It's always gratifying to get a review for one of my books, doubly so when the reviewer mostly liked it. Here's one for Down Among the Dead Men, the first book I wrote in the Virtual Reality series, that uses it as a design inspiration for Twine games. As James (the reviewer) points out, "Virtual Reality" was just an empty marketing title, which is why I changed the name to Critical IF when I relaunched the series.
If you just want a playthrough, there's a good one right here. (I'm "a fine old man", apparently -- thanks for those kind words, Jueri!) And below the astute, erudite and relatively youthful Mr H J Doom delivers his verdict on another Critical IF book, Heart of Ice.
While we're on the subject of old gamebooks, somebody said to me at Fighting Fantasy Fest that he thought you could only win in my 40-year-old gamebook The Temple of Flame by diving off the walkway into the shaft. I don't believe I'd have written an unbeatable path through the book, but it's a long time ago now and I might be wrong. Those who have played it more recently than 1984 may be able to shed some light on this?
And talking of FFF 5, if you weren't able to attend here's my and Jamie's talk along with discussion panels from later in the day:
That was a quality review of an excellent title. As I say in his comments, I never even SAW a Virtual Reality book in the world, nor heard of them until the 2000s. I have the VR copy, and I had the app version as well. The skill/codeword system works well, and lets you progress a bit further even if you don't have the optimal answer... but you probably aren't going to complete the book.
ReplyDeleteWhich is great! I managed to complete Down Among The Dead Men multiple times, lots of great encounters. I don't think I've managed it in Necklace of Skulls though.
You're getting me worried now, James. Is Necklace that difficult? If only I'd kept the flowcharts!
DeleteNah, I've only played it a few times. "Once Upon A Time In Arabia" I've played LOADS (enough to have dreams about the keyword MORDANT that I never had). I've died a few times in Necklace (and got better), and died other times. I *think* I got an ending once but not the BEST ending. I need to go back to it.
DeleteI also need to have a THIRD go at Heart of Ice, (either the best or second-best gamebook ever). The first go? Dead in 3 paragraphs. The second go I did a LOT better!).
Dead in three paras! That's impressive, James.
Delete(I need to ask: what's the other gamebook that's neck & neck with Heart of Ice?)
Yeah, I was impressed too. "Life's Lottery" by Kim Newman, apparently. I own it, but haven't opened it yet as I'm VERY slow. Apparently you can read it like a gamebook OR like a novel, and it makes sense too.
DeleteI've never read it, but I remember a review at the time says it gets more perfunctory towards the end as the story branches out and out, forcing Kim Newman to wrap up each branch in just a few paras. On the other hand, maybe he's also making a comment there on how life seems to speed by as you get older. I also liked the idea that the first choice you have to make in the book is whether your favourite U.N.C.L.E. agent is Ilya or Napoleon Solo.
DeleteThanks for posting the FFF5 discussion, Dave. You were both as entertaining as ever. Jamie's comment about writing whilst tipsy in the early hours resonated. I'm sure most of us will have scribbled down what we thought was a brilliant comedy line, or even the answer to the life, the universe and everything, only to wake up the next morning to undecipherable gibberish.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the video!!! I couldn't attend it and now I can watch it from my Chesterfield ! Cool!!! 😊😊😊🥰
ReplyDeleteDid you see the interview we made? I hope you (will) enjoy(ed) it! 😊😊😊😊 And once again thank you for the scoop about Vampire 's lair ! 😊😊😊
I have just found it, Gil. Great to see you there and I hope you got back home without encountering any toothpaste tubes of British cheese!
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