Fantasy Interactive Scenarios by Telephone (F.I.S.T.) were a series of telephone-based adventure games launched by UK games designer Steve Jackson in 1988. The product was a radio drama version of Jackson's popular Fighting Fantasy novels, and the outcome of the story could be affected by choices the user made, using a a touch-tone telephone. A free starter pack could be ordered by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to the game creators.
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]