Hitch Hikers Guide - Supersoft
Ref - PCW 12 - 18 May page 5
Hitch-hikers dispute is over
THE dispute over the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy adventure game has been settled.
Supersoft, the Middlesex-based software company, and Hitch-hikers author, Douglas Adams reached an agreement through their solicitors moments before the case came to court.
An injunction was sought by Douglas Adams on the grounds that Supersoft had no right to use the names and places from the hook in the game.
In return for Supersoft dropping the game, Douglas Adams has agreed not to pursue any claims over royalties on those cassettes already issued.
The game was originally released by Supersoft in the belief that a letter from Pan had given them the necessary rights (PCW, 21-27 April). Pan have paid the legal costs of both sides
From this it would seem that some copies escaped into the wild and therefore it should be listed in infoseek.
Hitch-hikers dispute is over
THE dispute over the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy adventure game has been settled.
Supersoft, the Middlesex-based software company, and Hitch-hikers author, Douglas Adams reached an agreement through their solicitors moments before the case came to court.
An injunction was sought by Douglas Adams on the grounds that Supersoft had no right to use the names and places from the hook in the game.
In return for Supersoft dropping the game, Douglas Adams has agreed not to pursue any claims over royalties on those cassettes already issued.
The game was originally released by Supersoft in the belief that a letter from Pan had given them the necessary rights (PCW, 21-27 April). Pan have paid the legal costs of both sides
From this it would seem that some copies escaped into the wild and therefore it should be listed in infoseek.
Post edited by ADJB on
Comments
What was it called? When was it released? What kind of game was it? And what was the new title (the current list doesn't seem to contain that one either).
http://www.geocities.com/john.coxon/hhgg/supersoft.html
There's also mention of it on Wikipedia but it looks like it might not have been developed for the Spectrum... maybe??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
You can still play the infocom one at a number of sites but the official version was/is on the BBC site.
I think that the first reference is a good place to start putting an infoseek record together but if anybody knows any other information it would help a lot.
"Sometime between 1982 and 1984 (accounts differ) the British company Supersoft published a text-based adventure game based on the book, which was released in versions for the Commodore PET and Commodore 64. One account states that there was a dispute as to whether valid permission for publication had been granted, and following legal action the game was withdrawn and all remaining copies were destroyed. Another account states that the programmer, Bob Chappell, rewrote the game to remove all Hitchhiker's references, and republished it as "Cosmic Capers"."
There is another link to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (computer game)" which only mentions the Infocom version (at the time of writing this) in the same section.
Following the footnote on the wikipedia page I ended up with this further info: "The Commodore 64 game ‘HitchHiker-64’ (Bob Chappell, 1984), an unauthorised work loosely based on Douglas Adams's comedy had to be hastily rewritten as ‘Cosmic Capers’, with the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal becoming the somehow less satisfying Barbaric Binge Beast of Bongo".... which either helps or confuses the situation even more with regard to what the actual name of the game was! :)
Oddly enough, though, it doesn't mention the (only) game from Estuary Software Products (E.S.P.), The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, which contains the same permission notice on the screen (1985). It was available for other systems as well, at least the Apple II and Oric.
Maybe one was a copy of the other? Going by the 1985 release date of the Speccy game I'm guessing it was a port/copy of the C64 game which appears to have been released between 1982-1984. Apparently. :???:
That ought to be easy enough to test (by someone other than me *cough*), as both are readily available on-line:
Speccy version by E.S.P.
C64 version by Supersoft.
The walkthrough on that page should help, at least for the c64 version... and there's a note in it about the ESP release:
?16.95?
For a text adventure?
In 1985?
Ah, "Budget price ?8.95".
that's OK then :roll: