It was a bounteous trip to Japan as far as gamebooks were concerned, and I think I brought home more than ever before.
With the above 8 (the last one is Slaves Of The Abyss) I now have Japanese versions of 17 of their original run of 32 Fighting Fantasy (FF) books. These are all in great condition, and Crypt Of The Sorceror even includes a separate character sheet:
These were bought at Mandarake and Yellow Submarine, and all but Slaves were fairly inexpensive (<$20) by vintage FF standards.
Here we have Sorcery! books 3 and 4, which means I now own the complete original (1980s) and reprinted (2002) editions. The other set of books in the above pic is Clash Of The Princes, the unusual two-player FF gamebook set. I was extremely surprised to not only find this but to find it for so cheap (about $8) since I had no idea it had been released in Japan!
Speaking of, the above is a recent Japanese edition of the first FF novel. It’s as beautiful as the reprinted gamebooks and includes the original art. It seems the retro reprints of old FF material are continuing in Japan?
This book – about the same size and length as a typical FF – is a genuine oddity. Google translates the title to ‘How to play game books’ but it’s entirely FF focused (that cover art shows Livingstone and Jackson) and seems to be a collection of articles from the Japanese Warlock magazine as well as dozens of pages of complex gamebook maps! The pic on the right is part one of a four-part map for Starship Traveller.
Speaking of Japanese Warlock magazine, can you believe I found one. It was peeping out from between AD&D manuals in a Surugaya store in Akihabara, and only cost an astonishing ¥200! As you can see it’s issue 37 from 1990, which was after the last FF had been published in Japan.
It includes articles on game books, lots of (solo) Tunnels and Trolls content, several pages on computer RPGs – including two pages on Wizardry – and a fairly lengthy adventure that uses an unusual numbering system and seems to be about preparing for a new years celebration. Another fine acquisition for the collection, and I’m very relieved to have found it since it lessened the blow of Mandarake being unable to find the one they allegedly had in stock!
Lastly, I picked up this manga collection of articles from an RPG magazine on how to play Advanced Fighting Fantasy. Skimming through it with a translator it certainly seems aimed at women gamers, which may explain why AFF is shelved with Call of Cthulhu in Japanese shops? But the riddle of why ‘TRPGs’ are so popular with female gamers in Japan is probably a mystery best left for another time!
I bought a few other Japanese gamebooks as well, including examples from the Golden Dragon, Grailquest and Tunnels & Trolls series. I even saw others – an AD&D one, another based on the game Landstalker – that I passed on because they were pricey and not FF. As I said it was a bounteous trip as far as gamebooks were concerned, and I’d be surprised if I found this many again on a future trip.