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Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:33 pm
by 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!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 12:59 pm
by 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.
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:11 pm
by 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

Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:18 pm
by 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!
beowuuf wrote:I can still probably name all 48 spells, and components

Impressive! You must have been a fan!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 1:25 pm
by 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!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 3:27 pm
by Zyx
Never thought of writing your own FF books Beo?
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:30 pm
by 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

Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:07 pm
by Gambit37
I think Beo and I are the same person!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:23 pm
by 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!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2010 4:01 pm
by 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.
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 8:37 pm
by linflas
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2010 11:17 pm
by 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....

Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:49 am
by linflas
w00t !!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:02 pm
by 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!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 2:30 pm
by 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.
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:12 pm
by linflas
looks like they plan to make a HOH TV show where runners are given orders (by people votes i can imagine)..
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:24 am
by Gambit37
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:39 pm
by linflas
how funny ! i hope he won't make another "one-unique-possible-way" book like most of his creations...

Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:56 pm
by Gambit37
It's the 30th anniversary this year of WOFM, so maybe he's revisiting that.... again!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:26 am
by beowuuf
I actually liked some of the better one true path games, which I'm sure he had a big hand in!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:42 pm
by linflas
Here are fresh news on some interesting iOs game contest :
http://spong.com/press_release/26304/Ma ... Fantasy-IP
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:38 am
by linflas
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:53 am
by beowuuf
That might indeed be cool!
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 9:36 pm
by 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/
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2012 2:08 pm
by 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
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:35 pm
by linflas
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 5:25 pm
by 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
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:32 pm
by linflas
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 12:35 am
by linflas
Uh oh... new Livingstone coming soon...
http://www.fightingfantasy.com/
Re: Closing an educational gap - Ian Livingstone et al.
Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 1:10 am
by 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....?