Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Story Revealed

[bhodi]

Milliways: Infocom's Unreleased Sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

From an anonymous source close to the company, I've found myself in possession of the "Infocom Drive" — a complete backup of Infocom's shared network drive from 1989. This is one of the most amazing archives I've ever seen, a treasure chest documenting the rise and fall of the legendary interactive fiction game company. Among the assets included: design documents, email archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made.

For obvious reasons, I can't share the whole Infocom Drive. But I have to share some of the best parts. It's just too good.

So let's start with the most notorious — Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the unreleased sequel to Infocom's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. For the first time, here's the full story: with never-before-seen design documents, internal emails, and two playable prototypes. Sit back, this might take a while.

Note: I've pieced together this history from emails and notes from the Infocom Drive. I haven't contacted any of the people mentioned, so if you're a primary source or authority, please get in touch so I can make corrections.

Update: Don't miss the comments section. Infocom alumni Dave Lebling, Steve Meretzky, Amy Briggs, and Tim Anderson all comment on the story, Zork co-author Marc Blank helps correct an error, and writer Michael Bywater provides an alternative view of the events.

I'm only about halfway through but this is a really interesting look inside the life of a late 1980's game design studio.

Edit: And, according to the comments, Michael Bywater is a bitter old bastard.

[schild]

Uh.

Obvious reasons? Get rid of the private information and release everything. _Everything_.

This sort of shit needs to get placed permanently on the net.

[Grand Design]

That's one of the most interesting things I've read on the web.  If you haven't checked back recently, a lot of the players involved have now posted on the site - some not too happy with the revealings.

[Musashi]

I lol'd irl at this part

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Apr 18, 2008
10:24 AM 
Michael Bywater wrote:

@Mr Baio: I'm not giving you my side of the story, in that old tabloid-journo phrase. I am pointing out that your story would have been better if you had contacted those of us involved *before* posting it. We're none of us hard to find, apart from Douglas.

Obviously I am not as benevolent about this as the other guys. I suppose I am just a nastier person. But what sort of surprises everyone involved is that anyone is interested.

As Amy says, don't extrapolate too far from this. Your methodology doesn't allow it.

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Apr 18, 2008
10:25 AM 
Brian Moriarty wrote:

>OPEN CAN OF WORMS

Opened.