Dewitos: Doritos-Flavored Mountain Dew Is First Sign of Impending Apocalypse

[butthurt]

Cool green screen.

*pulls on shirt*

[slunken]

TEB - that's amazing

how far back (years) does the collection go and/or what years do the chunk of the collection span?

[Shallowed]

That's an impressive collection. You gotta appreciate the time money and effort that goes into collections no matter what they are of.

[The exploding boy]

that's where you recognize people with a collectors mind (shallowed and slunken).

To answer slunken in more words than is surely necessary (NEVER ask a collector about his collection, you should know that).... well the earliest is The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1982, Fighting Fantasy #1) which I have about four different editions of, all from the 80's. I have the first french edition of it which is fairly rare. In general though it's not valued that much since it's possibly the most popular gamebook of all time and sold millions. It launched the trend.

I have to say here that most of my collection is the French editions (all those that have a white spine with varying colors at the bottom), because these are the ones I read as kid (and hence was deeply nostalgic about, also, i already had about 14 from my childhood in boxes and not to mention its a lot easier to find French books in used bookstores here than English books) and because Gallimard had bought the rights for most of the successful or mildly successful English editions, so whereas for example in English fighting fantasy and Lone wolf are different publishing houses, in French it was all under Gallimard/Folio Junior and their "Un Livre Don't Vous Etes le Heros" banner (A book in which you are the hero) so there's a nice uniform design to them (something collectors like...ill post a sample at the end) AND they are nowhere near as gaudy looking as any of the English editions most of which had ridiculous over the top fonts. All my books are first editions. Gallimard did about four different editions throughout the years but they changed the look and I won't have those. and they never got close to reprinting all the ones from the first edition too.

I also have English versions of a bunch of books but mainly all my English gamebooks are series never published in French (or at least never in their entirety). the ones on the lower shelf are mainly English ones which I have more of now.

Most books of this collection were released between 1984 to about 1991. by the early nineties the fad had died down considerably though some series kept going through most of the 90's but with limited (or rather no) success. The most valued gamebooks aren't from the 80's actually but from the early to mid 90's because since the fad had died down, they didn't print as many and they usually only had one printing. Some of the 90's fighting fantasy can fetch up to 50$ or more. The most valued one I have is the last volume of a French series never printed in English. They didn't print a lot, I've seen it go up for 200$ (for a paperback that is a lot). I got mine for about 80$ on ebay though. I lucked out, I don't know anyone who ever got it for that cheap except if they happened to find it in a used bookstore (good luck with that). I tried to not buy online as much as possible though cause the satisfaction of finding a rare one in a used bookstore is FAR FAR greater then looking for it online where you know you can kinda expect to find it sooner or later. finding a book valued at 30$ for 3$ in a used bookstore (where generally they dont' have a clue or care) is well...nearly orgasmic. The latter Lone Wolf titles also can fetch a pretty penny too. I've go doubles of the last four I found for cheap and i'm hoping to get about 150$ selling them. Not bad for paperbacks.

Still it isn't that much money in total. At best my collection is maybe valued at 1800$ or about 6$ a book. Cause while some few are fairly expensive, the common ones are only worth about 2$.Because the thing was a fad, some bookstore chains were stuck with overstock and twice I managed to find stock of books that had been kept in warehouses unopened since the 80's. There's something geat about buying a book from like 1987 that has NEVER been opened and still smells fresh. Some were books I already had but I replaced them with cleaner copies.

Fighting fantasy STILL releases books but at a rate of about maybe one every 3 or 4 years because they only have one writer now pretty much. What's great is that fans are really involved with the writers now because of the internet and really I feel without the online communities of gamebook fans, none would get published anymore.

I hang out on a french forum of about only 30 regulars and we were directly responsible for getting Gallimard to release their latest re-editions two years back. We got in contact with them and suggested that this time instead of republishing the early ones in order like they always do, to publish those that fans rated as best instead. We also suggested they try to go back to the original design for the covers and they kinda did. They had lost the rights to a lot of those we wanted to see republished (some that hadn't been since the 80s) but they followed our list as best they could otherwise.

I myself keep in contact with my favorite gamebook writer through his blog and twitter (a british guy called Dave Morris). I even like the nerd I am started writing one a few years ago (but kinda stopped 3/4 through though I intend to finish some time... I tried to put too many different paths and got overwhelmed by the complexity of it) and he was interested in reading it and making suggestions. He still republishes his own books because he managed to get the rights back except for those he wrote for fighting fantasy. There's something cool able to interact with someone that is so intimately linked to some of my best childhood memories. Its not like his series sold millions and it was nice to tell him (not that ive been the only one but still) that someone DID care and someone DID notice and appreciate the effort he put into it that the other writers didn't. Interestignly, most of the british gamebook writers all knew each other and came from similar backgrounds (posh universities like oxford) and mot worked as game designers first, often for the same companies. It was very incestuous.




this is what a typical gallimard gamebook looks like:



Series logo at the bottom. Clean simple font for the title. The striking art of most covers does the job of selling the book. no need for gaudy bloody fonts or whatever shit they did in English. Worse, in the US, this specific series changed all covers to make them kid friendly. Don't they get it? I wanted it BECAUSE it looked scary! Children want shit that looks like it's above their age....at least I did.

[The exploding boy]

I cant believe I just typed all this


I never realize until I hit send.

[The exploding boy]

Seriously though tell me what's the best cover, the one I posted above OR

the UK one (with a little mentally challenged dragon):




OR the US one




It has to be mentioned at no point in these books are you playing a modern day kid. Or kid at all. But hey, that's American stupidity for you. I wouldn't have been caught DEAD with a book with a cover like that. I MEAN LOOK AT THIS LITTLE PREPPY TWAT! WTF!? Carrying that book around in grade school or junior high would have been like asking bullies to please steal your lunch money. Also this is supposed to be a scary disfigured demon, not some old man with a beard that seems to be telling the kid to "get off his lawn" (or at least tree). This isn't choose your own adventure bullshit, PEOPLE WILL DIE. No wonder gamebooks tanked in the US. I blame Christians.

[Mals Marola]

Originally Posted by Order 66

some of those specialty Lays flavors are p good.. like the ones you think that wouldnt, like the cappucino ones. also they have pecan pie pringles now i hurd those were good. so i guess the same would be true for soda.

yeah but those were at least interesting in concept

doritos-flavored mountain dew? there's no way in hell that's good

it literally makes me thirsty just thinking about drinking it. thirsty for something else i mean

[Trotskilicious]

Originally Posted by Shallowed

That's an impressive collection. You gotta appreciate the time money and effort that goes into collections no matter what they are of.

well if you're a marxist maybe not

[slunken]

Originally Posted by The exploding boy

Most books of this collection were released between 1984 to about 1991.

edited down.

i was curious how far back those titles span without bothering to look anything up. I had a few handfuls of choose-your-own-adventures but nothing too serious.

[Shallowed]

Originally Posted by Trotskilicious

well if you're a marxist maybe not

Surely even the most hardcore Marxist would be hard pressed to not be impressed. You don't have to approve or agree with something to be impressed by it.

[Shallowed]

Hey exbloy you'd like this video

[Trotskilicious]

i dunno if it's even marxist for wanting people to have less stuff or that collecting lots of stuff is bad or soemthing

[Trotskilicious]

anti stuff

[Shallowed]

Anti-literature?

[Trotskilicious]

literature is a certain thing this is cultural artifacts i will give them that

[vixnix]

i'm weighing in to say that cheesecake is great and my mum used to make cheese and jam sandwiches. And cheddar crusted apple pie is good. And cream cheese on bagels is good. But cheesy corn chips and mountain dew sounds pretty crazy, and cheese in a can is a bit freaky.

you know what I will be forever grateful to americans for though, is the chocolate-peanut butter combo.

we had a chip flavour contest here too, and I think the winners were Meat Pie and Tomato Sauce. :/

My favourite chip flavour is pickled onion, but it's hard to get those here so I go for salt and vinegar.

[Trotskilicious]

you can thank the americas for both chocolate and peanut butter u know