It was like a single player RPG. If you’re not sure how that would work, think Choose Your Own Adventure with attributes, inventory, dice and random encounters.
Fabled Lands was projected to be a 12 volume work with each work being set in a different country, all within a single fantasy world. Volumes would refer to each other in various ways enabling you to “travel” from one to another. Only 6 volumes were completed, but that in itself makes for a pretty big and involving game.
Anyway, I never played this game. But if I’d known about it back when it was being published, I would have been all over it. And now it turns out I can be–because the entire series has been (legally btw) implemented as a Java app here.
It’s fun!
If you’ve got an Iphone or Ipod touch, they’re going to publish it as an app for your platform as well. That will cost a few dollars, I’m assuming. The java app linked to above is free.