This is a topic for discussing the highly acclaimed book series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As you all should know, many little tidbits of EV were based on The Guide. Including the system Zaphod and planet Beeblebrox, system Persephone and planet Rupert, the names of the drinks in some bars, the Evildrome Boozerama, etc., etc.

<ahem>

I found it witty, hysterical, funny, outrageous, outlandish, outgoing, atronomical, mind melting, brain buzzing, hilarious, and, overall, good. I enjoy quoting it, reading it, and, if there was a movie or TV show, watching it. Unfortunately, there isn't. :frown: The Guide has encouraged my dreams of becoming a sci-fi comedy writer, like the late Douglas Adams (God bless his wacked up soul). And if any of you has anything bad to say about it, I know where you live.

Please post reviews, favorite quotes, and allusions to the game. But, most of all, enjoy!

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May those who love us, love us. And those who dont love us, may God turn their hearts. And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so we'll know them by their limping.

God Bless his wacked up soul!

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Nike

Quote

Originally posted by Rawzer:
**
I found it witty, hysterical, funny, outrageous, outlandish, outgoing, atronomical, mind melting, brain buzzing, hilarious, and, overall, good. I enjoy quoting it, reading it, and, if there was a movie or TV show, watching it. Unfortunately, there isn't.:frown:
**

actually (way back in the day) there was a british television show and radio program modeled after the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

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Saint+

Don't forget "Harmless" and "Mostly Harmless".

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We make no destinction between terrorists and those who harbor them. - President George W. Bush, 9/11/01
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Ah Douglas Adams, how you are missed...

If you enjoy Adams' books, you should check out Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels -- humor in much the same vein, in a fantasy setting rather than a Sci-Fi one. I especially enjoyed Small Gods and Mort.

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Because it's there,
MotherF----r

Well, there's so many allusions to sci-fi in EV. Err, there's Beeblebrox and Zaphod, Curzon, Jadzia, THX-1138...

I don't have time now...

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Coreył (Cubed)
Uh, that word? You spelled it wrong. Yeah, that one right there, next to the period. And you're missing an apostrophe in the word "its".

Quote

Originally posted by Rawzer:
**... I enjoy quoting it, reading it, and, if there was a movie or TV show, watching it. Unfortunately, there isn't. ...
**

Ah yes, one of the great artistic works of the 20th century.

For the record, HGTTG was a BBC radio show first, then I believe came the book, and there is a BBC TV series which has occasionally been broadcast on PBS stations. There are probably recordings of the radio show around if you search and I know there are tapes of the TV show available. I've never heard any of the radio show.

The TV show was OK, it caught a lot of the flavor of the books, but was IMO hampered by really cheap sets and special effects. On the other hand, the actors did a pretty good job with the material.

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

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Originally posted by Joe Burnette:
The TV show... was IMO hampered by really cheap sets and special effects.

Really? I felt that the low-level sets and effects actually helped contribute to the spirit of the story.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by coreycubed:
**...Curzon, Jadzia, THX-1138....
**

Wait, THX-1138 alludes to Star Wars, not The Guide. And where are Curzon and Jadzia from? :slightlyperplexed:

Hey, where do you think I could find those videos or tapes? They sound good.

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May those who love us, love us. And those who dont love us, may God turn their hearts. And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so we'll know them by their limping.

Quote

Originally posted by Rawzer:
And where are Curzon and Jadzia from?

Jadzia Dax is a character in (url="http://"http://us.imdb.com/Title?0106145")Star Trek: Deep Space Nine(/url) (seasons 1-6 only), and the name of one of her previous "hosts" was named Curzon.

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David Arthur
(url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Rawzer:
**Wait, THX-1138 alludes to Star Wars, not The Guide. And where are Curzon and Jadzia from? :slightlyperplexed:

Hey, where do you think I could find those videos or tapes? They sound good.

**

THX-1138 refers to George Lucas - it was the title of the first movie he directed, and appears in most of his movies, e.g.: the license number of Suzanne Somers' T-Bird in 'American Grafitti.'

Curzon and Jadzia are from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

There are many allusions to books, movies, TV shows in EV; most of them have been catalogued on these boards before. A few I can recall at the moment: Arrakis and Dune refer to Frank Herbert's 'Dune' novels; Plateau probably refers to Larry Niven's 'Known Space' stories/books; New Ireland and New Scotland refer to Niven and Jerry Pournelle's novel 'The Mote in God's Eye'; Sauron is from J.R.R. Tolkein's 'The Lord of the Rings.' There are many others which i can't remember at the moment. In addition to system/spob names there are allusions and references in descriptions, news reports and ads on the bar holo-vid, and many pers resources.

For videos and/or tapes i would suggest a net search ot video/audio sales sites.

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

Quote

Originally posted by WickedDyno:
**Ah Douglas Adams, how you are missed...

If you enjoy Adams' books, you should check out Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels -- humor in much the same vein, in a fantasy setting rather than a Sci-Fi one. I especially enjoyed Small Gods and Mort.

**

Really? Right now I'm reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett anf its hysterical, you should read it.

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Nike

Gee, just when I was thinking of starting a topic like this. Thanks Rawzer.

I'm looking for other people's opinions on something; I've found some odd information in the book Restaurant at the End of the Universe on the Man who Rules the Universe. Of course, he seems like a total ditz, learning how to make marks on paper with a pencil each day and so forth. However, there also seems to be an unusual streak of intelligence in this passage, after Zaphod and Trillian left:

Quote

HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Inside, Zarniwoop continued.
"But don't you understand that people live or die on your word?"
The ruler of the Universe waited for as long as he could. When he heard the faint sound of the ship's engines starting, he spoke to cover it.

Zarniwoop winds up running out to find Zaphod and Trillian, who are gone. He then becomes stranded outside in the rain as the door is locked behind him. Since the ruler of the Universe spends the next week talking to his table, Zarniwoop presumably dies out in the rain. Based on the section above, this seems like a calculated move to get rid of Zarniwoop by the Ruler. Anyone else notice this? Is it just another of the book's many inconsistancies, or is the Ruler not such an idiot after all?

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Quote

Originally posted by Rawzer:
**Wait, THX-1138 alludes to Star Wars

**

No. Lucas' first movie was called THX-1138, and he puts that somewhere in all of his movies.

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Originally posted by Starkiller:
**No. Lucas' first movie was called THX-1138, and he puts that somewhere in all of his movies.

**

Not quite. His first movie was Starship 1138 or something like that. THX refers to the sound company.

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May those who love us, love us. And those who dont love us, may God turn their hearts. And if he doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so we'll know them by their limping.

Quote

Originally posted by Macavenger:
**

Zarniwoop winds up running out to find Zaphod and Trillian, who are gone. He then becomes stranded outside in the rain as the door is locked behind him. Since the ruler of the Universe spends the next week talking to his table, Zarniwoop presumably dies out in the rain.

Based on the section above, this seems like a calculated move to get rid of Zarniwoop by the Ruler. Anyone else notice this? Is it just another of the book's many inconsistancies, or is the Ruler not such an idiot after all?

**

To answer your question, I <i>believe</i> that the ruler is:

A. Smart, but acts dumb.
B. Just plain insane.
C. A 6th dimensional being, quite like the 'mice', and acts like an idiot so that the six people who ask him questions don't suspect. If they ever do suspect, then he does something as insane as talking to his table. Maybe this is why he doesn't know that the table can't answer back?

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Have some pity,
for the new race in the city.
Emalgha is here to stay,
whatever those Voinan losers say!

Quote

Originally posted by Rawzer:
**Not quite. His first movie was Starship 1138 or something like that. THX refers to the sound company.

**

Not exactly. The name of the sound company came from the name of Lucas' first movie, "THX-1138." Check out this site for the real info:
(url="http://"http://us.imdb.com/Title?0066434")http://us.imdb.com/Title?0066434(/url)

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

Quote

Originally posted by David Arthur:
**Really? I felt that the low-level sets and effects actually helped contribute to the spirit of the story.

**

I thought it added to the Douglas Adams style.

By the way, has anyone played the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Infocom game, I'm still playing that!

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'The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is the day when they start making vacuum cleaners'

Quote

Originally posted by Beeblebrox:
**I thought it added to the Douglas Adams style.

By the way, has anyone played the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Infocom game, I'm still playing that!**

I've played the on-line version before, but get stuck on the Heart of Gold, after the rest of the crew goes into the sauna. I'm pretty sure I have to show Marvin's door the Atomic Vector Plotter (key to improbability generators, so it makes more sense), but I've never been able to get it out. I've tried "type (word) on keyboard" where word is the correct word from the captain's poem, but it always says it doesn't know that word. Is there some other command I should be using?

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- Macavenger | e-mail: (url="http://"mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com")mailto:e-gamerguy1@home.com(/url)e-gamerguy1@home.com

Quote

Originally posted by Macavenger:
**Gee, just when I was thinking of starting a topic like this. Thanks Rawzer.

I'm looking for other people's opinions on something; I've found some odd information in the book Restaurant at the End of the Universe on the Man who Rules the Universe. Of course, he seems like a total ditz, learning how to make marks on paper with a pencil each day and so forth. However, there also seems to be an unusual streak of intelligence in this passage, after Zaphod and Trillian left:

Zarniwoop winds up running out to find Zaphod and Trillian, who are gone. He then becomes stranded outside in the rain as the door is locked behind him. Since the ruler of the Universe spends the next week talking to his table, Zarniwoop presumably dies out in the rain. Based on the section above, this seems like a calculated move to get rid of Zarniwoop by the Ruler. Anyone else notice this? Is it just another of the book's many inconsistancies, or is the Ruler not such an idiot after all?
**

Well, the books do contradict each other and themselves...

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