“Wow!”, I thought, “This is exactly what I'm in the mood for right now.”. I hadn't played The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for ages and I was delighted when the game loaded without any errors. However, the start of the datassette game turned out to be a completely different adventure than the one I had expected ... the one from Infocom.

The abort with RunStop worked and it turned out that it was a Basic program that (as you can see in picture two) was written by Bob Chappell on the 22nd of march 1981!?!😳

Unbelievable, how was that possible?

A little research brought me to the site of Lemon64.com, where I read the following interesting information about the game, which I can't withhold from you:

Released: 1983 (41 years ago)

Publisher: Supersoft

Coder: Bob Chappell

It was an unofficial pre-Infocom's “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” game that was hit with a cease and desist lawsuit, resulting in Supersoft removing all references to Douglas Adams and rebranding it as “Cosmic Capers”. All existing copies were destroyed a couple of years after it was originally released. The game exists in a couple of variants, one with a gray background and one with a black background. The game can be downloaded for free at GTW (https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy/)

#turbotape #c64 #commodore64 #retrogamer #retrogaming #datasettegamer #1981 #1984
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (C64) - 1983 Supersoft - GTW64

A slightly naughty attempt at cashing in on the Douglas Adams title of the same name, Supersoft didn't get very far when they were issued with a lawsuit

Games That Weren't