Hello folks and welcome to my newest dynasty. Part of the fun of this is that it is something I can do from work, as well as from home if I choose.
During the 1980s, game books were a popular fan that drove sales in children’s book departments. It had series like Choose Your Own Adventure to a variety of other books that used intellectual properties like Marvel Super Heroes, Middle Earth, Car Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and more.
There were generally three sorts of game books. The first were plot game books like Choose Your Own Adventure - you read a story, and as you go, you make choices and turn to different pages. These are simple books in the genre.
The second are books that are games. These often involve another person, and you use the book as a medium for a game. Examples of such include White Warlord/Black Baron and such.
Finally, there were game books that used plots along with various rules to have statistics, items, and often had combat that had to be resolved in order to advance the plot or get past a room. These were inspired by the Final Fantasy series. For example, in the Car Wars series, you had one or more cars, various types of guns, ammunition, special items, personal armor, personal items, armor of the car, and more to resolve fights. The most popular series of this sub-theme was Lone Wolf.
There are also a few that blend other types, like Be an Interplanetary Spy, which has a very loose plot, and then you have to do various tricks and games with the eye to advance that plot by going to the right section.
This was a super popular genre. The Choose Your Own Adventure books published over 200 titles and over 250 million books.
With the game/plot game books like Long Wolf being the upper echelon of difficulty, it is impressive that a unique IP was able to win out over other IPs like Middle Earth, Conan, Tarzan, Doctor Who, D&D, and more. In a sea of game books that included either the heavy hitter CYOA or the various IPs, it was the new and interesting Lone Wolf that ruled the roost with 10.5 million books printed. It came out of a very crowded field to bring the best writing, illustrations and game mechanics to the books. No series was as dear to my heart as it, although I certainly loved the Middle Earth and Car Wars series too (they were more complex than Lone Wolf).
For more info on game books, there is a great web resource that has almost every one ever published in English:
Demian's Gamebook Web Page