The original publisher and prolific author of Choose Your Own Adventure Books, R. A. Montgomery, has passed away. Here's a detailed bio from the current publisher. (Edward Packard, who came up with the original idea and also wrote many of the books, is still alive).
http://www.cyoa.com/pages/r-a-montgomery-1936-2014
I discovered these books before D&D when my dad brought me home a hardcover copy of Third Planet from Altair (by Packard) from the library.
ReplyDeleteThe CYOA series led to all sorts of goodness in the '80s: Endless Quest, Tolkien/ME Quest, Lone Wolf, Fighting Fantasy, Interplanetary Spy, Time Machine and many others.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Which Way books. This one was pretty scary as a kid: http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=3581
ReplyDeleteZach, it sounds like we read all the same books in the 80s. Did you ever read Way of the Tiger (the ninja books), Grail Quest or (UK) Steve Jackson's Sorcery? Many of the Car Wars books (the other Steve Jackson) were good, too.
ReplyDeleteTony Rowe Car Wars had a narrative side?
ReplyDeleteSJG created a series of "Car Wars Adventure" gamebooks and published them through TSR (strange bedfellows...). They used a simplified version of combat and some were based on earlier scenarios from ADQ magazine and the like. Yes, Car Wars could have a narrative side if you played it in campaign mode and had adventures outside the arena (not that my game group ever did that).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?name=Car+Wars+Adventure+Gamebooks
Tony Rowe I remember seeing the Way of the Tiger books, but I don't think I ever read one, or Grail Quest. I found a few of the Sorcery books used a few years ago but I haven't read them yet. I did read one of the Car Wars books & enjoyed it at the time.
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