Gregory's ServerSo BBC released an online version of the Hitch Hickers guide to the Galaxy text adventure game. enhanced 30th anniversary edition. And guess what folks, it's fully screen reader friendly, Enjoy! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-game-30th-anniversary-edition
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80 comments
 @mcourcel @ohmu Hehehe yeah, I know. I just want to go play for hours on end. Put the no tea in the no receptacle and that babel fish in my ear? Trying to figure out how to catch said fish when it shoots out of the dispenser. Or that horrib Vogon poetry. @mcourcel And it's still using the Infocom release of the game. I'm actually surprised they haven't used the new Zilf ZIL compiler system to compile a new version. @jaybird110127 Yup, but there are little differences. For example, when you die, you can still try to do things and it makes fun of you. @jaybird110127 Oh does it? It's been a while. I did finish that one, just don't remember how it ends.   @dannotdaniel I think you need to stay lying in front of the buldozer after Ford leaves. Then that dude comes over and says for you to go away for a while and he'll take your place. @mcourcel i dunno it lost it's appeal when I can't DO anything except wait and die. zork was better, he should have given the money to Infocom @dannotdaniel Did you try either Planetfall or Stationfall? Those were pretty cool. @mcourcel no, I think I played a few Zorks including the VGA Zork Zero... and maybe dabbled in a Superman text adventure once upon a time ions ago, and don't recall any of THAT  @dannotdaniel @mcourcel HHGTTG was an Infocom game, with Adams working with Steve Meretzky (who also did Planetfall). If you want really frustrating, try Adams's Bureaucracy, which is explicitly built around being frustrating. Apparently he liked (designing) frustrating games. Anyway, maybe now I can figure out what to do with the pocket lint, never could get past that. @dan131riley @dannotdaniel Oh jeez! I know. That was ridiculous! Did yuo hear the radio interview about the making of HHGT? It's on internet archives, complete with really corny commercials. I posed it earlier today, but it's kind of cool to hear those characters talking about the game. OK I get it, I guess. In the spirit of the thing. The joke is on the player. I am fine with 10 points. I would have liked to get to 42, but I am fine with 10 points. I stood up. I died. I tried going anywhere else, I died. I waited, I died. I examined and tried to interact with everything the game described, including giving every object or throwing every object at everything else int he game, and I died. I even gave away my towel. An obvious no-no. It was used to clean the mud off of some boots and then I died. hearty har har, developers. @dannotdaniel @dan131riley You have to wait until the dude behind the boldozer tells you to leave and he'll take your place. @mcourcel @dan131riley I could not make that happen. I would just die after like 50 something moves  @dannotdaniel @mcourcel @dan131riley It takes two moves to progress from lying in the mud after the dozer stops. When Ford arrives and offers you the towel, don't take it. Instead say: Ford, what about my home Then wait once. Prosser and Ford talk, Prosser agrees to take your place, and you can get up and follow Ford to the pub. (Slightly spoilery hint: If you persevere with it, buy the sandwich at the pub and feed it to the little dog when you leave. Otherwise you can't win. Seriously.) @dan131riley @dannotdaniel @mcourcel "which is explicitly built around being frustrating." IIRC, this happened after DNA moved, and the dealings with his bank drove him to codify the experience....  @Antiqueight Wha wha what? Lol! Turn on light, get up. get gown. Look in pocket. Take pill. get all. south. get mail. South Lie in front of boldozer. How the heck do I remember this sstuff? lol! @Antiqueight As a blind person, it was one of the first real actual commercial games that I could play independently. @Antiqueight @mcourcel I played with a friend in school and we died laughing cos we told Arthur to tidy the bedroom, which lead to the game saying that he barely had time to enjoy the newly tidy room as suddenly his house was demolished, closely followed by the earth π @wolfie @Antiqueight Yeah, there are little ffunny things through out the game. It's hilarious! @mcourcel @Antiqueight because this game took hours and hours of our livesβ¦ just a guess @ptoothfish @Antiqueight Yup. My friend and I spent hours on the phone figuring things out. In other words, we had no lives. Lol! @mcourcel One of the only computer games that I actually completed, though be warned there is at least one thing the will highly annoy you about it. To this day, I remember it's a house, not a home. @swiftone Oh and I think there's an Easter egg in there. If you type "escape" without the quotes and press Enter. @mcourcel take all. take everything. drop nothing. pick up everything you see or are offered. even, and this will only make sense later, down to the junk mail by the door. I always got stuck when the rest of the party disappeared into the spa (or sauna?). More frustrations await me, apparently.  @mcourcel I'm a bit confused, because the keyboard seems to be buttons on the screen rather than a text input. How do I type into this thing? @jscholes Look for the edit box and go into focus/forms mode. Then you can just type, press enter and it should read the result automatically.    @mcourcel Hehe awesome. This game is funny and fiendishly difficult. I played the old BBC web version years ago, back when I was an editor for H2G2 :) I remember finishing the infamous babelfish puzzle although I don't remember if I used any hints. I don't think I got much further though, it's a difficult game! @Eliot_L It definitely is. Especially the no tea puzzle. I got that one before my friend did and he still doesn't know how I figured it out. Nor do I, come to think of it. Lol! @mcourcel Heh that's sparking a memory, maybe I did get to that one. I don't think I've played this game since the 2000's. Okay, I just read my post and that sounded creepy. :) I worked with someone by the same name a few years back. @jscholes Yup. Now this person will think I'm even creepier. which I'm not. Oh well. It seemd mostly harmless. See what I did there? @mcourcel ... And would follow you home to watch you through your Windows. π π π π π π Edit: Oh God in sorry. I just read your bio and found out that you are blind. I apologise if I have caused you offence. Everytime I open my mouth both feet fall out. I didn't delete my post in case you had already read it. I'm so sorry about my other post. I truely hope that it has not caused you distress for that was not my intention.  @mcourcel as a teenager i managed to get the babel fish i am not confident i would be able to do that today  @mcourcel (ok, also #wishbringer on occasion). I hope many many people discover this game for the first time, and find it as incredibly, stomping & screamingly infuriating and wonderful as I do! @mcourcel This was the first text adventure I ever played, back in high school. I treasure the experience. The triumph of finally getting the Babel Fish! For more... conventional IF works, Counterfeit Monkey by Emily Short is still my all time favorite.  @mcourcel I'm stuck right at the beginning π π π (Translate: I urgently need to re-read the hitchhiker).  @mcourcel @mcourcel oh, that's still available! I would have shared on Towel's Day, but I thought it was down :) Awesome, thanks!  |
@mcourcel Sweet, I am playing this later on.