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If you read Hitchhiker to have a good laugh, maybe you're going to be disappointed,"

So its like books 4 and 5 then. I thought book 4 was the best in the series, though I think I'm in the minority since lots of people didn't like it because it didn't have a laugh a sentence.

And like the novelisation of Douglas Adams' game Starship Titanic, curiously called Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic, written by Monty Python's Terry Jones. It tries to mimic DA's writing style and does it badly. It's not just not funny, it's not enjoyable. Oddly, its digital form on the game's website is more entertaining, in that all the words are given in alphabetical order.

I stand corrected! Honestly I assumed he was referring to Douglas Adams who was the writer of the Hitchhiker's Guide and Starship Titanic games. My bad.

Did anyone ever play Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic? http://www.starshiptitanic.com/ From what I understand (I never got a chance to play it), it was an adventure game with similar humor. It even had Douglas Adams in the title. One of those pointy-clicky games though. Maybe I should do a little eBaying and pick it up.

Already been done -- Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic. The book and the game were released simultaneously. (Note that the book was not written by Douglas Adams, but based on the game which he was primary designer of.) Unfortunately, the web site has pretty much deterioriated. (Although this is kind of neat in a weird sort of way -- keep clicking until the end.) And the company that DNA formed to build the game, The Digital Village, has been closed down.

Already been done -- Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic. The book and the game were released simultaneously. (Note that the book was not written by Douglas Adams, but based on the game which he was primary designer of.) Unfortunately, the web site has pretty much deterioriated. (Although this is kind of neat in a weird sort of way -- keep clicking until the end.) And the company that DNA formed to build the game, The Digital Village, has been closed down.

I tend to blame the news more than the soccer moms for the problem. If, instead of saying stuff like "Politician X failed to live up to his promise today by ..."

They said, "In our opinion, these are the significant things that Politician X did today...let us stress, however, that this is a mere 7.48% of his discisions for today. Our comprehensive analysis can be found on our website."

Has it occurred to you that "newsperson voice" is a voice designed to convey confidence? As if they're absolutely convinced that what they're saying is the absolute truth? I'd rather they were more clear about how sure of their facts they are. Best way to make this happen is to ensure that nobody gets famous in news, because with no knowledge of who you are there can be no power in it, and it would be only about dissemination of the truth. Make it a guild where you have to take an oath to anonynomy, the way doctors do to not harm. And make them have to wear a mask and voice disguise to do reports. Maybe also have some sort of standard of training for fact-checking and for witnessing. Like in Stranger in a Strange Land.

Anyone you know who is a reporter you could just call "the reporter," or "the" for short. Like in Starship Titanic.

3. Make it shriek in a loud female voice if abused...

That, or your friends will all amuse themselves with poking it repeatedly in its Achilles buttock.

Remember people, those deck chairs should be neat and orderly, we need to look good when we are sinking (- someone on the RMS Titanic)

Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic

I worked on the web site for Douglas Adams's game, Starship Titanic. We had immense fun with it. Unfortunately, some of the most fun bits (such as the original brochure for trips on the ship, and the entire novel available in alphabetical order) are not currently up. (I hope we can put them back soon) There are still some fun bits there, such as the FAQ in the Support section.

• I'm not sure if this counts, but in the HTML pages installed with the game, I stuck a massive credits and thank-you list in an HTML comment
• This should count, though: If you registered with us during the "Starlight Lines brochure" phase, the company sysadmin "accidentally" sent out an email to everyone on it with the URL of the Starlight Lines intranet. This was followed by an email saying he'd been demoted. However, not only is the secret intranet site still there, full of all kinds of hysterical reports and diaries, but buried deep down there's the Employee Forum. Despite the fact that you have to navigate through ten pages from the front of the site to get to it, it's had about 40,000 postings in the past three years, which still amazes me.

I worked on the web site for Douglas Adams's game, Starship Titanic. We had immense fun with it. Unfortunately, some of the most fun bits (such as the original brochure for trips on the ship, and the entire novel available in alphabetical order) are not currently up. (I hope we can put them back soon) There are still some fun bits there, such as the FAQ in the Support section.

• I'm not sure if this counts, but in the HTML pages installed with the game, I stuck a massive credits and thank-you list in an HTML comment
• This should count, though: If you registered with us during the "Starlight Lines brochure" phase, the company sysadmin "accidentally" sent out an email to everyone on it with the URL of the Starlight Lines intranet. This was followed by an email saying he'd been demoted. However, not only is the secret intranet site still there, full of all kinds of hysterical reports and diaries, but buried deep down there's the Employee Forum. Despite the fact that you have to navigate through ten pages from the front of the site to get to it, it's had about 40,000 postings in the past three years, which still amazes me.

• You don't have to have a non-linear storyline in a game to be both interactive and engrossing.
• You don't need a full-motion video intro to a game to be impressive.
• Really effective AI code isn't about how clever it is - it's about how clever it looks. The soldiers in Half-Life are individually stupid, but the fact that they work as a team is already way better than most games.
• There are points in Half-Life where the designers came up with a completely fantastic idea. They used it once to full effect, and then never again. Rather than making you utterly bored of it, that one point really sticks in your memory. There's also amazing subtlety in the soundtrack.
• Oh, and the point about mods and Counterstrike and stuff.

No... Douglas Adams was involved with another adventure game, Starship Titanic, published by The Digital Village. It was a decent game... but not as good as it could have been.

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.

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.

Douglas Adams, the author and staunch Mactivist, never released a Mac version of his games because it would have bankrupted the company -- which would have benefited no one.

Oh, really? Funny, there seems to be a MacOS version of Starship Titanic sitting on my bookshelf at home. I wonder where it came from?

Oh, I know. The darn cat must've set off our portable infinite improbability generator again. What a rascal!