This is accurate gameplay from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy text adventure that INFOCOM made with the help of Douglas Adams in 1984.

I thought people would find it interesting to see the way a game would creatively do a demo in print in the 1980s since doing it other ways was either too expensive or not very useful from a marketing perspective.

More info on the game- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(video_game)

It was very challenging. I never got all the way through it. Amazingly, it only covers a small portion of the first book despite taking hours and hours to play.

  • Shig23@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I actually shelled out for the invisible-ink “strategy guide” (i.e. cheating instructions) just to finish the damn thing. I suspect the guide was written by Adams as well, because it was almost as entertaining as game itself. Halfway through the section on how to get the Babel fish—the single toughest puzzle I’ve ever encountered in a game—it tells you that “it is at this point that grown men begin weeping uncontrollably.”

    • Grabthar@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I remember working that one out with my brothers. Every step you take just leads to further problems getting the fish. It was easy to figure out to put the towel over the perfectly towel-sized grate and hang your robe on the hook. Blocking the cleaning robot access panel with Ford’s satchel also seemed to make sense as well. But when we put the stack of junk mail on the satchel and it actually worked? Well holy shit, were we ecstatic. It opens up some of the best parts of the game, though I would argue not as much as figuring out how to get the spare improbability drive to work. I think one of my brothers bought that same guide book long after we retired the C64, so though he knew how to finish it, I don’t think any of us ever did. I remember getting to Magrathea and not ever being able to figure out the proper tool bit. Tried taking the proper tool, and storing another tool in the thing your aunt gave you, but never seemed to work.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Hmm… I definitely had at least one of those for an Infocom game… Maybe I had that one? But I don’t remember getting to the end of the game. It was so long ago, I don’t remember. I just remember it was basically a FAQ where you had to use a special marker to reveal the answer.

      • Rhaedas@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        There were a number of books back then like that (mysteries and such), with the idea that you only revealed the answers to things you couldn’t figure out.

        As for the game itself, the one part that I have a continued memory about is where you could press the button labeled “Do Not Press”. Only doing it a few times gave you the same “nothing happens” message, but being persistent got a different one. Infocom games were so great and full of humor, even the non-Douglas Adams ones.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          11 months ago

          Yes! I remember that too! And yes, I was a huge Infocom fan. I think the only one I got all the way through without help was Wishbringer, but I can’t remember one I didn’t enjoy playing.

  • Got_Bent@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    This was an exceptionally difficult game from the very first scene. You were particularly hard pressed to even make it off earth if you hadn’t read the book.

    After that, it didn’t necessarily coincide with the book, so you had to put yourself into a Douglas Adams mindset for the duration, and that was no easy task.

    I think I may have gotten through roughly a third of it before moving on to other games.

    Zork was the other game I never did particularly well with. I think I got a little further in it than hitchhikers though.

  • xyguy@startrek.website
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    11 months ago

    Wow! Spoilers much?! I can’t believe they spoiled the “Beer Ending” in the trailer…

    I will say though that even though I know it will just be a text adventure, I kid of want to play it now.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Honestly, if you like text adventures, despite the difficulty, it’s one of the most entertaining ever. Douglas Adams himself wrote most of the text, so even if you don’t get very far, it’s all funny.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          11 months ago

          I haven’t read the novel, but I have played the game. When I played it, it was new, and it was really slow to load levels, which made it kind of a pain to play, but I did restore a good 3/4 of the ship robot thingy’s face.

          And my god the parrot was annoying.

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Unlike many video game adaptations, Douglas Adams was substantially involved in the game design and writing the text. I believe he shares the authorship credit with an Infocom programmer.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Adams wrote most of the text of the game. He also created another INFOCOM game, Bureaucracy, which was basically impossible. And if you don’t believe me, check out a walkthrough sometime. There are multiple points where you’ll say, “well how would anyone ever think of that?” Especially when it gets to the airplane.

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Oh yeah, I’m not sure I ever got past the first room or two with that one.

  • amio@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    This tickled a half-forgotten memory. I was into a few “ASCII” “game engines” when I was a kid, ZZT and MZX. There was definitely a Hitchhiker’s game on one of those. Doubt it was official, of course.

    • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      Actually, it was to turn on the light.

      I knew a co-worker who was really into a lot of early and more modern text adventure games. He said the babelfish puzzle was one of the hardest puzzles put in any text adventure game, past or present.

  • Davel23@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    I bought several Infocom games in their day, I think HHGTTG was the only one I ever finished.

      • Davel23@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        Yup. As I recall it was kind of a school-wide effort, with kids relaying solutions of various puzzles to each other until we had enough to complete the game. I do recall working out the Babelfish puzzle on my own, though I also neglected to feed the dog at the beginning of the game soft-locking myself on at least one playthrough.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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          11 months ago

          That was the most frustrating part of the game- finding out that you should have done something else ages ago and now you can never finish even though it let you keep going.