y Y Y Y N Y
        10/880531  N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y (Solid Gold)

          1. In version 20, pushing the elevator button more than once will make it restart its descent, with no ill effects. In later releases, pressing the button again has no effect while you're on the way down. But if you press the button after reaching the bottom, you get this result:

>PUSH BUTTON
Stunning. After days of surviving on a hostile, plague-ridden planet, solving several of Infocom's toughest puzzles, and coming within one move of completing Planetfall, you blow it all in one amazingly dumb input.

The doors close and the elevator rises quickly to the top of the shaft. The doors open, and the mutants, which were waiting impatiently in the ProjCon Office for just such an occurence, happily saunter in and begin munching.

        **** You have died ****


          2. In Versions 20 and 26, taking the fused bedistor, then dropping it, will make it impossible to pick up again without the pliers, since the game thinks it is still fused to the socket. -- New Zork Times



          3. In Versions 20, 26 and 29, you can get Floyd to bring you the shiny fromitz board repeatedly, with FLOYD, GET BOARD, after you have first obtained it, but before you have installed it in the socket. However, if you type AGAIN, after FLOYD, GET BOARD, it will say "You already have it." In later versions, Floyd tells you that he already did that if you ask him to get the board a second time. -- New Zork Times



          4. THE WEBBING BUG:  In all versions except the Solid Gold, the safety webbing is responsible for a slight bug. Ordinarily, it is impossible to take items in the escape pod while you are in the webbing, as you will be told "You can't reach it from here," and LOOK will say that the item is outside the safety webbing. However, you can get around this by trying to WEAR the item (i.e. WEAR TOWEL). This will generate the response:

(Taken)
They're out of fashion, and besides, it wouldn't fit.
In the Solid Gold Version, this bug was fixed, but not, as one might expect, by making it impossible to take items by trying to wear them. Instead, the restriction on taking items while you are in the web was dropped completely, and "(taken)" was changed to "Taking the [item] first." -- Jim Bakman
          NOTE:  There is a similar bug in all versions of the game (even the Solid Gold), that allows you to TAKE the brochure while you are in bed, by READing it. -- GC



          5. In Version 37 (only), you cannot open or close containers (such as the canteen or the survival kit) while in bed. If you try, you are told "You can't reach it from here."
          In previous and later versions, there is no problem doing this, provided of course that you are holding them at the time. -- David J. Wildstrom



          6. It's more of a style error than a bug, but all versions of the game consider Blather and Br'gun-te'elkner-ipg'nun to be sexless. If you try to SHOOT BLATHER or SHOOT AMBASSADOR, you will be told "You have nothing to shoot it with." -- Matthew Russotto



          7. If you turn Floyd off in any room with a door, you can generate this response:

>POINT AT DOOR
"You go first," says Floyd.
Similiarly, pointing at any other object in the room causes the deactivated Floyd to give you a confused look. This works in all versions. -- Chris D. Lang



          8. THE TIDE BUG:  The rising ocean bypasses the Winding Stair in all versions of the game. At the beginning of the game, there are four locations arranged vertically; the Crag, the Balcony, the Winding Stair, and the Courtyard.
          On Day 2 the Crag will be underwater (this can be seen from the Balcony). On Day 3 the waters will be lapping at the base of the Balcony. On Day 4 the Balcony will be underwater, and you will hear lapping water from the Winding Stair. On Day 5 you will see ocean water splashing against the steps of the Winding Stair.
          So far so good, but now it gets weird. On Day 6, the Winding Stair reverts back to its original description, with no sight or sound of ocean. Meanwhile, you'll now be able to hear the sound of surf from the Courtyard (the top level). On Day 7, nothing changes. On Day 8, ocean water will be washing against the top steps of the Courtyard. The Winding Stair must be submerged by now, right? Wrong, you can still go there safely and see no signs of the ocean, just like on Days 1-3.
          Another problem: the Invisiclues book specifically states that the rising ocean is caused by melting polar ice caps. However, repairing Planetary Course Control has no effect on the ocean level, despite the fact that we get the "Course Diversions Minimizing" message after making the repair. We can explain the failure of the waters to recede by arguing that repairing the planet's course is a much slower process than its deterioration was. But why should the water continue to rise? Perhaps the process must first slow to a stop before reversing?
          There is a final problem with the tides. If you fall asleep on the Crag the first night, you will be drowned by the rising water. No problem there. However, if you fall asleep in the Pod the first night, and then reach the Crag for the first time on Day 2, it will look completely normal. If you then climb up to the Balcony, you will get the Day 2 description about how the Crag is underwater today. -- Graeme Cree



          9. THE DOOR BUG:  In the Solid Gold Version (only), you can open the door to the pod while still in the webbing, and get the response "The bulkhead opens and cold ocean water rushes in."
          Of course this is wrong. The pod is still on the Crag, and does not fall into the ocean until after you've gotten out of the webbing. The phantom "water" has no effect (the game doesn't even know the word "water"). Nothing will happen, and the pod will not flood if you wait around. There is still no danger until you get out of the webbing, and the pod really falls into the ocean.
          This bug only appears in the Solid Gold version because in previous versions, it was impossible to open the door while inside the webbing. Various restrictions on actions you could perform from inside the web were removed in this version. In so doing, they fixed the Webbing Bug (ibid) but created this one. -- Graeme Cree


          10. THE ESPNIS/GIRGOL IN SPACE BUG:  There is a major glitch in Planetfall's treatment of time-based events (e.g. elevators, shuttlecars, bio-lock, rad-lock, the entire endgame from Station 384 on, Floyd's initial awakening, hunger, et cetera), namely that they are put on hold when you fall asleep.
          For example: at 5000 chrons or so you can move the shuttle car out of the station and wait around until you get sleepy. (You can't do it any later because you can't activate the shuttlecar in the evening). Then when you're about to drop from fatigue you set the lever on +. You'd think that you would die in your sleep, after ramming into a concrete wall at 60 or so MPH. Nope.... when you wake up, only one turn has passed from the point of view of the shuttle... if the car was going 25 when you drop, it's 30 when you wake, and you've only moved one location.
          You can sleep in the rad-lock without dying of rad-poisoning (although you still die 3 turns after you wake up). You can sleep in the bio-lock with the door open, if you time it right.
          You can also sleep after you close the door behind Floyd and leave him to fight the mutants for the Miniaturization Card (although timing is critical...). Despite the fact that Floyd is not in the room, when you wake up he will comment that you look silly sleeping on the floor. And of course, he does not die in the lab because you were sleeping when you should have been letting him out. You can let him out just as if you'd never slept at all.
          If you summon an elevator and fall asleep, it arrives after you wake up. If you take a trip on an elevator, it will end after you've woken. If you activate Floyd for the first time and fall asleep, he will wake up after you do.
          Station 384 will not reactivate in your sleep, nor will the laser completely cool, if it's been fired. If you're fighting the microbe when you fall asleep, he won't kill you, though you will have to pick up the laser when you wake up, since you drop everything when you fall asleep.
          And of course, you can fall asleep with the mutants chasing you, or in the ride on the Cryo Elevator. No problem. Again, the rest of the world will just have to wait while you have your little nap.
          You won't die of hunger in your sleep, but you will be reminded of it as soon as you wake up. This last taken by itself would not be considered a bug, though. You sleep so long, that you could easily go to sleep not hungry, and die of starvation anyway, if every turn that passed while you were asleep counted normally. We can simply chalk that one up to lowered metabolism while asleep. -- David J. Wildstrom



Click here to return to the Infocom Bugs List Table of Contents

Click here to return to Graeme Cree's "Bob & Ray Overstocked Surplus Warehouse" Home Page.