tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post425899621993441010..comments2024-03-25T13:49:18.217+13:00Comments on Fighting Dantasy: #22 - Robot CommandoDanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420300163867766297noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post-2618734048819547012023-08-24T10:38:56.134+12:002023-08-24T10:38:56.134+12:00"I decorate my winter solstice tree with dino..."I decorate my winter solstice tree with dinosaurnaments" – this is <b>awesome</b>, FightingFantasyFan :)<br /><br /><br />I'm amused, incidentally, by the fact I have to 'prove I'm not a robot' in order to post this. What if I'm just <i>wearing</i> a robot and using it to fight dinosaurs/repel enemy invaders to my country...??Vanderelthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11544748740349094793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post-51667682886653145612023-08-24T10:38:04.765+12:002023-08-24T10:38:04.765+12:00This comment has been removed by the author.Vanderelthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11544748740349094793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post-1668487340752210432023-05-18T09:32:05.332+12:002023-05-18T09:32:05.332+12:00I found my way here fifteen years later (2023), ha...I found my way here fifteen years later (2023), having picked up FF again in 2014 and yet dragging my feet on playing through them. It's great to see other FF fans.<br /><br />I'm really enjoying Robot Commando. Most of the sci-fi ones are kind of weak, though I did enjoy Rings of Kether quite a lot. But this has three things that blow the other sci-fi ones away:<br />- Mechs (I have Battletech tattoos)<br />- Dinosaurs (I decorate my winter solstice tree with dinosaurnaments)<br />- Mechs fighting dinosaurs<br /><br />There are three different endings, and a hub architecture so you can backtrack, make for a lot of replayability here.<br /><br />The world-building is kind of weak, as has been noted, e.g. "City of Industry" Then again, there is actually a city in California named exactly that, so maybe it's just realistic?FightingFantasyFanhttps://www.fightingfantasyfan.infonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post-10009602262089852402023-01-17T02:27:28.810+13:002023-01-17T02:27:28.810+13:00I found this one immensely thrilling. Being able ...I found this one immensely thrilling. Being able to use different kinds of robots and combat the enemy was engaging, to say the least. Having three ways to win -- ah, what would we do without Steve Jackson/Yank? -- was even better. But there are a few problems with the book....<br /><br />1) The whole planet goes to sleep...except you. OK, there goes my suspension of disbelief, bam.<br /><br />2) Herding DINOSAURS? Really? What in the world do you herd them for? Meat? Leather? Fancy ivory (those teeth must make elephant ivory look like pyrite)? There's another incredulous supposition.<br /><br />3) The city names could use a little more inventiveness than "City of Worship," "City of Knowledge," "City of Industry," etc. But that's a minor quibble.<br /><br />Overall enjoyed this game. A worthy book to have, and play, over and over again.Cashiom McAllisternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post-42847878268382905302015-06-24T09:42:07.112+12:002015-06-24T09:42:07.112+12:00Just found this wonderful blog via the TV Tropes p...Just found this wonderful blog via the TV Tropes page (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/FightingFantasy) on Fighting Fantasy, and naturally made a beeline — to borrow a phrase from your review — for what was always for me, like Ergotoxin above, my favourite gamebook of all. Despite your somewhat disparaging review, <i>Demons of the Deep</i> comes runner-up; Steve Jackson II obviously hit on a winning formula with me. <i>Starship Traveller</i> would probably also be on the podium, but <i>Robot Commando</i> was always way out in front — as a fellow '80s child with an unalloyed love for dinosaurs and Transformers, it was always a matter of "what's not to like"?<br /><br />As one of my friends still owns all the books (I used to get them out of the local library back in the day), I borrowed this one a year or two back and played right through it. It's amazing how clearly some of the illustrations had remained branded on my memory, particularly the tyrannosaur (naturally!) in a rocky canyon and the awe-inspiring Supertank the big bad rolls out in in Aussiesmurf's option 3 finish listed above, whilst your own mention of the "ape" immediately enables me to picture the sort of King Kong concerned in his quarry/scrapyard/repair shop. I'd forgotten just how eerie the opening of the story is (it's me who added the <i>Day of the Triffids</i> comparison to the TV Tropes page some time back), but it clearly helped foster my ongoing love of postapocalyptic scenarios in fiction, that 'last man on earth' vibe. Similarly, wandering the deserted museum and college buildings in the City of Knowledge has remained lodged in my subconscious, so that I deliberately aped it (so to speak) years later the only time I tried running a series of my own roleplay sessions with friends. I'd agree that the Dinosaur Preserve is a little disappointing (although I love that your tagging it gave you excuse to link consecutively to Starscream and <i>Jurassic Park</i>!), but then I suppose all the most dramatic dinosaurs are out wandering freely all over the rest of the world.<br />I had little recollection of the other cities, and on rereading they don't seem to measure up to the, erm, CoK, though this meant I could treat it as all-new adventures and was amused to find myself honing my aerobatic skills on that arcade game in the City of Pleasure. I too recall falling foul of the air-to-air missiles or whatever it was over the Capital City on one failed attempt, but the piloting of the airborne mecha was yet another way this book seemed to have a simply enormous sense of scale and remit to wander that was almost unique among the ones I read in the series.<br />Having the multiple 'win scenarios' is great too, although as Aussiesmurf says option 1 is almost laughably easy in its sudden and rather anticlimactic "oh, you've done it" way, and doable purely by creeping around the abandoned backwaters of civilisation without ever coming near the main Karossean forces, so perfect for the rather wussy type like me; you feel like a proper one-man resistance, and I think the payoff might even be something like "No-one will ever know the enormous service you have just rendered, but you have saved your people and your nation". I don't remember option 2 at all, but going head to head with Minos and his Supertank was always cool.<br /><br />There's a nice little article from last year I've just found about the FF series from the BBC websites 'Magazine' section: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28865399, and it looks like someone else out there has been blogging his own playthroughs of the whole series more recently (http://fightyourfantasy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/robot-commando.html) and has now moved onto the almost equally marvellous <i>Lone Wolf</i> books too. I'll look forward to browsing through both that blog and yours in the time to come! Thanks a lot for all the excellent writing here.Vanderelthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11544748740349094793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post-69055216145888255402011-11-09T20:16:20.571+13:002011-11-09T20:16:20.571+13:00I loved this gamebook back in the day. I mean - c...I loved this gamebook back in the day. I mean - cool robots?? Fighting dinosaurs?? Sign me up!!<br /><br />The 'open-ended' nature of the book really appealed as well - a pre-cursor to books such as 'Fabled Lands'. There are three successful endings. Without giving too much away you can : <br /><br />(1) Use an antidote to wake the whole country<br />(2) Fight the other side's leader in single ceremonial sword combat.<br />(3) Fight the other side's lead in a massive robot duel!<br /><br />NUmber (1) was dead easy, while the other two were much harder.Aussiesmurfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08503529901076228210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7215693550440664594.post-22506981657703431072011-09-11T00:04:06.974+12:002011-09-11T00:04:06.974+12:00This is actually my favorite gamebook. If i rememb...This is actually my favorite gamebook. If i remember correctly, the book has about three different "win" endings and even a secret military base with elite robots. I really enjoyed the sandbox approach, although some locations were indeed weaker (eg. the dinosaur preserve).Ergohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10802172063443557909noreply@blogger.com