Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

La Prisión:  Elige Tu Propia Aventura Alternate Endings Part 26


In CHOICE #28, I go to the garden and say I always helped my grandfather in his house in Córdoba.  There's a surprising amount of backstory for this CYOA protagonist.


Jorge tries to stay away from Jhony's gang, and says "they're a band of lunatics who follow their leader as if he were the messiah".


I remember seeing Jorge on TV, and he was one of my dad's favorite players.  Jorge says he's reduced to playing prisoners vs. guards games now, but that he's glad to be free from the stress of playing professionally:  "the media pressure suffocates you.  They analyze all your movements with a magnifying glass (lupa).  No one remembers your accomplishments, but your errors follow you for the rest of your life".  He says the NBA is "another world", because the players can dope themselves.  He claims some teams ask their players to injure themselves so they can't play for the Olympic teams instead of them.


I hide my pistol in my sock and go to the cafeteria.  Jefe gives the signal, and trays start flying.  Prisoners attack the guards and a riot starts. 


Jorge and Roberto hold me down and I'm burned, probably by a fire in the kitchen.  I wake up in the infirmary with 3rd degree burns, and Cristina says I have to go to the hospital now.  The warden tells Cristina that she has to treat him in the infirmary instead of sending me away.  She says that I'm condemned to death if this is done. 


She secretly calls an ambulance, and the warden is furious.  One guard says I was "cooked" in a prison fight, but the medical staff isn't amused.


The guard pulls a syringe (jeringuilla) out of his bag secretly.  CHOICE #30 is to take out my pistol and shoot the guard, or warn the people in the ambulance.  (They didn't search me in the infirmary?) 



The guard takes out his syringe and approaches me.  I don't know what he'll inject me with, but it's probably fatal.  I lift my leg and reach for my pistol.  It doesn't work well.  The guard disarms me with one hit.


One of the medical professionals asks who has the syringe, and the guard is nervous.  He still tries to go for it.  When one of the staff tries to stop him, he pistol whips them.  He says "sweet dreams" and attempts to go for the kill.



"He doesn't have time to inject the liquid.  The ambulance door opens roughly, and various armed men enter.  After a brief shootout, the guard falls wounded to the floor.  The men take you out of the ambulance and move you to a black vehicle.  You all leave the place quickly.  One of them takes out a cell phone and makes a call.


'Jefe, we have the package.  The extraction was carried out successfully.  Is the doctor ready?  Very well, let's go there.  END".


Good thing Jefe has a crooked doctor to help me recover from burns!  I was expecting this ending to lead to death, but Jefe did tell me to use the pistol in an emergency. . .



Results So Far

13 Good Endings
 
13 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Ending

0 Neutral/Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

La Prisión:  Elige Tu Propia Aventura Alternate Endings Part 27


Now that we've seen the good ending for CHOICE #30, let's go for the inevitable death in the other path.


When I try to warn the medical professionals, the guard threatens them with a pistol and orders them to leave.  They all do.


"He's going to kill me!' you shout.  'Murder!'


When you stop talking, you feel a prick in your neck.  You try to defend yourself, but it's no use.  The security guard has injected you with the yellowish liquid.


The door to the ambulance opens.  Various armed men shoot the guard.  He responds and kills one of the ambulance workers.  The ambulance fills with blood.


You begin to feel tachycardia.  Your heartbeat accelerates rapidly.  The armed men take you out of the ambulance and put you in a car.  Your vision fogs up.  You can't see anything.  The pain increases, and you hear how they shout among themselves.


'How is he?'


'Very bad.  Blood is coming out of his mouth.'


'We have to call Jefe!'


'He needs a doctor urgently.'


'Will he survive?'


'I don't think so. . .'


Suddenly, everything turns white, and your eyes close for good.  END"



Although you fail to shoot the guard in the other CHOICE #30 ending, it at least buys you time for Jefe's men to show up before you're injected, which you don't have in this route.


Alternate Ending Death Count:  14



Results So Far

13 Good Endings
 
14 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Ending

0 Neutral/Inconclusive Endings
 

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

La Prisión:  Elige Tu Propia Aventura Alternate Endings Part 27


Let's give Roberto a bonkus of the conkus in CHOICE #27!


A fight starts between us, and Jorge separates us before we can kill each other.  The guards take me to solitary confinement, which has a green light similar to cartoon radiation.  After an unknown number of days, Valero takes me out and says "you smell like a dead animal".


It's time for the guards vs. prisoners basketball game, but one guard says "I don't think you'll be the star".  I am offered a drink that seems to be Coca-Cola.


CHOICE #31 is to either drink the "Coke", or refuse the obviously poisoned drink.


We'll go with the latter.  I claim I'm allergic to soda, and it would give me breathing problems.  The guard is furious, and says I'll drink it whether I like it or not.  Blas tells him to get a glass of water, and asks if the guard would drink the Coke himself.  He throws it to the floor and leaves.


The basketball game begins, and Jorge seems to be the only decent player.  But a strange 40-year-old man is drawing the prison instead of paying attention.  He turns out to be Félix.  He draws a TNT formula and says there will be the "most spectacular fireworks that anyone has seen in this prison".  But he lacks one of the ingredients.


One of the guards intercepts Jorge's shot too hard and makes him fall to the floor and twist his ankle.  A fight starts between the guards and prisoners.


Later on, Félix lights the explosives with a cigarette.  A "stone wall flies through the air", and there's a huge breach.  Some prisoners try to run through, while the guards take out their weapons and try to overtake them.


CHOICE #32 is to help Félix, or run through the breach without him.  We'll go for the 2nd option.


I run like a man possessed towards freedom, and throw other prisoners to the ground to move faster.  I hear shots behind me, including another scream.  Finally, I manage to go to the woods along with some other prisoners.  The jailers are following closely behind.



"You run without resting to a river.  All your companions decide to cross it, but not you.  You opt to travel with the current.  It seems your strategy is working.  The guards trap the prisoners who try to cross the river, and it's not difficult for them to do so.  You're the only one who's still free.


You travel almost a kilometer in the water.  It's very cold, but you don't care.  Finally, you arrive at a zone where the river is more calm.  The water goes to a swamp.  You swim towards a riverbank, and take a moment to rest.  You're exhausted.  You think about poor Félix.  His plan was magnificent.  What a shame that he couldn't have escaped with you.  But the law of the jungle rules, and only the strongest survive.


You hear the sound of footsteps approaching.  You don't have time to react.  Various National Police agents point their guns at you.  You raise your arms to surrender.


'It can't be. . .what are you doing here?  And with those prisoner clothes?  They told us you were on vacation.'


The voice is unmistakable.  An old friend from the police force helps you get up.  You know that you can completely trust her. 


'I'm happy to see you.  We have much to discuss. . .END".


We finally learn what excuse ARTUS and the corrupt cops have for my disappearance.   





Results So Far

14 Good Endings
 
14 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Ending

0 Neutral/Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

La Prisión:  Elige Tu Propia Aventura Alternate Endings Part 28


I'll be a good friend and help Félix in CHOICE #32.  This is bound to be a 2nd good ending, right?  


Félix sobs and says he's going to die.  He does enjoy the "fireworks".  One of the guards conks me on the head with a club.  When I wake up, there are 3 prisoners with me in solitary confinement.  One of them says "And now Sleeping Beauty is awake" as a taunt.  One of them says I owe Jefe money, and that he was disappointed that I lied to him about getting "drugs" from the storage room instead of the real reason:  Félix's ingredients.


"You all stay 3 days in solitary confinement, after which you leave and return to a normal life.  Except for one thing.  You're completely banned from the prison yard.  You try to get money by any means possible.  You don't manage to get a tenth of what you owe.


Wednesday arrives and Jefe enters your cell early in the morning.  It doesn't matter that you say nothing.  He already knows you don't have his money.  He invites Armando to leave the cell in a friendly manner.  Your companion obeys.  He stares at your eyes.  Your face confirms that you haven't gotten what you owe him.  He takes out a small pistol, and without a second thought, shoots you in the head.  END".


This is what you get for not obeying the "law of the jungle".


Alternate Ending Death Count:  15



Results So Far

14 Good Endings
 
15 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Ending

0 Neutral/Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

La Prisión:  Elige Tu Propia Aventura Final Ending:  POIsonous Coca-Cola


This ending will be our last.  It's fitting to send off La Prisión with a heavily foreshadowed death.  The guards are a bit too eager to give me a soda. . .


"You can't resist.  Thirst is the worst suffering for a human being.  You take the glass and drink to the last drop.  You feel a dense liquid pass through your throat.  It doesn't seem like Coca-Cola.  It doesn't matter.  The sensation of drinking is pleasant.  For a moment, you feel like you're in paradise.  You stare at the guards.  They're saying something about the basketball game.


'I've heard Jorge bet 1000 euros on who's going to win.'


'I'm not surprised.  He was a professional, and they say that even an NBA team was interested in him.  He could have been a star, and look where he ended up.'


'What isn't known is what we. . .'


You can't hear what the guards are saying.  Little by little, their silhouettes are starting to fade.  You feel queasy.  Your breathing begins to fail, and everything turns black.  The guards approach you and they're interested in your state of health.  You hear one last word before you fall to the floor.


'Poison'.  END"




Final Results

14 Good Endings
 
16 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Ending

0 Neutral/Inconclusive Endings




This was a fun ride for me!  It was far longer and deadlier than Deadline Delivery, and I got to practice my Spanish language skills.  I don't believe there's an English version of La Prisión, so if you want to try it for yourself, you have to know the language.



I forgot to mention earlier that shoulder shrugging expressed in the phrasal verb "encogerse de hombros" is oddly common in books from Spain.  One disappointment was that there was no toothbrush shanking death.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Herman Gigglethorpe's Gamebook Scoreboard (So Far)


Time Machine 6:  The Rings of Saturn


-NO SCORE.  The only ending is victory, so failure is a minor setback at worst.



You Say Which Way:  Deadline Delivery


-GOOD ENDING.  I saved the under-city from the slave trading Piranha gang by crashing the Rusty Rhino into a concrete column before they could destroy Big Pig's Wall.  I'm still a Deadline Delivery courier, but I have enough money to buy almost-new shoes and dinner, and I don't have to pay Big Pig's toll.



La Prisión:  Elige Tu Propia Aventura


-GOOD ENDING (possibly the best).  I got ingredients for Félix so he can send a message rocket to his friends outside of prison.  ARTUS's conspiracy is unraveled, and both of us are set free.  It's implied that we retire to a tropical island by finding Félix's gold stash.



Don't worry!  If my first ending is a stupid death in some other gamebook, it'll appear on the Scoreboard too.


The next gamebook choices are:


-Dinosaur Canyon (You Say Which Way)

-Dragon's Realm (You Say Which Way)

-Creepy House (You Say Which Way)

-La Isla de los Dodos (Spanish book)

[Mardoc]

I'd vote for Dragon's Realm or La Isla - Dragon sounds inherently more interesting but I have to admit la Prision turned out better than I'd have guessed from the title.

[sunrise089]

If the Spanish doesn’t cause too much trouble I pick La Isla too, the prison had some enjoyable craziness.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

So it seems La Isla de los Dodos (Island of the Dodos) will be our next gamebook featured here.  After that will be Dragon's Realm.


I won't start making CHOICES in that one today, because I already wrote so much about La Prisión.


Here are a few predictions for fun!


-One ending will involve being pecked to death by the dodos.

-A mad scientist will clone the dodos and try to create a third-rate Jurassic Park.

-One route makes you travel to a time before dodos became extinct in real life.

-At least one bad ending will make the dodos extinct for good.




The equivalent of the "Beware and Warning!" page gives us some facts about the dodo bird.  It was about a meter in height, had gray and brown feathers, yellow feet, a curved beak, and a white plume on its tail


It once lived in a dense forest on Mauritius, and ate fruits and nuts.  But it became extinct in 1662 after Portuguese mariners hunted too many of them.  The name "dodo" is mentioned to be the Portuguese equivalent of "tonto" (stupid, silly). 


But in this story, perhaps a colony of dodos has survived on another island in the Indian Ocean.  Then it outright mentions the possibility of cloning:  "Would it be possible to bring the dodo back to life with modern cloning techniques?"


My character is an expert navigator and scientist, two things which I am not.  Although I'm a "skeptic by nature", the narration instructs me to follow my intuition and sometimes be reckless.  "The lives of your friends depend on you!".  At least some people will become beneficiaries from the hefty life insurance policies they placed on my friends!


The book recommends looking at the Indian Ocean map one page later, which is in English for some reason.  It's too small in the Kindle format even with the zooming feature, so I may check another Indian Ocean map if for some reason I need it.


Hopefully tomorrow night, I'll have enough time to start the CANONICAL ENDING route. 


This book is available in English under the title "The Island of Dodos", but it's a very stilted translation at best.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

La Isla de los Dodos Part 1


"You're on vacation and sailing on your yacht named Sun Odyssey through the Thames without a care in the world.  You receive a call on your cell phone from Sheila and Arthur, the niece and nephew of your Oxford professor, the eminent zoologist Gordon Kirby".


Please imagine my character as having the most exaggerated upper-class English accent possible.  Come on, I even have a yacht in this book!  I had to look up the word used for the Thames:  "Támesis".


Arthur says my help is needed immediately, and Uncle Gordon has "problems".  Gordon told Arthur and Sheila to contact me if he got into trouble.


Gordon was my favorite professor when I was studying to be a veterinarian.  I spent hours in his office as a teacher's assistant, and looking up information in the library for him.  Sheila and Arthur became my friends during that time.


I say "A moment, kids.  It's been centuries since I last talked to Professor Kirby.  I can't imagine what kind of trouble he could be in. . ."


Gordon went to the Indian Ocean to look for the "island of the dodos".  This confuses me, because everyone knows dodos are extinct.  I ask what I can do to help.  Gordon's relatives say that they haven't heard from him in 2 weeks, and it's time to look for him.  He's Arthur and Sheila's only remaining family.


But Arthur and Sheila say they have a live dodo. . .


I'm now at home looking on the Internet for old dodo drawings.  I'm furious at the people who made them extinct in the 17th century. 


About 6 weeks ago, Gordon sailed to the Maldives to follow a lead.  He found a fisher who once owned an "extraordinary bird", but due to sea level rise, he couldn't bring it with him when he was about to move to another island.  Apparently this fisher found the dodo floating on a trunk, according to Sheila.  Gordon bought the bird and left it with his friend the "English commissioner" (comisionado inglés.) of Mauritius.


CHOICE #1 is to go to Port Louis in Mauritius to prove whether or not this dodo exists.  The alternative is to go to the Maldives to look for Gordon Kirby.


Unfortunately, there aren't hyperlinks in this book like in the previous gamebooks with higher production values.  There are, however, page numbers.  The way to go might be to do a Kindle search for -6-, or -64-, for example.