Friday, 2nd October 2020

Collector's info: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Infocom interactive fiction games are fondly remembered for their quality, but also for the sheer number of items contained in each original big box. They also got a name for them: "feelies".

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a text adventure based on the Douglas Adams novel by the same name, was no exception. It was perhaps the Infocom game that came with the most brilliant feelies (the Microscopic Space Fleet!).

The feelies included in the Hitchhiker's big box were:

A pin-on button with "Don't Panic!" printed in large, friendly letters
A small plastic packet containing "pocket fluff" (a cottonball)
Order for destruction of Arthur Dent's house
Order for destruction of Earth written in "Vogon"
Official Microscopic Space Fleet (an empty plastic bag)
"Peril Sensitive Sunglasses" (a pair of opaque black cardboard "sunglasses")
"How Many Times Has This Happened to You?", an advertising brochure for the fictional guidebook/encyclopedia The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Here's a few pictures of my personal Commodore 64 edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.