Radio 4 revives Hitchhiker's game

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3615046.stm


"The game, originally published in 1984, contains rare writing by the
author and is - in Adams' words - "full of extraordinary ways of dying".

Users can play a number of characters from the book, collect over 40
items and read dozens of Hitchhiker's Guide entries.

The new version of the game will be illustrated by Rod Lord, who won a
BAFTA for his graphics for the original Hitchhiker TV series.

Radio listeners will also be invited to submit their own illustrations."


I admit I'm confused. I don't remember illustrations of any kind, and I
don't recall being able to play different characters (although that
might just be a lapse of memory - it has been a long time). In addition
the writer of this article seems to be entirely confused and unable to
distinguish between the radio series and the game. Still, I don't see
how you can have illustrations for a radio series either.

Something to watch for, in any case.

 

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Hans Fugal <hans@fugal.net> writes:

> I admit I'm confused. I don't remember illustrations of any kind, and I
> don't recall being able to play different characters (although that
> might just be a lapse of memory - it has been a long time). In addition
> the writer of this article seems to be entirely confused and unable to
> distinguish between the radio series and the game. Still, I don't see
> how you can have illustrations for a radio series either.
>
> Something to watch for, in any case.

I agree.. I was thrown off by the illustrations remarks; perhaps
they're going to use a non-Infocom based system, orperhaps encode it
similarly to the later pseudo-graphical games like Arthur... perhaps even
a web based game for all we know The original Infocom game is still
readily available so at least we're not waiting for them to mar it

In the game, you do play other characters, but its a ways in; I
forget in any detail, but at some point you are chalennged to play Zaphod
while stealing the Heart of Gold ship, and other characters; you play through
I think some 5 or 6 different short segments, each separated by the
"5 senses test" (are you warm, or wet or smelling anything? etc.).

jeff

--
--
"Have you played Atari today?"

 

[Guest]

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On Wed, 1 Sep 2004, Hans Fugal wrote:

> I admit I'm confused. I don't remember illustrations of any kind

There weren't any that I'm aware of. I get the impression that the new
version will have them.

> and I don't recall being able to play different characters (although
> that might just be a lapse of memory - it has been a long time).

You do indeed play different characters later on in the game. You get a
chance to take on the roles of Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian (and others?).

/====================================================================\
|| Quintin Stone O- > "You speak of necessary evil? One ||
|| Code Monkey < of those necessities is that if ||
|| Rebel Programmers Society > innocents must suffer, the guilty must ||
|| stone@rps.net < suffer more." -- Mackenzie Calhoun ||
|| http://www.rps.net/QS/ > "Once Burned" by Peter David ||
\====================================================================/

 

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Quintin Stone <stone@rps.net> wrote in
news😛ine.LNX.4.58.0409011354070.28656@yes.rps.net:

> You do indeed play different characters later on in the game. You get a
> chance to take on the roles of Zaphod, Ford, and Trillian (and others?).

That's it. In the other scenarios, you're still Arthur, just transported
elsewhere (The Bugblatter Beast's lair, inside the whale, and the
microscopic space fleet.)

On the question of illustrations, the quoted portion never said anything
about the original having illustrations, just that the new one did. Maybe
someone misread the reference to the illustrator having worked on the TV
series?

Dave Doty

 

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Jeff Mitchell <skeezix@fw.skeleton.org> wrote:

> a web based game for all we know The original Infocom game is still
> readily available so at least we're not waiting for them to mar it

Yes, including being freely available via the Douglas Adams site. For
handy links to the Hitchhikers game (online and zcode versions) and also
Bureaucracy see http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A969906

Apart from this news story there isn't any more info about the "new"
version of the game in the BBC website (which contains quite a lot of
Hitchhikers websites) about the new game. I'll be interested to see what
they do with it. It's one of my all-time favourite IF games.

Viv Dunstan

 

[samwyse]

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On or about 9/1/2004 12:54 PM, Jeff Mitchell did proclaim:
> I agree.. I was thrown off by the illustrations remarks; perhaps
> they're going to use a non-Infocom based system, orperhaps encode it
> similarly to the later pseudo-graphical games like Arthur... perhaps even
> a web based game for all we know The original Infocom game is still
> readily available so at least we're not waiting for them to mar it

It wouldn't be too hard to take one of the open-source Z-code
interpreters and hack it to display images in an adjacent window based
on, for example, the player's location as shown in the status line. One
of the Java-based 'terps designed for web-based play would be ideal for
this.

 

[Guest]

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> Yes, including being freely available via the Douglas Adams site. For
> handy links to the Hitchhikers game (online and zcode versions) and also
> Bureaucracy see http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A969906

Many thanks for the link. I started playing bureaucracy many years ago, then
I lost it. H2G2 seems to be unavailable for download currently, but I hope
that's just temporary.

Andrew

 

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Hans Fugal <hans@fugal.net> writes:

> Still, I don't see how you can have illustrations for a radio series
> either.

Did you miss the part about the TV series?