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Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

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Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#21

Post by wolfhumble »

> "Al Vezza, Infocom’s CEO (and someone with no sense of humor whatsoever), was showing him around."

Albert Vezza cofounded the World Wide Web Consortium with Tim Berners-Lee, so that is big plus in my book:

"So Vezza talked Berners-Lee into coming to MIT, where the two of them cofounded the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, with Berners-Lee as director and Vezza as chair. Under their leadership, what started as a tentative collaboration between MIT and CERN has evolved into a group that spans hundreds of technology companies, laboratories, and research groups around the world. Over the years, W3C members have worked together to flesh out the standards of HTTP and develop others that are now as ubiquitous as they are essential." https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/10/23/139540/farewell-...

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#22

Post by rob74 »

mattofak wrote: post #9

For it's 30th anniversary, the BBC released a free to play version: https://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2game It is not easy; but there are hints! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3tmVKGc4dR463kWs0g...

Thanks (bookmarking)!

However: We were able to build in a larger, handier interface, with additional keys and functionality, and build in the ability to tweet from the game.

I wonder who at the BBC in 2024 thought a tight and (by the sound of it) exclusive integration of the-right-wing-cesspit-formerly-known-as-Twitter would be a good idea?

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#23

Post by madaxe_again »

trevithick wrote: post #5

> 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. Jesus, I feel anxious just reading that.

When you’re a professional procrastinator, you get used to the background hum of anxiety in your mind - it becomes little more relevant than a buzzing fluorescent tube over the kitchen table. An annoyance, but not something you particularly feel the need to do anything about.

Generally this arises because you’ve procrastinated on so many matters that resolving any one of them simply won’t make a difference, and you know that resolving all of them is an impossibility, particularly those where the deadline has been, gone, had children, and moved to the country in its senescence to spend more time in nature.

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#24

Post by MikeCoats »

rob74 wrote: post #22
mattofak wrote: post #9

For it's 30th anniversary, the BBC released a free to play version: https://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2game It is not easy; but there are hints! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3tmVKGc4dR463kWs0g...

Thanks (bookmarking)! However: We were able to build in a larger, handier interface, with additional keys and functionality, and build in the ability to tweet from the game. I wonder who at the BBC in 2024 thought a tight and (by the sound of it) exclusive integration of the-right-wing-cesspit-formerly-known-as-Twitter would be a good idea?

I think this was released in 2014, not 2024. The original was released in 1984 and those are the notes for the 30th Anniversary Edition. I now feel old.

Twitter was still 140 characters when they wrote those notes.

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#25

Post by dcminter »

trevithick wrote: post #5

> 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. Jesus, I feel anxious just reading that.

He was very funny about it, but honestly I think he was probably a bit of a nightmare to work with. If he hadn't had the huge success with the Hitchhikers paperback his publishers and other collaborators would have been a lot less understanding I'm sure!

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#26

Post by dcminter »

stoneman24 wrote: post #7
trevithick wrote: post #5

> 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. Jesus, I feel anxious just reading that.

My favourite quote from Douglas Adams “ I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

I think it's a reworked quote from someone else originally, but I like "Writing is easy - all you have to do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until your forehead bleeds..."

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#27

Post by mckirk »

madaxe_again wrote: post #23
trevithick wrote: post #5

> 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. Jesus, I feel anxious just reading that.

When you’re a professional procrastinator, you get used to the background hum of anxiety in your mind - it becomes little more relevant than a buzzing fluorescent tube over the kitchen table. An annoyance, but not something you particularly feel the need to do anything about. Generally this arises because you’ve procrastinated on so many matters that resolving any one of them simply won’t make a difference, and you k…

At some point I'll write a better response here to express my gratitude for your comment. Tomorrow, maybe. Or one of these days, anyway.

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#28

Post by rob74 »

MikeCoats wrote: post #24
rob74 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks (bookmarking)! However: We were able to build in a larger, handier interface, with additional keys and functionality, and build in the ability to tweet from the game. I wonder who at the BBC in 2024 thought a tight and (by the sound of it) exclusive integration of the-right-wing-cesspit-formerly-known-as-Twitter would be a good idea?

I think this was released in 2014, not 2024. The original was released in 1984 and those are the notes for the 30th Anniversary Edition. I now feel old. Twitter was still 140 characters when they wrote those notes.

Ah, ok, sorry, my bad - unfortunately I can't delete the comment anymore...

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#29

Post by cjs_ac »

trevithick wrote: post #5

> 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. Jesus, I feel anxious just reading that.

One of the books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (of however many books there are) ends very abruptly because the publisher was so annoyed with him missing deadlines they told him to just finish the page he was on and published whatever he had written so far.

Re: Steve Meretzky – Working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker's Guide

#30

Post by kleiba »

ghaff wrote: post #10
Retrogamingpap wrote: post #2

We talked with the designer behind games such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Mind Forever Voyaging and Leather Goddesses of Phobos. American game designer Steve Meretzky startet his career at Infocom, where he created some of the great adventure classics of the eighties. For instance, it was he who got the task of making the official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game together with author Douglas Adams…

A Mind Forever Voyaging is much overlooked IMO because it's less of a puzzle game. But it has some of the best writing of the Infocom games. Hitchhiker's is hard--maybe too much so but then I mostly struggled with Infocom games a bit absent over the phone hints from Steve :-) The Infocom-oriented cut of @textfile 's Get Lamp documentary is worth a watch. (As is the original cut of course.)

There was a time where I played that game for days with "Jazz Impressions of New York" by Dave Brubeck (another underrated masterpiece) playing in the background. This was many many years ago, and still the feeling of that time is very present in my mind.
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