The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game – 30th Anniversary Edition | Hacker News Reader

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game – 30th Anniversary Edition

bbc.co.uk

28 pointsArtDev7 comments

A few notes for anyone who hasn't seen it before: This game is not very "good" in the way it's put together. It's easy to get into an unwinnable situation without realizing it. (For example, if you don't take the screwdriver from the first room all the way through to the end of the game, you can't finish the game.) But it has an incredible sense of humor, and the way it responds to your bungling is definitely funny enough to be worth playing for a while. There are lots of hidden funny things that you'll never find without a walkthrough, so here's one: http://www.eristic.net/games/infocom/hhg.html

Edit for clarity: I recommend exploring and trying out each puzzle without the walkthrough, because it's funnier that way :)

That was typical of Infocom games, though. You would have to play through many time to figure out the correct paths. That was part of the fun and the challenge. And back in that day, finding walkthroughs online wasn't really a thing... unless maybe you had a really active BBS to dial into.

They had different difficulty ratings for their games. Some were easy to win without all the trial and error, some seemed impossible, at least to the child I was back in those days.

I can say that I got quite a bit farther on Hitchhikers than I did on Lurking Horror.

You're right on that point. I remember the first time I came across this game online. If I remember, it went something like this:

----------------------------------------------------

You wake up. The room is spinning very gently round your head. Or at least it would be if you could see it which you can't.

It is pitch black.

> get up

Very difficult, but you manage it. The room is still spinning. It dips and sways a little.

>slap self

Done.

---- You have died ----

----------------------------------------------------

I tried to play through it again, and then I made the mistake of taking the towel from Ford instead of saying the magic words "Ford, what about my home". My house was bulldozed and I died again.

I stopped playing after that. Maybe that means I'll miss out on the humor of the game, but I can't really get into a game that is so deliberately obtuse and actively hostile.

Read the book or listen to the original radio show. That will help you understand the deliberate and pervasive sarcasm, non-sequiturs, and Pythonesque absurdism (the author actually knew & hung out with the Monty Python crew).

Don't make the mistake of thinking I don't understand the humor. I've read the books, all five of them, and the humor in them is great. I just don't really care for gating that humor behind the obtuse "puzzles" of this game. I don't have the patience for that, and having to follow a step-by-step walkthrough defeats most of the purpose of it being a game in the first place.

If you just refuse the towel twice, your character will automatically say "Ford, what about my home?".

Still have the PC original, complete with Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses and Microscopic Invasion Starfleet (in a baggie).

This new version may be much more playable, having added a rough sketch of each scene. Bare text was great for the time, but a little imagery goes a long way.

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