BBC - Radio 4 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy




On 3 March 2005 our 20th Anniversary Edition of the Adventure Game won a BAFTA for Online Entertainment. Shown above are Jane Belson (widow of Douglas Adams), Steve Meretzky (co-designer of the original game), Jeremy Hardy (host for the award ceremony), Sean Sollé (technical director), Roger Philbrick (project producer) and Rod Lord (designer and illustrator).



Thanks to BAFTA, the team and above all to Douglas Adams. Read about the Awards Dinner in our March newsletter BBC News: Interactive BAFTA awards This is the story of the project...

Attempting to build a new version of any classic computer game would be daunting enough. But trying to update one written by Douglas Adams was really asking for trouble.
So we approached two experts with impeccable Hitchhiker credentials: Sean Sollé and Rod Lord.


		Software engineer Sean Sollé worked with Douglas on his later computer game: 'Starship Titanic' and co-designed h2g2. He is a leading authority on this text adventure, helps look after DouglasAdams.com, and refuses to tell us anything about his involvement with the forthcoming feature film of The Hitchhiker's Guide.
Multimedia designer Rod Lord won a BAFTA for his stunning graphics for the Hitchhhiker TV series. Ironically those computer style animations were realised using traditional techniques, but Rod now makes use of the latest graphics software.

Their first job was to analyse the game, establishing the number of locations (31), the number of objects that could be carried (48) and the information that could be displayed on the interface, such as the player's score and their location.



Intense discussions over tea and biscuits helped to settle vital questions about functionality, window sizes, colour schemes - and whether to number the images using base 13!



With the details decided, Sean roped in Shimon Young - another Digital Village alumnus - who used his Flash expertise to dovetail Rod's art and Sean's code. After several weeks of hard work and very late nights the new version was unveiled. We hope you enjoy the results of their efforts.