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"Mostly Harmless"

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is the first book in the inappropriately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy (there's give books). The book enjoys a rather large cult following, and it propelled its author, Douglas Adams, into fame. It became so popular that a movie deal was even in the works.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy on the personal computer is a text adventure made by Infocom. Infocom is generally considered the elite in text adventure games, producing ninety percent of the available text adventure games for the early personal computer. We're talking ancient times here, back when Windows was a pipe dream.

In case you're not familiar with the text adventure genre, let me explain. There are no graphics, excluding the text on the screen. Everything is driven by words and actions. The strength of a text adventure lies in its story, as it has to be either really interesting or really funny to carry the ''reader's'' attention.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy's case, the humour carries the game. If you've read the book, you'll know the plot loosely, as it does follow it for a time. However, the plot does diverge from the book, so you can enjoy the game even if you have read the book.

The story centers around two hitchhikers, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. Minutes before Earth is about to be blown up by aliens, Ford Prefect manages to hitchhike with Arthur on to another alien ship. The game chronicles the unimportant, stupid, and silly journey that they take.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is an entertaining text adventure. Very well written, with lots of funny jokes, and references to the book. However, this is not a game for newcomers to the genre. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is considered one of the toughest Infocom games to beat. It changes around several of the classic Infocom terms, and asks for some pretty loony answers to questions. If you can beat the game without consulting any sort of documentation, consider yourself a gaming god.

If you can't listen to a radio, or read a book, then this game isn't really for you. There are absolutely NO graphics, and there are NO sounds or sound effects. Stick to more traditional game genres.

However, if you think you're up to playing some text adventures, then you might want to give The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy a good once over. Chances are you'll find some very humorous aspects in it, and you won't be sorry. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy can be played online for free; if you do a web search on any major search engine you should come up with the web site.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/08/01, Updated 08/08/01

"Infocom and Adams at their hilarious best"

WARNING: This game is a 'Text Adventure' or, if you want to make it sound more important/pretentious, a work of 'Interactive Fiction'. Because of this unavoidable fact, I sadly can’t recommend it to any illiterate gamers out there who may or may not be staring at this review and wondering just what is wrong with their 'picture box'. Besides, I'm sure they are happy playing Tekken.

(Quick apologies to any tekken players reading this review!)

Well, I say no graphics but in reality we have the most powerful processer in history providing the imagery for this game: our imaginations. And when the text that this adventure is based on is the classic Douglas Adams book of the same name, and the team that implement it the undisputed masters at Infocom, it should seem clear to even our illiterate, Tekken playing friends that this is a game to file under 'Masterpiece'.

The player assumes the role of the lead protagonist and general bum Arthur Dent. Its a beautiful summer's morning that our man Arthur is missing, being in bed and suffering the effects of a nights drinking. Little does he realise that his house and planet, in that order, are about to come crashing down around him. He is also unaware that his best friend is actually an inter-galactic reporter who will accompany him on an adventure through time and space. All this before the poor man has had time to brew a tea.

As is true of most Infocom games, the interface is very versatile and will not throw lines like “I do not know what a ‘sit down’ is” back at the player, providing he has a decent knowledge of how to play these games. In fact the 'narrator' is brutally honest, telling you to leave items alone if they arent important. Not that this will happen often: the attention to detail is meticulous with Arthur being able to interact with most items described in the text. The text is hilarious too, which adds motivation to mess around with as many different items and characters in as many ways as possible. Try getting Arthur killed in as many ways as you can find for starters.

The ‘Guide' of the title is itself very well implemented: Arthur is given this encyclopaedia of the Universe early in the game and can consult it for information on all manner of things. Some are needed for vital information, some are just there for fun. Its a great gameplay mechanism that helps really absorb the player into Adams' off-the-wall version of our universe.

Progressing through the game's many puzzles will require some abstract yet logical thinking. It was ranked 'Medium' on the Infocom difficulty scale and, having not played any of their Expert titles, I have no frame of reference. But look... if you manage to get that Babelfish in your ear the first time of asking I'll have a cathedral built as a tribute. This game is challenging and reading the book will only help you a little.

Towards the end of the game Arthur has to mess with some truly mind-bending quantum devices that transport the player around time and space. Hopefully I'm not spoiling anything for you when I reveal that you get to play as different characters for brief episodes. The design for these sections is confusing at first but I feel this does justice to just how confusing Arthur would be as his atoms are scrambled around!

The only criticism I can possibly forward is that the game ends on a ''To be Continued...'' note and the promised sequel will not be seeing the light of day now that Infocom are ancient history. Although sad, this was inevitable and they would perhaps be the first to admit their time in the sun was up. The same cannot be said of the tragically early death of Douglas Adams, taken from us by a heart attack at 49 years of age last year. I strongly urge you to check out this fantastic game and the series of books and keep his great works alive.

Reviewer's Rating: 5.0 - Flawless

"The Game Sure To Give You Carpal Tunnel Syndrom!"

This text adventure does not pave the way for a new form of game play. This game does not travel into new ways of thinking. Heck, it doesn’t even have a battle in the entire game. But what this game does have, is a hilarious mode of playing the oldest form of Internet play: Text. It doesn’t have graphics, doesn’t have sound, it’s just writing. And boy, these people sure know how to make reading fun.

Storyline: This is going to be brief since a lot of information would surely spell spoilers. But really, you are Arthur Dent, a British man who has a strange liking for tea and a bad headache. You are getting out of bed, just about a half an hour before the destruction of the Earth, that your friend Ford Prefect, -whose name itself is a British insider joke- has informed you of.

Gameplay ---8/10--- It’s just another classic text game. Its main purpose is making Science Fiction come alive with comedy involved. I seriously suggest reading the Hitchhiker Trilogy: A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, the Universe and Everything. It really doesn’t help you much, but it’s worth the wait. Plus, you now know your basic characters: Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent (that’s you), Tricia (Trillion), and Zaphod.

Controls ---9/10--- It’s great! Utterly fantastic! I love the huge amount of choices you can make. You can swear at a robot, or congratulate Ford. However, one drawback is that the screen doesn’t give you all the control options needed in the game. You definitely need to do a lot of guess work, look at a FAQ, or pray if you haven’t played a text-adventure game before.

Replay Value ---8/10--- This game has a lot of replay value because of the amazing amount of choices in front of you. There are an infinitesimal amount of ways to die, sleep, irritate, and get drunk, feed dogs, kill, and enjoy this high quality game. You even have fun bosses, bosses per se, but anyways, you can go wild. Cussing is hard to work, but other phrases like, “Ford, are you retarded?” Can spark a few comments or two if used correctly.

Buy/Rent? Well, neither is an option. The only way to play this game is online. Try entering “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game” on a major search engine. Believe me, it’s not a short game if you want to do everything.

Reviewer's Rating: 4.5 - Outstanding