The BBC released an online version for the 30th Anniversary of the Hitchhikers Guide with some additional graphics if anyone would like some nostalgia [1].
I don't know anyone who finished that game. It could be very frustrating. I was very pleased just to get the babel fish. Since then I have read the walk through and I doubt could have ever completed it without help. [2] (spoilers!)
> A photo of a brain and a statement that imagination was the best graphics anyone could get [...]
Funny enough, that actually applied to computer graphics just as well. Have a look at eg the sprites of Super Maria Bros: there's so little detail, and your imagination fills in the rest.
(In twenty years, we can point at today's graphics and say the same, I guess. It's always easier to see with past works.)
I never really played HHGG as a kid but started it up on my Apple //e using this wonderful disk image, which has a great front end for Infocom games, in case anyone hasn't seen it:
It was also a great example of the 'feelies' that came with games back then - the peril sensitive sunglasses and little baggie of belly button lint. It helped bridge the virtual text world with a connection to the physical.
I remember purchasing it in a Babbages or something for $14 and being so excited.
Brought it home and ran it on a 286 with a monitor capable of displaying text in one color: amber
> insert babelfish into ear