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I remember in high school after an argument about games, my friend handed me a disk labeled "good text-based game" with this game on it. I'm sure we didn't have

I remember in high school after an argument about games, my friend handed me a disk labeled "good text-based game" with this game on it. I'm sure we didn't have the same taste. "New gamers may not see the appeal" is an understatement. The game takes inaccessibility as a badge of honor, or perhaps a badge of honour. It's not just lateral thinking that you need in order to get through the game... you need to lose, restart, and try again. Douglas Adams's humor (or humour) survives the translation to video game format very well but there's very little else about the game that is enjoyable, unless you are a masochist. I can't remember if I finished the game or not. I do remember getting past the puzzle when you arrive on the Vogon ship. If you are tempted to use a walkthrough to beat the game, just go reread the book instead. If you're interested in interactive fiction, you have 37 years of games to play since HHGTTG came out in 1984, and there are plenty of classics in there. My personal favorite is Galatea, which is itself an unusual game (only one location, many endings), and my "junk food" text game would be Leather Goddesses of Phobos. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of my favorite books, but one of my least favorite games. It shows up high in interactive fiction rankings, but I suspect it's largely because some people are massive fans of the books.

RealityVoid 6y ago
I once played this game called KGB[1]. That takes 1st place as the most difficult adventure game I played. It was merciless and a mistake from a couple of scenes ago could lead to you dyeing far down the line. Masochistic, but I found the challenge fascinating. Did not manage to finish it though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_(video_game)
- lelag 6y ago
  Ah the memories... Indeed KGB was brutal. However, it was also pretty badly balanced because the first half of the game was much more difficult than the second half which made it very frustrating.
rusk 6y ago
Sounds like Douglas Adams’ copy protection did it’s job so! He typically published literature along with his games that if you didn’t have made the games frustratingly difficult or even impossible (see bureaucracy). From the description of the disk you gave id say it’s highly likely you didn’t have access to that.
- duskwuff 6y ago
  Nope. The game just has some really, really obtuse puzzles. Don't pick up the junk mail in the second room? That'll make the Babel Fish puzzle (the one on the Vogon ship) unwinnable. Ate the sandwich in the pub instead of feeding it to the dog? That'll kill you much later in the game. And so on. None of this was hinted at in the "feelies" shipped with the game or in the books; players were expected to figure it out through trial and error. Games in this era were written with the expectation that you'd have to play through them many times to get everything right. It made them last longer (in terms of play time), but also made them incredibly frustrating to play.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    One of the philosophical issues I have with a lot of IF--which I've actually discussed with the author of this game--is that I feel you should, at least in principle, be able to complete a run through in a game in one try rather than having to make essentially random trial and error choices. Unsurprisingly, he didn't really agree. (Which there are a lot of in Hitchhiker's. Although I didn't really complete that many Infocom games in general.)
    - stinkytaco 6y ago
      Did he give a logic for this? I speculate in the case of this game, the developers and Adams wanted you to experience as much of the story (and humor) as possible. Failing was part of the fun. Is that the case or was it the case for other games?
      - ghaff 6y ago
mewse 6y ago
The thing that still baffles me is that Infocom released H2G2 as a “Standard” difficulty game, akin to Planetfall, when I’d argue that it’s one of their most difficult games. Maybe not quite as brain-bending as something like Suspended (which had you simultaneously controlling a half dozen different characters each with different senses and abilities while also solving puzzles all under a tight time limit; it actually came with a paper map and character tokens to help you remember where everybody was), but I’d certainly put H2G2 right up there with Starcross (sold as ‘Expert’ difficulty) in terms of its brutal puzzles. And it was notably more cruel, in terms of minor mistakes early on not being telegraphed as mistakes, but making victory impossible much, much later in the game. For folks with an interest, I second the recommendation of Galatea as a fascinating example and especially as a technical feat in terms of its flexible conversation systems. Still to this day probably the only IF game which has its challenges contained almost entirely in a regular conversation, rather than in using objects on other objects. Or for folks entirely new to modern interactive fiction but who are interested in dipping their toes in, I’d perhaps recommend they try Photopia[0] as a good first game; it’s super newbie-friendly and has very few puzzles, while still telling a compelling story. (link is to a “play in the browser” version of the game, but a Google search will link to a downloadable version if you prefer that. Expect it to take under two hours to play through.) [0]: http://adamcadre.ac/if/photopia.html http://adamcadre.ac/if/photopia.html
- bbarnett 6y ago
  Suspended was, to me, one of the coolest games ever. Back in the day, on my C64, as a young teenager, I ended up with a pirated copy of it. I had no map, instructions, and it made it even more incredible / awesome. I was at that age where you can actually feel your brain 'expanding', where you can feel your capability to handle complex logic and math problems growing. And Suspended made me really, really think. At the time, I thought it was immense fun. I wonder if any teenager today, would ever even try to get into it, or, would ever enjoy it.
soneca 6y ago
I played it now for the first time ever for about 40 minutes and I agree. It is just trial and error until you get it right by chance. It is just annoying without any logic behind it. I read the tips after the 40 minutes and it confirmed that trial, error and restart is how it is supposed to be played. No fun at all. I am from the point and click adventure era and thank they evolved the gameplay. Not only graphically, but logically. I am also in favor of “you can’t die” mechanic of Lucas Arts.

RealityVoid 6y ago

I once played this game called KGB[1]. That takes 1st place as the most difficult adventure game I played. It was merciless and a mistake from a couple of scenes ago could lead to you dyeing far down the line. Masochistic, but I found the challenge fascinating. Did not manage to finish it though. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB_(video_game)

lelag 6y ago
Ah the memories... Indeed KGB was brutal. However, it was also pretty badly balanced because the first half of the game was much more difficult than the second half which made it very frustrating.

rusk 6y ago

Sounds like Douglas Adams’ copy protection did it’s job so! He typically published literature along with his games that if you didn’t have made the games frustratingly difficult or even impossible (see bureaucracy). From the description of the disk you gave id say it’s highly likely you didn’t have access to that.

duskwuff 6y ago
Nope. The game just has some really, really obtuse puzzles. Don't pick up the junk mail in the second room? That'll make the Babel Fish puzzle (the one on the Vogon ship) unwinnable. Ate the sandwich in the pub instead of feeding it to the dog? That'll kill you much later in the game. And so on. None of this was hinted at in the "feelies" shipped with the game or in the books; players were expected to figure it out through trial and error. Games in this era were written with the expectation that you'd have to play through them many times to get everything right. It made them last longer (in terms of play time), but also made them incredibly frustrating to play.
- ghaff 6y ago
  One of the philosophical issues I have with a lot of IF--which I've actually discussed with the author of this game--is that I feel you should, at least in principle, be able to complete a run through in a game in one try rather than having to make essentially random trial and error choices. Unsurprisingly, he didn't really agree. (Which there are a lot of in Hitchhiker's. Although I didn't really complete that many Infocom games in general.)
  - stinkytaco 6y ago
    Did he give a logic for this? I speculate in the case of this game, the developers and Adams wanted you to experience as much of the story (and humor) as possible. Failing was part of the fun. Is that the case or was it the case for other games?
    - ghaff 6y ago

mewse 6y ago

The thing that still baffles me is that Infocom released H2G2 as a “Standard” difficulty game, akin to Planetfall, when I’d argue that it’s one of their most difficult games. Maybe not quite as brain-bending as something like Suspended (which had you simultaneously controlling a half dozen different characters each with different senses and abilities while also solving puzzles all under a tight time limit; it actually came with a paper map and character tokens to help you remember where everybody was), but I’d certainly put H2G2 right up there with Starcross (sold as ‘Expert’ difficulty) in terms of its brutal puzzles. And it was notably more cruel, in terms of minor mistakes early on not being telegraphed as mistakes, but making victory impossible much, much later in the game. For folks with an interest, I second the recommendation of Galatea as a fascinating example and especially as a technical feat in terms of its flexible conversation systems. Still to this day probably the only IF game which has its challenges contained almost entirely in a regular conversation, rather than in using objects on other objects. Or for folks entirely new to modern interactive fiction but who are interested in dipping their toes in, I’d perhaps recommend they try Photopia[0] as a good first game; it’s super newbie-friendly and has very few puzzles, while still telling a compelling story. (link is to a “play in the browser” version of the game, but a Google search will link to a downloadable version if you prefer that. Expect it to take under two hours to play through.) [0]: http://adamcadre.ac/if/photopia.html http://adamcadre.ac/if/photopia.html

bbarnett 6y ago
Suspended was, to me, one of the coolest games ever. Back in the day, on my C64, as a young teenager, I ended up with a pirated copy of it. I had no map, instructions, and it made it even more incredible / awesome. I was at that age where you can actually feel your brain 'expanding', where you can feel your capability to handle complex logic and math problems growing. And Suspended made me really, really think. At the time, I thought it was immense fun. I wonder if any teenager today, would ever even try to get into it, or, would ever enjoy it.

soneca 6y ago

I played it now for the first time ever for about 40 minutes and I agree. It is just trial and error until you get it right by chance. It is just annoying without any logic behind it. I read the tips after the 40 minutes and it confirmed that trial, error and restart is how it is supposed to be played. No fun at all. I am from the point and click adventure era and thank they evolved the gameplay. Not only graphically, but logically. I am also in favor of “you can’t die” mechanic of Lucas Arts.