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Post by The Count on Feb 24, 2021 1:10:54 GMT
I am just about to try another of the newer books. Gates of Death by none other than Charlie Higson. I was surprised that it was the very same Higson which people in the UK will remember from a lot of comedy shows such as The Fast Show. I presume he is doing it as an homage rather than a means to earn money. It will be interesting to see what this book is like, and I hope it is a proper offering to the cannon, and not a parody. He did it to make money. Prepare to be very disappointed by his excremental offering. I'd rather watch and listen to that vapid attention seeking shrieking blubber mound from some crappy reality show for 24 hours than read that tripe ever again.
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Post by sunil on Jun 1, 2021 16:36:50 GMT
I've posted many times in the past year as a "guest", but I confess to being "Sunil", author of "Escape from the Sorcerer" from Fantazine 6.
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Post by Peter on Jun 2, 2021 8:49:03 GMT
Welcome. I'm slowly working my way through the Fantazine adventures, so I will let you know when I get to your one.
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CharlesX
Baron
Posts: 2,184
Member is Online
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 9, 2021 19:57:14 GMT
Hi I was formally known as Simon 030780 (when I posted a couple of messages) after getting interested in this site again I posted many messages I am now known as Charles X. here. I like gamebooks and I like this site. When I was growing up my parents banned me from reading gamebooks usual reasons (not good literature, morally wanting, should be reading the classics).
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 9, 2021 23:09:02 GMT
Hi I was formally known as Simon 030780 (when I posted a couple of messages) after getting interested in this site again I posted many messages I am now known as Charles X. here. I like gamebooks and I like this site. When I was growing up my parents banned me from reading gamebooks usual reasons (not good literature, morally wanting, should be reading the classics). Wow. My mother bought me my first gamebook when I was 8!
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Maior
Squire
Posts: 1
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by Maior on Nov 11, 2021 11:27:22 GMT
Hello I happened across this forum after searching for Fighting Fantasy book rankings, and found Wilf's excellent thread. I decided to join because after a couple of days browsing I could see this was that rare thing - a civil forum with a very easy going atmosphere. Kudos! I am not sure to what extent I will contribute, I am not a super-avid FF gamer but I enjoyed them immensely during my early teens in the mid 80s and I am getting back into them again on account of having introduced my son to them. To my shock and surprise, he likes them - he's not even much of a reader. Normally the only thing that interests him is video games with his friends but so far we've had one stab at City of Thieves which he got right into, and I am slowly building up my collection so we can enjoy more adventures together. Nice to be here
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 11, 2021 12:35:59 GMT
Welcome
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Post by stevendoig on Nov 11, 2021 17:03:48 GMT
Hullo!!
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Post by splendid on Nov 28, 2021 23:42:38 GMT
They tell me that a boy needs a hobby, and for some reason mine has become converting Fighting Fantasy games into playable software form using the Twine interactive fiction tool. This affliction began early this year as an investigation into the claim (variously repeated online) that House Of Hell has but a single path to victory, and one that permits not a single degree of deviation. Obviously the only sensible course of action when faced with such claims is to source a low-quality PDF scan, run it through an OCR converter, copy-paste the garbled results into Twine, fix the copy errors, link together all the pages, and code up a rudimentary combat and inventory system while learning the Twine/Harlowe language along the way.
(I should note here that this project was a purely personal one, and that the resulting mess is not available to play online; I believe Tin Man Games have the license.)
Having demonstrated to my own satisfaction that FF#10 does in fact permit a player more freedom to deviate than one might otherwise expect given the rumours (while still being desperately, sadistically and often hilariously unfair), I went on to repeat the process for Creature Of Havoc, work on which I'd almost entirely completed just in time to suffer a hard-drive failure in which all was lost... including hand-typing all the encrypted sections. This miserable set-back caused me to pause my efforts, and indeed the last six months or so have not seen me undertake any further projects of this kind...
...Until now...
Yes, it seems that, despite it all, I'd rather enjoyed this curious pastime, and so this weekend, I've commenced work on another - I've rather arbitrarily picked FF#11, Talisman Of Death. Unlike the Steve Jackson books, I'm completely unfamiliar with this one going in, but I see it's moderately well-regarded. In fact, I've found myself here in this forum purely from googling "Fighting Fantasy book rankings" - so as to avoid picking something not worthy of the effort required. (It was very nearly Starship Traveller.)
It seems this was always part of the draw of FF for me, as an analytically-minded child of the 80's with an interest in computer programming; not merely playing the books, but also trying to analyse and understand the structures at work beneath. Of course, I didn't have any of the skills required to actually do this effectively, but the knowledge that I might, some day, seemed kind-of intriguing. Am I spoiling my experience of the books, this way? I'm going to say no. I may be appreciating them in a way the authors didn't intend, but I'm appreciating them no less for that.
And I have questions...
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Post by a moderator on Nov 29, 2021 0:00:27 GMT
Welcome to the forum.
Some of us might have answers.
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Post by splendid on Nov 30, 2021 13:53:05 GMT
...Some of us might have answers. So as not to clog up the introductions thread, I've done that over here. It's mostly just cryptic mutterings and musings, though; not anything that demands definitive wisdom.
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Post by scouserob on Mar 2, 2022 1:08:44 GMT
Hi All The first Fighting Fantasy book I read was Deathtrap Dungeon back in the early 80s which was probably the most sought after book in the childrens section of my local library. I was then regularly gifted the early fighting fantasy books as youngster, one at a time, when I visited my Nan.Â
I eventually had 1-24 (without 22,23 for some reason), Clash of the Princes and The Seven Serpents. (Plus the Bloodfued of Althaus.)
Unfortunately this fine collection was unceremoniously car boot sold away when I left for University along with Star Wars figures, and many, many 2000AD issues.Â
Many, many years later and my eldest son has discovered the books and rekindled my love of them as we often adventure through them together.Â
Lockdown gave me the time to begin mapping them out and even learn enough Python to write a game version of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
Favourite Fighting Fantasy so far: Creature of Havoc.Â
(Not actually a scouser.)
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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 Mar 29, 2022 15:52:21 GMT
Hello, my name is Carlos from Portugal (the username doesn't suit it, I know), been a fan of FF since Xmas of 1992 when I received a copy of "Warlock of Firetop Mountain" (in Portuguese, of course); and I didn't rest until I collected all of them - all of those that were edited in Portugal, that is. Now I am trying to get the ones that we didn't get here (some twenty of them).
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Post by a moderator on Mar 29, 2022 16:00:11 GMT
Welcome to the forum, and good luck with the gamebook-hunting.
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Post by adrius on May 6, 2022 1:02:42 GMT
Adrius here First exposed to FF in 2004 when borrowing a classmate's (Caverns of the Snow Witch). Later got my first book (Temple of Terror), and that started it all. Towards the end of 2006, tried writing my own adventures (one was a maze+tower, another a self-insert-in-video-game adventure) but neither really took off. Maybe will reconsider writing a sci-fi episode in the future by taking in some inspiration from some novels and games (...perhaps). Favourite FF was and still is Creature of Havoc.
Other than FF, read some bits and pieces of other series such as revised-edition CYoA, Give Yourself Goosebumps, and the newer Gamebook Adventures. Had read at least one Lone Wolf but didn't have a particularly strong impression of it.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on May 6, 2022 7:51:03 GMT
Welcome Adrius
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Post by paperexplorer on Aug 10, 2022 11:18:50 GMT
I completely missed this thread when I arrived
I'm Steven, from Australia, was a big reader on FF in the 80s and stopped after completing my collection of the original puffin series in the nineties. I hadn't picked up an FF again until very recently having the spark rekindled when the news of the 40th anniversary editions found its way into my Twitter feed.
I had the dream of writing and having my own FF gamebook published as part of the series (didn't we all?). I even wrote to wizard to enquire if they were taking submissions (and to their credit they answered, but said at the time they weren't looking to publish new titles) and ended up writing novels instead (of which I've now published 3 with a fourth coming soon).
I'm in the process now of introducing my kids to FF.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 11, 2022 7:37:37 GMT
Welcome Steven, thanks for joining us.
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Post by Peter on Aug 12, 2022 8:37:27 GMT
Congratulations on your novel-writing.
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Post by andyc279 on Jan 12, 2023 15:17:04 GMT
So I'm Andy from Yorkshire. Huge FF fan first time around (first one I bought was Deathtrap Dungeon followed by Armies of Death which was the newest one at the time) and recently rediscovered them while looking for inspiration for trying to write a Zelda style computer game using RPG Maker. That quickly led to me getting hooked all over again and the game has now become me trying to write an FF book of my own which is...erm, proving to be a long process!
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,458
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jan 12, 2023 17:51:37 GMT
Welcome 🙂
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Post by broadfoot on Jan 16, 2023 13:57:21 GMT
Hello all, I'm a long time fan of FF gamebooks and have recently started putting together my own though it's early days yet. I signed up to get feedback and hopefully promote my work once it's done. I've spent a fair bit of time coming up with what I feel are unique mechanics that work really well in a gamebook format and I'm eager to see what you all think! Thanks for having me
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Post by tyrion on Jan 20, 2023 19:53:31 GMT
Hello all, I'm a long time fan of FF gamebooks and have recently started putting together my own though it's early days yet. I signed up to get feedback and hopefully promote my work once it's done. I've spent a fair bit of time coming up with what I feel are unique mechanics that work really well in a gamebook format and I'm eager to see what you all think! Thanks for having me Welcome! And look forward to seeing your writing.
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Post by kalieum on Jan 21, 2023 15:46:08 GMT
I'm Andrew, I don't remember how I originally got into FF, but at some point at a kid I had a copy of The Seven Serpents and at another point I started actively looking for FF books in libraries/school libraries. Then I finished school and lost my copy of The Seven Serpents somewhere along the way and my interest waned, until around 8 years ago when I came across a collection of ten of the Wizard Books releases and got it on a whim.
Since then I've been keeping an eye out and slowly collecting some, and also reading several playthrough blogs - though not doing much actual playing myself; trying to get through Creature of Havoc ground that to a halt.
One of the blogs I've been reading is Ed Jolley's My Adventures End Here, and that's mentioned an organised playthrough thing here which sounds like exactly the motivation I needed to actually play through my books, so yeah, I'm here for that. And to be honest I'm not likely to be active outside of that, but for the time being at least, hi.
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therealmogwai
Squire
Posts: 1
Favourite Gamebook Series: fighting fantasy, lone wolf, freeway warrior
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Post by therealmogwai on Jul 3, 2023 16:06:20 GMT
Hi. My name is Mark and im a long time lurker on this site who finally decided to take the plunge and sign up. Been a FF fan since the mid 80s and have finally narrow the set down to needing only 3 books.. Siege of sardath, Zagor and portal of evil. My favorite 3 are Dead of Night, Citadel of Chaos and Crimson Tide. thnx for your time
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Post by Pete Byrdie on Jul 5, 2023 8:21:32 GMT
Welcome, Mark. That's a good selection of favourite books. I certainly count Dead of Night and Citadel among my favourites.
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Post by razielis on Aug 1, 2023 17:20:23 GMT
Hello, iam Ales. Very please, i searching answer lot of times, but... Please, is Deathtrap Dungeon (or full Fighting Fantasy) public domain? I creating fan videogame about Deathtrap Dungeon, i want to make this game free, but i don't know how is it with licensing and copyright with DD. I love Ian Livingstone books, Thanks.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Aug 1, 2023 21:35:53 GMT
Hello, iam Ales. Very please, i searching answer lot of times, but... Please, is Deathtrap Dungeon (or full Fighting Fantasy) public domain? I creating fan videogame about Deathtrap Dungeon, i want to make this game free, but i don't know how is it with licensing and copyright with DD. I love Ian Livingstone books, Thanks. Hi Ales, welcome,
Deathtrap Dungeon and Fighting Fantasy in general are definitely not public domain. Control of the copyright remains with Ian Livingstone and Scholastic Books (and Steve Jackson – though presumably he wouldn't care much about Deathtrap Dungeon).
If you release a game for free online, those two or three would be within their rights to enforce copyright and stop you. In theory they could sue you, though this is probably unlikely if you are distributing it for free, you would just get a message telling you to take it down immediately. Ian Livingstone might take it as competition for licensed versions such as this one.
I think your options are: release it anyway and risk the consequences, or ask Ian Livingstone (he's easy enough to contact, e.g. on Twitter) for permission, though he is very likely to say 'no' – unless your game is good enough that he thinks it's worth making official and turning a profit from.
That's as much as I can attempt to help. Please note that none of this is professional legal advice.
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Post by leadsharp on Aug 23, 2023 19:08:03 GMT
Hi I'm lead sharp, I've been reading FF books since 1986 with Trial of the Champions. I bought everything and have most of them. Recently I found one on a train station bookshelf (Deathtrap Dungeon weirdly) and it made me so nostalgic I started playing them again.
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CharlesX
Baron
Posts: 2,184
Member is Online
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 23, 2023 19:10:46 GMT
Hi lead sharp, great to meet you! No relation to FF writer Luke Sharp then?
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