Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.

[beowuuf]

joe dever did some combat ones with a basic single player game attached - i only ever got two unmatched pair) from the library. now have all the pdfs!

[oh_brother]

I just discovered that Sorcery! and some FF books have been released for the iPhone!

If I had an iPhone I would definitely check them out. Although presumably that would mean that I could not keep my fingers stuck in numerous pages and I would have to play fairly, which sounds like less fun. For instance having to start at the beginning just because you went down the left corridor instead of the right one? That is fine with a real book, because they expect you just to return to the previous page, but it would be annoying if you did not have that control. And monsters could actually kill you...maybe I will stick with books.

[beowuuf]

OOOOH! Get sorcery! Get it now! But yeah, FF books are very one true path, and you need to play through then alot before you can actually win

I can still probably name all 48 spells, and components

[oh_brother]

Actually I have changed my mind again, and I think the iPhone version will be great. I read some more details - you can save your progress, and possibly flip pages, cool! A good way to get those books I somehow missed as a kid.

Now all I need is an iPhone!

I can still probably name all 48 spells, and components

Impressive! You must have been a fan!

[beowuuf]

I quite liked the books at the time, and it was just a good memory exercise to name the spells, so I keep doing it off and on and refreshing them!

[Zyx]

Never thought of writing your own FF books Beo?

[beowuuf]

Lol, I've thought about and started many things I probably have my first gamebook still buried at home somewhere, typed out on an electric typewiter when I was like 11 or 12, and then written by hand when I was trying to expand it

[Gambit37]

I think Beo and I are the same person!

[Simon]

I've been playing one or two of these on the iphone, they are quite buggy though. Sometimes the options like "Are you carrying a black gem?" won't let you turn to the Yes page when you have it, and stuff like that.

I played through Deathtrap Dungeon, but it's quite ludicrous. The games are not supposed to be about your stats, but I got to a point where my 12 skill (lucky roll) was reduced to 9 by various encounters, and then I had to fight a skill 11 followed by a skill 12 monster immediately afterwards... ridiculous!

The other books are amazing, I am trying to collect the entire set. There is even a set of multiplayer books, for 2 people to play simultaneously!

[oh_brother]

That was the one thing that was bugging me about the books. In pen and paper they know that you are going to play fast and loose with the rules, lots of 12/24/12 characters, and if you die you are not going to close the book and start again. But an electronic version would lose that flexibility. I was hoping the save feature would make up for it somewhat.

[linflas]

Some new fan magazine >>> http://fightingfantazine.bravehost.com/ ... azine.html

[Gambit37]

Oh my goodness, a House of Hell movie is in the works (original Fighting Fantasy book #10 and a personal fave of mine.)
http://www.houseofhellmovie.com/

I'd have been thrilled to have seen this in my youth, but judging from the production values of the website and video, it's gonna be pretty awful. They should probably just leave it well alone....

[linflas]

w00t !!

[beowuuf]

I have a feeling this came up before... I didn't have high hopes for it. Much of the appeal to me of House of Hell was the choices and the strong story flavour. The story itself, if turned into a film that has to rely purely on the narrative, I can't see
being more than derivative of many other fims.

Unlike something like Creature of Havoc, which oozes story potential out of every pore!

[Gambit37]

Aha, you didn't watch the vid If you watch the intro video all the way through, they say they're making a theatrical version for cinema, but also interactive versions -- one for blu-ray, another for the web. And you can win cash for a successful winning adventure!

Creature of Havoc was pure awesomness. Steve Jackson was by far and away a much better game designer than "find-the-object" Livingstone.

[linflas]

looks like they plan to make a HOH TV show where runners are given orders (by people votes i can imagine)..

[Gambit37]

https://twitter.com/#!/ian_livingstone/ ... 4624975873

[linflas]

how funny ! i hope he won't make another "one-unique-possible-way" book like most of his creations...

[Gambit37]

It's the 30th anniversary this year of WOFM, so maybe he's revisiting that.... again!

[beowuuf]

I actually liked some of the better one true path games, which I'm sure he had a big hand in!

[linflas]

Here are fresh news on some interesting iOs game contest : http://spong.com/press_release/26304/Ma ... Fantasy-IP

[linflas]

Something that may interest Beo and roleplayers : http://shop.cubicle7store.com/epages/es ... ts/CB77004

[beowuuf]

That might indeed be cool!

[Gambit37]

Now *that* is a PBP I would be interested in. I always loved the world of Sorcery. Alas, I feel my role-playing days are behind me, but if I could somehow find the time....

Also, Ian Livingstone revealed the name of his new gamebook today. "Blood of the Zombies" -- the title is uninspired, but it actually sounds kinda fun! The blurb seems to have been written by a 10 year old though...
http://fightingfantasy.com/

[linflas]

I found this very short but very fun to play gamebook in PDF format : http://www.arborell.com/anorcsday.pdf
french translation : http://homepage.mac.com/siyanlis/Xhorom ... rcDay2.pdf

[linflas]

More details on iOS Fighting Fantasy games contest : http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news ... llery.html

[Gambit37]

Cool, some interesting conversions there!

There's a very brief interview with Ian Livingstone in today's World @ One radio programme, about 30 years of gamebooks.
Starts at 0:39:08: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dvw74#synopsis

If you can't get iPlayer content in your country, I've recorded the snippet here:
http://matthill.co/f/gamebooks/ff/2012- ... adio-4.mp3

[linflas]

Something that may interest Beo and roleplayers : http://shop.cubicle7store.com/epages/es ... ts/CB77004

Now in stock !

[linflas]

Uh oh... new Livingstone coming soon... http://www.fightingfantasy.com/

[Gambit37]

Ha ha, I love the way you say "Uh oh..."

It seems very silly for them to go and change the cover style for this new anniversary book. In 2009, Wizard re-re-launched the series with a new cover style, so how is this anniversay title supposed to look part of that collection!? Perhaps they will make another version with a series compatible cover style too....?