~3 minute readCOMPUTER GAMING
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Designed by Steve Meretzky and Douglas Adams Infocom, 1984 / Most systems / Disk / $49.95
Well, you don't have to make a map.
Anyone who's ever run across "The Hitchhiker's Guide" in any of its previous incarnations will know pretty much what expect from this program: pure lunacy. In fact, there are only two problems with The Guide: it's not logical and it doesn't make sense. And if you think that's redundant, you obviously haven't played this one yet.
As a text adventure, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy starts out almost exactly like all the other versions: Arthur Dent, well-intentioned but ineffectual nebbish, rises on sunny morning to find that a bevy of bulldozers is preparing to raze his home. Obviously, one's first thought will be to get out of said home quickly -- but this is not as easy as it sounds. In fact, one of the things this program accomplishes brilliantly is actually turning the player into Arthur Dent. You may start out your own intelligent, adroit self, but before long you'll be bumbling along in a haphazard, Arthur Dentish fashion.
The broad outline of the story will also be familiar. Arthur Dent is fortuitously rescued from a doomed Earth by his pal Ford Prefect, a native of another galaxy altogether, by way of a Sub-Etha Signalling Device, or "Thumb". Eventually they end up on the Heart of Gold, an impossible ship powered by the Improbability Drive, which has been hijacked by Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed (but otherwise human) President of the Galaxy. So far, simple, right? Just like the book? Just about here the similarity ends.
There will be the odd familiar character throughout the game, like Marvin, the chronically depressed robot, and Eddie, the over-protective computer. However, there will also be insane situations for which no amount of reading, listening or viewing will have prepared the player. Just how would you go about convincing a supercilious door that you're intelligent -- just to get it to open? And does it matter? What about a nice cup of tea? You don't seem to have been yourself lately.
Be prepared for one thing: unlike the other Infocom games, this one lies to you -- just as a joke between friends, of course. And like many friendly jokes, it wears thin with repetition. There is at least one instance where the gamer has to use the "look" command more than once befor the program will admit there's anything to see. Always consult the Guide about everything possible -- check the footnotes, too. They're rarely helpful, but most of them are funny. And be prepared to spend a lot of time in the dark -- physically as well as metaphorically. In fact, so much time is spent in the dark that one begins to feel like the infamous bowl of petunias: "Oh, no, not again."
The only drawback to Hitchhikers -- and admittedly this is picky -- is at the beginning. If you're familiar with the book, it may seem that there is too much obligatory wait time. There may seem to be a few too many repetitous situations in the game, too, but this is actually consistent with the off-the-wall logic involved.
Trying to unravel the puzzles and paradoxes in this program may reduce the gamer's brain to the level of the Bugblatter Beast (consult Guide for details), but The Hitchhiker's Guide is well worth the effort required to successfully complete the adventure. It can also be absolutely maddening. When this happens, go ahead, panic; after all, worse things happen at sea.
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