Archive stuff

[Deleted]

Hi
I apologise in advance if I am in the wrong forum & I'm wasting your time.

When I was about 15, (around 1978),I had 2-3 dungeons & dragons books that we really enjoyed. Now I'm not that switched on with these things, but I would really love to get my hands on a couple of these old ones to try to get my husband into them or st least some new ones, in the same style. You know the type something happens and you get certain options to choose from as to what action to take. I can't remember any details about these books, author or the l like.

Can anyone help me at all?

I have one other for you too. In 1994 we had an old Atari, (I think), & we used to play a similar sort of game on this. Now I saw on "The Big Bang" that you can find these old games to play online or somehow at least. Again unfortunately I can't remember anything about the game except the fact that we got stuck on it because we needed "Gordon's Foot" and couldn't find it. Would that be enough of a clue to anyone from those days.

I hope that someone can help me with these 2 things.

Many thanks for any help anyone can give me.
Thanks
Caroline

[Sean Michael Kelly]

Caroline,
I'm not quite sure what you are asking, so maybe a couple questions here. Are you speaking of rule books? Hard back books? Boxed set? Many of these books can be found on eBay, Amazon, used book stores, etc. A little more specific, perhaps we can steer you to some sources.

The second request, I can't help you with unfortunately. I haven't played many video games since we got rid of the Comm64. I've always preferred tabletop. :-)

[Vile Traveller]

Hi Caroline

To start with, you might want to look at the links below which have pictures of the cover of the various D&D rulebooks. That might give you something more to go in.

www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/basic.html
www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/dmg.html
www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/phb.html
www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/monster.html

Hope that helps!

[Deleted]

Between my children and myself, we had some video game activity going on at my house during the original Atari Home Gaming Console days (later renamed the 2600). I must confess your brief description doesn't ring a bell.

It was an adventure game along the lines of D&D? Was the view top down of side scrolling? Do you remember what the controller looked like: stick with one button, flat with a disk and keypad, or four way button with several other buttons?

[derv]

It sounds like you may be describing solo adventures. Tunnels & Trolls is well known for their solos. These are adventures you would read through each encounter and then get to select from a number of choices. These choices would direct you to a new numbered paragraph.

Fighting Fantasy books are similar in this regard and you may want to look into those as well.

Tunnels & Trolls by Flying Buffalo had an old computer game as well. Check it out here: www.flyingbuffalo.com/tandt.htm

[Koren n'Rhys]

Hmm, interesting.

It sounds to me like you mean the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" novels. There was a whole series of those branded for D&D, called the "Endless Quest" series.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Quest

As to the video game, was it an all-text thing? On Big Bang, they played Zork one time.

[owlorbs]

Like Endless Quest, your description does sound like perhaps the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, although those began publication in 1982. rpggeek.com/rpg/413/fighting-fantasy-gamebooks

[Deleted]

Hi
Thanks all.

Yes they were just ordinary paperbacks. The Tunnels & Trolls, Endless Quest and the fighting fantasy books you've mentioned sound like the right thing. I'll checkout the links that you've given me. They don't have to be the original books, they can be something modern but along the same lines, simple to play and understand.
Someone mentioneda Comm64... that's what we had, it's Commodore 64 isn't it? For the life of me though, that's ALL I can remember. It was a game along the same lines as the books above and like I say, we got stuck because of "Gordon's foot". It was the big bang theory where I heard that you can get hold of some of these old games. Whether you play them online or what I have no idea.
Sorry I'm not helping much.
Thanks x

[Deleted]

Sorry one more thing, I don't want the rule books I don't think, unless you need one of them to understand how to play the game, cos I definitely DON'T remember how to, ha ha, what a surprise there!

[kesher]

It seems like the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks would fit what you're looking for. Some titles are currently being published, and you can always pick them up inexpensively on eBay or Amazon. The authors are Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

[kslacker]

Speaking of gamebooks, there's some decent selections available for smartphones/tablets now. I picked up a couple from Tin Man Games (one of them was free) and enjoyed them while taking transit. It's a good use of the technology (and some of the Fighting Fantasy works are being re-released in this format).

[DungeonDevil]

In addition to the Endless Quest (D&D) gamebooks, there are Fighting Fantasy books (though most are not available in the US, but in the UK, and other commonwealth countries).

You may also like the series known as Lone Wolf which are fun and have D&D-ish mechanics like dice throws to make the action a bit more exciting. They are available for free here, and if you want hard-copies they can be acquired quite easily online.

[scottenkainen]

Had the computer in question stayed an Atari, it would have been easier to narrow down from a small list of D&D-like games available, but by the time of the Commodore there was already an explosion of computer RPGs. I remember many, many hours spent flipping floppy disks to play Pool of Radiance.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[owlorbs]

I think the video game you are thinking of is Finder's Keepers for C64 published in 1985. You can probably play it on your current computer with an emulator.

[DungeonDevil]

gamebooks.org/