Octopus Overlords

Play The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Game - 30th Anniversary Edition here.

I've gotten as far as leaving the house, but I haven't been able to stop the bulldozer. I know in the book he lays down on the ground. The game won't let me do that.

I remember constantly wanting to throw that game out the window as a teenager. It was ridiculously hard at times. The Babel Fish section was what drove me to madness.

What is the improbability??

MADNESS!

I never even got out of the house before giving up.

I was on the Heart of Gold at one point but there was a door I couldn't open. Those old Infocom games were exercises in frustration. I think if you knew the tricks you could probably finish them in an hour...but they were designed in such a way as to be impossible at some point. At least, that's how I remember them.

hepcat wrote:I remember constantly wanting to throw that game out the window as a teenager. It was ridiculously hard at times. The Babel Fish section was what drove me to madness.

I also recall the original Infocom version being frustratingly difficult in the dark days of the pre-Information Age, back when hints/walkthroughs typically had to be purchased seperately as InvisiClues booklets or the like (which was out of the question for me as a nipper).

I don't think I got past the Babel Fish section until reading the solution spelled out in a magazine. At that age, I certainly didn't have the patience to figure out the convoluted sequence of events it entailed, or the fact that it also needed to be solved within a limited number of turns to prevent the game from later becoming unwinnable.

Anonymous Bosch wrote:
I don't think I got past the Babel Fish section until reading the solution spelled out in a magazine. At that age, I certainly didn't have the patience to figure out the convoluted sequence of events it entailed, or the fact that it also needed to be solved within a limited number of turns to prevent the game from later becoming unwinnable.

This is the part I was trying to remember. IIRC you had a limited number of tries at finishing the Babel Fish puzzle (that is, a limited number of fish in the machine), and if you didn't finish it, it was still possible to go forward in the game, but you would run into problems later.

What I can't remember is this: did it just make the later game more difficult, or was it the case that you literally could not finish it without having successfully completed the Babel Fish puzzle earlier?

Wiki

Failure to "solve" the Babel Fish puzzle did not kill the player, but rendered the remainder of the game unwinnable, as one subsequent puzzle requires the player to gain a passcode based on Vogon-written instructions, otherwise undecipherable without the Fish. That particular puzzle became so notorious for its difficulty that Infocom wound up selling T-shirts bearing the legend, "I got the Babel Fish!"[ Adams stated that the puzzle's difficulty, and the notable game play change that it begins, was intentional; "Just as the player gets comfortable in the narrow neck, the bottom drops out!"

Isgrimnur wrote:Wiki

Failure to "solve" the Babel Fish puzzle did not kill the player, but rendered the remainder of the game unwinnable, as one subsequent puzzle requires the player to gain a passcode based on Vogon-written instructions, otherwise undecipherable without the Fish. That particular puzzle became so notorious for its difficulty that Infocom wound up selling T-shirts bearing the legend, "I got the Babel Fish!"[ Adams stated that the puzzle's difficulty, and the notable game play change that it begins, was intentional; "Just as the player gets comfortable in the narrow neck, the bottom drops out!"

You do this research for him, but force me to go all the way to Google for a search on a walkthrough to get past the bulldozer? For shame, Isgrimnur!

The Babel Fish puzzle is legendary, but I also fondly remember having to argue with the narrator at one point to make him tell me the information I needed.

I didn't think the puzzle was difficult, but I had to reload and perform the actions necessary to get the fish before pressing the button...which I actually thought you were supposed to do. For me, the joke was the constant way of improbably not obtaining the fish.

You can get an impressive collection of the games on the iPad with maps/hints for "DLC":

Lost Treasures of Infocom

I think I stopped the third or fourth time I got eaten by a grue in the dark and never played any game like that ever again. Glad Ian bought that game and not me.

Assuming this is the same as the original game, I might give it a shot, if only to test my memory. I first learned the term Brownian Motion in this game.

A knowledge of the book helps immensely. I can't imagine trying this game with no foreknowledge of the book. It's too absurd in places for a layperson to have to guess at.

Buatha wrote:You can get an impressive collection of the games on the iPad with maps/hints for "DLC":

Lost Treasures of Infocom

I bought a similarly titled compilation for my Amiga like 28 years ago. It was nostagia then. Man.

I would love to play these on my phone on the bus but the typing alone would drive me insane.

One of the adventures I remember most fondly is Suspended. That offered a unique approach to sensory input and problem solving.

I had already played a number of Zork and other adventures when I got my hands on Starcross. I remember finishing it rather quickly and thinking "that was it?". It was a shorter, earlier game and was not nearly as involved or puzzles as difficult as some of the later games.

I learned about Alice in Wonderland's shrinking/growing in Zork II.

These games, D&D and geeking out in general was hugely informative for a little guy like me. My vocabulary was miles ahead of most of my peers due to games (paper or video).

I actually have the physical box for the "IBM PC" with both 3.5" and 5.25" disks. It is really nice with all of the maps and hints. I only got Vol. I since it contained all of the original Infocom games. I never did get the second one, though.

Buatha wrote:I actually have the physical box for the "IBM PC" with both 3.5" and 5.25" disks. It is really nice with all of the maps and hints. I only got Vol. I since it contained all of the original Infocom games. I never did get the second one, though.

Ditto, except my copy (and amiga) are long gone. I actually thought I was getting ALL the infocom games and was disappointed when I realized there was another product. I even played through several of the adventures, unlike today, where I buy some games based on nostalgia and never install them. Beyond Zork was pretty fun, if not overly challenging (that I remember anyway).

I was about 14 when I played Infidel. I found that one mind bending. I just didn't have a wide base of knowledge on which to draw for some of the puzzles that were Egyptian based.

They even had copy protection that kept me out for awhile. You start in the desert, and every direction you move appears exactly the same. You had to move the exact number of lefts, rights and forwards then dig 3 times before you even found the tomb.

died to a brick to the back of the head. Score was 10 in 30 turns.

Couldn't figure out how to get prosser to take my place in front of the dozer.

GreenGoo wrote:died to a brick to the back of the head. Score was 10 in 30 turns.

Couldn't figure out how to get prosser to take my place in front of the dozer.

IIRC, Ford needs to be the one to convince him.

Yep, I was a little surprised when Ford just wandered off.

On the plus side, it has been decades since I've played the game (never finished it) and years since I've read the book, so I won't be able to just play by rote.

Restarting put me on the Vogon ship, while keeping my turns and score running. Seems to me that skips a number of puzzles so I'm going to reload the page and kill any cookies if needed. I'm not making an account so I can't actually save, apparently.

hepcat wrote:I remember constantly wanting to throw that game out the window as a teenager. It was ridiculously hard at times. The Babel Fish section was what drove me to madness.

Don't Panic!

LordMortis wrote:I think I stopped the third or fourth time I got eaten by a grue in the dark and never played any game like that ever again. Glad Ian bought that game and not me.

That was actually Zork, and another legendary sequence. Still, I think everyone felt like being in the dark with these games.