As an adult I can see what Adams and Meretsky were trying to accomplish with the form. Heck, even as an 8-9-year-old, I could tell this was a special game. It's how I learned what dressing-gowns and analgesics are. The tone of narration, and even the logic of the puzzles, connected with me and pushed me to read H2G2, which I loved.

But mid-to-late period Infocom had a psychological complex about difficult puzzles, so I never made it past the Babel fish machine. It feels like it took months (so maybe weeks?) to get there. Such a waste.

There are two options as to who I am when I'm playing a text adventure:

1. I'm me, a Reagan-era American with my contemporary sensibilities and escapist yearnings.
2. I'm a character defined in the feelies and in-game text.
3. I'm me, a Reagan-era American who claims to have contemporary sensibilities, but whose escapist yearnings are pretty well defined in the feelies and in-game text.