Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks Review Part 1 - Books 1 to 10

0:00 halation show us a little rundown of something quite close to my heart he's in a finger so what got me into games and stuff right back in the early eighties it's a kid and I'm at last and pressure on myself what just do it welfare yeah I'm just just to the first few one to ten of these these fight fantasy game books and yeah these were sort of quite novel at table in a place before video games took over you know there's little kids in school we discovered these and it's like a game within within a book and you won't like a little character like really simplified D&D sort of thing and then you go on adventures he rolled dice with the feed monsters but you give dick books will give you options so you they would say give you an option so you want to go left or right and then you choose which way and he turned to a specific paragraph in the book and uh yeah normally these things had 400 paragraphs so you know they were really popular in the heyday so yeah we're gonna have a long look at the first 10 numbers 1 to 10 so let's have a look

1:11 board games 4k so number one in this series is the Warlock of Firetop Mountain the game book that started all I mean it's written by Steve Jackson here limits them people responsible for creation at least these books and yeah this one is originally was known as the magic quest and they approached puffin books and I got turned down so they were told her boring it bore the lady in charge of it so I'm the guide back room and rewrite it so hey they went back to their Games Workshop office which was like her just a bicycle room upstairs and I talked about a garage or something no yeah they rewrote it in Limassol motor start Steve Jackson wrote the second half and it's a self is a seminal book for me this one I mean yeah it's just a basic standard you know going kill the monsters get the loot get out but what make this special was that you had to look for certain keys in each key had a reference number on it related to one of the paragraphs in the book so you had to find all of the keys in to the warlocks chest and I'm the fate at the end and if war is not many real characters in this book I mean it is sort of quite generically it's one of the first ones and there's really only one path through but you've got this nice little maze at the end you know a certain you can get lost in there for the how isn't that bad but yeah well if I told number one yeah it's way out

2:42 there in one of them for me what a classic literary works at the 20 20th century so number two in the series is the Citadel of chaos not a lot of people like this artwork by fingers quite ghost bodice cover-up by this guy called a manual and they they changed it later on when the when the green spine starts disappear you know and I changed it was some sort of charged artwork and I prefer this one lot of people don't like about it stands out from all the rest of the stuff unites it but anyway yeah yeah this one though so again it's a bog-standard thing where you you're sort of going into a castle working your way up to sit down to the foetus sir this a powerful wizard called balfus dire and the difference with this one is that you surfaced one of the first games well if anything they to internet but you know if this introduced the concept of magic will be it very very simple yeah this introduced like a magic score so roll a die and at six and then that's how me suppose you get the use every time you use one of the spells you you cross off the list and he smoked it it's differently today introduced some sort of something new into equation quite reasonable actually but honey yeah love another meanness and there's some quite silver you know stand out monsters you got Escobedo Ganges and I think that's that's trying to do with popping in Livius inner-city Jackson or one of the to win or a trip to Thailand or India and in Asia or something and they took some of the nice in there you know Honam yeah you got the Ganges on you and you got the year with the week the we least I don't yeah in there so yeah it's no splits one of those

4:15 obviously start a branch off now where Steve Jackson Britain this on his own it's not it's not a joint effort and yeah the sees if the series is started I develop I think those things sort quite on its way to monumental stardom at the moment but yeah it's definitely size that this is starting to become more popular and more original so number three is the Forester dome and this is quite a few people's favorite books it's not my favorite book but yeah this one this you you're hired by to the walls of this village called the stone bridging they've lost their magical hammer your sword for hire and they they asked you to go up into that wood forest and find the the hammer and bring it back to him and you agree and you go off into the forest and you you come across this town inside the tile is always a called yes Troma and this is where starts to get interesting because the only resistance had it like this of D&D f---ing where you could buy equipment and different magical items and stuff off the back you don't do not scrabbling around trying to find them in the game and yeah it gives you a certain amount of gold pieces and you go out and buy your kit and each one of those things is used in the game what a daemon doesn't area is that the hammer split into two pieces so you've got to find the handle and that hammer hit and yes one of those ones I think it's like one true path I think in this one but yes there's loads of them like they're getting us bloated memorable creatures in hair this video you've got the shape change Oh shape

5:45 shift or whatever and decide it'll trap so here's what it one of Tracy's if you got this this guy who's I picked into the ground he's sort of pounding you go over and help him and I well I won't give any spoilers but you know me there's a little little traps and stuff but you know I could but yeah this one so you can go underground in this one and uh it's just really set set the tone for future book something modest Tom the only nice thing was sort of did stand the developer scientists are quite early on and yeah force it don't it's up there that's one of the best bed books but you know obviously it's not like before is one of my favorite game books and that is starship travel oh not a lot of people like this one I don't know why they don't like it but it's it's it's not 400 not 400 their paragraphs this one it is actually 343 but in the hall that's a lot less combat so it's relatively thirties on but um yeah this one he'll where the captain of the starship traveler and you sucked into also called this the silty and void and you're trying to find your white home see you exploring the galaxy trying to find the coordinates it will take you back to earth and yeah some fantastic fantastic characters you come up with this one you've got the infamous oil bile you've got their cover art and air which shows you the combat arena we're fighting a sentinel and uh one of the things that really struck me as a kid is it's not just you in the game you have to roll the dice

7:17 and roll up yeah your crew so you know you've got the you've got a captain which is you you got a science officer a medical officer engineering officer a security officer and you've got two security guards and also on top of that oh my god my holes are ten your nine-year-old whether you don't you saw what you saw you're creating this whole sort of epic adventure you know you got you you you make it even more for your ship I mean this it's just astonishing and it's a yeah what makes it I think more puts people off this is the they don't like the artwork I mean I don't mind it's got that sort of nice feel that suits the suits the book and but it's also bloody difficult it's really really hard and yeah I think that's often myself remember here at Samba Steve Jackson said you've made it really difficult because he was sitting on a bus or something and he saw a kid with like socks over Fivefinger foot mark you know like stuff like this sitting there and he he really annoyed him so he went off the road - really rock solid but yes starship travelers like the first science fiction they booked then there was plenty of us but I think this one could be best so number five is laughing you know what it's a city phase inhale hey so one of the one of the best one of the best ones that raise yeah I'd say it goes it it takes takes you out of the wilderness and into the urban adventure yeah I think this is one of this is some for some people this is the this is the best

8:48 one yeah we really like this one I like anyway but so what happens is that in europe europe you you haven't launched in Silverton and the mayor comes over to you and says look we've got these probabilities Moondogs that keep showing up every night you know there are sandbar bones giving us a like a great ski guy over and kill him so excessively he says guys see nicodemus import black sand and I see he's up and tell you what to do so you guys see him and any you gotta find Nicodemus you go from poor blacks and finding a famous and it says you to get lost in how many as those other walk this off man and I totally get look it he's too old to get involved in adventures baba ba-ba-ba-ba so here's the stuff you need it use your shopping list and you basically go around poor blacks and on a shopping spree having at benches and yeah it's absolutely phenomenal and you got to think well this is the first time that you add well done a cover off her and foster did but you've got her first element here my cake it's done the internal heart work I believe yeah it's done the internal art work and it means it's amazing this absolute amazing and I think this at the pilot part of the charm of Final Fantasy mister it's the law of the art work I mean you see like a lot of the creatures were monsters on them on the other covers looking at you and so look at you

10:19 because you are to here right right and I'm yeah see if he's number five fantastic read okay number six and I think this one was voted the best game book ever I think happens most lot of fantasy fans if I wrote last death trap dungeon I mean just looking at having there's a blood beast on the front there and uh as a kid I mean you know he but a media list used to like like to think that you go to bed with nightmares but this one true you wait a minute what what what cover that's absolutely fantastic so deathtrap dungeon yes not it's not and contrary to popular belief I don't think this is your standard books down a dungeon crawl because you know in an ad and deal with being Deanna you know you just go into the dungeon for no apparent reason it was there for no reason you going you've grabbed the live and you get out but this one there's actually sort of a point to get in fro it's not just get is there's no Luke to be out you need to get through the dungeon alive and only one of yeah it's gonna get out all right so you've got these contestants and then you work your way for its dungeon it knows a trap traps and puzzles and there's some fantastic monsters any I mean you know you think that the blood beast is like the boss you got the mentor Corps and just when you think it's over you know you meet up with you make fun just when you think it's over you have to have a scrap of it and it's just like wow you know me that just come out nowhere and yes full of surprises is it the best foot I don't know if it is it's definitely up there I mean we really really really really like this one it gave me so much so many good

11:52 times running for a listen you know coming back to it now it's just it's just a phenomenal book we love deaf draft-dodging and yeah I think this is this is the reason why people like this because I think this this was the pinnacle made me fight advancing popularity in assists this is this at the book that appeared at the time when it was reached its peak perhaps and I think this is why people remember this one but um yeah Def Jam dungeon number six siren ombre seven is island of the Lizard King another in the next and and it's yeah it's just not really my favorite one it seemed a bit too linear and too similar whereas the other previous six things have stood out their original features this one was just a you know get through the jungle kill the Gong Cheol which is a sort of thing that's a crap thickness it's not something there's a king that's got chocolate anyway yeah just get through there kill the beast in you're done you know I'm a no no well yeah it's a good at the venture but I think this sick daughter maybe they've run out of ideas I don't know but and this went up and then start to tile off a little bit and in this maybe they're under pressure and a publicist to sort of get out books but I didn't really write this one at a time but you know austere and I still still wonder what would have happened if Mungo survived so now I'm writing in this

13:23 series was a scorpion swamp and yeah if you've read the books quite a lot and you follow quite a fantasy and you've been reading them since you were a kid you will know that Steve Jackson did not write this this game book it was the other Steve Jackson from America of car Wars by so I won't yeah I think we buy this time for a fantasy have got so popular that here in Livingston Steve Jackson could keep up with demand you know pay at the games workshop operation going on and they would they were asked to produce too many books and I couldn't couldn't quite said I got Alpha Reuters in and such the beginning of the Steve Jackson in Livingston presents stuff sort of things they asked the Jackson USA Giza so you do it and you know why this isn't the strongest century in the in the series is it's one of the one of the most daring I think because it's got spells in it and you've got this support nonlinear path I see it encourage you to you to make a map and you can backtrack when you stuff and revisit the area area stone but multiple times and there may or may not be stuff new stuff there so yeah I mean score be swapping it's okay you know it's not too bad and yeah yes that's just bit like it number nine is the caverns of the snow which and by this time I think fighting fantasy it was it was huge I mean was it certainly haven't it this is 19 when was this one published 1986 was it that night they fought barmy and i'm yeah by

14:53 this ah my fingers Steve at Steve Jackson in Ian Livingstone were starting to think about the expanding her creating a super land you know Helen SIA or whatever they were thinking about putting these these books in locations in a continent called a Lancia and branching out and actually create a location set for the books so it was quite a fantasy phenomena was partner evolve and cement itself in Abbott Sun cannon a design law you know and this one push that pushed it up to it and not the north in Cold Mountain is a stopper none yeah well you know we we didn't huh yeah this one it's not our favorite book unless it's a good one but they know who we is another one of them generics offer it but not a force of doing so work your way through the phone about path and off you go and I'm yeah it's alright it's not about you know just just satisfied that that hunger from for more books and yeah cabins of snow which nominally so number 10 is the buster first time the fighter fantasy series went to kind of modern day it's the house of hell and this was actually like this is actually my first the first book I bought in 1984 we got it from this little toy shop down down a road called Christopher's which isn't there anymore which is a shame and I'm I don't know they had all of them there I remember you know a kid looking all thinking all these things I look and despite a stroke drawn to this one I think it's produced my parents are like

16:24 religious and I just wanted to sort stick two fingers up and I was terrible lovely mum and dad but yes it's um with this one yeah your your car breaks down in the middle of the night and you see a light come on in a house and you make your way to the house looking for help and you there's no answer you keep you break-in or whatever and you end up meeting this but could be heard of drama I think - and then yeah what you find his earth is you you you're knocked out you imprisoned and you you you and that escape and you make way fruity house and you find out that there's some unsavory business coming on it and you decide that you wanna you want to put the put an end to it all and you got a fine ass thing called the Chris knife and I'm yeah I mean this was really controversial at the time you know it's less controversial now this was in the news of the day some website this website on it body I mean the artworks been changed in the reprint they've recently print or scholastic because it details a satanic sacrifice and there's a look a bit booby showing you know and I can't help so yeah I mean it still remains controversial to this day summer day the names of the rooms at your visitor for some demonic names it was a satanic names yes yes this was this mark of a turn of Steve Jackson to the sort of series and it really does it really is really a rejoice this is is so atmospheric this book I mean as a kid go home in on your Hill my frightening as a kid but it really sort of took it to get

17:54 away from the world and probably dumped you in this just really perilous situation that it really is such a fantastic gun yard low in the armor it's just awesome who is the artist himself and I'm there's one there's one picture in here that I'll always remember the zombie this guy's hand out like that and it's one of them I said earlier wondering was way that it's looking at you and it's got his piercing eyes but yeah how so he'll really difficult book to complete but yeah this is what I love this one it's my favorite for going book of all time because I put my because it was my first one but because the setting is so the original in it was never revisited which is a shame maybe a walk maybe State Jackson if you're watching this house the hell to revisit the house help maybe other my anyway that's number one or 10 if you like this video I didn't try to think about subscribing to the channel or give me I don't know some cake or something and yeah comment below if you want to see some more tea so maybe like to 11 to 20 or something or you want me to cover some of the other boy fantasy stuff forgot the role-playing game or there you know it sorcery epic or some of the more obscure stuff in here leave a comment with maybe the last time I do that but yeah like subscribe comment and see you next time