A slightly naughty attempt at cashing in on the Douglas Adams title of the same name, Supersoft didn’t get very far when they were issued with a lawsuit to prevent a proper release of the game.
Eventually, the game had all Douglas Adams references taken out or changed to a degree, so that the game could be released as Cosmic Capers.
The game itself is a simple text adventure, but we’re not 100% certain if the game was released in a limited form (like Giana Sisters), or if the versions that currently exist in the wild were prototypes. The scans we’ve added here from Retrocollector.org seem to suggest there was a limited release before the game was pulled from shelves.
I’ve added Cosmic Capers to the downloads for now, and thanks to Hedning/GP I’ve now added the original version of the game that was pulled for you to check out.
Contributions: Retrocollector.org, Sean O'Neill, Hedning/GP
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Game_Hitchhiker (zip)
- Game_CosmicCapers (zip)
Gallery
Update history
17/12/19 – Original game downloads added
This article on The Adventurers Guild claims that the Supersoft Hitchhikers was originally written for Commodore PET and then ported to VIC-20 and C64
https://advgamer.blogspot.com/2018/07/missed-classic-56-hitch-hikers-guide-to.html#more
“On May 9, 1981, Supersoft purchased the rights to distribute the newly-minted Hitchhiker’s game. The first release was for the Commodore PET, but ported to the VIC-20 and Commodore 64 in 1982 and 1983.”
I don’t know if the versions for the old CBM models survived the cull and it’s unclear if they bothered to release Cosmic Capers for them either – worth looking out for and potentially uploading for completeness?
Hi Sean – do you mean if the PET / VIC-20 versions managed to sneak out? That’s a good point.
PET version seems to be out there: https://www.mobygames.com/game/104715/the-hitch-hikers-guide-to-the-galaxy/
Not sure about the VIC edition though.
Right, yes looks like the PET version at least is still out there and also looking on Mobygames it seems like they only redid the C64 version as Cosmic Capers too, unless anyone knows different?
I found this old page:
http://8bitag.com/info/catacombs.html
that is actually interested in the Supersoft PET game “Catacombs” but Hitch Hikers is one of the games that’s advertised along side it in many of the magazine ads
I have the original of this game, the game was released without Douglas Adams permission even though Penguin the book publisher had given Supersoft the rights to release the game, Supersoft lost the case and all the games were withdrawn from sale and ordered to be destroyed, I believe there are only a handful still in existence. The game was rewritten and released as Cosmic Capers taking out all the references to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy