Robot Claw – Page 567 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

The Gamebooks Just Keep On Coming

June 15, 2011

Back in June 2008 I promised a blog post containing gamebook reviews and I figured it was about time I delivered. Happily, my ever-increasing collection has swelled a bit recently, so some of these are very new – and unusual – additions!

Blood Sword (1987)

I’ve got the first two books in this four book series that some say are the best gamebooks every written. On top of the superb writing, fantastic art and very complex world is the fact you can play each book using a party of one to four characters (of different classes). Combat is also tactical, involving movement and range. These books were the ultimate evolution of the gamebook before the genre faded away somewhat, and in my opinion very deserving of the high accolades they have earned.

Fabled Lands (1985 & 2010)

An incredibly complex series of books that see you traveling all over a fantasy world. What you do and in what order is entirely up to you, with very little over-arching story guiding events. Think of it as a sort of massively upgraded Scorpion Swamp with a world that spans not one, but six different books. Yes, you can (and will) be referred to an entry in an entirely different book from time to time, which means it’s probably time to move on with the story. I owned – and played through – only the first two books and given the difficulty of finding the others at reasonable prices assumed I would never continue. But the first four (of six) books was reprinted last December and I can now continue my journey. (Note, by the way, that Dave Morris also wrote Blood Sword amongst many other series).

Starlight Adventures (1985)

These came in the post just this week, so I haven’t played them yet. I had to share them though, since I was so surprised they existed. These are two books from a ‘for girls’ series of gamebooks published by Puffin in the mid 80’s to capitalize on the success of the Fighting Fantasy series (and gamebooks in general). They don’t have any real ‘system’ (no combat, inventory, stats or dice rolling) but are much longer than typical choose-your-own adventure books with much more complex (girl-oriented) stories. I can’t wait to read one!

Enemy Of Chaos (2009)

Not a gamebook per se, instead a choose-your-own adventure that is unusual, intelligent, ambitious and even (sometimes) funny. The story is a bit hard to describe: think of a bizarre hyper-fantasy about a normal person (you) jumping between realities (for no apparent purpose) and ending up in many strange situations not dissimilar to what you may expect in a nasty, hopeless (and I mean that literally) melange of Douglas Adams and Monty Python. I can’t say I really recommend this book, but I can say it was an interesting read.

The Regional Accounts Director Of Firetop Mountain (2011)

An extremely funny book, especially if you have a fondness for the Fighting Fantasy series. I found myself laughing out loud many times as the book not only cleverly told a funny, absurd tale of an office temp forced into a fantastic world, but at the way the writers lampoon the styles and trappings of gamebooks in general. Ignore the blurb on the front, this is no choose-your-own-adventure, but a gamebook throughout, with all the conventions such as stats, inventory and combat (not to mention great art!).

But the humour is what makes it killer. To give you an idea of how dry it is, here’s a photo of one entry:

If you think that is funny, then this book is highly recommended 🙂

Destiny Quest (2011)

First of all, this book is massive! A trade paperback, with 782 entries spread across 534 pages, it comes in at over 1.5 inches thick. This is a brand new gamebook (not a reissue), the first in an ambitious new series. I was amazed to see that the basic design of the book was completely original. So much so, in fact, that if I were to compare this to any other game, my first choice would be (believe it or not) World of Warcraft.

After creating your character, you choose quests from a map. Each quest leads to an entry in the main text, which in turn plays out like a conventional gamebook (combat, choices etc). Once you finish the quest you return to the map to pick your next one. Quests are colour-coded by difficulty (using the same colour conventions as WoW) and when you think you are ready you can advance the story by taking on the boss of that map and moving to the next zone (the gamebook contains three maps).

The character is extremely complex, with a class, professions and 11 different armour slots (chest, feet, neck etc.). This is most definitely a gamebook for players accustomed to computer RPGs, and for a first effort I must say I am very, very impressed.

If you are at all interested in gamebooks, then I strongly recommend you check out Destiny Quest. Here’s hoping the series doesn’t end at a single volume.

That’s it for now, but that’s not it for my gamebooks. I have a special set of related – and very different – books that will require their own entry. I’ll try not to wait three years this time 🙂

Tales From Green Hell: Documentary Evidence (part two)

June 10, 2011

Just as my dad once trained to be a priest, my mum was once a nun. She left the nunnery though, and shortly after joined the Divine Word mission and went to Papua New Guinea herself (she was just a young lass then). The missions were based in the port town of Madang, and here’s a shot of the compound:

Madang is the town in which my brother and I would eventually be born. Here it is on the map:

In those days (pre 1975) PNG was not a country but an Australian territory. So yes, I am Australian by birth, technically!

Anyway, as I recall, even though the missions were based in Madang both mum and dad spent time in all sorts of remote villages in the jungles of PNG. Here’s a shot of mum in a village in the mountainous, inland region called Bundi:

Lovely shot isn’t it! That was taken in 1967, which means mum was 23 at the time. I bet Bundi was a bit of a frontier town then, since even today it’s a green hell:

I was watching a documentary on TV the other day that said that Papua New Guinea has the largest areas of uninterrupted jungle on the planet. It’s a smallish island, but much (most?) of it is still wild, unconquered jungle. Although it looks beautiful – and I was born there – I’m not sure I’d ever want to visit.

Anyway, back to the point of this post: Mum’s shots from PNG!

Here’s a startling one:

That guy has a nasty spear. I expect not too long after this photo that spear was thrown into a wild boar or giant pacu fish. Good eating surely followed: baked swine, taro root, pineapple and jungle fruits. I wonder if they had beer on the missions? I imagine they must have, else dad may have gone crazy.

My mum smoked in those days, but then I think everyone did.

That’s a bouquet of flowers that my mum made. It looks like franjipani to me. Anyway, the bouquet was for the wife of the Australian administrator of PNG (Dr Hay), and this young girl presented it to her. I bet it was appreciated.

Here’s an interesting shot of mum with some village kids. She was a teacher, and these were her students. Mum taught as a nun as well, so she had experience. Even so, it must have been a culture shock. Note how happy she is in all these shots. Mum jokes now she’s hard to take photos of… she just needs to channel her memories of PNG!

This next photo is special in so many ways:

Fabulous isn’t it! Look at the style of her! Her hair looks great, especially with the scarf. But beyond that, the scholarly pose; the microscope, the specimens on the table (plants and flowers?) and her students watching. Note also the thatched hut in the background. I could imagine this photo appearing in a magazine back in the day! This is a truly beautiful, strangely anachronistic shot made so much more special by the fact that it’s my mum!

Not a shot of mum, but wonderful nonetheless. In 1967, floppy discs were invented, the first human heart transplant occurred and physicists discovered the quark. None of the kids above had any idea about any of this – such technology would have been almost magical to them – living as they did. The world is still like this today in many ways. It’s a humbling thought.

Here’s a shot of mum at home in Madang in 1971. Mum and dad were married by now, and I bet my brother is in that house somewhere probably playing with one of the cats (we’ve always had cats). Or perhaps not, since he would have been less than a year old. One of the cats was called Franjipani, after the flower (in the bouquet, above). If you go to Hawaii you’ll see franjipani everywhere, and apparently the same is the case in PNG.

Here comes a fantastic shot:

Here they are – the happy young couple! That cuscus-like thing mum is holding is my brother. But that’s not what is truly incredible about this shot. Look close and note I’m (almost) in this photo as well! This is officially the earliest known photo of me, and I love it 🙂

And this one, taken not too long later, was when I got over my shyness and introduced myself to the world. Drag your eyes of my handsome baby-self and note the washing machine technology on display in the rear of the shot. Another great shot!

And so ends the documentary evidence posts, at least for now. But this post has given me an idea for another type of ‘documentary evidence’ post that I must follow up on sometime in the future…

Tales From Green Hell: Documentary Evidence (part one)

June 8, 2011

I admit, shamefully, I may have embellished my previous posts in this series somewhat. I beg forgiveness: I did this only for the enjoyment of the reader. Truth be told I intended to continue down that road with this post, which features photos taken by my parents during their tenure in Papua New Guinea.

But once I received and looked at the photos they were so charming all thoughts of jest instantly passed. So here they are, with what little commentary I can (truthfully) muster. This post will be the first of two, and focus on my dad. Mum’s post will follow. In all these photos dad is younger than I am now…

That handsome guy in the top left is my dad. He spent a decade (slightly more?) in PNG working for the Divine Word missionaries. I think he got there in the early 1960’s.

Dad was training to be a priest, but he had decided against it before leaving Germany to join the missions. Divine Word was a catholic mission, and you can see a couple of ‘native nuns’ in the above shot (that’s dad in the fetching hat).

I can only imagine (and even then it’s hard) what it must have been like. Even today large areas of PNG are still removed from ‘civilization’.

Dad was a teacher. In the above photo he is attaching a sign listing school fee pricing to a post. It’s a nice shot. I wonder who took it?

I think that’s a tomato garden. Note that dad is in grubby ‘working in the garden clothes’ but that the kids seem to be dressed up. The boy looks to have a hibiscus flower on his head and an ornament in his nose. I wonder if that was his usual attire, or if he dressed up for this photo?

Dad’s comment on this shot is “Only the axe is from the 20th century”

The kids here are playing a German board game called “Mensch ärgere dich nicht“, which is similar to Ludo or Parcheesi. The lovely thing about this photo is that mum and dad still own this exact game (including all pieces, box and plastic insert) and we often play it when I visit Australia!

Dad describes this thus: “Ready for my relaxation on a Sunday – swimming and hunting.”

The gun looks positively ancient doesn’t it? I wonder if it was a relic left in the jungle during the aftermath of WW2 (dad has told me stories of such things).

Note the wall construction material: leaves. This is an unusual photo for an anachronistic reason: at first glance it looks almost like dad is using a laptop (30 years before they were invented…). Note the cable stretching to him and the way he is holding the folder or book.

I’ll end with one last photo, in my mind surely the most beautiful of the lot:

That’s dad with mum’s pet cuscus on his head. This obviously suggests the photo was taken by my mum, who met dad in PNG as she was there as a missionary herself.

But, as I said, her photos will follow in the next installment of this series 🙂