Choose Your Own Adventure Books Return 199
KermodeBear writes "Eight of the original 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books are to be republished this summer. From the Article: 'First published in 1979, the books let readers remix their own stories - and face the consequences. [...] the original titles return to bookstores, revamped with 21st-century references (cell phones!).'" For me, it's all about 1987's Space Vampire , by series originator Edward Packard. "Do you eject the vampire through the airlock?"
Adventures Rule (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:1)
I remember one of them having a loop. I stopped trying to count the total number of stories after that.
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:2)
On a programming note, I don't remember if there was a particular pattern (i.e., 1 = A, 2 = B,
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:2)
I'd keep my fingers in the previous choice page, so I could go back and try the other endings without missing any. Sometimes I'd end up flipping through the book after I'd thought I'd read everything, and I found a new page with an alternate bad ending.
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:2)
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:5, Informative)
I really liked the Lone Wolf [tesco.net] series. It was quite sophisticated with you being able to keep track of your characters health and choose different powers. Sometimes you'd find a spell or item that had a number attached and at various points in the books you could add that number to your current number to pull off a hidden course of action.
But I don't think anything compared to Steve Jackson's Sorcery [iconbooks.co.uk] series. Lots of detail, lots of depth and if you didn't beat the seven serpents in book three then the villain in book four knew you were coming! Ah, happiness!
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:2)
Good God! I must have been about nine-years old and I remember that! I couldn't work out the time serpent riddle either and I had to go forward through the book trying to find something that matched up. I don't even remember what the puzzle was, but I'm sure if someone gave me the answer some deep and buried part of my psyche would resolve its trauma.
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:3, Funny)
The title of the parchement was XL. So you turned to page 40 (XL in roman numerals.)
Oh God! I feel so... released! Like an annoying background noise that you'd forgotten was there had just stopped.
Thank you AC. Thank you soooo much!
Project Aon (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Adventures Rule (Score:2, Informative)
"Escape from Fire Island" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"Escape from Fire Island" (Score:3, Funny)
I don't think we are in Kansas anymore, Toto.
Re:"Escape from Fire Island" (Score:3, Interesting)
You think that's crazy? Try Hamlet the Text Adventure [versificator.co.uk]. You may laugh, but can you beat it?
North.
North.
Commit Incest.
Re:"Escape from Fire Island" (Score:2)
Hmm. While I'm sure that it's a great book, according your Amazon link [amazon.com], more people (43% vs 11%) ended up buying the Create Your Own Erotic Fantasy [amazon.com] line of books instead.
Now to merge this idea with the comments further down about realistic computer games
Fighting Fantasy (Score:2, Funny)
(...or, in my case, D&D for when the group is busy going stupid things like "learning"...)
Re:Fighting Fantasy (Score:2)
Re:Fighting Fantasy (Score:5, Funny)
What's the other kind of D&D?
Re:Fighting Fantasy (Score:2)
These books predicted the Web (Score:5, Funny)
"If you look at hard core porn, turn to page 12.
If you post to Slashdot, turn to page 14."
Re:These books predicted the Web (Score:2)
Short books == long text (Score:5, Interesting)
Back when I was single-digit aged, I thought it would be pretty cool to "program" a CYOA book into our Vic20. A buttload of print statements, with function keys acting as the choices at the end of a section.
Needless to say, when you get your first "?Out of Memory" error, just when entering in a program, you start thinking hard about just how this computer is storing things. Pretty much started my obsession with computer architecture at a very low level.
Even with only a few dozen pages of large print text, these books were well over 3500 characters
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
My own favorite was one called... I don't remember, it wasn't an actual "Choose your own adventure" but a copycat, these were hardcover books, wider than the red original ones, an the storyline includ
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
I thought it was really cool except that I was
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
No graphics, but since when did D&D need graphics?
VERY dungeon crawl, but pretty fun since no one besides me would EVER be DM. No geopolitical intrigue or interpersonal drama, but a TON of "what's behind door number 1", see the monster, kill the monster, collect the treasure and xp. In other words a fun side diversion.
Re:Short books == long text (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually remember being really frustrated every time I wound up at a crappy ending, and didn't want to have to start going all the way back to the beginning to start again, so I would wind up holding my fingers in between four or five different pages corresponding to the last several jumps I had made, so I could recursively backtrack when I wound up in a problem situation..
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
That one would be Inside UFO 54-40, which was my first introduction to the series. As you might guess, I really skewed my perception of the franchise. I did get more into the Lone Wolf [projectaon.org] books mentioned elsewhere under this article; I completed volumes 1 through 12 before not being able to find the books locally anymore.
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
Heh, I tried the exact same thing on my TI 99/4A. I discovered that not only does the TI only have enough room for about 17 pages of text (rendered as PRINT statements), but it also gets very very slow as you near the memory-full point...
Re:Short books == long text (Score:2)
To take the left path, press RETURN.
To take the right path, PRESS PLAY ON TAPE #1.
Replaced by computer RPG (Score:5, Insightful)
These were fun when I was a kid, but that was before computer games really took off. I don't see the young whipper-snappers these days being excited by a book with simple either/or choices.
Still if the came up with a good story that was interesting and compelling, (I seem to remember the plot of these things being pretty weak, even as a kid) I don't see why they wouldn't be successful.
Actually having an interesting and compelling story could sell a few console rpg's too, or movies, or tv shows, etc. etc. It all comes back to that in the end, not the gimmick.
Re:Replaced by computer RPG (Score:2)
Ya but with the RPG's the story doesn't end for me in 3 pages. Progress is wonderful, and KOS-MOS kicks ass.
Re:Replaced by computer RPG (Score:2)
In a word: No (Score:2, Insightful)
With choose your own adventure, the paths that you take close other paths, and you are offered two or three or more choices on about every other page. Some choices lead to a happy endings, some to a sad endings, with varying story lengths a
EJECT! (Score:5, Funny)
If yes is wrong, I don't want to be right.
My Favorite One (Score:5, Funny)
To read the article on "Choose Your Own Adventure Books" turn to page 117.
[Page 117]
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
You have died.
The End
Re:My Favorite One (Score:2, Funny)
College Adventure [netjaunt.com]
There is a militant lesbian here, blocking your path.
kick lesbian
She enjoys it. She points out that you are a fascist sexist bastard.
Yeeeeep! (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe those books lead me into computers... Taught us loops and branching as kids, no wonder I used GOTOs for so long.
Choose life, choose a job... (Score:2)
Naaah. What a silly idea. It'll never take.
Re:Choose life, choose a job... (Score:3)
Re:Choose life, choose a job... (Score:2)
Re:Choose life, choose a job... (Score:2)
Bookmarks! (Score:3, Interesting)
After about 10 bookmarks its gets out of hand!
I do think these kind of books help kids think think about the way a simple pc program works.
Re:Bookmarks! (Score:2, Funny)
Shamelessly stolen (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Shamelessly stolen (Score:2)
It's got nothing to do with your vorsprung durch technik you know. And it's not about you joggers, who go round and round. Do you:
* Get up when you want except on Wednesday? (Go to 4)
* Feed the pigeons and sometimes feed the pigeons too? (Go to 73)
Sweet! (Score:2)
D'oh! (Score:2)
"Technical sprucing" -- already done, and in style (Score:2)
Granted, Project Aon is the first link at the bottom of the above-cited Wikipedia article -- but just in case, I thought I'd point it out. I was a huge fan of the series when I was younger, and as such it's good to see the books preserved so well.
Re:Sweet! (Score:2)
I guess most people grew up on D&D, i grew up on Lone Wolf type books.
Page -1 (Score:2)
The best way to read... (Score:3, Interesting)
About halfway through, though, it gets boring because you know all the storylines.
What made these unique... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What made these unique... (Score:2)
Re:What made these unique... (Score:2)
You wouldn't happen to know where to...um...find any, would you? I'm looking for some...for...scientific research...
Yes...
For science...
Wonderful science...
Re:What made these unique... (Score:2)
Re:What made these unique... (Score:2)
INSIDE URL 13-37 (Score:3, Funny)
You did not make a choice, or follow any direction, but now, somehow, your are descending from the Internet - approaching a great, glistening website. It is Slashdot - the website of paradise.
"Welcome!" says the man. "My name is Cmdr Taco. You have reached the forum of joy and beauty. All our treasures are yours to share with us. All of us here are your friends forever."
THE END
Re:INSIDE URL 13-37 (Score:3, Interesting)
Did you know, there is no page that directs you to that ending?
They are very serious when they say you did not get there by making a choice. You had to turn to the wrong page to get there!
What got me started looking is one day I found myself at that ending and was tearing my hair out tryin
Re:INSIDE URL 13-37 (Score:2)
That's what bookmarks are for.
That Reminds Me of a Story (Score:2)
The once rich variations on folk stories have been taken hostage by the large media corporations. In high school a group of us got together to watch silent movies. From the earliest silent movies to come out of Holly
Interactive fiction (Score:2)
It's like Zork, except literary. I heartily recommend anything by Adam Cadre [adamcadre.ac], especially Photopia (actually made me cry - it's an amazing piece of art) and Shrapnel.
Hated them (Score:5, Insightful)
Better alternatives (Score:4, Informative)
In short there are *lots* of good books out there that are intellectually stimulating as well as entertaining and won't insult kids' intelligence. Although perhaps the age of shoot-em-up games and FPS have ruined kids for that kind of thing. So maybe CYOA's 10-page stories will be well-received.
Re:Better alternatives (Score:2)
Re:Better alternatives (Score:2)
Re:Hated them (Score:3, Funny)
What? Were the stories that serious?
Re:Hated them (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hated them (Score:2)
I'm with you on the Encyclopedia Brown and Hardy Boys. They were very good. At some point I also remember reading a series (along the same vein) called "The Three Investigators"
Re:Hated them (Score:2)
As far as running out of fingers, I feel your pain, but I just tore up post-it notes and pieces of paper and made bookmarks, whenever I actually did run out of fingers. Which wasn't often, I'd usually end up eliminating f
Re:Hated them (Score:2)
Post-Its (Score:2)
After Reading several inane comments.... (Score:2, Funny)
If you mod the comment +1, insightful, turn to page 15
If you suspect the comment of Karma Whoring, mod it -1, overrated, and turn to page 29
If you were too young to remember CYOA books and the format of this comment confuses you, rate it -1, Offtopic, and turn to page 39.
If you remember checking each possible result of a decision fork in a CYOA book, check pages 15, 29, and 39,
Re:After Reading several inane comments.... (Score:2)
Was Twist-A-Plot better? (Score:2)
I'm not sure which was first (too lazy to look it up), but I remember reading both of them in 1st or 3rd grade. CYOA books always seemed somewhat -- I don't know -- slim to me. Not much there beyond the gimick, and often times it was only a few pages between "choices". Twistaplot books [gamebooks.org] seemed to have more narrative substance there, longer periods that allowed for the choices you made to develop in the plot before being forced into another one page branch.
But perhaps that's just time making things all fuzzy.
The Third Planet from Altair (Score:2, Interesting)
I am still haunted by that book. It was my introduction to the disillusionments of the universe.
Re:The Third Planet from Altair (Score:2)
Wellcome back (Score:2)
Those books were not great pieces of literature, they were cheesy. They were pulp fiction. However, they were empowering and fascinating. They marked the beginning of an enduring love of reading.
It makes me happy to know that thes
Re:Wellcome back (Score:2)
Remember kids: Always preview before posting.
Updated for today's Slashdot crowd (Score:2, Funny)
Good (Score:2)
I was writing "VERB NOUN" text adventures in BBC BASIC since long ago. I had another go recently; this time in perl and using a database for the room and object descriptions. Then I got distracted and tried to make it multi-player. Ended up learning more about select(2) than it's good for a mere
Also on DVD... (Score:2)
But my hands are not yet clean. (Score:2)
W3b 2.O Kr3w (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we please stop using unnecessary buzzwords and buzzimplementations-of-words in article descriptions?
Lone Wolf Lives! (Score:3, Informative)
Mandatory Kuro5hin Choose Your Own Adventure (Score:2)
I figure this is on topic since we're talking about CYOA, but here's some of the more "bastard" choose your own adventure stories online. New Orleans [kuro5hin.org] World Trade Center [kuro5hin.org]
I can't believe nobody posted these already.
Fighting Fantasy books reissued (Score:2, Informative)
Did anyone finish Inside UFO 54-40? (Score:2)
Never did, it was very disappointing.
Inside UFO 54-40 was one of the few CYOA books that had 'a best ending', the others were all pretty open ended in the first series.
There were also the RPG CYOA style books where you had to write in the books, maintain hit points etc. Those were -incredible-.
Obligatory Futurama Reference (Score:2)
If you want Calculon to doublecheck his paperwork, press 2.
1) Violent Lasergun Battle
2) Tedious Paperwork
Enter now.
- You have pressed 2.
- No I didn't!
- I'm almost positive you did.
- Add in the carryover from form 16A, then deduct line 2B.
My favorite (Score:2)
Edward Packard seems to have been the best writer of the series. The Cave of Time books were good too. It's nice to see the series being kept alive for a new generation of children.
Bruce
What if Choose Your Own Adventure had patents? (Score:2)
I wonder what would have happened if "Choose Your Own Adventure" would have created patents on that type of book, and the others never would have had a chance. I guess the world is a different place today.
Huh (Score:2)
Time Machine (Score:2)
Re:Time Machine (Score:2)
Time Machine (loved the Nazi one; pulled no punches!) and the Be An Interplanetary Spy series, too.
CYOA is not a dead concept (Score:2)
Re:Choose your ending (Score:2)
found the english titles... (Score:2)
Re:Choose your ending (Score:2)
Re:It'd be easy... (Score:2)
It would propably be even easier to port them to HTML.