The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Good
This was the first game to be adapted from a license, and Steve M's wit was a perfect match for the source material. This game houses the most hallowed of all confounding puzzles, the Babel Fish! Its other achievement is it broke the rules of classic text adventures (such as lying to you which ways you could really go!)

The Bad
I was not amused about that lying part at first (it's one of the first things you encounter!) Also, the game was quite difficult. I believe this game prompted the ratings system for all Infocom games.

The Bottom Line
If you loved the book and love text adventures, this is a match made in heaven!

The Good
This game retained much of the humor and irony of the book. It manages through language. It always seemed to have a witty comeback, no matter what I typed in. If I typed in, "jump," it would respond, "Wasn't that fun?" Or if I made a juvenile comment like, "Kiss Ford," I would receive a [humorous] lecture about just what kind of game I was playing anyway. The bottom line is that the game seemed to respond intelligently and ironically. Additionally, it was challenging. Not a matter of searching around empty rooms where nothing happened—I knew approximately what was supposed to happen, and it drove me crazy trying to make it that way. The secret to getting the babble fish in your ear is...oh—if you want to cheat, go read hints online.

The Bad
Honestly, I was a bit upset that it wasn't longer. Where was the sequel? But then again, a sequel would have had to be very different from the first game—and this was so good, why risk a bad sequel.

The Bottom Line
In this game, Douglas Adams has found even another way of retelling his story—and it works. Just like the radio show, just like the books, this game is the essence of fun. But the fun in this game really picks when readers and listeners have put the other media aside. To understand the jokes, one should be familiar with one of the other media.

The Good
To this day, I still cannot forget the dreaded babel fish puzzle. This puzzle taxed my brain for weeks. I ended up having to get a couple of friends to come over to brainstorm with me on how to get the babel fish in my possesion. It was things like this that make me have fond memories of this game. This was one of the first games I played on my computer when I got it in 1985. It also made me realize how games like this could make me and my buddies stay up all night trying to think up ways to solve some of these puzzles. I only wish that some of the puzzles in today's games would match up to the evils of this game.

The Bad
Not much.

The Bottom Line
The ultimate thinking game. That could be said about any Infocom game. You definitly have to think your way through all of the puzzles.