Timewaster's Guide Archive

Departments => Books => Topic started by: Eerongal on August 31, 2010, 08:26:59 PM

Title: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: Eerongal on August 31, 2010, 08:26:59 PM
Anyone ever read these as a kid? When I was young, i used to utterly devour them. Between the ages of about 8 and 14 or so, i would read any I could get my hands on.

Me and a friend were recently talking about them, and that got me thinking, does anyone know if they make adult versions of these styles of books? Not "adult" like erotica versions, but just like more complex stories, maybe spanning several books or something. The old ones i used to read are nice and all, but the stories were.....well...fairly simple.

I found one called "You Are a Miserable Excuse for a Hero!" by Bob Powers, but couldn't find too terribly many more. Anyone else have ideas or suggestions?

Other than that, anyone else have any fun memories of these books?
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: Shi on September 01, 2010, 06:17:07 AM
Ah, choose you're own adventure. I've read a few, we owned two or three when I was growing. I actually didn't like them all that much, because no matter what I did I always got killed. Then when I would go back to redo them I would get killed again. Even in the one where you become an olympic athlete, I got shot in the end (and died, of course). Sad times.

Dude though, I would love to read an adult CYOA! That's what playing Heavy Rain is like. Mmmm.
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: clockworkfish on September 01, 2010, 06:45:49 AM
You really need to check out Fabled Lands.  They're like Choose Your Own Adventure, but span multiple books and are really interactive!  This link has a free program that took all the books and put them together, which also makes sure you can't cheat and takes care of record keeping.  It's really cool!

http://flapp.sourceforge.net/
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: Silk on September 01, 2010, 06:53:25 AM
I'd be astonished if there weren't any adult CYOA books out there, but alas, I've never encountered them.

I wasn't hugely into them as a kid, but I did read quite a few of the Goosebumps ones. Fun times.
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: guessingo on September 01, 2010, 12:42:42 PM
i read a few of these as a kid. I think they faded when vidoe game rpgs got more and more popular.
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: Eerongal on September 01, 2010, 12:53:01 PM
Ah, choose you're own adventure. I've read a few, we owned two or three when I was growing. I actually didn't like them all that much, because no matter what I did I always got killed. Then when I would go back to redo them I would get killed again. Even in the one where you become an olympic athlete, I got shot in the end (and died, of course). Sad times.

Dude though, I would love to read an adult CYOA! That's what playing Heavy Rain is like. Mmmm.

heh, but dying is part of the fun!

Also, did anyone else think it a little morbid that in a children's books, like 9 out of 10 choices led to "SORRY! You die a horrible death, all because of your crappy choice!!"
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: guessingo on September 02, 2010, 12:59:47 PM
choose your own adventure books might work as a web book or web comic better than as a book.
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: sortitus on September 02, 2010, 02:29:13 PM
choose your own adventure books might work as a web book or web comic better than as a book.
There's MS Paint Adventures (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/), but it only has one possibility explored. The audience decides what happens next, and then the artist draws it.
Title: Re: Choose your own adventure books! (i.e. interactive fiction)
Post by: Eerongal on September 02, 2010, 02:50:55 PM
choose your own adventure books might work as a web book or web comic better than as a book.
There's MS Paint Adventures (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/), but it only has one possibility explored. The audience decides what happens next, and then the artist draws it.

heh....that actually reminds me. I was doing something like that on these forums a while back.....then i completely forgot about it... I wonder what ever happened to that....

I also did it on some forums i used to visit, but they went belly up. That one got farther than the one here, IIRC.

Edit:

A little bit of detectivery and here it is! (http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?topic=6503.0)

It would seem i got distracted by coordinating my anniversary, and then completely forgot after that. At least that's what my post leads me to believe. I could probably start that up again, if there's enough interest in it.