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In 1984 Douglas Adams and Steve Meretzky launched a Hitchhikers text game, which The Times described as: The best adventure ever seen on computer - it became a best seller.
To mark the new radio series we have enlisted the help of two Hitchhikers veterans to produce this brand new 20th anniversary edition.
Read more about the history of the game.
We launched a Picture Competition to supply additional graphics for the game and we have now published
two new editions featuring the winning entries.
This adventure is not easy or straightforward - you are quite likely to die before even reaching the pub! But if you persevere and tune into Douglas' unique logic (or "consistent illogic"), you will be rewarded with some classic writing which has not been published elsewhere, e.g.
The barman gives you a cheese sandwich. The bread is like the stuff that stereos come packed in, the cheese would be great for rubbing out spelling mistakes, and margarine and pickle have combined to produce something that shouldn't be, but is, turquoise. Since it is clearly unfit for human consumption you are grateful to be charged only a pound...
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HELP
The Plot
A knowledge of the original book in the Hitchhiker series will help you get started and you will encounter many familiar characters and locations, but Douglas described the game as "bearing as much relationship to the books as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead does to Hamlet".
Instructions
You play the game by typing short instructions on the command line (in the middle of the interface) and then pressing Return, or clicking on the Return button: 
e.g. 'Go South' or 'Get Toothbrush'
Items
You will need to collect items as you proceed and these will appear on the right hand side of the screen. Be warned: there is a limit to the number of items you can carry, based on their total weight.
You can 'Drop' an item at any time but there are one or two items which may help you to bend the rules.
Some items contain other items. The latter will be displayed in a different shade of green:
To find the name of an item, click once on the graphic in the right hand column. This will add the name to the command line, which can save you time when performing operations. Eg to drop an item, type Drop, click once on the relevant item and then click on the return button.
To 'examine' an item, simply double click on the graphic. Its technical sheet will appear in the main graphics window, with a description in the text window below.
Location
The game will transport you to a series of exciting locations and the graphic in the top left hand window (and the colour scheme) will remind you where you are.
Compass
Moving about: to move location you can type 'go North' or 'go West' but it's much easier to click on the points of the 'Go' compass.
The Guide
You can consult the Hitchhiker's Guide by pressing the 'Guide' button and typing a word or phrase - e.g. 'Vogon Poetry' in the normal way. However first you will need to get hold of the guide!
Multiple Personalities
At various points in the game, you'll have the chance to play other characters. A complete change of your inventory is a clue to your transformation, and asking "Who am I?" will reveal your new identity.
Save and Restore
You can type 'Save' at any point to save your current position in the game. To continue playing later type 'Restore'.
NB It is no longer possible for h2g2 users to store personal saved games. All game saves are now public, so we advise you to choose memorable saved game names which other people won't guess or overwrite! Please ignore any other references to h2g2, which no longer belongs to the BBC.
We recommend that you save regularly to avoid having to restart in the bedroom each time you die!
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HINTS
To get a full description of your surroundings, just type 'Look'.
You wake up feeling rather worse for wear - and you're unlikely to achieve very much until you can clear your head...
As a general rule pick up (or 'get') as many objects as you can and examine them (by double clicking - see Items above), you never know when you will need them.
There are times when the best course of action is simply to 'wait'.
Drink plays an important part in this game. You need to drink enough, but not too much and you should never settle for a second rate beverage.
To help you further, we have published Douglas's original hints for the game.
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CREDITS
Our production team included multimedia designer Rod Lord, who won a BAFTA for his graphics for the Hitchhhikers TV series, software engineer Sean Sollé, who worked with Douglas on a later game: 'Starship Titanic', and Flash programmer Shimon Young, who designed many of The Digital Village's websites, including douglasadams.com
Find out how they put this new edition together.
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