since i am on a semi-hiatus i can’t commit to writing for the next few weeks. but i do love this tiktok trend! let’s have some fun!! my qualifications are: my pinterest is very curated

rules:

This is Ace of Aces: WWI Air Combat Game (1980). This is the very first one, called Handy Rotary Series for reasons I don’t quite understand, as it isn’t a series. Maybe it refers to the planes.

Ace of Aces is a genius idea. It’s a box containing two books, one for the Ally plane, one for the German plane. Each book contains a mind-boggling number of illustrations of a cockpit from a first-person perspective (always locked on the enemy plane) and, by calling out the numbers at the bottom, you “perform” dogfight maneuvers. And that’s basically it — use the books to fly around and try to shoot the other player out of the sky. A two-player analog flight simulator.

This thing astounds me. Like the design of it. It is so brilliant and cumbersome at the same time. I can’t imagine the work that went into this. It’s so cool! I will probably never play it!

I’ve talked about the Lost World combat game books at least once before. They’re a novel little modular game in which you hand your opponent the book featuring your character, which is illustrated in a first person perspective, as though that character is attacking them. Players choose moves (which are limited or unlocked by a combination of both players’ previous moves). It’s a clever little beat-‘em-up to pass the time and there are tons of different characters to fight with (some even had tie-in miniatures).

Hehe, this is the Unicorn for the Lost Worlds combat game, one of only three larger monster type combatants in the early releases (along with the cold drake and the manticore [with wings, alas]). I find this one kind of hilarious.

Mostly because I think modern conception of the unicorn has dulled its fierceness. I think the prime image that springs to mind (aside of countless cartoon versions) is of the unicorn laying its head in the lap of a maiden. Gentle. Quiet. And here’s this book, where it is illustration after illustration of the unicorn kicking your ass. Literally you are on the business end of the ass-kicking, thanks to the first person perspective. This brings me joy.

Like its companion book, Samurai with Katana, I suspect Ninja with Ninjato (1985) was released to capitalize on the success of Oriental Adventures for D&D. Despite the top bar on both books indicating it was part of a larger series of “Heroes and Monsters of Medieval Japan,” no further installments appeared.

We made it to moonrise, but EVERY NPC I love died at the last light and now I don't have the will to continue.