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Post by CharlesX on Aug 11, 2021 20:14:45 GMT
Any fans of Endless Quest here? I very nearly put Endless Quest as my favourite gameboook series. The series is variable, and can have poor writing, but at its best it is atmospheric and has good artwork and storytelling. My favourite 3 Endless Quest are Light On Quests Mountain, Spell Of The Winter Wizard and Circus Of Fear. Coincidentally, Greatest Show In The Galaxy is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories; there is something about circuses and clowns which makes for good SF & Fantasy.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Aug 12, 2021 10:07:09 GMT
Yes, I'm a big fan of Endless Quest though I've pretty much given up on completing my collection: I'm missing 5 of the original series (including the ultra-rare Tarzan and the Tower of Diamonds), all of which are pretty expensive on eBay. Of the 90s revamp, I'm also missing 5 (perhaps 6 but I don't think The Test was ever actually published), and again they're all fairly pricey, plus I'm less a fan of the batch as they were overly-wordy. I only have 1 of the recent Matt Forbeck books - I should really get the rest before prices shoot up!
I feel the books on average are pretty well written - a lot of the authors were novelists for TSR so they can certainly write (there is though something of a connection to FF - Anne Brown who wrote Bigby's Curse is none other than Keith Martin/ Carl Sargent using yet another pseudonym - there are certain similarities to Vault of the Vampire and Legend of Zagor in the book). The series also has a more "pick up and play" vibe than FF as it doesn't require dice or note taking. Of course, the inability to resolve combat was often overcome by casting you as a child who had to avoid combat as much as possible which in turn could sometimes lead the books to being somewhat schmaltzy, but I think this criticism is somewhat exaggerated amongst gamebook fans. Sometimes the books could be a bit linear too or suffer from "Do you really want to keep going or give up?" choices (as mentioned in another topic recently, The Endless Catacombs is particularly bad for this).
I agree with you about Spell of the Winter Wizard being one of the best - there's so much variety and quirkiness in that one. Other favourites of mine would be Tarzan and the Well of Slaves which is really well written and has lots of different branches and Conan and the Prophecy which is basically a collection of fun mini gamebooks. Castle of the Undead is very creepy. Most of Rose Estes' books are solid (one exception - I can't get into Hero of Washington Square at all but that's mostly due to it being written in first person than it being bad per se though not a huge fan of the whole "kids foiling spies" genre anyway).
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Post by a moderator on Aug 12, 2021 14:38:04 GMT
Endless Quest is a gamebook series, so discussion of it belongs in the gamebook section.
The series never really grabbed me, though The Endless Catacombs did have one compelling image that inspired an element of Return to the Icefinger Mountains. I've picked up a few EQs in charity shops over the years, and last year I found an error in Hero of Washington Square that's not listed at gamebooks.org - there's no way of getting to page 61 (which is the only one from which you can get to pages 28-29).
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 12, 2021 15:52:30 GMT
Endless Quest is a gamebook series, so discussion of it belongs in the gamebook section. Thank you, who ever moved my post into the correct section. My logic was this section was for minor\miscellaneous series, not bigger ones. I've always been congenitally below-average at knowing which section to post in. Grateful I didn't get 'the Champskees treatment' (Vault Of The Vampire thread).
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 12, 2022 11:55:14 GMT
Surprised there has not been more activity on this thread - I say it deserves a revisit. I thought illustrations in Endless Quest were often high-quality, not only well-drawn but sharp and powerful, the gameplay could be action-packed (in spite of one in every few being below-average or bad), with some emphasis on building a solo RPG world in comparison to Choose Your Own Adventure, which could be inane and prosaic. That is in spite of the limitation posed by never rolling dice or using chance of any kind - something Virtual Reality gamebooks later did even better at. These days the gamebook market, such as it is, is slightly more one where chance rolls is the norm, but I personally have a strong affection for gamebooks where you do not have to determine anything by chance (but obviously, so long as they're good).
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