I think The Cave of Time is the name. That was my absolute favorite. There was an option where you had to talk to a king and tell him that the sun does not revolve around the earth. But doing this led to your death. That was just awesome. Seeing The End at the bottom of the page and being like ''no, go back!''.
As a kid, I enjoyed many books by R.A..Tattoo of Death was his best CYOA, IMO.Possessed!,Escape!, and Track of the bear were also great books in the series. Project UFO didn't make any sense to me at all while I was reading it as a kid.
I'm one of the 350 million!!! I still remember reading Episode 1: The Cave of Time. I was even inspired to write and illustrate 50 of my own stories. I called them "Choose a Choice Adventures". LOL. I should do a video about them.
Matt. how are you doing these interviews? Are you shipping them a high quality web cam and recording them over the web?
I really loved those books as a kid, I used to read as many of those as I could get my hands on, and I still have them floating around somewhere, too! Great interview, and he really seems passionate about what he does, like a lot of the people you talk to!
i loved CYOA's! Even now, i stil lread them on occasion, ive kinda moved onto bigger books though, liked Freeway Warrior! (Head to AB and ask Fifth Horseman where to get the gamebook. Its preety neat, post apocalyptia and what not)
King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame and Space Rangers 2 are two under the radar RPG's that hardly anyone knows about that have 'choose your own adventure' type quests/adventures. You should check them both out!
@HardWarUK True true! Space Rangers 2 is an all-in-one-boat RPG that has tactical space combat, trading/economics, arcade space shooter combat, 3D real-time-strategy land assaults with mechs(!), and..... choose-your-own-adventure text sequences! Amazing under-the-radar game that gets little respect for what it is.
That having been said, the CYOA missions of the game were annoying to me, and I tried to avoid them wherever possible.
@rowdyrob3d Didn't think anyone would know Space Rangers! Well done for being one of the few....! If oyu like Total War in a Heroes of Might and Magic sort of way, you should check out King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame too - just search 'King Arthur Devs' for the Developer Diaries.... I have the game and I feel it's excellent and just the sort of game Matt should look at! :)
Hey Matt, out of curiosity, where would a person be able to find the books you've published and what are the titles. Are they titled "Dungeons and Desktops" and "Vintage Games"? I read A LOT and would be interested as I'm sure a few of your other regulars would be also.
P.S.- I read what you do for a living and apologize for my grammar, lol.
Matt you really did an outstanding job here, excellent montage and the interview with mr Montgomery was very special. The passion of this man and the loss of his son - how proud he is of his lost son brought tears to my eyes.
Another great Matt Chat! I got into these books when I was in grade school. There were other books similar to this which I'm surprised you didn't mention. Like the Twist-a-plot and Dungeons and Dragons books. Thanks for the great nostalgia.
I used to love reading these Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was younger. I didn't enjoy reading much in school but these books were like a game and for some reason that drew me into them, and anything that can get a child into reading books is great!
I loved these books back when they came out! Before there was the GameBoy there was Choose Your Own Adventure! There were a lot of rip-offs too...anyone remember the Zork books? Or the Dungeons and Dragons books? As I recall, those weren't as good.
They also made an official Choose Your Own Adventure game for 8-bit computers but it seemed kind of missing the point.
Yeah I think there were maybe 3 Zork CYOA-type books. I've got them in my parents basement somewhere--I think I ordered them from that Weekly Reader thing back in grade school. :)
@blacklily8 He probably means 'inside UFO 54-40'. The ending where you reach "Ultima" is an orphan paragraph. You can't reach it by following any story thread. You have to simply flip to the page if you know where it is. This was by design, a reward I suppose for those who read the entire book.
@blacklily8 He probably means 'inside UFO 54-40'. The ending where you reach "Ultima" is an orphan paragraph. You can't reach it by following any story thread. You have to simply flip to the page if you know where it is. This was by design, a reward I suppose for those who read the entire book.
Fantastic interview Matt,really made me think, Mr Montgomery is right that you can't turn your back on life although its easy to do that but so hard to not do it. Awesome interview :)
And i love your intro music, makes me tap my feet every week lol
Great interview and very interesting hearing about the background. Although I don't believe I've read any of the CYOA series, I spent a lot of time growing up playing the Steve Jackson / Ian Livingston Fighting Fantasy CYOA series. I still have these in my loft and have many fond memories of reading / playing through these.
Always look forward to my weekly dose of Matt Chat - keep them coming!
Loved learning about the psycological aspects of these books, I do have a few myself I think. So saddened by your loss Mr. Montgomery, nature did not intend for you to outlive your kids.
Wow, Matt, that's an amazing interview. What a great person R.A. Montgomery seems. I really love his take on education, I wish general education would learn more from such pioneering minds.
Can't say I've ever read the books, but they sound fun.
I'm not sure if I should say I enjoyed the video... "enjoy" doesn't seem to be the right word. Mr. Montgomery touched on the limitations of "rote learning," and I am powerfully in agreement with him.
I like the fact that not only is he still creating CYOA books, he still has a twinkle in his eye as he talks about them after all these years.
Although he has an admirable philosophy about life after a tragedy, we are still saddened by his loss of such a loved one. A rewarding Matt Chat.
I just looked it up. The one I liked was called "The Castle of No Return." There were only 24 of them, and I do not remember liking any of the others I read. Also, one Choose-your-own-adventure book was in space and if you ever screwed up it had a picture of 2 corpses in space-suits, which was you and your best friend. That pic terrified me as a youngster.
What a great video matt. I love these books and have a load on my shelf, just under my GameCube games. I might even make a video about them tomorrow now!? I love these books. And that ending to the video was beautiful... very cool cheers ;o)
Speaking as a 14 year old still in school, my classes are still mostly grinding through note, books, and homework hoping that the next answer that I put is correct.
Any chance you could upload more of these interviews? I got a feeling you have more than 10 minutes that youtube allows you to post in one video. Anyways. Been watching your videos about a month now. Really good stuff.
He seems like a really nice guy. Those books were great fun, and I still have a bunch of them in my attic somewhere. Might have to dust some off and re-live those adventures =)
Excellent! Emotionally powerful too! Not sure what a postmodernists CYOA would've looked like. Perhaps all choices lead to page 46. You read any of Ian Livingstone and Peter Jackson's Fighting Fantasy series?
Great interview. I enjoyed his books when I was younger and it's great to hear some of his opinions. He is a very intelligent man and has some great insight. Thanks for the video.
Truly amazing video, I was addicted to choose your own adventures as a child. I actually made quite a few myself some time ago. Although I'm sure the quality is somewhat different.
I was a big fan of "Time Machine," and had one more game book based on Piers Anthony's Xanth series (that one actually had a thin D&D layer with dice and score cards). Lots of ambitious stuff going on back then.
I remember hearing last year when Joe Dever re-released his old Lone Wolf series. Seems they are in England only though, because every bookstore I go to tells me they never had it and can't get it. Shame too, because I'd love hardcover versions of his gamebooks.
I may surprise you but I've only "read" one "choose your own adventure" book, and I'm supposed to be dead about 20 years ago in one of these pages. I've tried to cheat and try choosing other options but whatever I've tried I didn't do well at all.
Ouch! What I enjoy is getting 4-5 of them and just playing through them every so often, taking different paths and not worrying about getting to the best ending. I just like to see what happens in all the different scenarios!
I read a few of these as a kid. It was always a lot of fun going back and seeing what outcomes the alternative routes held. So I finally have a face to the creative mind behind this series!
I have a niece who is starting to read. I'll have to pick up one or two of these for her to see what she thinks.
I don't see how you can go wrong with these books. I was a bit too old to be read to when these came out, but I can see a kid enjoying choosing the different options.
I'm one of the unlucky people who have only heard of those books, i'll have to find some and check them out!
The concept of learning through playing, and looking at learning from a different angle was actually how i've learned english - Sierra adventures, Dizzy, etc and a dictionary at age 11 or so, and i think i had way more fun then english speaking people, because of the extra exploration.:)
What a great guy, great attitude. I wish modern games were made with such passion and ideology.;)
I actually wrote my own Choose-Your-Own-Adventure when I was about 8-years-old. I was so pleased with my work I took it into school to let the other kids play. They didn't much care for it. Kept asking why they couldn't just jump straight to the end.
Haha. Guess they didn't get it! I also made my own based on the Time Machine series (though with a Sierra slant) : "Time Police," based on Police Quest and Time Machine. :P
I've always wondered if I should give something like that another go. I know there's software you can get that allows for people to write their own and have it as an interactive program on their computer. It's finding the time to do it really, and getting an idea good enough to follow through on.
Yea, Fighting Fantasy and the 4 Sorcery books filled the gap between these books and d&d.
sonedts 1 week ago
i didnt know those were all written by one guy..pretty cool
redshift912 2 weeks ago
Never read his books but i loved Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series when i was a kid.
Winkuru 1 month ago
Man that really touched me about loesing his son, oh man. I can't even imagine...
ItIsTheInvisibleMan 2 months ago
Absolutely enthalling, what an amazing guy.
Jellicoid 4 months ago
I've mostly played Lone Wolf, I must admit. I didn't really know about this guy.
TheWolfgangGrimmer 4 months ago
I love his books. They're so entertaining to read!
Total90Football4 7 months ago
Thank you for this Matt. If it weren't for that guy, I will be stealing cars. He changed my life.
hulksjedi 7 months ago
Great idea in using games in the class room, I wish more teachers thought outside the box .
ShadowlostArts 1 year ago
I think The Cave of Time is the name. That was my absolute favorite. There was an option where you had to talk to a king and tell him that the sun does not revolve around the earth. But doing this led to your death. That was just awesome. Seeing The End at the bottom of the page and being like ''no, go back!''.
bean420man 1 year ago
As a kid, I enjoyed many books by R.A..Tattoo of Death was his best CYOA, IMO.Possessed!,Escape!, and Track of the bear were also great books in the series. Project UFO didn't make any sense to me at all while I was reading it as a kid.
chrisconnell 1 year ago
I'm one of the 350 million!!! I still remember reading Episode 1: The Cave of Time. I was even inspired to write and illustrate 50 of my own stories. I called them "Choose a Choice Adventures". LOL. I should do a video about them.
Matt. how are you doing these interviews? Are you shipping them a high quality web cam and recording them over the web?
vintagevideogamegeek 1 year ago
Great interview, great guy. I'm a huge fan of his books, and now him as well. Thanks for arranging this.
RichardEllwood 2 years ago
I really loved those books as a kid, I used to read as many of those as I could get my hands on, and I still have them floating around somewhere, too! Great interview, and he really seems passionate about what he does, like a lot of the people you talk to!
BackForwardPunch 2 years ago
i loved CYOA's! Even now, i stil lread them on occasion, ive kinda moved onto bigger books though, liked Freeway Warrior! (Head to AB and ask Fifth Horseman where to get the gamebook. Its preety neat, post apocalyptia and what not)
snaged911 2 years ago
Spectacular interview.I loved that series as a child and still have my books from the 80's!
SplatterTrigger 2 years ago
Great interview!!
JackiePaquito 2 years ago
King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame and Space Rangers 2 are two under the radar RPG's that hardly anyone knows about that have 'choose your own adventure' type quests/adventures. You should check them both out!
HardWarUK 2 years ago
@HardWarUK True true! Space Rangers 2 is an all-in-one-boat RPG that has tactical space combat, trading/economics, arcade space shooter combat, 3D real-time-strategy land assaults with mechs(!), and..... choose-your-own-adventure text sequences! Amazing under-the-radar game that gets little respect for what it is.
That having been said, the CYOA missions of the game were annoying to me, and I tried to avoid them wherever possible.
rowdyrob3d 2 years ago
@rowdyrob3d Didn't think anyone would know Space Rangers! Well done for being one of the few....! If oyu like Total War in a Heroes of Might and Magic sort of way, you should check out King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame too - just search 'King Arthur Devs' for the Developer Diaries.... I have the game and I feel it's excellent and just the sort of game Matt should look at! :)
HardWarUK 2 years ago
Awesome video Matt!!! Books like these were the first ones I really read.....but I always cheated to get the best ending :P
I did somme research and in France all the books were under one banner called "Books of which you are the hero".
My memory is very fuzzy but I think I read mostly the fantasy one that were written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston.
You should definitely make a special DVD with all your full length interviews.
Konuvis 2 years ago
Hey Matt, out of curiosity, where would a person be able to find the books you've published and what are the titles. Are they titled "Dungeons and Desktops" and "Vintage Games"? I read A LOT and would be interested as I'm sure a few of your other regulars would be also.
P.S.- I read what you do for a living and apologize for my grammar, lol.
nicholsml 2 years ago
Those are the right titles! Enjoy.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Wow! It's just amazing to actually see the guy who entertained myself and so many of my friends. We were learning stuff without even realising it?
Well I am a bookworm now...
iamthetoddman 2 years ago
I used to love those books!!! They where a stepping stone to AD&D for me, Awesome :)
5 stars!
nicholsml 2 years ago
Me, too! I guess I've been into role-playing for a very long time!
blacklily8 2 years ago
Another fantastic episode.
PixelPerfectGaming 2 years ago 2
Wow - Flabbergasted
Matt you really did an outstanding job here, excellent montage and the interview with mr Montgomery was very special. The passion of this man and the loss of his son - how proud he is of his lost son brought tears to my eyes.
markvergeer 2 years ago
I agree. It's painful but at the same time very uplifting. I know I felt inspired by his words and the fantastic example he's set for all of us.
blacklily8 2 years ago
wow!! awesome topic...i used to go to the library and check out 10 of these at a time in the mid 80's
SVHumper 2 years ago 2
Another great Matt Chat! I got into these books when I was in grade school. There were other books similar to this which I'm surprised you didn't mention. Like the Twist-a-plot and Dungeons and Dragons books. Thanks for the great nostalgia.
sleepyeyedsolutions 2 years ago
There are so many to mention! I haven't heard of all of them, though I did enjoy some of the spin-offs.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Oh and the Zork books! Almost forgot about those
sleepyeyedsolutions 2 years ago
I used to love reading these Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was younger. I didn't enjoy reading much in school but these books were like a game and for some reason that drew me into them, and anything that can get a child into reading books is great!
majinpowers 2 years ago
I agree. A love of reading is so important if you want to succeed in life.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Great interview! I remember hiring these books out of the school library - The content on your channel is some of the best around Matt.
hargcore 2 years ago 3
@hargcore I totally agree, Matt your channel is on its own level nothing really on You tube comes close.
majinpowers 2 years ago 4
Wow, guys, thanks!
blacklily8 2 years ago
I loved these books back when they came out! Before there was the GameBoy there was Choose Your Own Adventure! There were a lot of rip-offs too...anyone remember the Zork books? Or the Dungeons and Dragons books? As I recall, those weren't as good.
They also made an official Choose Your Own Adventure game for 8-bit computers but it seemed kind of missing the point.
cybersalad 2 years ago
I have a regular novel based on Enchanter, but no Zork CYOA. I seem to recall them, but my brain is fuzzy. Hm. Might have to look them up. ;)
blacklily8 2 years ago
Yeah I think there were maybe 3 Zork CYOA-type books. I've got them in my parents basement somewhere--I think I ordered them from that Weekly Reader thing back in grade school. :)
cybersalad 2 years ago
Great episode! The Choose Your Own Adventure books had a big influence on me growing up.
6stringmonk 2 years ago
Very well done Matt. There was a book where getting the "good" ending was impossible. I know cause I cheated ;) forgot the name of it though
dwcai81 2 years ago
Really? Love to know which one that was.
blacklily8 2 years ago
@blacklily8 He probably means 'inside UFO 54-40'. The ending where you reach "Ultima" is an orphan paragraph. You can't reach it by following any story thread. You have to simply flip to the page if you know where it is. This was by design, a reward I suppose for those who read the entire book.
pendell2 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@blacklily8 He probably means 'inside UFO 54-40'. The ending where you reach "Ultima" is an orphan paragraph. You can't reach it by following any story thread. You have to simply flip to the page if you know where it is. This was by design, a reward I suppose for those who read the entire book.
pendell2 1 year ago
@dwcai81
I think i read that one, was it named "Inside UFO 54-40"?
ymarky7 6 months ago
Fantastic interview Matt,really made me think, Mr Montgomery is right that you can't turn your back on life although its easy to do that but so hard to not do it. Awesome interview :)
And i love your intro music, makes me tap my feet every week lol
Snestastic 2 years ago
Thanks! He was great fun to interview; practically interviewed himself!
blacklily8 2 years ago
Nostalgia bomb, i still have 3 of those books over here
reaven666 2 years ago
Yes, I'm one of them! I think I have at least two of those in my bookshelf back in my hometown! I still like to take them out now and again :)
Mr. Montgomery seems like a fantastic man. I wish more people had his view of education, just wanting to try something different!
TanukiKGA 2 years ago
It's inspiring stuff!
blacklily8 2 years ago
Great interview and very interesting hearing about the background. Although I don't believe I've read any of the CYOA series, I spent a lot of time growing up playing the Steve Jackson / Ian Livingston Fighting Fantasy CYOA series. I still have these in my loft and have many fond memories of reading / playing through these.
Always look forward to my weekly dose of Matt Chat - keep them coming!
MrAcrin1 2 years ago
I haven't read those, though I did read Time Machine and so on. Loved them all, really.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Loved learning about the psycological aspects of these books, I do have a few myself I think. So saddened by your loss Mr. Montgomery, nature did not intend for you to outlive your kids.
SuperChuck3 2 years ago 2
Wow, Matt, that's an amazing interview. What a great person R.A. Montgomery seems. I really love his take on education, I wish general education would learn more from such pioneering minds.
Can't say I've ever read the books, but they sound fun.
HalfBlindGamer 2 years ago 2
I'd seek out a few just to see what all the fuss was about. I'm sure you can find them at the library or in almost any bookstore.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Great interview, a lot of fun (and very interesting) to watch. Loved these books as a kid.
I'm impressed with how you manage to get such cool people in your videos!
laffer35 2 years ago 3
Thanks, laffer. It's amazing how many great people are out there willing to be interviewed.
blacklily8 2 years ago
That's a profound message from R.A. Montgomery. Great episode Matt! Very emotinal. =)
QuickSciFi 2 years ago
"emotional." Lol.
QuickSciFi 2 years ago
Comment removed
feldhamer 2 years ago
I'm not sure if I should say I enjoyed the video... "enjoy" doesn't seem to be the right word. Mr. Montgomery touched on the limitations of "rote learning," and I am powerfully in agreement with him.
I like the fact that not only is he still creating CYOA books, he still has a twinkle in his eye as he talks about them after all these years.
Although he has an admirable philosophy about life after a tragedy, we are still saddened by his loss of such a loved one. A rewarding Matt Chat.
rowdyrob3d 2 years ago 7
I know what you mean. Tragic yet still carrying on and encouraging others to do the same. Powerful.
blacklily8 2 years ago
Great get, great interview and a wonderful ending. Congrats!
BillLoguidice 2 years ago 2
Now that was an amazing person to interview, thank you Matt.
skateblind007 2 years ago 3
I had a book called a "which-way-book" that was basically a cheap rip-off. But I liked one involving a mansion alot.
AirPhforce 2 years ago 2
Which Way Book? Haven't heard of those. I wonder how they compare?
blacklily8 2 years ago
I just looked it up. The one I liked was called "The Castle of No Return." There were only 24 of them, and I do not remember liking any of the others I read. Also, one Choose-your-own-adventure book was in space and if you ever screwed up it had a picture of 2 corpses in space-suits, which was you and your best friend. That pic terrified me as a youngster.
AirPhforce 2 years ago
@AirPhforce yeah thats it! That one frustrated me.
dwcai81 2 years ago
What a great video matt. I love these books and have a load on my shelf, just under my GameCube games. I might even make a video about them tomorrow now!? I love these books. And that ending to the video was beautiful... very cool cheers ;o)
interghost 2 years ago 2
I'd love to see your video!
blacklily8 2 years ago
Speaking as a 14 year old still in school, my classes are still mostly grinding through note, books, and homework hoping that the next answer that I put is correct.
someonefromsomewere1 2 years ago 3
Any chance you could upload more of these interviews? I got a feeling you have more than 10 minutes that youtube allows you to post in one video. Anyways. Been watching your videos about a month now. Really good stuff.
kimmolind 2 years ago 2
Yes, I have plenty of additional material. I guess I should release an outtakes video at some point.
blacklily8 2 years ago
He seems like a really nice guy. Those books were great fun, and I still have a bunch of them in my attic somewhere. Might have to dust some off and re-live those adventures =)
Great vid.
CrazySandtrooper 2 years ago 3
Go for it!
blacklily8 2 years ago
Excellent! Emotionally powerful too! Not sure what a postmodernists CYOA would've looked like. Perhaps all choices lead to page 46. You read any of Ian Livingstone and Peter Jackson's Fighting Fantasy series?
marcusmalone 2 years ago 4
Haha. I know they get talked about a lot in postmodern lit. I guess the ultimate PM one would have you turning to random pages or some such.
blacklily8 2 years ago
lols.
marcusmalone 2 years ago
Great interview. I enjoyed his books when I was younger and it's great to hear some of his opinions. He is a very intelligent man and has some great insight. Thanks for the video.
DlNKYDANA 2 years ago 3
Truly amazing video, I was addicted to choose your own adventures as a child. I actually made quite a few myself some time ago. Although I'm sure the quality is somewhat different.
Thanks again Matt great video
Leon200079 2 years ago
Comment removed
Leon200079 2 years ago
Comment removed
Leon200079 2 years ago
Choose your own adventures were great (Have about 40 from my childhood in my attic) but Interplanetary Spy was FAR better.
Also, there was "Legend of the Kai", "Wizards & Warriors", "Time Machine" and a series of D&D books too. All modeled after Choose Your Own Adventures.
TwelveFortySix 2 years ago 2
I was a big fan of "Time Machine," and had one more game book based on Piers Anthony's Xanth series (that one actually had a thin D&D layer with dice and score cards). Lots of ambitious stuff going on back then.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I remember hearing last year when Joe Dever re-released his old Lone Wolf series. Seems they are in England only though, because every bookstore I go to tells me they never had it and can't get it. Shame too, because I'd love hardcover versions of his gamebooks.
TwelveFortySix 2 years ago
I may surprise you but I've only "read" one "choose your own adventure" book, and I'm supposed to be dead about 20 years ago in one of these pages. I've tried to cheat and try choosing other options but whatever I've tried I didn't do well at all.
newcoleco 2 years ago
Ouch! What I enjoy is getting 4-5 of them and just playing through them every so often, taking different paths and not worrying about getting to the best ending. I just like to see what happens in all the different scenarios!
blacklily8 2 years ago
I read a few of these as a kid. It was always a lot of fun going back and seeing what outcomes the alternative routes held. So I finally have a face to the creative mind behind this series!
I have a niece who is starting to read. I'll have to pick up one or two of these for her to see what she thinks.
Soulgotha 2 years ago
I don't see how you can go wrong with these books. I was a bit too old to be read to when these came out, but I can see a kid enjoying choosing the different options.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I'm one of the unlucky people who have only heard of those books, i'll have to find some and check them out!
The concept of learning through playing, and looking at learning from a different angle was actually how i've learned english - Sierra adventures, Dizzy, etc and a dictionary at age 11 or so, and i think i had way more fun then english speaking people, because of the extra exploration.:)
What a great guy, great attitude. I wish modern games were made with such passion and ideology.;)
crusader666 2 years ago
Me, too. It's very hard to get educators to change, though.
blacklily8 2 years ago
I actually wrote my own Choose-Your-Own-Adventure when I was about 8-years-old. I was so pleased with my work I took it into school to let the other kids play. They didn't much care for it. Kept asking why they couldn't just jump straight to the end.
MaxxPower101 2 years ago
Haha. Guess they didn't get it! I also made my own based on the Time Machine series (though with a Sierra slant) : "Time Police," based on Police Quest and Time Machine. :P
blacklily8 2 years ago
I've always wondered if I should give something like that another go. I know there's software you can get that allows for people to write their own and have it as an interactive program on their computer. It's finding the time to do it really, and getting an idea good enough to follow through on.
MaxxPower101 2 years ago