I never really latched on to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I suppose it was mostly because I saw a significant divide between books and video games at the time I read my first (and only) Choose Your Own Adventure book (Ghost Hunter. CYOA #52)

I think I was used to adventure games at this point - both those that were text-based and graphical. There were so many more possibilities in those games that they cheapened the CYOA books. If you went somewhere in an adventure game and hadn't picked up a certain object or talked to a certain person, you could go back to retrieve that object & return to your current location. Without getting into another conversation about getting stuck in adventure games, this seemingly limitless ability to draw on earlier experiences or items retrieved in your current video game seemed to help create more of a world than a CYOA book could.

Still - Seems like it would be fun to pick up a few really cheap and read through them nowadays. I would probably have some odd nostalgia for them despite having not jumped into them back in the day. I suppose my mother (an English teacher) actually contributed to my lack of desire to read the books. She would say something like "awww. Don't read those. Read The Hardy Boys. Read something that you would read straight through from cover to cover."

I feel the need to once again use the word "iPhone." Yes. You can download Return to Atlantis/Journey Under the Sea for iPhone and "click" on the option you want to advance to the next page. It appears that this was the only one the company published to iPhone. I believe it was originally somewhere near $3.99 and can now be purchased for $0.99.

Matt - It is great to see Matt Chat evolve the way it has. Keep up the good work. Make no mistake - I constantly check Armchair Arcade for Matt Chat updates on Fridays. I usually wait for Armchair, but sometimes I get anxious and check youtube.