"the hitchhiker's guide" is a text adventure game in which the player, in the role of arthur dent, solves a number of puzzles to complete various objectives to win the game. this includes collecting and using a number of inventory items. the player has a limited variety of commands to observe, move about, and interact with the game's world, such as codice_1, codice_2, codice_3 (to move north), codice_4, or codice_5. most commands will advance the game's turn counter, and some puzzles require the player to complete it within a fixed number of turns or else the game may end and require the player to restart at the beginning or a saved state; passive commands like "look" and "inventory", or mistyped or non-comprehended commands, do not count as turns. once the player has acquired the eponymous "hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy", a wide variety of topics can be asked about, some of which may be helpful in solving the game's puzzles.