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23 May 2006, 20:02
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#1
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Angry Young Man
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Mister Cacciatore's down on Sullivan Street
Posts: 7,518
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Holy rusted metal batforum
I live in my attic, and its full of crap. Completely. Its an absolute shitefest filled with broken lampshades im not allowed to throw out for sentimental reasons (thanks mum ((() and 20 years worth of my rubbish on the walls (st paddys day hats, football shirts, tickets, etc etc).
As well as this half my clothes rack needs to be sent to the charity shop as its too small for me now. I just moved the clothes rack to find
ANOTHER BOOKSHELF I HAD NO IDEA EXISTED
Now this would be mildly "oh" in itself apart from i recognised most of the books as mine from some point in the recent past. Even in itself, due to my terrible memory (thanks drugs) its not overly suprising that i blanked an entire corner of my room out my existance.
What is suprising though, is i found a book entitled "girls night out", which no, isnt a porn (i skimmed). And i do vaguely remember seeing it before But i dont know why i have it. The funniest thing is, i think i got it free with something, which begs the question
what the **** did i ****ing buy to get this piece of shit?
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Believe in me, cause i don't believe in anything
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23 May 2006, 20:03
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#2
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Has Soup On His Head
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 10,095
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Chalk another one up to the drugs?
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And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new
It was matter for general remark,
Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view
In his zeal to discover the Snark
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24 May 2006, 10:01
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#3
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cynic
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Bishop Auckland Co. Durham
Posts: 8,809
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
hmmm.... was it possibly sponsored or free with some kind of beer? and is it one of those that you turn upside down and its called lads night out on the other side? if so im fairly sure its the beer thing
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lazy
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24 May 2006, 10:53
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#4
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Next goal wins!
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: London
Posts: 5,406
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deffeh
ANOTHER BOOKSHELF I HAD NO IDEA EXISTED
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Is it filled with terry pratchett books, embarrassing "teenage fiction", low brow sci-fi, and those adventure books I can't remember the names of (not the Joe Dever ones (sup nod), the steve jackson ones). Because my old bookcases are. The sheer amount of "point horror" books I read is quite disgusting on its own.
It appalls me when I look at what I read, appalls and nostalgises. There's a whole thread in this: "bad books I read when I didn't know any better".
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bastard bastard bastard bastard
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24 May 2006, 10:57
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#5
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Clerk
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 13,940
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Terry Pratchett's novels aren't bad books. On the whole.
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24 May 2006, 11:00
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#6
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Next goal wins!
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: London
Posts: 5,406
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dante Hicks
Terry Pratchett's novels aren't bad books. On the whole.
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Oh I agree, it's just what I read then. They are also probably the only books on that shelf (- the odd real book that somehow insinuated itself into my teenage reading) I would actually re-read. I do still like Pratchett, someone got me one of his recent books for xmas and I read it.
Having said that, my favourite author when I was a young teen was some dude called Robert Swindell and I would probably read those again. Did anyone else read any of his stuff, it was great, my two favourites were about homelessness and nuclear holocaust (he was a youth author too )
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bastard bastard bastard bastard
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24 May 2006, 11:23
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 8,476
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deepflow
those adventure books I can't remember the names of (not the Joe Dever ones (sup nod), the steve jackson ones). .
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Fighting fantasy, oh **** yeah!
" Creature of Havoc" is probably one of the most surreal things I can remember reading as a kid, I could never work that book out. I wouldnt mind looking through it now to see if it made any more sense. "Citadel of Chaos" was seriously (seriously) awesome, as was "Scorpian Swamp" which I'm sure had some gimmick where you could actually move backwards or something (!!!). "Appointment with FEAR" was another great concept for an adventure book and I loved it so much, but it was ridiculously hard and I dont think I ever completed it. It was one of those difficult books where at key points the next section you had to turn to wasnt given, and instead you had to work it out for yourself using information you had previously collected. Creature of Havok was the same actually I think, which is why it was so damn hard.
I used to think they werent as good as the Lonewolf series because they didnt have the same continuity or background story, but looking back, I'm not sure. Steve Jackson was a genius in terms of originality - all the lonewolf books were variations on the same basic formula, but SJ managed to constantly come up with completely new playing styles and gimmicks. I also really enjoyed his Sorcery! series.
edit: I want to reiterate just how surreally awesome Creature of Havoc was, if you can track down a second hand copy then go for it. Its so different from all other adventure books, and just so hard. It used the 'section number not given' trick more than any other similar book that I had - I vaguely remember something in it where you had to add 120 to your section number if the first sentence was "you find yourself in..." in order to locate secret passages, and there was stuff like that all the way through. It was also one of the most atmospheric adventure book ever, and easily the most intricately designed.
I always thought I was dumb for not being able to finish CoH, but reading around the internet now it was apparently the most difficult gamebook so I feel slightly better
edit2: "House of Hell" was also brilliant, and amazingly atmospheric. I still remember the torture room in that.
here is a link to reviews of all the books.
Last edited by Nodrog; 24 May 2006 at 11:59.
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24 May 2006, 11:57
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#9
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Angry Young Man
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Mister Cacciatore's down on Sullivan Street
Posts: 7,518
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
**** me, i remember Lonewolf. I did that for a bit but i have to admit i was always unfathomably shit at it. I ended up just cheating and not doing the battles, because i always got mauled regardless of what i chose.
__________________
Believe in me, cause i don't believe in anything
And i wanna be someone, to believe, to believe in
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24 May 2006, 12:09
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 8,476
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deffeh
**** me, i remember Lonewolf. I did that for a bit but i have to admit i was always unfathomably shit at it. I ended up just cheating and not doing the battles, because i always got mauled regardless of what i chose.
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That was the difference between Steve Jackson's books and everyone else's - in most of them you could cheat quite easily by just avoiding all the battles or 'fortunately' rolling all your stats as maximum. So although the book could be hard in terms of fights, you could always solve it by just ignoring them and creatively looking ahead whenever faced with a choice. But in SJ's later books you couldnt normally solve the books by doing that, because he made really creative use of the gamebook format. For instance, in one section you might be given a gold key that had the number '87' written on it, and then later on you'd come to a locked door and it would say "if you have a gold key, then turn add 49 to the number written on it and turn to that section now", so if you didnt actually have the key there was no way to cheat (he didnt normally do it in such an obvious way, it was normally more subtle, thats just an example).
I cant remember if Ian Livingston (the other guy who done FF) used the same gimmick, but when I look back at the series now, pretty much all the books I remember being impressed by are the SJ ones.
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24 May 2006, 12:15
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#11
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 8,476
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Also who remembers these?
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24 May 2006, 12:42
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#12
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Twisted
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Down with the sickness
Posts: 2,484
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Girls night out. Kathy Lette. I used to own it. It was a present. It's shit.
It's the kind of shit you get free with womens magazines.
Are you secretly a Cosmo fan Deffeh?
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Me
In my sleep I grind my teeth.
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24 May 2006, 13:10
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#13
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Next goal wins!
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: London
Posts: 5,406
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
I don't have creature of havoc or house of hell I'm afraid I've got about 20-30 others sitting on my bookshelf but I never really liked them that much. Actually, I must have done at some point or I wouldn't have so many, bleh. I always began trying to do it fairly but then after I died once I just cheated the next time. There were a couple I remember being especially good though. One which was basically the same story as Conan the Barbarian (ish, your family were killed by evil dudes, you seek revenge) was brilliant because it stretched over about 20 years of your life and could be employed as a pit fighter or a farmer or whatever for years before you continued your quest for revenge.
Damnit, if I were at home now I could look at them all
Oh, slaves of the abyss I remember being brilliant, not particularly because of the game, but the plot was nice. A few of the plots really were mind-blowingly-vast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nodrog
Also who remembers these?
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I have one of those stored away somewhere, I remember it being fiendishly difficult.
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bastard bastard bastard bastard
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24 May 2006, 13:42
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#14
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Tiny Dancer
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Yellow Brick Road
Posts: 355
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
I have that book
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[16:09] <eJohn> im still standing
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24 May 2006, 13:49
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#15
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Has Soup On His Head
Join Date: Aug 2000
Posts: 10,095
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
My Bookshelf contains Quentin Jardine , Iain Rankin & JRR Tolkien, plus anything relatives have given me that I cant hide for fear of them knowing I think that its absoloute bollocks.
__________________
And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new
It was matter for general remark,
Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view
In his zeal to discover the Snark
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25 May 2006, 00:31
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#16
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 227
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Re: Holy rusted metal batforum
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nodrog
But in SJ's later books you couldnt normally solve the books by doing that, because he made really creative use of the gamebook format.
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They've been doing it since Warlock of Firetop Mountain... The key to open the chest at the end needed a number from a tag written on a key in an earlier part or something.
Seconded on Creature of Havoc, though I distinctly remember one boring summer holiday week, sitting down with paper and drawing out every route possible and whatnot, and finding that it was impossible....
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