Adventure gamebooks, as I have discussed on many previous occasions, were massive in the 1980s, but then towards the end of the decade the market for them apparently suddenly tailed off. Whilst a few of the hardier ranges straggled on into the 1990s, and the genre has been revived several times in the following millennium, many of their authors ended their careers in interactive fiction around then. One such example is J. H. Brennan, who authored several series of gamebooks, most of which had their tongue firmly in their cheek, between 1984 and 1986.
Over a decade later, however, Brennan returned to the genre for an imaginatively titled series called Adventure Gamebooks. The four titles in this series were Egyptian Quest, Aztec Quest, Greek Quest and Roman Quest, and, as you might be able to guess, all four featured a player character who either travelled back in time or already lived in that time. These were significantly shorter than Brennan's 80s gamebooks, aimed at a younger audience, and were largely a genuine attempt to educate readers about the history of the period.
In 1997, Egyptian Quest and Aztec Quest were published in England. The other two titles, for whatever reason, never were; Greek Quest and Roman Quest only saw physical releases in France (a country with a very large role-playing scene, and where Brennan already had an existing fanbase), a few years later in 2000. Over a decade later, however, Brennan self-published all four titles as eBooks.
Now, comparing the eBook editions of the latter two titles is probably going to be beyond me, unless a bilingual French gamebook enthusiast happens to come across this blog. But I can compare the 1997 and 2011 editions of Egyptian Quest and Aztec Quest -- because Brennan's self-published versions had some significant differences compared to the ones released fourteen years earlier.
For reasons that will hopefully become obvious, I will put the conclusion I reached from comparing the two up front: I believe that the 2011 eBook editions are earlier drafts, which had to be cut down to fit a strict length limit in 1997.
I started out thinking that I'd list all the changes, but it soon became apparent that there were far too many for that to be at all feasible. I'd basically be writing out the entire book here. So instead, here is a hopefully representative selection of edits from Egyptian Quest. Gameplay is not affected at all -- there are only cuts and changes to the text, and (with a few exceptions) all the sections still link up identically in the different versions. As noted by the eBook cover shown above, the eBook gained the subtitle "Lost Treasure of the Pyramids"; the title "Egyptian Quest" is not used on that cover, but is used just about everywhere else.
Egyptian Quest: Section 4
This section directs you to roll two dice and consult a table to see what happens next. Text in green is only present in the 2011 edition, text in red is cut from it:
Score...
1: And you've begun to hallucinate due to too much sun since it's impossible to score one when you roll two dice.
This was the point at which I hit upon the above theory: Brennan is generally pretty good at knowing when not to run a joke into the ground. It's easy to imagine that the extra text above was cut from the 1997 edition for overexplaining things, then accidentally reintroduced when the eBook returned to an earlier draft, from before things had to be cut down.
Egyptian Quest: Section 10
A mistake is fixed in the eBook edition -- one of the options sends you to section 52, but it should be section 5. Most likely someone noticed the mistake when adding the hyperlinks in the eBook edition.
Egyptian Quest: Section 11
A truly memorable way to die in interactive fiction is sadly truncated:
There is a sound like a thunderclap. Your eyes are blinded by a great white light. The world begins to whirl around you as your soul is swept from your body and propelled through a narrow shaft upwards and out of the great stone structure.
You hurtle upwards at escape velocity, up, up, up beyond the very atmosphere and yet your speed does not diminish. Glancing down you realise you can see the curvature of the Earth, and in a moment you see your home planet as a vast blue sphere.
You curl outwards, missing the Moon by a hairsbreadth before speeding towards the orbit of Mars. But not for a second do you pause as you rush past the red planet and slam through the debris of the asteroid belt on your way towards the great globe of the immense gas giant, Jupiter.
But gigantic though it is, great Jupiter passes by in an eyeblink as you hurtle towards the rings of Saturn and beyond, heading at the impossible speed of light into the orbits of Uranus, Neptune and an icy Pluto bathed by a sun so distant that it seems feeble as a star.
And still your journey does not end, for you streak out of the solar system heading for deep space. Your mind dissolves in ecstasy as you travel on, and on, and on, and on. Until...
You halt. You expand. You combust. You shine. The vast nuclear furnaces within your frame roar and rumble with the fires of heaven, as you howl in purest joy.
But if you can just stop howling for a minute, you/You might like to know that you've gone the way of the old Egyptian Pharaohs who believed that when they died, their souls migrated heavenwards to become/became one with the great transpolar stars. Quite an experience you must agree/However, it means all you can do now is shine for 20,000,000 years or so until you become a Red Giant or White Dwarf or Black Hole or burnt-out husk -- at which point you can crawl back gratefully to 13.
Egyptian Quest: Section 24
An example of one of many, many little shavings made in the original 1997 edition, but apparently reinserted for the eBook:
You pick up one of the little oil lamps for light and make your way to the passageway. Like everything else in this mysterious place, it has been engineered on an enormous scale: you could march an army along it five or six abreast.
The floor of the passageway slopes upwards so that after a time you find yourself breathing heavily.
Egyptian Quest: Section 25
If you survive the combat in this section, then the eBook says you find "a handy Persian-Egyptian phrase-papyrus" on one of your slain enemies (in addition to the daggers you also find in the '97 version); this appears to be some kind of orphaned reference accidentally reinstated when the eBook went back to an earlier revision, as this item has absolutely no purpose whatsoever and is never mentioned again.
Egyptian Quest: Section 33
More shavings:
I could describe your increasing panic, the slow wasting away from hunger, the increasing weakness, the dreadful hallucinations, the horrible claustrophobia, the mind-numbing -- but I won't...
Actually, there is a minor mistake in the 1997 book: "but" is capitalised, perhaps indicating a late and hasty cut.
Egyptian Quest: Section 35
One of many absolutely tiny changes, which perhaps indicates a desperation to shave off as many words as possible to get things down to the required limit:
"Now where do you want me to deliver the package?"
"I've written the address on it/the package," he says.
(Since this section has a puzzle you have to work out to know which section you need to turn to next, the instructions at the end of it add a reference to the eBook's list of numbered sections you can use to choose any section to hop to.)
Egyptian Quest: Section 52
Another tiny trim, which also leaves a tiny grammatical error in the truncated version:
"Ethiopian stone," explains your companion. He catches your blank look. "The knife -- it's made from Ethiopian stone." explains your companion. Nothing else is sharp enough."
Egyptian Quest: Section 55
This section tells you that owing to a time warp, you're heading back to section 128, where you first travelled back in time to Ancient Egypt; the 2011 eBook repeats the choice you are given at section 128, which is omitted in the 1997 version, which just leaves the implication you need to go back to 128.
Egyptian Quest: Section 58
The 1997 book refers to the Ancient Egyptian goddess Bastet here; the 2011 eBook wrongly renders her name as "Bast" (which is also the case for several other sections).
Egyptian Quest: Section 91
One of the bigger cuts:
"Get lost, Old Beak-Nose," you tell him politely. "I've got better things to do than run errands for you! Magic ring my bottom! I come from a civilised and sophisticated country where we don't even believe in magic, nyah-nyah-nyah!" "I don't believe in magic."
"Really?" says the jeweller, turning his head-dress back to front and pointing at you with the little finger and forefinger of his left hand.
At once you start to feel odd. A boil pops out suddenly (and painfully) on the end of your nose. You go deaf in your left ear. Your right foot begins to walk around your left foot, turning your legs into corkscrews. You get spots before your eyes and your nose begins to drip. A runaway ox slams into the small of your back, sending you flying. An overhead bird (the Egyptian vulture, to be exact, which isn't really a vulture at all, but is called a vulture anyway) does something unmentionable, but disgusting, on your head.
Egyptian Quest: Section 97
As you make your decision, there is a horrid grinding noise as the slab retracts to reveal a massive stone ball rolling down the corridor towards you like something out of an Indiana Jones movie/and a massive stone ball rolls towards you.
You attempt to run, only to find a second stone slab has dropped down, sealing the corridor behind you.
You attempt to climb up above the path of the oncoming ball, only to find the ceiling is beginning slowly to descend and will soon crush you flat.
You attempt to pray, only to find the gods are on their tea break.
You attempt to dig your way out through the floor, only to find it is lined with diorite, the hardest type of stone there is.
You attempt to find your way to 13, and succeed all too admirably.
Quite a good escalating punchline ruined (and indeed left orphaned) in the 1997 edition, there.
Egyptian Quest: Section 98
At the end of the options at the end of this section, the 2011 edition reminds you "If this is getting complicated, try to remember I didn't force you to climb down that stupid shaft"; a nice bit of Brennan humour cut from the '97 book.
Egyptian Quest: Section 116
A single word is cut from the 1997 book; if the Scorpion manages even one successful hit against you, you're dead from "massive poisoning".
So, I think Egyptian Quest at least makes a compelling case for my theory: the original 1997 books were too long for whatever reason, were heavily pruned for their original publication, and Brennan reverted to an earlier draft when he self-published them all those years later. (Keep in mind this is nowhere close to being a complete list of the cuts, just a cross-reference of them; the majority of the book's 160 sections have similar trimmings.) Since this selection ended up longer than I expected -- and I ended up being able to make a much stronger case for my hypothesis off the back of just one book than I thought I might -- I will come back with a selection of notable cuts from Aztec Quest as a separate piece at some point in the future.
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