Awesome, awesome book. That it carried on into three sequels for one larger, better story with specific details and elements carrying on with you (if you'd read the earlier books) was really thrilling at the time.
Still glad I have all of the Time Machine books from when I was young.
As I'm sure you can imagine, this gets me pussy like you wouldn't believe.
I loved these books when I was a kid. Came pretty close to buying a bunch on eBay recently.
Like Wolf, I can barely remember anything about it, and what I do remember is actually probably either another CYOA book or the Planetfall book creeping in.My favorite (I can barely remember some of the scenes, but that cover is iconic to me):
That's awesome of the rights owners to allow that. Is there functionality in one of the major ebook platforms (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks) to allow branching to let these be converted?Just to check, I assume people here are aware of Project Aon, right?
Much of the Lone Wolf series with permission granted to be distributed on their site for free, along with a few tools to aid playing them. Given that Lone Wolf lent itself well to being played in serial with your hero persisting between them, that's quite a nice setup!
My collection stops about where I outgrew the format, so somewhere around CYOA #25-30 or so. I also had a pretty good set of the TSR Endless Quest books until about #14-16. But this stands out as one I really liked...
Like Wolf, I can barely remember anything about it, and what I do remember is actually probably either another CYOA book or the Planetfall book creeping in.
Reading a bit more on the Wiki page and on R.A. Montgomery's reboot site, I get the feeling R.A. is a bit of a dick. His reboot looks really half-assed.
I could never be bothered with the dice and keeping stats, so I just ended up assuming I won the battles. Still lost when I turned round the wrong corner or opened the wrong door though.
My two favourites were from the Fighting Fantasy series:
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Starship Traveller
I loved these as a kid. These also bring back memoriesDo you mean *actual* CYOA, or just that ilk? I ask because *this* baby and its family were awesome:
A standard adventure gamebook, but it came with a kit of tools that were used with it; the magic potion metre tracked 'health', the coin card did the obvious, a dice to randomly select characters to do various tasks, and there were translators the decipher codes in the book and an overlay card to read out messages from masses of letters. Really felt a lot more involved.
I saw those books with Asterix branding and Famous Five branding, both worked rather well.
While we're sticking with Asterix branding, I'd like to also flag up:
I've only played one of these, but they were again a bit more interesting than a standard gamebook. For one, if I recall correctly, they were actually organised into discrete chapters; you'd still do normal gamebook things within a chapter, but once you'd finished a chapter, you'd move on to another set of pages. For another thing, occasionally it'd break away from the normal gamebook flow system into something a bit more adventurous. I recall one scene where your character had to navigate through a roman camp - displayed on a grid - and as you proceeded you needed to fight or hide from enemies displayed on the map, and if you entered a tent you'd jump to the paragraphs indicated by the tent.
The one and only Space Vampire
These are the only two I remember.
Almost a 20 year run and 250 million sold. Not too shabby.Choose Your Own Adventure, as published by Bantam Books, was one of the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998
Hands down:
There was also one with a similar story where you played a secret agent that was part mystery/puzzle book, part choose your own adventure. It was pretty amazing as a kid, but I can't for the life of me remember much else about it other than an illustration of a gorilla (lol)
That's awesome of the rights owners to allow that. Is there functionality in one of the major ebook platforms (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks) to allow branching to let these be converted?
And the Mario ones from the same series too.
There was also one with a similar story where you played a secret agent that was part mystery/puzzle book, part choose your own adventure. It was pretty amazing as a kid, but I can't for the life of me remember much else about it other than an illustration of a gorilla (lol)
Most of the action are narrated through a young New York teen named Stephen Lane, who is a movie buff, who always get caught up in some madcap adventures of his uncle, Richard Duffy. Until mother's younger brother moved in with the family into their brownstone on 224½ East 61st Street one day, Stephen spent most of his weekends and other free time watching videos, from old movies to the latest action flicks.
The Lane family only know that Richard Duffy was an engineer who retired unusually young for someone in profession. What they did not know was that he was an adventurer who "blew up more bridges than he built", a highly skilled operative who worked with various government special agencies around the world, and incidentally, made many enemies in his past.
...
Most of the adventures occur in the absence of Mr. and Mrs. Lane from the household... Things usually happened when both parents went together on weekend business trips (either his or hers). They left Richard to babysit Stephen, expecting nothing more than a prosaic time together for the uncle-nephew duo. However, almost as soon as they left the house, someone or something from Richard's past appeared and sent the duo flying across the world (most of the time), to solve some difficult problems.
The eponymous title of the series came from the time limit the duo had to reach their destination, solve the problem and be back at home before Stephen's parents return, without giving away the slightest hint of what they had been up to.
Crucial to their success, apart from Richard's skills and experience as an adventurer, was his practically unlimited finances, and their special Kronom K-D2 watches with technology far more advanced than was actually available in the 20th century.
Awesome, awesome book. That it carried on into three sequels for one larger, better story with specific details and elements carrying on with you (if you'd read the earlier books) was really thrilling at the time.
They started my love of gaming and still are unmatched in terms of character choice.
the lone wolf series was the best.
Loved reading Long Wolf series by Joe Dever.
http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ah23vt3ro...AAAUg/fzTUp9PYTeA/s1600/FlightfromtheDark.jpg
This. Actually just had to dig out my books to show my son.
My man. Came to post these.
I loved CYOA, Lone Wolf was my absolute favorite. Still pissed I didn't get in on the Mongoose Publishing hardbacks before they lost the license to print them. Now the books are going for $200+ each.
Ah nostalgia, but I don't think that's an adventure book; it only has one path, unless I'm remembering it wrong.
Sounds a little like The Great Spy Race / Riddle of the Sphinx.