Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/01/combat-heroes-the-1980s-rpg-gamebook-craze-got-so-wild-they-were-implementing-multiplayer-grid-based-dungeon-crawlers-in-print.html
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There was a similar set of books that depicted a battle between two WWI biplanes, ACE OF ACES, with every page depicting a cockpit view of the other plane and its orientation. Players would give the page number of their maneuver to the other, which after another step would keep the pages in sync. The same company did a set for plane vs observation balloon and iirc a Wild West duel. Simple mechnic cleverly done.
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Yep, I remember playing that game. Apparently you can still get it if you’re willing to shell out.
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The same company used a variant on that system to do a licensed BattleTech game. Instead of a box set you bought books for the ’Mechs individually.
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This is extremely cool and I’m sad I never saw these when I was a kid.
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I worked with them play testing Jet Eagles - it was a ton of fun and Al and Dennis are two of the nicest people you could hope to encounter.
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There is the Inkle game series Sorcery which sticks very close to the pen and ink aesthetics and play-style of it’s source material “Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!”.
Their other games are worth playing as well, particularly for their strong narrative structure.
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My brother had a set of those books with an X-wing against a TIE Fighter.
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Fuuuuuckk, I had forgotten about them! How much of the mid 80s did I spend flipping backwards and forwards in cyoa books? A lot, probably.
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I still have a copy of Ace of Aces. I could get $100 for it? Nah, I’ll keep it for now.
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They made a version of that book with X-Wing vs Tie Fighter. I didn’t have this back in the day, but I did pick it up several years ago. I forget where…
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They also did one like Ace of Aces but it was a gunfight in the Wild West. Bounty Hunter: Shootout in the Saloon.
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You owe me a Coke!
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Me and a friend used to play Ace of Aces in class in high school, as covertly as we could of course. Great times!
I still remember page 223 - that’s where you went if your planes lost sight of each other.
I also bought a copy of the Star Wars fighter version; looks like I’m missing the old west gunfight one though.
Great concept and execution.
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Most of the Lone Wolf books (up through book 29) as well as the World of Lone Wolf books (featuring Grey Star), Combat Heroes, and more are freely available electronically through Project Aon. There’s a Project Aon license linked on this page, but it’s pretty reasonable IMO.
Books 30 and 31 were published (I have copies on my desk at home) but I don’t see them available anymore on magnamund.com. The 32nd and final book is set to be published in two volumes in October 2024 and October 2025.
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Before there was 404 Not Found, there was Page 223.
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IIRC, it was Nova Games that produced a whole line of books that could be mixed and matched for individual combat, called “Lost Worlds.” The system was licensed in Japan for the Queen’s Blade series that was mostly compatible with the original books. I remember looking into how the books worked to try to write my own – it was primarily a large combat results table, with each book permitting a subset of the available actions and results. They didn’t include the dungeon navigation aspect, though. I always thought it would be a great system for low-key LARPs.
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The wild west version is “Bounty Hunter: Shootout at the Saloon”. I have both it and “Ace of Aces”
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I remember playing White Warlord and Black Baron with a friend and we must have been doing it wrong, because whatever we did we never encountered the other player. Cool idea though.
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Well said. “Ace of Aces” was an analogue version of a PvP combat flight simulator video game before any such thing existed. I loved playing it, and still have my set of books on my shelf. Immelmann Loop FTW!
