Infocom Goldmine

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

Andy Baio got his hands on an old Infocom HD backup and published selections of the findings on his blog over at waxy.org. Specifically the above page about the proposed sequel to their best-selling Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game. It features inside emails discussing the issues involved. Proposed game layout and even a few basic demos.

It’s a very interesting article for people like me who are interested in computer industry history, however the second half of the page is even more interesting from the perspective of the future of privacy and “journalism” as many of the commentators have brought up the point of wether re-posting in-house material, including emails, without first contacting those originally involved is an acceptable thing to do.

As insightful as I found the contents of the backup that have been revealed I do side with many of the commentators, including British journalist Michael Bywater, who worked on some of the games with the late Douglas Adams, in the feeling that the original authors should have been contacted and consulted and in calling himself an “independent journalist”, Andy Baio was taking on the responsibility to piece together more objective details from additional sources before reporting this information. Most of those mentioned in the original article have commented on it, and as has been mentioned, none would have been particularly difficult to track down. In the end it would have made for a more interesting read and a better representational history of events behind these much loved games.

Another great opportunity missed due to being too hasty to unveil some acquired information before the facts have been checked and the full story revealed.

Alas this is the folly of modern-day journalism.

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