Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Abominable Snowman BONUS


While browsing the Lose Your Own Adventure blog, I discovered that at least one ending was noticeably changed in the Chooseco version from the original.  This will not be added to the ending count.  Words that are absent or altered in the Chooseco edition will be italicized.


"In a domed room, you see Carlos in the center of a group of people.  While you look on in amazement, some of the people change form before your very eyes.  One moment they are Yeti, the next unicorns, the next buddhas.  Smiling, Carlos speaks to you.


'Welcome.  You have completed a difficult journey and found your way to Heaven-on-Earth.  The End".


It's odd that the religious references in this ending were removed in the remake, considering how important Buddhist monks and statues are to other storylines.  The domed room line may have been deleted because the building was already described as having domes in an earlier page.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Part 1


The Lost Jewels of Nabooti is another well-known RA Montgomery installment in the Choose Your Own Adventure series.  House of Danger got a board game, The Abominable Snowman has a DVD game adaptation, and The Lost Jewels of Nabooti has an island named after it in the online RPG Poptropica.


BEWARE AND WARNING!


This book is different from other books.  You and YOU ALONE are in charge of what happens in this story.  There are dangers, choices, adventures, and consequences.  YOU must use all of your numerous talents and much of your enormous intelligence.  The wrong decision could end in disaster-even death.  But don't despair.  At any time, YOU can go back and make another choice, alter the path of your story, and change its result.


You are about to embark on a search with your cousins Peter and Lucy.  Jewels with powers almost beyond human imagining have disappeared from a museum show in Paris.  Or did the jewels ever even make it out of Africa?  And what does your uncle have to do with it?  It's time to buckle down to some good old-fashioned detective work.  But watch your back!


It's always the uncle who's involved in dangerous and mysterious situations, isn't it?  Terror in Australia does something similar with an uncle, according to a podcast that covered parts of that book.  And Arthur and Sheila's uncle from La Isla de los Dodos is the professor who disappeared. 


The Lost Jewels of Nabooti is #10 in the original CYOA series, so it was made before the books started decreasing the number of endings.  That means there's 38 conclusions to cover.  I have a challenge for the CANONICAL ENDING:  find a particular Death that appeared on the You Chose Wrong blog.  This is the only ending I know about for this book so far, and it's likely that some of my readers can already guess what it is without having to search for it.  The flowchart shows several dotted lines that go back to the opposite path in CHOICE #1, hinting that there may be more consistency than other RA Montgomery CYOAs.


They didn't even bother to mask the old technology in this Chooseco version, since on the first page my character receives a telegram.


NEED YOUR HELP FINDING THE JEWELS OF NABOOTI.
FLY TO BOSTON AT ONCE.
BRING PASSPORT.
BE CAREFUL.
PETER AND LUCY


Is Nabooti really just Djibouti with a different name?  Anyway, the Jewels of Nabooti are 2 diamonds and 2 rubies, compared to "the sun's reflection off a glacier" and "the eyes of a jungle creature at night" respectively.  Peter and Lucy's father bought them from Abdul Said in Morocco, but the merchant in the Casbah died shortly afterwards.  My uncle got a threatening letter demanding that the Jewels of Nabooti be returned, or else his life would be in danger.  Supposedly these jewels have magical powers.


Peter and Lucy say the Jewels of Nabooti were stolen from a Paris museum show.  Here's where Chooseco must have given up and decided to keep the story in 1982 instead of moving it to 2006.  I hop on a plane with no problems, and my character is from New Orleans.  No mention of Hurricane Katrina or anything.


Peter orders me to come quickly, and then fly to Morocco from Paris.  At the airport, he shows me this letter:


"The Jewels of Nabooti are four keys to the hidden wisdom and wealth of a secret African tribe.  Those who have the jewels either enjoy health and fame or they suffer agony beyond belief.  The current owners of the jewels must guard against their being lost or stolen.  They must wait to hand them over to the appointed messengers of Nabooti.  Loss of the jewels could mean DEATH".


Will the player character learn the Bandar tongue or meet the Ghost Who Walks?  It wouldn't be unexpected for the Phantom to keep the Jewels of Nabooti in the Skull Cave.


CHOICE #1 is to go to Paris as soon as possible, or ask for more time to get help and find out what's going on.  I suspect my desired ending means I have to go to Paris quickly.


On Flight 231 for Paris, I notice someone sitting next to me has "bloodless white" fingers without fingernails.  The jaw is "closely shaven", and "a mustache hides a scar that runs from the nostril to the corner of the mouth".  The person is writing the word NABOOTI on a pad.  


I fall asleep and wake up during the descent.  The man next to me offers to share a taxi ride with me.  I ask where he's going to stall for time, but he stares at me and says "We are searching for the same thing.  I need your help and you need mine".  CHOICE #2 is to either accept the creepy fingernail-less man's taxi ride, or "make excuses and refuse his help".  Somehow I think following him is the way to the weird Death I want to show to my readers.


My taxi driver "doesn't seem to think that there are any rules to the road".  So pretty much like some drivers in the U.S. who don't know how not to crash on a straight highway.  But this doesn't kill me.  Instead, we arrive at a cafe where our contact Molotawa is supposed to be.  The waiter who seems to know about us warns us that "our enemies are about", and wants me to observe the doors and windows.


The options of CHOICE #3 are to sit at the left near the door, or sit with my back to the wall.  Seating arrangements have not been this important since La Prisión in the cafeteria.


Molotawa is "a tall black man wearing a button-down shirt".  He cleans his fingernails with a large knife because he's just that talented.  He says he's of the "Nabooti group", an ancient order who attempt to create world peace.  The jewels supposedly have a special power that will accomplish this goal, but he won't say much more about that yet.  Someone at another table is about to attack us with a knife before we can continue the conversation.


CHOICE #4 is to go to the nearest exit, or defend myself with a chair.  I can't resist the allure of a chair fight.  My attacker falls down while choking on meat.  The moral of this story is not to eat and murder people at the same time.  His knife falls to the floor, and the waiters subdue him.  "But you're embarrassed standing there holding the chair like a lion tamer."  A stranger next to Molotawa speaks to me, which creates the CANONICAL ENDING.  Not the one I wanted, or even a true conclusion to the story.


"The stranger is an old man with kind eyes.  He smiles.  'We have been trying to reach you for several weeks now.  Allow me to introduce myself.  I am Jean Pierre Borel, and I come from Morocco.  I believe that you want these.'


Mr. Borel takes your hand and puts four small paper-wrapped packets in your palm.  You stare at them, not knowing quite what to do.  Then you open one.  Wow!  There it is.  A huge diamond.  A ruby.  Another ruby and the fourth, the other diamond.  Borel sits still, smiling at you.  You speak.


'But, I mean, where did they come from?  How did you get them?  Why are you giving them to me?'  Mr. Borel holds up his hand as if to stop you.  Then he answers.


'My friend, questions are not always necessary.  Accept the gift.  Do what you must do.'  You don't know what to say.  There are the jewels in your hand.  The search is over. . .or maybe it's just begun.  The End".


So I have the MacGuffins, but what are they for?  You'll never know in this timeline!


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!


I decided to include an extra category specifically for endings like this, at least for The Lost Jewels of Nabooti.  It's different from the Inconclusive Ending in that Wait, This Isn't an Ending! conclusions sound like the setup to the main story.  This scenario seems to occur mainly in RA Montgomery books.  Inconclusive Endings are more about a potential Death that isn't guaranteed.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 1


I managed to find the ending I was looking for.  I would have had a chance of getting it as a CANONICAL ENDING if I ran for the exit in CHOICE #4.  Once I do this, someone accuses me of being a thief and I have to prevent people from grabbing me.  The fingernail-less man from the plane tells me to get in a car because there isn't much time.  CHOICE #5 is whether or not to obey him.


I run past the car and think for a while.  "This is the time for reflection.  Too much has gone on without planning.  You are not in control.  Now you must take matters back into your own hands".  This sounds like good advice, but I'm determined to make my character unwittingly plan their Death.  Here's what the protagonist's notebook looks like:


1.  Jewels of Nabooti stolen in Boston.
2.  Letter from rug merchant demanding jewels.
3. Mysterious man on plane to Paris.
4.  Molotawa in cafe with story about world peace.
5.  An address in Morocco for information to follow the jewels.
6.  A lot of people apparently after the jewels and you.


Conclusions:

DANGER
TROUBLE
CONFUSION


A haiku requires more syllables than that, Jewels of Nabooti hero!


CHOICE #6 is to either talk to Molotawa, or "on to Morocco".  The former option goes to page 88, while the latter moves the player to page 89.  Despite the foreboding "1 page between first and second option of a CHOICE" scenario, it's not the Molotawa option that kills you. 


"As you sit in the warm sunshine deciding about going to Morocco, you catch sight of what looks like a small plump girl with an odd-looking dog.  She runs up to you, laughing happily, and hands you the leash.  She runs away.  When you look down, you realize that the dog is a mechanical dog, not a real one.  Without warning, it explodes into a thousand brilliant shards of metal.  The explosion finishes you off.  UGH!  What a horrible way to go.  The End".


This Death is already weird enough as it is, but the original 1982 version specifies that the girl is "actually a midget", and comes with a creepy illustration of a girl that looks a bit like a Raggedy Ann doll walking a blank-eyed dog on a leash.  No illustration in the remake. 


I expected the ending to change in the Chooseco version for obvious reasons, but the mental image of a homicidal Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz is hard to resist.  The girl running away is also a detail from the remake, so is it a suicide attack in the original?  The player character doesn't have the time to find out the dog is a robot in the 1982 version either.


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 2


Don't worry.  The exploding mechanical dog is only the beginning of the insanity in The Lost Jewels of Djibouti Nabooti.  I go back to Molotawa in the cafe in CHOICE #6, and have a conversation in the back room.  We agree to meet the Nabooti people in Senegal.  That's on the opposite side of Africa from Djibouti!  Another knife-wielding maniac approaches in "a nightmare repeat of a few hours ago", but I must have anticipated this, because I trip him by putting my foot in his path.


Molotawa is smarter than my character, and says "You bring bad luck.  I fear you.  We must separate now".  CHOICE #7 is whether to ask him to take me to the Nabooti tribe with him, or "apologize and leave by yourself".



For this ending, I'll take the Canadian approach.  My apology is done by mumbling "a few words of regret about the recent events".  On the street, I meet an organ grinder complete with a monkey holding a tin can chained to him.  The organ grinder asks for a few "francs".  Morocco stopped using francs well before 1982, and if he's asking for French francs, RA Montgomery clearly didn't move the story to 2006.  When I oblige with a few francs, the organ grinder says "Run for your life".  He continues to shout that line as a black van with tinted windows appears.  6 men with black outfits leave the van, "holding something long and shiny in their hands".


Then this happens.


"You feel the pounding of your heart, the beat of blood in your veins.  You begin to move, but the crowd seems to block you.  It becomes somewhat like a living fence.  'Let me go, let me go!' you scream in English and then in French.  But no one pays any attention to you. 


The six men form a small circle.  Three have guitars, one a saxophone, one a flute, and the other an African drum.  Run for Your Life is a band.  They are putting on a street theater concert for publicity.  Relax.  Enjoy the music!  The End".


Making a new ending category specifically for this book is justified.  Chances are a lot of the "conclusions" will resolve nothing, but entertain readers with their non-sequiturs anyway.  No illustration for this one, though there was one for the organ grinder's monkey on an earlier page.


Would I have gotten different results if I had shouted "¡Suéltenme!" instead?  The Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla are next to Moroccan territory. . .


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

2 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 3


In CHOICE #7, I try to convince Molotawa that I'm not jinxed.  He replies "I am afraid of the spirits who fight against us.  You must prove that you are not a spy, an informer, an enemy".  This is an RA Montgomery CYOA, so he's not being paranoid regarding the supernatural.


Molotawa offers me 2 different tasks to prove who I really am, and this is CHOICE #8.  The 1st is "the removal of certain objects from a bank safe" with the help of a tunnel and a map.  The 2nd involves helping Molotawa's associate Ramolt escape to safety because he's "wanted all over Europe".  Although this is the more dangerous task, "you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams".  Both options lead to endings that have much different implications for the Nabooti group. 


The 1st task goes this way.


"The 'removal of certain objects' Molotawa speaks of is a bank robbery.  The folded paper reveals plans for using a sewer tunnel to gain access to the vaults of the Banque de France.  Molotawa grins, slaps you on the back, and says, 'Just as I thought.  A crook at heart.  We'll do well together.'  Now you're really in a jam.  The End".


This will go into the Bad Non-Death Ending category because it suggests my character is dragged into a life of crime.


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

2 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 4


Molotawa's 2nd task doesn't get an illustration either, but it fulfills the "all that glisters is not gold" quota for all treasure hunt stories.


"Ramolt is the code name for a leader of the Nabooti Peace Group.  He is hiding from the authorities, who fear him because he has the power to lead revolutions.  People follow him.  They believe in him.  You are asked to accompany him by train in an attempt to escape and return to Africa.


He is one of the Jewels of Nabooti.  The jewels are four famous people who lead the fight for world peace.  The real jewels are valuable but unimportant.  You have made a brave choice.  Good luck.  The End".


Another "conclusion" that stops before we get to the action.  And the "diamonds and rubies aren't the real Jewels of Nabooti" twist is contradicted by the ending on the page immediately after it, which I can see because this ending is on the left side of the book.  That probably won't be the next ending posted, as I'll need to find a way to get to it via the CHOICEs first.  My playthroughs are as much about mapping the book out as they are about posting all the endings.


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

3 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 5


To find another branch, I'll have to return to Paris in CHOICE #5 and get into the fingernail-less man's car.  He points a gun at me and orders me to duck and put a blanket over my head to prevent anyone from seeing me.  About 15 minutes later, I can sit up as we're going east from Paris.  But a helicopter is flying suspiciously close to us and fires a machine gun at the car.  None of us are hurt, but the car is totaled.  3 armed men jump out of the helicopter. 


"The smallest of the three-a man with a scar running horizontally across his forehead, a heavy beard, squinty eyes, and nervous gestures-speaks."  He tells me I have exactly 36 seconds "by my digital watch" to decide whether to go with his associates or not.  Refusing means they will kill me.  Remember that Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy joke about Earth being a planet so primitive that its inhabitants are impressed by digital watches?  Maybe he's from Betelgeuse like Ford Prefect.


I have a chance to fight off the men from the helicopter when the car's driver hands me a pistol.  CHOICE #9 is whether to try to shoot them with the pistol or go with my captors.  The former is unsuccessful because I hesitate.  Their leader knocks me out with a "gas-loaded pen".  Did he get his equipment from the House of Danger cast by solving a Spider Ghost case?  CHOICE #10 is to either pretend to be unconscious on the helicopter, or bargain with the kidnappers.


This "bargain" is a bluff.  I tell them the diamonds are in Morocco, and the rubies are in Boston.  CHOICE #11 is which of the 2 places I want to go to.  But I never make it to Boston.


EDIT:  Yes, I know Morocco is a country instead of a city.  I typed the original post too quickly without thinking enough.  The book hasn't mentioned places like Rabat or Casablanca yet.


"An international airline strike has stopped all planes from taking off.  While waiting in the airport, you get a note to contact the police.  In good faith you go up to a gendarme standing by the counter at the newsstand.  The minute you identify yourself, the gendarme becomes suspicious. 


The gendarme takes you to an office where a fat officer sits at a desk munching on french fries.  He holds your passport in his greasy hand, compares the picture with a fax in his other hand.  You are able to peek and see the words, 'Dangerous fugitive, arrest immediately!'


You are about to protest that this is surely a case of mistaken identity, but they have you in handcuffs before you can get two words out.  You are arrested, charged with plotting against the French government, and put in prison.  It will be a long legal battle to get you out.  The End".


Is this because of the fight in the cafe?  Or were the fries a bribe to have me imprisoned?  This is a Bad Non-Death Ending because it's obvious the quest is over.  No illustration.


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

3 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 6


CHOICE #11 is one of the dreaded no-win scenarios.  There is some false hope at first when the protagonist is knocked out, and wakes up to discover a piece of paper with Arthur and Sheila Peter and Lucy's phone number on it.  A note saying Merci ("That's French for thanks!") is pinned to me.  "Those fools.'  You grin like an idiot.  'They are probably on their way to the United States right now!  I'm glad I memorized the address of the rug merchant".  The book then directs me to an illustrated page with a new Death.


"You leave the house and step out onto a narrow street.  A man with long hair and a beard stops you.  'Need a guide?  I know Morocco very well.  Very cheap.'  How lucky.  He can help you find the rug merchant.  You tell him the address of the rug merchant.  You never wrote it down.  Peter and Lucy had you memorize it.


The second you tell him the address, three men step out of a doorway.  They are your captors.  They've double-crossed you.  They didn't fall for your bluff for a second.  One of the men levels a gun at you and fires.  Zap!  You lose.  The End".


"Zap?"  Is this a House of Danger ray gun?  The illustration shows 3 white men looking at the reader, and I'll try to describe them to you.


Left:  Bald, clean shaven, wearing sunglasses and open collar suit.
Middle: Shaggy hair, mostly covered with facial hair below nose, wearing sunglasses and buttoned collar suit
Right:  Staring with no sunglasses, clean shaven, wearing open collar suit and fedora


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

2 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

3 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 7


Pretending to be unconscious in the CHOICE #10 helicopter leads to the dead-end CHOICE #12, but the results aren't as bad for the protagonist.  The kidnappers say "Let's throw this spare baggage out. . .no use to us. . .knows nothing".  This tricks me into admitting I know about the Jewels of Nabooti.  (Or do I, given that they aren't always jewels?)  CHOICE #12 is to "cable" Peter and Lucy, or argue with them.


Obeying the kidnappers' demands leads to this ending illustrated with a dog sniffing the ground.


"The cable to Peter and Lucy asks them to meet you in Paris immediately.  But they are not at home.  There is no reply.  Your captors bind and gag you and drop you in a trash bin behind a French fast food shop called L'Express.  UGH!  The smell of fries, greasy meat, and stale bread overpowers you.


But luck is with you.  A mangy dog nosing around for a free meal discovers you and barks.  You are found just before the trash masher picks up the bin.  Brush off the fries, sponge away the mustard.  You are free, alive, and well.  But you have had enough.  You give up the search and go home.  The End".


My decision to give up the Jewels of Nabooti quest is our first true Neutral Ending, as opposed to Wait, This Isn't an Ending.  A shame we missed out on a trash compactor Death!


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

2 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

3 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  The Lost Jewels of Nabooti Alternate Endings Part 8


Arguing with the helicopter kidnappers in CHOICE #12 leads to a short, non-illustrated "ending".  Not a fatal one, though.


"This was one time that you shouldn't have argued.  They open the cabin door and push you out!  PLOP!  Right into a farm pond.  Wet but safe.  The End".


The Lost Jewels of Nabooti would have benefited greatly from omitting these conclusions where the story just ends without the hero either ending or continuing with the quest.


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

2 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

4 Wait, This Isn't an Ending!