Whatever happened to...

[Nograts]

Choose your own adventure books? Does anyone remember these? Was cleaning out a few boxes earlier today and found a zombie/horror one. Needless to say the boxes didn't get cleaned out, and then my brains were horribly and messily digested by rotting zombies.

A quick google search popped up with titles from the late 70's and 80's. There appear to be newer CYOA books, but the covers look horribly cartoonish and low brow...even by today's standards. (Yeah that's right, I'm judging books by their covers, wanna fight about it?)

Anyways, these things rock. I think tomorrow I'm going to choose the left path in the cave...

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Eroge happened to them.

 

[DigDog]

they became PCRPGS

 

[GobBluth]

You know they make these for porno books now?

 

[Ichinisan]

I remember a pretty good sci-fi one from when I was a kid. Lots of awesome endings that varied greatly.

It was from the local library. I don't remember what it was called...

 

[KeithTalent]

Used to love those things. I remember getting a broken one though that you could not complete; I even ended up cheating with that one, but there was no possible way to get past a very early part of the book as you always got killed.

KT

 

[Markbnj]

I read somewhere recently that there is renewed interest in interactive fiction, so maybe you'll be seeing some more of it.

 

[mmntech]

They evolved into video games.

 

[HN]

Used to love those things. I remember getting a broken one though that you could not complete; I even ended up cheating with that one, but there was no possible way to get past a very early part of the book as you always got killed.

KT

it's the Kobayashi Maru of choose-your-own-adventure books

 

[Clemenza]

I read so many of these as a kid. There were so many kinds back in the 80's. I remember, Choose Your Own Adventure, Which-Way Books, Wizards, Warriors and You, and there was even a set of them based in Ravenloft. I'My day is now going to be ruined by looking at all of the different book covers and trying to figure out if I read them.

 

[soulcougher73]

Memories from junior high lol

 

[SlitheryDee]

I never liked them. All that page flipping just to see something like, "Johnny set out to cross the river on foot. As he neared the center he found the water to be much deeper and the current much swifter than he anticipated. Soon he was swept off his feet and carried downstream, never to be seen again" most of the time.

Damn, died again. Time to restart the "game" and try the other option. It wasn't fun for me. I would have preferred that they spent all the pages devoted to alternate paths fleshing out the story more.

 

[wabbitslayer]

If you are interested in this thread, go to page 2.

If you are not interested in this thread, go to ATOT main page.

 

[Ferzerp]

Odd that you bring that up when the guy who is credited with inventing the genre died recently.

 

[Sonikku]

It became KOTOR and we all moved on.

 

[Nograts]

Odd that you bring that up when the guy who is credited with inventing the genre died recently.

He invented CYOA? I skimmed his bio, said original console and other gadgets. Nothing about literature. Will re read I guess.

 

[Ferzerp]

He invented CYOA? I skimmed his bio, said original console and other gadgets. Nothing about literature. Will re read I guess.

Different guy. This was a few months ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._Montgomery


Ok, looks like stories at the time may have exaggerated a bit and he was just a guy who wrote a ton of them.

 

[Naer]

Great thread bro. 5 stars. Saved to hardrive to share with my grandchildren in 100 years

 

[AFurryReptile]

If you play video games, give the Telltale ones a try. It's exactly the same idea, but in episodic game/movie form. I've loved the three of these:

- The Walking Dead
- The Wolf Among Us
- Game of Thrones

 

[twinrider1]

Remember Ace of Aces? It was a WWI aerial combat game, not a story. You would choose a move and tell your opponent to turn to the corresponding page. They would do the same. You go to your respective pages and your new position would be shown. You maneuvered until you could get enough hits to down your opponent. It was a blast.

 

[pontifex]

I really liked the Lone Wolf ones. They recently came out with an app and pc game based on them. ALso saw some other game on steam with similar idea.