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The Infocom version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy became a fan favourite; it was one of five top-selling Infocom games to be produced in Solid Gold versions, with a built-in hint system not included in the originals. And AL are releasing it today!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is an interactive fiction game based on the comedic science fiction series of the same name.

It was designed by series creator / original book author Douglas Adams along with Infocom's Steve Meretzky. It was first released in 1984 for the Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64, CP/M, MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari 8-bit family and Atari ST. It was Infocom's fourteenth game.

As part of CB's project to ensure that all of the Infocom adventures are made available, and that they are all using the latest versions of the game files, this is the Solid Gold edition. This was never officially released on the Atari ST back in the day.

You can grab today's download using this link.

If you like Infocom's interactive fiction games, then check out our Advent Day #13 release which has the Infocom motherlode available. As you would expect from CB, they will all be using the latest versions of the game files.

We're now into the second half of December, so here's release 16 from the AL advent. 'Kayden Garth' was originally released commercially by EAS Software game with a very strange keyboard control system.

However, CB has come to the rescue and he dived in a fixed some of the game's innards so that you can play this game (his notes are below).

This wasn't a title I was familiar with, so a link to the CPRG Addict's blog was found. The blog author played through most of the C64 version. They managed to map a few of the dungeons and there's a link on the blog page. Maybe you fancy taking up the blog author's challenge of playing the Atari ST version and can confirm some of his suspicions about the C64 port?

Here's the download link for the CB fixed version of Kayden Garth.

Maybe, CB and the above CRPG Addict blog, are being a little bit unkind about this game? Could it be that it is just a flawed gem? It's up to you to rise to that challenge!

Let us know in the reviews section under the Kayden Garth entry in the AL database.

Finally, a quick hint from myself re: hacking the saved game file. It's called PARTY.DAT and it is in the root of the disk / hard-drive folder.

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Now for some extra release notes from CB. They explain the keyboard changes / fixes he has done:

By default this game has the most stupid control scheme there is (keyboard only), that makes the game unplayable.

The original direction keys were awful: North? Press @ South? Press - East? Press ] or West? Press [

So I've fixed that. It now uses a more logical ZQSD (AZERTY) or WASD (QWERTY) control.
I also changed the save key from S to X.

Other keys I've left untouched:
P: Climb a ladder (in dungeons)
N: New game (Caution: there is NO warning, it starts the character creation straight away)
1-4: See character 1-4's status
L: Light a torch (dungeons only)
Space bar: Wait

There might be other controls I missed... Hopefully they are not as screwed up as the original movement keys!

Just a small treat today. A conversion of Donkey Kong Jr. from the Nintendo Game and Watch. Made by Neanderthal. This one runs on ST and Falcon.

Download this little game here.

Here is an obscure and rare adventure game for you all to enjoy : The Adventures of Maddog Williams. Originally cracked by the Replicants and now perfected by CB.

Some words from CB : "I exchanged the password questions with their answers because I'm not sure the version was fully cracked. There is a password check right before the beginning but there should be another one in chapter 4 from what I've read. I did this patch just to be on the safe side!"

Download the game here.

Today's release is the mini-motherlode for all fans of interactive fiction as released by Infocom.

CB (yes, it's him again!) from FGC has been compiling and testing the very latest versions of all of the Infocom releases. The majority of these probably aren't the ones that we got to see back in the day, but some of them are the bug-fixed versions released later on other machines / fixed by fans of the games.

Click this link to grab the best collection of Infocom adventures.

In total, there are 11 disks inside today's .ZIP file, plus two more disks which have the complete collection of Invisiclues. These are what Infocom called the hint sheets that used to come with the original games.

The heavy amount of work that CB has put into these disks includes the following:

- Dual interpreters: the .PRGs will launch the old Infocom interpreter. Clicking on the .DAT files will launch the games via JZIP 2.1 which is more advanced, but also slower.
- Invisiclues for all Infocom games: they are in the HINTS folder and have to be launched with JZIP (just click the .DAT files).
- A tutorial is included on the first disk.
- Chronological order: CB has regrouped the official Infocom games by series or chronological order of release as much as possible.
- Bonus stuff: He has also included: Encyclopedia Frobozzica, the German Zork beta, and two other games: Zork: A Troll's Eyes View and the original classic game 'Adventure'. All bonuses are to be launched with JZIP for them to work.

The disk contents are:

Disk 1:
-Infocom Tutorial
-Zork I Rel. 88
-Zork II Rel. 48
-Zork III Rel. 17

Disk 2:
-Beyond Zork Rel. 57
-Zork: The Undiscovered Underground Rel. 16
-Encyclopedia Frobozzica (bonus)

Disk 3:
-Enchanter Rel. 29
-Sorcerer Rel. 18
-Spellbreaker Rel. 87

Disk 4:
-Planetfall Rel. 37
-Stationfall Rel. 107
-Deadline Rel. 27
-Starcross Rel. 17

Disk 5:
-Suspended Rel. 8
-The Witness Rel. 22
-Infidel Rel. 22
-Seastalker Rel. 16

Disk 6:
-Cutthroats Rel. 23
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Rel. 59
-Suspect Rel. 14

Disk 7:
-A Mind Forever Voyaging Rel. 79
-Wishbringer Rel. 69
-Ballyhoo Rel. 97

Disk 8:
-Hollywood Hijinx Rel. 37
-Leather Goddesses of Phobos Rel. 59
-Moonmist Rel. 9

Disk 9:
-Trinity Rel. 12
-Borderzone Rel. 9
-Zork German beta (bonus)

Disk 10:
-The Lurking Horror Rel. 221
-Bureaucracy Rel. 116
-Adventure Rel. 9 (bonus)
-Zork: A Troll's Eye View Rel. 3 (bonus)

Disk 11:
-Nord & Bert Rel. 19
-Plundered Hearts Rel. 26
-Sherlock : The Riddle of the Crown Jewels Rel. 26

(And don't forget the two disks of Invisiclues also, but this is just an added extra as the relevant Invisiclues are included on the separate disks as well)

As we don't just do Atari machines here, clicking this link will take you directly into the collection of interpreters that are available for other machines on the Interactive Fiction website.

Why? Because we're nice like that!

In a medieval fantasy world, strange drugs appear that create an addiction among the population. It appears that they are all coming from one central point that is controlled by a mysterious stranger. The player controls a group of heroes in this role-playing game as he tries to find out the origins of the drug and to break down on the man who is responsible for them.

Today's release is a special one because Spirit of Adventure was never officially released in English by Starbyte way back in 1991.

CB of FGC worked his magic on it. He used the English PC version's files to translate the bulk of the original German version and then dived into the executable and fine-tuned the translation once more. Some of the fixes he has implemented ensure that the ST version more complete than the original PC one!

Download
Get your copy of the game here.

The download contains 3 x ZIPs (one each for the English, French and German versions). Within each separate language version is the .MSA disk image, or the files version for your hard-drive (real or emulated).

Hints and tips:
CB has these tips for those wanting to play this game:

-A good party is composed of 2 warriors and/or amazons, 1 samurai or banshee, 1 priest or faery, 2 magicians and/or godesses.

-Each character gets one magic skill when created, the mandatory ones are compass (puts a compass in the bottom right corner of the screen), armor (better defense for the whole party), regen (magic regeneration over time), wielder (better attack for the whole party), healer (HP regen when out of combat for the whole party) and booster (mind points regen for the whole party). YOU HAVE TO ACTIVATE EACH SKILL IN THE CHARACTER SCREEN.

-You start with a few weapons; you also have to activate them in the inventory.

-The game is in real time; if you don't move, time will pass but you will not be attacked by random enemies. The combats are not in real time, but negative effects like poison are. Also, there is a day/night cycle, and even week days. Some places may be closed during specific days.

-Dwarves give a nice amount of gold when killed (usually 100 GP).

-Don't waste mind attacks on stupid animals like bats or spiders.

-Samurais and banshees can (and should) be equipped with dual weapons. And buy your priest a bow and a lot of arrows.

-Gaining levels takes a lot of time, even the first level requires 1000 experience points. The enemies in the first town only give 5-20 XP depending on their strengh and number...

-Food rations are consumed real fast when travelling on the main map. There are of no use inside cities.

-Some shortcuts: num keys on main keyboard can be used for most menus, Y/N should also work, and to get back to the previous menu sometimes N or B can be used. To give an item to someone else, you have to click once on it then click on the name of the character you want to give it to. Hit CTRL-U to use an equiped item.