Arguably the best Infocom game ever made, “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was an instant hit when it was first released in 1984.
Based on homonymous book by Douglas Adams an hilarious sci-fi comedy which gave origin to words today world-known (what if I say Babel Fish? Or Trillian?), Hitchhiker’s Guide is a literary gem, and you’re into it!
You begin the game as Arthur Dent, a typical Englishman whose home is about to be demolished to make way for a new highway. Soon afterward, the earth itself is destroyed to make way for a new interstellar highway by evil Vogon Constructors, and you must escape destruction with your alien friend Ford Prefect; first to a Vogon warship, and then to the Heart of Gold, a spaceship run by Ford's friend Zaphod Beeblebrox, a two-headed dude that just stole it. Once there, your goal becomes to land safely on the lost planet of Magrathea. To do this, you must search various corners of reality (changing identities a few times along the way) to acquire several different pieces of fluff, necessary to set foot on the planet.
What’s fluff then? Who knows......
As for gameplay and “fun factor”, it really is HIGH. An exceptional parser allows you to do a very wide range of actions, some only for your own amusement (e.g. at some point in the beginning you could “enjoy mud”...).
This version of the game is Solid Gold edition, needs WinFrotz to run and features a lot of interesting stuff. First of all, an impressive internal vocabulary, much bigger than any other game of the period.
Then, the “Invisiclues”, which is basically a less- spoling-within-possible spoling hint system. Are you stuck? It’ll give you ideas or advice, and even the whole solution if you really can’t figure out what to do.Then a nice feature is the “for your amusement” section, which tells you some weird things you can do through the game (but you should check this one only after completing it). There are also some general questions answered, and the list of all possible points, and the way to gain them (this still is adviced after finishing the game once).
Definitely a must for everyone....expecially for people not interested in Interactive Fiction, that would probably change their mind once downloaded this diamond game......
And remember: DON’T PANIC!!!