Jackson, Steve
Entry updated 13 February 2023. Tagged: Author, Game.
(1951- ) UK Game designer, author and entrepreneur. With Ian Livingstone, Jackson (who should not be confused with the US Steve Jackson) founded Games Workshop and created the Fighting Fantasy series of Gamebooks, the two most important parts of the UK games industry before it came to be dominated by Videogames. Jackson and Livingstone also designed a Role Playing Game based on the Fighting Fantasy system (Fighting Fantasy [1984 Penguin]) as well as writing a gazetteer of Titan, the fantasy world in which most of the books of the series are set (Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World [1986]), and – with Marc Gascoigne – a bestiary of that world's creatures (Out of the Pit: Fighting Fantasy Monsters [1985]). Independently, Jackson created Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone (1989 Computerdial), an unusual series of games based on Fighting Fantasy but run automatically by telephone, with the player making choices by dialing digits, and the fantasy novel The Trolltooth Wars (1989), set on Titan. Perhaps his most interesting design, however, was the Sorcery! series of Gamebooks beginning with The Shamutanti Hills (1983) (see Fighting Fantasy). These were aimed at a more adult audience than most contemporary Gamebooks and, had the Gamebook market not been largely wiped out by the rise of Videogames, might have become the progenitors of a printed analogue to computer-based Interactive Fiction. More recently, Jackson has worked as a business director in the Videogame industry with Peter Molyneux, and lectured on games design at the UK's Brunel University. [NT]
Steve Jackson
born Manchester, England: 20 May 1951
works
series
Fighting Fantasy
- The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1982) with Ian Livingstone [Fighting Fantasy: pb/Peter Andrew Jones]
- The Citadel of Chaos (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1983) [Fighting Fantasy: pb/Emmanuel]
- Starship Traveller (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1983) [Fighting Fantasy: pb/Peter Andrew Jones]
- House of Hell (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1984) [Fighting Fantasy: pb/Ian Miller]
- House of Hades (New York: Dell Books, 1985) [vt of the above: Fighting Fantasy: pb/R Courtney]
- Appointment with F.E.A.R. (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1985) [Fighting Fantasy: pb/Brian Bolland]
- Creature of Havoc (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1986) [Fighting Fantasy: pb/Ian Williams]
- The Trolltooth Wars (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1989) [Fighting Fantasy Novel: pb/Russ Nicholson]
- The Secrets of Salamonis (London: Scholastic, 2022) [Fighting Fantasy: pb/Tazio Bettin]
Sorcery!
- The Shamutanti Hills (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1983) [Sorcery!: pb/John Blanche]
- Kharé – Cityport of Traps (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1984) [Sorcery!: pb/John Blanche]
- The Seven Serpents (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1984) [Sorcery!: pb/John Blanche]
- The Crown of Kings (London: Penguin/Puffin, 1985) [Sorcery!: pb/John Blanche]
individual titles
- The Tasks of Tantalon (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1985) [chap: Fantasy Questbook: hb/Steven Lavis]
nonfiction
- Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop (London: Unbound, 2022) with Ian Livingstone: [nonfiction: Games Workshop: hb/]
links
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