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.worldEnglish
    57·
    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.worldEnglish
      13·
      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.worldOPEnglish
      121·
      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.

  • Got_Bent@lemmy.worldEnglish
    50·
    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.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.worldEnglish
      39·
      11 months ago

      I got so frustrated getting killed over and over that I typed:

       Fuck Ford

      into the prompt. The game responded with:

       This is a family entertainment game, not a video nasty.

      Which is how I found out that was British slang for porn. graphic horror films, apparently.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      There were at least five Zork games I can think of that were purely text (graphical ones came later): Zork, Zork II, Zork III, Beyond Zork and Zork Zero.

      • Got_Bent@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        I had one two and three but don’t recall playing the latter two. By then I’d moved on to the greatest game released in the mid-eighties - Autoduel.

        Then it was on to the original Bard’s Tale.

        I played both of those to completion then figured out how to cheat on both by finding character stats with a sector editor.

  • mkwt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    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.worldOPEnglish
      11·
      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.worldEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

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

  • xyguy@startrek.websiteEnglish
    141·
    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.worldOPEnglish
      12·
      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.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      11 months ago

      I spent days on it. I did finally get the Babel Fish. I think with help by talking about it with friends who had solved other parts of the puzzle… but it got even harder after that!

      spoiler

      First you had to put together the improbability drive, then you jumped into different characters’ bodies and had to survive in their bodies AND bring back the items you need to make it an infinite improbability drive and I didn’t get past that, but apparently after that, you land on the planet Magrathea and you have to figure out how to get the door open and that’s where the game ends.