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Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker’s (playable samples included!)
By Martin English | May 16, 2008
A very interesting discussion, started by the discovery of an Infocom Network backup:
From an anonymous source close to the company, I’ve found myself in possession of the “Infocom Drive” — a complete backup of Infocom’s shared network drive from 1989. This is one of the most amazing archives I’ve ever seen, a treasure chest documenting the rise and fall of the legendary interactive fiction game company. Among the assets included: design documents, private emails, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made.For obvious reasons, I can’t share the whole Infocom Drive. But I have to share some of the best parts. It’s just too good.
So let’s start with the most notorious — Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the unreleased sequel to Infocom’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For the first time, here’s the full story: with never-before-seen design documents, internal emails, and two playable prototypes.
There’s lots of comments by people who wrote and are mentioned in some the documents of the drive, as well. These go close to heart of the history of Infocom, and why the sequel to the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy game did not get published, despite some (very sparse) playable demos being written. Based on what little I do know about Douglas Adams, this may have had a lot to do with him (see this comment from Graham Nelson):
The real reason “Restaurant” never happened was the same as the reason that Douglas Adams’s “Doctor Who” TV scripts weren’t novelised (the only ones out of 150 which weren’t) - he would get just enthusiastic enough to want to be personally involved, then never have enough time to follow through. He didn’t remotely need the money, and he liked speculatively changing things. If he had been willing to sign a contract allowing Steve Meretzky to write “Restaurant” on his own, it might all have been a different story.
The killer find (for me anyway) was a playable version of the game - Milliways (Release 15, Serial 880512) - (requires Java 5). Alternatively, you can download the original source files (release 15 and release 184), but you’ll need an interpreter that supports Z-Machine version 4 and version 6 story files. The author recommends Windows Frotz 2002 for Windows or Spatterlight for Mac. Again, check the comments for advice on getting these to run.
Topics: Technology |
