Galactic Hitchhiker was written by A. Knight for the CompuKit UK 101 which was a clone of Ohio Scientific’s Superboard II.
Photo was in the box with the unit
Galactic Hitchhiker is an interactive text adventure that seems very loosely based on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The ties are tenuous but the famous catch-phrase from the series “Don’t Panic” appears multiple times during the game and even serves as a password requirement for one particular puzzle.
The game involves exploration of three different planets as well as some time travel. It’s actually a pretty good game and I quite enjoyed my experience with it. The premise of the game is that a mysterious stranger stole your transportation ticket while you’re waiting in a shuttle terminal. You give chase but ultimately discover that you’re stranded on a planet which is experiencing catastrophic earthquakes and is about to explode.
You find a key, after having missed your way off this dying planet, and use it to find a shuttle to escape. Your ship crashes on a planet known as Grecian 2000.
There are actually a lot of different locations to explore and the game is surprisingly large. The game is split into three major sections or areas to explore. The first is on the planet Gerbil as you’re in pursuit of the thief who stole your ticket and you try to escape the dying planet. The second section of the game will involve exploration of the planet; Grecian 2000. Lastly the third section will find you on the planet Gomerial which sports a whopping 24 locations to explore.
Once you crash land on Grecian 2000 there are 13 more locations to explore as well as a couple of a couple of moderately difficult puzzles to solve. Scott Adams was famous for first introducing what I call a location or map puzzle. Many players became accustomed to being told what the possible exits are out of a particular location while playing a game. For example, you’re in a wooded area and exits are to the north and east. Scott Adams took things a step further and attempted to obfuscate things by having the players type in a particular place to go to. We see it used effectively by Mr. Knight in Galactic Hitchhiker. I had hit a stumbling block on Grecian 2000 and wandered about experimentally for a bit until I discovered a new location:
A mountain is described in the background in one of the locations on the map and you can actually type in Go Mountain and you will trudge up the mountain and discover a mountain lodge up there. Going up the mountain had not been an obvious exit or choice. The ability to go there was not given with the other obvious east and west exits. But by typing in GO MOUNTAIN you went to another location all together. This is what I meant by the map itself being a part of the puzzle. At the mountain lodge you find a chopping-axe and a hint which will help much later in the game. You don’t find any old axe, you find a chopping-axe. Things clicked and I went to the only area of the map that seemed impassable, a ravine, that also sported the only blatant description of trees. I typed in chop tree and one of the trees conveniently fell right across the ravine for me.
I crossed the ravine and ended up within a city. There are a couple of important items to find in the city: a tatty old scarf as well as a pair of wire cutters. It was within the city that I encountered another stumbling block and also met an untimely death.
I was having a lot of difficulty getting by a rather surly Gerbicop when I ultimately discovered that I could chop him with the chopping-axe. Well, that was rather grisly but there it is. Getting by the Gerbicop allowed me to find the police telephone box and a rather tatty old scarf. This is an obvious nod to Doctor Who, another infamous series from across the pond.
In the upper level of a small building I found a shuttle service however I was prevented from reaching it by a chain link fence. I had also found some wire cutters so putting two and two together I used the wire cutters on the chain link fence. Only to discover that it was electrified and I died a horrible death. So I had to start the game all over again as there was no save game system in place. The chain link fence was an old “bait and switch” technique and there is another chain link fence in a different location of the map that you’ll get an opportunity to use the wire cutters on.
While exploring this planet I also came up on a little shack which had a still and there was a jug laying there. Well, of course, I typed in GET JUG
I got drunk and died.
Take three.
Once I made my way into a spacetran and it took off there was a button in the room with me. Well of course I pressed the button; and was promptly ejected into space. Getting rescued involved having to use an item in your inventory and it is probably the most difficult puzzle of the game.
Once rescued you find yourself on Gomerial, the third planet or location in the game.
There are 24 different locations to explore on Gomeril. You’ll need to get by a space ranger in one particular location and the solution to doing so will become readily apparent as you continue exploring. One of your inventory items, a large joint of beef, that you acquired on Grecian 2000 will be used to get by another obstacle in a different area of the map.
Eventually you’ll make your way into the plush office of the Temporal Travel Corporation and be asked for a password.
All I will say is remember the famous catch-phrase from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Once you give the correct password and are by Miggy you’ll find yourself in a chamber with an ear-splitting whine and a lever.
Pulling the lever takes you back in time just before the start of the game where you’ll find your ticket that you needed lying on the ground. Remember that you couldn’t go where you needed to because a mysterious stranger had taken your ticket that you dropped. Well since this story involves time travel it appears the mysterious stranger was actually you but from the future.
The map of the first planet is still the same map and you’ll have to make your way, ticket in hand, to the shuttle and catch your ride for real this time.
I thought this game was actually pretty darn good and I recommend that if you haven’t played the game you give it a try. It was fairly original and there were a large number of locations in the game to explore.
My next engagement is going to be with another text adventure from 1980 known as Will O’ Wisp.