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R. A. Montgomery, Creator of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" Books, Dead At 78

Posted by timothy on from the your-codename-is-jonah dept.

Dave Knott writes Raymond Almiran Montgomery, original publisher and author of the incredibly popular "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series for children, the 4th bestselling children's series of all time, has died at the age of 78. In 1975, Montgomery founded a small press and when, in 1977, Ed Packard submitted an innovative book for young readers, "Sugarcane Island", Montgomery immediately saw it for what it was: a role-playing game in book form. He leapt at the chance to publish it, and launched a series, writing the second book, "Journey Under The Sea", himself. When Montgomery went through a divorce and sold his stake in the press to his ex-wife, he took the series, renamed as "Choose Your Own Adventure", to Bantam. The books went on to sell more than 250 million copies across 230 titles in 40 languages. Montgomery's interests also extended to new technology, adapting the series to the Atari console in 1984. He was also responsible for the Comic Creator software on Apple's Macintosh computers. Montgomery died on November 9th. The cause of death was not disclosed.

80 comments

  1. "The cause of death was not disclosed" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, clearly he shouldn't have turned to page 78.

    1. Re:"The cause of death was not disclosed" by hawkinspeter · · Score: 1

      I think you've just won the internets with that comment.

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    2. Re:"The cause of death was not disclosed" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? You can win the internets with the most obvious joke, the one every person who clicked on this story thought of?

      I was going to open with something like that, then point out that when his biography is published it is ALSO going to have to be a CYOA book.

    3. Re:"The cause of death was not disclosed" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank goodness you didn't post first. When you do it, it's not funny. Your ALSO joke? Lame.

    4. Re:"The cause of death was not disclosed" by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      He choose poorly on page 42.

  2. 400 by Melakh · · Score: 1

    He's gone to the great paragraph 400 in the sky.

  3. Font by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    For those who don't RTFA, it's an obituary on the website of his company, which sells the current incarnation of the CYOA books.
    And the obit's in the same font as the books were.

    1. Re: Font by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just out of curiosity, anyone know the name of the font? Or is it a proprietary, in-house thing?

    2. Re: Font by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      According to this blog post the font is ITC Benguiat.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    3. Re: Font by BitterOak · · Score: 1

      The body text of the books (and the obit.) is in a font called Souvenir.

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
  4. Got you, Mrs. Sampson by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My 8th grade English teacher told us that books were written in the third person, and sometimes the first person. I raised my hand and asked about books written in the second person. She told me there was no such thing. The next day, I came in with "The Mystery Of Chimney Rock" and got a frown from Mrs. Sampson. She had what I found in later life to be a common reaction from the literati when they encounter an inconvenient truth: she disparaged it as garbage literature and said it didn't count.

    Mrs. Sampson, you really disappointed me. Here was a chance to learn something new, and you refused because it threatened your existing view of what literature is.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Thanshin · · Score: 1

      I still hold a grudge over the physics teacher who, after teaching about conservation of momentum, couldn't answer the question "what happens if you flick the extreme of a pencil, in space".

      From that day on, I started questioning everything every teacher told me.

      ...

      Now that I think on it, over two decades later...

      ... Maybe that teacher did me a favor, after all.

    2. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't know that this will make you feel better around teachers in general, but in a lower grade my well-educated teacher was very appreciative of originality.

      I clearly remember writing a story in the second person and using purely phonetic spelling to model accents.

    3. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by MisterSquid · · Score: 1

      My 8th grade English teacher told us that books were written in the third person, and sometimes the first person. I raised my hand and asked about books written in the second person. She told me there was no such thing. The next day, I came in with "The Mystery Of Chimney Rock" and got a frown from Mrs. Sampson. She had what I found in later life to be a common reaction from the literati when they encounter an inconvenient truth: she disparaged it as garbage literature and said it didn't count.

      Mrs. Sampson, you really disappointed me. Here was a chance to learn something new, and you refused because it threatened your existing view of what literature is.

      Unfortunately, many teachers become interested in "education" not because they want to learn and explore but because they want to "master" a field of knowledge. They want to swallow truth whole and digest it so that it will embiggen them. They often don't consider that the domains which constitute knowledge will grow and change as long as there are things that can be known.

      More directly concerning the question of second-person Literature-with-a-capital-"L" Literature, Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City is written in the second-person and is well-regarded by many teachers of creative writing and professors of Literature.

      --
      blog
    4. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1

      That's a perfectly cromulent thing to do around here.

      --
      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
    5. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the teacher's perspective, the balance is more delicate than you might realize.

      Many of the students in the class would see your question as an attempt to undermine the authority of the teacher - wrongly, of course. When you are attempting to hold the attention of 30 bored teenagers, the last thing that you need is your star pupil asking a question that the rest of the class have no interest in.

      Maybe Mrs Sampson was just trying to keep the lesson flow going, so she didn't have to deal with a group of misbehaving youths yet again.

      I would probably have given the initial question about 15-30 seconds of class time, and 1-2 minutes the next day since you'd actually bothered bringing the book in.

    6. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by DMiax · · Score: 1

      I does not have to be a CYOA either.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_on_a_winter%27s_night_a_traveler

      Rule #1 of any art form: if a rule is stated about the art form, someone will break that rule.

    7. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      ...she disparaged it as garbage literature and said it didn't count.

      I run into this all the time. It only illustrates the futility of reasoned argument. Facts just get in the way. The wall goes up, and it's over. All the shrinks have this stuff well documented.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    8. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "what happens if you flick the extreme of a pencil, in space"

      Damn. I can't seem to answer that now. What the hell is the "extreme" of a pencil?

    9. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by hairyfeet · · Score: 2

      Welcome to reality, where many teachers only care about being seen as the end all source of all knowledge and don't like anybody actually challenging their conventions. I know the feeling as I was nearly pushed to the point of coming to blows and dropping out of junior high because the math teacher had it in his head if you were better at math than him? Well you HAD to be a cheat! It was there I learned public schools are nothing but factories designed to crank out middle of the road drones, anyone that isn't perfectly average in every respect will be turned upon.

      As for TFA I had a couple of pulpy horror books written in the CYOA style, universal monsters in comic style, IIRC one even came with a record and you changed tracks depending on your "choices" but IIRC the choices were "follow the story or werewolf bites your ass" so you quickly learned to stick with the A choice LOL. But back then when the closest you could get to an RPG for single player was Atari Adventure and those of us in the flyover states had better odds of a bag of money falling from the sky into our laps than finding a running D&D game the CYOA books was our first taste of the kind of interactivity we take for granted today. RIP Mr. Montgomery and thanks for the fun.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    10. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by MacTO · · Score: 2

      Either the eraser end or the tip of the pencil. The fact that a high school physics teacher couldn't answer the question doesn't surprise me. It isn't a high school level problem. It also isn't the sort of thing that would cause me to question everything that a teacher says. It simply represents a limit to the teacher's knowledge, rather than a teacher communicating incorrect information. It simply means that you have to take an extra step in learning: either looking for other resources or figure out the solution yourself.

    11. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does anyone want to explain what DOES happen, for the non-physics majors of us?

    12. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonanonaon · · Score: 1

      I think it's interesting, judging from the responses here, how many people are still carrying around deep wounds from grade school and junior high.

      I don't say that with aspersion. Everybody is deeply affected by our childhood experiences. But I do think that until one can put these old wounds to rest, it's pretty much guaranteed that we will also be operating under just as thick a layer of automatic programming as Mrs. Sampson was, and maybe not even that different a variety.

      I wonder what would happen if some smarmy kid came to you with rock-solid evidence that 2nd person perspective stories really were shitty?

      Any programming which jumps in and acts out behaviors for us before we can rationally think about whether or not they're good for us, is worthy of review.

      A question without judgment for you: Why not look at Mrs. Sampson as what she really was; a most-likely unremarkable middle-aged woman whose job it was to lead a roomful of young teens through a day of lessons and not lose her soul in the process? You were probably smarter than she was, if not more experienced. But if you never knew her, you'd probably also help her pick up her groceries if you saw her spill them in the parking lot.

      The bigger question I have and which drives me: Why do we set up the education system the way we do? It seriously messes people up for life, installing all kinds of traumas and personality ticks which get in the way of personal development for nearly ever.

    13. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by germansausage · · Score: 1

      My 5th grade science teacher told us all about airplanes and Bernoullis principle and how that produced lift. I asked her how airplanes could fly upside down. She couldn't answer the question, and was most annoyed at me.

    14. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe it would mostly tumble relative to the centroid of the pencil and possibly translate depending on the geometry of the hit relative to the centroid of the mass (a hit perfectly orthogonal to the pencil would just cause it to rotate and not translate). This is not a question a high school physics teacher would be expected to answer except qualitatively. GP was just being a know-it-all prick to the teacher (hence why he hasn't answered here).

    15. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by ubrgeek · · Score: 1

      If you want the answer from a Theoretical Physicist, turn to page 43.

      If you want the answer from a Quantum Physicist, turn to page 63.

      --
      Bark less. Wag more.
    16. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by narcc · · Score: 1

      A shame you missed the Fighting Fantasy series. They weren't for me, but it sounds like they'd have been perfect for you.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    17. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about

    18. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      I recall my 8th grade teacher complaining when I said I liked science fiction; she said it wasn't very good literature. I was offended. To spite her, I got the highest grade by 10 points out of 200 students taking that common course. Don't you look down on me! >:-(

      30 years later, I see her point (though I doubt she could explain her own point if pressed; I have a feeling it was knee jerk meme regurgitation.)

      The ideas are large and wondrous and often genius in scope. The prose is rarely of clever quality, if you put clever phrasing like Shakespeare or Twain as top examples.

      Some can put up some clever banter, but in this sense, the only "science fiction" author I've read who has clever prose even remotely like that of a Twain is Neal Stephenson in things like Cryptonomicon. It's not just grand ideas, but the turn of the phrase is spectacular.

      (TBH I'm not even sure if these count as science fiction. Science faction may be more accurate.)

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    19. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      The fact that a high school physics teacher couldn't answer the question doesn't surprise me. It isn't a high school level problem.

      Perhaps not, but it's a freshman college level physics problem, and it's not all that hard at all conceptually if you understand anything about mechanics.

      And, in fact, if AP physics is offered at a high school, this definitely is a high school level problem. I taught AP physics for a while years ago, and I was intimately familiar with the AP exams -- and some of the rotational problems could be quite a bit more complex than this basic conceptual problem.

      It also isn't the sort of thing that would cause me to question everything that a teacher says. It simply represents a limit to the teacher's knowledge, rather than a teacher communicating incorrect information.

      That's absolutely true. Teachers don't know everything -- and the good ones will admit when they don't. That's okay.

      On the other hand, again as someone who has taught high school physics, this is a basic conceptual problem. Most high school teachers have degrees in their fields -- if someone with an undergraduate degree in physics can't answer this question, there's something wrong. (On the other hand, many states allow a general "secondary science" or "physical sciences" certification, in which case this teacher may not have a physics degree. But still... I don't have a physics degree, I haven't taught physics in many years, and I don't consider this a hard question.)

    20. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      If you're still in search of such a thing, and don't mind fantasy rather than science fiction, Gael Baudino's Water! trilogy has richly complex text that is alternately a reference to or even mirror/parody of the styles of some of the greats: Joyce, Faulkner, and a whole bunch of others I can't remember at the moment. Highly literary, though also quite funny.

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
    21. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      Tom Robbins' "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas" also fits this bill.

      And while not literature, I spent five years doing the writing for a text-based RPG that was all in the second person. It's not uncommon in the game world at all. It actually got so natural I had trouble switching to the third person when I tried writing a novel.

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
    22. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about from an Applied Physicist? Will someone just fuckin' flick a pencil already?

    23. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      a hit perfectly orthogonal to the pencil would just cause it to rotate and not translate

      How would that be possible? You're still imparting momentum to one end, that doesn't simultaneously magically impart the opposite momentum to the other end so that it would rotate in place. There has to be some translation involved.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    24. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Rule #1 of any art form: if a rule is stated about the art form, someone will break that rule.

      With the exception of rule #1? Or is it the right time for my brain to explode now?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    25. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      You didn't have to even pick a CYOA book. It's a bit gimmicky, but writing an ordinary novel in the second person has been done a few times--Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City; Carlos Fuentes's Aura; Charles Stoss's Halting State, to pick a few examples.

    26. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Correct. The correct answer is that the pencil will start spinning *and* moving away from you. And you will start moving away from the pencil, although much more slowly, since you weigh so much more. You'll probably start slowly spinning as well, depending on where the vector of the flick was in relation to your center of gravity.

    27. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      The answer is that lift is actually generated mostly by the angle of attack (air hitting the underside of the wing, pushing the plane up). Bernoulli's principle usually helps, though. Stunt planes that are designed to regularly fly upside down often have symmetric airfoils and don't use Bernoulli's principle at all.

    28. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Why do you think it will spin?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    29. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      From that day on, I started questioning everything every teacher told me.

      Good teachers actively encourage this of course.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    30. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Science Fiction authors who are also serious writers include (off the top of my head)Iain (M) Banks, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Priest, Ursula le Guin, China Mieville and many others.

      The problem with SF is that some very successful authors are actually quite bad writers in terms of style, characterisation and plotting. For example, I wouldn't want to read a "straight" novel by Philip K Dick or Robert Heinlein.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    31. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I think it's interesting, judging from the responses here, how many people are still carrying around deep wounds from grade school and junior high. I may be wrong, but I would interpret this as meaning that the majority of responses are from people still at grade school and junior high.

      Seriously, since I left university, I've hardly ever thought about anything or anyone at school.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    32. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by As_I_Please · · Score: 1

      No exception. Rule #1 is broken by reviving old forms and rules, usually with a Neo- prefix. First examle that comes to mind is Stravinsky's Neoclassical period. Compare The Rite of Spring (which gave birth to the Modern period of classical music) to his Italian Suite, which was the first of his Neoclassical pieces, written seven years later.

    33. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Because a force vector that does not intersect with the center of gravity has been applied. That causes the object to spin. It's the same principle as reaction control system thrusters on spacecraft.

    34. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      No exception. Rule #1 is broken by reviving old forms and rules, usually with a Neo- prefix.

      Inconsequential, since that doesn't actually break rule #1.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    35. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Because a force vector that does not intersect with the center of gravity has been applied.

      Point me to where it says that. In the original post, please.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    36. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Point me to where it says that. In the original post, please.

      He said:

      "what happens if you flick the extreme of a pencil, in space".

      And in a later clarification:

      Either the eraser end or the tip of the pencil

      Looking back at it, I realize that I did assume that the "flick" wasn't aimed down the length of the pencil, but I think that's a reasonable assumption.

    37. Re:Got you, Mrs. Sampson by rdnetto · · Score: 1

      When you flick a pencil in the absence of gravity, you impart both translational and rotational momentum to it, both of which are conserved. Flick it in the center, and it will fly forward, and you backward. Flick it at an extreme*, and while it spins forward, you will spin backward. Flick it anywhere in between, and you'll get some combination of those.

      * I doubt you can flick it without imparting any translational momentum in practice, because your finger is not infinitely thin.

      --
      Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
  5. A programming book with the same format by Snotnose · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Back in the late 60s/early 70's my dad brought home 2 books on computer programming. Each page explained a concept, and at the bottom asked a question. The answers were "foo, turn to page x", "bar, turn to page y". If you chose wrong the page explained why you were wrong.
    I wish I had those books now. I asked dad several years ago what happened to them, he didn't know what I was talking about.

    1. Re:A programming book with the same format by narcc · · Score: 1

      Was it this? Computer Programming Techniques: A TutorText

      TutorText books are a bit difficult to find. I couldn't even find a cover image. On the plus side, I found a dirt-cheap copy of the one above on Alibris It might be worth the risk to pick that one up.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    2. Re:A programming book with the same format by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1

      I've got one or two of those TutorText books tucked away from my dad's collection when he was studying programming ("data processing", as they called it back then) in the late 60s.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
  6. Hey! C'mon you guys... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why aren't I getting any messages in my message box?

  7. Used to love those by whereiswaldo · · Score: 1

    I used to love those Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was in grade school! Though I have to admit, I kept a finger or two between previous pages just in case I died. :)

    1. Re:Used to love those by Scoth · · Score: 1

      I used to keep several fingers at several options, although mostly it was to avoid having to go back through the early options over and over. Some of those books packed at least 20 endings into it. Sometimes I'd end up struggling to actually read it trying to keep all the places marked. Good times.

    2. Re:Used to love those by umdesch4 · · Score: 1

      My favorite one was the space/sci-fi one. My memory is fuzzy, but there was a page where something really cool happens, but it was an unreachable, unlinked page that you couldn't normally get to. I found it because I had a practice of putting a little pencil mark on the corner of every page I read, so I could see which pages I hadn't read, and try to figure out how to get to them.

    3. Re:Used to love those by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I loved these as a kid too. My most memorable ones were "Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey" where you played a young Hardy Boys style boy/girl detective trying to figure out a murder mystery, and two others which had names I can't remember:

      One where you were a young race car driver who, with your uncle, were sent back in time to the 1920's to compete in some long distance car race. There was sabotage by other drivers, and at one point your uncle would outfit the car with a turbo charger and you'd blow everyone else away, but he'd burn the car at the end of the race because the tech didn't belong in that era. You could also encounter a woman who was from a farther future than yourself and she'd tell you not to go back to your time because of an earthquake that destroys most of your country.

      The other involved being on a movie set, and you could take different paths that would have different movie themes to them that came to life (kinda like a Waxworks feel to it), and one involved a vampire that would turn out to be a school principal who would keep you for detention and murder you since you were going to expose him.

    4. Re:Used to love those by whereiswaldo · · Score: 1

      This one sticks out in my mind: I was exploring a strange planet and noticed a shiny object on the sand. Should I leave it or pick it up? I chose to pick it up. The result was: you have found a [something] solar collector that has been lying in the desert for 50 years. You are instantly vaporized.

    5. Re:Used to love those by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My favorite one was the space/sci-fi one. My memory is fuzzy, but there was a page where something really cool happens, but it was an unreachable, unlinked page that you couldn't normally get to.

      I recall that there was one set in the Himalayas and one of the possible endings involved finding Shangri-La. It too was unreachable using any of the story choices.

    6. Re:Used to love those by narcc · · Score: 2

      That was CYOA #12 Inside UFO 54-40

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    7. Re:Used to love those by Quirkz · · Score: 1

      Likewise. When the internet got big enough in the 90's I quickly realized how *nice* it might be to put that kind of book into HTML format. The back button would make reversing so much easier, cut out the need for multiple fingers in multiple pages, and save you the trouble of starting over if you got too far in. I started a story once, but didn't have the persistence to finish it, sadly.

      --
      The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
  8. No the creator... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Ed Packard submitted an innovative book for young readers, "Sugarcane Island", Montgomery immediately saw it for what it was: a role-playing game in book form. "

    So Ed Packard was the creator.

    1. Re:No the creator... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. APM's Marketplace did a radio segment about this a while back.

      http://www.marketplace.org/top...

    2. Re:No the creator... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. The title is correct. R. A. Montgomery was the creator of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" brand of books. He just wasn't the inventor of the style.

    3. Re:No the creator... by westlake · · Score: 1

      "Ed Packard submitted an innovative book for young readers, "Sugarcane Island", Montgomery immediately saw it for what it was: a role-playing game in book form. "

      So Ed Packard was the creator.

      The geek doesn't give half enough credit to the guy who can recognize a good idea, get product on the shelves, and market it successfully.

      The Adventures of You on Sugarcane Island was the exact prototype for books in Bantam's classic Choose Your Own Adventure series. In 1969, and 1970, the William Morris Agency submitted the book on Packard's behalf to several major publishers, all of whom rejected it. In 1976 Packard was able to get the book published by [Montgomery's] Vermont Crossroads Press. In its review of the book, Publishers Weekly called it "an original idea, well carried out."

      Edward Packard

    4. Re:No the creator... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one here mentioned it is the exact precursor to Visual Novels and such. They may not be big in the English Market but they have a respectable market in Japan.

  9. So who created the series? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So some other guy comes in with a CYOA book which Montgonery publishes, then writes book #2 himself and now he's called the "creator"?

    It's like crediting Sony or EMI with creating music.

  10. A good time to stock up on nostalgia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Beware - the wrong option could lead to a bad end!

    Buy a book from a safe, trusted merchant - turn to page 42

    Do an illegal download, like all the cool kids - turn to page 69

  11. Re:Frist 4Sot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You gaze into the deep fissure with despair. Try as you might to forget the image, your nightmares will be haunted by the gaping abyss.

    Your adventure is over.

  12. The first reply you read is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A snarky comment? Turn to comment 35
    Obsessive efforts to politicize the story? Turn to comment 49
    Charming nostalgia? Turn to comment 17

  13. Re:Hey! C'mon you guys... by hawkinspeter · · Score: 1

    Because we all hate you.

    --
    You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
  14. Shouldn't Ed Packard... by mlauzon · · Score: 1

    Be credited as the creator, because by the tone of the article, he invented the concept, and brought it to RAM's company for publishing...!

    --
    Michael
    http://s1.sfgame.us/index.php?rec=58163
    1. Re:Shouldn't Ed Packard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, but that doesn't matter. In America we worship the people who capitalize an invention, not the person who invented it. Wozniack vs. Jobs for example.

    2. Re:Shouldn't Ed Packard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No "we" don't. Only some do, and they are dumb assholes.

  15. Re:Frist 4Sot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stranded on the breakfast planet with a broken leg is no way to live. What few hours remain to you are given over to the boredom, tedium, and growing pain of shuffling the pop-rock land on your knees. I'm afraid for you it is...

    THE END

  16. SF is not Fantasy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, you're must be the person that is happy about bad bookshops merging the SF and Fantasy sections. ;)

  17. Matt Barton's interview from 2010. by antdude · · Score: 1

    He just posted his video interview in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... ...

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  18. Some FOSS CYOA authoring software I wrote ~1998 by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

    http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/...
    https://github.com/pdfernhout/...

    I've been thinking about translating it to JavaScript...

    Thanks for being an (indirect) inspiration, Raymond. Hope you are on to even better things!

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.