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Geek Culture / Did anyone else like "choose your own adventure" books?

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zenassem
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Posted: 17th May 2007 04:37
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I haven't read one since I was in Elementary School. I'm not even sure if they are still published. But I remember really liking them. I only wished they were more advanced, and longer with more options. Probably not possible in print form. But if they had them digitally now, It would be an enjoyable read.

Do they still make these? Anyone know of digital stories, aimed more at an adult or young adult that allows you to choose a path in the story?

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Satchmo
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Posted: 17th May 2007 04:39
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I think there called "text adventures"

I like my sig.
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zenassem
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Posted: 17th May 2007 04:44 Edited at: 17th May 2007 04:47
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yeah, I've played text adventures. And enjoyed many, back in the commodore days. But they're more involved. In which you actually perform tasks solve puzzles. etc...

Choose your own adventure were more like 1., 2., or 3. make your choice, cross your fingers, & goto that page. It was simply reading, with a few choices thrown in every so many pages. Never knew exactly where your choice would lead. In fact you could read them over and over, checking out every choice path. Resulting in your demise, and a few different success endings.

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Satchmo
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Posted: 17th May 2007 04:50
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I remember reading a few goosebumps coose your own books, there mighty fun, but too short.

I like my sig.
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ionstream
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Posted: 17th May 2007 04:58
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I always get eaten by lions in those books .

That's not as bad as you think you said.
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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 17th May 2007 05:00
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Yeah, I've read some. I like them, but I don't like a) It's often completely random what your decision leads to instead of logical, so your choices are often really irrelevant and b) You have to either bookmark or go back through all the old pages you read to go back and make a different choice.


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Benjamin
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Posted: 17th May 2007 05:15
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Quote: "a) It's often completely random what your decision leads to instead of logical, so your choices are often really irrelevant and b) You have to either bookmark or go back through all the old pages you read to go back and make a different choice."

I agree with both of those points.

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zenassem
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Posted: 17th May 2007 05:19 Edited at: 17th May 2007 05:20
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Yeah, probably why I turned to video games. Even though some of the bad ones even today suffer the same problem. That's why I was hoping that they if they were being published that someone, somewhere, would have included more reasoning an logic to them.

I remember I used to cheat a bit. Trying to look in advance which choice seemed to lead further, by skimming the pages.

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 17th May 2007 06:26 Edited at: 17th May 2007 06:28
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Quote: "I only wished they were more advanced, and longer with more options. Probably not possible in print form. But if they had them digitally now, It would be an enjoyable read."

Two words: Eternal Equinox

May 18th!!!


"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 17th May 2007 07:05
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Choose your own adventure books were fun back in the day. Like, when I was a kid. In a way, it was fun to be able to fail sometimes, and feel like you had some control over the ending. They were certainly simpler than an IF computer game because there was no messy parser to get in the way.

I always hated that ONE page where almost every bad decision led to. Like, a generic 'You suck and lose' page. You'd turn to it and wouldn't even read it because you'd been there 4 times already.

I doubt I'd find them that intriguing now, but they were nice library junk. One step above comic books as far as reading goes.


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Dazzag
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Posted: 17th May 2007 09:08 Edited at: 17th May 2007 09:10
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They called them game books in the UK. "Choose your own adventure" were literally a series of game books with that name. Unfortuantly they were rather childish in comparison to the fighting fantasy type books. Seek the red indian ghost type stories basically with no combat system or anything. Goto the following URL if you really meant these books (they are converting them for iPod):-
http://www.cyoastore.com/product/show/5773

Used to love the fighting fantasy type stuff though. The Steve Jackson spin off series with magic was totally awesome. Probably the best I've read (think it's the Sorcery! series of books). Although the Lone Wolf series definitely came close. Started writing a PDA version of some of the Lone Wolf books a few years ago until I found they are all online in playable form somewhere (think the author allowed this). Google it, as there are loads of them.

Think I may have a look at some of my old books now. I have about 30, including a couple of 2 player efforts (it actually sort of works, and with 2 books). One of them is based on pictures. A bit like a book version of Dungeon Master. Think it's called White Warlock and Black Baron. Basically you take one book and your mate takes the other. There is a pretty complex method of finding where the next page is, but you can basically hide behind barrels and everything, and if you can work it out correctly then the other player can turn to the page where they can actually see you hiding behind that barrel. Was pretty good for a book.

Anyhows, as I said in the IF thread; someone create a game book creator! Would be cool.

Quote: "One step above comic books as far as reading goes"
Oh, I dunno, I had a couple that were pretty good when it comes to the story in my opinion. Ok, most were a few leagues below proper novel writing, but some were pretty close.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Jeku
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Posted: 17th May 2007 10:42
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I remember them. In fact I have the very first one ever made (which I stole from a teacher at my elementary school in Grade 3).

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BatVink
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Posted: 17th May 2007 11:11
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I was a big fan of these books. In fact, I saw that they still sell them in WHSmith a couple of weeks ago.

Quote: "someone create a game book creator! Would be cool"

Would be good, and probably a lot easier these days than it used to be when these books were originally written. I can picture a guy sat at a huge desk with scraps of paper, rearranging them to make the story.

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GatorHex
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Posted: 17th May 2007 11:12 Edited at: 17th May 2007 11:14
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I still have Steve Jacksons Sorcery!

The Sorcery Epic 1 - The Shamutanti Hills
The Sorcery Epic 2 - Khare - Cityport of Traps

The were bought for me as a "get well soon" gift by my class mates when I was run over by a truck and stuck in hospital for 6 months.



I also still have a set of Warlock magazines which had similar stories every three months.



http://www.KumKie.com http://bulldog.servegame.com
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Raven
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Posted: 17th May 2007 11:17
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I used to be quite into a few of them. My favourite ones were those that incorporated AD&D rules, so you could play them as well as having a choice based story.
That quickly evolved into playing Warhammer Quest, then full blown WH40K; finally gave up playing as often but still collect and paint the models. Something oddly relaxing about painting up war scenes.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 17th May 2007 11:24
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Quote: "I still have Steve Jacksons Sorcery!"
Yeah, me too. Loved the magic element of it. Took ages to find the 4th and final book (which is huge) for some reason. Then one day found it while walking around that weird place where they filmed the prisoner (Portmeirion). Almost cried when my mother pretended to not have enough money for it (was like seriously expensive at the time at about £4 or so).

Anyone else been to Portmeirion BTW? Is extremely strange. When I was there they didn't have the live chess game going, but there was a big ball thingy, the buildings all doubled up (one side was a house and on the other is a shop for example), and a boat by the beach is actually not a boat but part of the ground that has been made to look like a boat. Weird place.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Fallout
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Posted: 17th May 2007 14:24
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Yeah, I still have most of the fighting fantasy series (Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone ones). Well, I had about 30 and there were around 60 or 70 I think? I had most of them up until when I stopped buying them.

They were pretty cool, but I never played them properly. I never die the dice rolling combat crap, since that seemed pointless. Why stop playing/reading the book just because you rolled the dice 8 times and got low numbers? Then you'd have to reread all over again. Doesn't make any logical sense. Also, I would always read the next page before committing to it, rather than just turning there. Again, why would I want to reread the same text all over again if I chose (by pure bad luck) a death page.

There were a few books where you had to work some stuff out, which arrived at a number which was the paragraph you had to turn to. That was cool as a puzzle, but the rest of the combat/luck element was bollocks.

Still, did enjoy em for a few years. The guys who wrote them must've made a mint as they were short, not particularly well written, and they wrote loads of em.


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Zappo
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Posted: 17th May 2007 14:43 Edited at: 17th May 2007 14:45
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I used to love the 'Choose your own adventure' books too. They added just enough of a control element to make them more interesting than the normal boring story books when I was a kid. In fact, I made most of a 'Choose your own adventure' comic. At the bottom of each page you had a choice of what to do, with little clues scattered around as to which routes to avoid. It was going well until other things got in the way and I realised I have drawn and inked about 30 pages but when you read it you only got to see about 5 pages for each adventure. You would have to read it many times to get to see all of the paths.

I didn't really like the complex ones where you had to keep scores and such. Way too much work for a relaxing passtime.

Edit: I've been to Portmeirion a couple of times when I was younger. A great place and I love the Prisoner. Look out for Rover!
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Dazzag
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Posted: 17th May 2007 18:05
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Think they made 59 FF books. Did you know though that Steve Jackson was not always the same bloke? The original bloke (and I think co-founder of Lionhead studios) who founded FF with Livingstone is an English dude, but some of the other FF books with his name are actually an American guy with the same name. Weird eh?

Quote: "I've been to Portmeirion a couple of times when I was younger"
Yep, I grew up mainly in north Wales. Nice place. To visit for a week (not grow up). Ha yeah Rover. I'm annoyed I missed the end of Prisoner. I read up about it and it's slightly daft. I also missed the end of the Fugitive (watched every single episode late at night for months when I was unemployed and then got a job about 3 episodes from the end...)..... and Prisoner Cell Block H.....

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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adr
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Posted: 17th May 2007 18:10
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My brother had them as a child, and they were handed down to me when I was young.

The only one I can remember reading started off in a coal-mine. You found a machine that compressed coal into diamonds, and if you chose to hand around creating diamonds the universe imploded or something dramatic.

It was a bit of a brutal intro to the book to be honest ...


I'm superfly TNT
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BatVink
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Posted: 17th May 2007 18:11
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Quote: "The were bought for me as a "get well soon" gift by my class mates when I was run over by a truck and stuck in hospital for 6 months"


Should have gone to Page 67, the truck blows a tyre and veers over the cliff edge instead.

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zenassem
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Posted: 17th May 2007 18:27 Edited at: 17th May 2007 18:33
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Somehow, Although I know of Steve Jackson (I assume the American Guy - never knew there were two) and his company. Especially from the days of the "Hacker Raids", readings of 2600 (The Hacker Quarterly) & Emanuel Goldstein's Radio broadcast from SUNY Stony Brook , [who's home and company headquarters are 15 minutes from my house]; I never read/played the works which were mentioned. I think I went straight to D&D. I think I've played a few of Jackson's strategy games, and possibly some computer games; I'll have to check which one's.

Glad I posted, this gives me a lot to discover!!!

BTW, I have a store nearby called MonkeyHeadGames. I'll check to see if they have a website. I remember the day I was introduced to the strategy games they sold. From my first visit, it was impossible for me to go back to the usual board-games found at most Toy-Store chains. If I had a group of people interested in playing, I'd still be saving money to buy these games. Most run between $35.00-$95.00, but a few run over $200.00. Never mind all the extra scenery & minatures that can swallow your paycheck!!!!

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 17th May 2007 22:13
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That's funny you mention Stony Brook, hehe, I knew some kids from the Hamptons-area who were students at Binghamton University and they were hardcore fans of something called Warhammer, I never played it (those were my Rainbow Six Rogue Spear days!) but I think that game is similar to what you're talking about.


"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
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bitJericho
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Posted: 18th May 2007 00:24
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http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=383



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Peter H
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Posted: 18th May 2007 01:13
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i liked them, would go through them over and over to get all the different endings...

and i may have cheated a couple times by holding my place and checking the paths

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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Phaelax
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Posted: 18th May 2007 06:01
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I used to read those books all the time, can't remember any titles though. I think last time I read one I was eaten by sharks.


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Zaibatsu
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Posted: 18th May 2007 06:09
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i always hated these, especially the Star Trek ones...

"I admire its purity, a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality"

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Vampiric
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Posted: 18th May 2007 20:29 Edited at: 18th May 2007 20:30
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They re-released the fighting fantasy books, I bought a few but got bored after the first 6. They were good though, I'm thinking of creating a text adventure similar to the books in DBPro but I've got to finish the revision for my GCSEs first.

Computer says n00bed
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zenassem
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Posted: 18th May 2007 21:39
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Well I went to my nearby Borders today and sadly it their inventory seems to have taken a turn for the worse. All my favorite sections are dwindling. Even the programming section that saw too many game programming books in the past is now fairly limited. I was lucky to find one copy of the Python book I was looking for.

They also used to have books on Milkshape, Blender, but sadly most of them are gone leaving 3DSMax8 & Maya. I saw 1 animating game characters with Blender, and 1 book on Lightwave.

So I head to the puzzle/games section. Enough Suduko & childrens books??? Only a handful of decent Brain Teazers.

Off to science Fiction Fantasy. All the GURPS stuff gone. They had a few AD&D volumes, but nothing compared to what they used to have.

They even started stripping down the Physics/Science/Electronics & embedded systems section. Why? To add another 4 rows of graphic novels. There are more manga series then I could even possibly care to know about. It's taking over the whole darn store.

SAD day!

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indi
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Posted: 20th May 2007 15:43
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steve jackson books were cool in the day for sure.

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Three Score
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Posted: 20th May 2007 18:00
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Anyone else see a cool way to use PHP to make one of these?

I'll probably make one of those out of sheer boredom...

Open86 --My Emulator (now with it's first super alpha release
I'm addicted to placebo's...I would quit but it wouldn't mean anything! lol
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Dazzag
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Posted: 20th May 2007 19:18
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Quote: "Anyone else see a cool way to use PHP to make one of these?"
I can't see why you couldn't make one in HTML. Apart from the combat and inventory system (which is just a page in the books) everything is just choices from a page. I mean you even get things like "If you have the chalice of Fnaar then turn to page 54".

Look up Lone Wolf online books to get an idea. They were also amongst the best adventure books at the time IMO. Esp the way they used skill sets and stuff.

But best of all is if you make an adventure book creator. C'mon, you know you want to.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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zenassem
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Posted: 20th May 2007 21:19
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I remeber in the movie "BIG" with Tom Hanks, the idea they had of a comic reader where you could have a choice in the story. And you could just plug-in new adventures. Even then it was cool idea to me.

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Three Score
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Posted: 21st May 2007 00:47
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yea you could make one in just html..just use simple links...I was thinking of using the submit forms with php..

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I'm addicted to placebo's...I would quit but it wouldn't mean anything! lol
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Xenocythe
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Posted: 21st May 2007 00:55
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You know what, no. Just no.

If you are going to be making a game off of any book...

It just HAS to be "Where's Waldo"

You could even twist it around and make it "Where's Lee Bamber"


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