Thoughts by voh (09 Jan 2001) – PC (DOS)
Finally. Finally I have the guts to put this up. My childhood love. My introduction to the Interactive Fiction world. Aah.
Based upon a world famous series of books by world renowned Science Fiction author Douglas Adams (who also wrote Starship Titanic, great game, it has the very best in sarcastic game humour you’ll ever see), this game sets you as the loser Arthur Dent in one hell of a mess.
Game mechanics are simple, just as any other IF game. If you’ve never played IF (or: text adventures, as they are also commonly called), then here’s a rundown of the basics. You play by typing in what you want to do. Like, when you wish to look at a painting, you type ‘LOOK AT PAINTING’ and the game gives you the info about the painting. If you want to walk south, typing either ‘SOUTH’ or ‘S’ will make you do that. It’s fairly easy, if you have a good understanding of the english language. If your english is limited, you might have a lot of trouble finishing this game.
The game has a wonderful hints system which is very discrete, because it doesn’t just give the solution, but it gives a series of hints which might help you get the plan. Only after those hints are up (and the total number of hints is always listed), the solution to your problem will be shown. Hurray!
I myself find it very sad that part 2, or 3, or whatever they had planned back then, was never released (or even made), because this is an experience you should take for yourself. For those who’ve read the books, it’ll be even more fun that way. Besides, it’s small, and won’t take up much space. Or make your MP3’s skip. Or make your family go ‘Oooh, I want to play that’. So go download. It’s no biggie.