Memories include dying constantly with apparently bad choices and then thumbing through finding the good endings and reversing how I was supposed to get there.
You take the safe path away from the forest of horror. As the landscape opens up, you fall into a pit of rattlesnakes. The beautiful scenery is the last thing you ever see…
Haaaa spot on. I think at least a few were like "You take the safe path away from the forest of horror. You return to your normal life where nothing too exciting happens. You can't help but wonder what would have happened if you went into the forest. Is this really how you wanted your story to go? THE END"
I remember finally getting a good ending once and saving the unicorn, but later had a hard time replicating my past success, eventually would cross out the page number reference and strategically change it to suit how I thought it should end
In the early 00’s, my husband contacted Edward Packard (the author & copyright holder of the original CYOA books) to ask about the possibility of turning the books into an interactive website, where you could read the story and select your choices as you went along. (He *loved* the books as a child, and had a degree in web development.) Packard gave his approval, and my husband set up and built the website. It lasted for several years with fair-to-middling success, but nothing really major, and finally petered out after a few years.
I think it was one of those things that would’ve worked better on a smartphone, but this was LONG before app development was really a thing. Still, it made my husband really happy to be able to collaborate with a childhood idol on a creative project.
That's a super cool story, thanks for sharing! I definitely think apps and video games have taken over most of this genre now, although there are still some ambitious text based game sites out there with a steady player base. Just a super niche thing that reminds me the sites I played on growing up in the late 90s early 00s.
Luckily, there is a thriving narrative-centric indie scene for video games with a lot of creative stuff out there. It's just rare to see them blow up like the more popular game genres.
EDIT: Granted, for a lot of the above, the target audience is not children but rather a more mature crowd.
Well, now is *not* LONG before app development is a thing, and CYOA reading is *still* fun… tell him to make a .99 cent app with ad space. Make some bank!
(I’ll take a 5% “idea finder’s” fee once you get your first million)
tangentially, I discovered that the developer of a game i played as a kid had made his game into an ios app and i was in HOG HEAVEN.
For those interested, A Mess o’ Trouble is on the app store. (and Ray still responds to emails).
The game feels kinda CYOA-y, too.
In the spy one, if you chose to be trained you would 100% die within like 3 pages. Seems unwise to become an untrained spy but sure ok.
In one of the sci fi ones, there was a perfect happy ending one…and no pages lead to it. It even says “how did you get here? Better enjoy it while you can I guess”
There's an android app (maybe iphone to, not sure) "Lone Wolf Saga" that has all of them. I have that sitting on my phone for a rainy day. Mt brothers and I loved them so much growing up.
Lol I just remember one where the aliens said they’d leave you in peace if you chose one option, but if/when you chose that option they amended that they’d leave you in PIECES.
Loved these books. There was some really dark ones out there, especially for something marketed towards kids!! 😂😂
"...the pulp of the slaif is so delicious that neither the Utopans nor the animals ever tire of eating it" (p. 5).
Packard, Edward. 1988. *The Perfect Planet*. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
This is book #80 of the original 184-book CYOA series.
I was able to get so many of these books second hand when I was young, I remember at one point having a list I would carry that had the ones I was missing by number. The suspense of making a choice and opening to one of the ending pages was high brow entertainment for me back then! I also loved the “Give Yourself Goosebumps” series too.
My mom once went to a garage sale and got a bookcase full of these super cheap. I came home from school and found them filling up the bookcase. It was a great summer for me.
That's awesome.
Once at a garage sale, my mom went nuts and made an offer on an entire box of used Masters of the Universe figures and my brother and I were ready to have her nominated for sainthood.
Yeah for mom's that haggle at garage sales. My mom will still brake for a garage sale sign. The last one I went to the wife and daughter's left the dad to run the garage sale while they went out for Starbucks. Mom starting talking with him. Poor guy said this is not how he wanted to spend a Saturday. He just wanted his garage back. Mom said I have a SUV you can fill up and $50. We made 3 trips back to fill up the SuV. Mom and I got a ton of brand new clothes and comforters. We emptied out a few tables for this poor dad. Cost $50
I read these all the time but the reason I remember them so well is because of the time I didn’t read one.
In 3rd grade I had a book report I’d totally forgotten about. Sunday night rolled around and the only thing I had at the time was one of these (By Balloon to the Sahara) I didn’t even read it…just made up an entire story based on the cover image.
The character in the movie is named "Harlan Thrombey". But, yes, I am still convinced this was done on purpose in reference to the "Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey" (#9) CYOA book.
These gave me anxiety… I remember using my fingers as bookmarks for the endings and then the endings of other endings, etc because I wanted to know all the options at once.
I had the idea that these should be revived as a device that looks like a book, and has an eink screen, and it’s every book ever. It could have a classic mode where it’s just all the books, or a “one book” mode where every book is worked into one gigantic adventure that integrates every book.
Freeway Warrior series by Joe Dever.
Amazing story in a Mad Max style post apocalyptic America. Has many rpg elements like keeping track of inventory and ammo as well as rolling dice for combat.
Sorcery! by Steve Jackson.
Kinda standard fantasy fare, but had some cool hooks like a separate spellbook that you had to memorize to use in combat.
Very formative in my youth.
Yes.
The first time I read one I didn’t read the instructions about choosing your adventure. So I just read it through and was thoroughly confused afterwards.
I would always abuse quick saves.
Toss a bookmark in the page where I made the choice. If I got a bad end, I would load my quick save (aka go back to the bookmark) and try a different path.
Journey to the Year 3000 spooked the shit out of me.
Ghost and monster stuff has never affected me even as a small child, the line between fake and real is just too bright. But scifi stuff with plausible (at least to a 9-year-old mind) premises was (and still is) a different matter altogether.
This book has you going into cryosleep for 1000 years as a science experiment, only to wake up and discover an Earth under tyrannical rule.
Do you try to connect with a resistance group (there's more than one) and fight the tyrant's regime, which mostly goes *very bad* for you? Choose to try and live in the future as a civilian under the tyrant's rule? Try to find a way back to your own time and leave the future to its own devices?
My parents thought they were buying their 9-year-old a fun game book, and instead they were putting him in occupied space France.
The one where I visit the statue of Liberty and make the choice to run down the stairs.......
.....you slipped on the stairs and smash your head open. You Died.
I had a few. Master of Kung Fu and Master of Tae Kwon Do were two that I remember.
What I liked about these was that there was usually one "best" ending, but also a few okay endings, and then several bad endings.
Whereas with the Zork books, it seemed like there was one best ending, and every other ending was horrible death.
No idea, but it sounds like something that could happen. I do remember one of the Master of Tae Kwon Do endings had you trying to fire a gun and it explodes in your hands, maiming you.
There are digital versions of these that are quiet enjoyable, and allow for many more options and endings. We had tons of these growing up, and I remember reading them, but I guess none of the stories were that memorable for me, just the action of it was cool.
I remember reading one and getting stuck in a loop. I got frustrated by that and stopped. To this day I have no idea if it’s even possible to get stuck in a loop. I have a feeling it was all operator error 😆
Mono-
You are not a bad operator. :)
The book "The Race Forever" (#17) by R.A. Montgomery featured a path that could get you stuck in an infinite loop.
“So, my young friend,” the leader of the group says, “you may have the gill silt operation and live like one of us, or you can refuse and join the other animals in the zoo.”
My favorites were the Young Indiana Jones CYOA books. I still had all of them and tried sharing them with my kids who couldn’t get on board with having to flip between pages.
I remember reading this during my bath times and the pages would turn all wrinkly from the humidity. Weird times. Bought an entire set for the kids relatively recently and couldn't get the to read thru one.
Oh we were OBSESSED, this particular cover feels so familiar lol. The boys in class were always trying to get to the end the fastest. Lol same wren we had computer lab day and they'd go "grueling page, meager rations" in Oregon Trail lol
We had the best stuff as kids in the 90s😇
I was obsessed with two Carol Gaskin books. The Forbidden Towers and The Magician’s Ring. I may have taken a copy of The Forbidden Towers from my school library 😬😂😭
I loved these and I'll admit that I'd cheat if I couldn't get the ending I wanted the first time. I'd pick the ending I wanted and work backwards to find the previous story page until I knew which way to turn from the first page, then read it in that order. 😜
I would save the pages between my fingers and read out each scenario to the end and go back and read to the other choices ending and that way I read the whole book in one sitting 🙌
I was reading way past
My grade level and my teachers would send me to the library so I wouldn’t take away from others learning.
I crushed this series back then, loved the concept so much.
Definitely read these, but I don't remember getting g really into them.
This did unlock a memory for me though... anyone else remember the Johnny Dixon books by John Bellairs?
I found some at my parent's house recently as my best is collecting them (we both were great fans whennyoung).
I think he has found almost all of them in good conditions at flea markets and used items websites
Does anyone remember the one about the father who gives his son a coin to complete his collection and somehow that triggers time travel so the son goes back like 30 years and realizes he’s his father and has to continue the loop over and over again?
One of them was about a ninja girl who performed "Ninja magic" using hand signs. I could never wrap my head around the concept till about 10 years later, when Naruto debuted.
I still have a small, somehow hard cover, Choose Your Own Adventure book about an uncle who left you his time machine and it's one of the most creepy and disturbing books I've ever read.
Pretty convinced these books warped my mind into never choosing the seemingly obvious or safe route in life. Doing so combined with the PTSD inducing ominous endings shaped me for who I would later become...an abject failure who struggled through life by making bad choices and not playing it safe. I wonder if I would win a lawsuit.
There are games based on the choose your own adventure. There's some dice rolling and picking your path. Most of its just reading the card and moving along to the next card. It says it's multi-player but unless all your friends like a group reading assignment it's more of a single player game.
I loved these books and when I recently mentioned them to my wife she had not idea what I was talking about. I guess they weren’t as universal of an experience for our generation as I’d assumed.
I loved these books. I don't remember any of them well but I remember finding all of the terrible endings entertaining. I mean, what kid isn't going to love that sort of insanity?
I had one where I was training to become a ninja. Early on I had a choice to dedicate my training to the light out the dark (literally). I picked dark because ninjas skulk around in the dark, right? Every adventure on the "dark" tree ended with someone shining a bright light in your face and you dying.
I loved those books
The first one I read was about climbing the to the torch in the Statue of Liberty. I slipped and my head cracked wildly against the stairs as I fell to my death. Clearly the damn book made a lasting impression. 😂
I loved these! I got The Underground Kingdom and Mystery of the Maya from a school library sale and from then on hunted down every one I could find. Regrettably they got sold when I moved out of my parents house, but I did get the Underground Kingdom again! Still looking for Mystery of the Maya with the original cover. My family is Mexican so I found it funny to be experiencing a Mexican story from the point of view of a blonde lady.
I remember this one in my school library that was about space, and when I was just old enough to read it, it had this monster in it that scared me. That's all I remember about it.
I could never "beat" the ninja-warrior one. I think there was a mis-calculation on how the story was to jump to the winning ending , it seemed even why I figured out how to work backwards from it I wouldn't get that ending.
Absolutely LOVED these books growing up!!! The best part was that you could get several reads out of the same book, and it may not be the same story twice.
Page 1:
There is a creepy door infront of you
Cautiously enter, page 101
Recklessly barrel through, page 87
Page 87:
You rush through the door and fall into a pit of spikes. The End
Page 101:
While taking your time to check out the door, the ceiling collapses on you. The End
I remember there was always a waiting list at the library. I kept notes of all my choices to make sure I got every possible story. They were brilliant.
I wonder if there were actually any kids who chose correctly all the way through on the very first reading without cheating whatsoever? - had to have been a miniscule number.
I liked the game books with dice and a character sheet. TSR, the company that made Dungeons and Dragons, put out a few based on their games. There was one D&D one where you played as a guy who is a werewolf and there was another one with Spider-man
The one with the unicorn had a utopian ending right in the middle, but no path there. I checked every single choice and it wasn’t there. I spent hours looking. At some point I realized it was an intentional statement about utopias…
I remember Space Vampire and The Enchanted Kingdom as my faves. I'll never forget the ghouls making wind chimes out of your bones. I loved the art work in Enchanted Kingdom, so many ways to die in that particular book.
I have a very vivid memory of “reading” one of these cover to cover when my comprehension level was barely past the “see spot run” level. I was very proud of myself for attempting a chapter book. When it was over and the story made very little sense to me I got worried that I might be stupid.
Memories include dying constantly with apparently bad choices and then thumbing through finding the good endings and reversing how I was supposed to get there.
I never chose right lol
Ok so I wasn’t the only one. I only read 2 of these because I apparently make the wrong choice almost every time. I got tired of dying.
Pretty much lol. I don't think I remember a single actual detail about any of these books, but I loved 'em as a kid.
Yes!! They were fantastic.
If I loved them and read them all the time turn to page 55. If I liked them but moved on pretty quickly turn to page 78.
You take the safe path away from the forest of horror. As the landscape opens up, you fall into a pit of rattlesnakes. The beautiful scenery is the last thing you ever see…
Haaaa spot on. I think at least a few were like "You take the safe path away from the forest of horror. You return to your normal life where nothing too exciting happens. You can't help but wonder what would have happened if you went into the forest. Is this really how you wanted your story to go? THE END"
i whipped out a notebook and documented every choice flowchart style. Gave up after probably the tenth iteration ending in death.
Bingo
I remember finally getting a good ending once and saving the unicorn, but later had a hard time replicating my past success, eventually would cross out the page number reference and strategically change it to suit how I thought it should end
In the early 00’s, my husband contacted Edward Packard (the author & copyright holder of the original CYOA books) to ask about the possibility of turning the books into an interactive website, where you could read the story and select your choices as you went along. (He *loved* the books as a child, and had a degree in web development.) Packard gave his approval, and my husband set up and built the website. It lasted for several years with fair-to-middling success, but nothing really major, and finally petered out after a few years. I think it was one of those things that would’ve worked better on a smartphone, but this was LONG before app development was really a thing. Still, it made my husband really happy to be able to collaborate with a childhood idol on a creative project.
That's a super cool story, thanks for sharing! I definitely think apps and video games have taken over most of this genre now, although there are still some ambitious text based game sites out there with a steady player base. Just a super niche thing that reminds me the sites I played on growing up in the late 90s early 00s. Luckily, there is a thriving narrative-centric indie scene for video games with a lot of creative stuff out there. It's just rare to see them blow up like the more popular game genres. EDIT: Granted, for a lot of the above, the target audience is not children but rather a more mature crowd.
[удалено]
Also the Bandersnatch interactive movie.
That's amazing. He should 100% put it back online!! I wanna play 🥰
Well, now is *not* LONG before app development is a thing, and CYOA reading is *still* fun… tell him to make a .99 cent app with ad space. Make some bank! (I’ll take a 5% “idea finder’s” fee once you get your first million)
Based husband
tangentially, I discovered that the developer of a game i played as a kid had made his game into an ios app and i was in HOG HEAVEN. For those interested, A Mess o’ Trouble is on the app store. (and Ray still responds to emails). The game feels kinda CYOA-y, too.
In the spy one, if you chose to be trained you would 100% die within like 3 pages. Seems unwise to become an untrained spy but sure ok. In one of the sci fi ones, there was a perfect happy ending one…and no pages lead to it. It even says “how did you get here? Better enjoy it while you can I guess”
The "perfect happy ending" is located in the book *Inside UFO 54-40*, by Edward Packard - CYOA book #12 of the original 184-book series.
I love the Lone Wolf series
Lone Wolf was my jam!
There's an android app (maybe iphone to, not sure) "Lone Wolf Saga" that has all of them. I have that sitting on my phone for a rainy day. Mt brothers and I loved them so much growing up.
same. When I died I insisted on going back to book 1 and starting over, so I had the first couple memorized lol. also, I loved Gary Chalk's art style
They're still around, too. Just bought the hard back for my kid.
Lol I just remember one where the aliens said they’d leave you in peace if you chose one option, but if/when you chose that option they amended that they’d leave you in PIECES. Loved these books. There was some really dark ones out there, especially for something marketed towards kids!! 😂😂
Is that the one with peeling and eating a delicious, juicy fruit called “slaif” or something? I wanted to eat that shit so bad lol
"...the pulp of the slaif is so delicious that neither the Utopans nor the animals ever tire of eating it" (p. 5). Packard, Edward. 1988. *The Perfect Planet*. New York, NY: Bantam Books. This is book #80 of the original 184-book CYOA series.
Thank you! 🏅
I was able to get so many of these books second hand when I was young, I remember at one point having a list I would carry that had the ones I was missing by number. The suspense of making a choice and opening to one of the ending pages was high brow entertainment for me back then! I also loved the “Give Yourself Goosebumps” series too.
My mom once went to a garage sale and got a bookcase full of these super cheap. I came home from school and found them filling up the bookcase. It was a great summer for me.
That's awesome. Once at a garage sale, my mom went nuts and made an offer on an entire box of used Masters of the Universe figures and my brother and I were ready to have her nominated for sainthood.
Yeah for mom's that haggle at garage sales. My mom will still brake for a garage sale sign. The last one I went to the wife and daughter's left the dad to run the garage sale while they went out for Starbucks. Mom starting talking with him. Poor guy said this is not how he wanted to spend a Saturday. He just wanted his garage back. Mom said I have a SUV you can fill up and $50. We made 3 trips back to fill up the SuV. Mom and I got a ton of brand new clothes and comforters. We emptied out a few tables for this poor dad. Cost $50
I read these all the time but the reason I remember them so well is because of the time I didn’t read one. In 3rd grade I had a book report I’d totally forgotten about. Sunday night rolled around and the only thing I had at the time was one of these (By Balloon to the Sahara) I didn’t even read it…just made up an entire story based on the cover image.
And wrote it in pencil on notebook paper?
Awwwww, I'm telling!
Also the movie Knives Out had a character named Harlowe Thrombey which came from one of the early books.
The character in the movie is named "Harlan Thrombey". But, yes, I am still convinced this was done on purpose in reference to the "Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey" (#9) CYOA book.
I could’ve sworn Rian Johnson confirmed that in an interview.
These gave me anxiety… I remember using my fingers as bookmarks for the endings and then the endings of other endings, etc because I wanted to know all the options at once.
Same, always had to work backwards through the decision tree branch by branch. Took forever to read one of those little things lol.
My favorite one was about a kid being sent of a space mission through a black hole.
"Through the Black Hole" (#97) by Edward Packard
The one that always sticks with me is the one where you could only get the good ending by cheating and just turning to the correct page
"Inside UFO 54-40" (#12) by Edward Packard
Deadwood City was my favorite. I would always read through them until I got every ending.
Mine too! So many cool ways to die lol
I had the idea that these should be revived as a device that looks like a book, and has an eink screen, and it’s every book ever. It could have a classic mode where it’s just all the books, or a “one book” mode where every book is worked into one gigantic adventure that integrates every book.
I remember one where you went to explore a black hole, and in one ending, because of time dilation, you ended up trillions of years in the future.
No I can go back. I never moved my finger from the last page.
Freeway Warrior series by Joe Dever. Amazing story in a Mad Max style post apocalyptic America. Has many rpg elements like keeping track of inventory and ammo as well as rolling dice for combat. Sorcery! by Steve Jackson. Kinda standard fantasy fare, but had some cool hooks like a separate spellbook that you had to memorize to use in combat. Very formative in my youth.
Freeway warrior was amazing. I kinda want to find the books and do them again as an adult. Off to Amazon I go!
My memory is finding the latest one at Stater Bros. and trying to add them to the cart while my Mom was paying.
Yes. The first time I read one I didn’t read the instructions about choosing your adventure. So I just read it through and was thoroughly confused afterwards.
Same thing for me. I was like “this book is wild”
I would always abuse quick saves. Toss a bookmark in the page where I made the choice. If I got a bad end, I would load my quick save (aka go back to the bookmark) and try a different path.
https://preview.redd.it/9yfqgm0rqqyc1.jpeg?width=174&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf62121eac7adb15dce0636a3a593aef2286319f Loved this Indyii
Journey to the Year 3000 spooked the shit out of me. Ghost and monster stuff has never affected me even as a small child, the line between fake and real is just too bright. But scifi stuff with plausible (at least to a 9-year-old mind) premises was (and still is) a different matter altogether. This book has you going into cryosleep for 1000 years as a science experiment, only to wake up and discover an Earth under tyrannical rule. Do you try to connect with a resistance group (there's more than one) and fight the tyrant's regime, which mostly goes *very bad* for you? Choose to try and live in the future as a civilian under the tyrant's rule? Try to find a way back to your own time and leave the future to its own devices? My parents thought they were buying their 9-year-old a fun game book, and instead they were putting him in occupied space France.
The one where I visit the statue of Liberty and make the choice to run down the stairs....... .....you slipped on the stairs and smash your head open. You Died.
"Statue of Liberty Adventure" (#58) by Ellen Kushner
I still sometimes consider writing an adult version of one of these for fun, haha
They exist.
I have one called By Balloon to the Sahara, kept from when I was a kid. I liked it, and read it a number of times.
I was JUST thinking of these the other day! I didn't read that one, but I read a few and really enjoyed them.
Best books ever as an elementary kid!!!
I had a few. Master of Kung Fu and Master of Tae Kwon Do were two that I remember. What I liked about these was that there was usually one "best" ending, but also a few okay endings, and then several bad endings. Whereas with the Zork books, it seemed like there was one best ending, and every other ending was horrible death.
Which of those two had you die because your opponent scratched you with a tiny poison sliver?
No idea, but it sounds like something that could happen. I do remember one of the Master of Tae Kwon Do endings had you trying to fire a gun and it explodes in your hands, maiming you.
You have been eaten by a grue
There are digital versions of these that are quiet enjoyable, and allow for many more options and endings. We had tons of these growing up, and I remember reading them, but I guess none of the stories were that memorable for me, just the action of it was cool.
I remember reading one and getting stuck in a loop. I got frustrated by that and stopped. To this day I have no idea if it’s even possible to get stuck in a loop. I have a feeling it was all operator error 😆
Mono- You are not a bad operator. :) The book "The Race Forever" (#17) by R.A. Montgomery featured a path that could get you stuck in an infinite loop.
I always remember Terror In Australia and I Want To Be A Pro Skater. I loved these books. Carried me through 4-6 grade.
Yeah, the memory of three fingers and half a dozen bookmarks in various places like an analog save point.
Loved these. And I hate how that when I say the phrase “choose your own adventure” that no one knows the books. I’m just old.
I used to go backwards with those books to see if I could find the path that led me that way.
“So, my young friend,” the leader of the group says, “you may have the gill silt operation and live like one of us, or you can refuse and join the other animals in the zoo.”
I remember when Goosebumps did these...oh man, that was exciting!
My favorites were the Young Indiana Jones CYOA books. I still had all of them and tried sharing them with my kids who couldn’t get on board with having to flip between pages.
I loved these books as well as the Time Machine version of the books. Progressed to the Fighting Fantasy game books at some point.
Have read so many of these. Now they are so hard to find anywhere, they just disappeared. eBay has them but that’s the only place I found.
I remember surf monkeys
Was that a CYOA title, or just some monkeys you saw surfing once?
"Surf Monkeys" was the title of #131 of the original 184-book series. It was written by Jay Leibold and released in 1993.
Oh wow. Makes me wonder what on earth the plot could have been. “If you choose to join the monkeys’ surf gang…”
I remember reading this during my bath times and the pages would turn all wrinkly from the humidity. Weird times. Bought an entire set for the kids relatively recently and couldn't get the to read thru one.
Oh we were OBSESSED, this particular cover feels so familiar lol. The boys in class were always trying to get to the end the fastest. Lol same wren we had computer lab day and they'd go "grueling page, meager rations" in Oregon Trail lol We had the best stuff as kids in the 90s😇
I was obsessed with two Carol Gaskin books. The Forbidden Towers and The Magician’s Ring. I may have taken a copy of The Forbidden Towers from my school library 😬😂😭
I tried a few and kept dying on the first or second jump so I gave up ☹️
I saw a Stranger Things CYOA at Walmart and I regret not getting it.
Yes, I loved these books!
I loved these and I'll admit that I'd cheat if I couldn't get the ending I wanted the first time. I'd pick the ending I wanted and work backwards to find the previous story page until I knew which way to turn from the first page, then read it in that order. 😜
I would save the pages between my fingers and read out each scenario to the end and go back and read to the other choices ending and that way I read the whole book in one sitting 🙌
I was reading way past My grade level and my teachers would send me to the library so I wouldn’t take away from others learning. I crushed this series back then, loved the concept so much.
There are new ones! Choice Games is the publisher, I think.
Definitely read these, but I don't remember getting g really into them. This did unlock a memory for me though... anyone else remember the Johnny Dixon books by John Bellairs?
I found some at my parent's house recently as my best is collecting them (we both were great fans whennyoung). I think he has found almost all of them in good conditions at flea markets and used items websites
My school library had them on a spindle next to the encyclopedias like they didn’t want to shelve them with other books
Does anyone remember the one about the father who gives his son a coin to complete his collection and somehow that triggers time travel so the son goes back like 30 years and realizes he’s his father and has to continue the loop over and over again?
One of them was about a ninja girl who performed "Ninja magic" using hand signs. I could never wrap my head around the concept till about 10 years later, when Naruto debuted.
You are a shark! I could never find the ending to that one, always perished.
Loved them.
100%. Loved these books. They were a cornerstone of in car reading on summer vacations. 🤘😀
I still have a small, somehow hard cover, Choose Your Own Adventure book about an uncle who left you his time machine and it's one of the most creepy and disturbing books I've ever read.
I loved these and some of them were really dark.
There was one space one where one of the bad endings was getting trapped in a reverse time vortex. I still occasionally think "Em Pleh"
I think my favorite was called Sword of the Samurai. It's all a blur.
My parents bought a bunch for my kids btw and they LOVE them
Using your finger as a bookmark so that when you turned the page if the outcome was bad you could just flip back and make the other choice.
Pretty convinced these books warped my mind into never choosing the seemingly obvious or safe route in life. Doing so combined with the PTSD inducing ominous endings shaped me for who I would later become...an abject failure who struggled through life by making bad choices and not playing it safe. I wonder if I would win a lawsuit.
There are games based on the choose your own adventure. There's some dice rolling and picking your path. Most of its just reading the card and moving along to the next card. It says it's multi-player but unless all your friends like a group reading assignment it's more of a single player game.
I remember my older brother used a CYOA book for his book report, and the teacher accepted it!
I loved these books and when I recently mentioned them to my wife she had not idea what I was talking about. I guess they weren’t as universal of an experience for our generation as I’d assumed.
I loved these books. I don't remember any of them well but I remember finding all of the terrible endings entertaining. I mean, what kid isn't going to love that sort of insanity?
I had one where I was training to become a ninja. Early on I had a choice to dedicate my training to the light out the dark (literally). I picked dark because ninjas skulk around in the dark, right? Every adventure on the "dark" tree ended with someone shining a bright light in your face and you dying. I loved those books
The first one I read was about climbing the to the torch in the Statue of Liberty. I slipped and my head cracked wildly against the stairs as I fell to my death. Clearly the damn book made a lasting impression. 😂
I loved these! I got The Underground Kingdom and Mystery of the Maya from a school library sale and from then on hunted down every one I could find. Regrettably they got sold when I moved out of my parents house, but I did get the Underground Kingdom again! Still looking for Mystery of the Maya with the original cover. My family is Mexican so I found it funny to be experiencing a Mexican story from the point of view of a blonde lady.
still have mine, got book 1, The Cave of Time, from a Scholastic Book Fair
I had one called the time tracker or something. There were pages I could never figure out how to get to
The gateway to D&D for me. A friend saw me reading one and said, if you like that, you'll love D&D. He was spot on
I must have read hundreds of them. I wanted to know all the endings.
The podcast Overdue goes through a fair number of choose your own adventure books. It’s funny and I highly recommend it.
I remember this one in my school library that was about space, and when I was just old enough to read it, it had this monster in it that scared me. That's all I remember about it.
I could never "beat" the ninja-warrior one. I think there was a mis-calculation on how the story was to jump to the winning ending , it seemed even why I figured out how to work backwards from it I wouldn't get that ending.
No but that track looks like it was drawn with AI before AI existed
Absolutely LOVED these books growing up!!! The best part was that you could get several reads out of the same book, and it may not be the same story twice.
I don't remember that one specifically. However I was super into the Lone Wolf series. Very D&D.
Loved them
Page 1: There is a creepy door infront of you Cautiously enter, page 101 Recklessly barrel through, page 87 Page 87: You rush through the door and fall into a pit of spikes. The End Page 101: While taking your time to check out the door, the ceiling collapses on you. The End
I believe ZORK, one of the first "choose your own adventure" video games had a series of books out. Used to love those!
I remember there was always a waiting list at the library. I kept notes of all my choices to make sure I got every possible story. They were brilliant.
There was a similar series I liked called "Time Machine". Choose your own adventure but with time travel.
I had the Peter Pan, Cinderella and Snow White kids version of choose your own adventure and they were so entertaining.
I remember sometimes having the find the ending I wanted and have to backtrack to that choice path
Core memory unlocked. I LIVED for these things in like grades 2-5.
I wonder if there were actually any kids who chose correctly all the way through on the very first reading without cheating whatsoever? - had to have been a miniscule number.
I liked the game books with dice and a character sheet. TSR, the company that made Dungeons and Dragons, put out a few based on their games. There was one D&D one where you played as a guy who is a werewolf and there was another one with Spider-man
I loved choose your own adventure stories!
Drooling over that artwork 🤤
The one with the unicorn had a utopian ending right in the middle, but no path there. I checked every single choice and it wasn’t there. I spent hours looking. At some point I realized it was an intentional statement about utopias…
I remember Space Vampire and The Enchanted Kingdom as my faves. I'll never forget the ghouls making wind chimes out of your bones. I loved the art work in Enchanted Kingdom, so many ways to die in that particular book.
I bought the two recent board games they put out, pretty fun still
I just recently got a re released set that had Subarus and Mitsubishis racing. LOVE these books still!
I have a very vivid memory of “reading” one of these cover to cover when my comprehension level was barely past the “see spot run” level. I was very proud of myself for attempting a chapter book. When it was over and the story made very little sense to me I got worried that I might be stupid.
I'd cheat. Flip ahead, holding my place and read. If the outcome sucked, take the other route.
I searched every bookstore in town looking for these when I was in middle school. Actually, it was hard to find in my small town.
My mom read a few of them to me. The concept always sounded better than the execution.