As a child, I grew up with a lot of "Choose Your Own Adventure" gamebooks popular in late 1970s and early 1980s.
This page showcases some of the best gamebook and solo adventure/RPG series ever made, including some rare
gamebook comics. Since there is a very small chance that these books will see the light of day again, especially
since many copyright holders (such Byron Preiss) no longer exists and all these books have been out of print for
over a decade, I have decided to scan and compile these gamebooks from my own collection into PDF format, so
that old-timers can relive the old days, and younger visitors will have a chance to experience first-hand this
primitive-but-fun form of interactive entertainment that was popular long before the rise of computer games.
Before I forget: we are also looking for a few gamebooks to complete this collection. If you have any
gamebook that is in the same series we scanned, that we don't yet have (i.e. anything that is not marked
[complete series] in the list below), please e-mail us. We'd like to complete every series in the collection :)
I will continue to add new scans as time permits to complete each of the series featured here, so keep your eyes
peeled :)
All books have been scanned and compiled in Adobe PDF format. You can either print it out or play it on-line in
Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 4.0 or higher required). Hyperlinks have been
added in most books for your convenience, so you can jump to page X or box X by just clicking on "Go to X"
passages. Please note that our "one download at a time" restriction applies to these books, so please don't
download them all at once.
Many gamebooks, especially "solo RPG" adventures such as the Fighting Fantasy series, require you to roll
dice to determine combat outcomes. If you don't have any RPG die (6-sided typically), feel free to use this
handy RPG Dice Roller [3KB zipped].
Recommended gamebook links:
- Demian's Gamebook Web Page - the best gamebooks site on the
Internet, bar none. Demian's site features a comprehensive database of gamebooks, reviews, gallery, and many
more.
- Choose Your Own
Adventure subgenre on HOTU - many interactive fiction games using gamebooks' multiple-choice format.
- Lairs.com - a wonderful on-line store that sells nothing but gamebooks.
Here, you can find many series, including rare classics such as Zork gamebook.
- Project Aon - a must-visit site that provides free downloads of
Lone Wolf fantasy gamebooks, courtesy of author Joe Dever.
Available gamebooks series:
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