My Short Story of Romanian Gamebooks
- Laslie Cooper
- Oct 29
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 30
I’m also from Romania, so as a descendant of vampires, straight from the edge of Transylvania, my journey with gamebooks began in the early 90s, first in Hungarian, then later in English. Between the two, however, there was one unusual experience: a Romanian language gamebook. Even though I fell in love with gamebooks instantly, I couldn’t really enjoy this one. It didn’t resemble the Fighting Fantasy gameplay style, the illustrations felt weak, and although the story about battling megacorporations was interesting, it wasn’t strong enough to pull me in. So, over time, I simply forgot about it.
Years later, my personal gamebook renaissance arrived. I kept trying to remember the title of that Romanian gamebook. When I finally found it, I discovered that it was actually a translation of a fascinating series, of which I also own a few volumes. It was published by Editura Nemira in 1994, under the title Mercenarul, originally Cold Cash Warrior: In the World of Robert Asprin's Cold Cash War.
I must say, I really like the Romanian cover. It has a slight Moebius vibe, definitely unique, and it was illustrated by the very talented Romanian artist Tudor Popa. The binding and glue are surprisingly solid for a 1994 book. Unfortunately, the paper quality is poor and the printing is extremely faint (you’ll see in the photos). I didn’t enjoy the illustrations to begin with, and printed like this, the book became even harder to appreciate. Poor thing…
A few months later, I decided to investigate whether more Romanian gamebooks existed. This led me to Ești milionar, published by Editura Olimp in 1993, a Romanian translation of a classic CYOA book, originally titled You Are a Millionaire (Choose Your Own Adventure #98) by Jay Leibold.
Ron Wing’s illustrations fit the story and the target age group very well, but the cover is quite forgettable, it looks more like a school textbook from Eastern Europe. The book is small in size and the binding is unusual: a metal clip system + glue (as you’ll see in the photos). It’s not visually appealing, but I admit it’s durable.
The paper quality is acceptable, it hasn’t yellowed, and the printing is clean and sharp. Overall, it’s a decent edition, but sadly, this series also ended after a single title, fading into obscurity.
And with these two books, my Romanian gamebook adventure pretty much came to an end. I still secretly hope that I simply haven’t found the others yet, and that there are more hidden somewhere, but I’m afraid the chances are slim.
And this is actually where the idea for this blog post began: why did Romanian gamebooks become so rare?
At first, I compared it to Hungary, but later I was also surprised by Bulgaria, where to this day beautiful and high-quality gamebooks are released. Romania, on the other hand, remained a black hole on the Eastern-European gamebook map.
Why? I don’t have a definitive answer, but I believe the lack of releases and the absence of continuous publishing killed any chance for the genre to take root. A stronger focus on fantasy might have fit the gamebook style better. Perhaps if a classic Fighting Fantasy book had been the first to be translated, the story would have turned out differently, and these paper-scented adventures would have taken hold here in the Carpathian region as well. But who knows, maybe the adventure isn’t over yet. If the gamebook renaissance continues, one day the genre may return to Romania too.
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