While The Hitchhiker's Guide does have it's share of cursing and sexual
innuendo, I would not put it out of arm's reach of a twelve year old.  I
recall reading it, or at least having it read to me, before my teenage
years.  My father may have filtered the language at the time, but my opinion
is that the style would not be too much for your son to handle.  As always,
you may want to read it yourself first, but it's my believe that it would
not be inappropriate.

And, I remember that I loved that game; it was my favourite of all the
Infocom games.  Reading the book may help considerably, but it will in no
way walk you though the game.  Adams seems to have made each format of his
work different enough to make each almost a different story entirely.


Regards,
D.H. Floyd


-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
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Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 1:35 PM
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Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: So long, and thanks for all the fish.

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Quite coincidentally, over the weekend, my twelve-year old son stumbled
across my copy of the Infocom game, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
read the accompanying manual, and became very interested in playing the game
(I have to wonder about the "collectibility" of this game, now, as well as
wondering what ever became of Infocom). Fortunately, our Central Services at
work has a PC with a 5 1/4 drive, for just such occasions. I copied the game
and installed it on our PCs at home, and he is struggling his way through
the game.

It occurs to me that reading the book might help him understand the game
somewhat better. But it's been maybe eight years since I listened to some
tapes of the series (I don't even know if they were the original BBC
broadcasts or something later), and I've never actually read the book. I
will probably do so now, but figured that list members could comment,
perhaps off-list, and the age appropriateness of the book for a twelve year
old. As a frame of reference, he is home-schooled, and we allow him to read
the Harry Potter books among other things. He's read his share of some of
the classics (in the traditional sense), but we do not allow him to read
indiscriminately.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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