Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone

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In 1989, UK games designer Steve Jackson launched the world's first telephone adventure game: F.I.S.T. (Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone). The product was a radio drama version of his popular Fighting Fantasy novels, and the outcome of the story could be affected by choices the user made. A free starter pack could be ordered by sending a SASE to the game creators.

The game was played with a touch-tone telephone. Players could register over the phone and create a character, which could be saved and restored the next time the player called. The game played like a dungeon crawl with sound effects and voice-overs illustrating the adventures of the character. Combat consisted of the player being read a description of what their opponent was doing, and pushing a key combination to cast a spell to combat it. The game could be saved and quit at any time by pushing 9, and the last message could be repeated by pushing 0.

Although a solo-game, players could hear high scores of other players, and actual gold coins were awarded monthly to the players who did the best.^[1][2]

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