Sad they didn’t mention Rayuela (Hopscotch) by Julio Cortázar when talking about multiple-paths literature.
The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
81–90 of 96 posts
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's probably about right. I know there's more games like that as well, I remember seeing a horror game like that on youtube that I forget the name of. Wikipedia just calls it an "adventure game". Feels like there must be a more specific name for the genre, but I don't know what it is.
Visual novel? "Walking simulator" (originally derogatory, but sometimes used descriptively now)?
Visual Novel does sound right, good call.
Walking simulator I've heard applied to a bunch of different kinds of games, unfortunately. Mostly RPGs.
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#83I am too young for the conventional CYOA books, but I still had the opportunity to enjoy modern digital CYOA games by publishers like Choice of Games (Choice of Robots is my favourite), and other indie CYOA games available on the android app store.
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#84I was addicted to this series as a child. It is heartwarming to know that they were largely produced by single fathers. They definitely made a connection with me in my youth. I particularly remember the "Spacecraft 54-40" story, and how it had a thread that could not be reached by conventionally making choices. For me, these stories were durable and engaging. I could read a book more than once because it had lasting…
> It is heartwarming to know that they were largely produced by single fathers.
Leslie Jamison does an incredible job making Packard and Montgomery sound like flawed but fundamentally descent human beings. What a great piece of writing.
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've actually been "playing"/"reading" a lot of them from https://www.choiceofgames.com/ . They also offer a scripting language called "ChoiceScript" that allow anyone to make their own games. I'm sure it's not super popular, but they have their niche audience.
Thanks! I've had the idea of writing a scientific theory in this format, and having a hard time with how I'd do it. maybe choicescript would be helpful in that regard!
That sounds really interesting! Good luck!
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
#39 was right in the heyday of CYOA books. There are split opinions on the original CYOA authors. Pretty much everybody agrees that Edward Packard made very tight and well constructed stories. Many folks hate RA Montgomery's stories because they are weird and meandering, almost psychedelic. Personally that's why I always enjoyed them, even as a kid, but I think I'm in the minority. At any rate I don't think many peop…
I don't know what the deal is with the #39, but it's copyright 2011 and by a different author than most of the originals. The #39 does seem to conflict with the copyright year.
Yeah, some of those books were revised in the 2000s. I think the settings were modernized a little, that kind of think.
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#87It's old but still working. Revealing the anatomy of cyoa books. https://samizdat.co/cyoa/ The flash animations don't work though.
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#88I used to love Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf as a kid. Hypertext (and consequently, epub, etc) is the perfect medium for this. Is there any official ebook version of the original FF books?
Joe Dever has put all of the Lone Wolf and related books online to download for free or play interactively on the website: https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home That's 21 Lone Wolf books and 10 in the New Order books set in the same world, including one only published at the above site.
This is great, thanks! (and thanks Joe!)
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#89Anecdotal, but I visited a second-hand SF bookstore in Stockholm a few months ago and I asked whether he had any CYOA books lying around. The store owner said that whenever he gets a new batch of books in, the CYOA books in that lot are all sold in less than a day.
Re: The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know what the deal is with the #39, but it's copyright 2011 and by a different author than most of the originals. The #39 does seem to conflict with the copyright year.
Yeah, some of those books were revised in the 2000s. I think the settings were modernized a little, that kind of think.
Thanks for the correction!