Yeah…these books were a hot fad at my elementary school when they first came out. What was the first book? Something about a cave? Or was it time travel?
I was in the habit of “cheating” when I read the books. Y’know what I mean…I would save my page before I made a decision…and if I didn’t like the storyline it branched into (i.e. I’d be killed), I’d go back and choose the other option. I’m sure everyone did that, huh?
It’s funny…now that I think about it, these CYOA book were the precurser to interactive computer fiction games. I was wondering why these books weren’t popular anymore–and the simple answer is that they’ve just morphed into computer games. Kind of a low-tech version of “Grim Fandango”, etc.
I wonder where I can pick up a copy of my absolute favorite title: Mystery of the Maya???
ARG! Something ate my post. Anyway, I remember the Cave of Time book. That was really my first experience with that type of book. I was hooked immediately. I later moved to the Dungeons and Dragons ones but can’t remember their names. There was one that had a “water weird” on the cover and another that dealt with rainbow dragons. I may still have them I guess I will have to dig through some boxes to find out. They bring back some good memories.
Well, we had a similar colection here in Argentina (I think they have to be the same books). Anyone heard about “Your Code name is Jonas” or “The Scottish Shield”? Those were my favourites with “the Haunted House” and “You are a secret agent against the nazi”.
I wonder with multimedia and internet how come no one tried for an on-line version? I read that collection whe I was a kis and they were a major factoir in the love I have for books now.
Well, we had a similar colection here in Argentina (I think they have to be the same books). Anyone heard about “Your Code name is Jonas” or “The Scottish Shield”? Those were my favourites with “the Haunted House” and “You are a secret agent against the nazi”.
I wonder with multimedia and internet how come no one tried for an on-line version? I read that collection whe I was a kid and they were a major factoir in the love I have for books now.
The false ending was in UFO 54-40. There was a search for a planet Ultima, and in the false ending, you found Ultima. But if you backtracked, you’d see there was no way to get to the false ending.
The ones I was really addicted to, after the original Choose Your Own Adventure books, were called Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. It was a bit like D&D; you had a scoresheet for stats and inventory, and you used two regular 6-sided dice for combat and such. The books were sooooo great…I think the first one was The Warlock of Firetop Mountain or somesuch. My favorite was probably The House of Hades; very hard to beat, and sooo many twists and turns…
And I just found a page that ranks all the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. Rock!
I was probably in college already when “Choose Your Own Adventure” books were at their peak. I never bought any, but my youngest brother had a large collection of them. And, naturally, I started reading/playing them in idle moments.
And they drove me nuts, because I was old enough and (presumably) intelligent enough to make the “right” decisions, and get to the happiest possible ending right away. But noooooooo! It didn’t matter whether the adventure involved a haunted house or a football game, EVERY decision I made with those books seemed to lead to immediate death!
Just by sheer dumb luck, you’d think I’d succeed once in a while. But nope. EVERY time I played, I made the most rational decision, and it ALWAYS led to disaster.
I got a few as “hand-me-down” books from a cousin. My favorite was the one about a family secret in the Scottish Highlands. I THINK it was called Mystery of the Highland Crest or something like that. There were these ghost ladies, who were twins, and one was evil and one was good. But they were indentical, so you didn’t know which one. And there were fairies and druids and stuff.
[Beavis]
It was pretty cool.
[/Beavis]
(Yeah, I cheated and checked the endings).
I’m assuming the books you guys are talking about came out in the 1980s; I only remember the early British ones such as the aforementioned “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain” which came out in 1983. However, it may interest you to know that these were inspired by computer games, not the other way around. The original “Adventure” came out in the 1970s I think. I remember playing it on a Cromemco “microcomputer” around 1980. By the time TWOF-TM came out there were similar text-only adventure games available for home computers such as “Adventureland” for the fondly remembered VIC 20.
Nobody’s mentioned whether they bothered to roll every dice and always change their character’s attributes as and when required; I think I completed the first 2 or 3 without cheating ever, but not beyond that.
i still have a few of my old ones ( i think its blasphemy to throw away a book) and also goosebumps made some of those too i should know i still have those too
Does anyone remember the really weird one with a “Twilight Zone” kind of theme where you travel to alternate dimensions and, in one of them, meet the author of the series, Edward Packer? That one was a trip…
<u>Hyperspace</u>, I do believe. If your mad scientist neighbor ever tells you he’s going to focus a laser on a geometric point, do whatever you can to stop him.
I go through periods of deeply regretting I jettisoned my CYOA library, tempered by hoping they found good homes.
OOooOO, I loved those. A buddy of mine had the Lone Wolf series, written by Steve Jackon IIRC, and it was great. The series itself was more complicated than most, requiring some bookkeeping to be done.
Ah, I loved those kinds of books. I think I read at least the first 30 of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I also liked the more complex variations that came out, like the Fighting Fantasy books, the Lone Wolf ones, and especially the Car Wars ones - in one of those you have to drive up I-35 from Dallas to Oklahoma to rescue some Louisiana princess from an evil warlord, it was great fun because I had travelled that route so many times.
Another that I have somewhere around here was based on the old High Fantasy roleplaying game. It was EXTREMELY complex, with lots of bookkeeping, and I don’t think I ever completed it successfully, even when I cheated and didn’t really fight the battles. I can’t remember the name of it but it was big and green with pictures of lizards on the cover, and in it you were an agent sent to infiltrate this city of lizard men who were about to go to war. You had a glass eye that could destroy small pieces of matter. Anyone know what I’m talking about?
I loved these books as a kid.
My all-time favorite one involved invading aliens and in one of the unhappy endings, you ended up in this giant processing plant-like place where the aliens were running humans through and stamping “GRADE A HUMAN BEEF” (or something like that) on everyone’s forehead.
That one gave me nightmares for weeks.
as a matter of fact, I have one right here. Heartquest book #3 Secret Sorceress, by Linda Lowery
Pick a Path to Romance & Adventure™
I think there were only 4 of them
Ring of the Ruby Dragon
Talisman of Valdegarde
Isle of Illusion
I help at a HUGE booksale, I can’t stand to see the books thrown out, this was one I saved from the garbage. I think I have a full set around here somewhere…
I read this things for a couple years, and I had nearly 80 of them. About ten years ago when I was moving out of my parents house I gave them all to a kid in my neighborhood. Kinda wish I still had them, but if that kid liked them half as much as I did then it was worth it.
Great thread idea, erictelevision. I have had about 8 or 10 “Oh YEAAAHHHHH, I remeber that” moments already.
I remember these, but I always focused on some knock off series. I remember a kiddie version from the 80’s called “pick-a-path”.
I also liked a series called “Wizards, Warriors, and YOU!” In that you followed the adventures of a knight and a mage. The cool thing about that one was that you had to pick the three weapons you took with you as the knight. Whether you had a certain weapon made a difference in the story.
Video games have seriously killed this style of writing.