<P> In 1999, The Hobbit: A 3 - D Pop - Up Adventure was published, with illustrations by John Howe and paper engineering by Andrew Baron . </P> <P> ME Games Ltd (formerly Middle - earth Play - by - Mail), which has won several Origins Awards, uses the Battle of Five Armies as an introductory scenario to the full game and includes characters and armies from the book . </P> <P> Several computer and video games, both licensed and unlicensed, have been based on the story . One of the most successful was The Hobbit, an award - winning computer game published in 1982 by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House with compatibility for most computers available at the time . A copy of the novel was included in each game package . The game does not retell the story, but rather sits alongside it, using the book's narrative to both structure and motivate gameplay . The game won the Golden Joystick Award for Strategy Game of the Year in 1983 and was responsible for popularizing the phrase, "Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold ." </P> <P> While reliable figures are difficult to obtain, estimated global sales of The Hobbit run between 35 and 100 million copies since 1937 . In the UK The Hobbit has not retreated from the top 5,000 books of Nielsen BookScan since 1995, when the index began, achieving a three - year sales peak rising from 33,084 (2000) to 142,541 (2001), 126,771 (2002) and 61,229 (2003), ranking it at the 3rd position in Nielsens' "Evergreen" book list . The enduring popularity of The Hobbit makes early printings of the book attractive collectors' items . The first printing of the first English - language edition can sell for between £ 6,000 and £ 20,000 at auction, although the price for a signed first edition has reached over £ 60,000 . </P>

A hobbit's tale by bilbo baggins book