What were those old books with choices called?

the purple tin

The ones where you didn't read them straight through. You had to choose different options all through the book and turn to a certain page number. If you made the wrong choice you would be killed, if you got it right you would get to the end of the story.
They were set in loads of timezones like the wild west and medieval England etc. I used to love them, did anyone else read them?

SpodoKamodo

Think they were called fighting fantasy books.

Bob the Seducer

Choose Your Own Adventure was one of the brands they were released under.

http://superduper.shapesofsweetness.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/cyoa022.jpg

the purple tin

Bob the Seducer wrote: »

Choose Your Own Adventure was one of the brands they were released under.

http://superduper.shapesofsweetness.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/cyoa022.jpg

Ah yes thats the ticket Bob.
They were fantastic.

The Big Red Button

Oh wow, I used to love those!

I think for some of them, you had to use a dice while playing, and that determined your "luck" points. And there were points for health and stamina etc as well.

And they used to have lots of ethical/moral dilemmas, and you'd usually be rewarded for doing the "right" thing, but then other times you'd end up dead because of it!

They were great because you could do the same book several times and end up with a completely different storyline each time!

Jackobyte

I remember Goosebumps had one of these. They are class.

kfallon

Could you send away for them with tokens from cereals or something??? I remember having quite a few but I know they weren't bought!

Vaguely remember having a kinda Robin Hood one and one from medieval times also

the purple tin

kfallon wrote: »

Could you send away for them with tokens from cereals or something??? I remember having quite a few but I know they weren't bought!

Vaguely remember having a kinda Robin Hood one and one from medieval times also

I think Weetabix did that for a while alright.
I used to borrow them from the school library.

kfallon

Ah yes it was Weetabix, I remember now, used to read them sitting on the 'throne' after the weetabix had kicked in. Nothing like turning to page 67 cos I wanted to go left at the crossroad while pushing out a big 'un on the bog.

During those weetabix you could have set your watch by my arse!

JohnDee

I used to devour these books

steve Jackson and ian livingston wrote the best ones in my mind, Deathtrap Dungeon,Citidel of Chaos,House of Hell etc.

Lone Wolf series by joe Dever were also good but too easy to finish.

I'm just after finding this thread after finally finding out what these books were called after more than twenty years of wondering!

Weetabix did a promotion of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books in the eighties and one of the books was called "The Horror of High Ridge". I remember reading it when quite young and it was quite scary and grisly. I'm off to try and buy it somewhere...thank god for the internet!

Lynnsie

Deleted User wrote: »

Weetabix did a promotion of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books in the eighties and one of the books was called "The Horror of High Ridge". I remember reading it when quite young and it was quite scary and grisly. I'm off to try and buy it somewhere...thank god for the internet!

I loved that one! Wasn't that the one with the Indian ghosts? I vaguely remember that I always seemed to end up being killed by a tomahawk

Miss Lala

Miss Lala wrote: »

I loved that one! Wasn't that the one with the Indian ghosts? I vaguely remember that I always seemed to end up being killed by a tomahawk

Yeah that's the one! I was always getting butchered no matter what. I had another one too which I don't remember as much....I think it was "Mountain Survival" but can't be sure.

Lynnsie

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah that's the one! I was always getting butchered no matter what. I had another one too which I don't remember as much....I think it was "Mountain Survival" but can't be sure.

Yeah it was called "Mountain Survival", I don't think it was as good the Horror of High Ridge though. I still know the names because the books are still in my old room and now my nieces and nephews read them. They keep getting killed by tomahawks too.

Miss Lala

Miss Lala wrote: »

Yeah it was called "Mountain Survival", I don't think it was as good the Horror of High Ridge though. I still know the names because the books are still in my old room and now my nieces and nephews read them. They keep getting killed by tomahawks too.

The Horror of High Ridge sticks in my memory because I think it traumatised me! Just after buying a copy on Amazon UK for a fiver including postage! This time I'm going to solve the mystery and not get scalped!

shinikins

They were just the best! I used to try to beat the book, spent hours flicking back and forth through the different scenarios to see which one would end up with me winning! usually failed though, and that damned Indian Spirit/maze monster/wizard killed me lol

The horror! Crikey I was only around 10 when I was subjected to this stuff! And they give out about video games these days.

bullets

There is a retro website called home of the underdog
that offers free dowloands for games/books/texts etc
someplace on the site you can download ebook versions
of some of the choose your own adventure books although
its been years since I've been on the site:

http://www.hotud.org/rpg/tag/subgenre/Choose+Your+Own+Adventure/criteria:3/


I had loads of the books.
The actual "Choose your own adventure" Brand was crap
compared to the other books at the time. When browsing
2nd hand bookstores as a kid and looking for books like
this, that brand always had the most on the shelf with other brands of the same type of book being more rare.

There was protues a bi-monthly magazine in the style of RPG choose your own adventure which were tough.

There was also Novels big fat books that had a re-occuring character called Lone Wolf some barbarian/ranger/warrior character spanning several books. The story alone as a young teenager was awesome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf_%28gamebooks%29
Web versions/pdf's available here:
http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books

There was some sci-fi time travel series aswell which were
great with fantastic drawings in them.

~B

bonerm

Those CYOA books certainly had some odd writing in them. I think the weirdest way I was ever killed in one was "trampled to death by soccer hooligans at a match in the Maracana stadium Rio"

I've always wanted to pick whatever that ^^ book was up again so I could show it to people.

tommyboy2222

LOL Did ye keep your fingers stuck in the the page where you made your choice so you could go back if you were killed ??

I did !

bonerm

I defo remember having this one. Not a CYOA book but had the same method.

http://indianajones.wikia.com/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_the_Cup_of_the_Vampire

IvyTheTerrible

Deleted User wrote: »

The horror! Crikey I was only around 10 when I was subjected to this stuff! And they give out about video games these days.

Ooh I remember this! I think I had nightmares about those pictures but I loved that book and the crazy Indian one as well!

Aglomerado

I remember this too, class! My brother and I had this one plus the crazy Indian one, Mountain Survival was by far my favourite. I imagine they're in my parents' attic still...

briany

There's two of those books of which the OP speaks upstairs on the bookshelf. There's a picture of a lion-like creature on the cover of one, only it has much sharper teeth and red eyes.

scopper

I remember one where you had to break into a factory and I think steal a robot. I remember at least one pic where you are overlooking the factory and can choose how to break in. Would love to find it again. Wonder why it is still so vivid!

ynul31f47k6b59

tommyboy2222 wrote: »

LOL Did ye keep your fingers stuck in the the page where you made your choice so you could go back if you were killed ??

I did !

I always did that

The main ones I remember were a miniature series, included in Dick Turtle lucky bags. Instead of Indiana Jones, these were about a hero called Mississippi Smith. My favourite one involved some ancient temple and diamonds, I'd love to find one or two again!

Archeron

This thread made me go and find my prized set of 4 Steve Jackons

The Shamutanti Hills,
Kare, Cityport of traps
The Seven Serpents,
The Crown of Kings

Looks like thats Sunday taken up!

Ponster

Deleted User wrote: »

The Horror of High Ridge sticks in my memory because I think it traumatised me!

It's been over 20 yezars since I last read that book and it still sticks in my memory.
There was one ending where I ended up tied to a stake while a crazy ghost cowboys approched me with a red-hot poker to gouge my eyes out...

magnus500

Joe dever wrote all the lone wolfs one, they were ace! I'm looking for numbers 21 to 30 if anyone has and isn't using them. Steve jackson and ian livingstone wrote all the fighting fantasy books, i think the robot one is Robot Commando.

Thargor

Deleted User wrote: »

The horror! Crikey I was only around 10 when I was subjected to this stuff! And they give out about video games these days.

Which one is that does anyone know? I remembered it the minute I saw the first pic.

IIRC it's "The Horror of High Ridge".

branie2

Choose your own adventure

Thargor

Deleted User wrote: »

IIRC it's "The Horror of High Ridge".

Thats it thanks, I got such rush of nostalgia when I saw that pic of the 3 kids getting stabbed, apparently that was an abrupt "Ghostly knives appear and bury themselves in your backs" ending

Seems that was a bit of a famous one, it got banned in schools etc for being too violent with graphic images.

NewbridgeIR

This was the best (also my first)

Ponster

Thargor wrote: »

Thats it thanks, I got such rush of nostalgia when I saw that pic of the 3 kids getting stabbed, apparently that was an abrupt "Ghostly knives appear and bury themselves in your backs" ending

Just spotted this thread and dug up my own copy. On my first go around I ended up on the "ghostly knives" death. Unsure if I'd leave my child read them at the same age that I did!

Ponster

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

This was the best (also my first)

I had that too. I think that you had to role dice and determine a Stamina and Luck score so it was a very basic RPG-type read.

tommyboy2222

tommyboy2222 wrote: »

LOL Did ye keep your fingers stuck in the the page where you made your choice so you could go back if you were killed ??

I did !

There was a clip in the Simpsons of Homer doing this. I can't find it now.

ShooterSF

Tin man games made a few FF books into highly rated polished apps recently if anyone misses that fix

goose2005

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebook is a very good history. They don't seem to have existed much outside the Anglosphere, except for France and (for some reason) Bulgaria.

Trotters

One problemm with those books was, if you made notes in pencil as you went along, of the dice roll etc, then it made the book less usueable afterwards because of the little scribbles in the margin.
I remember making those spinny dice things home-made, a cardboard hexagon on a match stick, to use if we didnt have the proper dice to roll.
We even coloured in the pictures.

delly

Wow, just saw the thread at the top of the new posts and instant nostalgic moment. I recall the above picture too, but my most memorable book was a mad max type of adventure with gunned out armoured cars.

CelticRambler

bullets wrote: »

The actual "Choose your own adventure" Brand was crap
compared to the other books at the time.

My brother used to love them (our Mam probably got loads of them for him through the Weetabix offer) but I thought they were a bit meh (before that was a thing ) so I wrote one myself for him, complete with illustrations!

None of the originals have survived in the family, but my one was found by SonNo.1 in my brother's old bedroom and he got great mileage out of it! Still has it upstairs, to be passed on to someone else. :pac:

darkdubh

I remember 2000AD did this one with Slaine, I was hooked. It was originally a storyline spread over several issues but it was collected in a special edition circa late 80's which I had and spent hours playing .

The Princess Bride

I was going through old books of mine today and found one of the Choose your own adventure books.
From early 80s.

It's funny what you keep from your childhood.

marielille

I think some of the themes were a bit dark as I remember?