vagsancho
Knight
Posts: 809
Favourite Gamebook Series: CRYPT OF THE SORCERER
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Post by vagsancho on Jul 23, 2015 14:25:59 GMT
Fantastic book. I prefer the amazing Razaak to Zagor however.
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Post by hynreck on Jul 23, 2015 14:47:35 GMT
But is it magic?
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Post by The Count on Dec 18, 2020 4:21:06 GMT
I love that the Scholastic reprint has the magnificent original art which is the best part of the book.
As a stand alone, this would be one of Ians better efforts. As a sequel to Firetop, it loses something - probably the whimsy of Steve. Being linear and reasonably difficult is fine. No maze is ok. The pre mountain bit however seems to be trying to make up for no action from Jackson, and it is the weakest part of the book as it is once again Ian being a terrible tour guide round the ram everything into one place geography of his fantasy efforts as if you are on a big red bus going round that London loop of Waterloo - Parliament Square - Buckingham Palace - St James's Park / Palace, Trafalgar Square - Parliament Square - Waterloo which no one in their right mind would pay £25 per head for as you can do it for a fiver and see more.
I do like it though.
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Post by tyrion on Dec 24, 2020 20:33:36 GMT
We also learn from the scholastic version that the ferryman is called terry.
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Post by The Count on Apr 24, 2021 19:04:13 GMT
I finally managed to pick up my copy of he reissue now that lockdown has eased and it is more enjoyable than I remembered, probably because I can't remember the route off my heart and ended up getting cursed in one playthrough and lost to the doppelganger 3 out of the 5 attempts I made. Nowhere near completing it though.
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Post by Charles X. on Jul 19, 2021 20:16:03 GMT
More linear than the original, and 'feels like a sequel' in the sense of doesn't seem particularly original & doesn't offer new rules. Most people you meet are trying to kill you, and there isn't social interaction even for stores. Possibly that's why the 2nd sequel was so ambitious, I guess.
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Post by Akharis on Mar 22, 2022 11:59:31 GMT
What did "Cachondo" mean? Do you think that's an anagram of something?
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Post by CharlesX on Mar 22, 2022 12:13:56 GMT
What did "Cachondo" mean? Do you think that's an anagram of something? I don't think it means anything, I think IL just chose word "Cachonodo" because he thought it had a cool ring about it. Like "Azang Baza Bang" or whatever it was with the Eye Of The Dragon spell. A lot of FF does derive from known things - Yaztromo came from an American baseball player - but I don't think this is one of those cases. Just a word, like "Abracadabra".
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Post by benjoyce on Apr 26, 2022 11:05:13 GMT
In Spanish, it has two meanings. Being cachondo generally (ser cachondo) is to be a jokester, while in-the-moment being cachondo (estar cachondo) means that you are horny, i.e. sexually aroused. The usage also differs between hispanohablantes on the two sides of the Atlantic.
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IoannesKantakouzenos
Traveller
Being slowly eaten alive by a Ghoul
Posts: 105
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy (Aventuras Fantásticas)
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Post by IoannesKantakouzenos on Jun 6, 2022 12:39:34 GMT
I have to admit: I expected a bit more of it. I was hoping for a big trip down memory lane, finding the exact same corridors after ten years (with some changes, mind you), but you end up revisiting very little of the old tunnels (it was fun to find the skeletons of the five Orcs still arguing about the rat bones at the end of the cauldron and the leather case which once contained "The Giver of Sleep" - even though, in TWoFM you put bow, arrow and leather case in your backpack when found). And of course that, after the river, it's a completely different adventure. It bothers me that there hasn't been an attempt to force the players to use the right golden teeth to fight the right Element: you could throw the teeth with number 27 to fight the first one and find yourself right at the final bout with Zagor.
Meh.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jun 6, 2022 13:24:44 GMT
And of course that, after the river, it's a completely different adventure. My head canon is these new tunnels were dug by the magic tools from Warlock of Firetop Mountain
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IoannesKantakouzenos
Traveller
Being slowly eaten alive by a Ghoul
Posts: 105
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy (Aventuras Fantásticas)
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Post by IoannesKantakouzenos on Jun 6, 2022 13:44:35 GMT
Huh. Never thought about that. But yeah, it makes sense.
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Post by aeris2001x2 on May 1, 2023 7:16:07 GMT
Has none of the joy of the original book, but at least it allowed books 51,52,53,54 and 58 to exist.
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Post by a moderator on May 2, 2023 1:27:06 GMT
Personally, I don't consider helping bring about the writing of Legend of Zagor to be a particularly positive thing.
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roidhun
Wanderer
Ironic, self-deprecating nerd and geek extraordinnaire.
Posts: 78
Favourite Gamebook Series: The Legends of Skyfall (Yes, really!)
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Post by roidhun on Aug 6, 2023 16:52:26 GMT
Hello, all! I'm new here!
Apologies in advance if I'm posting this in the wrong thread.
I've seen several different maps of the Maze of Zagor at it was during The Warlock of Firetop Mountain on the internet, but I've never seen one that had been expanded to show the additional sections that the player character from the first book never discovered, the ones that were finally discovered by the PC in Return.(The upper room reached through the hole in the ceiling of the torture chamber where he finds the sword of Darkblade Skullbiter and the passageways leading from there to the cell where Zoot Zimmer was imprisoned, the additional tunnels further to the east down the far bank of the underground river, etc.).
Does such a map exist anywhere? And if so, can someone point me to it?
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roidhun
Wanderer
Ironic, self-deprecating nerd and geek extraordinnaire.
Posts: 78
Favourite Gamebook Series: The Legends of Skyfall (Yes, really!)
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Post by roidhun on Aug 6, 2023 18:39:10 GMT
I have to admit: I expected a bit more of it. I was hoping for a big trip down memory lane, finding the exact same corridors after ten years (with some changes, mind you), but you end up revisiting very little of the old tunnels (it was fun to find the skeletons of the five Orcs still arguing about the rat bones at the end of the cauldron and the leather case which once contained "The Giver of Sleep" - even though, in TWoFM you put bow, arrow and leather case in your backpack when found). And of course that, after the river, it's a completely different adventure. It bothers me that there hasn't been an attempt to force the players to use the right golden teeth to fight the right Element: you could throw the teeth with number 27 to fight the first one and find yourself right at the final bout with Zagor.
Meh.
Um... I always assumed that the new tunnels on the far side of the river had always been there, further to the east than the ones reached through the boat house, but that they were simply were't seen in WoFM simply because it never occurred to the original PC to row further downstream where he could have found them. And that he never thought to look up at the ceiling of the torture chamber and so never discovered the room with the sword of Darkblade Skullbiter.
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roidhun
Wanderer
Ironic, self-deprecating nerd and geek extraordinnaire.
Posts: 78
Favourite Gamebook Series: The Legends of Skyfall (Yes, really!)
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Post by roidhun on Sept 24, 2023 13:27:41 GMT
Since nobody was able to point me to an expanded map of Firetop Mountain on the net, I decided I'd better have a go at cutting and pasting one together in Microsoft Paint myself! Unzip it at your convenience and let me know what you think! (The long secret passage marked in red is just speculation on my part.) Edit 1: Oops! Made quite a serious error! Fixed it as best I could. Edit 2: I've added a couple of secret rooms in red (which are also just speculation on my part). Edit 3: Some more fine-tuning. Attachments:Firetop Mountain.rar (91.57 KB)
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Post by misomiso on Sept 29, 2023 6:00:45 GMT
Can you post it not as a raw file? ty!
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roidhun
Wanderer
Ironic, self-deprecating nerd and geek extraordinnaire.
Posts: 78
Favourite Gamebook Series: The Legends of Skyfall (Yes, really!)
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Post by roidhun on Oct 5, 2023 0:40:36 GMT
Um, I'm sorry, but I don't actually know what you mean by that.
Edit: I'm afraid the file is too big for me to upload in a non-compressed format, if that's what you mean.
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IoannesKantakouzenos
Traveller
Being slowly eaten alive by a Ghoul
Posts: 105
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy (Aventuras Fantásticas)
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Post by IoannesKantakouzenos on Oct 6, 2023 15:39:29 GMT
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roidhun
Wanderer
Ironic, self-deprecating nerd and geek extraordinnaire.
Posts: 78
Favourite Gamebook Series: The Legends of Skyfall (Yes, really!)
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Post by roidhun on Oct 7, 2023 0:46:27 GMT
Thanks a lot! What compression method did you use?
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IoannesKantakouzenos
Traveller
Being slowly eaten alive by a Ghoul
Posts: 105
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy (Aventuras Fantásticas)
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Post by IoannesKantakouzenos on Oct 11, 2023 13:34:11 GMT
I just saved it as a .PNG file.
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Post by alziel on Dec 18, 2023 14:07:32 GMT
Just finished this. It was enjoyable enough, though there are some really arbitrary and unfair elements here that are cruel, even by Sir Ian's usual, fiendish standards: - The Lizard Men crossbows that have a 4 in 6 chance of an instant death after you pay the Ferryman to cross? OK - this can be totally avoided if you fight the Ferryman instead, but that's not a particularly intuitive option, is it? Why the 4 in 6 chance, though? Why not a Luck (or even Skill) test? - The eyeball eating competition. C'mon! This far through the book and we have a 50% chance of missing a critical item, after being forced to roll a die 20 times (possibly more, if there are ties?). Absolutely nothing gives the player an edge here.... This, I found, was really frustrating - The spike trap, instant death, dead end that also comes towards the end of the book? OK - these aren't that unusual in FF, I suppose, but the nature of this trap means that there's no warning or chance to avoid it at all? I'd have preferred something more obviously final (even if still unfair), such as being trapped by a stone wall at that dead-end and left to starve to death (which I think is something Steve Jackson did at least once) - The Death Lords throwing spheres - even if you have two protective items here (not sure if it's possible to get all three and still be on the right path..), you still have a 2 in 6 chance of instant death here - in the final encounter before meeting Zagor! Frustrating! One thing that I will say, is that this book did force me to re-learn using fractions in mathematics so that I could successfully answer the Inquisitor's age question. Thumbs up for that one! :-) PS: Still, it's a walk in the park compared to Crypt of the Sorcerer and Blood of the Zombies
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