References to Unreleased Games in Infocom Titles?

Greetings all,

This is driving me quite nuts at the moment and desperate for relief I have registered on your fine forums.

I dimly recall that one of Infocom’s releases contained references (possibly in the form of some sort of magic ball) to upcoming Infocom releases, some of which never saw the light of day, including possibly the sequel to The Hitchhiker’s Guide the the Galaxy.

Much frantic Googling has gotten me nowhere, as the Internet seems to be flooded with news of the famous “Infocom drive”. I did learn that Zork III included a reference to Enchanter which was not released at the time, but that’s all I can find so far.

Does anyone recall something like this? Maybe I’m thinking of something else entirely?

You’re probably thinking of the crystal ball in Beyond Zork.

Oooooooooh, THAT one. I’ve been trying to think of what the OP might have meant, and I never remembered that crystal ball. A big “thank you” from me as well!

Ahh, thank you sir. I undoubtedly encountered that factoid in the Home of the Underdogs writeup of HHGG, which has been replicated all over the Internet but somehow eluded my searches.

I have seen something like that also in one release of Planetfall (or Stationfall?).
Can’t remember the details (some kind of gaming booth), though.
Or you are only looking for that HHGG sequel?

Matthias.

In Planetfall there’s a reference to Starcross, and in Stationfall there’s a (blatant) advertisement for the Lane Mastodon comics. Other than that I can’t think of any.

EDIT: Oh, right, in the feelie for Planetfall there’s a mention of the “Leather Goddesses of Phobos” tape being mislabelled. I forgot about that.