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Deathtrap Dungeon

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

That’s Deathtrap Dungeon, the 6th Fighting Fantasy book that was published way back in 1984. It’s a classic title, one of the most famous books in the range, and has inspired countless other gamebooks and video games.

Here’s some more editions from my collection:

Clockwise from top left they are the 2017 Scholastic version, the 1984 Dell USA version, the 2009 Wizard version and the 2002 Wizard version.

And here’s another version:

The above has been one of my ‘Holy Grail’ gamebooks for years. It was published in 2009 by Hobby Japan, and as you can see it’s definitely not like the others.

It’s still Deathtrap Dungeon, although obviously translated into Japanese. This isn’t the first Japanese version either, since FF books were published there during their original run too. But in 2009 Hobby Japan gave the books a distinctive anime makeover with a short-lived reprint series.

Whereas in FF books you are the hero, and therefore the player character is rarely described and even less commonly named, in this edition the player character is this adventuress named ‘Philia’ (according to my translation software). She still challenges Baron Sukumvit’s evil Deathtrap Dungeon for fame and fortune, but her experience is distinctly different from the one I first had in 1984.

For instance here’s the ninja I encountered in the original version:

And here’s Philia’s ninja opponent:

What about the iconic Manticore? Whereas originally it was the focus of the art during its encounter, now it seems to be photobombing a Philia selfie:

The fighting hobgoblins:

What about the disturbing (to my 12-year old self in ’84) one-handed man:

There are other cases where opponents switch gender (a crazy old man becomes a young witch etc.) but most of the illustrated sections are actually new and don’t correspond to the old ones.

I can’t read Japanese, so I can’t determine if the text itself changes. But it must if only slightly to accommodate the gender switch of some of the encounters? I wonder if it’s still in the first person though, or if Philia is directly referenced in the text?

As for the makeover, it’s undoubtedly because Hobby Japan was trying to market these to otaku in the wake of the success of the Queens Blade series. The all-new art is possibly due to the original art becoming pricey to license since the artist (Iain McCaig) had become quite famous in the intervening years (he designed Darth Maul for instance).

As best I can tell, there were three books in this reprint series. Deathtrap Dungeon is #1, I also have #3:

And #2 was House of Hell, advertised here in my copy of Deathtrap:

As I suggested, these are both difficult to find now and pricey when you do. My Deathtrap cost me $40 and took three months to arrive from Japan. One day I hope to get House of Hell, but I’m not sure it’s worth $50+ to me. Further books in the same series exist, but don’t seem to be FF titles (for instance one is an AD&D gamebook (?) based in the ‘Eberron’ game world).

As a curiosity though it’s lovely, and I’m extremely pleased I finally own it 🙂

(I obtained a few other gamebook curiosities this year. Maybe I’ll do a future post on them…)

Posted in Books, Collecting, Gamebooks, Otaku | 1 Comment »

A Few Gamebook Reviews

Saturday, June 30th, 2018

My Gamebook collection ever expands, and while I still mostly pursue the fantasy RPG style of book, I’ve recently acquired a few unusual ones based on licenses. Here’s a few reviews…

Dinobot War was written by Dave Morris (author of countless other gamebooks) and released back in ’85. It’s for kids obviously; short, linear, predictable and with terrible art. It’s also nonsensical with the ‘plot’ involving Dinobots, time travel and Disneyland probably having taken at least half a lunch break to devise. Arguably not worth the $1 I paid, although the Achilleos cover is nice.

Another book based on a cartoon series and also released in 1985 Snowmen Of Hook Mountain is even simpler and easier than the Dinobot book. I beat it (by retrieving the ‘Thundrillium’) after only two selections, and my playthrough didn’t even include Hook Mountain or any Snowmen! This one cost me a few dollars – $5 maybe? – but probably isn’t worth that.

R.L. Stine is famous for his Goosebumps series of kids books but early in his career was a prodigious author of gamebooks. This is yet another one based on a cartoon and is one of many GI Joe books. Operation: Mindbender (1986) tells a story of a brainwashing plot by a Cobra lackey who wants to usurp Cobra Commander. I don’t know if he succeeds or not since in my playthrough I failed. The writing is leagues better than the previous books and I imagine this one would be fun for a young fan of GI Joe.

There were several Indiana Jones books released and this one, Eye Of The Fates is the oldest book I review here from 1984. In the story you assume the role of a child who (of course) helps Indy find a mystical artifact. My playthrough ended anticlimactically – with a conclusion that suggested the mystical eye didn’t even exist – so I can’t explain that bonkers illustration. It’s fast paced and reasonably well written, but ultimately forgettable.

This book was an incredible find at a thrift store in Scotland. It’s one in a series of He-Man books from 1985 but unusually this was the only one that is a gamebook, the others being normal novels. Furthermore it’s got a simple system of dice-rolling (compared to the choose-your-own-adventure systems of the others books I describe here) and is hardcover and full colour. The story is crazy and it’s (possibly) impossible to fail to win by actually killing Skeletor! A fun little book and a lucky find.

This is one of only two James Bond books and is one of those weird licensing oddities since it’s based on A View To A Kill and not the entire Bond series. The story is based around a portion of the film (the horse-doping) and is short and frankly boring. But the art is spectacular and if nothing else the book gives us a little more information about Grace Jones’s May Day character. Given that these books are a little pricey now, this is strictly for collectors only.

And that’s it for now. But I own several other licensed gamebooks and if you’re interested could do another post like this. Let me know.

Posted in Books, Collecting, Gamebooks | 3 Comments »

‘Clonan’ Books

Thursday, November 16th, 2017

I’ve always been a Conan The Barbarian fan. Back in my youth I read most (all?) of the original stories by Howard and loved the unique stories and evocative setting.

In recent years I’ve been reading a lot of 1960s/70s pulp novels, and in doing so have discovered and appreciated several notable Conan clone series. Here’s my impressions on a few of these.

Brak The Barbarian

This series of five books, written by John Jakes between 1968 and 1980 are perhaps the most directly Conanesque of this lot, with a very similar protagonist, setting and adventures. Brak himself, a barbarian from the north, is on a series-spanning quest to a fantastic ‘golden’ city in the south and he has many adventures on his way, usually involving crazed sorcerers, evil – occasionally Lovecraftian – monsters and the occasional (though less often than Conan) beautiful maiden. While I’ve only yet read half the series (but own them all) I enjoy them quite a lot.

Thongor

During the 60s and 70s Lin Carter wrote seven books featuring his barbarian warrior Thongor. His adventures occur in a fantastic ruined world of lost wizardry, ancient ‘dragon kings’ and many exotic but distinct civilizations. These books are unsophisticated but fast-paced and rich in imagination, and on the whole contain less barbarian violence and womanizing than most on this list. Good, quick reads, these also inspired a (good!) marvel comics series also penned by Carter.

Kothar

Gardner Fox was a writer for DC Comics in the early years who turned his efforts to novels in the 1960s. This spawned two notable fantasy series, the first of which were the five Kothar books. Kothar himself could be Conans younger, blonder brother who decided he wanted to have the same adventures as his more famous sibling. Interesting differences (a magic cursed sword, an immortal sorceress) combined with a pacing obviously learned from a career in comics result in very readable books. Probably my favourites in this list.

Kyrik

This is Fox’s second series, written (for a different publisher, hence the original hero) in the mid 1970s. Mostly identical to the previous (another hero having wild adventures in a ruined world) this one features the usual – and expected – assortment of magic and monsters and near-naked women to save. While perhaps not quite as readable as Kothar, this is still a recommended series.

Richard Blade

This remarkable series of 37 (!) books was written over 15 years (starting in 1969) by three writers under the pen name Jeffrey Lord. After reading one book that I bought in Australia last year I was so impressed/insane that I purchased thirty-five more for the low, low price of $100!

The premise of this mad series is that MI6 sends super-agent Richard Blade (a fitter, handsomer, stronger and smarter James Bond) through a dimensional transporter into exotic new worlds where he performs reconnaissance for queen and country. Since the transporter can’t send clothes, he’s naked when he arrives and since many of the worlds are stereotypical fantasy realms, there’s more than a hint of Conan inspiration here. I’ve only read two, but those books alone had enough lunacy for a dozen other books, and I look forward to reading more.

Raven

‘Richard Kirk’ was the pseudonym of famed fantasy author Robert Holdstock who in the 1980s created an eventual five-book fantasy series about a female warrior named Raven. The books are slightly infamous for the Royo cover art (in the USA) and (nuder) Achilleos art in the UK – all I am sure crafted carefully to attract teenage male readers…

The books themselves are much more sophisticated than the covers suggest and the heroine in particular is more reflective and has a richer backstory than any other mentioned on this page. The setting is satisfyingly exotic and once again features barbaric civilization in a world scattered with evidence of a lost civilization. The quality of the books is not consistent, but overall these were worth the read.

Posted in Books, Miscellaneous | Comments Closed

Hexenmeister you say?

Monday, July 24th, 2017

In response to B’s comment on this post, I decided it was about time to kick the gamebook collection into the next stage. What’s next when you own all the books in English? You start buying foreign versions!

From the left, those are two French and one German copies of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The middle (French) one is a reissue from 2003; both others are original imprints.

Le Sorcier de la Montagne de Feu is an interesting version. The paper is thin and glossy, reminding me of a bible, but aside from the translated text the book seems more or less the same.

However when you turn the book over and flip it around it contains a few dozen dense pages of puzzles! From what I can tell they are fantasy themed versions of classic logic and word puzzles and solutions are even included at the end. My copy seems to be a special edition for younger readers (is the text different?); there was also a normal (sans puzzle) version released in France as well.

Der Hexenmeister vom Flammenden Berg is a beautiful book. Trade sized, with rigid card covers and the almost Tolkien-inspired cover my copy is in astonishingly pristine condition considering its 35 years old!

Interestingly the text seems to omit about half of the art! I can only speculate why, but perhaps it was due to it being a children’s book and some images were considered a bit too grisly? Compare entry 275 with the French edition above:

The book seems lacking with so much art missing. I can only hope they reinstated it for later versions!

I also purchased these three:

Two French and one Spanish. The left two are reissues, the right an original. All are in fantastic condition (as new actually). Because of my Japanese copy of Demons I had to get a French one; the other two were bought because they were exotic 🙂

Needless to say finding foreign versions isn’t easy (I bought these online) but I find them very interesting and may try and get a few more languages. (I also got a French Lone Wolf.)

That’s an photo of my FF collection right now. In a week or so it will expand even more due to the brand new books that just came out!

And yes, they’re still good reads. Every time I do a post like this it always takes much longer than expected since I get sidetracked reading through the books. Maybe I should review a few here on the blog?

Posted in Books, Gamebooks, Miscellaneous, Otaku | 1 Comment »

Japanese Gamebooks

Thursday, June 15th, 2017

At the Mandarake rare bookstore in Nakano mall, I happened to notice the attendant (a stunning Italian lass cosplaying as Sailor Moon) packaging some sort of Japanese RPG rules book for sale. I asked if they had any others – daring to think I may finally, after six trips to Japan, find a gamebook – and she directed me to the glass case outside. There I saw this:

And this:

And more, including some AD&D books and quite a few Japan-specific titles. Almost all in fantastic condition but also sporting fantastic price tags. As a rule of thumb, estimate ¥100 at about $1.

I would have needed over $1000 to buy all the Fighting Fantasy titles alone…

Now it’s hard to leave me speechless these days, but this sight did. I’ve been looking over and over again every time we’ve visited Japan for gamebooks and never ever seen a single one before. My mind was blown; I was overcome. But it was early days in the trip, which means I wasn’t yet at the point I was spending without reason. So I only bought one item – the cheapest one – this:

FF Gamebook 19, Demons Of The Deep. I bought it when it was first released in 1986 but at the time wouldn’t have known (or cared!) that it was also released in Japan.

Here’s an interior shot:

You can see there’s little trace of western influence here, with vertical text and using Japanese numbers! The presentation is beautiful though, with very sharp printing and perfect reproduction of the art.

The book comes with a separate adventure sheet with rules on the back:

And includes a nice section at the end detailing the other available gamebooks:

It’s noticeable smaller (and thinner) than the western editions too. Here it is compared to my UK and US imprints:

I’m enormously happy to finally own a non-English FF book, and something about it being as exotic as in Japanese makes it quite special.

And yet I do regret not buying more. I wasn’t going to spend over $300 for Sky Lord, but why didn’t I buy at least Out Of The Pit? Silly me!

Now I move toward the next challenge: a non-English Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Given it was published in over 20 languages that shouldn’t be too difficult. Should it?