BBC - Radio 4 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Steve Meretzky

BBC - Radio 4 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Steve Meretzky:

"How did the infamous Babel Fish puzzle originate?

Douglas had the basic idea, and I added some refinements (like the Upper-Half-Of-The-Room Cleaning Robot). More interesting is how close the puzzle came to being removed from the game; most of Infocom's testing group thought it was too hard. I was going into a meeting with them just as Douglas was leaving for the airport at the end of his final trip to Infocom, and I asked him, 'What should I tell them about the Babel Fish puzzle?' He said, 'What should you tell them? Tell them to f*** off!' So the puzzle stayed... and its very difficulty became a cult thing. Infocom even sold T-shirts that said 'I got the Babel Fish.' "

I finally cheated...
bought some infocom hint book for the damn game...
otherwise I would never have ended up with that fish in my ear.

If you've never played the Hitchhiker's game you really should.
It was an incredibly powerful and entertaining time-sucker back in the day.
If you read all the way down to the bottom you'll actually find a link to play
the 20th anniversary illustrated version of the game.
Good Luck
and
don't panic.