History VideoGame / StarshipTitanic

There is still a functional website that can be found [[http://www.starshiptitanic.com/ here]]. There is also a novelization of the game by [[Creator/MontyPython Pythonite]] Creator/TerryJones, who claims to only having agreed to Adams' proposal to write said book if he could write it in the nude. Which he supposedly did. In 2017, the game's engine was completely overhauled as part of the UsefulNotes/ScummVM project for modern computer compatibility.

* ObviousBeta: InUniverse, this is the state of some parts of the ship. In particular, the ballroom is full of scaffolding, and the accessible area of the Promenade Deck is tiny, the rest of it being undecked and otherwise unfinished.

* {{Feelies}}: The game originally came packaged with a pair of 3D red/blue glasses and a physical copy of the ''Super-Galactic Traveler Magazine''. [[spoiler: [[GuideDangIt Naturally,]] the 3D glasses are necessary for a puzzle to return to your home at the end, so if you got the game digitally, [[UnwinnableByDesign you better have a guide handy.]]. Or, in the 2017 version, the option is available to just skip that puzzle entirely.]]

There is still a functional website that can be found [[http://www.starshiptitanic.com/ here]]. There is also a novelization of the game by [[Creator/MontyPython Pythonite]] Creator/TerryJones, who claims to only having agreed to Adams' proposal to write said book if he could write it in the nude. Which he supposedly did. In 2017, the game's engine was completely overhauled as part of the [[http://www.scummvm.org/ ScummVM]] project for modern computer compatibility.

* ResolvedNoodleIncident: The whole story began as a [[FootnoteFever footnote]] in ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'', the third book in the ''Hitchhiker's'' series.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Mostly averted, many of the robots look like furniture or art work.

* GravityScrew: The passage into Titania's chamber contains an inverse gravity field, so that [[spoiler: the ceiling of the Central Well becomes the stairs down into the room, hidden under the huge chandelier in the middle.]]

The brain child of Douglas Adams (''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''), ''Starship Titanic'' is a 1998 [[PointAndClickGame point and click]] adventure game set aboard an intergalactic cruise ship. The game opens with the ship crashing into your house, and before you know it, it turns out someone has lobotomised the main computer, the ship is adrift in space and it's up to you to fix things.

There is still a functional website that can be found [[http://www.starshiptitanic.com/ here]]. There is also a novelization of the game by [[Creator/MontyPython Pythonite]] Creator/TerryJones, who claims to only having agreed to Adams' proposal to write said book if he could write it in the nude. Which he supposedly did.

In 2017 the game's engine was completely overhauled as part of the [[http://www.scummvm.org/ ScummVM]] project for modern computer compatibility.

!!This game provides examples of:

* BlatantLies: Any and all of the approving comments made by the [=DeskBot=] in regards to your [=SGT=] stateroom.
--> '''Marsinta''': Well, you certainly won't like the room you've got, then!

* BloodSport: Nib. The [=BarBot=] is an especially big fan; he'll go on about it at length if you ask him, and the [[{{Feelies}} In-Flight Magazine]] also has an article on the subject written by him.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Your first action aboard the Starship Titanic is to press a large button beneath a sign saying Press Button For Opening Credits Sequence (which [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin does just that]]).
* TheBridge: Titania gives you access to this at the endgame, which consists of a single room with a wheel, an unusable laptop, and a navigation console with a [=3D=] glasses helmet. The novel goes further with the bridge being nothing more than a giant entertainment center for the captain.

* ControlRoomPuzzle: With a pretty star field.

* CopyAndPasteEnvironments: The Second Class stateroom lobbies have the same elevators as the Super Galactic Traveler Class stateroom lobbies, only the [=SGT=] elevators serve three staterooms while the Second Class elevators only serve two. The Second Class elevators still have three buttons, though.

* DontTouchItYouIdiot: The nature of the warnings on the [[RuleofThree three]] inspection hatches to a fuse box:

* GameBreakingBug: The game spanned multiple [=CD-ROMs=]. Some batches went out with the final disc in the set missing. Okay, not technically a bug, par se, but certainly game-breaking. This is due to there being an ACTUAL game breaking bug on the final disk in the first printing that was missing a file that had the game's interface with their [[FunWithAcronyms Personal Electronic Thing]] which is necessary to do anything with your inventory or even save/quit the game!

* IncrediblyLamePun: Occasionally, while you're in the bar, the parrot will interject with a Hey, Barman joke -- from the ''other side of the ship''.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The game originally came on three [=CDs.=] CD 3 is generally only used for the opening and the ending of the game, but once you reach First Class, this starts happening a lot, as all of the First Class areas -- including the Bar, which is a Second Class area -- require a change over to CD 1. Fortunately, later releases included the option of installing all the game files to the hard drive, with no discs needed whatsoever.
* LogicBomb: The BarBot is stuck in a recursive loop, since he lacks the ingredients necessary to make the Titanic Titillator.

* MoonLogicPuzzle: Of course you need to [[spoiler:cover the chicken in mustard sauce before you send it]]...
** This is {{Lampshaded}} by [[WordOfGod one of the programmers]] in the strategy guide:
---> '''Adam Shaikh''' (programmer): "'Well, obviously, [[spoiler:the parrot will only eat chicken without tomato sauce]] -- it would be stupid otherwise.' These were not the thoughts of a normal person."
* MultipleEndings: Depending on whether or not you [[spoiler:disarmed the bomb]].
** There is a [[DummiedOut third ending in the game files]] with fireworks, implied to be the 'good' end (where the available endings are the 'neutral' and 'bad' endings).
* MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast: If you consider a French-accented maitre-d' to be a beast, anyway.
* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: According to the credits no starlings were harmed in the creation of the game.

* ObsessiveCompulsiveBarkeeping: The [=BarBot=], when idle.

* PressXToDie: You come across a button that says "Press to Disarm Bomb" -- which arms it.

** If you actually wait long enough for the entire countdown from 1000 to expire, [[spoiler: the bomb gets cold feet about exploding and restarts the countdown]]. Oddly enough, even though the bomb [[spoiler: will never blow up during gameplay, it ''will'' explode in the ending FMV if it happens to be armed. At least it got the parrot, too]].
* RecursiveReality: After inserting a disc into your computer to start the game, one of the things you must then do is insert a Starship Titanic disc into your computer to start the game.
* RecycledInSpace: ''Starship Titanic'': Titanic [-IN SPACE-]!

* SceneryPorn: The Art Deco inspired locations are mostly static, but ''wonderful'' to look at.
* SchizoTech: In a giant spaceship that can travel faster than light there is a pneumatic tube delivery system and phonograph cylinders for music.

* SomebodySetUpUsTheBomb: There is a bomb on board, in Titania's chambers. The button labeled "[[ShmuckBait Press to disarm bomb]]" actually ''arms'' the thing. [[spoiler:If you don't disable it before beating the game, the ship blows up in the ending.]]

* SurferDude: The personality of Krage the Bellbot.
* TemptingFate: ''Starship [[MeaningfulName Titanic]], The ship that cannot possibly go wrong.'' Both Fentible and Marsinta comment on the irony, the former with embarrassment, the latter with derision.
* TookALevelInKindness: Marsinta, the [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic]], [[{{Jerkass}} deliberately unhelpful]] [=DeskBot=] becomes extremely kind and gentle once you [[spoiler: recalibrate her off-kilter personality settings]]. She can also be a GossipyHen if you ask her about some of the characters.

* VariableMix: Some of the background music changes between majestic and tinny, depending on which class of the ship you happen to be in.

!!The novelization has the further examples of:

* SimilarlyNamedWorks: Used In-universe. While being interrogated by Bolfass, The Journalist tells him that he can only give him his name, rank and number. Bolfass then tells him that "this isn't ''Film/TheGreatEscape''". A footnote regarding this statement says that he refers to a similarly named and plotted Yassaccan film. Which also stars Creator/SteveMcQueenActor.

* BareYourMidriff: Nettie wears a Gap shirt which exposes her midriff.

* SidenoteFullStory: The whole story began as a [[FootnoteFever footnote]] in ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'', the third book in the ''Hitchhiker's'' series.

* UnwinnableByMistake: The ship's bilge, for collecting unaddressed Succ-U-Bus packages, doesn't work until you [[spoiler: unblock it by making it sneeze]]; you can still send items there, but they'll just pile up until you fix it. Fortunately, the item you need to do that [[spoiler: can't be sent through the Succ-U-Bus system, because feathers make them sneeze]]. Unfortunately, you ''can'' [[spoiler: send the whole parrot to the bilge before collecting a feather from it]], leaving you unable to ever unblock the bilge and thus thoroughly stuck.

* RealityEnsues: In order to get the parrot to move, you have to [[spoiler:bribe him with [[ImAHumanitarian chicken]]. It's fairly easy to grab a chicken from the lower decks and carry it all the way to the parrot, but by the time you get there it's cold, and [[SarcasmMode obviously]] the parrot doesn't like cold chicken...]]
** Really, the whole game has Douglas Adams' own take on this trope in spades.

* HeelRealization: As he is unable to communicate with Earthlings, Leovinus can only pass time in his cell in Oxfordshire police station by pondering his life, and comes to realization about how much of a bad person he has become.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: The Yassaccan who looks over the captured protagonists is revealed to be a leader of Yassaccan smuggling ring, who joined the others to board the starship in hopes of securing loot afterwards. As soon as this is revealed, the book notes that this is "an another story" and he isn't mentioned again.
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: By an ancient law, Blerontinian journalists are deemed to only go by as "The Journalists", in order to make sure that a "cult of personality" doesn't build around them.
* InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike: When Lucy tells her name to The Journalist, he tells her that in his language her name is really funny, but refuses to tell her what it means.

* MistakenForMurderer: When Lucy meets The Journalist for the first time, she finds him covered (in his own) blood and investigating [[spoiler: Scraliontis's]] corpse. She comes to conclusion that he is murderer. The fact that he ties her down after she tries to run away from him doesn't help matters.

* PlanetOfHats: Yassacca, which hat is building and repairing things. When a group of them attack the starship, they fire on it, and fix it immediately afterwards.

* SimilarlyNamedWorks: Used In-universe. While being interrogated by Bolfass, The Journalist tells him that he can only give him his name, rank and number. Bolfass then tells him that "this isn't ''Film/TheGreatEscape''". A footnote regarding this statement tells that he refers to similarly named and plotted Yassaccan film. Which also stars Creator/SteveMcQueenActor.
* SmarterThanYouLook: Early in the book, Nettie is held as a [[DumbBlonde blonde bimbo]]. Then it turns out she is really smart, [[spoiler:and gets even smarter when she is sucked into the black hole in the starship's engine room]].

* BloodSport: Nib. The [=BarBot=] is an especially big fan - he'll go on about it at length if you ask him, and the [[{{Feelies}} In-Flight Magazine]] also has an article on the subject written by him.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Your first action aboard the Starship Titanic is to press a large button beneath a sign saying Press Button For Opening Credits Sequence. It starts the opening credits sequence.

* TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: After the titular ship reduces your house to rubble, what choice do you have but to to answer Fentible's CallToAdventure? In fact, if you type "no" (or indeed anything besides "yes"), [[ButThouMust the only acknowledgment your refusal gets is "An odd way to spell it, but I suppose it will have to do."]]

* CuttingTheKnot: One of the four main elevators isn't working, and one of the puzzles is figuring out how to access it. The [[GuideDangit official strategy guide]] advises you to [[spoiler:use other lifts to hoist the broken one to the top.]] It's far easier just to [[spoiler:work out which floor the elevator's on and take another one there.]]

--> [[SchmuckBait Danger unbelievably high voltage!!!]] No user servicable parts inside.\\

* DudeWheresMyRespect: The only two characters to even acknowledge the trouble you're going to are Marsinta (once you've fiddled with her settings) and Titania.

* FakeArmDisarm: Leovinus and Scraliontis used two of the Maître D-bot's limbs to fight each other, and eventually smashed the whole thing apart when landing on it. This didn't affect the robot much, though, as he can still wiggle his components even when separated. You have to actually steal his arms, and get him to relax to let go of the things they're holding.

* GuideDangIt: One review dubbed the game's difficulty [[https://www.eblong.com/zarf/gamerev/stitanic.html "Impossible unless you're the author or a telepath"]]. In particular, one feature of the PET is very easily overlooked - the ability to manually enter room codes in the 'Designer Room Numbers' menu. [[spoiler:It's necessary to use this feature to find which one First Class stateroom out of a couple hundred is of interest to you.]]
* {{Hammerspace}}: The PET inventory. This extends to the Succ-U-Bus item delivery system; no matter the size of the item, it will always compress into a cylinder the size of a drinks can that the Succ-U-Bus can swallow. This includes everything in size from napkins through to [[spoiler:Antar Brobostigon, the project manager.]]
* IncrediblyLamePun: Occasionally, while you're in the bar, the parrot will interject with a Hey, Barman joke - from the ''other side of the ship''.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The game originally came on three [=CDs.=] CD 3 is generally only used for the opening and the ending of the game, but once you reach First Class, this starts happening a lot, as all of the First Class areas - including the Bar, which is a Second Class area - require a change over to CD 1. Fortunately, later releases included the option of installing all the game files to the hard drive, with no discs needed whatsoever.

* MoonLogicPuzzle: Of course you need to cover the chicken in mustard sauce before you send it...

---> '''Adam Shaikh''' (programmer): "'Well, obviously, the parrot will only eat chicken without tomato sauce - it would be stupid otherwise.' These were not the thoughts of a normal person."

* ObviousBeta: InUniverse, this is the state of some parts of the ship. In particular, the ballroom is full of scaffolding, and the accessible area of the Promenade Deck is tiny, the rest of it being undecked and otherwide unfinished.
* OldSoldier: Nobby, the [=LiftBot=]. ShoutOut to real life - ex-servicemen lift operators used to be a common sight in the UK.

* SpoilerCover: It had a strange twist on this: one particular puzzle, in the Music Room, can be easily solved by looking at the back of the game box, where the screenshot of that room shows the puzzle completed. However, this isn't a spoiler... it's the correct way to complete the puzzle, apart from the easy-to-miss fabric pattern of two chairs in the same room.