You can finally play Douglas Adams’ Starship Titanic on a modern PC

Douglas Adams is best known for his five-part trilogy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but the late author also dabbled in video games. There was the frustratingly hilarious text-adventure take on Hitchhiker, as well as Starship Titanic, a video game based on a brief reference in Life, the Universe and Everything, the third book in the series. Unfortunately, while the former is still readily playable in a web browser, the latter has become abandonware, largely unplayable on modern computers. But thankfully that’s changed: today GOG.com, a site that specializes in making classic PC games playable, has released a DRM-free version of Starship Titanic for Windows.

First released in 1998, Starship Titanic is a point-and-click adventure that takes place aboard the titular space vessel. The game begins when the majestic craft crashes into your house. “You find your way on board. It is like no alien spaceship you have ever imagined. It most resembles a mixture of the Queen Mary, the Ritz, the Chrysler Building and Tutankhamen’s tomb, with Venice thrown in for good measure,” explains the game’s official site, which amazingly still exists.

Like most of Adams’ work, Titanic is full of both humor and frustration. It features a language parser called SpookiTalk, which lets you talk with the malfunctioning robots that live on the ship. When it works it’s great, but it also requires very specific language to progress; it often feels like you’re trying to guess what Adams was thinking at the time he designed the game. It’s an experience best enjoyed with a walkthrough handy. If you’re brave enough, you can check out the game now on GOG.