Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 31


The indirect path to Altair III in CHOICE #1 gives Captain Stanton the idea to fly to Deneb 5, and yes, he's under mind control again.  He might be a reincarnation of Kain the Dragoon!  CHOICE #35 is to obey him on Page 12, or rebel on Page 22.


My "mutiny" has a picture of me pointing the "mini-laser" at Captain Stanton, who is about to enter his quarters.  The door looks more like a tall locker to me.  "Since your conduct violates our orders, we are required to confine you" is the official line used to legitimize the coup.  Captain Stanton, who may still be hypnotized, says "You did the right thing in confining me.  But I'm OK now.  Let me out-that's an order!"


CHOICE #36 is whether to keep the captain locked in his quarters on Page 45, or set him free on Page 44.


Keeping Captain Stanton in his cabin causes the computer to say:


TIME WARP DISRUPTION!  TIME WARP DISRUPTION!


Dr. Vivaldi realizes we've traveled in time for no reason:  "We know where we are, but we don't know when we exist.  Earth may not yet have been born, or it may already have disappeared."


Einstein offers his advice:  "We must activate the chronistan!  It is our only hope of returning to our own time."  When I ask "What if we fail?", he says "We might end up in a time from which we could never escape-possibly even a time before any matter existed in the universe.  We would then be totally and finally alone."


CHOICE #37 is whether to use the chronistan with a 32% chance on Page 55, or stay in whatever time the Aloha is in on Page 60.  Will Einstein kill us again?


We awaken inside a better spaceship than the Aloha, and Einstein says the chronistan has sent us thousands of years in time based on the constellations.


"You are astounded to see that there are two strange creatures in the compartment.  They have squat bodies, four legs, and oval heads.  Each holds up ropelike arms and waves its spiny hands.  You understand-they are welcoming you aboard their ship!  Within a few hours, you are able to establish communication with these beings through computer-assisted translation.  They tell you that they come from the third planet from Altair and that their destination is the third planet from the Sun-the Earth!  You will arrive in only a few weeks-you can only guess whether it will be in the future or the past.  THE END"


I'm guessing it's not far from the present, since the antimatter storms are a recent problem for Altair III, and the ships already left by the time we get there in other timelines.  Give a round of applause to Einstein, who gives us a Good Ending!


The drawing shows these aliens with four legs in a position similar to a spider's.  They have bald heads and wear goofy shirts with two pockets on the front.


Endings So Far


10 Good Endings

9 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

7 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 32


Remaining in the time warp in CHOICE #37 reveals when we are:


PATTERNS OF STELLAR AND GALACTIC POSITIONS SHOW TIME ADVANCE 487 MILLION YEARS.  STAR ALTAIR BEARS 87-22-18 DISTANCE-ONE HALF LIGHT-YEAR.


Einstein notices that Altair "has lost a lot of its mass", and Dr. Vivaldi points out that four planets are gone.  Altair III remains, but "it is surrounded by an electromagnetic storm".  Pickens tells us that we will "be annihilated" if we make contact with the antimatter.  CHOICE #38 is whether to enter the Altair system anyway on Page 62, or stay away from it on Page 69.



"I think it would be futile to try to pass the electromagnetic barriers,' you tell the others.  They nod in agreement.  The Aloha whirls you into interstellar space at a time hundreds of millions of years in the future.  Now you must search for a planet somewhere on which to start a new life, for it has been a long time since any radio signals were sent from the third planet from Altair-or anyone was listening on the planet Earth.  THE END"


It's a standard Inconclusive Ending.  The illustration is the stock image of space seen in another ending, with a drawing of Altair III below it.  Antimatter has been detected in thunderstorms on Earth, so Edward Packard may have been ahead of the scientists when connecting it to electromagnetism.


Endings So Far


10 Good Endings

9 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

8 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 33


Einstein redeems himself again in CHOICE #38, because it's his advice that changes this Death to the previous Inconclusive Ending.  I also should have mentioned that it's surprising Altair III even lasted 487 million more years, considering antimatter storms are an imminent danger in the other plots.


"You head the Aloha toward the Altair system.  'Screen 25!' Pickens suddenly calls out.  'Missile approaching from sector .035.  Range less than a million kilometers.'  You have no time to think.  You quickly depress the buttons that activate the advance detonation devices.  A computer screen flashes the vital information that in 3.7 seconds the oncoming missile will be detonated at a distance of three hundred fifty kilometers, and that the initial blast will reach the Aloha in one minute, two seconds.  Another screen flashes, 'DAMAGE PREDICTION-98 PERCENT CHANCE TOTAL DESTRUCTION.'


Instantly you press the time-override acceleration alarm.  Then you punch out computer instructions and adjust the blast resistors.  With a whining, grinding sound the Aloha shudders and accelerates toward the space/time vortex.  Monitors show a brilliant orange cloud in sector .035-all that remains of the missile.  You look at Pickens.  He shakes his head.  He knows your question, and you know his answer.  There is no hope.  THE END"


So did we arrive in the future via space-time missile?  Will it ever be explained who is shooting at us in any other path?  The ending shows all of us except for Captain Stanton looking at an explosion on the left.  He's probably still locked in his room.



Endings So Far


10 Good Endings

10 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

8 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 34


Obeying the mind-controlled Captain Stanton in CHOICE #35 is only an alternate path to CHOICE #27.  So let's release him in CHOICE #36 instead.  He seems to be back to normal, and recommends going to Altair on Page 61.  Einstein's new suggestion for CHOICE #39 is to visit Caprion on Page 64,  "an area of space believed to be the origin of the primordial fireball-the place where the universe came into being."


The problem with this route to Altair is the black hole in CHOICE #40!  I've said that Through The Black Hole refries ideas from The Third Planet From Altair.  But I wasn't expecting the whole premise of the former to be reused from some minor arc in the latter!  The options are to use all energy to escape and then have to return to Earth on Page 84, or use "ordinary power" on Page 83 and have a 60% chance of continuing to Altair.


"The computer plots the optimum course for avoiding the black hole.  In a few minutes it shows that your probability of making it past the black hole is increasing-62.3 percent, 68.1 percent, 71 percent.  Everyone is greatly relieved.  But suddenly the critical-data light begins flashing and the computer reports, 'BLACK HOLE HAS CONSUMED A SMALLER BLACK HOLE.  MASS INCREASE 18.6 PERCENT.'


'What probability now?' the captain asks.  'PROBABILITY OF ESCAPE IS ZERO.'  You look out at the black disc in the sky; it is obscuring more and more stars as it looms larger and larger.  Within a few minutes, it covers an area as big as the constellation Orion.  'There is a chance,' Dr. Vivaldi says.  'We could pass safely through the black hole and into another universe.'  'Very unlikely,' Pickens replies.  THE END"


Wrong CYOA, Dr. Vivaldi!  The homework assignment for the Peanut Gallery is to read my Through The Black Hole playthrough if you haven't done so already.  It's an Inconclusive Ending because Dr. Vivaldi has hope for survival.



Endings So Far


10 Good Endings

10 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

9 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 35


Returning to Earth by using up all your fuel in CHOICE #40 would be a Neutral Ending, if not for the cool medal that you get.


"By using all available energy in one thrust, the Aloha escapes from the pull of the black hole.  A few weeks later, you land safely on Earth.  Although you were unable to reach Altair and find out who was sending the signals, or what they meant, you have learned a great deal about the problems and perils of interstellar space travel. 


At a United Nations ceremony, you and the other members of the crew are honored with the 'Ambassador of Planet Earth' award-a gold medal bearing the inscription PEACE ON EARTH, PEACE FROM EARTH, PEACE TO EARTH.  THE END"


The medal is a kind of bird, but it doesn't look like a bird of prey.  There's a striped flag above it with two black triangles on the second stripe from the top.



Endings So Far


11 Good Endings

10 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

9 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair Alternate Endings Part 36


Caprion is the center of the universe, and has corresponding special effects and soundtrack.  "Glorious harmonic sounds resonate through the ship.  Your mind begins to fill with beautiful images.  Through the forward port you see a point of dazzling blue light."


Captain Stanton thinks it's a trap and is about to use a "neutron destruct device" on the blue light.  Dr. Vivaldi says "Somehow I know we can trust whatever is happening to us" as the blue light draws us in, and orders me to stop the captain from using the weapon.  CHOICE #41 is to side with Dr. Vivaldi on Page 86, or Captain Stanton on Page 89.


"The computer fires one of the Aloha's neutron destruct devices.  But the Aloha itself is now traveling at time-override acceleration.  In a moment it overtakes its own neutroid.  The ship explodes violently as it enters the great blue light.  THE END"


Leading your own shot is an unusual method of suicide.  Always listen to Dr. Vivaldi!  The illustration is the standard explosion picture.



Endings So Far


11 Good Endings

11 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

9 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Quest Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair FINALE


Preventing Captain Stanton from shooting at the blue light in CHOICE #41, but makes for the ultimate Neutral Ending:  restarting the universe!


"You insert your special safeguard code key into the computer, thus preventing it from firing the neutron destruct device.  'This is mutiny!' the captain screams at you.  But his words are lost in a thundering musical chord.  In a moment, you are in darkness.  All is quiet, yet somehow a living presence is thinking with your brain!


Somehow you know you are at the beginning of time-that you are a spirit that exists in the universe and someday you will inhabit a person on Earth.  First you will be asleep for billions of years, but your awakening will seem to come only an instant later-in fact, right now.  THE END"



Final Results


11 Good Endings

11 Deaths

4 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

9 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Quest Endings



The Third Planet From Altair would have benefited from more focus, an issue common to early CYOAs.  If some of the side routes based on Deneb 5 or Caprion were cut, for example, more could have been said about the history of the Altair system.  It's  one of the more influential books within the series, as Dr. Vivaldi would be a frequent companion, and some of its plots were recycled in Through The Black Hole and Return To The Cave Of Time.  Paul Granger's illustrations are worth the price of a used copy.


Dr. Vivaldi will have to sit out the next book report, as that will be Planet Of The Dragons by Hijacked! author Richard Brightfield.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Third Planet From Altair CHOICE Map
 

CHOICE #1, Page 5
-Keep going to Altair, Page 6:  Go to CHOICE #2 (CLEAR)
-Take indirect route, Page 8:  Go to CHOICE #35 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #2, Page 6
-Water moon, Page 9:  Go to CHOICE #30 (CLEAR)
-Symmetrical clouds, Page 10:  Go to CHOICE #3 (CLEAR)
-Land on Altair’s planet, Page 13:  Go to CHOICE #22 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #3, Page 10
-Explore abandoned cloud city, Page 17-18:  Go to CHOICE #4 (CLEAR)
-Don’t explore cloud city, Page 19:  Go to CHOICE #5 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #4, Page 18
-Keep exploring cloud city, Page 28-29, 79:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, bring back some Altair III memory banks, have to return to Earth since Altair III has deadly germs)
-Tell Aloha about galaxy chart, Page 32:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, learn that Altair III refugees are coming to Earth to flee antimatter about to destroy their planet)
 
CHOICE #5, Page 19
-Go down to Altair III, Page 35, 101:  Go to CHOICE #6 (CLEAR)
-Refuse to volunteer, Page 36-37:  Go to CHOICE #10 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #6, Page 101
-Continue forward, Page 85:  Go to CHOICE #7 (CLEAR)
-Go through “door”, Page 90:  DEATH (CLEAR, bacterial infection)
 
CHOICE #7, Page 85
-Stay on cave ship, Page 88:  Go to CHOICE #8 (CLEAR)
-Leave cave ship before it takes off, Page 103:  SECOND QUEST ENDING (CLEAR, pursue cave ship in the Aloha)
 
CHOICE #8, Page 88
-Send signal to Aloha, Page 112:  Go to CHOICE #9 (CLEAR)
-Hibernate, Page 116:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, crystal ship goes to Earth, find out by seeing crushed Coke can)
 
CHOICE #9, Page 112
-Try to contact Aloha again, Page 104:  DEATH (CLEAR, lose will to survive after long time spent in space)
-Hibernate, Page 116:  see CHOICE #8
 
CHOICE #10, Page 37
-Go to outermost planet in Altair system, Page 54:  Go to CHOICE #11 (CLEAR)
-Wait for companions to return, Page 58:  Go to CHOICE #17 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #11, Page 54
-Wait at limits of Altair system, Page 74:  DEATH (CLEAR, disappear along with Altair I and V, but Pickens remains on ship)
-Go to Altair VI, Page 75:  Go to CHOICE #12 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #12, Page 75
-Use TOA, Page 91:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, sublight speed ship can reach Altair again in 2 years, but there are doubts anyone will survive)
-Don’t use TOA, Page 92:  Go to CHOICE #13 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #13, Page 92
-Say nothing, Page 97:  BAD ENDING (CLEAR, taken to totalitarian universe)
-Tell aliens they have “no right to abduct you”, Page 98:  Go to CHOICE #14 (CLEAR)
-Try to tell aliens that you “come in friendship”, Page 102:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, aliens disappear, reunite with crew, confirm that parallel universes exist)
 
CHOICE #14, Page 98
-Use chronistan, Page 70-71:  Go to CHOICE #15 (CLEAR)
-Don’t use chronistan, Page 72:  Go to CHOICE #16 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #15, Page 71
-Go to Altair III immediately, Page 106:  DEATH (CLEAR, crash into water moon)
-Wait a month for Altair III to come closer, Page 107:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, trapped on Altair III because spaceship is too slow to go back)
 
CHOICE #16, Page 72
-Use chronistan to return to present, Page 108:  BAD ENDING (CLEAR, chronistan kills Pickens, live on what may be prehistoric Earth)
-Remain in future, Page 111:  DEATH (CLEAR, Big Crunch)
 
CHOICE #17, Page 58
-Land in ocean, Page 77:  Go to CHOICE #18 (CLEAR)
-Dry land, Page 78:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, either go to other universe, or it’s a dream)
 
CHOICE #18, Page 77
-Go to surface, Page 80-81, 110:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, collect evidence about hibernating Alanians in space walk, go home)
-Underwater dome, Page 82:  Go to CHOICE #19 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #19, Page 82
-Drill into dome with Captain Stanton, Page 93:  DEATH (CLEAR, Aloha turns into puff of smoke)
-Send signals to dome with Dr. Vivaldi, Page 94-95:  Go to CHOICE #20 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #20, Page 95
-Enter dome with Dr. Vivaldi, Page 99, 105:  Go to CHOICE #21 (CLEAR)
-Refuse to enter dome at Captain Stanton’s advice, Page 100:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, learn a bit about Altair III, will return if you can develop antimatter shield)
 
CHOICE #21, Page 105
-Stay as ambassador, Page 113:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, learn Alanian history and find out message was “we are coming”, but still at risk of antimatter storm)
-Leave with Aloha crew, Page 114-115:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, antimatter boils water moon, Alanians’ fate uncertain, but you made positive first contact and are on way to Earth)
 
CHOICE #22, Page 13
-Explore, Page 20, 38-39:  Go to CHOICE #23 (CLEAR)
-Go back to Aloha, Page 34:  Go to CHOICE #29 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #23, Page 39
-Rush to Cygnet shuttle, Page 7:  Go to CHOICE #24 (CLEAR)
-Rest for a bit, Page 59:  DEATH (CLEAR, giant rat)
 
CHOICE #24, Page 7
-Jump into underbrush, Page 46, 27:  Go to CHOICE #25 (CLEAR)
-Run from grabbing plants, Page 48:  Go to CHOICE #26 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #25, Page 27
-Let Pickens bore into dome, Page 49:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, destroy electrical circuits on Cygnet shuttle, have to wait for anything to happen)
-Call the Aloha, Page 50:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, find out Alanians are going to Earth via Dr. Vivaldi’s discovery of a monument)
 
CHOICE #26, Page 48
-Call to humanoids, Page 65-66:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, find Easter Island heads in village, go back to Earth to avoid disease)
-Hide from humanoids, Page 67, 12:  Go to CHOICE #27 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #27, Page 24
-Obey brainwashed captain, Page 24:  BAD ENDING? (CLEAR, become “single cell” in collective consciousness)
-Defy brainwashed captain, Page 25:  Go to CHOICE #28 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #28, Page 25
-Surrender to alien mind control, Page 42:  BAD ENDING? (CLEAR, become disembodied consciousness)
-Resist alien mind control, Page 43, 10:  Go to CHOICE #3 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #29, Page 34
-Return to Altair III, Page 21:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, crash into snow, can survive for a while but fear not seeing another human)
-Wait for Aloha in space, Page 40:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING? (CLEAR, jellyfish-like aliens seem to come in friendship, but fate of Aloha crew unknown)
 
CHOICE #30, Page 9
-Pickens, Page 14:  Go to CHOICE #31 (CLEAR)
-Dr. Vivaldi, Page 15, 101:  Go to CHOICE #6 (CLEAR)
-Bluenose the robot, Page 16:  Go to CHOICE #32 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #31, Page 14
-Desert cliffs, Page 26:  DEATH (CLEAR, sink into oil pit)
-Desert interior, Page 27:  Go to CHOICE #25 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #32, Page 16
-Let malfunctioning Bluenose explore, Page 30:  Go to CHOICE #33 (CLEAR)
-Pick up Bluenose and search the coast, Page 33:  SECOND QUEST ENDING (CLEAR, reach bottom of the canyon, notice alien radio signals)
 
CHOICE #33, Page 30
-Dive in spite of storm, Page 41:  Go to CHOICE #34 (CLEAR)
-Stay in Cygnet, Page 51, 15, 101:  Go to CHOICE #6 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #34, Page 41
-Explore underwater, Page 53:  DEATH (CLEAR, blob eats you)
-Surface, Page 109, 34:  Go to CHOICE #29 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #35, Page 8
-Obey hypnotized captain, Page 12:  Go to CHOICE #27 (CLEAR)
-Disobey hypnotized captain, Page 22:  Go to CHOICE #36 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #36, Page 22
-Let captain return to bridge, Page 44:  Go to CHOICE #39 (CLEAR)
-Keep captain locked in quarters, Page 45:  Go to CHOICE #37 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #37, Page 45
-Use chronistan, Page 55-57:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, taken aboard Altair III ship and communicate with friendly aliens)
-Remain in whatever time you’re in, Page 60:  Go to CHOICE #38 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #38, Page 60
-Enter Altair system in future, Page 62-63:  DEATH (CLEAR, space-time missile)
-Stay away from future Altair, Page 69:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, have to look for new planet 487 million years in future)
 
CHOICE #39, Page 44
-Go to Altair, Page 61:  Go to CHOICE #40 (CLEAR)
-Go to Caprion, Page 64:  Go to CHOICE #41 (CLEAR)
 
CHOICE #40, Page 61
-60% chance to Altair past black hole, Page 83:  INCONCLUSIVE ENDING (CLEAR, Dr. Vivaldi thinks you can go Through The Black Hole)
-Return to Earth with all power, Page 84:  GOOD ENDING (CLEAR, get gold medal from United Nations)
 
CHOICE #41, Page 64
-Stop captain from attacking blue light, Page 86:  NEUTRAL ENDING (CLEAR, restart universe)
-Let captain use neutron destruct device, Page 89:  DEATH (CLEAR, race into your own shot)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons


Dragons Realm was the first dragon gamebook that I played.  It was disappointing, and was mostly about three bullies that had names that started with B.  All the dragons were friendly too.  Planet Of The Dragons isn't like that if the cover is indicative.  Four dragons are breathing fire out of their mouths and snorting it from their noses, and all are aiming for a brunette and a redhead.  The brunette, probably the player character, looks mildly worried.  The redhead has mouth wide open and seems to fear she'll be baked into a carrot cake when the fire breath catches up with her in two seconds.  Several volcanoes in the background send up plumes of smoke.


Both girls are wearing sky blue outfits with white belts.  The closest article of clothing I can think of is the jumpsuit you'd expect in a science fiction story.  The girls have dark pouches to the side of their belts, and wear dark blue boots.  Neither seem to have brought any weapon to hunt dragons, though even a Dovahkiin would run away from a confrontation with four at once.  Nera Vivaldi won't give us advice since CYOA #75 is a Richard Brightfield story.  Judith Mitchell is the artist.


"You stare forlornly at your cramped surroundings-the curved titanium shell that encloses you and its tightly packed array of instrumentation".  I'm not on the Planet Of The Dragons for the sake of curiosity:  my character had been captured during a "scouting mission in the Cetus quadrant" and became a battle thrall for the "evil race" known as Taurons.  Taurons sounds exactly like "touron", a word for describe exceptionally stupid tourists.  I'll be nice to Brightfield and Mitchell and assume these are minotaurs that live in the Taurus constellation.  During one battle between the Taurons and the Vorks, my character was forced to flee in an escape pod, which has now crashed "into the side of a huge boulder."


I have to flip from Page 1 to 6 instead of 2?  This is a later CYOA, all right.  The life pod is totaled, as shown in the twisted wreckage on the Page 6-7 picture.  My prediction about playing as the brunette was correct, since she looks at the damage with a sad expression.  According to the text, the life pod is supposed to have a nose and fins, but you can't really tell that from the illustration.  Maybe Judith Mitchell is too good at drawing destroyed machinery.  However, I manage to savage the "emergency food supplies" and the "chemical analyzer".  My legs "feel as stiff as an old dog's".  Why a dog in particular?  Why not?


The "atmosphere of the planet is thin" but breathable.  Guess we're supposed to imagine the environment as something like the Andes.  Now we turn to Page 105.  I was wrong about the terrain:  it's actually "low hills" close to a "vast plain".  Guess we'd better not go mountain climbing on Planet Of The Dragons or we'll pass out.  One distinguishing feature of the landscape is "ugly black streaks" compared to a "blowtorch".  I see a "geometric structure" that must be a building, and some "black dots" and "flashes of red light" representing a dragon attack in the distance.  Flip to Page 13, and finally CHOICE #1.


Besides the supplies mentioned earlier, I have an "all-weather parka, lightweight tent, utility knife, flashlight, and first-aid kit" and stuff them into my backpack.  The "ropes, cameras, and heavy tools" have to stay at the crash site for now because they'd weigh me down.  CHOICE #1 hints that I should move to the hills on Page 32, rather than enter a "battleground" on Page 19 where the smoking building is.  I'll take the narration's advice since I'm probably not going to slay these dragons with a pocket knife.


I climb the "steep" hills for a while and eventually sit down to rest.  "Perfect spheres" are rising into the sky in the distance, and look like "toy balloons" from here.  A flock of bird-people approaches, and my character isn't certain whether the wings are natural or artificial.  CHOICE #2 is whether to pursue the spheres on Page 76, or walk on a clearly man-made footpath on Page 22.  Staying on the ground would make me vulnerable to the dragons, but who knows what the spheres are up to?


The footpath seems like a good idea after all.  So good that my character thinks the valley, "peaceful stream", and adobe house with smoke coming from the chimney is a mirage at first.  There is a nearby garden with a variety of flowers and vegetables, including one that I pick that looks like a rose.  The garden is a "perfect circle" in the text but is more like a series of horizontal rows in the picture.  A "girl your age is sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch."  She's probably the unfortunate redhead on the cover, but I'll have to turn to Page 29 to find out.  Or perhaps Page 60.  My companion is another castaway:  "You can't be real!  I think I've been on this crazy planet too long.  Now I'm seeing things!  Well, if you are real-and I still can't believe it, why don't you come up to the house?"  


The girl is from Earth, but came here under different circumstances.  Her father worked for the Vorks on "some strange planet" and brought his family with him.  Homesickness prompted the Vorks to give them a spaceship with "a built-in force shield against meteorites and enough deuterium fuel to get home".  Her dad wasn't a good enough navigator to return to Earth, and so they were stranded on Planet Of The Dragons when they were low on fuel.  The force shield still works "when the dragons attack" the house.


I'm naturally skeptical about a mythical creature existing, even far from Earth:  "Dragons?  You mean there are dragons on this planet?"  Well, it would be false advertising otherwise.  One of them killed the girl's mom when she was looking for firewood, and now her dad is "limping and stumbling" and bleeding after another attack.  The father reveals the companion's name is Millie.  He was misled by star charts saying "this was a water planet".


Millie says we need deuterium fuel, and the catch is that "it can only be extracted from large amounts of water".  Without it, the force shield would expire and then we'd be charred.  Millie hears the siren and rushes to turn on the force shield as I witness the first dragon attack.  The house and garden survive the "long, flickering orange flames" intact.


CHOICE #3 is whether to follow my character's idea of using Millie's cadmium battery to use the "long-range rescue-beam generator" from the life pod on Page 98, or instead take Millie's suggestion of looking for deuterium in an underground lake that her dad found on Page 40.  This is a difficult decision:  hope for an uncertain rescue, or go into barely known territory to perhaps make the force shield hold on for a longer.  (Or even power up Millie's spaceship if we're lucky.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Planet Of The Dragons Part 2


Millie didn't tell me how far this journey was before making CHOICE #3.  Maybe she deserves to be dragon food now.  It'll take "two Earth days", or about one Planet Of The Dragons day.  This means if we leave at dawn, we can return before dusk.  Besides the dragons, there are many nocturnal predators to watch out for.  Millie makes me a salad and brings her laser pistol for the journey.


Now I'm wondering how this planet's climate would work.  The temperature differences between day and night must be more dramatic since it's a 48 hour rotation.  The thin atmosphere would mean less of a greenhouse effect.  That's without accounting for the color and size of the star, and how far Planet Of The Dragons is from it.


We pass through "rolling meadows" and "hilly scrubland", and I'm confused since the terrain is so monotonous.  Millie says that dragons made the wide trails, and she recognizes the region because she looked for "half-burned logs that still had some usable wood".  Her dad made the house with the logs and a "laser saw".  But didn't the narration say it was an adobe house?


We sit down to recover our strength, when Millie notices "a great metallic gray dragon" about to attack!  Are these actually robo-dragons in the style of Wild Arms 3?  "Millie pulls the laser pistol out of her belt and aims it at the sky.  A burst of pencil-thin laser light shoots up toward the beast."  The tail breaks, and also causes the dragon to explode!  Millie is a short-haired tough girl in this picture, and looks nothing like the frightened redhead on the cover.  Is she a companion on a different route, or did the cover artist and general illustrator not interact?


Millie's the real hero now.  My character can only jump for joy as Millie blasts the robo-dragon out of the sky.  The protagonist thinks a metal bolt from the dragon might be a spaceship part, but Millie tells me to pay attention to a coming "death storm".  That's a "huge gray curtain" with lightning.  She suggests running for a cave on Page 100.  The best my character has to offer for CHOICE #4 is the nylon tent on Page 95.  Would storms be that much of a problem in a thin atmosphere?


Let's rush for the caves.  A tent probably isn't going to do much against a No Man's Sky style Extreme Storm.  In true Roland Emmerich disaster movie fashion, we outrun the thunderstorm and enter the cave just in time.  Not only is it shelter, but a source for deuterium close to Millie's house!  Millie hugs me "excitedly" for making such a good CHOICE and we get the deuterium as the thunderstorm strikes the earth outside.


Not that there's much of a house to return to.  At dusk, we find that the garden has been uprooted and the roof was destroyed.  Millie's dad is still alive, and tells us the force shield failed just before the death storm.  That gives us the perfect excuse to send all the deuterium to the spaceship, and we leave Tambor for good.  (It's the first time the planet's name was stated in the text itself.)


But that isn't an ending!  The Perfect Planet isn't the only space CYOA to have an epilogue story.  Three months later at 2/3 light speed, we're close to the Alcor system.  We can reach Earth in 26 days, but we don't have enough deuterium to safely enter the atmosphere.  I'm admiring the rings on all six of Alcor's planets as Millie's dad tells me the bad news.  The only way to get more deuterium is from the water planet, and Space Advisory says it's "unsafe for landing".  CHOICE #5 is to land on Alcor's water planet on. . .Page 2, or press on to Earth on Page 106.  Are there no orbital space stations or something to address problems like this?


Millie sees an island after three orbits failed to find any earlier.  Her spaceship must have been too cheap to come with the diving features from The Third Planet From Altair, so finding land was essential.  But that isn't an island, but a leviathan with a wiggling tail!  Millie's dad gently parks the ship, and Millie assesses the situation:  "It's as if a fly landed on the back of an elephant".


We collect the deuterium for hours while the creature emits a "horrible, rasping roar" from its snout.  It would take "nothing more than a sneeze" to kill us.  My character thinks it's snoring.  We take off at last, but the monster "rears up like a volcano erupting" and tries to bite the spaceship.


"Millie's father navigates your spaceship through space, away from the hideous sea monster and toward the solar system.  One day you wake up from your sleep period and peer out the view screen.  You let out a whoop.  You're looking at the planet Earth itself, growing larger every second.  And there were times you thought you'd never see it again. . . .THE END"


Hooray, the CANONICAL ENDING is also a Good Ending!  All three characters are jumping for joy as they see Earth and the Moon through the window.  Yes, there are four ellipses in the text.  That's not a typo.  Some of the instruments in the picture have writing on them:  "R.A.H", "DISTORT", "MAGNA ON".  Another screen has "VOICE ACTIVATE" on top and "PRE-SCREEN" on the bottom.


The page flipping was also present in Richard Brightfield's other CYOA Hijacked!  It's strange to not come to Page 2 until the ending of this route, but the long sequences between CHOICEs add tension to the story if you're reading it blind like me.  There should have been a picture for the sea monster on Alcor's water planet, but there wasn't one for some reason although Page 78 is short enough were an illustration could fit


Results So Far


1 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings