Douglas Adams Starship Titanic: The Official Strategy Guide (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

At the center of the galaxy an Unknown Civilization is preparing for the launch of the greatest, most gorgeous, most technologically advanced spaceship ever built--the Starship Titanic.
As the fabulous craft eases away from the construction dock, trailing shrouds of rather fetching pink taffeta, millions of onlookers gasp in awe. Picking up speed, the Titanic sways a little, wobbles a bit, veers wildly--and undergoes SMEF (Spontaneous Massive Existence Failure). In just ten seconds, the whole stupendous enterprise is over.
Well, not quite. The Starship Titanic makes one tiny unscheduled stop before heading off into hyperspace--to fetch you.
And if you want to get home, you're going to need Starship Titanic: The Official Strategy Guide. It's the most comprehensively, exhaustively, completely and utterly official guide .

        SOLUTIONS so complete we despise you for needing to use them!

        HINTS so subtle you've got to be a bit of a smart-ass to understand them!

        DESCRIPTIONS of natural language parsing engines and object-oriented
         programming by people who ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!

        UNCENSORED PHOTOS of DOUGLAS ADAMS in the VERY ACT OF WRITING!

        ILLUSTRATIONS from people who've won REAL OSCARS!

        INSIGHTS into the SECRET LIVES of PROGRAMMERS!

        NO-HOLDS-BARRED back stories to all the CHARACTERS!

From the Inside Flap

NO OTHER GUIDE HAS:

        SOLUTIONS so complete we despise you for needing to use them!

        HINTS so subtle you've got to be a bit of a smart-ass to understand them!

        DESCRIPTIONS of natural language parsing engines and object-oriented
          programming by people who ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!

        UNCENSORED PHOTOS of DOUGLAS ADAMS in the VERY ACT OF WRITING!

        ILLUSTRATIONS from people who've won REAL OSCARS!

        INSIGHTS into the SECRET LIVES of PROGRAMMERS!

        NO-HOLDS-BARRED back stories to all the CHARACTERS!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (June 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609801473
• ISBN-13: 978-0609801475
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,194,112 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review, October 22, 2002

A Kid's Review

I loved the book that's why I gave it the maximum rating. I think it's the best book (sorry strategy guide) ever! Thank God they're making a sequle to Starship Titanic! (I got the info about a sequle at the Starship Titanic website.)

The book has a few sections which are: A) Table Of Contents, B) The Blerontin Bugle, C) Meet The Bots, D) The PET, E) Hints, F) Solutions, G) Index, and finally H) website information (well actually it's some "thing" about the website.) I also like the front cover. It's pretty.

In the middle of the Hints section of the book (well not in the middle they're spread out over the section) are some articles and footnotes on the making of Starship Titanic (the footnotes are just little notes ont the interior spaces and the areas ot the Titanic.) The Blerinton Bugle section of the book gives some good back story clues. Meet the Bots is funny but they left two bots out they are Rowbot (the gondaliers) and Boppy Headcase the pianist in the music room [he is the one who bangs his head}.) ThePET section is annoyingly stupid. Hints is a little too spefic. And Soultions is too step-by-step informative.

All and all I loved the book because the Solutions aren't stupid "try this" and "try that" kind of solutions they're "do this" and "do that" solutions. I think the book is superb and I say: "Bravo Doug you've done it!"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting background material, but weak hint section, June 28, 2000

By	Lars Jødal (Fjerritslev Denmark) - See all my reviews

This guide to the adventure game "Starship Titanic" wants to do three things at once. First, it gives more background to the Starship and the characters in the game. Second, there are stories from behind the scenes, telling how the game came to be. Interesting stuff, but unfortunately all this leave too little room for what I consider the most important part: The hint section.

The cover promises "subtle hints" and "complete solutions". This made me expect gradually more obvious hints for each problem, each hint on a separate line to avoid reading too far. In the book, each overall problem has its own section, but the section itself is one long description of how to solve the problem. This makes it VERY easy to read too far. I recommend reading the hint section one line at a time, with the rest of the page covered by a piece of paper. The hints are in themselves good enough, but not always subtle enough. And the prose flows TOO WELL: You read on where you should pause and return to the game! At least the most outright spoilers are kept in a separate section of the book.

I enjoyed reading about Douglas Adams' visions of the game and I found the sections on the creation of the game very interesting. If this guide had been sold as a hint book but as background material I would have rated it 4 stars (but to tell the truth, I would probably not have bought it in the first place for just that - I am a Douglas Adams fan, but there are limits).

All in all: The book contains quite a bit of interesting material, but personally I would have preferred a plain hint book of better quality.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Strategy Guide that could not possibly go wrong...., September 19, 1998

By A Customer

In the genre of PC Game Strategy Guides, it may be difficult or impossible to consider the book without reference to the game. That said, Neil Richards' "Starship Titanic: the Official Strategy Guide" is an essential, albeit well-padded, guide to an underwhelming gaming experience.

The guide begins with forty pages of fluff, mostly unhelpful, unfunny introductions to the main, animate characters in the game: the "bots" - well-meaning, malfunctioning, robotic crew of the Starship.

This is followed by sixty-some pages of what the author curiously calls "hints". In the best of worlds, a player, frustrated by the mind-numbing pedantry of the game itself, would expect this section of the guide to offer subtle suggestions on clues that may have been overlooked. In fact, it consists of verbose solutions to the trite, often silly, puzzles aboard the Starship Titanic. Unlike Myst or Riven, Starship Titanic requires little more "strategy" than hit-or-miss bumbling about and rudimentary linking of tasks, so perhaps these type of "hints" are appropriate to the situation.

The next section, titled "Solutions", is merely a repeat of the previous section, minus the blather. It lists the step-by-step procedures for obtaining and assembling each of the pieces of the puzzle. Don't be tempted to use this section to speed up the boring part of the game to get to the "good stuff", or you'll quickly find yourself at the end of the game with nothing to look forward to except -- perish the thought!! -- a sequel.