Editing Planetfall (section)

==Reception==
''[[Softline (magazine)|Softline]]'' stated that "the puzzles are good; the character of Floyd is great". The magazine stated that the "game is excellent", but criticized the ending as "unabashed adolescent wish fulfillment ... more like a fairy tale".<ref name="durkee19830708">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1983&pub=6&id=12 | title=Planetfall | author=Durkee, David | magazine=Softline | volume=2 | issue=5 | date=July–August 1983 | page=22 | access-date=28 July 2014}}</ref> In 1984 the magazine's readers named the game the tenth most-popular Apple program of 1983.<ref name="stgame19840304">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1984&pub=6&id=16 | title=The Best and the Rest | magazine=St.Game | volume=3 | issue=3 | date=Mar–Apr 1984 | access-date=28 July 2014 | pages=49}}</ref> ''[[Computer Gaming World]]'' called Floyd's role as sidekick "unique" and hoped that future games would add such innovations. It stated that ''Planetfall'' was "another excellent adventure" for text-adventure fans, and a good place to start for those new to interactive fiction.<ref name = "CGW">{{Cite magazine | date = April 1984 | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1984&pub=2&id=15 | last = McPherson | first = James | magazine = [[Computer Gaming World]] | volume=4 | issue=2 | title = Micro-Reviews: Planetfall | pages = 43–44 }}</ref> ''[[Creative Computing]]'' wrote that ''Planetfall'' "is as remarkable, funny, perplexing, and entertaining a game as you are likely to find anywhere." It praised Floyd as "the most imaginative and cleverly written part of the entire game, Floyd, besides being hysterically funny through most of the adventure, evokes in the player of Planetfall authentic feelings of affection and attachment".<ref name="cc198312">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v9n12/120_Infocom_does_it_again_.php | title=Infocom does it again ... and again | magazine=Creative Computing | volume=9 | issue=12 | date=December 1983 | access-date=February 26, 2013 | author=Schultz, Monte | pages=153}}</ref> ''[[InfoWorld]]'s Essential Guide to Atari Computers'' recommended the game as among the best adventures for the Atari 8-bit.<ref name="mace1984">{{Cite book |last=Mace |first=Scott |url=https://archive.org/details/InfoWorlds_Essential_Guide_to_Atari/page/n89/mode/2up?view=theater |title=InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari Computers |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-06-669006-3 |pages=79-80}}</ref>

[[Steve Meretzky]] stated that Floyd "was the result of research into how an artificially intelligent mind might work". ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' in 1984 described the robot as "the most popular Infocom character".<ref name="dyer19840506">{{Cite news |url=http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/Articles/globe84.html |title=Masters of the Game |last=Dyer |first=Richard |date=1984-05-06 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970607204921/http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/Articles/globe84.html |archive-date=1997-06-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''Planetfall'' has been described as "still lovingly remembered",<ref name="murray52">(Murray 1998, p52)</ref> and parts have been described as "transcendent",<ref name="ardai198709">{{cite magazine | title=Titans of the Computer Gaming World / Part IV of V: Ardai on Infocom | magazine=Computer Gaming World | issue=39 | date=Aug–Sep 1987 | access-date=2 November 2013 | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1987&pub=2&id=39 | last=Ardai | first=Charles | author-link=Charles Ardai | pages=38}}</ref> including Floyd's death. Meretzky claims that "numerous players" have told him that they cried over the death of Floyd.<ref>
{{cite web
|url= http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/emo-robo
|title= The Creation of Floyd the Robot in ''Planetfall''
|access-date= 2008-06-19
|author= Meretzky, Steve
|author-link= Steve Meretzky
|date= 2008-03-04
|quote= This worked out better than my fondest hopes, and numerous players over the intervening years have told me that they cried at this point in the game.
}}</ref> ''Softline'' wrote, "You don't feel like this very often. Maybe after you've read ''[[Charlotte's Web]]''. Maybe when they shot [[Bambi]]'s mother. Maybe when [[Raskolnikov]] got religion in the Siberian slave labor camp. But this scene is from a computer game. A game!"<ref name="saberhagen198309">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1983&pub=6&id=13 | title=Call Yourself Ishmael Micros Get The Literary Itch | magazine=Softline | volume=3 | issue=1| date=Sep–Oct 1983 | access-date=29 July 2014 | pages=30}}</ref> A game developers round table on [[GEnie]] concluded that Floyd's death was a sad moment that could make someone cry.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3316/designers_notebook_how_to_be_.php
| title = Designer's Notebook: How To Be Weird
| access-date = 2008-10-07
| date = 1999-02-12
| last = Adams
| first = Ernest
| work = Gamasutra
| publisher = Think Services
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080921211508/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3316/designers_notebook_how_to_be_.php
| archive-date = 2008-09-21
| url-status = dead
| quote = Several years ago there was a debate in the game developers’ round table on GEnie (remember GEnie?) about whether or not a computer game could make you cry. ... The answer the GEnie crowd came up with was, yes, a computer game can make you cry: consider the death of Floyd the robot in Planetfall. ... Eventually, however, Floyd gave up his life for you, and there was no way to avoid it. It was a sad moment. 
}}</ref>
Floyd's death has been described as directly evoking the player's emotions because the story and gameplay are aligned.<ref>"By aligning the story with the gameplay, you evoke the emotions in the player directly, without having to appeal to a sometimes vain hope of sympathy. ... Examples range from the classic "Death of Floyd" in ''Planetfall'', where a selfless robot helps your character--you-- directly..." {{Cite book
| last = Sheldon
| first = Lee
| year = 2004
| title = Character Development and Storytelling for Games
| publisher = Thomson Course Technology
| publication-date = 2004
| pages = 109
| isbn = 978-1435461048
<!--| contribution = Noah Falstein, Writer/Designer -->
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5maZ4vOCf5wC&q=death+floyd+planetfall&pg=PA109
}}</ref>
The death of Floyd has been described as changing the game to an "evocative theatrical experience" after which "the player feels lonely and bereaved."<ref>"At this point the game [Planetfall] changes from a challenging puzzle to an evocative theatrical experience. The escape from the planet continues, but without Floyd's company the player feels lonely and bereaved." (Murray 1998, p53)</ref>
The memory of Floyd's death remains with players for years and is remembered as a direct experience.<ref>"The memory of Floyd the Robot's noble self-sacrifice remains with players even years later as something directly experienced. 'He sacrificed himself for me,' is the way one twenty-year-old former player described it to me." (Murray 1998, p53)</ref>
Floyd's death "convey[ed] a sense of wonder at the unexpected and touching quality of the gesture."<ref>"Even those who speak of it less personally ('When you get to that room, he goes in to save you") convey a sense of wonder at the unexpected and touching quality of the gesture." (Murray 1998, p53)</ref>
The scene has been described as a minor milestone toward computer games as an expressive narrative art.
<ref>"The death of Floyd is a minor milestone on the road from puzzle gaming to an expressive narrative art." (Murray 1998, p53)</ref>
Game designer [[Raph Koster]] feels that Floyd's death is "cheating" because it occurs in a [[cut scene]].<ref>
{{cite web
| url = http://www.raphkoster.com/2005/12/07/the-pixar-lesson/
| title = The Pixar Lesson
| access-date = 2008-10-07
| date = 2005-12-07
| last = Koster
| first = Raph
| author-link = Raph Koster
| work = Raph Koster's Website
| publisher = Raph Koster
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081109044017/http://www.raphkoster.com/2005/12/07/the-pixar-lesson/
|quote = ...they’re not given to us by the game at all, but by cutscenes. The death of Floyd the Robot in Planetfall is an example of a cheat like this....
| url-status = live
| archive-date = 2008-11-09
}}
</ref>

===Reviews===
*''The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine'' #3 (April/May, 1986)