Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 1


Since this is #7 in the series, expect to see many Alternate Endings.  What happens if I tell the Aloha crew about the galaxy chart in CHOICE #4?


"You radio the captain and tell him about the chart.  He is excited to hear of your discoveries in the cloud city, but advises you that the Third Planet may be overwhelmed by antimatter at any moment.  You hastily take some photographs of the city before the Aloha arrives to pick you up.  Soon you are again traveling through interstellar space.  You and the others study all the data.


'The records left by the inhabitants of the planet show that they have studied the galaxy in an effort to find a new home,' the captain writes in his official report.  'The people who lived in the cloud city abandoned it because it was doomed.  They have chosen as a refuge our own solar system.'  Dr. Vivaldi remarks, 'When we return to Earth we may find the same beings we journeyed so far to meet, or-some day in the future-they may come to meet us.'  THE END"


Either Altair III is the most doomed planet in the galaxy, or R.A. Montgomery was using Edward Packard as his pen name.  (That could explain the rancor between the two writers after the original CYOA series ended!)  Multiple disasters await, and the ending just picks one of them.  I'll count this as a Good Ending because we do at least get information relevant to the mission, and can alert Earth to the Altair III refugees when they show up.


Endings So Far (forgot to put that in the first post. . .)


2 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 2


Rejecting the cloud city mission in CHOICE #3 causes us to abandon it and enter orbit around Altair III.  "You can see eerie lights flickering around the planet's poles."  That can't be aurora borealis since we're viewing it from space.  Captain Stanton orders "Computer, analysis:  beta radiation, screen 4" like in any cheap science fiction story.


The results:  PHENOMENON UNKNOWN ON EARTH.  HYPOTHESIS APPROACHING ANTIMATTER STORM


Einstein says this antimatter storm will be much stronger than the one from CHOICE #1.  Captain Stanton tells us we have to take the Cygnet I lander down to Altair III to fulfill the mission and get out before the antimatter kills us, and CHOICE #5 is whether to go on Page 35 or refuse on Page 36.


Dr. Vivaldi agrees to go with me, and has this to say about the landing site: "Those cliffs offer natural protection from the wind and from the heat of Altair.  They also mark the boundary between desert and mountains.  On Earth, places like this are natural sites for settlements."


We enter a cave close to a wall of "pinkish gray rock", and the inside glows with a "soft amber light".  Dr. Vivaldi pulls me by the arm and says that the floor is too smooth to be natural.  It might be a road.  Cracks on the wall could be a door.  I notice Altair III's version of cave paintings, which Paul Granger has not drawn yet.  CHOICE #6 is to keep going on Page 85, or stop and enter the door on Page 90.


We continue walking until we see a small spaceship that looks like it's made of crystal.  Its door opens automatically, and we watch a video on a screen.  It depicts Altair III's surface glowing so bright that it hurts my eyes, and then spaceships taking off.  It may show this spaceship taking off from the cave as well, and the last scene is of a different star system.  Dots flashing on the screen must be a countdown, and Dr. Vivaldi tells me the ship is going to take off with us inside if we don't get out.  However, she has second thoughts:  "We are explorers.  We may find out a great deal more by staying on this ship than by leaving it."


CHOICE #7 is to stay on the cave ship on Page 88, or decide that leaving it is a better idea on Page 103.  Who knows whether the ship even has the supplies and environment necessary for humans?  Still, we have to see all the endings, including the obvious Deaths.


Amazingly, staying on the cave ship does not kill us due to having a higher nitrogen content in the air supply or something.  The screen has much to say in ALL CAPS, like an old RPG:


EMERGENCY!  ACTIVATE HYPERTIME DRIVE!  HYPERTIME DRIVE DESTROYED BY ANTIMATTER STORM.  TIME TO NEW PLANET 650 YEARS.  HUMAN LIFE SPAN INSUFFICIENT FOR VOYAGE.  HIBERNATION CHAMBER AVAILABLE.  SURVIVAL CHANCES FOR ALANIAN TRAVELERS 99.7 PERCENT.  FOR HUMANS INSUFFICIENT DATA.  DELAY IN HIBERNATION DECREASES CHANCES FOR SURVIVAL.


There's "insufficient data" for humans, so how does the computer know that going into hibernation sooner won't just kill us?  Good thing it learned English quickly like the cloud city computer.  Dr. Vivaldi seems to be doing well while asleep.  CHOICE #8 is to try to send signals to the Aloha on Page 112, since I had earlier told the crew to follow the cave ship, or to hibernate on Page 116.


The computer tells me details about the Alanian civilization on Altair III.  The Alanians lived "on the land, under the sea, and even in a city in the sky".  They all evacuated the system after learning about the coming antimatter storm several years ago.  CHOICE #9 has another chance to hibernate on Page 116, or to keep trying to find our ship, because "Yet you feel that if you wait just a little while longer, you will surely locate the Aloha" on Page 104.


When I throw away the last chance to go into suspended animation, an ending grim enough to get sunrise089's attention ensues.


"The hours stretch into days, the days stretch into weeks.  Now you have waited so long that the computer tells you your chances of surviving hibernation are nearly zero.  You can only hope that somehow your crystal ship will reach the new planet before you grow old and die, or that you will at last find the Aloha, or that something will happen to fix the ship's hypertime device.  But the months go by and nothing changes.  You grow more and more depressed as you sit and wait, and finally, disoriented by the incredible loneliness of outer space, you lose all will to survive.  THE END"


Paul Granger saw fit to illustrate this ending.  My character is sitting with arms crossed, looking downward with a sullen expression.  You have to admit this is a fair Death as you even get a second CHOICE to avoid it.


Endings So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 3


Hibernating in either CHOICE #8 or #9 generates an ironic ending with product placement.


"You take a last look around, thank the computer for its help, and step into the hibernation chamber. . .Sunlight floods through the windows of your ship.  You rub your eyes and stretch, trying to remember where you are and when it is-and even who you are. . .The sun here is not the superbrilliant white disc of Altair.  It looks more like Earth's sun.


You notice a familiar figure looking down at you.  It is Dr. Vivaldi.  She helps you out of the hibernation chamber, and you wander about the ship peering out the windows at your new surroundings.  A fresh breeze blows in.  A bird that looks like a blue jay flies by.  You see a small animal running along the ground.  It looks like a chipmunk!


'I'm very happy that you are awake,' Dr. Vivaldi says.  'We are on the new planet.  The computer was badly damaged when we landed.  So we're on our own-somewhere, sometime.'  You hardly hear what she is saying, because you are lost in thought-staring at a crumpled tin can on the ground on which you can clearly see the words COCA-COLA.  THE END"


I'm really more of a Pepsi guy.  This ending reminds me of one of the conclusions in Phantasy Star III, where the Algol generation ships reach Earth and plan to settle there.  Pages 116-117 are the last in the book, and there is an illustration of the crushed Coke can.  It would have been funnier if it turned out Coca-Cola was sold on other planets, and this is just a world with an uncanny resemblance to Earth.


Since we came here on the crystal ship and therefore learned a bit about Altair III, this fits into the part of the Good Ending territory that's almost on the frontier of the Neutral Ending.


Endings So Far


3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 4


Refusing to board the cave ship in CHOICE #7 leads an ending that I don't know how to label.  If the Altair III ship goes to Earth as in the CHOICE #8 or #9 endings, then it would be Good since it travels to Earth.  Nothing implies that the Aloha crew might suffer Death or hang in Inconclusive Ending limbo.  Their journey certainly wasn't a pointless Neutral Ending since they found the cave ship in the first place.


"You leave the crystal ship, and, after a moment's hesitation, Dr. Vivaldi follows you.  The ship's door shuts behind you.  Somehow you know it will not open for you again.  'Follow me,' Dr. Vivaldi says.  'Perhaps there are life forms nearby.' You follow her deeper into the cavern, and finally enter a tunnel that winds upward to the surface.  You have not met any beings-you have only sensed their presence.


The land outside the cave is barren and strewn with boulders.  The sky is filled with red-orange light.  The sun-star Altair is hidden behind a bank of gray clouds.  You fire an emergency/distress rocket, and then another.  In less than an hour Cygnet II coasts in to a landing.


Soon you are safely back on the Aloha.  The captain listens to your story.  Then he tells you that, just before your return, the computer tracked a spaceship leaving the planet.  In a few minutes the Aloha leaves orbit in pursuit of the ship.  Your visit to the third planet from Altair has ended, and a new quest is beginning.  THE END"


In honor of Zelda, I'll call this a Second Quest Ending.  Not many gamebooks can boast of making me come up with a new type of conclusion, but Edward Packard is an innovator.


Endings So Far


3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings


1 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 5


Posting on Realms Beyond now causes a strange error screen on my usual computer's browser.  Do I blame Bill Gates for Windows, or Al Gore for Internet glitches?  Entering the "door" in CHOICE #6 is a cheap shot Death because there's no hint of any danger.


"You return to the door.  Dr. Vivaldi presses against it firmly and it swings open.  You see before you an enormous room, completely white, filled with electronic equipment.  'No sign of life-just an automatic control center of some kind,' Dr. Vivaldi says as you walk along past banks of machines the purpose of which you can only guess at.  Suddenly, Dr. Vivaldi stumbles and falls.  She cannot get up.  She looks very pale.  You begin to feel dizzy yourself.  Dr. Vivaldi looks up at you.


'Radiation?' she asks.  'I've already checked it,' you reply.  'Do a microorganism scan.'  You are shaking and are barely able to set up your scanner.  Too weak to stand up any longer, you sit down beside Dr. Vivaldi.  Together you examine the data.


'Ah, here it is,' Dr. Vivaldi says in a feeble voice.  'There are bacteria here of a type unknown on Earth.  Their purpose is to protect this equipment from mold, insects, rats. . .fungi. . .from anything that might interfere. . .including alien creatures like you and me.'  Dr. Vivaldi falls unconscious, and, in a moment, so do you.  THE END"


The newest germ warfare experiment killed all the Alanians too, leaving Altair III's technology free for silicon-based life forms to steal without reprisal.  Or else the Alanians never learned how to sterilize their medical equipment.


To be slightly more serious, a Death based on infection would be consistent with other routes, since in another ending the Aloha crew had to retreat because of pathogens in the atmosphere.


Endings So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 6


I paid closer attention to the error message this time.  It involved a date "in the future", which must have come from my computer's clock falling behind a few days for no reason.  So we can blame Bill Gates with due ceremony.


In CHOICE #5, rejecting the offer to go to Altair III means that Dr. Vivaldi and Captain Stanton go down instead.  Einstein stays behind too due to his fear of antimatter storms.  His fears are vindicated when one of them approaches the Aloha! 


WE HAVE LOST COMMUNICATION WITH CYGNET 1.  ANTIMATTER ACTIVITY APPROACHING CRITICAL.  SOLAR FLARE DANGER CRITICAL.  RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL TO OUTERMOST PLANET.


CHOICE #10 is to either take the computer's ALL CAPS advice on Page 54, or wait for Dr. Vivaldi and Captain Stanton to come back on Page 58.  Radio is ruled out as an option, in case any of my readers is thinking of trying that.


"By the time you reach the outer limits of the Altair system of the planets are surrounded by pink light.  Tongues of flame leap from Altair's surface tens of millions of kilometers into space.  You ask the computer for its analysis."


ANTIMATTER ACTIVITY INCREASING.  LIFE THREATENED ON ALL PLANETS EXCEPT NUMBER 6.


Right now, we're at the 10th planet.  CHOICE #11 is whether to wait at Altair X on Page 74, or check out Altair VI on Page 75.  Careful reading of the ALL CAPS message implies that the Page 74 option is Death.


Earth is twice as large as Altair VI.    The computer says PLANET 6 ANALYZED.  DATA SHOWS ANTIGRAVITY EFFECT CONTRARY TO KNOWN LAWS OF PHYSICS.  We're trapped in Altair VI's orbit, and the safe option in CHOICE #12 is to wait it out on Page 92.  But I can also use the time-override acceleration device, or TOA on Page 91.  However, that might "rip the Aloha apart".


UNAUTHORIZED PERSON SCANNING MY MEMORY BANKS.  WE KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU.  WE ARE TAKING THIS PLANET THROUGH A TIME/SPACE SINGULARITY INTO OUR UNIVERSE.  IF YOU FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS YOU WILL COME TOO.  OTHERWISE YOU WILL DIE.  YOUR FIRST INSTRUCTION IS TO SAY NOTHING.


That isn't our computer.  An alien is speaking to us, and CHOICE #13 is what to do next.  Page 97 is to obey the aliens.  Page 98 is to say "they have no right to abduct you", which will probably cause Death.  To "try to convince the aliens that you come in friendship", flip to Page 102, which will probably cause Death.


"Feeling you have no choice, you remain silent.  If you can just stay alive, at least you can have hope of returning someday to your own universe.  Several minutes pass and you begin to wonder whether you may be dreaming.  Then, suddenly, you feel what seems to be an electric shock.  You try to cry out to Pickens, but find that you cannot speak.  You sit paralyzed, surrounded by shimmering, dancing lights. . .


Now you find yourself free to move again, but you are face to face with a thin, wiry creature with a large round head from which dozens of long spikes protrude.  Speaking a language that you have never heard before, but that you somehow can understand perfectly, the creature says, 'Welcome.  I am sure you will enjoy your new world. . .if you will just obey orders.  THE END"


No description of the picture can do it justice, but I'll give it a try anyway.  The alien is tall with an extremely thin torso and arms with similar proportions.  The alien's head must be at least half of its total weight.  The face is round and scowls at my character.  The ears remind me of Yoda's, and the "spikes" are represented as a tall fan, almost like a frilled lizard.  I'll try to make it my new avatar if Realms Beyond accepts the picture.  I know I've seen that alien on a web site somewhere, but I don't remember which one.


This is a proper Bad Non-Death Ending due to being stranded in a totalitarian universe.


Endings So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 7


The alien from Alternate Endings Part 6 is now the official mascot of the Gamebooks thread!  What happens if we say we come in friendship?  It seems they were bluffing when they said they were going to kill us if we talked.


"Please give us a moment,' you say.  'We come in friendship.  Make yourselves known to us.  We have much to learn from each other.'  Suddenly a dense fog fills the compartment.  In a moment, it clears.  You rush to the controls and, to your joy, find that the Aloha has been freed from its orbit around the Sixth Planet.  And the interfering aliens have simply vanished.


You immediately set course for the Third Planet.  Your sensors locate Cygnet I, waiting for you in orbit, and in a few hours you are reunited with the captain and Dr. Vivaldi.  They are astonished to hear of your encounter with the aliens.  'There is no question you were present when and where space/time of our universe touched the space/time of another universe,' the captain says.  'How many universes can there be?' you wonder aloud.  'Before this happened, I would have said one,' Pickens muses.  'Now, I believe the number is infinite.'  THE END"


Our Einstein always preferred the Copenhagen Interpretation.  Some ideas from The Third Planet From Altair were recycled in Through The Black Hole, and the "singularity goes to another universe" is one of them.  It's a Good Ending since the whole crew survives, and now you have confirmation that parallel universes exist.


Endings So Far


4 Good Endings

2 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 8


"Surely it is wrong in your universe, as it is in ours, to enslave another being.  Let us go!"  So says my character in the final option of CHOICE #13.  This conversation would have been more interesting if the astronaut were Ashurbanipal trying to make his case for enslaving the rest of the world, and the aliens were trying to free humanity from his empire.


Einstein says "I think you have confused this alien mind".  Has no one ever defied my avatar alien before?  The computer proves the aliens are bluffing:  THEY ARE AFRAID OF OUR CHRONISTAN.  THEY INSTRUCTED ME TO DESTROY IT BUT MY OWN SECURITY PROGRAM PREVENTED ME FROM DOING SO.


The "chronistan" sounds familiar to me, as if it had been in another CYOA.  Somebody please make an index for this thread!  The search function on Realms Beyond sometimes fails, even with phrases that I know I've typed before.  My character asks what will happen if we use the chronistan.


WE WILL BE THROWN AT LEAST A YEAR INTO THE PAST.  THIS WILL DESTROY OUR TIME-CONTRACTION DEVICE.  CAUTION-33 PERCENT CHANCE OF VAPORIZING ALOHA.


This would be a "Flip two coins!" CHOICE in Ultimate Ending, but the odds don't matter in the CYOA series.  CHOICE #14 is whether to use the chronistan on Page 70, or not on Page 72.


"A terrible whirring sound like that of a jet engine forces you to your knees in pain."


We're safe, but the chronistan "irreparably damaged" the neutron drive.  It'll take several days to reach Altair III if we go immediately, but we'll run out of "retro-rocket fuel" if we do so on Page 106.  The other CHOICE #15 path is to wait a month for Altair III to come closer on Page 107 and hope Dr. Vivaldi and Captain Stanton are still alive.


(What are they even doing on the planet?  They weren't on Altair III a year before the chronistan activation!)


Ignoring the warnings about retro-rockets can cause Death.


"You immediately plot a course to the Third Planet and fire your retro-rockets, causing the Aloha to slowly accelerate and head for the place in space where the Third Planet will be in four days.  Now that antimatter interference has been removed, radio communication is possible.  You soon reach Dr. Vivaldi and the captain.  They took refuge in a cave during the antimatter storm; they report that they have found good sources of food, but no sign of intelligent life.


Four days later, as you approach the Third Planet, the Aloha is caught in the gravitational field of the water moon.  In plotting your course, the computer did not compensate for this.  You try to escape the moon's gravitational pull without exhausting your fuel supply, but you are forced to apply additional power.  Within a few moments the instruments reveal that you are out of fuel.  You activate an emergency booster rocket.  It is not enough.  You are falling, faster and faster. . .SPLASH!  THE END"


We spent the entire computer budget on ALL CAPS DIALOGUE software?!  Hiding in a cave may protect you from regular storms, Dr. Vivaldi, but you might as well be outdoors when it comes to the antimatter variety.


Endings So Far


4 Good Endings

3 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 9


Waiting a month in space in CHOICE #15 means waiting until your next life to return to Earth.


"You and Pickens settle down to wait for the Third Planet to reach its closest point of approach.  You are able to contact Dr. Vivaldi and the captain by radio; they have survived the antimatter storm.  For the moment, all is calm on the Third Planet.  It is a month before you and Pickens fire your retro-rockets and glide into stationary orbit above the Cygnet, which soon afterward blasts off and maneuvers alongside.  The crew is finally reunited.


'There is plenty of food for us on this planet,' the captain says.  'Thank goodness for that,' you reply.  'Now that the neutron drive is out of commission, the Aloha is able to travel only by conventional nuclear power.  Our top speed is barely ninety-six million kilometers per hour.'  'At that rate,' Pickens says, 'we would reach Earth in one hundred eighty years.'  'We are no longer visitors,' muses Dr. Vivaldi.  'The third planet from Altair is now our home.'  THE END"


I'll label this an Inconclusive Ending because there's always the danger of antimatter storms returning.  Also, does no one else from Earth or any other planet come to check out Altair III during my character's lifetime?


Endings So Far


4 Good Endings

3 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 10


"Soon orange, shimmering lights begin to race about your brain.  You realize that you are going to black out.  Suddenly, the Aloha is violently wrenched from its orbit by an overwhelming force."


We witness supernovas and galaxies speeding past us.  Einstein realizes that the aliens are forcing us to time travel.  I look at the data analysis screen and learn that since the galaxies are getting closer to each other, we must be in the distant future.  Close to the time of the Big Crunch, or maybe a Gnab Gib.  Einstein says that we're close to a habitable solar system according to Screen 8.


CHOICE #17 is to use the chronistan to go back to the present on Page 108, or remain in the future on Page 111.  The computer has this warning about the former:


THERE IS A 15-PERCENT CHANCE OF RETURNING TO EARTH TIME BY ACTIVATING THE CHRONISTAN.  FAILURE WOULD RESULT IN INSTANT ANNIHILATION.


This is a 100% playthrough of Third Planet From Altair, so we've got to risk it some time. . .


"You activate the chronistan and immediately become unconscious.  When you awaken, the rapid movement of the galaxy has stopped.  Time is once again progressing at a normal rate.  But Pickens is dead.  The violent transposition of space/time was too great a strain on his heart.  You bury him in the eternal reaches of space and say a prayer.


You are all alone, but your spirits are lifted by the very bright star shining through the starboard windows-it is so close by that you can see three of its planets.  The Aloha is partly crippled, but you are able to make your way toward the nearby solar system at reduced speed.  Your sensors show that the star's third planet is apparently habitable.


Three weeks later you are able to crash-land the Aloha in this new world-one that is filled with hills and forests, lakes and streams that remind you of those on Earth.  By foraging about you, you find all the food you need.  During the ensuing months, you explore much of the planet.  Though it abounds in strange and wonderful animals, higher life forms apparently have not yet evolved.  You believe that someday they will, and that someone will discover that you were here before them.  THE END"


Killing off Einstein automatically makes this a Bad Non-Death Ending.  Unlike in Survival At Sea, there aren't whole story branches where you continue after your incompetence dooms most of your companions.  It's implied that you're living on Earth in the past, but there's no picture here to confirm that the "strange and wonderful animals" belong to paleontology.  For all the player character knows, these animals could be intelligent, and just lack opposable thumbs to build human technology.


Endings So Far


4 Good Endings

3 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Quest Endings