BBC Reboots Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure Game

....And it's still mean and sarcastic!

by hodg100
Gaming News

10

BBC Reboots Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure Game
The BBC has launched a reboot to the thirty years old, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy text adventure game.
Restricted by hardware, there was a time when you had to use your imagination if you wanted an exploration based game where text took the place of todays’ fancy graphics and sound effects. The basic premise is/was, the game would present you a scenario and you would then attempt to progress by inputting a word, or words.

More often than not, it seemed, the game wouldn’t recognise your words or instructions but, somehow, these text adventures were a compelling mixture of fun and frustration.

In 1984 the BBC decided to launch its own text adventure title and teamed up Steve Meretzky of Infocom with author Douglas Adams to create a game based around the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. The game went on to be a massive success and was the best seller of 1984, with 350,000 copies sold in that year alone.

Of course, once the hardware inside PCs and consoles became capable of realising the graphics required to convey at least some kind of a convincing visuals, the text adventure genre largely disappeared. First, point and click and then later third person adventure games took their place.
This would have been bleeding edge in 1984
BBC Reboots Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Text Adventure Game


The BBC actually first revived the Hitchhikers game in 2004, with a popular Flash based browser game with some graphical polish applied but it has recently been attracting only around 70 visitors per day so they decided it was time for another refresh.

The 30th Anniversary Edition has been moved to a new server but retains its cantankerous and unforgiving roots, with a special emphasis on finding ways in which to kill players off in a variety of amusing ways.

The ‘death’ of Flash means the new iteration is HTML5 based and boasts a nicer interface, with additional keys and functionality, and has the built in the ability to tweet from within the game.

Then, according to the BBC, “things started to get silly.”

Having covered the basics, they decided to slip in an ‘Any’ key, just because they could. The $, % and ^ symbols were replaced with new ones for the Altarian Dollar, Flanian Pobble Bead and the Triganic Pu, not because they are needed in the game, but just because they felt like it. The Beeb then decided that it would be fun to allow the game to decide when to tweet rather than the user, based on the actions of the user in the game.

Presumably, this will be at inopportune and/or embarrassing moments but we’ve yet to take it for a full spin. Having played it for 5 minutes, it’s clear the game has retained its unhelpful, sarcastic and wisecracking personality.

You can join in the fun by visiting http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-hitchhiker-s-guide-to-the-galaxy-game-30th-anniversary-edition and be sure to let us know how you get on in the comments below.
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