Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
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From: hellmer@megatek.com (Mike Hellmer)
Subject: Re: Infocom rating request
Message-ID: <1993Apr26.194531.2716@megatek.com>
Organization: Megatek Corporation, San Diego, California
References: <1rea6t$25r@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1993 19:45:31 GMT
Lines: 39

ted5@po.CWRU.Edu (Thomas E. Davidson) writes:
> In a previous article, ms3djf@sunlab1.bath.ac.uk (D J Ford) says:
> >	One thing though, how the _hell_ do you reckon that the    
> >	HHGTTG is ridicuosly easy? Lots of nasty touches like
> >	if you talked to Ford by your house he pissed off, but
> >	if you ignored him he would help. And I found the abstract
> >	scenarios too wearing.
> 
> 	As I'm saying, maybe it was just my weird sense of humor--but
> I was able to tell pretty much how to solve every puzzle based on the
> weird sarcastic hints he included.
> 					Tom

I've been playing these games off and on for years starting with
'adventure' in '77 and then 'dungeon' (zork) in about '80. One thing that
always amazed me is someone's ability to solve what I would consider a
pretty obscure puzzle.

*** HHGTTG spoilers follow ***
Case in point, in HHGTTG you had to find the 3 pieces of lint/fluff or
whatever it was (sorry, it's been a while) and plant them in a pot and
something would grow. (Could have been more to the puzzle, but I don't 
remember.) What I would like to know is how anyone would think to 'plant'
pocket or belly-button lint? What kind of minds would find this easy? My
brain doesn't work that way. 

On the other hand I have seen other people say that the babble fish
puzzle was hard. As I remember this was simply a matter of logical
progression. Again I don't remember facts, but when the babble fish
shoots out of the vending machine and smashes against the wall it just
seems logical to hang somehing on the hook to cushion the blow. And when
it slid into the grate it just seemed logical to put something over the
grate. (I may have totally messed up how this puzzle actually worked, but
I think you get the idea.) 
-- 
Mike Hellmer
Megatek Corporation

hellmer@megatek.com
