Hollywood Hijinx

aka: Aunt Hildegarde's Secret, Hollywood Hijinx - a zany treasure hunt
Moby ID: 470

Description official descriptions

Buddy Burbank was a B-movie actor who one day met the wealthy Hildegarde Montague and married her. His wife's money allowed him to open his own studio, where he began to produce movies such as Attack of the Killer Rutabagas and other horror titles that gained little critical acclaim but apparently sold rather well. He then died of a heart attack, and Hildegarde followed him soon. In her will, she left the Burbank estate to her favorite nephew, under one condition: he has to find ten famous props from Buddy's movies within one night.

Hollywood Hijinx is a text adventure game. The player interacts with the environment by typing combinations of verb commands and objects. The game's environment contains secret passages and mazes, which are necessary to explore in order to find the props and successfully complete the game.

Screenshots

Credits (DOS version)

4 People

Designed by
Original Concept by
Written by
Implemented by
"Who Will Inherit the Burbank Bundle?" (manual section) by
"The Curtain Falls on a Golden Era" (manual section) by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 87% (based on 10 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 34 ratings with 1 reviews)

My favorite of the last bunch from Infocom

The Good
This one really spoke to me, since I love B-movies and they are lampooned here. The puzzles were the perfect mixture of difficulty, and they all felt like they belonged in the story. Plus a nice ending on top of all that!

The Bad
I wished it was longer, since I liked it so much.

The Bottom Line
A treasure hunt though the mansion of a wacky B-movie producer.

DOS · by Tony Van (2803) · 1999

Discussion

Subject By Date
Date - 87 for all? Trypticon (11024) Feb 27, 2014

Trivia

Copy protection

Copy protection for this game required the user to have the photo of "Uncle Buddy;" well, actually the poem on the back of said photo. The three cardinal directions mentioned in the poem are needed in order to properly orient the statue in the front yard of Buddy's estate. Don't have the poem? Good luck getting into the house.

Extras

The box contains the magazine "Tinsel World - News from Hollywood and around the globe, Vol. 35, No. 27", a letter from Aunt Hildegarde Montague Burbank, a photo of Uncle Buddy Burbank with a poem on the back and your very own Lucky Palm Tree Swizzle Stick.

Legacy

The premise of this game is riffed on in Ivan Cockrum's 1998 game Foggywood Hijinx, and its title informed an inspired sample transcript for Jamie Murray's Bollywood Hijinx in 2001 -- an homage not yet stretched out to game-length.

Information also contributed by iShrek and Pseudo_Intellectual

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  • MobyGames ID: 470
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tony Van.

TI-99/4A added by Trypticon. Apple II added by Droog. Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit added by Kabushi. Macintosh, Amiga added by Terok Nor. Amstrad PCW added by Игги Друге. Commodore 64, Atari ST added by Belboz.

Additional contributors: Chris Mikesell, Martin Smith, Pseudo_Intellectual, mo , c64fan, Patrick Bregger.

Game added November 25, 1999. Last modified March 9, 2024.