Funky Papa
FUNK-Y-PPA-4
So I've been preparing all my stuff in order to move to a new place and I noticed that I still have a good number of these little books carefully packed since God knows when. For those younglings who didn't live or don't remember the 80's and the first half of the 90's, Choose Your Own Adventure was a series of children's gamebooks that allowed you to craft your own story by picking a decision for your character at the end of each mini-episode and moving to a designated page. That shit was basically the printed equivalent of graphic adventures and it was AWESOME.
Although aimed at kids, a number of those books were pretty rich in terms of storytelling and even dared to slip some basic scientific knowledge. Plus, some the deaths were gruesome as fuck. Like, seriously unsettling, to the point that I actually had nightmares with a couple of them and even refused to look at one of the covers out of sheer terror. I think I was 8 years old when I got my first CYOA book and continued to devour them for the following two years or so before moving onto conventional novels for young adults (I was a rather precocious reader), but those books left an incredible mark on me and now that I've found my stash I can't help but remember the immense joy (and despair) the brought me. Apparently some company purchased the rights a few years ago and reprinted a good chunk of the originals with new and fugly covers, but honestly, they don't feel the same without the original (and sometimes deeply unsettling) art.
Anyway, I'm sure that a good number of gaffers are familiar with the series, so feel free to point your favourite books. These are mine:
I believe this was my first CYOA book and also one of the most disturbing. It was basically a more adventurous version of Jessica Alba's Into the Blue mixed with pirates and ancient galleons loaded with Spanish gold and untold dangers. Some of the highlights included being bitten by a moray eel, dying in a gruesome accident with a suction device used to clean the sand from shipwrecks and experiencing nitrogen sickness after a botched ascend, which basically blew my fucking mind.
Gamebook's summary: "While visiting your cousins Michael and Jane in Connecticut, you end up exploring a supposedly cursed house which is said to be occupied only by the cat of a dead woman". So yeah, it's basically your run off the mill haunted house story with some strange and rather oniric elements in between. I can't remember much of it other than I had good fun with it and that the half retarded janitor in the cover creeped the shit out of me. Nonononono.
An all-powerful race of aliens have abducted you and placed you into a space zoo. The basic plot is as creepy as it sounds, but it gets even better thanks to the book's deranged artwork (which includes some rather Lovecraftian aliens) and the ship's design. IIRC it also had some time travel/stasis elements, but I'll be damned if I retain the finer details of the book's paths. Also, you could only get the final and good ending if you cheated and jumped straight to the proper page. WHAT THE FUCK.
"You are a doctor trying to help various tribes living near the Amazon battle tropical diseases. Unfortunately, your expedition disappears before you can do anything, and you have to find and rescue them". And that's about it. This one feel more like an actual book than a gamebook (as in being quite a serious read) and benefited from some actually great artwork in both the cover and the inner pages. The bad endings were pretty fucked up, as in being more realistic than in other books, which caused quite an impression in my young mind. The cover art in the reissue is just... SMH.
This one was rather weak, but not devoid of charm. As per usual in CYOA books, you are a young kid selected for a very special mission that will probably end in some fucked up and gruesome death. In this case, you have some latent psi abilities that need to be examined in a gorgeous ray-shaped. The book introduced me to the Zener cards (how 80's is that?) and kept creeping me for years with its crazy submarine fauna. Think of it as The Abyss meets Poltergeist.
Anyway, these were my favourites, but there are countless others. Also, I didn't read this one, but the cover is just fit for GAF:
Although aimed at kids, a number of those books were pretty rich in terms of storytelling and even dared to slip some basic scientific knowledge. Plus, some the deaths were gruesome as fuck. Like, seriously unsettling, to the point that I actually had nightmares with a couple of them and even refused to look at one of the covers out of sheer terror. I think I was 8 years old when I got my first CYOA book and continued to devour them for the following two years or so before moving onto conventional novels for young adults (I was a rather precocious reader), but those books left an incredible mark on me and now that I've found my stash I can't help but remember the immense joy (and despair) the brought me. Apparently some company purchased the rights a few years ago and reprinted a good chunk of the originals with new and fugly covers, but honestly, they don't feel the same without the original (and sometimes deeply unsettling) art.
Anyway, I'm sure that a good number of gaffers are familiar with the series, so feel free to point your favourite books. These are mine:
Treasure Diver
I believe this was my first CYOA book and also one of the most disturbing. It was basically a more adventurous version of Jessica Alba's Into the Blue mixed with pirates and ancient galleons loaded with Spanish gold and untold dangers. Some of the highlights included being bitten by a moray eel, dying in a gruesome accident with a suction device used to clean the sand from shipwrecks and experiencing nitrogen sickness after a botched ascend, which basically blew my fucking mind.
The Mystery of Chimney Rock
Gamebook's summary: "While visiting your cousins Michael and Jane in Connecticut, you end up exploring a supposedly cursed house which is said to be occupied only by the cat of a dead woman". So yeah, it's basically your run off the mill haunted house story with some strange and rather oniric elements in between. I can't remember much of it other than I had good fun with it and that the half retarded janitor in the cover creeped the shit out of me. Nonononono.
Inside UFO 54-40
An all-powerful race of aliens have abducted you and placed you into a space zoo. The basic plot is as creepy as it sounds, but it gets even better thanks to the book's deranged artwork (which includes some rather Lovecraftian aliens) and the ship's design. IIRC it also had some time travel/stasis elements, but I'll be damned if I retain the finer details of the book's paths. Also, you could only get the final and good ending if you cheated and jumped straight to the proper page. WHAT THE FUCK.
Lost on the Amazon
"You are a doctor trying to help various tribes living near the Amazon battle tropical diseases. Unfortunately, your expedition disappears before you can do anything, and you have to find and rescue them". And that's about it. This one feel more like an actual book than a gamebook (as in being quite a serious read) and benefited from some actually great artwork in both the cover and the inner pages. The bad endings were pretty fucked up, as in being more realistic than in other books, which caused quite an impression in my young mind. The cover art in the reissue is just... SMH.
The Phantom Submarine
This one was rather weak, but not devoid of charm. As per usual in CYOA books, you are a young kid selected for a very special mission that will probably end in some fucked up and gruesome death. In this case, you have some latent psi abilities that need to be examined in a gorgeous ray-shaped. The book introduced me to the Zener cards (how 80's is that?) and kept creeping me for years with its crazy submarine fauna. Think of it as The Abyss meets Poltergeist.
Anyway, these were my favourites, but there are countless others. Also, I didn't read this one, but the cover is just fit for GAF:
