Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – 30th Anniversary Edition – Free Play Online

I once played this game called KGB[1].

That takes 1st place as the most difficult adventure game I played. It was merciless and a mistake from a couple of scenes ago could lead to you dyeing far down the line. Masochistic, but I found the challenge fascinating. Did not manage to finish it though.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_(video_game)

Sounds like Douglas Adams’ copy protection did it’s job so!

He typically published literature along with his games that if you didn’t have made the games frustratingly difficult or even impossible (see bureaucracy).

From the description of the disk you gave id say it’s highly likely you didn’t have access to that.

The thing that still baffles me is that Infocom released H2G2 as a “Standard” difficulty game, akin to Planetfall, when I’d argue that it’s one of their most difficult games.

Maybe not quite as brain-bending as something like Suspended (which had you simultaneously controlling a half dozen different characters each with different senses and abilities while also solving puzzles all under a tight time limit; it actually came with a paper map and character tokens to help you remember where everybody was), but I’d certainly put H2G2 right up there with Starcross (sold as ‘Expert’ difficulty) in terms of its brutal puzzles. And it was notably more cruel, in terms of minor mistakes early on not being telegraphed as mistakes, but making victory impossible much, much later in the game.

For folks with an interest, I second the recommendation of Galatea as a fascinating example and especially as a technical feat in terms of its flexible conversation systems. Still to this day probably the only IF game which has its challenges contained almost entirely in a regular conversation, rather than in using objects on other objects.

Or for folks entirely new to modern interactive fiction but who are interested in dipping their toes in, I’d perhaps recommend they try Photopia[0] as a good first game; it’s super newbie-friendly and has very few puzzles, while still telling a compelling story.

(link is to a “play in the browser” version of the game, but a Google search will link to a downloadable version if you prefer that. Expect it to take under two hours to play through.)

[0]: http://adamcadre.ac/if/photopia.html

I played it now for the first time ever for about 40 minutes and I agree. It is just trial and error until you get it right by chance. It is just annoying without any logic behind it. I read the tips after the 40 minutes and it confirmed that trial, error and restart is how it is supposed to be played. No fun at all.

I am from the point and click adventure era and thank they evolved the gameplay. Not only graphically, but logically. I am also in favor of “you can’t die” mechanic of Lucas Arts.

The "no tea" puzzle was one I could not complete without help. The rest were hard, but doable

The original hints are included with this game, near the bottom of the description.

I excitedly bought that game when it came out, only to find that it wouldn't run on my Windows NT 4 system. Never got to play it.

One of the Starship Titanic developers is also the person who converted this Hitchhikers game to run on the BBC servers.

Tangentially related -- but I love to share this -- I once read a post on metafilter [1] by a developer of that game. Of particular interest is that there was a secret in-game internet forum that developed a real community and that he continued to host on his servers after it went offline. The post is really one of my favorite things on the internet because it really touches on the way games could impact people and the best things about the internet.

[1]: https://www.metafilter.com/98848/The-Post-That-Cannot-Possib...

It's got a lot of interesting humour, but the while ostensibly a graphic adventure a lot of the game relies on text chat with "chat bot" type logic that was a questionable choice even at the time, and hasn't aged well since.

The game was published by traditional book publisher Simon & Schuster in a very brief foray into videogames. The smartest decision they made was requiring the game to have a novel adaptation (and audiobook of that novel), and the second smartest thing they did was include a copy of the novel and a portion of the audiobook as a feely in the game package for many preorders.

My recommendation is to track down the novel adaptation and audiobook and enjoy them. (Written and voiced by Monty Python alum Terry Jones.) They were superior to the game experience in a number of ways.

I'm thinking you got stuck where I did. I also refuse to cheat, and every so often fire up the original in DOSbox and have another go. One day I'll crack it.

(No, I am NOT asking HN for help; I am just musing out loud)

There was a (pretty amusing) hint book included and it is also with the online version. I think cheating was likely encouraged. You should read the hint book anyway, once you are done if you do not want to cheat.

That's a different game! You're thinking of Starship Titanic.

Steam on Linux does all that for you now. Just enable compstability in the settings menu.

I actually had a T-shirt in the 80's that said "I got the Babel Fish". Bought it out of the back of some computer magazine(maybe Compute!)?

The original game came with some very cool props that I wish I still had. Peril Sensitive Sunglasses (Do not wear while driving.), A microscopic space fleet in a plastic bag, some lint, and a "Don't Panic" button.

I'm going to assume that this is sarcasm, because:

1. All of the books made it to the bestseller lists

2. The radio series on BBC was a cultural phenomenon

3. Douglas Adams is the canonical author for "can anyone write an SF comedy which is funny?"