I saw this in the news today and thought it could make an interesting discussion:
"Do you fight the goblin? Yes - turn to 57. No - turn to 173." Game books such as the Fighting Fantasy series swept Britain like a virus in the Eighties.
Youngsters flicked through swords-and-sorcery tales, dice in hand, usually cheating by holding a few pages back just in case that goblin turned out tougher than it looked.
The books have now had a new lease of life as apps. Classic titles - such as House of Hell - are already hits on iOS and Android, but next month will see the arrival of the big one - Steve Jackson's Sorcery!
Sorcery! was a gigantic, four-book series which included one 800-page tome double the length of most Fighting Fantasy novels - The Crown of Kings.
The app version adds a few of its own new ideas - including a swordfighting system where players battle by slashing at the screen. Its makers hope it brings totally new ideas to the world of "game books".
Steve Jackson's 1983 hit was loosely tied to the main Fighting Fantasy series - which he wrote with videogame legend Iain Livingstone. The book's tongue-tying place names ("The Shamutanti Hills") and strange landscapes were inspired by a trip to Nepal.
The game version adds a 3D map, removes the endless rattle of dice, and, its makers say "extends" scenes. It also adds "new branches, new routes, new traps and puzzles," says Jon Ingold, creative director of Inkle, the Cambridge-based studio adapting the books. Inkle previously produced an acclaimed "game book" of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Jackson himself has worked with the team - which might reassure fans that not too much has been changed. "Fans of the original books will recognise a lot - but they certainly shouldn't feel safe," says Ingold.
"Steve was keen to do something new - to try and make something more "high tech" than a straight digital gamebook. We tossed around ideas with him, and settled on our three key elements - the map, the combat, and the spells," says Ingold.
The app adds a tabletop-style role-playing system for combat and spells, but keeps the images from the book, drawn by cult artist John Blanche, whose work helped shape the Warhammer games published by Games Workshop.
"We're really pleased with what we've ended up with in Sorcery! It's not quite like anything that's come before," says Ingold.
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Island of The Lizard King is used in my classroom frequently...