Starcross
by Infocom
(Dysan release)
Infocom Dysan boxes are easily identified by their bright red slipcover, about the size and thickness of an Activision Collection box, with the title and Infocom logo in green and the company name in gold. The gold box under the slip is open-ended, that is, there's no top box piece to cover it. As a result, the slip will likely be pressed in a little bit in front. The entire package is very light and flimsy-feeling, and a there's a lot of open space inside considering how few contents there are. It may have had some kind of padding originally.
Starcross has the space map, the same size as the folio and grey box but folded differently, rectangular manual that's wider across than from top to bottom, Interlogic reference card, and the trademark green Dysan label. (No alien-contact instructions, TomMage's doesn't have them either.) The description on the back paraphrases and dilutes the original Infocom blurb.
The disk in mine is 5-1/4", but one side of the slipcover says it contains 3-1/4" media. Yes, 3-1/4". Back before 3-1/2" was selected as the new industry standard for floppies, there were experiments with other sizes. (Thanks to Paul Coad for this tip.) As Dysan was a leading disk manufacturer, this makes sense. Some Dysan Infocoms actually contain this type of disk, but all I've seen personally are the 5-1/4". Perhaps this was the reason Dysan produced these in the first place, to support this obscure media format?
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