Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone, known as F.I.S.T., was a series of single-player telephone-based roleplaying games launched in 1988 by the UK games designer Steve Jackson through the company Computerdial, which until then had used its phone line service to provide astrology readings. The games were audio-drama adaptations of Jackson's popular Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and callers could affect the outcome of the story with choices entered on a touch-tone telephone. Players registered by phone to build a persistent character, and each call played sound effects and voice-over narration describing the character's adventures; combat required the caller to respond to descriptions of an opponent by pressing key combinations, and callers could repeat messages, check their character's status, or save their progress with a numerical code to resume later. Two scenarios were produced, F.I.S.T. 1: Castle Mammon, Lair of the Demon Prince in September 1988 and F.I.S.T. 2: The Rings of Allion in March 1989. Despite being single-player games, callers could also reach The Black Claw Tavern, a shared discussion line connecting simultaneous callers, and compete on a monthly high-score ranking with physical gold coin prizes. In December 2023 the Swedish publisher Sound Realms announced a revival of F.I.S.T., releasing it on its audio adventure platform on September 7, 2024.
Facts
Game TypeSingle-player telephone-based roleplaying game 1 Classification
Player Count Sport
Game Type (category) In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph, first sentence
Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone (F.I.S.T.) were a series of single-player telephone-based roleplaying games launched by UK games designer Steve Jackson in 1988 through the company Computerdial, who until then had used their service to provide astrology services.
entity record, description lead (player-count)
Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone, known as F.I.S.T., was a series of single-player telephone-based roleplaying games launched in 1988 by the UK games designer Steve Jackson through the company Computerdial, which until then had used its phone line service to provide astrology readings. The games were audio-drama adaptations of Jackson's popular Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and c
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.