The "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Infocom game online!

April 21, 2002 6:58 PM

The "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Infocom game online! (Java-based) I think I just died and went to heaven. I played this years ago on a crusty old Mac - this and Fool's Errand. What old games do you remember spending hours or even days playing?
posted by Melinika (33 comments total)

Link should be this
posted by bdk3clash at 7:01 PM on April 21, 2002

You have a copy of fools errand somewhere?????

I have tons of old old mac games, btw.

The one I am looking for is Sierra's GOLD RUSH.
posted by Settle at 7:04 PM on April 21, 2002

btw, I won this game, btw.
posted by Settle at 7:06 PM on April 21, 2002

I was addicted to Miner 2049er. I played it on my first computer the TI-99/4A.
posted by gummi at 7:11 PM on April 21, 2002

Hey, what a hoot! I've never played one of these games before. It's more mentally stimulating than today's RPGs for sure.
posted by LoraT at 7:12 PM on April 21, 2002

Eek, thanks bdk3clash - looks like I snarfed the CAP! =P Is there any way to fix that?

Yes, we still have a copy of Fool's Errand - and a copy of Hitchhiker's, too. I need to set up my Geekboy's Mac Plus and play 'em again.

Well, actually, I need to find 'em first. It's been *years*.
posted by Melinika at 7:12 PM on April 21, 2002

best text game of its day apparently
im stuck in the hold of the damn vogon destructor fleet...
posted by sixtwenty3dc at 7:26 PM on April 21, 2002

*spoiler*

Don't forget to take the sandwich.
posted by yhbc at 7:31 PM on April 21, 2002

I used to love warlords on the Mac ( my friends Mac that is) I think it was the first iteration of it.

Of course there was a ton of stuff we used to play on the C64.
Jumpman
Rocketball
Spelunker
Sword of Fargoal

Ahh the sweet memories of my heritage. I miss arcades...
posted by a3matrix at 7:36 PM on April 21, 2002

>panic
Not surprised.

Heh.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:43 PM on April 21, 2002

Then there's the game that made Infocom famous (Indeed, the best 404 ever, as previously pointed out here)
posted by dchase at 7:53 PM on April 21, 2002

If you deliberately link to a 404 page, is it still a 404?
posted by rodii at 8:04 PM on April 21, 2002

This game was made before I was born, and it's driving me nuts. I think I'm going to go sleep now. Not being able to save is the best.
posted by insomnyuk at 8:37 PM on April 21, 2002

If anybody wants to play more games of this type (typically called "text adventures"), do a Google search for "interactive fiction." There's a thriving community of authors still creating these games, and the best are vastly more intellectually stimulating than any RPG I've ever played. The cream of the crop includes Andrew Plotkin's games, and the winners of the annual Interactive Fiction Competition. (again, Google search for both.)
posted by tweebiscuit at 9:08 PM on April 21, 2002

The last game I recall that really grabbed me by the eyeballs and didn't let go was Super Metroid. Going back in time I recall staying up past midnight a couple of days straight trying to finish the first Monkey Island game.

I never really got into the text adventure scene. I always used the wrong words and thought up too unusual solutions to things. I could rarely second-guess the programmer enough to get even a little way through a pure-text adventure game. (I have similar problems with RPGs.)

Recently I've started collecting Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy books. And I don't even have time to really enjoy them. Who has time for games these days?

Most recently I picked up some cheap copies of Panzer Dragoon I & II for the Saturn. And a not-so-cheap (but NEW) copy of Nights into Dreams with a 3D controller, also for the Saturn. I haven't even checked to make sure these work.

The last game I played was Crazy Taxi 2. No, I tell a lie, it was Sega Swirl on the Palm (while I was waiting for a lab of PCs to finish imaging). Before that it was QB for the Atari 2600 running on the Dreamcast through an emulator. I love my new CD burner.
posted by krisjohn at 9:24 PM on April 21, 2002

Not to be insulting, but if you're seriously interested in playing the game, either A: Expect to spend some large number of weeks working on it or B: Do not be afraid to look online for help. In particular, this site is awesome. Even more particularly, look at the invisiclues for the game. (There's also a walkthrough, but the invisiclues will leave you feeling less dirty.)

(Some versions of HHGTTG had built-in invisi-clues; try "help". Note I haven't tried it online, so please forgive me if this is all mentioned on thesite.)

HHGTTG is notoriously tough; I know the solutions to all the puzzles, but I'm yet to string them together into one game! Always manage to screw up one of the earlier ones, and save over it before I realize it. Bummer.

In the unlikely event you can locate Infocom games, start with "Nord and Bert Can't Make Head Or Tails Of It." It's both fun AND (relatively) easy (for a native English speaker; as it's heavily word-play based), a good start to the genre.)
posted by Jeremy Bowers at 9:48 PM on April 21, 2002

the interactive fiction archives; if you're interested.
posted by moz at 10:10 PM on April 21, 2002

There's this game called Pyroto that's kind of nifty, if you like text-based games....

*slinks out of the thread*
posted by Melinika at 10:29 PM on April 21, 2002

Hey! Where's my kudos, dammit? Don't make me take you people to MetaTalk.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 10:56 PM on April 21, 2002

Love that game. I can still feel a distant swell of the delight I felt when I figured out how to open the screening door.

If you want to play it natively, the z-file is available on da's site as well (warning: link to file for download). Interpreters can be found here. I think then you can save games between wracking your brain. Not that it will do any good. You probably made a mistake at the beginning of the game that will cost you. Bwa-ha-ha-!
posted by umberto at 11:37 PM on April 21, 2002

You can play nearly all of the original Infocom text adventures via telnet -- as well as the original Colossal Cave.
posted by bradlands at 11:40 PM on April 21, 2002

I much preferred the Lucasarts/SCUMM games. Games which allow you to 'lose' (especially through not performing some obscure action way back at the start), with your only recourse being to start all over again, suck arse.

I spent many days slogging through HHGTTG as a lad, and found many of the puzzles (the whole simultaneous Bugblatter Beast/Trillian's party/steal the HoG thing in particular) fiendishly difficult. And what was my reward? A game that ends about two-thirds of the way through the book. Woohoo, I'm on Magrathea. Now what?
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:43 AM on April 22, 2002

Impossible Mission on a Commodore 64. That voice at the start of the game still sends a chill down my spine.
posted by holycola at 1:14 AM on April 22, 2002

Hitchhiker has one of the most satisfying text adventure puzzles of all time; the infamous Babel Fish. I first played this on a CP/M Kaypro (how's that for old-school?) and laughed myself right out of the chair.
posted by johnnyace at 1:31 AM on April 22, 2002

I wasted an appallingly large proportion of my eleventh year finishing Level 9 Interactive's Snowball on my BBC Model B. The game was heavily influenced by Niven and Pournelle's 'The Mote in God's Eye'. It was fun and I felt a huge sense of achievement on completing it but many years on part of me thinks I would have been better off going outside and playing football or talking to people.
posted by Dan Brilliant at 2:19 AM on April 22, 2002 [1 favorite]

Nah screw it, football sucks. Here's how to play football, or at least the kind you mean. Kick a ball. Chase after the ball. Repeat. Text-based football games would have been so easy! People suck too BTW.
posted by vbfg at 3:39 AM on April 22, 2002

Stay awhile, stay FOREVER!

Which is what I'll do in Zork. Stay forever at that stupid mailbox because I can't figure out how to get that damn leaflet.
posted by Apoch at 4:34 AM on April 22, 2002 [1 favorite]

BTW, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will be released on DVD on 04/30/02.
posted by piskycritters at 5:21 AM on April 22, 2002

Wow, It only took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get the Babel Fish this time. Apparently huge sections of my brain's memory capacity are still wasted with intricate details of this game's workings.

Where's that "erase" feature when you need it. I've got phone numbers to memorize...
posted by mmoncur at 6:21 AM on April 22, 2002

As a teenager?

Doctor.
posted by y2karl at 8:03 AM on April 22, 2002

Ok how does one escape the bulldozer? I make it out of the house, and then no matter which direction I go in, the bulldozer/collapsing house kills me.
posted by riffola at 8:25 AM on April 22, 2002

Then only text adventure games I managed to complete on my own was Infocom's Trinity and The Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

Nothing beats being stuck in a room for DAYS until you realize you can "take hole" and slap it against the exterior wall.

But like other who have posted on this thread, my gaming days are rooted more in the CGA/EGA era of Sierra, EA, and at the end of that glorious run, Lucasarts.

As for HHGTTG, I gave up somewhere on Zaphod's ship wondering what to do while the depressed robot followed me around.
posted by linux at 9:40 AM on April 22, 2002

The only text adventures I ever completed were Nord and Bert on the Apple II and (much more recently) For a Change.
posted by markpasc at 7:56 AM on April 24, 2002