What happens when a lowly Stellar Patrol ensign, stuck with endless busywork aboard the S.P.S. Feinstein, suddenly finds himself the lone survivor on a mysterious, crumbling outpost? Intercom's 1983 Planetfall isn't just another text adventure. It's a mix of sci-fi exploration, survival, and an emotional punch to the gut. Will we uncover the secrets of the abandoned alien world? Can we repair the failing base before it's too late? And what about that quirky little robot who insists on following you everywhere?...
What happens when a lowly Stellar Patrol ensign, stuck with endless busywork aboard the S.P.S. Feinstein, suddenly finds himself the lone survivor on a mysterious, crumbling outpost? Intercom's 1983 Planetfall isn't just another text adventure. It's a mix of sci-fi exploration, survival, and an emotional punch to the gut. Will we uncover the secrets of the abandoned alien world? Can we repair the failing base before it's too late? And what about that quirky little robot who insists on following you everywhere? Friend, nuisance, or something more?
Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") on this episode we have three guests to discuss the game. First of all returning DGC member Hannes ("Mr Creosote"), who wrote a review of Planetfall for his website GoodOldDays.net. Also joining is Tony Longworth, a music composer who contributed music for Jason Scott's "Get Lamp" interactive fiction documentary and also made an album inspired by Infocom games called "Memories of Infocom volume 1". Last but not least we are joined by Jimmy Maher ("The Digital Antiquarian") who has written about the history of videogames in general and Infocom in particular for many years for his website Filfre.net.
We received a voice message by Jon ("BogusMeatFactory"), for which we are very thankful! If you, too, want to be part of a future episode you can send one to club@dosgameclub.com
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/10/ep107.mp3
[ download mp3 ] (230 mins, 263 MB)
Thanks to our producer Pix for making us all stick to actual schedules (did you notice we're not really lagging behind anymore?). And thanks to DGC member Console for editing the episode, you're a lifesaver!
Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you.
RELEVANT LINKS:
* Mr. Creosote's review of Planetfall on GoodOldDays.net
* Memories of Infocom - Volume 1 by Tony Longworth (also available as physical release from polyplay)
* The Mind Electric - a selection of music from Get Lamp by Tony Longworth & Flesh-Resonance
* The Digital Antiquarian offers many relevant articles, for example this one about Planetfall and this one about the roots of Infocom
* The Literate Pixel podcast hosted by Jon ("BogusMeatFactory") and Nick
* Get Lamp documentary about interactive fiction by Jason Scott
* Steve Meretzky's personal homepage
* In 2008 Steve Meretzky wrote about how he created Floyd the robot in Planetfall
* Steve Meretzky kept meticulous notes, the ones on Planetfall are available on archive.org: part 1 and part 2
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