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The game was Infocom's first in the science fiction genre. It takes place in
the year 2186, when the player's character is a lone black hole miner
exploring an asteroid belt. The player's ship, the Starcross, is fitted with
a mass detector to look for "quantum black holes", which are such powerful
sources of energy that one could provide a wealth of riches. When the mass
detector finally discovers an anomaly, however, it isn't a black hole but
something else entirely: a massive craft of unknown origin and composition.
The player must dock with the mysterious ship and gain entry to its interior.
Once inside, there are a wide variety of alien plant and animal species to
discover as well as an array of unfamiliar technology to master. It continued
the successful use of "feelies" - items included in game package like a
journal, map and letter which gave the game tactile interaction. "Astronaut
Food", which was to be a small package of something edible and presumably
freeze-dried was planned but with legal problems involving health laws, was
dropped. The first box for Starcross was a round plastic box that resembled
a flying saucer disc. |