eggmagic
Squire
the Masks of Mayhem will not be released upon the land in my lifetime!
Posts: 7
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by eggmagic on Sept 15, 2018 17:51:01 GMT
Which Fighting Fantasy books did you have when you were younger?
Which titles do you remember playing? What about them left an impression on you?
I'll start:
The Forest of Doom The first book I ever played and eventually, the first book I beat! For me (and probably many others), the Shape Changer is synonymous with Fighting Fantasy. I was introduced to FF by a friend in primary school & quickly found myself hooked. I fondly remember being killed by Yaztromo on my very first go, as well as the feeling of elation having made it to Stonebridge... only to realise I was missing half the warhammer!
Deathtrap Dungeon I had the Eidos skull edition which came with the PC game (which, incidentally, I never played as it would only ever install to 98%). Out of all the FF I had, I must have died the most playing this. A tough, fun book; then and now.
Sword of the Samurai I always enjoyed how different this title felt, what which its feudal setting & eastern cultural influences. Obviously as a kid I jusy though it was cool, especially Peter Andrew Jones' cover. I found myself returning to it time and time again; endlessly fascinating and relatively easy to play.
Battleblade Warrior Dinosaurs riding dinosaurs! Well, lizard men... but that didn't matter to eight year-old me. I recently replayed this and found it a bit of a letdown. What is up with Katya, I don't even...
Portal of Evil Another dinosaur book! Evidently I was still very much aboard the Jurassic Park train. I don't recall playing this much at the time and yet, I have never forgotten the drawing of the bear dressed as a wizard.
The Crimson Tide My second favourite book as a kid, after FoD. I never got very far; most playthroughs seemed to end with me going round in circles then dying. But each time I'd encounter someone or discover something new. I remember being obsessed with Alan Craddock's cover. The winged sharks, the golden skull, the evil smiling guy with the weird hat. I used to stare at it imagining what had led to this moment, playing out the scenario over and over in my head. Also, paragraph 400. Need I say more. A lot of nice memories with this one.
Curse of the Mummy I loved the art in this book! The illustrations of the Death Spider, Akharis and the Guardian of the Dead are phenomenal. The chiaroscuro-like shading and detailed linework make them look so memorably striking and vivid. Some of my favourite pictures in the series. Never actually played it properly till last month!
I look foward to reading everyone else's earliest memories with Fighting Fantasy!
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Post by johnbrawn1972 on Sept 15, 2018 19:57:05 GMT
I will state I bought the books 1-15 and the Sorcery books. I can still remember going into WH Smiths with my Mum and seeing The Crown of Kings and thinking £2.50 is an incredible amount to pay but I remember being electrified at the time.
In 1986 I noticed The Trial of Champions in WH Smith and realised it was a sequel so I bought it. If only it had been Revenge of the Vampire.
I feel no regret but I wish I had continued to buy the books from 16 onwards. The Rings of Kether was so lacklustre even though they had tried to channel being some sort of narcotics officer. I was totally disillusioned so I stopped buying the books. My friend who was also into the books moved down to Essex at the end of primary school in the Summer of 1984 and also stopped buying after 1-12 and Sorcery. I believe it was the social aspect that was a strong influence and I also became interested in computer games during the last 5 years of the 1980s which was an unconscious replacement.
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eggmagic
Squire
the Masks of Mayhem will not be released upon the land in my lifetime!
Posts: 7
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by eggmagic on Sept 15, 2018 20:34:04 GMT
Other than The Forest of Doom, which is how I and by extension my parents found out about FF, I never had any influence over which titles I had. Nor do I remember buying any (or being present when they were bought).
I was too young; the odd book just seemed to appear in my house every so often (usually around birthdays or holidays). Years later, they disappeared in a similar fashion too!
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Post by lordomnibok on Sept 17, 2018 5:45:28 GMT
Star Strider was my first Gamebook. The cover caught my eye so I gave it a try. It blew my mind; I still remember how I felt reading the start of it. As a kid, I gradually acquired and read almost all of the books from 1 to 50. I stopped there as I felt that no 50 seemed to wrap up the series nicely, plus I spotted some errors in the later ones when browsing in the book stores. Stopping at 50 was a big mistake, as we all know what happened to the prices of those 50+ books later on. (I have them all now though.)
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,434
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Sept 17, 2018 10:20:26 GMT
Stopping at 50 was a big mistake, as we all know what happened to the prices of those 50+ books later on. (I have them all now though.) Ain't that the truth. I got into FF in the early-mid 90s and had no idea the series was on its last legs so was happily turning my nose up at Curse of the Mummy and Magehunter to get things like City of Thieves.
Having said that I was pretty lucky to start scouring eBay in the mid noughties for the books so I think I got them all for under £20 each so could have been much worse.
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Post by dragonwarrior8 on Dec 17, 2018 16:54:34 GMT
I had almost all the books from 1-20 but ironically Deathtrap Dungeon was one of the few I didnt have. Wish I had gotten that one instead of Starship Traveller!
The ones that stick out in mind the most:
The Warlock of Firetop- Duh. First one I played and I can still vividly remember my mom taking me to the bookstore on a rainy day where I picked this one out. Got home and played it with the rain falling outside and I actually felt like I WAS inside the mountain. I could hear the sounds and smell the odors. The artwork was also great and incredibly immersive. Will never forget that sleeping orc guard. A magical moment for me and probably why to this day I dont think I could ever evaluate this book fairly.
Citadel of Chaos - I dont think I really knew what the heck was going on in this one at the time. I seem to remember feeling cheated that I couldnt use my magic spells any time I wanted. I love this book today though and as an adult had an absolute blast playing it again. My copy as a kid got bad mildew from being left in a tent that got soaking wet. As a result, to this very day whenever I smell that mildew smell (Im sure you all know what Im talking about) the first thing I think of is Citadel of Chaos.
Forest of Doom - Similar to Warlock this one made me feel like I was actually in the forest. I remember beating this one fairly as a kid pretty easily so that should have been a clue it wasnt very hard. Even as a kid though I thought the going around the long way to go back through the forest again was pretty lame.
City of Thieves - Along with House of Hell, probably my favorite as a kid. As an adult, its not quite as good as I remember as the end section has some pretty cheap moments but another one with terrific atmosphere.
House of Hell - Ohhhh this book was my mortal enemy. I actually didnt own this one but borrowed it almost constantly from the library. Never even came close to beating it (friggin Devil worshippers!) but hoping to change that when I play it as an adult in the coming weeks. There was absolutely no better book to play late at night with just a desk lamp on and preferably a storm raging outside. Great stuff!
Appointment With Fear and Demons of the Deep - I think these may have started the beginning of the end for me with FF as I recall these being almost impossible to map. And for me, the map-making was one of the best parts of the experience. Nothing against the books themselves though as I recall enjoying them both, just not nearly as much as previous efforts.
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Post by Wilf on Jan 4, 2019 8:02:10 GMT
A schoolfriend lent me his copy of The Citadel Of Chaos one day. I was instantly hooked, and seeing other kids reading FF books with such brilliant covers and titles as Deathtrap Dungeon, The Forest Of Doom, and The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, I was keen to read those, too.
My first one was the newly-released Caverns Of The Snow Witch, which I then lent to another schoolfriend. I never got it back, but eventually replaced it. I soon had all nine. Every time I saw a new cover under that green zigzag banner, either at school or in a bookshop, it was a genuine thrill. I have fond memories of buying House Of Hell in Maidenhead and reading it in the back of my parents' office whilst they worked. And waiting ages to get Temple Of Terror because my bookshop had sold out, and with the return of Yaztromo and the creepy Messenger Of Death, that one was the talk of the playground. And being excited to receive Rebel Planet one Christmas - all other presents were ignored that day! And trying to figure out what the other eight Masks Of Mayhem looked like. And being continually frustrated by Creature Of Havoc, 'cos I didn't know about the error back then. Loved the code, though.
Stopped when I was a teenager - I was too old for FF, really. Had all of them up to Slaves Of The Abyss. I think I picked a good time to stop!
And then a decade later, I moved house for the first time and found some old FFs in a box, and nostalgia kicked in, so I scoured the charity shops to fill the gaps, which ended up in my getting the full set, eventually (the last two at a hefty price off eBay, mind). And just as I'd done that, Wizard published a new one...
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Post by babbagefart on Jan 12, 2019 7:50:36 GMT
Between my brother and myself we pretty much had them all up until around Legend of Zagor (think we were missing only Island of the Lizard King and Chasms of Malice - two books I read for the first time just a few months ago). By the time FF#54 was released we'd kind of moved on to other things although I do believe that particular book made the whole concept of gamebooks seem really old and tired. Then I gave them all away for free around 1994/95. Hindsight and regret go hand in hand. Nice being able to read them all for free online now, although I've had to buy books from #61 onward.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Jan 19, 2019 11:20:19 GMT
Had the lot with the exceptions of AFF Allansia, FF55, FF56, all those called ‘Miscellaneous Titles‘ in the Wikipedia entry [Tasks of Tantalon etc] and I only had the Trolltooth Wars of all the novels. Christmas and birthdays usually saw me get some new books, and pocket money and holiday money got spent in WH Smiths. SO glad they didn’t get chucked or given away like you hear happens to other people’s collections.
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Post by Pete on Mar 14, 2019 9:01:14 GMT
I've been a fan from the start. My first one, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, is not labelled as "Fighting Fantasy 1" but "a Fighting Fantasy Gamebook". I snapped up the first editions of all the earlier ones, and I had just decided to stop (as I was hardly reading them any more) when a friend convinced me to buy 24, promising that it was the best one yet. Very grateful to him for that.
At school we had a once-a-week class called USSR (Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading) where everyone had to sit silently and read a book for an hour, so I took them all along and shared them out. It proved that what people say is true: gamebooks are good for getting boys to read books.
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