The enduring allure of Choose Your Own Adventure books
Loved the books as a kid and one of the first programs I wrote was a straight up port of one of the books into the computer. Lots of print and if then statements. I wasn't artistically inclined so none of the illustrations made it into the port. After a positive response from a few classmates I gave copies to, I thought about selling them but was crushed when my mother explained copyright to me.<p>One thing I noticed after reading a couple of the books was the gap between those written with a set world and those where the world state altered depending on your choices such as hearing a noise and if you open a door, you find out it is a ghost but if you go outside and look through the window, you find out it is an alien. I was torn because on one hand, it felt like the author was just making stuff up (which of course they were, it was fiction) but the different branches being so different made for more interesting reading when exploring the different possible outcomes.