Kai Grand Sentinel

Mongoose's Mega-Deal Rides Again!

2009-07-02T16:39:00.003Z

Mongoose has brought back the Mega-deal, now in three flavors.

Drakkarim Armies

2009-06-03T19:30:00.003Z

Joe Dever has shared some information about the organization of the Drakkarim Armies in the latest issue of Signs and Portents, including photos of his models. And for any Giak language enthusiasts, like myself, there's some tantalizing new names. It may be time for me to update the Giak Lexicon.

Voyage of the Moonstone Published!

2009-05-16T22:53:00.001Z

The Moonstone is a legendary artefact that was created by the god-like Shianti. It contains the might of all their magic and wisdom, the sum of their divine knowledge. Lone Wolf—Supreme Master of the Kai—has succeeded in retrieving it from the clutches of Naar, the King of the Darkness.

Now the Moonstone must be returned to its creators who are exiled upon the remote Isle of Lorn in Southern Magnamund. Someone must take the fabled artefact to the Shianti and Lone Wolf has chosen you, the most promising warrior among the ranks of the New Order Kai, to carry out this vital mission. Armed with the special weapons and skills of a New Order Grand Master, you embark upon a secret voyage to the distant Isle of Lorn. However, your mission quickly becomes a life-and-death struggle when you encounter intrigue and deadly danger en route.

It gives me pleasure to announce the publication of Voyage of the Moonstone, the first of the New Order series which puts you in control of the destiny of the most talented new Grand Master in the New Order of the Kai.

On a personal note, as an American fan, I waited for years for gamebooks beyond The Curse of Naar to be published. I would stop in a bookstore once in a while to see if they had arrived yet. The New Order series has never arrived on American bookshelves. So I am happy to play a part in officially bringing this series to new lands after such a long wait.

For all of the volunteers in Project Aon, may Ishir and Kai guide you on your journey.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Jonathan Blake

Furman to Illustrate

2009-05-12T17:25:00.001Z

Furman will illustrate books 13+ for Mongoose.

The Siege of Amory by Joe Dever

2009-05-01T16:21:00.002Z

In case you're not following Mongoose Publishing closely, Signs and Portents 68 has a short story by Joe Dever: The Siege of Amory.

Northern Magnamund Mapped!

2009-03-21T11:46:00.005Z

The full-colour maps on the inside covers are what initially drew many to the Lone Wolf gamebooks. Joe Dever's well-realised world of Magnamund seemed so vibrant and colourful thanks to these masterful illustrations. Each map only covered a small area, though, and the detail was missing from the large-scale maps of Northern Magnamund.

Well, thanks to long-time Project Aon volunteer Jan Charvát, the whole of Northern Magnamund has finally been mapped based on the original artwork. Using the coastal outline of Northern Magnamund from the map in The Prisoners of Time as a starting point, Jan has masterfully combined all the other maps into one huge image, showing roads, settlements and labels from the original maps.

Since Project Aon does not host fan-based work, Jan has allowed it to be hosted on the site of another Project Aon volunteer so that other Lone Wolf fans can enjoy the results of his hard work. Hopefully this will help tide fans over until the release of Voyage of the Moonstone.

Addendum: Jan has also sent a map of Southern Magnamund in the same style, and also a composite map showing both continents! These images are absolutely fantastic, and Jan deserves a huge amount of kudos for managing to compile these!

--
Simon Osborne
Project Aon

The Curse of Naar Published!

2009-03-18T19:31:00.000Z

You are the warrior Lone Wolf—Kai Grand Master of Sommerlund. Fresh from your victory over your evil alter-ego, Wolf's Bane, reluctantly you are forced to return to the Plane of Darkness. For there you glimpsed the fabled Moonstone and you have sworn to save this gem of mystical power from the clutches of Naar—the King of Ultimate Darkness.

In The Curse of Naar, you must venture once more through the Shadow Gate and confront the Dark God. Only by finding and retrieving the Moonstone can you hope to save your world from invasion by Naar's armies of night. In this ultimate Grand Master challenge, your life and the future of your entire world is at stake!"

It is with great pleasure that I announce our publication of the last gamebook where you take the role of Lone Wolf, last of the First Order Kai. It has been a long journey to get to this point, and I am gratified to recall the dedication and skill of my fellow volunteers as we have worked on Project Aon these past nine years. I am also pleased by all of the interest you have shown and support you have given. Thank you.

Never fear, we have more adventures yet to come. Our next publication will be Voyage of the Moonstone wherein one of Lone Wolf's star pupils is given the critical task of returning the Moonstone to the Isle of Lorn—assuming that you ensure Lone Wolf's success in wresting it from Naar's grasp in our current release: The Curse of Naar. The fate of Magnamund—and all of Aon—hangs in the balance.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Jonathan Blake
Project Aon

Thog's Blog

2009-03-01T02:26:00.002Z

I just stumbled on Paul Barnett's LiveJournal. He's the author of the Legends of Lone Wolf novelizations. His nom de plume is John Grant.

Tet Offensive Wargame by Joe Dever?

2009-02-03T19:28:00.003Z

Is this an article authored by Joe Dever about a Tet Offensive wargame?

Wolf's Bane Published

2009-02-02T09:28:00.009Z

Here is Project Aon's first offering of the year--Wolf's Bane. In this penultimate adventure in the Lone Wolf saga you must hunt down and destroy your evil alter-ego before it lays waste to your proud reputation and your homeland of Sommerlund. So you'd best hurry and download it now!

As well as the usual download package, there is also a single-page edition without illustrations. For those who don't mind spoilers, or who have read the book a number of times, there is also an SVG flowchart showing all the numbered sections and links between them.

Look out for Book 20: The Curse of Naar soon.

Sneak Peek of Wolf's Bane

2009-01-23T21:14:00.002Z

Hello? Is this thing on?

We're currently testing an impending release of Wolf's Bane. If you don't tell anyone that I told you, I'll let you in on a secret: you can get a sneak peak of the nearly finished book.

It's a little rough around the edges, so if you spot anything that needs fixing please do us the favor of telling us by commenting about it here or contacting us directly because more eyes spot the problems quicker. We will be publishing it sometime at the end of the month.

Playing Collaboratively

2009-01-03T16:17:00.001Z

Some fans over at RPGnet are playing through the Lone Wolf gamebooks collaboratively.

Project Aon Annual Report 2008

2008-12-31T18:55:00.003Z

During the 2008 calendar year Project Aon's volunteers devoted many hours of their spare time to the various tasks involved in publishing the works of Joe Dever online. Much of this work was done "behind the scenes", and so it may have seemed that little was achieved in the twelve months of 2008. This first "Annual Report" is designed to show what tasks were undertaken by Aon volunteers, and also to give a rough roadmap of what we hope to achieve over the coming 12 months.

The Report can be downloaded here.

If anyone feels they can help us in completing any of the proposed tasks for 2009, please contact us--Project Aon always needs more volunteers!

Academic Papers

2008-11-11T11:34:00.002Z

In the past few years, gamebooks have undergone something of a renaissance, and Project Aon has certainly been involved in that! It appears that our efforts have also inspired other fans of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf series to put pen to paper and write about their interest.

Step forward Anders Österberg, a contributor to Project Aon who a few years ago was instrumental in helping us contact Cyril "Cee Jay" Julien, illustrator of the graphic novel The Skull of Agarash. This Stockholm University alumni recently wrote a paper entitled The Rise and Fall of the Gamebook and was kind enough to send Project Aon a copy. The paper is in the form of an appraisal contrasting two leading gamebook series from the 1980s/90s, one of which being Lone Wolf.

We were so impressed with it that we wanted to make this available to a larger audience. As it falls outside the remit of Project Aon--we don't host fan-created content on the site--we requested and received Anders' permission to host the file on the website of a Project Aon contributor with a view to blogging about it and making it available to other gamebook fans who might be interested.

The PDF can be downloaded here. Feel free to post any messages to the author via the comments button.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Interview on the Lone Wolf DS developer

2008-10-27T16:43:00.000Z

Interview of the Lone Wolf DS developer, Frédéric

Blog Spam

2008-08-23T13:49:00.003Z

I found an amusing spam blog that mentioned Joe Dever and Lone Wolf. Far be it from me to actually link to the spam blog, so here's a screenshot of it with the relevant bit highlighted.

Because I'm curious, I had to find out where the text came from: Wikipedia of course. It's a strange kind of notoriety that gets your name included in spam.

Lone Wolf Spectrum Games

2008-08-20T10:21:00.002Z

Way back in 1984, the first two Lone Wolf gamebooks—Flight from the Dark and Fire on the Water—were adapted for computer play. The games are a combination of text adventure and 'combat simulator'.

Project Aon has decided to make these games available, since they are part of the history of Lone Wolf. Each of the two games is available in a perfect TZX file, which can be loaded into a Spectrum 48k emulator. Also included are text files of the instructions for each game. They are available here. Here's a lovely SCREEN$ of the title pic:

We have already done a great deal of work in collecting together previews, reviews, solutions, adverts, and competitions relating to these games in the Lone Wolf Software Articles PDF file, which was recently updated with some new materials. If you happen to know of anything we've missed, please let us know!

(Currently, we are not making the game Lone Wolf—The Mirror of Death available for download. We are in contact with the rights holder for that game, and we are still in discussion. More news as we receive it.)

We are indebted to Martijn van der Heide and all who have contributed to the wonderful World of Spectrum website for these games and the relevant magazine articles. For information on emulating the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K, this is probably the best resource on the Internet.

We hope these games are more than mere curiosities, but will appeal to any fans with nostalgia for computer emulation, and perhaps even a new generation of fans of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K. So grab your sword and prepare for combat--just be careful not to damage your rubber keyboard!

For Sommerlund and the Kai! (And for PEEKers and POKErs everywhere!)

--
Simon Osborne
Project Aon

Freeway Warrior Action Chart

2008-07-23T17:02:00.000Z

To help you enjoy our newly published edition of Highway Holocaust, we've released the Freeway Warrior Action Chart.

This is a release candidate, so please report any problems that you have so that we can improve it.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

Jonathan Blake
Project Aon

Project Aon Cited in Intuite

2008-07-22T15:55:00.003Z

Project Aon has merited a mention in a rather in depth and serious entry at Intute which seems to be a web directory. Personally, I find it interesting to see how Project Aon is perceived.

Highway Holocaust Published

2008-07-20T03:49:00.001Z

You are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. A murderous gang of HAVOC clansmen, led by the psychotic Mad Dog Michigan, are bent on destroying your fragile colony as it crosses the wastelands of Texas on the first stage of a life-or-death exodus to the California coast. These bike-riding clansmen are a formidable enemy: armed, cunning, and extremely dangerous, capable of launching a lightning raid at any time, day or night. You will need all your wits about you if you are to defend your people and reach your destination intact!

Keeping the momentum going, we've published the first of the Freeway Warrior series, Highway Holocaust. I understand that this series holds a special place in Joe Dever's heart, and if you haven't experienced it before, I think you'll like it. The storytelling and gameplay are very similar to Lone Wolf, but the story is set in a post-apocalyptic America.

This is the first book with full Unicode and PNG support which will make things look more polished, but if you experience any problems, let us know.

Once you've completed the adventure, also make sure to check out our latest creation (that's actually been lurking in the background for years), the Flowchart, a diagram of all the paths through the book.

As always, enjoy!

--
Jonathan Blake
Project Aon

Fire on the Water for DS

2008-06-24T16:49:00.001Z

Some more press for the DS project, this time about Fire on the Water.

Freeway Warrior Interview

2008-06-16T22:23:00.001Z

The generous gamebook fans at the Italian-language Librogame's Land site have graciously allowed us to host an English-language interview they conducted with Joe Dever regarding his four-book Freeway Warrior series. This is particularly timely in view of Project Aon's imminent release of the first of these books--Highway Holocaust.

The interview covers the origins of the series through to Dever's thoughts on how it reflects current fears. Although the interview does contain some spoilers for those who may not have read all or any of the series, these are clearly highlighted, allowing fans to read the bulk of the interview without having their enjoyment spoiled.

To download the interview, visit the Project Aon website. It can be accessed via the Books page as with all of our downloads. This link will take you straight to the download page.

We hope it will whet the appetites of those who have read the books before, and those who are entirely new to this less well-known gamebook series.

For Cal Phoenix and Dallas Colony 1!

--
Simon Osborne
Project Aon

And the Title Is...

2008-06-08T22:44:00.003Z

We've just received word from Joe Dever that the title for the forthcoming 29^th Lone Wolf gamebook will be The Storms of Chai. That's all we know so far. I'm guessing that this means things are progressing. :)

Flight from the Dark in Running for Origins Award

2008-04-25T23:21:00.004Z

The new edition of Flight from the Dark is a semi-finalist in for the 34^th annual Origins Award in the fiction category.

Starting with the semifinalist list, game retailer attendees at this week’s GAMA Trade Show in Las Vegas will select up to five finalists in each award category. From those finalists, attendees at the Origins Game Fair and members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design will select the ultimate winners of the 34th Origins Awards.

This year’s winners will be announced during the Origins Awards ceremony at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, June 28, at 8:00 p.m.

(via William's Ramblings)

Lone Wolf Obscurica

2008-04-25T13:26:00.003Z

On Wednesday we published the "Joe Dever's Tabletop Heroes" PDF file. Although its release was not with any great fanfare, it marked the end of several months of painstaking work to compile these twenty-year-old columns from scans taken from old White Dwarf magazines. On the download page we wrote:

Joe Dever's Tabletop Heroes was a regular two-page monthly column in White Dwarf magazine between issues #52 (April 1984) and #77 (May 1986). The first 15 are credited as being co-written with Gary Chalk.

The column was devoted to reviews of contemporary miniature releases, but covered other aspects of relevance to miniature collectors, such as painting and photography techniques. As such, while this document will not necessarily be of interest to all fans of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf gamebooks, it is part of his body of work and merits a place on the Project Aon site.

It seems, therefore, a good opportunity to publicise some of the other documents that Project Aon has compiled regarding Joe Dever's other works.

Issue #4 of GamesMaster magazine (December 1988) contained a competition in the form of a rewritten mini-adventure based on The Battle of Cetza from Lone Wolf #10: The Dungeons of Torgar. It also featured a two-page interview with the Wytch-king himself--Ian Page. We have faithfully recreated the pertinent parts of this magazine for the benefit of Lone Wolf fans out there.

To date, there have been three official 8-bit Lone Wolf computer games, the most recent of which was The Mirror of Death in 1991. We have collected as many previews, reviews, walkthroughs, and associated articles from the computer press as we could find in the Lone Wolf Computer Games document. The software is not currently hosted on the Project Aon site, though the games can be found on other sites, such as World of Spectrum.

We have a separate document for tracking information pertaining to the forthcoming Ksatria computer game in Lone Wolf Ksatria Articles.

We have attempted to photographically catalogue all of the official Lone Wolf Miniatures in another document. Included are photographs of all of the Games Workshop range of miniatures, as well as scans of the original box packaging and official adverts from Games Workshop.

And finally, there are the two Lone Wolf Miscellaneous documents. The first deals with mail order forms, pricelists, and adverts relating to Lone Wolf and other items developed by Joe Dever. The second is comprised of various correspondence with Joe Dever, and related images, as well as reproducing articles written by Joe Dever, or about his works.

Of course, there are bound to be plenty of magazine articles that we are missing. For example, we have little or no previews or reviews of The Mirror of Death for the Amiga, Amstrad, Atari, C64/128, and MSX platforms. Also, we are aware of a number of articles relating to Joe Dever/Lone Wolf in magazines we have been unable to track down.

If you have any back-issues of role-playing or computer magazines from the 80s and 90s, you might be able to help us track down some known (or unknown) articles such as those found on the Wishlist. If you can help us, please Contact Us with more details. Your fellow fans will be most thankful.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!