~6 minute readSo long, and thanks for the adventure
Martin Croft talks to Douglas Adams, author of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
DOUGLAS ADAMS is a household name both here and in America for his classic The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The creations of his fertile -- and entirely organic -- brain, Deep Thought the Supercomputer, the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, and Marvin the Paranoid Android, are familiar to millions. Something about his deeply sceptical view of the wonders of the computer age obviously strikes a chord.
But when he wrote the original radio plays, which have since been turned into four books, a record, a play, a TV series, and an adventure game, he had never even touched a computer.
First time
"My first time with a computer was about 18 months ago," he recalls. "Depp Thought and Marvin were created long before then.
"I have a lot of computers now -- but the one I love to bits is my Apple Macintosh. I want to get another Mac with hard discs for my secretary and my girlfriend to use."
In addition to the Apple of Adams' eye, soon to have a mate, he has a Dec Rainbow ("I'm trying to get rid of it"), an Apricot XI, a Tandy Model 100, and a Logica VTS. He is also thinking of buying an Apple IIe. Not bad for someone who was a computer illiterate only a year and a half ago!
During his crash course in computing for business and pleasure he came into contact with adventure games -- so when Infocom contacted him about the rights to Hitch-Hiker, he had definite ideas about what the game should look like.
"I feel that there are all kinds of wrong ways bookware could be done, and those are the ones I was determined to avoid.
"I'm pretty pleased with the game, but then I came in with a completely new perspective," he says. "I don't think anyone's done a game like this before.
"The first 20 moves are very easy -- anyone can get through it providing they know how to type and don't knock the computer over.
"You are Arthur Dent -- but occasionally if you use the Infinite Improbability drive you can be hurtled back in time into the game as another character. You're forced to play through a scene you've played through before, and you have to remember what you did!"
The Infocom game, he claims, is "inspired by the book, not a direct transcription of it," and is "equally accessible to readers and non-readers of the book alike."
Adams says that while what happens in the game will be "hauntingly familiar" to those who have read the book, an encyclopedic knowledge of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not necessary to play the game.
Adams is very pleased with the way Infocom has presented the game -- as he enthuses, "it's beautifully packaged -- Infocom have done a marvellous job."
The new game, however, is not the first to be published under the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy title; "somebody released a Hitch-Hiker game about a year ago, but that was without my permission. The Infocom game is not the same game at all."
He was also less than amused when he saw the advertisements for another game which features a number of easily recognisable elements from his books, as well as bits and pieces from other Science Fiction sources.
"I would like everything that goes out as Hitch-Hiker material to be under my control. I don't want other people muddying the pool."
This desire to be involved with everything that touches upon his creation extends to all the various adaptations of the books that have been made, or are being made.
For example, there have been three stage productions of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"First there was the production at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, by Ken Cambell's Science Fiction Theater of Liverpool -- but the theatre could only take 80 people at a time, and we were turning away 1,500 every night. So some producers wanted to take it to a bigger place, the Rainbow in Finsbury Park.
"The problem was that Ken was best at creating the extraordinary out of nothing. In a 3,000 seat hall you don't have nothing. The third production was a very good one by Theatre Clwyd, which toured around the country for a long time."
He also found the television series, shown on BBC a couple of years back, disappointing.
Intimate
"Radio is so much more intimate -- both for the listeners and for the creators. With radio, you can imagine for yourself what things look like -- but television, no matter how well done, is always someone else's vision."
Hopefully the big screen version of Hitch-Hiker will conform more closely to Adams' original creation.
"We're starting production of the movie in the UK in May. It's an Ivan Reitman production -- the same people who did Ghostbusters.
"Like most of the different versions, it's going to be largely retelling old stuff, but adding extra bits, and locking other parts out."
Douglas Adams is associate producer of the film, so he will certainly have some influence on the finished product -- but, as he himself is quick to point out, "nobody gets creative control -- unless you're Warren Beatty or Robert Redford. There will be teams of creative writers working out new ways of saying nothing."
In addition to his work on the film, and on his new book, So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, "the fourth book in the Hitch-Hiker trilogy", as it proudly says on the front cover, he has been working with Jim Henson of the Muppets on a one hour TV special to promote computer literacy.
"The Henson organisation is huge, and very powerful -- but full of the nicest possible people doing the strangest things."
Because of the film and the TV special, Adams has had to spend a considerable amount of time in America. While he was there, he discovered modems.
Hooked
"I was in California for seven months, and one day I plugged into the Source [an American database and electronic mail system, similar to Compunet or Micronet, but far more extensive] and I'm now hooked on it.
"When I came back I began subscribing to it from the UK. They take people from outside the US, although they don't advertise as it's technically illegal in America to transmit information across national boundaries."
One of the things he finds particularly interesting on the Source is the 'Participate-Debate Forum'.
"Anybody can start a debate; it's like an inter-active newspaper letters column, and there are hundreds of different debates going on simultaneously, some just informational, some really heated."
From computer virgin to magus of the modems and champion of keyboard literacy in only 18 months is an enviable track record for any one.
When it's somebody like Douglas Adams, whose early books show a certain hostility towards the silicon age, it's a sure testimonial to the amount that computers can contribute to today's lifestyle.
Assuming, that is, that they are not paranoid. And that they give you the right answer to important questions -- questions like the meaning of life, the universe, and everything...
So for all the friends of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox, Infocom has provided the opportunity to actively participate in Douglas Adams' universe. He should be proud -- his readers now have the chance to interact with his creation.
Who better to have the final word than the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation?
"Share and enjoy!"
Or should that be "stick your head in a pig?"
This article appeared in
Micro Adventurer
Feb 1985
These historical, out-of-print articles and literary works have been GNUSTOed onto InvisiClues.org for academic and research purposes.
