Adventure gamebooks

[Morningcalm]

Anyone here a fan of them? I used to play the old Fighting Fantasy series, and also the open-world Fabled Lands series (which was my personal favorite, and apparently almost made into an MMO).

Fabled Lands, surprisingly, is still alive. They recently made an iPad version of the game with animations, music and such. And they also reprinted the first four books of the series, albeit in a print-by-demand fashion, and they aren't available at Barnes and Nobles, just online on Amazon. Perhaps we'll see an adventure gamebook renaissance? Or are they dead forever? It's kind of a shame that grind-heavy MMOs and disappointing PC sequels (Dragon Age II *coughcough*) have taken their place since the '90s.

I've heard some forums actually play adventure gamebooks together, or create their own "choose your own adventure" thread, and was wondering if other geeks here would to make such a thread?



Linkies here to Fabled Lands stuff if interested:
iTunes Fabled Lands app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fabled-lands-hd/id415170080?mt=8

Amazon.com Fabled Lands books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...tripbooks&field-keywords=fabled+lands&x=0&y=0

Fabled Lands iPad official site, free soundtrack download there: http://megara-entertainment.com/

 

[MajKira]

Im playing such kinda games like Aveyond, deadly sin, Millenium, rpgmaker games

but havnt heard of that kinda gameboooks

I know old text based game books where you read sections numbered and read further another section numbered depending on choice whaddah todo

yes, you do "choose your own adventure" gamethread and lets play

 

[Abaddon]

Myself and a friend used to love the FF books. I recently tried to revive them by playing through them on the forum.. it died because I was too busy to update it :/

They were great fun, i'm sure they will get reprinted/copied in the future

 

[Newbunkle]

They still sell the FF books AFAIK. At least, they did a few years back. They even had a few new ones out like Bloodbones and Eye of the Dragon. I used to read them all the time when I was a kid, although I used to skip the combat stuff. I just hated having the outcome affected by luck.

I didn't really have much experience outside of the FF series, except for a few books I borrowed from the library.

There was one CYOA book about an alien invasion. I seem to remember ending up frozen and shipped off to the alien's home planet as "grade A meat".

I've also played one where you were an android who goes to college. I remember a large robot smashing it's way through classrooms at one point, and every night you have to download your memories to floppy disk.

I think the android was called Chip, but I've no idea which company published that story.

I don't know how popular gamebooks are at the moment, but there's a community of people who enjoy interactive fiction software. There are a number of programs for writing them, including Inform 7. You can grab a ton of games from the Interactive Fiction Database - most of which can be run using a program like Gargoyle.

 

[MajKira]

loook, I found where you get some for free
http://flapp.sourceforge.net/
have java enabled and its open source and copyright permissioned

What about copyright?

Update: Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson have now given permission for this project to use the text of the Fabled Lands books! They also gave permission for people to create and freely distribute PDF versions of the books; these are available at the Yahoo Fabled Lands group. Russ Nicholson has also graciously granted permission to include the illustrations, even after I (rather idiotically) neglected to ask in the first place.
About this project:

This is the Fabled Lands App project ("flapp")

This project was registered on SourceForge.net on Apr 29, 2009, and is described by the project team as follows:

An adaptation of the Fabled Lands gamebook series: travel through a fantastic world, amassing skill, wealth, and fame, while avoiding sudden death. Presents the complete text to maintain the spirit of the original.

About SourceForge.net:

SourceForge.net is the world's largest provider of hosting for Open Source software development projects. SourceForge.net provides a variety of services to projects, including a download mirror network, collaborative development tools (like CVS and Subversion), and tools to support discussion and support. These services are provided to projects and their end-users free-of-charge.
About Open Source:

Of benefit to users, Open Source software is licensed so you can download and use the software free-of-charge. The source code for this software is made available free-of-charge, you (or a programmer you hire) can make changes to this software to better meet your needs, and you can release your changed code back to the community passing the benefit on to other users.

The exact license terms used by this project on their project summary page and in the licensing documents included in their downloads.

 

[Morningcalm]

Hey! Glad to know some FF fans are here. As someone who's read lots of the FF series, I'd still recommend Fabled Lands over FF, esp. because you can buy them on the cheap at Amazon.com, have amazing illustrations, and great writing with lots of sophisticated words, like "palanquin" and so on. FF was great for a read over the weekend when you wanted to kill that evil necromancer and feel a sense of closure upon reading the last paragraph, but I find Fabled Lands to be the more rewarding of the two...It's kind of an open-world MMORPG, and if you do something, it usually has effects elsewhere in the world. If you steal from someone in a particular city for example, you write down a "codeword" (the game's way of recording acts, like a CRPG), and later encounter that man you stole from, armed and ready to kill you with a huge galleon.

I was also fortunate enough to find a forum where they did play Fabled Lands: here it is, take a look: http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,64745.0.html Lots of nice artwork done by the host of that game too. Looks like they died at the hands of ratmen, lol. The host also added nice descriptions of the combat as it commenced (for the most part, in-combat descriptions aren't in the book, unless you make a horrible mistake in some situations). If you guys want to play Fabled Lands in this thread, let me know! I have the books on hand (the old hardcovers) so I'm all set. So far 1 vote to play: MajKira. Anyone else want to join in? I'd like at least 3 others to participate so the discussions about what to do and where to go will be interesting.

Unfortunately I don't have any FF books on hand or I'd be willing to try an FF playthrough on the forum too. Anyone want to volunteer?

I'd recommend that people unsure about buying the Fabled Lands books give the Java app that MajKira linked a try, I've been playing it for hours right now. Fighting a deadly giant in the Black Pagoda. *shivers*

Once you fall in love with the series, you'll want Books 7-12 as much as I do. But they aren't going to be written unless the Amazon.com books sell well, and at the moment they aren't doing as well, my guess is it's mostly because those books aren't actually available in regular bookstores, but can only be bought online. =|

So support the movement and play the most amazing textual RPG of all time! (and the biggest, most interlinked one in book format!)