The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game)

Last updated

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Hitchhikers Guide box art.jpg
Developer(s) Infocom [1]
Publisher(s) Infocom
Designer(s) Douglas Adams
Steve Meretzky
Engine Z-machine
Platform(s) Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Apple II, Apricot PC, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, CP/M, MS-DOS, Epson QX-10, Kaypro II, Mac, Osborne 1, TI-99/4A, TRS-80, [2] Flash [3]
Release
Genre(s) Adventure, Interactive fiction
Mode(s) Single-player

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction video game based on the comedic science fiction series of the same name. It was designed by series creator Douglas Adams and Infocom's Steve Meretzky, and it was first released in 1984 for the Apple II, Mac, Commodore 64, CP/M, MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari 8-bit computers, and Atari ST. It is Infocom's fourteenth game.

Contents

Plot

The game loosely mirrors a portion of the series' plot, representing most of the events in the first book. Arthur Dent wakes up one day to find his house about to be destroyed by a construction crew to make way for a new bypass. His friend Ford Prefect, who is secretly an extraterrestrial, helps to calm Arthur down and hitches them a ride on one of the ships in the approaching Vogon constructor fleet, moments before the fleet destroys the Earth to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.

Aboard the ship, Arthur learns that Ford is a journalist for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and has been on Earth researching the planet for the Guide. The two are discovered by Vogons and subjected by the captain to a reading of his poetry. The two manage to survive this, and the Vogons throw them into the airlock and shoot them out into space. By a huge improbability, they are picked up in the last moment before they die of asphyxiation by the spacecraft Heart of Gold while it is traveling on Infinite Improbability Drive. After getting safely aboard the ship, Arthur and Ford meet Ford's friend Zaphod Beeblebrox, who had stolen the Heart of Gold as his first act of office as the Galactic President, as well as Arthur's friend Trillian (Tricia McMillan), whom Zaphod had picked up from a party on Earth. Zaphod wants to travel to the legendary planet of Magrathea, believing it to hold a great secret.

At this point, Zaphod leaves the task of getting to Magrathea to the ship's computer Eddie, and he, Ford, and Trillian depart to the ship's sauna. Arthur finds Eddie incapable of getting to Magrathea without help. Arthur initially tries to help by supplying the Infinite Improbability Drive with a tea substitute from the ship's Nutrimatic device to serve as a source of Brownian motion, but this only causes Arthur to temporarily take on the consciousness of Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian in their respective pasts, and he must manipulate events such that items in these past periods are brought aboard the Heart of Gold in the present. Through this, Arthur gains enough parts as to replace the circuit board in the Nutrimatic so that it can produce real tea. This tea is powerful enough to power the Drive to get them to Magrathea, but in orbit, the ship is attacked by two missiles from the surface. Arthur employs the Drive again to change the missiles into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias, neutralizing the threat.

The ship prepares to land, but the computer will not let them do so. Again, the other three head off to the sauna, leaving Arthur to figure out how to fix this. This requires Arthur to reach Marvin the Paranoid Android's closet on the ship in order to get the final tools needed to fix the computer and get it to land. The game ends as Arthur and the others are about to set foot on Magrathea.

Gameplay

Screenshot of the 30th anniversary edition of the game. The original text-based game is effectively presented in the top-left window, and additional graphical interface elements added for the anniversary edition. Hitchhikers guide bbc thirtieth anniversary game.png
Screenshot of the 30th anniversary edition of the game. The original text-based game is effectively presented in the top-left window, and additional graphical interface elements added for the anniversary edition.

The Hitchhiker's Guide is a text adventure game in which the player, in the role of Arthur Dent, solves a number of puzzles to complete various objectives to win the game. This includes collecting and using a number of inventory items. The player has a limited variety of commands to observe, move about, and interact with the game's world, such as "look", "inventory", "north" (to move north), "take screwdriver", or "put robe on hook". Most commands will advance the game's turn counter, and some puzzles require the player to complete it within a fixed number of turns or else the game may end and require the player to restart at the beginning or a saved state; passive commands like "look" and "inventory", or mistyped or non-comprehended commands, do not count as turns. Once the player has acquired the eponymous Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a wide variety of topics can be asked about, some of which may be helpful in solving the game's puzzles.

In both the game's 20th- and 30th-anniversary editions, the game's interface is augmented with graphics that help to map out the locations and other features, though the player is still required to type in all commands. [7]

Feelies

The "Don't Panic" feelie button. Don't Panic Badge.jpg
The "Don't Panic" feelie button.

Most Infocom games contained "feelies", bonus novelty items included to enhance the immersiveness of the game. The feelies provided with this game included:

Reception

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gained a reputation for deviousness. Computer Gaming World reported on rumors that "several important people within the [video game] industry cannot (snicker, snicker!!!) even get out of [the] first room!" [8] Jerry Pournelle advised non-readers of the novel against playing the game, and warned that "even if you've memorized the book, these puzzles are hard". [9] Perhaps the most notorious instance involved getting a Babel Fish out of a dispenser in the hold of the Vogon ship, which would translate the Vogon language to English. This tricky puzzle appeared early in the game and required the player to use a variety of obscure items in a specific fashion, some which had to be obtained in earlier, but non-revisitable, sections of the game, to create a Heath Robinson (or Rube Goldberg)-like chain of events. The puzzle further had to be "solved" within a limited number of turns. Failure to "solve" the Babel Fish puzzle did not kill the player, but rendered the remainder of the game unwinnable, as one subsequent puzzle requires the player to gain a passcode based on Vogon-written instructions, otherwise undecipherable without the Fish. [10] That particular puzzle became so notorious for its difficulty that Infocom wound up selling T-shirts bearing the legend, "I got the Babel Fish!" [11] Adams stated that the puzzle's difficulty, and the notable game play change that it begins, was intentional; "Just as the player gets comfortable in the narrow neck, the bottom drops out!" [8]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was very successful. It sold 59,000 copies in 1984—in second place among Infocom games, after Zork I —and with 166,000 copies it was the company's best-selling title in 1985, more than twice as many as Wishbringer . [12] Based on sales and market-share data, Video magazine listed the game fourth on its list of best selling video games in February 1985, [13] and third on the best seller list in March 1985, [14] with II Computing listing it sixth on the magazine's list of top Apple II games as of October–November 1985. [15] Its sales had surpassed 250,000 copies by November 1989. [16] Hitchhiker ultimately sold 400,000 copies, [17] and was one of the best-selling titles of its time. [18] [19]

Video in March 1985 praised the game's fidelity to its source material, stating that "it survives the transition as wacky and spaced-out as ever". Though acknowledging that "there may be a few minor problems with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", the reviewer suggested that "the game is so engrossing, funny, and often so infuriatingly difficult that you'll hardly notice them". [20] In May 1985 Antic called it an "extraordinary game" and "a step forward from Infocom's safe, established approach to game design" with "distinct and tangible" writing, "really the first stylistic departure since the Zork trilogy". The magazine stated that Hitchhiker was "not your run-of-the-mill text adventure" but promised that "the puzzles are tough, but follow a certain capricious, twisted internal logic". [21] Compute! in June 1985 stated that the game "may well be Infocom's best effort to date", citing an effective adaptation of Adams's "comic absurdity", sense of humor, and "fascinating" story. The magazine "recommended [it] for all adventure gamers", [22] and listed the game in May 1988 as one of "Our Favorite Games", stating that its humor distinguished Hitchhiker from other adventure games; "[Adams'] keen and literate wit make this game a joy". [23] Compute! gave it the 1989 Compute! Choice Award for Role Playing/Adventure Game. [24]

In 1996, Computer Gaming World listed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at #42 among their top 150 best games of all-time, writing that "Douglas Adams' humor comes alive in this text adventure". [25]

Legacy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was one of five top-selling Infocom games to be produced in Solid Gold versions, with a built-in hint system not included in the originals. The game was re-released by Activision in several collection packages before rights reverted to Adams, enabling The Digital Village to re-release it as a web-based Java applet. Originally published as a fund-raising tool on the 1997 Comic Relief website, it took up permanent residence on Adams' own website the following year.

The original text-only version appeared in the Game On video games exhibition, which has toured museums worldwide since 2002, representing the text-based genre of video games.

On 21 September 2004 the BBC launched the 20th Anniversary Edition to coincide with the initial radio broadcast of the Tertiary Phase . Sporting a Flash user interface, and illustrated by Rod Lord (who also produced the guide animations for the Hitchhiker's TV series), it won the Interactive BAFTA Award for Best Online Entertainment. [26]

In 2014, a 30th Anniversary Edition was made available at the BBC. [27]

Sequel

A proposed sequel, Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, which was to continue from the ending of the original, had problems from the start of development in 1985, until it was cancelled in 1989. This was due primarily down to the facts that there was "no solid game design, nobody to program it, and the backdrop of Infocom's larger economic problems". [28] The beginning stages of the game were leaked in April 2008; however, the majority of it had yet to be written by the time it was cancelled. [29] [30] [31]

Related Research Articles

Infocom was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called Cornerstone.

Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the form of Interactive narratives or Interactive narrations. These works can also be understood as a form of video game, either in the form of an adventure game or role-playing game. In common usage, the term refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game where the entire interface can be "text-only", however, graphical text adventure games, where the text is accompanied by graphics still fall under the text adventure category if the main way to interact with the game is by typing text. Some users of the term distinguish between interactive fiction, known as "Puzzle-free", that focuses on narrative, and "text adventures" that focus on puzzles.

<i>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</i> Science fiction series

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it was later adapted to other formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 text adventure game, and 2005 feature film.

<i>Mostly Harmless</i> 1992 comic science fiction novel by Douglas Adams

Mostly Harmless is a 1992 novel by Douglas Adams and the fifth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It is described on the cover of the first edition as "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Trilogy". It was the last Hitchhiker's book written by Adams and his final book released in his lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zaphod Beeblebrox</span> Fictional character in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Zaphod Beeblebrox is a fictional character in the various versions of the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marvin the Paranoid Android</span> Fictional robot in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Marvin the Paranoid Android is a fictional character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. Marvin is the ship's robot aboard the starship Heart of Gold. Originally built as one of many failed prototypes of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation's GPP technology, Marvin is afflicted with severe depression and boredom, in part because he has a "brain the size of a planet" which he is seldom, if ever, given the chance to use. Instead, the crew request him merely to carry out mundane jobs such as "opening the door". Indeed, the true horror of Marvin's existence is that no task he could be given would occupy even the tiniest fraction of his vast intellect. Marvin claims he is 50,000 times more intelligent than a human, though this is, if anything, an underestimation. When kidnapped by the bellicose Krikkit robots and tied to the interfaces of their intelligent war computer, Marvin simultaneously manages to plan the entire planet's military strategy, solve "all of the major mathematical, physical, chemical, biological, sociological, philosophical, etymological, meteorological and psychological problems of the Universe, except his own, three times over", and compose several lullabies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Dent</span> The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy character

Arthur Philip Dent is a fictional character and the hapless protagonist of the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

<i>The Restaurant at the End of the Universe</i> 1980 novel by Douglas Adams

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy science fiction comedy "trilogy" by Douglas Adams. It was originally published by Pan Books as a paperback in 1980. Like the preceding novel, it was adapted from Adams' radio series, and became a critically acclaimed cult classic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vogon</span> Fictional alien race in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

The Vogons are a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy—initially a BBC Radio series by Douglas Adams—who are responsible for the destruction of the Earth, in order to facilitate an intergalactic highway construction project for a hyperspace express route. Vogons are slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are bulkier than humans, and have green skin. Vogons are described as "one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy—not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous", and having "as much sex appeal as a road accident" as well as being the authors of "the third worst poetry in the universe". They are employed as the galactic government's bureaucrats. According to Marvin the Paranoid Android, they are also the worst marksmen in the galaxy. They follow orders as they are told, and do not allow exceptions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Meretzky</span> American video game developer

Steven Eric Meretzky is an American video game developer. He is best known for creating Infocom games in the early 1980s, including collaborating with author Douglas Adams on the interactive fiction game of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the first games to be certified "platinum" by the Software Publishers Association. Later, he created the Spellcasting trilogy, the flagship adventure series of Legend Entertainment. He has been involved in almost every aspect of game development, from design to production to quality assurance and box design.

Magnetic Scrolls was a British video game developer active between 1984 and 1990. A pioneer of audiovisually elaborate text adventure games, it was one of the largest and most acclaimed interactive fiction developers of the 1980s, and one of the "Big Two" with Infocom according to some.

<i>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</i> (novel) 1979 book by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "trilogy of five books" by Douglas Adams, with a sixth book written by Eoin Colfer. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name, centering on the adventures of the only man to survive the destruction of Earth; while roaming outer space, he comes to learn the truth behind Earth's existence. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979. It sold 250,000 copies in the first three months.

<i>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</i> (film) 2005 film by Garth Jennings

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings, based upon the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series created by Douglas Adams. It stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, and John Malkovich, and the voices of Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, Richard Griffiths, Thomas Lennon, Ian McNeice, and Alan Rickman. Adams co-wrote the screenplay with Karey Kirkpatrick but Adams died in 2001, before production began, therefore the film is dedicated to him. The film received mainly positive reviews and grossed over $100 million worldwide.

<i>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</i> (radio series) UK sci-fi comedy radio series (1978–2018)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy radio series primarily written by Douglas Adams. It was originally broadcast in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4 in 1978, and afterwards the BBC World Service, National Public Radio in the US and CBC Radio in Canada. The series was the first radio comedy programme to be produced in stereo, and was innovative in its use of music and sound effects, winning a number of awards.

<i>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</i> (TV series) British sci-fi comedy television series by Douglas Adams (1981)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a BBC television adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which aired between 5 January and 9 February 1981 on BBC2 in the United Kingdom. The adaptation follows the original radio series in 1978 and 1980, the first novel and double LP, in 1979, and the stage shows, in 1979 and 1980, making it the fifth iteration of the guide.

<i>The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy</i> Primary and Secondary Phases Radio series written by Douglas Adams

The terms Primary Phase and Secondary Phase describe the first two radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, first broadcast in 1978. These were the first incarnations of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy franchise. Both were written by Douglas Adams and consist of six episodes each.

The Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase, Quintessential Phase and Hexagonal Phase are respectively the third, fourth, fifth and sixth series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series. Produced in 2003, 2004 and 2018 by Above the Title Productions for BBC Radio 4, they are radio adaptations of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth books in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series: Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish; Mostly Harmless and And Another Thing....

Amy Ruth Briggs is an American video game implementor known for creating Plundered Hearts, an interactive fiction computer game published by Infocom in 1987.

<i>And Another Thing...</i> (novel) Eoin Colfer novel

And Another Thing... is the sixth and final installment of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy of six books". The book, written by Eoin Colfer was published on the thirtieth anniversary of the first book, 12 October 2009, in hardback. It was published by Penguin Books in the UK and by Hyperion Books in the US. Colfer was given permission to write the book by Adams' widow Jane Belson.

References

  1. ↑ Murphy, Jamie (13 May 2013). "Stepping into the Story: Players participate in 'interactive fiction'". Time. Vol. 125, no. 19. Reported by Cristina Garcia. p. 64. Infocom, the Cambridge-based software company that pioneered interactive fiction, has released an electronic version of Douglas Adams' popular novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ($39.95), which last week jumped to No. 1 on Billboard's list of top computer software.
  2. ↑ Adventureland Archived 23 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine by Hans Persson and Stefan Meier
  3. ↑ BBC RADIO 4, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Archived 18 October 2004 at the Wayback Machine , text adventure game, freely available in Flash
  4. ↑ "'Galaxy' Goes Electronic". The Cincinnati Enquirer . 18 October 1994. p. 54. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Infocom, the company behind "Zork," "Deadline" and several other "interactive fiction" text-adventure computer games, will release "Hitchhiker" Nov. 1 (retail price: $39.95).
  5. ↑ Kosek, Steve (9 November 1984). "Peanuts gang leads the way with new round of video games". Chicago Tribune . p. 166. Retrieved 5 May 2024. Activision will be releasing "Ghostbusters," a strategy game designed after the hit movie with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, and Infocom is just about to begin distribution of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," an all-text adventure designed by Douglas Adams, whose best-selling science-fiction trilogy has inspired a cult following on college campuses.
  6. ↑ "Special Feature: Happy Birthday!". Popular Computing Weekly . 1 May 1987. pp. 14–18.
  7. ↑ Webster, Andrew (4 March 2014). "The Classics: 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' text adventure". The Verge . Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  8. 1 2 Adams, Roe (January 1985). "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Leads an Invasion of the Pros". Computer Gaming World. p. 17.
  9. ↑ Pournelle, Jerry (August 1985). "The West Coast Computer Faire". BYTE. pp. 293–326. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  10. ↑ Buerkle, Robert (2017). "Starship Titanic and the Perils of Pythonesque Gaming". In Reinsch, Paul; Whitfeld, B. Lynn; Weiner, Robert (eds.). Python Beyond Python: Critical Engagements with Culture. Springer International Publishing. pp. 219–238. ISBN   978-3319513850.
  11. ↑ Interview with Steve Meretzky, co-author of the Game Archived 11 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine from BBC – Radio 4
  12. ↑ Carless, Simon (20 September 2008). "Great Scott: Infocom's All-Time Sales Numbers Revealed". GameSetWatch. Think Services. Archived from the original on 24 September 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2008.
  13. ↑ Ditlea, Steve; Onosco, Tim; Kunkel, Bill (February 1985). "Random Access: Best Sellers/Recreation". Video . 8 (11). Reese Communications: 35. ISSN   0147-8907.
  14. ↑ Onosco, Tim; Kohl, Louise; Kunkel, Bill; Garr, Doug (March 1985). "Random Access: Best Sellers/Recreation". Video . 8 (12). Reese Communications: 43. ISSN   0147-8907.
  15. ↑ Ciraolo, Michael (October–November 1985). "Top Software / A List of Favorites". II Computing. p. 51. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Staff (November 1989). "Chart-Busters; SPA Platinum". Game Players (5): 112.
  17. ↑ Simpson, M. J. (2003). Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams . Boston: Justin, Charles & Co. pp.  224–226. ISBN   1932112359.
  18. ↑ Correira, Alexa Ray (10 March 2014). "BBC launches update of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure". Polygon . Archived from the original on 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  19. ↑ "About the game". BBC. March 2014. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  20. ↑ Kohl, Louise (March 1985). "Random Access: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Video . 8 (12). Reese Communications: 42–43. ISSN   0147-8907.
  21. ↑ Powell, Jack; Ciraolo, Michael (May 1985). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Antic. p. 19. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  22. ↑ Randall, Neil (June 1985). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Compute!. p. 58. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  23. ↑ "Our Favorite Games". Compute!. May 1988. p. 12. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  24. ↑ "The 1989 Compute! Choice Awards". Compute!. January 1989. p. 24. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  25. ↑ Staff (November 1996). "150 Best (and 50 Worst) Games of All Time" (PDF). Computer Gaming World. No. 148. pp. 63–65, 68, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 84, 88, 90, 94, 98. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  26. ↑ "BBC leads interactive Bafta wins" Archived 30 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine from BBC News on 2 March 2005
  27. ↑ "'Hitchhiker's Guide' text adventure gets 30th-anniversary update". CNET. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  28. ↑ Waxy.org blog about the cancelled game Archived 26 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine by Andy Baio
  29. ↑ Milliways, Hitchhiker sequel Archived 21 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine , Java applet from waxy.org
  30. ↑ Walker, John (18 April 2008). "Milliways: The Lost Infocom Game". Rock Paper Shotgun . Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  31. ↑ Kohler, Chris (18 April 2008). "'Infocom Drive' Turns Up Long-Lost "Hitchhiker" Sequel". Wired . Retrieved 9 March 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.