For the benefit of those who've never heard of them, Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks would consist of around 400 short numbered passages of text. Typically they would tell a Tolkien-like story, but the reader / player would be given options as to how they wanted the story to develop. This involved presenting a choice of numbered passages to read next.

There were also other rules, generally to do with rolling dice at appropriate moments: to determine the outcomes of fights, or the performance of difficult physical feats.

As a kid, I read several Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. Many years later, while teaching myself CGI programming, I remembered them and felt that Fighting Fantasy would make an interesting subject to practice on. As a programming exercise, I wrote the software featured on this website.

The idea is that the software should be able to drive any Fighting Fantasy Gamebook, so long as the rules don't deviate too far from the basic system. It's just a question of adapting the books into the correct format. I have done this with several amateur gamebooks, Fighting Fantasy Project is the result.

Credits

The website design, the software and format of its associated files are mine, although I make use of the CGIC library which was written by Thomas Boutell.

CGIC, copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 by Thomas Boutell and Boutell.Com, Inc.. Permission is granted to use CGIC in any application, commercial or noncommercial, at no cost. HOWEVER, this copyright paragraph must appear on a "credits" page accessible in the public online and offline documentation of the program. Modified versions of the CGIC library should not be distributed without the attachment of a clear statement regarding the author of the modifications, and this notice may in no case be removed. Modifications may also be submitted to the author for inclusion in the main CGIC distribution.

The featured gamebooks, in their original form, were written by Gaetano Abbondanza, Ulysses Ai, Tammy Badowski, Zachary Carango, Simon Christopher Chapman, Victor Cheng, Kieran Coghlan, Steven Doig, Robert Douglas, Ramsay Duff, Hugh Eldred-Grigg, Richard Evans, Gabe Fandango, Cian Gill, Paul Mc, Gavin Mitchell, Stuart Lloyd, Greg Neill, Simon Osborne, Stacey Paulson, Philip Sadler, Al Sander, Jeff Sinasac, J.P. Smith, Davy Stedham, Steven Taylor, Alessandro Viola, Alec Worley and Andrew Wright.

The artwork is taken largely, but not exclusively, from the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks themselves. Featured artists include Ulysses Ai, Tina Alfredsen, Aztarieth, Peter Balogh, John Blanche, Nikki Callero, Dave Carson, Edward Crosby, Mark Dunn, Les Edwards, Emmanuel, Dave Gallagher, Leo Hartas, Bob Harvey, Damon Hellandbrand, Julek Heller, Dave Holt, Tony Hough, Rado Javor, Matthew Jeffery, Adrian Kleinbergen, Alan Langford, Alex van der Linde, Julius Lee, Iain McCaig, Martin McKenna, Daniel Muchaier, Russ Nicholson, Terry Oakes, Miguel Opazo, Diogo Pereira, Brett Schofield, Tim Sell, Geoffrey Senior, John Sibbick, David Alexander Smith, Duncan Smith, Gary Ward, Susanna Wesslund, Brian Williams, Andrew Wright and Zeppin. All illustrations are copyright © the individual artists.

And of course the whole Fighting Fantasy concept was devised by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

Where possible, I have either obtained or am actively seeking permission from the known sources of the material on this website. If they, or anyone else objects to my inclusion of their work, I will of course remove it immediately.