Choose Your Own Adventure books - RIP RA Montgomery

[benji2]

Apparently one of the two major driving forces behind these books, RA Montgomery, passed away last weekend aged 78. Condolences first to his family.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/11/15/choose-your-own-adventure-author-ra-montgomery-dead-78

http://www.cyoa.com/

Does anyone here remember these books as fondly as I do? Loved reading these book at primary school, and having them read to us, where we as a class would take a vote on which decision to make. I started a collection on my 10th birthday which grew to over 100, and I still have.

P.S. struggling to classify these books - are they Games, Books, Entertainment? That's what made them so unique I guess.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

I also remember some Dungeons and Dragons-ish ones where as well as making choices you would roll dice etc to see what happened next.

 

[benji2]

Remember those too - they had the green spines, Forgotten Realms weren't they? The CYOA series spawned so many spinoffs and rivals during the 80s.

 

[Xtreme]

Those books were awesome, there was a vampire based book that gave me the creeps... especially when one of the decisions was whether or not to climb up the castle wall, which I did and was greeted with a lot of spiders and falling to my death.

 

[benji2]

Those books were awesome, there was a vampire based book that gave me the creeps... especially when one of the decisions was whether or not to climb up the castle wall, which I did and was greeted with a lot of spiders and falling to my death.

Vampire Express - a classic...

Edit: just dug it out, you can also get zombified, crushed in a room, and turned into a vampire, along with all the good endings. Good times

 

[Righteo]

The RL Stein Goosebumps choose your own adventure (or grisly death) books probably owe a fair bit to this guy, I loved those so much.

 

[FootyJunkie]

Could always connect them together if you were able to write a "bridging" story between all the endings of one book to connect with the begining of another.

 

[TheGhostOfJohnBelushi]

Remember those too - they had the green spines, Forgotten Realms weren't they? The CYOA series spawned so many spinoffs and rivals during the 80s.

I don't know if you're thinking of Fighting Fantasy. I remember those being amazingly epic. Much heavier and involved that CYOA.

 

[Tasmaniac]

I don't know if you're thinking of Fighting Fantasy. I remember those being amazingly epic. Much heavier and involved that CYOA.

I used to like the FF books.

A different series called Grail Quest was my preferred.

Got me onto D&D.

What used to annoy me about some of these style of books is how quick and arbitrary death can be, i.e. You're at a junction of a corridor, you can go left or right, no indication of problems either way, you choose one path, and suddenly the roof falls in and you're dead, or you're attacked by a monster without a chance of fighting back and dead. Back to the start.

Still, they were good fun.

 

[benji2]

"I don't know if you're thinking of Fighting Fantasy. I remember those being amazingly epic. Much heavier and involved that CYOA."

I used to like the FF books.

A different series called Grail Quest was my preferred.

Got me onto D&D.

What used to annoy me about some of these style of books is how quick and arbitrary death can be, i.e. You're at a junction of a corridor, you can go left or right, no indication of problems either way, you choose one path, and suddenly the roof falls in and you're dead, or you're attacked by a monster without a chance of fighting back and dead. Back to the start.

Still, they were good fun.

I think I was referring to Fighting Fantasy, thanks.

You're right about the arbitrary deaths - or worse arbitrary deaths either way. I think RA Montgomery was particularly bad for that, and TBH I preferred Edward Packard's books for that reason.

But Montgomery was the father of these type of books and he will be missed.

 

[MarcusP2]

There was also Lone Wolf, the best of the gamebooks for my money. These books are what first got me into reading.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

I also remember some Dungeons and Dragons-ish ones where as well as making choices you would roll dice etc to see what happened next.

Hell yeah! Found a copy of Deathtrap Dungeon in a Salvos shop a few years back, took me right back to being in primary school.

Those books were just a more violent version of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, with fantastic illustrations to match.

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Hell yeah! Found a copy of Deathtrap Dungeon in a Salvos shop a few years back, took me right back to being in primary school.

It's so long ago I can't even remember exactly but I think I had that one.

I remember once trying to map out the book on paper to find the way through, don't think I ever finished it.

 

[Tasmaniac]

Yep, I had Deathtrap Dungeon too.

There ended up being so many FF books I dropped off.

I had most of the Lone Wolf books too. Good fun.

 

[MarcusP2]

Yep, I had Deathtrap Dungeon too.

There ended up being so many FF books I dropped off.

I had most of the Lone Wolf books too. Good fun.

Replace had with have.

Yeah I'm cool.

Also Deathtrap Dungeon is renowned for being stupidly difficult so no surprise Illinois Nazi never finished it. Ian Livingstone was the most hated of authors.