Lone Wolf Game Books: The Epic Saga
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2024
- What do you get when you put together a masterful scenario, awesome illustrations, well-designed rules, and addictive gameplay extending over several volumes of an epic story, where YOU are the hero? The answer is Lone Wolf, the most exciting and successful gamebook series ever!
Written by Joe Dever, its ironclad scenario applied not only to each individual volume, but also extended to the entire series, transforming it into an epic saga.
It also benefited from the most amazing illustrations of all gamebooks, by Gary Chalk, whose work influenced the heroic fantasy domain for many years.
Lone Wolf became a mythical series and created a whole universe of its own, with enormous numbers of fans. A group of them launched Project Aon: a great initiative aiming at publishing all of the Lone Wolf book series online, with the authors and illustrators permission.
www.projectaon.org
Special thanks to Richard Travale for the voice over.
If you want to support this channel:
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0:00 Intro
0:23 About Gamebooks
1:13 About Lone Wolf
2:35 Summary of each volume in the series
4:45 Grey Star The Wizard: the other series
5:48 Specific Features of Lone Wolf
9:54 Conclusion - Zábava
We like gamebooks here! And Lone Wolf is an incredibly rich series. Stay tuned for more on this...
Twenty years ago a group of fans launched Project Aon: a great initiative aiming at publishing all of the Lone Wolf book series online, with the authors and illustrators permission. You can reach it at www.projectaon.org
there is also Lone Wolf Saga app for your android device, probably one for apple devices too.
Lone Wolf was my childhood. I began the first book when I was 10 or 12 and would always save my allowance to go to the bookstore whenever a new volume was released. I completed book 20 the year I graduated from high school. Magnamund will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Many thanks Jonathan for your interest and your feedback. Glad you enjoyed!
I’m a huge fan of lone Wolf - what a wonderful universe Joe Dever created.
If you take the sheer size of the literature, we’re talking something that easily rivals Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones etc in scope.
I really hope it gets it’s deserved recognition someday!
Thanks for covering it….
Sure, a small universe of its own, which is already a great achievement.
Lone Wolf is my childhood masterpiece. I am glad they release the Definitive Edition so i can share the experience with my son.
loved this series even though I only read a handful of the books (RIP Joe Dever). bless the authors for re-releasing them in full for free to the fans (including some of the later "broken" books) via project Aeon! Gary Chalk is a favorite here for his work on HeroQuest illustration as well (not to mention Warhammer fantasy).
Thanks for sharing!
Project Aon is a great resource.
did they ever make the french translation part of those archives?
Cuz i never got the original english books, only the french series's book7which I got as a gift to start me on the path
Just discovered Lone Wolf. I wish I knew about this series 15 or even 20 years ago!
Thanks for your interest!
I remember reading them. There really is nothing like them on the market today.
Yes! So cool to see someone giving the Lone Wolf series the credit it deserves...and in modern day, too! I love that apparently due to videos like this, brand new readers are just _now_ getting into the series. :D I myself read them starting in like, I think, the late '80s/early '90s? and never knew of the "New Order" books until I looked up Lone Wolf online, but I do still have my copies of the original 20 (American versions).
I was a MASSIVE fan of Choose Your Own Adventure books ever since I was a kid (still have a butt-ton of those, too) and had also always been fascinated by D&D and other tabletop role playing games, so the idea of a series that was a combination BETWEEN those two, absolutely fascinated me. Add in the (as far as I knew back then) unique factor of getting to not only keep but _progress_ the SAME CHARACTER, levelling up and keeping items, all throughout the series AND the way the storyline keeps building on itself, and let's just say every time I saw a new (at the time) Lone Wolf book on the shelves, my money was already flying out of my pocket. :)
Many thanks for your feedback, Robin!
Indeed it clearly appears that the first FF gamebooks fillled a gap for many RPG lovers at that time, by combining previous good initiatives into a whole new dimension.
You're also right to mention that videos like this encourage new generations to try the old game books. I'm actually surprised (in a positive way) because I thought this would only trigger the nostalgia fiber in people like us :)
Really comforting to see there are so many who didn't forget about these books.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Nicely produced video.
Glad you enjoyed it
My brother just texted me last week and asked if I remembered these books. I said "Yeah only every time I hear Bon Jovi or Billy Idol." I used to listen to them a lot while reading these.
I still have my Original Lone Wolf books in my Library. I only have the 1st 12 as I never knew there were any more until a few years ago. I still have the 1st dozen Fighting Fantasy and a few other more obscure ones but the Lone Wolfs were always my favourite. The Maps are absolutely gorgeous.
You're lucky to still have them!
Those are the best parts of the series. After that it's still ok but not wonderful anymore and it even turns dull. I wonder if the departure of Gary Chalk from the series did not deprive Joe Devers from a lot of inspiration. Same with Ian Page, the grey star ranks amongst the best books Joe ever did imho.
Absolutely right! Thanks for sharing
Nice video. I am glad I still have a few of my old books.
Lucky.
Lone Wolf was my first introduction to gamebooks (and roleplaying games in general) when a friend gave me a copy of _Fire on the Water_ for my twelfth birthday. A few of my other friends had discovered the Fighting Fantasy series and I got into those too, but I always preferred Lone Wolf for the deeper worldbuilding and the darker tone. What really set it apart was the fact that you could carry your stats, equipment and loot from one book to the next and play it as one ongoing saga. I recently got a friend who's a giant Star Wars fan into the series by telling her the Kai Lords are a lot like medieval Jedi knights. And Project Aon is a godsend.
Absolutely. Although Lone Wolf was not the very first continuous adventure: Sorcery allowed you to do so in its 4 volume series. But it was just one year difference, so...
And not one of the many subsequent gamebook series ever matched LW's perfect RPG system and deep scenarios. A real legend.
Great review! The Peter Andrew Jones covers weren't on the original editions though. They were from when the older books (1 to 12) were republished when the Kai Grandmaster series (13 to 20) started to come out. The covers for the first editions of books 1 to 6 in the UK were by Gary Chalk, then various different artists (mainly Brian Salmon) did the covers of 7 to 12 and later editions of the first 6 before the PAJ covers were put on the whole series. Different artists did the covers in the US.
Thanks for the heads-up here! Right, there were so many different UK/US editions that it's difficult to sort all out properly.
Oh I was wondering about that. Should have looked at the comments first. Yeah, Gary Chalk's work is a cut above all the rest. You're getting into Boris Vallejo conan, eerie, etc. masterwork there with that original artwork. Glad to see they kept the inside book art the same though.
I like the first five books of Lone Wolf. I also really love the four GreyStar books.
thanks for sharing.
Good job, and the choice you made for the music (Wagner, opening of "Parsifal" if I remember well) matches very well with Lone Wolf epicness! Thank you!
Absolutely. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Thanks for the name!
@@SP8inc you welcome. People are afraid of classical music , but its majestuous! :)
Im working on my first video now of my playthrough on book 1 - pretty sure I learned of Lone Wolf due to this excellent channel so thank you and THANK YOU for another amazingly high quality, informative video!
And thanks to you too for your interest!
I'll definitely take a look at your video when done :)
I still have my Magnamund Companion... Picked it up a few weeks ago out of a box in my basement. Couldn't resist, I sat down and thumbed through it again. Smiling.
Thanks for sharing 😃
When I played the first book, I didn't go to the Ruins so I never met the renegade Kai Lord. So I met him in the second book Lone Wolf had no idea who he was and got caught in his trap. Luckily Summerswerd got me out of it but it just goes to show you how deep this gamebook seires is.
Same here!
In fact there were several important key points in the books that you could overlook and still win it.
Growing up in the 80s, this series does have a special place in my childhood memories. I do have a couple of the old books but most were from my public library.
By the way, I do have all four Grey Star books.
Currently reading the lone wolf books on the app and have also downloaded the grey star series.
Highly recommend the app, and your pencil never actually slips to a different number......come on, you all know we did it at some point back in the day! 😁
Breaking news.
It Is being reprinted in Deluxe format and Is finally getting a conclusion with volumes 29-32 even of Joe dever has passed away..
Great video! love it, well done. It mentions 30 books, it is already 31 books in the series and it will end with 32. When speaking about Vontotar we see an image of another mage first, Banedon... not sure if that was an error or just bad timing, all in all GREAT video, huge thanks!!!
Yes it's Banedon, it's not supposed to be Vonotar. I just wanted to have a picture from each of the first three books. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Well you hear about Vonotar's betrayal when meeting Banedon therefore it's not really a mistake.
Best gamebooks ever!
Great video and even greater memories. Almost making me want to embark on a quest up into my parents attic to go look for any books that might have gotten boxed up lol. I 100% percent agree the story telling and world creation was incredible and hope to see Lone Wolf come to life one day. With all of the unwanted remakes churning out of Hollywood lately it seems like they might be starved of ideas and could use something fresh.
Thanks for your interest and your feedback!
Lone Wolf rules
These books were a big part of my childhood and my favorites to this day. I still have the four greystar books and twenty of the lonewolf books.
Thanks for sharing... It was, for many of us
The music of Excalibur when you talked/showed the Sommerswerd was a really nice touch. Both were my favourite magic swords from my childhood. But I do not think you could beat the books withouth the sword of the sun.
Wagner, Parsifal yes. You're right, it's difficult without the sword, yet it's still possible
This book is my introduction to D&D genre. Love to collect them all
So many good memories regarding this gamebook series specifically.🌙✨✨✨
Wow, I wish I had known about this series when I was a kid. I loved Choose your own adventure, but never heard of Lone Wolf.
Great video! Lovely to see LW getting love.
loved lone wolf as a kid. read them all over and over. so legendary dever gave his blessing for project aon. what a great guy!
Thanks for sharing!
One of my all time favourite gamebook series. My mom bought me a copy of Shadow on the Sands back when i was in elementary school and i was hooked. Got all the books as they came out up to 20. After that, for years i thought that was the end of the adventure because little did i know, the US just didn't get the rest of the series. On top of all that, i found that the US got jipped on books 13-20; we got shorter abridged version! That was an expensive venture turning to ebay to attempt to get all these 'new' books for my collection. I managed to get the original UK version of 13-20, plus i picked up 1-5 as well (the US version never did have colour maps, more things i was missing out on). I was only able to get 4 of the New Order books as they were ridiculously expensive. Definitely a series i play every few years... made even easier with Project Aon and the books online.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
You seem to like them even more than I do, since I was mainly into the first 8 books. After that when Gary Chalk left the project as the illustrator, I found that the series lost their charm.
But yes it's a fact that international editions were largely different from one another.
Own every single book in the Lone Wolf series.. I also loved QUEST - re-released as Fabled Lands, Those books were excellent as you could be reading one book and travel back to a place in other books which was fricking awesome. Need to get items from a castle from book 2, you can travel back there and than pick up in book five after you safely traveled back.
Thanks for sharing!
'Fabled Lands' is the *original UK* name of the series (and is also the named used for it's PC adaptation on Steam); "Quest" was the name used when they were released in the US for some reason; only the titles are different between the two releases , the internal text and pictures are exactly the same.
To add to the confusion, the authors of the series are *also* releasing a series of single/self contained stories (vs the original "free roaming/multi-regional" series) set in the same universe called "Fabled Lands: Quests", the first release of which ("The Keep of the Lich Lord") is actually a remastered version of a story the Authors originally published as a "Fighting Fantasy" Gamebook (just to make it even more confusing 😉).
The table replaces the need for a d10, but if you have a d10, you might as well roll it so that you don't have to flip back and forth if that's not your thing.
Your sir are doing an exemplary job keep up the good work👍
Thanks a lot, appreciated!
Only had the first two. They had something of very satisfying, maybe the progression of the hero's powers from one book to another.
Man, the art looks sooo great!
To be honest, we didn't got the colourfull map in my country. That's gorgeous!
In France neither. It was the case for editions in English only.
I never played gamebooks before. And already this video makes me want to take a new hobby:)
Glad to hear that :)
these and choose your own adventure books are the best 🤘
Lone wolf and highway Warrior were my jam growing up. Lol
Love your channel and your reviews! Props to you for choosing the Ouverture of Parsifal as background music for this review, so appropriate
Thanks a lot for mentioning this! In fact I'm always worried about how music would be received by you guys... It's a key aspect to me. Not just an extra.
"If you have the Sommerswerd..."
Just was making comment about that. That was everywhere in every combat. I cant think what anoyance it must have been to those that didnt pick it up.
Excellent video guys, very well done! Love the Lone Wolf books, such a fun series.
Thanks a lot.
Very interesting and informative video!
Game books are very intriguing but, unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to find them in local bookshops. I suppose they aren't nowadays as popular as they were once and generally they aren't very much considered, except by the already existing fans (correct me if I am wrong).
I am so happy to see that there is a website with some of these books re-released for free, because it allows people like me to discover how they were. They take the best from both books and games world: the beauty of ink and illustrations on paper, an engaging story and the interactive approach typical of games in general.
That's exactly like this, these books clearly answer to a need for players of that time, when computer games weren't yet so developed and people were still used to reading. Thanks for sharing, BTB!
Lone Wolf was my first gamebook more than twenty years ago, before the advent (in my case) of RPG video games like Final Fantasy. Today I am a father and a software engineer by profession. I was wondering: it might make sense to create an app/website to give new life to this genre of books. Something that allows you to have the experience of pen and paper, but with the possibility of sharing the gaming/reading experience with other people? I'm familiar with the AON project, but I'd like something more gamified.
Grow up with it in mid 90s when I was 10 😁 quite an alternative to video games
Excellent review of the series. Kinda liked that you put the original version and the following ones. Even those in french (that I have). Didn't knew there was a spinoff. I thought it was another series as itself. :)
Thanks! Indeed it can also be viewed as a series in itself, but it's officially derived from the same story, so...
just blown first the first 2 books! love it. works great reading on pdf as you can click the hyperlinks to change pages. it awesome that your character actually gets to develop
Could you "win without it?" Maybe technically, but there are some nearly impossible fights without it later on.
I have 1-18 and many doubles or triples, but none of the new ones. Big fan.
Thanks for sharing :)
OK, why this doesn't have a million views?
May they hear you ;)
ahhhh I have Greystar the wizard, now I have to dig it out of storage and read it again )
Lucky to still have it!
I have no idea why this video popped up in my recommendation but I am so glad that it did, never heard of adventure books before. I instantly bought the first volume and I cannot wait to dive into it 😁
Glad to hear that! Which one did you get, the Warlock..?
Thank you for doing this video and bringing awareness of the reprinted books via the website. If they ship to the US, I'll be getting several of the hardcovers.
Thanks for your interest!
Thank you
Great presentation and editing.
To me gamebooks mean FF and i believe the lone wolf series is just another of those things that never reached my small country, Portugal.
The world of LW seems to be born of a DeD scenario and that rings true as compared to FF(at first glance) it is much more complex. The combat seems to take a long time.
About the illustartions: i have heard many say LW are much better that FF´s but they seem kind of odd to me, even if the overall style seems similar.
Thanks for sharing, Gonçalo!
And on my side I was under the wrong impression that other countries had the same system as in France, where a unique publisher distributed all game book series. Only recently did I discover my error ;)
"not all skills were as useful"... me crying over Mind over Matter
0:17 Lone Wolf is arguably better, but the most successful gamebook series (financially) in the world was the Choose Your Own Adventure series, which sold ~ 250 million copies between 1979 and 1988. The Lone Wolf series, the most popular in the UK, sold less than 1/10 that worldwide.
Good to know, thanks for sharing!
Grazie.
imagine a serie based on this great univers, it would be great
Great idea indeed!
Hollywood would ruin it. They would make the Kai Lords a bunch of black transgender muslims or something. Look at the Wheel of Time tv series. The Two Rivers looks like India and the middle east. Then you have the Rings of Power where half of middle earth are afro hobbits, afro dwarves, and afro elves.
3:29 Wasn't Vonotar a traitor from the mage guilde rather than a Kai lord renegade?
Good question indeed! Need to check...
He was a rogue wizard, yes.
A rogue member of the Brotherhood of the Crystal Star who betrayed the Kai to the Darklords and facilitated the attack on the monastery, I believe… amazing books and illustrations!
Was about to say exactly what AwS said; I was also going to mention that the picture shown up on the screen (at 3:26) was of Banedon (another BotCS Mage, but one who becomes Lone Wolf's ally), and not Vonotar (who is actual shown at 3:35).
Aside for that minor slip up - it's a good vid 👍
@@vladt7150 I know, I know it was Banedon :)
But there wasn't any other of Vonotar, so I had to put something. Thanks for noticing!
The artwork for Dans l'enfer de la jungle on 9:45
that's ripped from two Frazetta works(!) , not an uncommon practice.
- The Brain.
- At the Earth's Core.
Thanks for sharing!
man... those were the days...
those were the days...
Oh yea!..
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf inspired my Castles of Imagination series. It has choices that pay off in later books, not quite leveling up, but similar. Available on Amazon by John M. Withers IV. 5/6 are available now.
Thanks for sharing
I'm chatting about this on our channel tonight, I might well show a clip of your video, its great.
Cool... I'll watch that!
You never picked camouflage, it was useless, I remember that from 35 years ago lol
so how does it work after the first 5 books? what are those other books like and ate you stoll your character?
you just carry one with the other books
It would be great if you chapterize this video with the stories of book 2+ listed as spoilers... so people can jump over those if they want. Or maybe I'm the last person playing these....lol
You're right, I didn't think about spoilers. Actually I assumed there will be only people familiar with the books, coming here to refresh their memories :)
@@AgeofInk nope... I'm a brand new ( 50 yr old ) Lone Wolf initiate thanks to your channel :)
If you like this video hit a like button
If you own sommerswerd subscribe to the channel
Just had a thought have you played the video game lone wolf blood on the snow? If not drop what your doing go buy it you will love it👍if you have it all ready what did you think?
Thanks for sharing! Knew about the early ZX Spectrum game that was released at about the same time as the original series back in the 1980s, but not about this one.
@@AgeofInk so did you get it? And what did you think even if you’ve only played it somewhat are you enjoying it👍
@@alexblackburn2021 Not yet but I guess I'll explore it thoroughly and use it as material for a new video on the sister channel czcams.com/users/retrodream
Peter Andrew Jones' covers were not on the first edition. They were the covers on the re-release.
You're talking about the original British one?
@@AgeofInk Yep. In the shop they were the slightly less fine fine-art covers. They only got published eventually with the newer covers when they were re-printed.
@3:20 - you mention the Vanator enemy while showing the drawing of Banedon about to be attacked by a Glok, @3:27
this is quite confusing honestly... as a fan of the series since 1990 or so, I was surprised to have to watch and listen twice to understand the lil mistake
@3:38 THERE is Vonotar!
Thanks for sharing. I know, and I explained why I did so several times already in these comments. Sorry if this was confusing
@@AgeofInk sure sir !!! Just in case :D thanks for spreading the legend of Lone Wolf !!!!
❤
These were amazing and way ahead of their time in concept and above everything else on portable page. I played all of them from the start. What's sad is seeing those covers you have here in this video. It looks like they remade the cover art really cheap from the originals. I wonder if something happened between the original artist and rights or something? Those shown that were other remakes were well...wth was that? lol Really bad....but yeah not that these covers are bad, they're alright but they don't compete with the original artwork.
Absolutely agree, the later covers are especially ugly and have nothing to do with the story... The originals are superb
Hello, I read them all in French, 25 years ago (or more ...) The game was good, the entire new world is true. But I must say that illustration where unbalanced ... as if there were more than one drawer. Some were quiet nice ... whereas some were, i'd say, my level ^^.
"Loup Solitaire" is, with "Sorcellerie !" the 2 series I loved and finished most ...
C'était une expérience inoubliable cher ami :)
That was the same for me, which is why I cracked a smile when French titles appeared at 0:58
Captions please
what for? it's plain English anyway
@@AgeofInk For hearing impaired gamebook lovers or those of us that need to watch quietly for reasons. The Auto CC generator is not great. IF you're working from a script it isn't hard to insert.
@@johnm.withersiv4352 Got it
/ ! \ - S P O I L E R S - / ! \
Not really
Surely Fighting Fantasy was a more successful gamebook series?
Probably comparable
Lone Wolf isnt the most successful gamebook series. It is only third to FF and CYOA.
Good point if we understand by "series" the mere notion of "publisher label". Here the notion of series is more in a sense of group of books that make a consistent story together.