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Planetfall - Bugs
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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 whould 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