"Choose Your Own Adventure" On Your iPhone

If you spent a good portion of your childhood reading the classic "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, you'll be glad to know that you can soon waste countless hours at work turning to random pages on your iPhone. Edward Packard, one of the original authors of the series, has helped create an app called U-Ventures which uses special effects to create a story in the traditional Choose Your Own Adventure format. From the article: "The first U-Venture is a sort of a sequel to a classic title, The Cave of Time. In 'Return to the Cave of Time,' the U-Venture, 'you go back in the cave — you don't have a choice on that,' Packard tells NPR's Neal Conan. But from that point on, the reader chooses her own course."

Comments

Digitized digital bookmarks.

[tacarat]

Mr. PACKARD: Well, we have a bookmark feature. So, for instance, if you get to a choice and - you can bookmark that page. And then if you go on, you make your choice and you go on to various other adventures and you finally come to an ending, but you want to see what would have happened if you go and made the other choice, you can go back there. But otherwise, you know, you get to the end of the story. We don't want to make it - we didn't want to make it so you just could flip back and forth aimlessly like some kind of computer game. We wanted to make it where there's a real story, and it goes on and on surprisingly long and - or usually, unless you come to a bad ending.

Oh good. I was worried there wouldn't be a way to do this. I vaguely remembering keeping two to three fingers firmly inserted in various sections of the book to backtrack if I made bad choices. I wonder if my imaginary /. girlfriend appreciates what I learned by doing this in the 3rd grade >.>

Re:Oh, really

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait till you see the next article - a nostalgic snake game for the iphone done *entirely in JavaScript*. The app actually opens a browser for you. And the web page is public. But there's now an app that opens that web page FOR you.

Now that's revolutionary.

Re:does it have a point in this medium?

[bcmm]

The thing that made choose-your-own-adventure books interesting was essentially hacking a limited notion of interactivity into a non-interactive medium

And the iPhone is all about hacking a limited notion of interactivity into a fundamentally completely interactive medium...

Re:Oh, really

[sakdoctor]

The slashvertisement tag is redundant in the apple section.

(Press releases for hipsters. Stuff that's shiny.)

Re:"Her" own course?

[LingNoi]

What makes a good man go neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?!

Choose your own adventure?

[strokerace]

Choice? Oh man. Steve Jobs isn't going to like this.

Choose your adventure

[bigtone78]

Personally I loved the "Choose You Own Adventure" books as a kid. I just wish there was one of these books based on modern office life:

Your boss decides to rip you a new one.

Turn to page 50 to deny you manhood, tuck you tail between your legs and take it like a $10 hooker

Turn to page 69 to drop kick him in the chest and set his desk on fire.

Re:Oh, really

[mark72005]

Sadly, you were holding the phone wrong as you made that fateful choice. You realize your life is over as you see the sea monster's jaws open and all goes black.

                                                                                      THE END

Isnt

[SnarfQuest]

Haven't they had one of these available for a long time. An adventure that only a small percentage can ever make it through to the end. I think they call it "customer service".