h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I really am sorry, but you just left out So. Much. Information.

What about "Nord And Bert Couldn't Make Head Or Tail Of It"? What about "King Arthur And The Quest For Excalibur"? What about "The Lurking Horror"? What about "Starcross"?

So many games were left out! This stuff is what you learn on your first day in any Zorkology class! I expected new stuff! This article needs some serious updating...and it's only on its first day from the Editor's box.

I need to start taking a much more serious look into the Peer Review System.

Oh, and by the way, to whoever wrote this article: I'm at least glad that you mentioned how Infocom fell away. But could you at least have mentioned a few other things? Infocom made a text adventure back in 1996 called "Zork: The Undiscovered Underground." They didn't make it for profit, admittedly, but they did make it to promote Activision's new Zork game "Zork Grand Inquisitor", released in 1997.

The Zork games live on, as well as the other Infocom games, with a highly devoted community backing it. BTW, just how much research was put into this? It sounds like something from a back page in Activision's vault. Now, if you went to a few of *MY* Internet haunts, you would get some real stuff.

Okay, sorry. I was a little ranty there. Infocom is just something that I take a special interest in. And I just feel like this was a glossed over article. Many articles on the Guide are, I know, I'm just very sensitive and pedantic about this subject. I know info on this stuff is hard to find, and I'm sure that you did the best that you could. I'm sorry.

I just want the truth to be told.

Wow! I'm impressed with the sheer passion you have for the subject
One thing to bear in mind, though; this is a Guide entry, not a thesis. It's not meant to be definitive or the last word on the subject as there's thankfully always somebody out there able to contribute valuable extra information. That's why we have threads to incoporate other 'voices' (like your own good self) in order to eventually bash out something approximating the 'truth' that you refer to. This entry stands as great introduction and potted history of its subject. And you can always post again with more details concerning the omissions you highlight in order to further bolster the Entry as it stands, and to add another dimension (of the truth?) to the readers' experience.

Cheers for now,

Sam

The entry makes mention of the fact that Infocom games are playable on most platforms - why no link to one of the myriad sites that provide interpreters for many platforms (with a suitable copyright warning)?

Why no link to the javascript version of HHGTTG on the douglasadams site?

;^)#
let me know if you want the links

I also just want to mention that it is much easier to correct an entry that feels incomplete to you if you mention something before it is posted on h2g2's front page. You can check the What's Coming Up page to see entries that are slated for inclusion later on. The link to this, and to other parts of the process entries go through to get to the front page, are in my article at A530245

I'm sorry that you were disappointed - I wish that you had been able to contribute to the comments when it was in Peer Review. I actually did mention Starcross - it's one of my favorites. The point of the list was that they were the most popular text adventures that Infocom created. (BTW - I really like Lurking Horror - but I liked it less than Starcross, or Planetfall, or Leather Goddesses.)

I would have loved to have written more about this subject - but like Sam said, this is not a thesis. It's just a compilation of information on Infocom text adventures. If I had attempted to include every game that Infocom created, including the un-official ones, and the later graphic adventures released by Activision based upon the Zork concept, (including King Arthur - which I wasn't impressed with. Infocom had it right - there's no point in creating a graphic adventure when you can create a better one with text alone) then we would have been wallowing in text without much point. (Just finished Zork - Grand Inquisitor - fun, but too easy. I'm sorry I missed the Undiscovered Underground - let me know if you know where there's a freeware copy! None of my sources mentioned it...)

Not to mention the huge amount of information I found out about where these guys used to work, who their professor was when they were in school, the computer lab where all this started, etc. There's some nasty little stories about how the business side of Infocom was treated. There's a lot of stuff I didn't include - and to be honest, not many people are THAT interested. This is supposed to be light but informative reading.

My hope was that people who didn't know much about Infocom but used to play the games would be able to read this article and find out more about them and what happened to them.

As for the links... I included three or four links to various Infocom pages, including xyzzy. They were removed because of BBC's no-link policy. One of the things I tried to emphasize as a conclusion is that while Infocom is no longer producing text adventures, we can now create our own, and at least one site included a downloadable text engine that would allow you to do this. Oh, well... No rest for the wicked...

- Lentilla

Ohh well - at least you tried

A couple of links on my "My Space" to the douglasadams legal HHGTTG javascript game & an InvisClues link have survived moderation so far.

;^)#
painting targets on his back

I'm impressed that they seemed to release Zork I and II for the Amiga six years before it existed!

The original poster of this thread about the guide entry may have been disappointed, but it took me back to the days of playing "Hack" on an old IBM pc in 1980 or so, in the phyics lab offices at school. I never played Zork but now wish I could have! For that matter, I never got into D&D and some of the others, either. Planetfall and Stationfall appeal, though.
I've misspent my post-youth!!

I just want everyone to know that I'm not as dissapointed in the article as I now realize that I made myself look. Zork, Infocom, and the Implementors are just a few of the subjects that I enjoy obsessing over.

Really, though, while I see the initial point of the article, I had to post something. I would never be able to show my face on another Zork message board again if I didn't.

Oh, and as for freeware Zork games...Zork I, Zork II, Zork III, and Zork: The Undiscovered Underground are all now Freeware (part of their promotion for Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor.)

These games can be downloaded from the Infocom website, or many of the Zork websites that are managed by fans (I recommend The Big Zork Page, personally.)

The links are on my page, FYI.

Sorry if my first posting here is just adding to the amount of Trolling on the Internet, though. I really must learn to control my Pedantics.

No harm done!

I'll pop over to the site and pick up the Undiscovered Underground - not that I need another game to play right now! I'm in the middle of Zork Zero, (Want some rye? Course you do!) and in the middle of Discworld... and I'm also halfway through Abe's Oddysee. At this rate I'll never get done with a game because I keep starting another one!

We happened to pick up a Zork Nemesis CD at a software sale, but it doesn't seem to be an install disk. Is Zork Nemesis a two CD game?

Later - Lentilla

No, Zork Nemesis is not a two disk game. Zork Nemesis is a *THREE* disk game.

BTW, about the phrase "Want some rye, 'course you do!", where's it in Zork Zero? I could've sworn that the phrase didn't become popular until Boos Miller coined it in Return To Zork.

It's definitely not in the original Zork. I don't remember it at all until 'Return to Zork.'

Ooops.. duh!

Yes, the "want some rye? course you do!" is in Return to Zork. We had just installed yet another Zork game - Zork Zero - on our computer, and my train of thought derailed while I was typing. I played part of Zork Zero several years ago, and my little Classic Mac died about the time I got to the baby hippo in the pond.

I'm actually kind of stuck in Return to Zork right now - I've got the notebook from the teacher (Ms. Peeples?), I've performed the rye ceremony, and I'm looking for where to go next. No hints!

I had a good chuckle while playing Zork - Grand Inquisitor, because when Lucy Flathead reads the bartender's mind in Antharia Jack's, he's thinking: "Want some rye? Course you do!"

Zork Nemesis is a three CD game? Dang it. All right, I'll keep my eyeballs out for the other two CDs.

Wait, baby hippo in the quicksand in Zork Zero? That's not Zork Zero you're describing: that's Beyond Zork. Like I said, I'm overly pedantic about this particular game series.

BTW, about the "Want some rye..." line, it's repeated in another place in Zork-Grand Inquisitor. Of course, if you've gotten to Lucy Flathead's Time Tunnel Quest, you've probably passed it. When you intoxicate Dalboz's security system (Harry), it repeats the phrase again.

Oh, and the teacher's name is Mrs. Mavis Peeper's, I believe. Sorry, I'm really sorry about dragging this out. It's a habit that I've picked up from all of the Zork message boards that I frequent.

No, that's cool - I'd rather have somebody correct me! Okay, so Beyond Zork is the one with the Coconut of Quendor, the inside-out wand, and the baby hippo. That means I haven't played Zork Zero yet. Good - something to look forward to.

I've completed Zork Grand Inquisitor, but I somehow managed to miss Harry saying "want some rye?" when I got him drunk. Oh, well. I really enjoyed playing that game, but some of the puzzles were disappointingly easy. Great visuals, though.

There's some really funny things you can do that don't have anything to do with the game - like casting obidil on the purple two-headed monster (twice), or making yourself look like the monster. ("Now you look better, but you still aren't getting in!") You can also assume the form of Charon. If you try to get on the boat, he'll take off his hat, which sez something like "Nice Try." I heard somewhere that if you send Lucy Flathead to the white house and try to take one of the torches, it'll say something like "You're no Lara Croft," but it was too late for me to try that.

Yah, it says that. BTW, ever try casting the Throck spell on the grass right outside of GUE Tech? Particularly by the sign that particularly forbids doing that?

And then, of course, there's always casting Golgattem at Flood Control Dam #3, setting up the magic relics in the wrong order and casting the Maxov spell, trying to open the Hades Proper Envelope with the sword,...I could go on for hours.

BTW, at any point in the game, try typing in "mikespants" if you'd enjoy a brief clip show. Or by the skeleton in the Hades Waiting Room, try typing...oh, I can't remember. I think it's "eatme", or something.

Oh, and then there's the classic "killmenow" code.

Knowing Infocom, 'killmenow' works exactly as advertised...

My memory is hazy, but in the HitchHiker's game, didn't that invoke hordes of Mongul warriors sweeping majestically across the plains?

Yes and no. "killmenow" is a code specifically designed for ZGI (Zork Grand Inquisitor). The easter egg that you're talking about, Peet, is invoked in a similar fashion, though. Something along the lines of "kill me", or "die", or something. All I know is that typing "escape" will cause you to fall through a rift in the space/time continuum and land on Earth in the past, where warriors will run through the land and kill you.