Kai Grand Sentinel

Academic Papers

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Osborne) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:34:00 +0000

In the past few years, gamebooks have undergone something of a renaissance, and Project Aon has certainly been involved in that! It appears that our efforts have also inspired other fans of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf series to put pen to paper and write about their interest.

Step forward Anders Österberg, a contributor to Project Aon who a few years ago was instrumental in helping us contact Cyril "Cee Jay" Julien, illustrator of the graphic novel The Skull of Agarash. This Stockholm University alumni recently wrote a paper entitled The Rise and Fall of the Gamebook and was kind enough to send Project Aon a copy. The paper is in the form of an appraisal contrasting two leading gamebook series from the 1980s/90s, one of which being Lone Wolf.

We were so impressed with it that we wanted to make this available to a larger audience. As it falls outside the remit of Project Aon--we don't host fan-created content on the site--we requested and received Anders' permission to host the file on the website of a Project Aon contributor with a view to blogging about it and making it available to other gamebook fans who might be interested.

The PDF can be downloaded here. Feel free to post any messages to the author via the comments button.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Interview on the Lone Wolf DS developer

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:43:00 +0000

Interview of the Lone Wolf DS developer, Frédéric

Blog Spam

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:49:00 +0000

I found an amusing spam blog that mentioned Joe Dever and Lone Wolf. Far be it from me to actually link to the spam blog, so here's a screenshot of it with the relevant bit highlighted.

Because I'm curious, I had to find out where the text came from: Wikipedia of course. It's a strange kind of notoriety that gets your name included in spam.

Lone Wolf Spectrum Games

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Osborne) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:21:00 +0000

Way back in 1984, the first two Lone Wolf gamebooks—Flight from the Dark and Fire on the Water—were adapted for computer play. The games are a combination of text adventure and 'combat simulator'.

Project Aon has decided to make these games available, since they are part of the history of Lone Wolf. Each of the two games is available in a perfect TZX file, which can be loaded into a Spectrum 48k emulator. Also included are text files of the instructions for each game. They are available here. Here's a lovely SCREEN$ of the title pic:

We have already done a great deal of work in collecting together previews, reviews, solutions, adverts, and competitions relating to these games in the Lone Wolf Software Articles PDF file, which was recently updated with some new materials. If you happen to know of anything we've missed, please let us know!

(Currently, we are not making the game Lone Wolf—The Mirror of Death available for download. We are in contact with the rights holder for that game, and we are still in discussion. More news as we receive it.)

We are indebted to Martijn van der Heide and all who have contributed to the wonderful World of Spectrum website for these games and the relevant magazine articles. For information on emulating the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K, this is probably the best resource on the Internet.

We hope these games are more than mere curiosities, but will appeal to any fans with nostalgia for computer emulation, and perhaps even a new generation of fans of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K. So grab your sword and prepare for combat--just be careful not to damage your rubber keyboard!

For Sommerlund and the Kai! (And for PEEKers and POKErs everywhere!)

--
Simon Osborne
Project Aon

Freeway Warrior Action Chart

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:02:00 +0000

To help you enjoy our newly published edition of Highway Holocaust, we've released the Freeway Warrior Action Chart.

This is a release candidate, so please report any problems that you have so that we can improve it.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Jonathan Blake
Project Aon

Project Aon Cited in Intuite

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:55:00 +0000

Project Aon has merited a mention in a rather in depth and serious entry at Intute which seems to be a web directory. Personally, I find it interesting to see how Project Aon is perceived.

Highway Holocaust Published

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:49:00 +0000

You are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. A murderous gang of HAVOC clansmen, led by the psychotic Mad Dog Michigan, are bent on destroying your fragile colony as it crosses the wastelands of Texas on the first stage of a life-or-death exodus to the California coast. These bike-riding clansmen are a formidable enemy: armed, cunning, and extremely dangerous, capable of launching a lightning raid at any time, day or night. You will need all your wits about you if you are to defend your people and reach your destination intact!

Keeping the momentum going, we've published the first of the Freeway Warrior series, Highway Holocaust. I understand that this series holds a special place in Joe Dever's heart, and if you haven't experienced it before, I think you'll like it. The storytelling and gameplay are very similar to Lone Wolf, but the story is set in a post-apocalyptic America.

This is the first book with full Unicode and PNG support which will make things look more polished, but if you experience any problems, let us know.

Once you've completed the adventure, also make sure to check out our latest creation (that's actually been lurking in the background for years), the Flowchart, a diagram of all the paths through the book.

As always, enjoy!

--
Jonathan Blake
Project Aon

Fire on the Water for DS

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Some more press for the DS project, this time about Fire on the Water.

Freeway Warrior Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Osborne) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:23:00 +0000

The generous gamebook fans at the Italian-language Librogame's Land site have graciously allowed us to host an English-language interview they conducted with Joe Dever regarding his four-book Freeway Warrior series. This is particularly timely in view of Project Aon's imminent release of the first of these books--Highway Holocaust.

The interview covers the origins of the series through to Dever's thoughts on how it reflects current fears. Although the interview does contain some spoilers for those who may not have read all or any of the series, these are clearly highlighted, allowing fans to read the bulk of the interview without having their enjoyment spoiled.

To download the interview, visit the Project Aon website. It can be accessed via the Books page as with all of our downloads. This link will take you straight to the download page.

We hope it will whet the appetites of those who have read the books before, and those who are entirely new to this less well-known gamebook series.

For Cal Phoenix and Dallas Colony 1!

--
Simon Osborne
Project Aon

And the Title Is...

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:44:00 +0000

We've just received word from Joe Dever that the title for the forthcoming 29^th Lone Wolf gamebook will be The Storms of Chai. That's all we know so far. I'm guessing that this means things are progressing. :)

Flight from the Dark in Running for Origins Award

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:21:00 +0000

The new edition of Flight from the Dark is a semi-finalist in for the 34^th annual Origins Award in the fiction category.

Starting with the semifinalist list, game retailer attendees at this week’s GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas will select up to five finalists in each award category. From those finalists, attendees at the Origins Game Fair and members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design will select the ultimate winners of the 34th Origins Awards.

This year’s winners will be announced during the Origins Awards ceremony at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, June 28, at 8:00 p.m.

(via William's Ramblings)

Lone Wolf Obscurica

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Osborne) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:26:00 +0000

On Wednesday we published the "Joe Dever's Tabletop Heroes" PDF file. Although its release was not with any great fanfare, it marked the end of several months of painstaking work to compile these twenty-year-old columns from scans taken from old White Dwarf magazines. On the download page we wrote:

Joe Dever's Tabletop Heroes was a regular two-page monthly column in White Dwarf magazine between issues #52 (April 1984) and #77 (May 1986). The first 15 are credited as being co-written with Gary Chalk.

The column was devoted to reviews of contemporary miniature releases, but covered other aspects of relevance to miniature collectors, such as painting and photography techniques. As such, while this document will not necessarily be of interest to all fans of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf gamebooks, it is part of his body of work and merits a place on the Project Aon site.

It seems, therefore, a good opportunity to publicise some of the other documents that Project Aon has compiled regarding Joe Dever's other works.

Issue #4 of GamesMaster magazine (December 1988) contained a competition in the form of a rewritten mini-adventure based on The Battle of Cetza from Lone Wolf #10: The Dungeons of Torgar. It also featured a two-page interview with the Wytch-king himself--Ian Page. We have faithfully recreated the pertinent parts of this magazine for the benefit of Lone Wolf fans out there.

To date, there have been three official 8-bit Lone Wolf computer games, the most recent of which was The Mirror of Death in 1991. We have collected as many previews, reviews, walkthroughs, and associated articles from the computer press as we could find in the Lone Wolf Computer Games document. The software is not currently hosted on the Project Aon site, though the games can be found on other sites, such as World of Spectrum.

We have a separate document for tracking information pertaining to the forthcoming Ksatria computer game in Lone Wolf Ksatria Articles.

We have attempted to photographically catalogue all of the official Lone Wolf Miniatures in another document. Included are photographs of all of the Games Workshop range of miniatures, as well as scans of the original box packaging and official adverts from Games Workshop.

And finally, there are the two Lone Wolf Miscellaneous documents. The first deals with mail order forms, pricelists, and adverts relating to Lone Wolf and other items developed by Joe Dever. The second is comprised of various correspondence with Joe Dever, and related images, as well as reproducing articles written by Joe Dever, or about his works.

Of course, there are bound to be plenty of magazine articles that we are missing. For example, we have little or no previews or reviews of The Mirror of Death for the Amiga, Amstrad, Atari, C64/128, and MSX platforms. Also, we are aware of a number of articles relating to Joe Dever/Lone Wolf in magazines we have been unable to track down.

If you have any back-issues of role-playing or computer magazines from the 80s and 90s, you might be able to help us track down some known (or unknown) articles such as those found on the Wishlist. If you can help us, please Contact Us with more details. Your fellow fans will be most thankful.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Around the Web: Play This Thing!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:52:00 +0000

Play This Thing! recently covered Lone Wolf.

I especially like the visitor's comment about Project Aon.

Joe Dever in Singapore News

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Joe Dever and Lone Wolf get a short mention in a TODAYonline Singapore article:

He authored the international Lone Wolf gamebook series that sold over 9 million copies worldwide. Now, Mr Joe Dever is the lead game designer with local video game developer Ksatria Gameworks.

He is one of the 25 global talents the Media Development Authority (MDA) has attracted under its International Media Manpower Programme, launched in October 2006 to boost local production capability and expertise.

Around the Web: Ksatria Miscellany

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:44:00 +0000

What appears to be a model for a Gourgaz

Erik Benerdal working at Ksatria

Around the Web: London Loves Comics

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:32:00 +0000

London Loves Comics: Lone Wolf

blog posts about Lone Wolf from around the web

Dawn of the Dragons Published

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:19:00 +0000

Has it really been almost two years?!

We just put the finishing touches on the latest Lone Wolf gamebook to be published at Project Aon, Dawn of the Dragons. Enjoy!

Let's make sure that Wolf's Bane comes much quicker.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Jonathan Blake
Project Aon

Chasm of Doom Shipping

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:43:00 +0000

Mongoose has some news about their publication of Lone Wolf.

Peter Andrew Jones--Heroes and Villains

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Osborne) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:01:00 +0000

Heroes and Villains will soon be upon us!

One of the foremost contributors to the artistic visions of the world of Magnamund is Peter Andrew Jones. He painted the covers for the Red Fox editions of Lone Wolf books 1-20, and his cover art appeared on several other translations including French and Italian. In the eyes of many fans, his style helped establish a cohesive and consistent look to the Lone Wolf books.

Recently, Peter has announced that he would be publishing a retrospective of his role-playing and computer game art, including his work on the covers for the Lone Wolf books, and also incorporating his work on the Fighting Fantasy and Falcon gamebook series, among others. Called Heroes and Villains, the strictly limited-edition book is scheduled to be available in April 2008. (It is currently unclear as to whether there will be a non-limited edition if there is sufficient interest.)

If you have any comments regarding his cover artwork for the Lone Wolf series, or his work for other RPG/computer game titles, Peter would like to hear from you. Peter has requested feedback/input from fans of his work, whose comments might be included as part of a "fan page" in the book.

More information can be found via Peter Andrew Jones' website.

Published Revision of Castle Death

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:19:00 +0000

Time to face Lord Zhada! We've revised and updated our edition of Castle Death. May Ishir and Kai be with you!

Published Revision of The Kingdoms of Terror

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:53:00 +0000

We just published our latest revision of The Kingdoms of Terror. I enjoyed revisiting this first Magnakai adventure. I hope you do, too. Good luck trying to get the Silver Bow of Duadon (you'll need it), and enjoy!

Update on Lone Wolf on the DS

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:36:00 +0000

[Frédéric sent me the following update (almost a month ago I confess) regarding the Lone Wolf on the DS project.]

I thought it would be cool to give you an update on the current progress of this project. It's still going well, even if it requires more work than expected at the beginning. Blame it mainly on Joe Dever's rich style, which makes his book so good but also so complicated to handle via a game engine.
;)

So here are the current working features:

Full book browsing with illustrations
Character sheet
Interactive random tables
Inventory handling (both backpack and special items)
Kai disciplines
Battles
Dialog boxes
All kinds of automatic events

Due to the complexity of some paragraphs , I'm not reaching a dead end with my current data implementation. So I'll have to redo my homework and design a new and more flexible XML grammar. I already have the new concept based on triggers which will be much more powerful and allow many combinations of actions and events.

I also redid the whole graphical design (some screenshots included), and since a new MP3 library is about to be released on the DS, I should also be able to compose the game music a bit later.

Hope you like the new screens!

The Skull of Agarash - Italian translation!

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Osborne) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:13:00 +0000

As per the announcement on the Project Aon Forum:

I'm very happy to announce that the graphic novel The Skull of Agarash has been finally translated into Italian!

Our Italian gamebook community, named Librogame's Land, which is very glad to read and "publish" new material based on Lone Wolf's adventures (this graphic has never before been published in Italy) has worked on Project Aon's superb digitalizations, and we are very proud of the result.

You can download the graphic novel here.

We want express gratitude to Simon Osborne and Jon Blake, who made this work possible, and we want also express gratitude to Joe Dever and the illustrators who gave us the authorisation to translate the graphc novel. Thank you very much!

We are very happy to continue others collaborations within our communities, and we are currently working on other translation projects. Stay tuned!

For Sommerlund and the Kai!
Per Sommerlund e per i Ramas!

Congratulations to Dirk and the other Librogames volunteers. We await your future projects with anticipation!

Project Aon Annual Report 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Simon Osborne) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:21:00 +0000

During the 2007 calendar year Project Aon's volunteers devoted many hours of their spare time to the various tasks involved in publishing the works of Joe Dever online. Much of this work was done "behind the scenes", and so it may have seemed that little was achieved in the twelve months of 2007. This first "Annual Report" is designed to show what tasks were undertaken by Aon volunteers, and also to give a rough roadmap of what we hope to achieve over the coming 12 months.

The Report can be downloaded here.

If anyone feels they can help us in completing any of the proposed tasks for 2008, please contact us--Project Aon always needs more volunteers!

Shadow on the Sand Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Blake) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:28:00 +0000

We just published our latest official revision of Shadow on the Sand which includes the new single page format.

In case anyone is wondering, since this is a revision of a previously published book, we won't announce it on the mailing list. Once we're done with all revisions, we'll announce that fact.