46 votes

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 30th anniversary text adventure game remake

18 comments

  1. [10]
    Tigress
    Link
    This game is hilarious. "You keep out of this, you're dead". Thanks for linking it. I like to be belligerent. So far i have not made it off earth yet.

    This game is hilarious. "You keep out of this, you're dead". Thanks for linking it. I like to be belligerent. So far i have not made it off earth yet.

    11 votes
    1. [9]
      GenuinelyCrooked
      Link Parent
      I'm stuck in the bar. I've read the book about half a dozen times, I know exactly what happens, but I'm not familiar with text based adventure games and I have no idea what I need to enter to get...

      I'm stuck in the bar. I've read the book about half a dozen times, I know exactly what happens, but I'm not familiar with text based adventure games and I have no idea what I need to enter to get Ford to get us onto that Vogon ship.

      7 votes
      1. [8]
        Tigress
        Link Parent
        I don't remember exactly what happens in the book so so far I keep dying at the part where he goes out and finds the bulldozer. Funny thing is at that part it doesn't end the game at me dying, I...

        I don't remember exactly what happens in the book so so far I keep dying at the part where he goes out and finds the bulldozer. Funny thing is at that part it doesn't end the game at me dying, I gotta get on an ambulance first (but it keeps chiding me that I'm dead anytime I try to do anything) and eventually earth gets destroyed.

        5 votes
        1. [7]
          GenuinelyCrooked
          Link Parent
          Do you want me to tell you what to do to get past that point? I was stuck there for a while, too. Knowing what happens in the book doesn't really help unless you know how to turn it into game...

          Do you want me to tell you what to do to get past that point? I was stuck there for a while, too. Knowing what happens in the book doesn't really help unless you know how to turn it into game commands.

          3 votes
          1. [6]
            Tigress
            Link Parent
            Yeah, I give up trying to get past lol.

            Yeah, I give up trying to get past lol.

            3 votes
            1. [5]
              GenuinelyCrooked
              Link Parent
              Click here for spoilers Just keep hitting "wait" until Ford talks Mr. Prosser into lying down in front of the bulldozer. If anyone knows how to get past the scene in the bar, please let me know!
              Click here for spoilers

              Just keep hitting "wait" until Ford talks Mr. Prosser into lying down in front of the bulldozer.

              If anyone knows how to get past the scene in the bar, please let me know!

              2 votes
              1. [2]
                Tigress
                Link Parent
                really cause with what I do he walks away to the bar... do I have to refuse his towel?

                really cause with what I do he walks away to the bar... do I have to refuse his towel?

                2 votes
                1. chocobean
                  Link Parent
                  for others reading this: yes one has to refuse the towel it's amazing how linear these older games are : ) that's the challenge

                  for others reading this: yes one has to refuse the towel

                  it's amazing how linear these older games are : ) that's the challenge

                  2 votes
              2. [2]
                Tigress
                Link Parent
                Well I followed your advice and when I got to the bar I drank beer until I heard my house crash and then I ran to house... but now I"m stuck there. NOt sure if that helps you.

                Well I followed your advice and when I got to the bar I drank beer until I heard my house crash and then I ran to house... but now I"m stuck there. NOt sure if that helps you.

                2 votes
                1. GenuinelyCrooked
                  Link Parent
                  I'm stuck a little past that now. I just made a BBC account so I don't have to keep going back and don't the beginning all over again. Thank you though!

                  I'm stuck a little past that now. I just made a BBC account so I don't have to keep going back and don't the beginning all over again. Thank you though!

                  3 votes
  2. [4]
    Merry
    Link
    In my spare time at work, I have been researching text based adventure games and found a few that were playable in the browser. I have never really played these before and I haven't ever beaten...

    In my spare time at work, I have been researching text based adventure games and found a few that were playable in the browser. I have never really played these before and I haven't ever beaten one, so I have been plugging away at this one to see how far I can get. I really enjoyed the books that I read several years back, and since this game was written by Douglas Adams as well, thought this aligned very well with the humor of the books. But it sure is difficult! I die so much, so unexpectedly, that it makes Dark Souls feel like a cake walk

    9 votes
    1. [3]
      ZaphodBeeblebrox
      Link Parent
      Look up Starship Titanic also by Douglas Adams. If you are looking for browser based games like this, the Zork games are pretty good. I believe someone ported them to browser. search Zork Online...

      Look up Starship Titanic also by Douglas Adams. If you are looking for browser based games like this, the Zork games are pretty good. I believe someone ported them to browser. search Zork Online and you will find several ports/emulators etc.

      9 votes
      1. beardedchimp
        Link Parent
        Top of the well! There is a particular puzzle in Starship Titanic that my family and I became absolutely stuck on for weeks. It is a music room with a whole load of knobs and dials. After hours of...

        Top of the well!

        There is a particular puzzle in Starship Titanic that my family and I became absolutely stuck on for weeks. It is a music room with a whole load of knobs and dials.

        After hours of going through every possible combination I finally solved it, having no idea why it was the solution. Years later I found out the box the game came in has a picture showing the exact positions each knob needed to be in.

        We had bought it on release and of course immediately thrown away the box. Douglas Adams was a right bastard for that one. I'm sure it was great for messing with pirated copies but it hurt me inside.

        The game itself is riddled with Adams humour. I remember from decades ago this "break glass in case of emergency" box. After breaking the glass for no real reason repeatedly, it gets replaced with a note saying "the break glass in case of emergency box has been replaced with unbreakable glass due to repeated vandalism" hahahahaha.

        1 vote
      2. geckospots
        Link Parent
        You have been eaten by a grue.

        You have been eaten by a grue.

  3. [2]
    jrmyr
    Link
    I have finished this game, and to this day it is one of my fondest memories. When I was a kid I had a friend who was given an Atari ST with a 10MB hard disk by a family friend. It was quite the...

    I have finished this game, and to this day it is one of my fondest memories.

    When I was a kid I had a friend who was given an Atari ST with a 10MB hard disk by a family friend. It was quite the gift for the day. What no one realized until later was that the hard disk contained not one, but two Infocom text adventures; Planetfall and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was a childhood moment of awe not terribly unlike when Cinemax would suddenly snap into perfect clarity. If you know what I mean, you know what I mean.

    We spent a few weeks before summer vacation started occasionally tinkering around with Planetfall and it some point it just grabbed us. We were taking notes on how to interact with the game, drawing maps on graph paper, and pretending to be Floyd each time one of us walked into a room. Finishing Planetfall felt like an accomplishment, and with summer vacation starting, we were primed for Hitchhiker's. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

    Neither one of us were familiar with the book. We'd never heard of Douglas Adams. We just figured it must be somehow related to Planetfall since they were the only two games on this donated computer. If you've read Hitchhiker's you can imagine how difficult it was as young kids to wade through something so obtuse, so... absurd. It didn't matter. Every time we made a step forward it was like finishing Planetfall all over again. It took us all summer, but we finished Hitchhiker's.

    The sheer madness of spending hours a day, every day, for our entire summer vacation camped out in front of that little screen, laying in front of bulldozers and stirring tea, permanently captured my interest and imagination. I have such a large place in my heart for Infocom and their games. I keep a gallery of screenshots of the final paragraphs of each of the games I've finished, and while I've finished quite a few by now, I still haven't finished them all.

    So if you happen to run into Floyd, or Marvin, tell 'em I said hello. One of them would appreciate a nice game of hucka-bucka-beanstalk; the other, not so much.

    6 votes
    1. beardedchimp
      Link Parent
      I'm seriously impressed, I and my family never managed it. Dying is how you learn to play the game, you need to die continuously in order to progress from the start. Prince of Persia was our real...

      I'm seriously impressed, I and my family never managed it. Dying is how you learn to play the game, you need to die continuously in order to progress from the start.

      Prince of Persia was our real achievement. We played on an amstrad 286. My Mum was addicted to games, she absolutely loved them. Her, my big sister and I would all play together. When it would get into the evening she would declare "It's bed time, the computer is being turned off, off to bed!"

      But we knew our mum better, she was proper addicted. I was like 7 or 8 and shared a bedroom with my big sister. We'd pretend to go to sleep and wait till we heard the noise that my mum had turned the amstrad back on. From upstairs, through the banisters we could watch her play. We would lie side by side and watch my mum spend hours making progress, it was just as good as playing it ourselves.

      You had to complete the game in an hour otherwise the princess died, so you needed to understand how to complete each level as fast as possible. There were various parts were I was the best at completing them, like killing all the skeletons. My mum was the only one of us who could fight the big fat guy who had a unique sword style. Together we beat that game in the time limit and shagged the princess. We were all so proud of each other the first time.

      1 vote
  4. PossiblyBipedal
    Link
    Thanks for linking this! I've played this game on and off over the years and have never completed it. It really is incredibly hard. Even with hints. But I still enjoy it every time I play it.

    Thanks for linking this! I've played this game on and off over the years and have never completed it. It really is incredibly hard. Even with hints. But I still enjoy it every time I play it.

    3 votes
  5. SteeeveTheSteve
    Link
    I missed the dressing gown when I turned on the light so when I tried to "get dressed" it said I'm not holding my gown. Naturally I thought it was cracking a joke about holding a fancy dress and...

    I missed the dressing gown when I turned on the light so when I tried to "get dressed" it said I'm not holding my gown. Naturally I thought it was cracking a joke about holding a fancy dress and tried to take the clothing, robes, clothes, and a dozen other words only to finally remember it's British and night robes are gowns. Doh!

    I also learned going back into your home will not stop this homicidal bulldozer operator and somehow it can outmaneuver a person trying to stand in the way. It's too bad I didn't see a towel, I hear those can be handy in these situations. Maybe I'll look around more next time?

    This is going to take a LONG time to play, just because it's so fun seeing how many things can be tried. :)

    3 votes