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douglasadams.com has the original game playable in a little Java applet but if you look at the applet parameters, you'll find the original game in its original form right here. You can play that on any Infocom interpreter you like.

PS if you've never played it, it's very funny, but f**king impossible :-) Took about a year and a half when I was playing in my school lunchbreaks. Maybe being 12 didn't help with getting some of the humour, mind.

douglasadams.com has the original game playable in a little Java applet but if you look at the applet parameters, you'll find the original game in its original form right here. You can play that on any Infocom interpreter you like.

PS if you've never played it, it's very funny, but f**king impossible :-) Took about a year and a half when I was playing in my school lunchbreaks. Maybe being 12 didn't help with getting some of the humour, mind.

douglasadams.com has the original game playable in a little Java applet but if you look at the applet parameters, you'll find the original game in its original form right here. You can play that on any Infocom interpreter you like.

PS if you've never played it, it's very funny, but f**king impossible :-) Took about a year and a half when I was playing in my school lunchbreaks. Maybe being 12 didn't help with getting some of the humour, mind.

Douglas Adams Made that point in one of the HH trilogy. I believe it's in Restaurant at the End of the Universe. -Marc

First of all, what's the status of the HHGG movie? information is still pretty sketchy. Is there a cast set or in mind yet? when is anyone ever going to get around to actually making the thing?

But really I want to know what the movie is going to look like. a $120 million figure was cited. That means it could be done, production-wise, like a serious american sci-fi movie. But do you want to? Although some elements of HHGG seem to me to call for very advanced effects and good production values, others call more for a cheesy Dr Who type look, or something else entirely (Like when the improbability drive turns on, probably the most effective approach would be just to hand out hallucinogenic drugs to everyone in the theater). Have you discussed set design and special effects yet? Like, for example, what do you want the Heart of Gold to look like? I think it should be very advanced looking (top quality cgi, etc), but happen to have the same exact shape as, say, Arthur's toothbrush. Can I be in charge of these things? I'm highly qualified, with no experience whatsoever! Have i rambled enough yet? Now? Ok.

I think that he somewhere on www.douglasadams.com says something about it having first turned into another book in the hitchhiker trilogy.

Here's a link

Mikael Jacobson

If you are interested in buying one of the few remaining copies of this book (autographed by Mr Adams himself, no less!) then you should check here. Of course, shipping from the UK to the US is a bit expensive.

I'm curious as to how you spend your time these days. We all know about TDV, H2G2 and that there's a movie in the offing, but in the evening, when you go home, what do you do?

Are you married, do you have children, what sort of television programmes do you watch, what authors do you read, et cetera?

Or is your diary as full as Genghis Khan's, and you have no time for such frivolities...?

D.

What is this Imperial Tobacco award listed in the bio?

I am pleased that Starship Titanic was finally released for the Mac. I must have missed the announcement. I don't follow Mac stuff that closely anymore

However, my underlying point remains, even Douglas Adams had to bow to commercial pressures and favor the PC version -- though the Mac (unlike Linux) has been an established gaming market for almost 20 years!

I did a spot check before posting, and saw a page on the official Starship Titanic web site entitled "Why Isn't Starship Titanic on the Macintosh?" I hope you'll understand why my quick check of the page suggested that Starship Titanic *still* wasn't on the Mac.

Also, I was thinking 'initially released' when I wrote 'released'. Sloppy wording. Mea Culpa.

In penance, let me offer the following: While I don't know if formal Mac versions were released for any of his previous Infocom/Activision games, free/shareware interpreters for many platforms are available for free download (per Douglas Adams' website). Maybe there's even a Linux version.

Dang! 100,000 unfiltered terahertz lip-flappers on /. -- and I get caught out on a point that I thought I fact-checked. (*grumble*) I hope that doesn't make anyone else think twice before spending the time to fact-check.

For those of you who don't have a permanent connection or prefer being able to save your game, here's the actual game .

Online Hitchiker's Guide at Douglas Adam's Website

Oh, and I'm convinced that the "terrible nerd" from his other game, Bureaucracy, is a result of his prophetic abilities and is actually Bill Gates.

After all, he was right about 42:

Article: Hitchiker's Guide Was Right! 42 It Is!

I just ordered it. I feel pretty good about it since I couldn't find these games after I foolishly gave my Atari 800 to a friends kid. (I had notions that the nobility of my generosity would cause her to grow up appreciating computers... I haven't seen them in ages, I bet they gave it to Goodwill :(

Now, once I get M.U.L.E., the Archon Games, the Ultima games, Crush, Crumble, and Chomp, the Spy vs. Spy games, the Eidolon, Seven Cities of Gold and Temple of Apshi I will have completely recreated my childhood... mwa-ha-ha-ha...

Oh, there was an online version of Hitchhiker's Guide... let me check... here it is.

The fact that people approximately 2000 years ago decided to start a new count does not seem to me to be particularly important

(sigh) sorry to be pedantic, but the Gregorian calender wasn't invented until ~525A.D.

See this for the real skinny.

And incidentally, hen people refer to the next millennium, they are generally speaking of the third millennium, which, in fact, begins 2001. Sheesh, you're being more pedantic about this than I am. See this article by Douglas Adams to find out what happens to pedants.

--GnrcMan--

See here: http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/pedants. html

If this isn't appropriate, I don't know what is:

Significant Events of the Millennium
1 January 1000 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the second Millennium.
1 January 1001 Pedants celebrate the beginning of the second Millennium.


1 January 1100 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the twelfth century.
1 January 1101 Pedants celebrate the beginning of the twelfth century.


1 January 1200 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the thirteenth century.
1 January 1201 Pedants celebrate the beginning of the thirteenth century.


1 January 1300 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the fourteenth century.
1 January 1301 Pedants celebrate the beginning of the fourteenth century.


10 June 1381 The Pedants' Revolt reaches London. (Not the Pedants' Revolt, the Peasants' Revolt. (sgd.) A Pedant. And kindly close the brackets.) (Thank you.)


1 January 1400 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the fifteenth century.
1 January 1401 Pedants celebrate the beginning of the fifteenth century.


1 January 1500 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the sixteenth century.
1 January 1501 Pedants celebrate the beginning of the sixteenth century.


1 January 1600 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the seventeenth century.
1 January 1601 People begin to get really fed up with pedants.


1 January 1700 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the eighteenth century.
1 January 1701 A few pedants begin to notice that pedants tend not to have very good celebrations.


1 January 1800 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the nineteenth century. A splinter group of ex-pedants turn up and get very drunk.
1 January 1801 The rest of the pedants celebrate the beginning of the nineteenth century.


1 January 1900 Almost everyone celebrates the beginning of the twentieth century. No pedants allowed.
1 January 1901 Pedants hold a Morris dancing festival.


24 November 1996 The Digital Village web site goes online: the third Millennium starts early and catches everybody by surprise.


1 January 2000 Anybody who even mentions the Millennium gets garrotted.
1 January 2001 Massacre of the Pedants.


--GnrcMan--

I just have to include a link:
www.douglasadams.com/dna/pedants.html
It's funny. Read it.
Unfortunately, I can't resolve the domain right now for some reason. Hope you have better luck.

I just have to include a link:
www.douglasadams.com/dna/pedants.html
It's funny. Read it.
Unfortunately, I can't resolve the domain right now for some reason. Hope you have better luck.

For all of you who like to celebrate the turn of a century in a year ending in 01, I direct you to Douglas Adams' take on all of this.
http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/pedant s.html

Anyhow, who cares if some Roman guy messed everything up because there was no Roman numeral 0. Our number system has a 0 in it, so we might as well USE it. I doubt that the people who lived in 1 B.C. will care.
--

Although the type of "oh, the millenium doesn't finish until 01/01/2001" pedantry generally irritates me intensely (look, we're all going to get very drunk whatever, OK, pedant? If you really want to you can stay at home and sulk, just don't expect everyone else to join in) in this case it could be quite interesting if the law became involved.

More information on this tricky topic can be found at the US Naval Observatory, or alternatively from Douglas Adams, who explains things much better than I could.

That's neato. As a side note, I don't know if any of you have had a chance to check out www.douglasadams.com, but it's a really nice site. Also there's a web-board that Douglas reads. He's really a pretty nice guy and makes himself as available as possible, considering his busy schedule, although he can get kind of short with blithering idiots.
At one point he requested (publicly on the message forum) that a new "stupid crap" forum be created, and that all posts relating to: 1) tech support for Starship Titanic 2) "I'm writing a report for school and was wondering if you could answer this involved question which was not very well thought out in the first place." 3) Anything similar to some of the lesser AC posts here.
Also note that Mr. Adams has officially retired from answering any questions relating to the number 42.

GnrcMan

"So we're actually going to land in a minute?" said Arthur.

"Well, not so much land, in fact, not actually land as such, no... er--"

"What are you talking about?" asked Ford sharply.

"Well," said the Captain, picking his way through the words carefully, "I think as far as I can remember we were programmed to crash on it."

"Crash?" shouted Ford and Arthur.

"Er, yes," said the Captain, "yes, it's all part of the plan, I think. There was a terribly good reason for it which I can't quite remember at the moment. It was something to do with... er..."

Ford exploded.

"You're a load of useless bloody loonies!" he shouted.

"Ah yes, that was it," beamed the Captain, "that was the reason."

(Fair use quote from Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, chapter 24.)

"So we're actually going to land in a minute?" said Arthur.

"Well, not so much land, in fact, not actually land as such, no... er--"

"What are you talking about?" asked Ford sharply.

"Well," said the Captain, picking his way through the words carefully, "I think as far as I can remember we were programmed to crash on it."

"Crash?" shouted Ford and Arthur.

"Er, yes," said the Captain, "yes, it's all part of the plan, I think. There was a terribly good reason for it which I can't quite remember at the moment. It was something to do with... er..."

Ford exploded.

"You're a load of useless bloody loonies!" he shouted.

"Ah yes, that was it," beamed the Captain, "that was the reason."

(Fair use quote from Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, chapter 24.)