The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams was a notorious procrastinator. When it became clear that he wasn't making progress on a text adventure game adaptation, Infocom sent game designer Steve Meretzky to England in 1984 to get the ball rolling.
In 2024, Spill Historie interviewed Meretzky about the experience. "I was sent over to England to basically camp out on his doorstep until we'd finished the game design," Meretzky said. "It was a strange trip. Douglas, procrastinator that he was, was already a year past his deadline for delivering the manuscript for So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish to his publisher… and he hadn't yet written a word. His agent basically exiled him from the distractions of London to a baronial mansion in the far west of England, which had been converted to a bed-and-breakfast."
"I was a little intimidated at first, but as we got to know each other, it became more of an equal footing. It helped that we were both 6'5"," Meretzky said. After a few days of work, Adams and Meretzky came up with all the puzzles, designing the final one while "sitting on a big piece of driftwood, surrounded by sheep." Meretzky returned to Boston and completed the game in time for the scheduled Fall 1984 release. The website with the interview includes photos of the sheep, the baronial mansion, and Adams napping face down at at Huntsham Court.
Meretzky also created some of the best text adventures for Infocom, including A Mind Forever Voyaging and Leather Goddesses of Phobos. In the interview, he shares some funny anecdotes about the origins of both games.
Previously:
• Play the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure online
• 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' as read by Stephen Fry
• Hitchhiker's Guide tattoos
• Secret history of Infocom's abortive sequel to The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy text adventure, Milliways
