Watching, listening and interacting with someone else playing a gamebook is an entertaining way to experience our favourite pastime. With modern technology, the internet, and numerous social platforms making it relatively easy to share content and connect with a worldwide audience, quite a few online content creators have produced videos, streams, podcasts and audience-influenced playthroughs on different platforms in recent years.
Gamebook fans will certainly understand the retro appeal of playing an old-school interactive adventure from the Fighting Fantasy series, so it’s no surprise that there’s a decent number of FF playthroughs out there. Here’s just a small selection that GBN has recently enjoyed:
skeletoncrusader
skeletoncrusader’s YouTube channel features a comprehensive collection of Let’s Play videos for classic computer games and gamebooks. There’s a handy Playlist available for all the multi-video Fighting Fantasy titles, so you can easily follow his playthroughs.
A Mug’s Gamebook
Tom Bartlett is a Sound Engineer and Podcast Producer, and was a massive fan of the Fighting Fantasy series when he was growing up. He’s also the creator of the A Mug’s Gamebook series of podcasts where he plays through his old ’90s gamebooks with the assistance of various special guests that he’s previously worked with. Expect tense battles, hard choices, gruesome deaths, lots of laughter, and maybe even a happily-ever-after.
Each episode is full of adventure, fun music and great sound design, enhancing these classic gamebooks beyond just a basic reading session to an immersive experience with a light tone and plenty of interest.
The Podcasts currently available in Season 1 are:
Ep.1 – Jack Howard plays Caverns of the Snow Witch
Ep.2 – Josh Pieters plays House of Hell
Ep.3 – Reb Day plays Demons of the Deep
New episodes should appear every few weeks, so visit the A Mug’s Gamebook website to listen, subscribe, or to find out further information.
Yogscast Live
The Yogscast Live channel on YouTube features an upload of their Livestream for Jingle Jam 2019 (raising money for charity), in which Lewis, Simon & Nina play The Citadel of Chaos.
Much hilarity, and art, is included as they undertake a mission to defeat the dread sorcerer, Balthus Dire, but please be aware that this video does contain some offensive language.
Alison Cybe
A freelance author of fiction and tabletop RPGs, Alison Cybe is currently hosting a Twitter-based interactive playthrough of the Fighting Fantasy gamebook City of Thieves, where readers vote on what choices are made.
Visit Alison’s Twitter page to join in the journey through the dark, twisting streets of Port Blacksand!
Dice Friends
LoadingReadyRun’s Adam plays through Fighting Fantasy gamebooks on YouTube. His humorous adventures for The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, The Forest of Doom, The Citadel of Chaos, The Port of Peril and City of Thieves are quite lengthy (often 3+ hours), so there’s plenty of content available for lovers of both the classic and recent titles in the series.
Add a comment below if you’ve seen and enjoyed any others, as we’d love to connect our readers to further playthroughs that we’re yet to experience.
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