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From: espen.aarseth@hf.uib.no (Espen Aarseth)
Subject: Re: "Choose Your Own Adventure"-like game system?
Message-ID: <espen.aarseth-110893114612@hdbea.hf-fak.uib.no>
Followup-To: rec.arts.int-fiction
Sender: usenet@alf.uib.no (Bergen University Newsaccount)
Organization: University of Bergen
References: <oVi48B4w165w@west.darkside.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 11:46:12 +0000
Lines: 49

In article <oVi48B4w165w@west.darkside.com>, max@west.darkside.com (Erik
Max Francis) wrote:

> I'm sure most interactive-fiction people here remember the Choose Your 
> Own Adventure books that we read as children.  They are actually still 
> in production, and there are now hundreds of different books.
> 
> The books themselves are very simple in design, which is why they lend 
> themselves so well to being read and enjoyed by children.  The reader 
> reads a few pages of text (with many illustrations thrown in), and 
> then is given a choice.  Based on that choice, he or she goes to 
> another page (indicated with the choice), and the story continues 
> there, with the choices being reflected in the narration.
[..]
> It struck me that it would be rather entertaining (if only for 
> nostalgic purposes) to create a game system which would facilitate the 
> creation and playing of electronic versions of these "games" -- though 
> they clearly could not be called Choose Your Own Adventures, since 
> that is a registered trademark (of either Bantam Books or Edward 
> Packard, I presume).

Sounds to me that what you are asking for is a basic hypertext system,
where text chunks are linked to form a labyrinth. The user then clicks 
on a link to go to another text chunk. A system such as Eastgate's 
Storyspace would probably emulate a basic "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" book
without much trouble.

> If anyone is interested, please let me know, with suggestions for what 
> you would like to see in it.  I'd support choices, random choices, and 
> even variables to spiff the game system up a little bit.  (i.e., Do 
> you want to get the shiny object?)

Now you are describing something very close to a simple adventure game
authoring system, of which (as any reader of this group knows) there
are quite a few about.


BTW: Anyone, any comments on my theory that the "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure"
paper book genre is actually based on the electronic adventure games?

In other words, did the "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" phenomenon appear
*after* Crowther and Woods' _Collossal Cave_ adventure game?

As I am writing a dissertation on these (and other) phenomena, I would be
grateful for enlightening response.

espen aarseth
university of bergen
aarseth@uib.no
