For those that remember the original tv series (based on the books, of course, which were in fact originally a radio play), you will remember the shockingly bad special effects (themselves outdone only by Tom Baker era Dr. Who effects in terms of sheer awful). The one exception to the BBC standard guy-in-a-bad-rubber-suit effects in terms of quality was the animation of the HHGG screens. I was shocked to find out that they were, in fact, <i>all animated by hand</i>.<p>I've seen a doc about this, can't find it online now. Here's a brief clip of an example:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uynMCvdkp0M#t=2m20s" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uynMCvdkp0M#t=2m20s</a><p><i>By hand...</i> Reverse-Skueomorphism before it was cool.
"The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean the idea that such complexity can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And once you get some kind of inkling of how that might have happened ' it's just wonderful. And . . . the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is time well spent as far as I am concerned"<p>- Douglas Adams on 'Break the Science Barrier with Richard Dawkins', Channel 4, Equinox Series, 1996
OCD/loyalist nitpick: His name is Douglas, not Doug. AFAIK, he did not use that nickname. Can someone please change the title from "Doug Adams' 61st birthday.." to "Douglas Adams' 61st birthday..."?<p>EDIT: Fixed. Thank you, OP.
I am not seeing it from here. (Australia, GMT+10 time-zone). However it is available from the Google doodle archives at: <a href="http://www.google.com/doodles/douglas-adams-61st-birthday" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/doodles/douglas-adams-61st-birthday</a>
Pick up a tablet (Android!), connect it to Wikipedia and google's Translate service, and you're a few steps closer to Douglas Adams' universe than he had the opportunity to see. Wikipedia launched just a few months before his death.<p>He actually started a project along similar lines:<p><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/webhead/2005/05/galaxy_quest.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/webhead/2005/05/gal...</a>
Clicking on the keypad displays different images; anyone worked out the others?<p>Here's an excerpt from the Guardian:<p>The doodle features many of the touchstones of Adams's popular writing.<p>It displays a cup of tea - a reference to one of his Dirk Gently detective novels, called The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. It also shows a towel, an item Adams wrote was essential when travelling in space).<p>With a click of a lift door on the doodle, one of Adams's most enduring characters from the Hitchhiker novels, Marvin the paranoid android, is revealed.<p>There are many references to the Hitchhiker's Guide. With many clicks, some of Adams's best fictional inventions, including the Babel Fish, which can be inserted in your ear to translate any language, are on show.<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/11/douglas-adams-celebrated-google-doodle" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/11/douglas-adams-ce...</a>
Douglas Adams is the only author I've come across who has used recursion in fiction.<p>"<i>in short, all the paraphernalia common to all restaurants where little expense has been spared to give the impression that no expense has been spared.</i>"<p>The man was a litterary genius.
I really liked this, except the fact that - for me - it was translated into Danish.<p>I have only read Douglas' works in English, and the phrase is "Don't Panic" - it's not "Undgå Panik", which is a lousy translation that literally means Avoid Panic.<p>Sometimes this geolocalization goes too far.
Does anyone know a place to play the Infocom game online? The original is here <a href="http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html</a> but it requires java, and the BBC's illustrated version <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml</a> doesn't work anymore. Oh well you can always download an emulator and the original Apple II disk images! <a href="http://www.virtualapple.org/hitchhikersguidetothegalaxydisk.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.virtualapple.org/hitchhikersguidetothegalaxydisk....</a>
Ohh the depressed robot is in there!<p>The little screen can also show several things with very clever references - in fact I have not seen it repeat yet!<p>BBC series was so much better than the movie.<p><pre><code> Hey Google - your earth is spinning in the wrong direction!
It's always left-to-right when it's facing north->south.
Several of those little screens are incorrect.
Unless maybe this is Earth2 and they screwed up the rotation or something.</code></pre>
I remember picking up "Salmon in Doubt" at the bookstore and reading the cover notes which referenced Adams's passing. I thought it was all meant to be a satire because I hadn't heard that Adams had actually died and he seemed too young. Even 61 is too young
I met him at a book signing at the Boulder Book Store in the mid 90's. He walked to the front of the audience, and said "I'm feeling a bit wobbly today. I was recently in Texas and asked my friend: What do you do for fun in Texas?"<p>At this point I thought he was going to say, "And we got really drunk." But he said "So we went shopping for cowboy boots." And he proudly showed us his boots.
I highly recommend The Salmon Of Doubt - half of the book is his collected essays and newspaper columns, and he had lots of fascinating ideas about technology, science, atheism and art.