A Fowl Hitchhiker Convergence

After finding out that the library is offering free downloads of certain audiobooks, checkout-style, I've been devouring them. One series I hit upon was the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. I've quite enjoyed them. But while waiting for the last few to be "returned" by other users, I started listening to the tertiary through quintessential phases of the radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Having only read Mostly Harmless once (compared to several million for the other books in the series), hearing the radio play based on it made me look up what it was so... depressing (reason: Adams had a terrible year).

However, I spotted in Wikipedia that Colfer has been given permission to write a new Hitchhiker's novel (whether it's based on Salmon of a Doubt as Adams' was considering, I know not) which will be out later this year. I respect Colfer's writing abilities; he's less prone to some weaknesses that I've come to be frustrated with in other fiction (usually character stupidity). So I'm hoping that And Another Thing... turns out reasonably well. As long as it's better than Mostly Harmless, though, I think I'll be satisfied.

Infocom, Hitchhikers, and Text Adventures

Okay, so I snuck a look in at /. and came across something wonderful: Playable versions of the sequel to Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were found on a hard drive backup and given to a blogger. He, naturally, blogged about them and made available the two version for download as well as making one playable via an applet.

The comments following the article include some from Infocom people themselves, such as Steve Meretzky and Marc Blank! A very interesting read.

The other thing I found from reading the comments is that a documentary about text adventurs and Infocom entitled "Get Lamp" is in the works. Infocom is one of the main reasons why I got interested in programming in the first place and I like to think of many of the puzzle hunts I've participated in as "real" interactive fiction. Growing up, I didn't want to be a fireman, an astronaut, a doctor or a lawyer: I wanted to work for Infocom.



Of course, that's impossible now. I did end up writing an IF game, but never completing it to my satisfaction. Something about being a stay-at-home father kind of sucks up your time. :)