Hollywood Hijinx

Hollywood Hijinx is a text adventure game released by Infocom in 1986 for the Apple II and other computers. In this game, you play as a relative of Buddy Burbank, a recently deceased Hollywood movie producer who left behind a treasure hunt in his mansion. You have one night to find ten hidden treasures or lose your inheritance forever.

The game starts when you arrive at Uncle Buddy's Malibu mansion at midnight. You must explore the house and grounds, solving puzzles and finding clues to locate the treasures before dawn. Like other Infocom games, Hollywood Hijinx uses a text parser where you type commands like "GO NORTH" or "TAKE KEY" to interact with the game world. The screen displays text descriptions of each location and what happens when you perform actions.

The mansion contains over 80 rooms filled with movie props, secret passages, and clever puzzles. You might find yourself dealing with a maze in the basement, figuring out how to operate old movie equipment, or discovering hidden compartments behind paintings. Each treasure relates to classic Hollywood movies, from westerns to musicals. The puzzles range from simple lock-and-key challenges to complex sequences requiring multiple steps and careful timing.

What makes Hollywood Hijinx special is its sense of humor and attention to detail. The game pokes fun at Hollywood culture while creating believable spaces to explore. Room descriptions include jokes about famous movies and actors from the golden age of cinema. Objects you find often have multiple uses, and experimenting with different combinations leads to surprising results.

The game runs entirely in text mode, using the Apple II's 40-column display to show room descriptions and player input. Like all Infocom games, it uses their famous Z-machine interpreter, which allowed the same game code to run on different computers. This technical achievement meant Apple II players got the same experience as those on more powerful machines.

Hollywood Hijinx sold moderately well but never reached the popularity of Infocom's Zork series. Critics praised its puzzles and humor but noted it was easier than most Infocom games, making it good for beginners. The game included "feelies" - physical items in the box like a tabloid newspaper and Uncle Buddy's will that contained clues for solving puzzles.

Today, Hollywood Hijinx remains a solid example of 1980s text adventures. Its movie theme, logical puzzles, and manageable difficulty make it an excellent introduction to Infocom's game library. While graphics-based adventure games would soon dominate the market, Hollywood Hijinx shows how engaging pure text adventures could be when crafted by skilled designers who understood both storytelling and game design.