by rocketbop on 4/8/21, 11:38 AM with 91 comments
by OnACoffeeBreak on 4/8/21, 1:48 PM
Adams never revealed the origin of 42. [0] So, just because we really don't know, I'd like to think it originates with ASCII table and the asterisk.
0 - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/03/douglas-adams-...
by w0mbat on 4/8/21, 7:14 PM
Douglas once told me he got sent a very detailed PhD thesis that described how The Hitchhikers Guide was an elaborate parody of John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" (1678). The main evidence was that "Pilgrim's Progress" is known to be partly inspired by a pamphlet called, "The Plain Man's Path to Heaven", written by, get this, a puritan named Arthur Dent.
Douglas was embarrassed to reply that he'd never read "Pilgrim's Progress", or heard of that puritan, and the Arthur Dent name was a complete coincidence.
Things like that happened to him all the time.
by BLKNSLVR on 4/8/21, 3:17 PM
I read both the books and they were good. There was a short lived British TV series starting Stephen Mangan that was great and seemed at least partially based on some events and descriptions in the books, and two seasons of a US TV series on Netflix that was off-the-fucking-wall crazy in a not-quite-Douglas-Adams way, and unique to the point that I was pleasantly surprised that it got a second series. Thoroughly recommend for anyone that considers themselves bored with television. Unique doesn't feel like a strong enough word.
by grawprog on 4/8/21, 5:55 PM
>Then there were the puzzles, and it’s impossible to talk about Hitchhiker’s without talking about the Babel Fish puzzle.
Going through that part again and trying to remember it and figure it all out was a bit of a challenge.
But I don't think the puzzle itself is really all that hard, it's the whole beginning on the vogon ship, all of it, that makes it so hard. You've got a hidden time limit, then the poetry section, then you're thrown back in the room with an active time limit and you're supposed to remember to do the other puzzle quickly that you hopefully noticed while figuring out the Babel fish stuff, or you get a delayed game over that'll leave you wandering aimlessly around the heart of gold scratching your head.
On a related note, if you like Douglas Adams and quirky adventure games, I highly recommend his later game Starship Titanic. I played the hell out of that game when I was young, I don't know if I ever beat it. It's not the classic that hitchhiker's guide is, but if you enjoy Adams and frustrating obtuse adventure games with a strange sense of humour and somehow missed this game, I recommend checking it out.
by hilbert42 on 4/8/21, 1:12 PM
Seems Adams was ahead of his time, I wonder what he would have thought if he were alive today given the antics of Google, Facebook et al.
Incidentally, my printer is called Marvin for obvious reasons (Adams almost mandated that name for these cantankerous devices, especially networked ones).
by WaitWaitWha on 4/8/21, 1:28 PM
That is not what I got out of the radio series and book. In my opinion, it is rigidity, legalism, or by the letter vs spirit of the law what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy warns against. This fits with the author's initial dislike of computers. The Vogon's are a perfect example.
by stakkur on 4/8/21, 4:12 PM
"Adams was a Macintosh user from the time they first came out in 1984 until his death in 2001. He was the second person to buy a Mac in the UK (the first being Stephen Fry - though some accounts differ on this, saying Adams bought the first two, and Fry bought the third). Adams was also an "Apple Master," one of several celebrities whom Apple made into spokespeople for its products (other Apple Masters included John Cleese and Gregory Hines). Adams's contributions included a rock video that he created using the first version of iMovie with footage featuring his daughter Polly. The video can still be seen on Adams's .Mac homepage. Adams even installed and started using the first release of Mac OS X in the weeks leading up to his death. His very last post to his own forum was in praise of Mac OS X and the possibilities of its Cocoa programming framework. Adams can also be seen in the Omnibus tribute included with the Region One/NTSC DVD release of the TV adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide using Mac OS X (version 10.0.x) on his PowerBook G3."
For Mac heads, this too: https://lowendmac.com/2016/douglas-adams-author-and-mac-user...
by SavantIdiot on 4/8/21, 1:47 PM
I still play interactive fiction every November when the IFComp publishes its games[1].
by fullshark on 4/8/21, 1:28 PM
by riffraff on 4/8/21, 1:31 PM
I had not heard this quote before, and while I enjoyed the article, I would deem it worth reading just for this.
Thanks for sharing!
by raintrees on 4/8/21, 7:10 PM
Reminds me of one of my favorites of Douglas' quotes: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
I was also able to get Starship Titanic working a couple years ago... Had an old Compaq computer with Windows 95 as the starting basis. Much fun to revisit.
by sehugg on 4/8/21, 2:23 PM
https://www.filfre.net/2013/11/the-computerized-hitchhikers/
by hnlmorg on 4/8/21, 1:07 PM
by alexandargyurov on 4/8/21, 1:23 PM
[0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unbounders/42-the-wildl...
by acheron on 4/8/21, 12:56 PM
by anthk on 4/8/21, 2:09 PM
I may try the original English version, but I think it will be very difficult to grasp some words without WordNet.
by DonaldFisk on 4/9/21, 1:37 AM
by Vaslo on 4/8/21, 3:56 PM
by einpoklum on 4/8/21, 4:31 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Fantasy
but apparently it's another book series.