Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 10


If I continue west using obsolete navigation data in CHOICE #12, this happens.  The picture is not encouraging, even before I read the text.


"Hoping that Etuk still lies to the west, you sail in that direction.  The breeze is fair and your hopes are high.  But by nightfall you have seen no land, and not even a solitary bird.  You set your tiller and sail as best you can, hoping the skiff will keep on course through the night.


You can't get comfortable lying in the skiff, and you sleep fitfully.  Sometime during the night you are awakened by thunder.  The sail has come loose in the wind.  The boat is rocking and pitching in the choppy sea.  Lightning flashes across the sky, revealing a swiftly moving line of jet black clouds.  The water beneath is foamy white.  You feel a chill wind increasing in force.  It's a line squall that hits like a hurricane.  THE END"


My character must have written a bad review about Final Fantasy 8.


Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

4 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 11


Our hero fails either a Strength or Dexterity check and has the spear gun wrested away in CHOICE #10.  My wrist is bruised.  "So, I have a traitor on my hands.  When we reach shore, you will be hanged."  Maiko decides to call his island Maikoland.  I'd rather visit Otisburg.


When I try to tell Maiko that the island is uninhabitable, he says "You are a fool as well as a traitor.  Volcanic soil is very fertile.  In a few years this shore will be lined with palm trees."  According to another ending, Surtsey II is already habitable!  There was enough fish and rainwater to survive in that path.  Maiko literally jumps up and down on the sand while fantasizing about his private island plans.  "But even as he is yelling, you see a burst of flame and smoke rising from the volcano."


CHOICE #13 is to hide under an overhang rock on Page 67, or try to ride the skiff to safety while covering my head with my arms on Page 75.


Maiko yells "Where do you think you're going?", but the volcano's air blast sends the skiff away.  It singes my neck, and then I pass out.  I awaken inside a bunk on a "motor yacht" a few miles away from Surtsey II.  This eruption blew the top off the volcano.  Jason Lucus, "a man wearing a white jacket over a red shirt", saved my life.  In the picture, the top of his scalp is bald, though he does have some black hair on the sides and back.  He wears glasses and has a black mustache.  Jason Lucus offers me $10,000 for claims to Surtsey II, and CHOICE #14 is to sign the paper on Page 82, or reject it on Page 84.  Jason Lucus seems like the sort of "businessman" who'd sell the Brooklyn Bridge to you.


Either way, this is Alternate Endings, and we have to see everything in these Let's Plays.  Let's start with the rejection.


The rationale I had in mind for refusing to sign was some sort of legal trouble.  What I end up saying instead is "If I have a right to that island, I don't want to sell it for $10,000.  It must be worth a lot more than that!"  Jason Lucus is actually more of a Godfather style businessman.  "I really didn't want to kill you.  In fact, I was willing to pay $10,000 to avoid killing you.  But that wasn't enough for you.  GET UP ON DECK!"


Jason Lucus points a revolver at me, but this isn't how he plans to dispose of me.  "I can't bear the sight of blood.  That's why I prefer to have you lose your balance and fall overboard."  He picks me up in the illustration.  The boat's name isn't mentioned in the text so far, but it's appropriately called Corsair in the picture.


A sympathetic sailor on the Corsair tosses a "Styrofoam life buoy" and some supplies to me.  "Sorry I can't do more, but they'd have my skin next."  The supplies include a half-gallon of water, chocolate, matches, and rocket flares.  Night falls, and "darkness comes quickly in the tropics".


CHOICE #15 is to shoot a rocket flare now on Page 95, or wait to see a ship first on Page 116.  The latter sounds more sensible.


"You drift through the night.  From time to time you doze off.  Whenever you wake, you scan the horizon, hoping that you'll see a ship.  But the only lights you see are phosphorescent streaks in the water.  Once again you doze off, but something awakens you.  You peer over the edge.  A dark white torpedo is coursing through the water.  Its shape is unmistakable-a great white shark!  Yoiu cry out, but no one can hear you.  No one can help.  THE END"


This ending is less of a cheat than it first seemed to me.  Great white sharks can be nocturnal, and hanging on a life buoy for longer would make you vulnerable to predators.  Is the food and water presented in CHOICE #15 supposed to be a trick?  There's one line before the decision that says "You're going to make it through the night, but you are lonely and, to tell the truth, scared".  It's the only hint of danger.


Still, the picture of the shark charging up to the hero cowering in a buoy is worth seeing.


Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

5 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 12


Survival at Sea sometimes rewards immediate action rather than patience.  Burning the Serena is the right thing to do in CHOICE #5, and shooting the rocket flare in CHOICE #15 at least makes you live long enough to see CHOICE #16.  The flare should be visible in a 20 mile radius.  I see a "dark hump" 1 mile away which could be "a small atoll, a coral reef".  More promising is a "bright star, a few degrees above the horizon" above the shape in the distance.  The options here are to paddle towards the star (lighthouse?) on Page 105, or "save your strength" on Page 107.


The "star" doesn't lead to a lighthouse or ship, but a coral atoll with only half a mile in diameter.  I drink some water and eat chocolate.  Eventually, I notice an underwater tunnel, which I explore because "there is nothing else to do on this tiny island".  I surface in an air bubble in a grotto filled with sunlight.


"A primitive head and long rubbery neck protrude from the surface.  The Arkasaur!  The creature waves its head.  Suddenly it dives, disappearing as quickly as it came.  What an eerie experience.  Are you dreaming?  Are you going mad?"


Pages 102-103 show the Arkasaur's head and long neck, and my character giving it a wide-eyed stare.


"You dive into the water, swim out of the grotto and climb onto the reef.  Looking up, you see that it's a helicopter overhead.  You grab the remaining rocket from your bag, light it, and send it up.  You cross your fingers for one very long minute.  Finally the light glows.  Almost at once the chopper turns and swoops toward you.  You see the American flag and the white star painted on the aircraft, and, as it settles in, seeking out a landing place on your tiny reef, the stenciled letters U.S. NAVY.


In a few minutes you're safely aboard the helicopter.  The Navy pilots are amused when you tell them about your discovery.  They just don't believe it.  But you hardly care; you are so happy to learn from them that the Allegro reached Bariba safely.  By nightfall, you are reunited with the crew of the Allegro.  Breathlessly, you tell everyone what happened.


'Do you think I was hallucinating?' you ask.  Dr. Vivaldi shakes her head.  'No.  Without a doubt you saw the Arkasaur.'  'When do we set sail for the atoll?' asks Pete.  'I can chart our course,' you add.  But Dr. Vivaldi stops you.  'I've been giving this a lot of thought,' she says.  'The grotto is the Arkasaur's surface habitat.  It is a miracle that this marvelous animal has survived for so long.  We must be very careful not to upset the balance.  It will have to be enough for us to know that the Arkasaur lives.'  THE END"


Well, I wasn't expecting to find the Arkasaur by having to flee from both Maiko and Jason Lucus.  Maiko is still dead, so I'll still put it in the Bad Non-Death Ending category for now.  By the end, I may rewrite the categories completely.  It's rare to see the goal of the book fulfilled in a path where one of your companions dies, even if he's a villain in one situation.  Since this Arkasaur is so big yet lives in a half mile coral atoll grotto, maybe it's the equivalent of Lonesome George the tortoise and the rest of the species is extinct.


Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

5 Deaths

5 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 13


We're officially over the halfway point for Survival at Sea!  When I "save my strength" in CHOICE #16, I'm still on the buoy, but the great white shark decides to go somewhere else tonight.  Maybe the rocket flare scared it off.  I'm sometimes warm in the daytime, but waves keep crashing into the buoy.  I'm shivering now, and the chocolate makes me "queasy".  I see a plane and manage to shoot the last rocket flare just before a wave sends the rest of my supplies into the ocean.  The picture is on Page 108 rather than the final page of 94, and shows my character shooting the flare with one hand and holding onto the raft with the other as a wave is breaking.


"You've been unconscious, but now you're slowly coming to.  There is ocean everywhere you look, but you are high above the waves, looking down through the windows of a helicopter.  'Glad to see you're still with us!'  The cheerful voice belongs to a sandy-haired man.  'We're from the aircraft carrier Ranger,' he says, 'and we'll be setting you down in about ten minutes.'


'Thanks for picking me up.  Have you seen a boat named the Allegro?'  'Yes, they asked us to try to locate you.  They're sailing back to Bariba.  We'll have you there by nightfall.'  'I guess they didn't find the Arkasaur,' you say.  'Not this time,' the officer replies.  'But I hope you'll keep looking.  It's out there.  I know it.'  And so do you.  THE END"


If not for Maiko's death, this would be a standard Neutral Ending where the quest may as well not have happened.  The Ranger previously appeared in the "Surtsey II will be owned by the United Nations" ending, and I'm glad to see the book remain consistent with which ships appear.  Also, how does my character "know" that the Arkasaur is real if they never met it in the grotto?



Endings So Far


0 Good Endings

5 Deaths

6 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

3 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 14


Jason Lucus may be a villain, but he keeps his word in this ending when I accept his money in CHOICE #14.


"You sign the paper, and Lucus hands you a stack of $100 bills.  You ruffle through them.  'You're a smart kid,' Lucus says.  Soon you are safely back on board the Allegro, with $10,000 in your pocket.  You tell your friends about your adventure.  Eric shakes his head as you tell him how Maiko got you to take the skiff over to the new island.  You gaze out at it now, just a few miles across the water.  Its gray mountainous slopes have taken on a pink hue in the late afternoon sun.  A thin plume of white smoke rises from the top of the volcano.  You wonder whether you were wise to sell your claim to it for only $10,000.


Suddenly there is a bright red flash on the eastern horizon.  It is quickly followed by a billowing plume of smoke, then a roar that sounds like a thousand cannons.  You cover your ears.  Then you cringe as a shock wave heels the Allegro sharply over on its side.  But the boat quickly rights itself, and the wind subsides almost as quickly as it had risen.


You all stare toward the island, but all you can see in the distance is a thick gray haze.  'We've seen millions of years of earth history in a few days,' says Pete.  'Now we can resume our search for the Arkasaur,' Dr. Vivaldi observes.  You're eager to help find the Arkasaur, but right now you can't stop thinking about what you'll do with the $10,000.  THE END"


If I were writing this ending, Jason Lucus would give you a bounced check.  Property ownership of Surtsey II is spurious, so if anything you're swindling Jason Lucus in this path.


As for these endings, I've decided on a new if unwieldy way to count them.  Their categories are now relative to the branch of the story.  Survival at Sea is an unusual CYOA in that you can have an outcome presented as positive despite events that would be a clear defeat in other books.  "Dr. Vivaldi, Maiko, and Captain Zindel are dead, but you found an expensive seashell!"


OTHER is for conclusions such as the one where everyone drowns in the CHOICE #2 tsunami.


ONLY PETE AND YOU SURVIVE TSUNAMI


Good Endings:  1

Deaths:  2

Neutral Endings:  1

Inconclusive Endings:  1  


MAIKO BETRAYS ALLEGRO CREW


Good Endings:  2

Deaths:  2

Neutral Endings:  3

Inconclusive Endings:  2



OTHER


Deaths:  1

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 15


I thought the "hide under rock overhang" ending in CHOICE #13 would have logic like "if lava is molten rock, it can also melt your shelter", but the actual Death is different.


"You run across the fine, dusty sand, headed for the shelter of the big rock.  If you can get there before the blast hits, you might have a chance.  But the sand is so powdery that with each step you sink in up to your ankles.  It's like trying to run through deep, soft snow.  You haven't quite reached shelter before the fiery blast strikes you down.  THE END"


If I were writing this, the player character would be preserved Pompeii style by the pyroclastic flow.  Archeologists searching for "New Atlantis" would find you thousands of years later.  The illustration shows the hero running towards a tall rock, with the fatal bright flash behind them.


Forgot to mention the drawing for the previous ending.  It shows everyone on the boat facing left.  Captain Zindel is standing on the bow, while Nera Vivaldi has her hands behind his feet.  Steve's legs are hanging off the side of the boat.  The hero, cautious after their adventure, is standing securely in the boat with hands on hips.


Endings So Far


ONLY PETE AND YOU SURVIVE TSUNAMI


Good Endings:  1

Deaths:  2

Neutral Endings:  1

Inconclusive Endings:  1  


MAIKO BETRAYS ALLEGRO CREW


Good Endings:  2

Deaths:  3

Neutral Endings:  3

Inconclusive Endings:  2



OTHER


Deaths:  1

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 16


The "Maiko's Betrayal" storyline still has some episodes remaining.  Let's try to stay on the Allegro instead of riding in the skiff in CHOICE #9.  "No, I can't let you stay.  It will interfere with my plans".  I get on the skiff anyway, but he doesn't take me to Surtsey II.  "Don't worry.  I'm giving you your own boat."  This is a rubber raft with one canteen.  When my character protests that there are no oars, Maiko says "You're a clever sailor.  You'll get along OK."


Two days later, and "even the birds and flying fish have deserted you".  If I were playing Survival at Sea:  The Future Is Wild, then the flying fish would take the place of birds altogether.  As the drawing indicates, the volcano erupted several hours after Maiko put me in the raft.  I can't tell where I'm going due to "threatening clouds".


"Maybe the best thing to do is to accept your fate:  just lie there, close your eyes, and wait for the end to come.  It would be easier that way."  An identical CHOICE appeared in La Isla de los Dodos!  Now we know which Choose Your Own Adventure the Spanish author was ripping off.  CHOICE #17 is whether to give up on Page 79, or continue to hope on Page 113.


Eventually I drift into the current leading directly to the Arkasaur.  "First its lumpish gray-green head, then its rubbery, powerful neck rising ten feet or more above the waves.  A hump rises out of the water behind it like a small island rising from the sea."


CHOICE #18 is whether to tie the raft to the Arkasaur on Page 89, or not on Page 92.  "Suppose, though, the creature turned on you, or suddenly dove under the waves."  That's the warning Edward Packard uses to try to give you second thoughts.


I tie the rope to the Arkasaur's neck and put the raft on its back.  The reptile takes off so fast, the narration compares it to a hydrofoil.  The Arkasaur swims for hours, and I sleep until being tossed on an inhabited island with "palm trees and thatched huts".  A woman in one of these huts gives me a mug of pineapple juice.  The illustration shows me lying on a bench about to take the juice.  The woman has dark hair with a flower in it and wears a dress with plant patterns on it.  There's what looks like a potted plant with dark berries in the foreground.


I'm on Bori Rama, the island on the southeastern part of the Page 13 map.


"Within the hour, you reach Eric on the radio telephone.  'I can't believe it's you!' he says.  'There's no way your raft could have drifted all the way from the new island to Bori Rama in such a short time.'  'It didn't drift,' you say, and you explain your amazing ride with the Arkasaur.


'I really can't believe it,' he says, 'but I guess I have to, since it's the only way you could have traveled 400 miles in just ten hours.  No ship or boat could travel that fast, and no planes or helicopters have landed on Bori Rama.'  He pauses a moment.  'Hold on.  Dr. Vivaldi wants to talk to you.'


'Are we glad to hear from you!' she says.  'It's good to hear your voice,' you tell her.  'I will want to hear all about your encounter with the Arkasaur,' she says.  'Now I'm more curious than ever about this fantastic animal.  Are you willing to continue the search with us?'


'I'd sure like to, but I have to be in school in a couple of weeks.'  'I'm sure I can arrange for you to miss a few weeks of school,' she replies, 'because you're going to learn a lot-and so will I-on the next voyage of the Allegro.'  THE END"


My character is in school?  Their age is never specified, although the drawings make them look young.  Nera Vivaldi probably gets me out of class because she has dirt on all the other Choose Your Own Adventure characters.  Notice how she wants to make a return trip in this ending, rather than keep the Arkasaur in obscurity for its protection.


Endings So Far


ONLY PETE AND YOU SURVIVE TSUNAMI


Good Endings:  1

Deaths:  2

Neutral Endings:  1

Inconclusive Endings:  1  


MAIKO BETRAYS ALLEGRO CREW


Good Endings:  3

Deaths:  3

Neutral Endings:  3

Inconclusive Endings:  2



OTHER


Deaths:  1

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 17


If you don't ride the Arkasaur in CHOICE #18, you still survive, although no one believes your story since you're not traveling as quickly.


"You're afraid that if you hitched on to the Arkasaur and it suddenly dove under the waves, you would be sucked down with it into the depths of the sea.  You paddle away, hoping to get to a safe distance in case the creature dives or thrashes its giant body.  You keep an eye on it while it whirls its long, powerful neck around to look at you.  Suddenly it slips beneath the waves.


You drift helplessly on the raft for the rest of the day and through the night.  But, early the next morning, a passing freighter plucks you out of the water.  You are barely alive and hardly able to swallow the fresh water and lemonade the crewmen pour into your mouth.  It's two days more before you are able to sit up and tell the captain about your adventures.  You can hardly blame him when he chuckles upon hearing of your encounter with the Arkasaur.


'An old sailor like me hears a pack of wild stories in a lifetime at sea,' he says.  He leans closer, and his weathered face crinkles as he smiles.  'But the wildest ones come from poor wretches like you, dying of thirst and poisoned by too much salt and sun.  It's then that the mind plays its strangest tricks.  I know you believe that your story is true, but, let me tell you, you'll never see the Arkasaur when you're safe on the deck of a sound ship sailing in a fair breeze.'  The captain has a kind face, and he speaks so sincerely that you begin to think your encounter with the Arkasaur was nothing but a dream.  THE END"


This is an unusual Neutral Ending where you do accomplish the goal in a sense, but since no one believes it including yourself, it may as well not have happened.  The illustration has my character paddling away from the Arkasaur with a frightened expression on their face.


ONLY PETE AND YOU SURVIVE TSUNAMI


Good Endings:  1

Deaths:  2

Neutral Endings:  1

Inconclusive Endings:  1  


MAIKO BETRAYS ALLEGRO CREW


Good Endings:  3

Deaths:  3

Neutral Endings:  4

Inconclusive Endings:  2



OTHER


Deaths:  1

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 18


Only one more conclusion in the Maiko's Betrayal route, and it's the passive suicide in CHOICE #17.


"You close your eyes and try to sleep.  You don't want to look ever again at the endless panorama of waves and sky.  You have given up all hope of rescue.  You know you will never see another human being again.  Soon it will be over.  THE END"


The illustration shows a sunset over calm seas, with a beam of light shining down the middle on a sailboat.  This must be another time where the artist and writer didn't tell each other about their plans, since there should be a rubber raft instead.  The equivalent ending in La Isla de los Dodos was written as an oddly peaceful drowning.


ONLY PETE AND YOU SURVIVE TSUNAMI


Good Endings:  1

Deaths:  2

Neutral Endings:  1

Inconclusive Endings:  1  


MAIKO BETRAYS ALLEGRO CREW


Good Endings:  3

Deaths:  4

Neutral Endings:  4

Inconclusive Endings:  2



OTHER


Deaths:  1

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Survival at Sea Alternate Endings Part 19


This ending will be in the OTHER category, as it happens immediately after going "south, southwest, or west" in CHOICE #8.  It's not an immediate Death as you might expect.


"Once Dr. Vivaldi has set the Allegro on its new course, you go below to sleep.  You're awakened early the next morning by excited voices above you.  Eric is already climbing the ladder.  You follow right behind.  The other crew members are on deck already.  Everyone is looking out at a ring of cone-shaped peaks rising from the sea.


'What a beautiful island!' cries Dr. Vivaldi.  'Yes, I've been here before,' says Eric.  'It's Carina Island.  It's a true paradise, but nowhere near where the Arkasaur was sighted.'  He looks at you sternly.  'You set us on the wrong course.  I don't believe you read the chart!'


You start to apologize, but Eric holds up a hand.  'That's all right.  You've given me a thought.  We've survived a tidal wave, and I'm still shaky from that bang on the head.  We will cruise to Carina Island.  We all need a rest, so we'll spend a day or two swimming and sunbathing before we continue our search for the Arkasaur.  Would that be all right with you, Dr. Vivaldi?' he asks.


'You say it's a paradise,' she replies.  'That's good enough for me.'  You can hardly argue with that.  THE END"


Carina Island is in the western part of the Page 13 map.  This would be a Neutral Ending if not for Carina Island impressing even the experienced Dr. Vivaldi and Captain Zindel.  It's a Good Ending, if a mild one.  The illustration shows the hero standing up in the bow and pointing at a mountainous island.


ONLY PETE AND YOU SURVIVE TSUNAMI


Good Endings:  1

Deaths:  2

Neutral Endings:  1

Inconclusive Endings:  1  


MAIKO BETRAYS ALLEGRO CREW


Good Endings:  3

Deaths:  4

Neutral Endings:  4

Inconclusive Endings:  2



OTHER

Good Endings:  1

Deaths:  1