HHGG
Don't bother seeing the movie. (You've been warned!)Listen to the original BBC radio program, read the book adapted from the radio program, watch the TV show adapted from the books, or ... play the game!
Update: Tom Woods asked me if I'm old enough to remember the Infocom text-based game for HHGG. Here's what I said:
Tom, yes I'm old enough (late 30s), but the problem is that I tried playing them before I knew the stories. They're available online as a Java applet -- http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html -- and I looked at them again a few years ago. Apparently, to survive the first few rounds, you need to drink too much beer, put a fish in your ear, and trust that the vacuum of space is safer than a life-supporting ship. These choices are obvious to Hitchhiker fans, but had made no sense to a semi-literate teenager.And if you go to that game link, you'll find what is (as far as I can tell) a perfect Java-based reproduction of the text-based game I tried to play in 1984.
A huge problem with the Java reproduction, however, is that you have to start from scratch every time you die (which I do often). Apparently, there are Flash versions of the game without that problem here:
4 Comments:
I thought the movie was OK. It did a few things right (the dolphins, for example) and quite a few things poorly. Its worst sin was its often plodding pace. I think the BBC series (half-hour episodes) and the radio series (of course) were the best media for this stuff.
Come'on, it wasn't half bad (from someone who only read the "trilogy" thrice.)
My wife on the other hand, who never encountered the series before, was a bit bewildered and awkwardly announced that she wasn't sure if she enjoyed the movie.
Re: The Infocom text-based games-
It reminds me of the AOL IM-based Infocom text games which somebody cobbled together last year by combining IM's and the text interpreters.
I used it to play H2G2 from my cellphone, which had an AIM client built-in, and it came in handy to pass time when I was otherwise bored.
See this Wired article here.
From the article:
Baio agrees. "Instant messaging and text adventures go together like peanut butter and jelly," he says.
The system works by having an AIM user send a message to either InfocomBot or InfocomBot2. The bots then prompt the user to type the name of the game they want to play. It's quaintly reminiscent of War Games.
Once the game has started, players enter their commands as if they were carrying on a regular instant-message conversation.
"You type commands like 'go north' or 'examine sword' and (a) parser responds with a description," explains Baio. "In essence, you're having an ongoing dialogue with the game."
Is it really possible for a fan of the Guide not to go to the movie despite its inevitable suckiness? I have to see the Star Wars movies even though I know they are being phoned in. I will see a Star Trek movie even if it based on Voyager.
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