The Warlock of Firetop Mountain gamebook (Puffin), computer game, board game
First edition, Puffin Books, 1982. Cover art by Peter Andrew Jones. The secondary typeface is Palatino Bold.
Bradley in the 1980s: At the tender age of 88, this quirky typeface became the cover star of what now is a fantasy classic. Set in all caps and additionally mechanically condensed, Bradley adorns the cover of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, “a single-player adventure gamebook written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and illustrated by Russ Nicholson. Originally published by Puffin Books in 1982, the title is the first gamebook in the Fighting Fantasy series.” — Wikipedia
The cover art is by Peter Andrew Jones. From the Titannica Fighting Fantasy Wiki, “the ultimate guide to the all things Fighting Fantasy related”:
The design of the cover was unusual for the time, in that book covers usually had the title along the top so they could be read on the “step” shelves found in stores — Jones, however, left room for the title of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain in the middle of the cover, much to the consternation of the publishers.
The book has been adapted into a computer game produced by Crystal Computing and published by Puffin Books in 1984, and a board game published by Games Workshop in 1986. These spin-offs stick to Bradley for the visual identity.
Bradley in all caps is not easy to read, but that’s exactly why it works here: The medieval shapes add a good deal of mysteriousness, and are easily decipherable only for the initiated. There’s just one major simplification: C lost its diagonal stroke, see the book cover and the board game. The computer game packaging shows the unmodified form.
ZX Spectrum Software Pack, published in the The Puffin Personal Computer Collection, 1984.
Content of the ZX Spectrum Software Pack, including the game cassette and the 1983 “Colour Star” edition of the book.
Board game box, illustrated by Peter Andrew Jones, 1986. Here Bradley is used outlined. What might be dismissed as another quickly applied effect goes back all the way to the 1890s: metal Bradley came with an Outline style that was cut to register with the solid one for two-color printing.
Board game contents.
Game board with illustrations by Dave Andrews.
Ad for the board game. Smaller type is in ITC Garamond.
2 Comments on “The Warlock of Firetop Mountain gamebook (Puffin), computer game, board game”
Hell yeah!
Laurel Leaf picked up Bradley for the US edition of the book and, unlike Puffin, used it for the complete Fighting Fantasy series.