<!--
	Title: (Adventure) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe
	Source: Zzap!64, #3
	Date: July 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

Next a look at this month's disk-based
adventures. I feel I can begin by saying that
there's now absolutely no excuse not to buy a
disk drive, other than complete, abject
poverty.

Let me explain. I have just spent the last
seven days in the very back of my cave,
isolated from the rest of the world, doing
nothing other than to play the latest release from the wonder
programmers at Infocom, *Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy*.
My verdict? Absolutely WIZARD!

I feel I have no choice but to tell you about it at length, even
though it is vastly expensive and not yet widely available in
these isles. My hope is that someone will soon rectify this
situation.

Like the other Infocom games, *Hitch Hiker's* has no
graphics. Yet it must rate as perhaps the most witty and
ingenious, adventure ever. For a start it includes one of the
largest vocabularies yet seen by me. Indeed its handling of
words is so convincing you often feel you are engaged in
genuine conversation with it. The most improbable entries
you can come up with are often greeted with appropriate and
sometimes hilarious responses. Type 'Kiss Ford' and it
responds 'This is a family entertainment, not a video nasty.'
Type a command after you've died, and it responds 'You keep
out of this, you're dead.'

The descriptions of the locations and of events which take
place are also brilliantly witty and perfectly capture the feel of
the book on which the game is based.

Another great feature is the Hitch Hiker's Guide itself
which, once found, can be used obtain useful or at least
humourous information on almost any of the large number
of objects and characters mentioned in the game. Even on the
rare occasions when it has nothing to offer it comes up with a
suitable response such as 'That section of data was
destroyed during an office party last night.'

As is the case with all Infocom adventures the packaging of
*Hitch Hikers* is absolutely superb. Included in its price,
amongst other things, are peril-sensitive sunglasses and pocket fluff(!).

<img class="float-left-half" src="/public/img/articles/zzap64-hhgttg-review/hhgttg-screen-shot.png" alt="A screen shot of the opening of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy">

I did not look too becoming in the peril-sensitive
sunglasses, which are supposed to protect your eyes from
any sort of horror by turning completely opaque at the first
sign of danger...not the sort of thig a keen and fearless
adventurer like me should wear. Mind you, throughout the
game you could well do with a pair of these zany specs.

You start the adventure playing the role of Arthur Dent who
wakes up on the worst day of his life with a tremendous
hangover, a condition the White Wizard is not unfamiliar with
after a heavy night on the Pipistrelle '56.

An aspirin, and a few more movements of exploration later
and you discover that you are in the same situation as in the
start of the Douglas Adams book -- a bulldozer is about to
knock down your house, and, more importantly, a fleet of
Vogon ships are about to destroy the earth to clear the way
for an interplanetary highway.

Early problems include how to avoid being killed by a flying
brick as your home is crushed, and how to escape the earth's
destruction with your friend Ford Prefect.

A basic knowledge of the book is helpful at this early stage,
but before long the adventure takes some highly original
turns and offers a series of difficult and brilliantly conceived
puzzles.

One of the best involves trying to secure a Babel fish from a
dispenser in the hold of one of the Vogon craft. You won't
believe the deviousness of it. *I* don't believe the deviousness
of it. Later still, by discovering and activating an improbability
drive, you even find yourself taking on the roles of other
characters in the game in completely different time periods,
and encountering such beings as the Bugblatter beast of
Traal which is so stupid it thinks that if you can't see it, it can't
see you.

Needless to say the number of locations is vast, and the
game also features a useful scoring system, which often
gives clues as to whether you've made a giant step forward or
a massive blunder.

With this game's humour, size and attention to detail, it can
be only said that it is destined to become one of the all-time
classics. All I wish is that someone would get a move-on and
start importing it pronto, preferably at a slightly lower price!

<p class="larger tight"><strong>HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE</strong><br>
Infocom, £30 plus, import only</p>
<table style="font-weight: bold;"><tbody>
<tr><td>Atmosphere</td><td>97%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Interaction</td><td>96%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lasting interest</td><td>95%</td></tr>
<tr><td>Value for money</td><td>74%</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
