Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Part 1


According to the narration, it's a Tuesday afternoon in June.  I must be rich and not living in a coastal area, because my parents not only have a basement, but let me have a laboratory inside of it!  When I answer the phone, I only hear "I need. . .I need. . .".  My laboratory is also an office, and contains "infrared-activated floodlights, high-speed movie cameras, and night scopes".  The protagonist's taste in books is macabre, similar to the player:  "Murder in Fun", "Ghosts and Ghouls", and "Corpses I Have Known".


At 2:42, the phone rings again.  This time the voice says "Help, I need your hel-l-l-l-lp. . .".  I am ordered to turn to page 6 instead of page 3, although I'm on page 2.  The illustration on page 2 features a laptop and a land line phone.


The voice isn't much more helpful later in the conversation, but my telephone tracing device that works in "milliseconds" says the call comes from:


555-7259
HENRY MARSDEN
1100 HEDGE BROOK


Page 7 has a discrepancy with the page 2 illustration.  I "copy this information down" on a "smartphone".  The protagonist solved a Spider Ghost case solo after a call similar to this.  As a reward for that, I got a "citation" from the FBI and funding from the Ridgeway family for my equipment. 


CHOICE #1 is whether to take Arthur and Sheila Ricardo and Lisa with me or enter the House of Danger solo.  They aren't answering their "cell phones", and the player character considers doing "internet searching".  You can easily tell where the clumsy 2000s technological updates are in this version, even if it wouldn't fit the 1980s plot.


The goal with this CANONICAL ENDING path is to fail as spectacularly as possible, and to accomplish that, I'll need to take some NPCs down with me.  Or use them as human shields to escape, only for the player character to feel survivor's guilt.


Search engines in the House of Danger world must be terrible, because nothing's coming up.  Maybe the protagonist doesn't have access to library databases that might have more specialized information about Henry Marsden?


A thought enters my character's mind that the Civil War may be involved in this case.  In my office/laboratory, there's a book called History of Nothwin County between Gray's Anatomy and Blackwell's Poison Plants and Herbs.  I got it from a yard sale for $0.25, and it was published about 2 decades ago.  Henry Marsden appears in the list of famous county residents.


Henry Marsden lived from 1839-1887 and fought for the Union in the Civil War.  He was injured in the Battle of Shiloh, and later became the warden of Hedge Brook County Prison.  This must have been the 19th century equivalent of La Prisión due to its harsh conditions.  Marsden probably died in 1887 when a fire burned down Hedge Brook County Prison.  Rumor has it the inmates murdered him, and his ghost still haunts the remnants of the prison.


The "100 years after the prison fire" plot gives away that the book is supposed to take place in the 1980s, not in the age of widespread cell phone and Internet usage. 


While I'm reading, Ricardo and Lisa knock on my window.  I let them in, and they listen to the phone recording and read my notes.  Ricardo thinks it's "really strange" because "the name of the warden and this guy who called are the same".  Lisa says "Anyone can see that".  Ricardo knows where the prison ruins are because his dad pointed it out to him once while riding by.  It's on Hedge Brook Road on the North Side.  I say "either Henry Marsden is still alive or we've got a ghost on our hands".  This shouldn't be as shocking to us after the Spider Ghost backstory, but hey, this specter might be very different.



CHOICE #2 is to go to the ruins, or talk to the police.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Part 2


How am I going to die if I take the sensible option?  So let's charge into the House of Danger without any help from the authorities.  A modern mansion awaits us instead of a ruined prison.  Its exterior seems to be entirely "reflective glass", while the gate looks like it came from the 19th century.  Neither Ricardo nor Lisa are willing to knock, so I have to do it.  The door opens by itself without a voice responding to us.


Inside the house, we can see carpets in various colors, Chinese screens, bamboo plants, and "ancient temple carvings".  A woman comes out of a concealed door with "high cheekbones and narrow eyes".  She's very pale-skinned, and is wearing a black dress.  She greets us with "Won't you three come in?"  When we say we're here to see Marsden, she says "Why, of course you are".  She refuses to answer any more questions and makes a gesture with her finger telling us to follow her.


CHOICE #3 is to obey her, or try to leave because you suspect the house is a trap.  It wouldn't be fun if I didn't rush into the House of Danger, so let's advance in spite of the warning.  The page numbers are odd in this book.  CHOICE #2 is on page 27.  Then you hop to 15 and 19 before visiting CHOICE #3 on a page 28 that's about one paragraph long.


And next is our CANONICAL ENDING.  This is a short path.  3 CHOICEs in and this happens:


"The three of you enter the house.  As you do, the door behind you closes and locks with an ominous click.  You sense that there is definitely something evil-or at least alarming-going on here.  The woman leads you down a long, dark hallway to a solarium.  The afternoon sunlight streams in through a high glass ceiling.  White, yellow, and purple orchids are arranged in neat rows along one side of the room.  On the other side of the room is a collection of plants that you don't immediately recognize.


'I see you are admiring my babies', the woman says.  'These are my Venus flytraps over here.  Are they not beautiful?  We are all so happy here'.  She picks up a trowel and tenderly starts to transplant one of them.  A faint buzzing comes from somewhere in the room.  'Ah, I see we have yet another visitor', says the woman.  Her face lights up with a kind of ecstasy.  'Come. . .come to my plants, little fly'.


You begin to notice a sweet smell-almost sickeningly sweet-that you hadn't noticed before.  it is coming from the plants.  The fly circles around and lands on one.  Suddenly the fringed leaves snap shut and trap the fly inside.  The light of the room grows dim, as if a dark cloud has suddenly drifted between you and the sun.  The glass walls of the house. . .the sweet smell. . .Suddenly, you understand that you have walked into a giant Venus flytrap yourself.


Something is happening to the woman.  Her image is beginning to fade.  You realize that you can see right through her.  Her from then begins to grow and resolidify.  It transforms itself into the image of a large, angry-looking man dressed in a Civil War uniform.  He has a heavy whip in his hand.  You look around you.  The walls have turned to a rough, darkened stone-and high above you, the skylight has been replaced by heavy bars.


'Now I'll deal with you rebels', growls the man.  'You think you can challenge the authority of Henry Marsden.'  As he says this, he lashes out with the whip.  Sharp pain bites into your shoulder.  You feel faint.  As you lose consciousness and fall to the damp stone floor, you hear only the terrified screams of Ricardo and Lisa.  The End".


The illustration accompanying this Death is of a woman petting a giant Venus flytrap in a greenhouse.  She has a small bun in the back of her hair, and is wearing a dark dress and a white apron.


I was hoping for a more exotic Death than this, but walking into a time travel Venus flytrap and being whipped by a 19th century prison warden disguised as a mild-mannered 1980s woman is an unusual way to go.


Results So Far


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Alternate Endings Part 1
 
 
Refusing to fall for the woman's time travel Venus flytrap scheme in CHOICE #3 makes her say "You think you can just come and leave that easily?  You'll be sorry!  You'll be sorry!"
 
 
When we leave the House of Danger, I notice the car's gone.  Lisa says she remembers a house across the road, but that isn't there either.  Ricardo suggests going to the house because we may have walked farther than we thought, and lost our bearings.  The 19th century prison stands where the House of Danger used to be.
 
 
Ricardo thinks it's a dream because the woman "cast some kind of spell on us".  Loud noises can be heard coming from the prison, so I say it's the riot mentioned in the county history book.  Smoke and flames are visible in the upper windows.  I scream to anyone who can hear that the prisoners should be let out, or they'll die.  The doors are already too hot to knock on.
 
 
Some soldiers hear me and open the doors with the help of horses pulling on a grappling hook.  Fire shoots out once the prison is open.
 
 
Remember the phone call from the beginning?  Henry Marsden is saying "help" from the ramparts, with hyphens to add urgency.  CHOICE #4 is to either help the soldiers put out the fire and rescue prisoners, or hide behind a tree and watch the action.
 
 
Playing the hero to save the prisoners reveals this ending.


"The firefighters are ready with their steam-driven water pump, spraying water into the open mouth of the front gate.  Soon the fire has died down enough for you and the soldiers to start carrying out the more badly burned prisoners on stretchers.  Someone shouts, 'The prisoners in the dungeons were all right.  Just the upper part of the prison is burning.'


'Where's Marsden?' you ask.  'He has joined his brother the devil in the flames', someone replies.  The three of you work with all your energy for the next few hours, doing your best to help the burned and wounded prisoners.  You are exhausted.  It's late afternoon now, but the day is still terribly hot.  You have to take a few minutes to rest.  You sit against a tree and close your eyes for a moment.  It feels so good to relax.


When you open your eyes, the prison is gone.  The modern glass house is back in its place.  The three of you are sitting against a tree on the side of the road.  'That was quite a dream', says Ricardo, pulling himself groggily to his feet.  'If that was just a dream', says Lisa, 'what is this Civil War soldier's hat doing over there on the side of the road?  And why did we all have the same dream?'


'Dream or not', you say, 'at least we're back in our own time.  I won't forget this day for a long time!  The End"


Why are they still wearing Civil War outfits over 20 years after Appomattox?  RA Montgomery attempts a "dream, OR IS IT" ending, but the fact that all 3 characters experience it and the hat on the side of the road give away that it's real.  This is a Good Ending because the protagonists got out of the House of Danger intact and saved some lives in the 19th century.


I'm surprised by how basic the prose is compared to even other CYOAs for the same audience, such as some of the better You Say Which Way entries.  Maybe standards have risen a bit since 1980s interactive fiction.  
 

Results So Far


1 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Alternate Endings Part 2


If you take the cowardly option of waiting behind a tree in CHOICE #4 instead of helping the 19th century firefighters, this ending ensues.


"From a safe distance, the three of you watch the soldiers break open the front gate of the prison and the firefighters spray water on the flames.  Badly burned prisoners are carried out and taken away to the hospital in horse-drawn wagons, which pass you on the road.  The sun is setting.


You find your way into town, which in the present year of 1887, is two miles away.  You were born in the late twentieth century, but you will finish out your life almost a hundred years earlier.  You will have the distinction of being your own great-great-grandfather with knowledge that no one else possesses.  The End".


House of Danger doesn't have the audacity of Heinlein's All You Zombies, where the protagonist is ALL of their ancestors.  This ending gives away the protagonist's gender, which has been kept hidden in the text until now as far as I can tell.  The illustration here shows 4 men using an old-fashioned fire engine, and the one for the other CHOICE #4 ending has 3 kids under a tree looking in the same direction, and one of them has a hat and is facing away from the reader.


Although I haven't read The Cave of Time myself, I listened to a podcast playthrough of it.  This House of Danger ending resembles those in The Cave of Time where you're stranded in some other period and have to make a living in the past.


According to the flowchart on the back of the book, I am probably on the right side of the path going left from CHOICE #1.  CHOICE #3 has one path leading to an ending, and another leading to CHOICE #4 with 2 endings.  It seems there are more endings for the solo route than the Ricardo and Lisa route.


I don't know how to classify this ending.  It doesn't seem to be bad, as my character adjusts to life in an earlier time.  But nothing much is mentioned about Ricardo and Lisa's fate.  For lack of any better ideas, I'll shove it in the Good Ending column.


   
Results So Far


2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings


EDIT:  "Great-great-grandfather" is less clunky in Spanish, where it's "tatarabuelo".  Don't ask me why Spanish felt the need to have a concise term for ancestors that distant.  I don't know either.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Alternate Endings Part 3


Enough with time traveling to 1887.  Let's contact the police in CHOICE #2.


Detective Murphy, a "pipe smoking middle-aged man in a tweed jacket", "looks more like a college professor than a detective".  Maybe he's Ian Cameron from Mary Worth?


Murphy tells us he thinks the house is haunted, even though it "sounds unscientific and unprofessional".  But this is a world where ghosts are confirmed to exist, if the name of the Spider Ghost case is accurate.  Murphy lets us handle the case, as long as we watch the House of Danger from a distance, and only during the day.


"You're hooked.  This is your kind of adventure".  The protagonist isn't a hobbyist.  He's an adrenaline addict.


Even though we allegedly have cell phones, we get "two-way radio-communicators" with a range of 7 miles.  Nothing is visible from inside the house, because the closed windows and curtains conceal everything.  The front door is open, and Lisa suggests going inside because ghosts are nocturnal anyway.


I tell my companions to wait outside and use the two-way radios.  When I confirm that the House of Danger is safe, I'll tell them to enter.  The front door slams behind me, and there are no windows in either the foyer or the first hallway to jump out of.  The two-way radio only generates static.  The air is already hot, and the temperature is only increasing.  Sounds like the CANONICAL ENDING of No Me Llames Tami.  A "strange half-light" is visible.


CHOICE #5 is to either try to get the front door open, or search the House of Danger.


The protagonist must have the Lockpicking skill from a Bethesda game, because he opens the front door with a penknife and probe.  But it doesn't go outside like it should.  Instead, there's a stone stairway going to an underground room.  I see a row of prison cells and a glow that talks.  It says "ZZZZ. . .myzzz. . .nameizzzz. . .Henry Marzzz. . .den".  I cut most of the ellipses dots in this post.


Henry Marsden begins to speak more clearly now.  He wants me to release his soul, which has been trapped here since the 1887 fire because he blames himself for what happened.  To do this, I have to say I forgive him, but it's implied the forgiveness doesn't have to be genuine.  The words alone are enough.  I say I need some more facts before I can forgive him. 


Marsden claims the conditions were bad because of the lack of funding, and could only afford to give the prisoners turnip soup and potatoes.  He says he didn't eat any better.  Marsden burned the prison himself to destroy it, because he was so afraid of riots.  He admits to being stupid enough that he assumed all the prisoners would escape in time, and he died as well.  The player character forgives him so he can leave the House of Danger at last.


"There is a blinding flash of light.  You shade your eyes from it.  You hear, 'Thank you, thank yoooo. . .'  The image of Marsden is gone.  You run up the stone stairway and through the door at the top.  But as you do, you find yourself running smack into Ricardo, Lisa, and Detective Murphy.  You almost knock them down. 


'I thought I told you just to watch the house from a safe distance', says Detective Murphy, very sternly, 'but anyway, I'm glad you're all right.  You are all right, aren't you?'


'I sure am', you say, 'and I don't think we'll be seeing any weird lights from this place from now on.  The End".


The illustration here shows a sort of black silhouette trying to shield his eyes from a blinding flash.  Marsden really was an dope if he thought the prisoners could escape his impromptu arson.  Or maybe he's lying, and he is condemned to haunt the House of Danger for his crimes, waiting for some sucker to say the magic words of forgiveness?  Or maybe I put more thought into this than Montgomery did.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Alternate Endings Part 4


Searching the house in CHOICE #5 changes reality, as if this were a decision in No Me Llames Tami or La Isla de los Dodos.  Henry Marsden is a little different in this branch, since he's eternally condemned to teach wisdom to whoever comes inside the House of Danger.  Instead of being a light, he looks like a disfigured man wearing a large cloak.  Unknown "spirits" gave him a machine that "defies time".  Two figures appear, which look like me as a baby and an old man. 


Selecting the "old age" option ends like you'd expect.


"Why did you choose old age?  Curiosity, you guess.  At least you know you'll live a long, long time.  You see that you have cracked and very wrinkled hands.  Your body trembles slightly.  Your eyesight seems good, but you can't hear very well.  You search your mind for memories of the years since you were a teenager.  Funny, you can't seem to remember anything.  They have all faded away.


You are so tired.  You will just sleep for a while.  Thinking takes so much energy.  You drop off into a light sleep.  Your heart slows, skips a beat or so, then stops.  It is all over.  The End".


Between the Stars has a more interesting "die of old age" ending, where you're tricked by a mining company into remaining in "stasis" and thinking you're dreaming rather than living out your life.


No illustration for this Death.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Alternate Endings Part 5


Becoming a baby in CHOICE #6 doesn't kill the player character.  He even remembers he's not a real baby "somewhere in your mind".  When I realize this, I turn back into my teenage self.  Marsden offers me CHOICE #6:  either become another person, or leave the House of Danger.


When I consider the offer of becoming another person, Marsden says I can be anyone in history.  "Then a wild impulse leaps to your mind-so wild that you are embarrassed to mention it.  You'll think of another. . ."


"But once the wish is performed, the process begins.  No!  You want to take it back.  You don't really want to be Genghis Khan.  The End".


Although the ending is short, it's worth it for the cartoon Genghis Khan that takes up most of its page.  Unlike all the Kindle CYOAs I've covered, this is a print book that can't conceal its spoilers as well.  If you have the Chooseco version, you'll see this ending to the right of the CHOICE #6 page (100).  At least CHOICE #6 offers a bit of suspense, because neither of its options lead immediately to page 101.


I'll put this under the Bad Non-Death Ending column because the player character doesn't want to be a 13th century Mongol conqueror when he grows up.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Alternate Endings Part 6


The final ending of the Ricardo and Lisa branch proves that CHOICE #6 through #7 Marsden is as untrustworthy as any wizard.


"You remember that Ricardo and Lisa are waiting outside.  You call them on your radio.  'Hello, Ricardo. . .Lisa. . .are you there?'  'We hear you.  Everything all right in there?'  'I'm all right, I guess.  Kind of hard to explain.  I'm getting some kind of lessons from the ghost of Henry Marsden.  I'll be out soon, I hope.'  Then static.  The ghostly figure gestures toward you again.


'I said you could leave, but I didn't say with whom.'  As he says this, Marsden's head grows larger and larger, until it turns into an enormous disc-shaped object.  It begins to glow with a unique brightness.  Then the room disappears, and the disc expands to huge size.  Portholes appear around its middle.  A hatch swings open.  Music comes from inside-electronic music.  You enter this machine, and in a millisecond you are whisked away to other galaxies.  You don't know if you are going to like this lesson or not.  The End".


Marsden is actually a spaceship who takes my character to an Inconclusive Ending?


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings


EDIT:  Pages 108-109 with this ending are actually the end of the book.  The rest of the pages are a history of gamebooks and the CYOA series, in addition to promotions for other Chooseco books.  Edward Packard doesn't seem to be mentioned at all in spite of his importance.  The influence of Jorge Borges and Julio Cortázar are acknowledged, however.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  House of Danger Alternate Endings Part 7


Now that I'm finished with my companions Ricardo and Lisa, it's time to go alone in CHOICE #1.  (Did those two do ANYTHING worth mentioning in 7 endings?)


The House of Danger's exterior looks mostly the same in this path, one of RA Montgomery's few concessions to consistency.  Now there's a plaque near the gates that says this:


SITE OF HEDGE BROOK PRISON
WHICH WAS BURNED TO THE GROUND
DURING THE PRISON RIOT OF 1887.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE PRISONERS
DIED IN THE FIRE.
NOTHWIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY


The difference in the new timeline comes when a man rushes out of the House of Danger pursued by snarling chimpanzees!  Complete with an illustration of one with its teeth bared at the reader.  Their entrance is described with the verb "materialize", so these are no ordinary apes.  The options are either to advance and help the man because "you decide that the chimpanzees are not as dangerous as they look", or run back to my car.


On this episode of Planet of the Apes, I'll retreat.  No use taking on a group of angry animals without any backup.  My car has a first aid kit, and weapons like a "pen" that can shoot "knockout-gas".  Unfortunately, someone's already inside pointing a gun at my neck.  "Just do what I tell you or you'll be looking for a new head.  Now get this car moving and follow directions.  Drive down to the corner and turn right".


The kidnapper commands me to drive on a dirt road leading into the woods and then stop.  While he's distracted trying to set up equipment in the back, I get my knockout-gas pen from under the dashboard.  CHOICE #9 is to either attack him with the pen now, or wait until later because it might be too dangerous.


The knockout pen is successful-but my kidnapper is revealed to be a talking chimpanzee!  I drive to the police station and tell them "I have an unconscious chimpanzee in the back seat of my car".  They take this claim about as seriously as you'd expect, and suggest I take it to a zoo.  When I explain that it's a talking chimp with a gun, they think I'm crazy but investigate anyway.  As far as they know, the ape doesn't have a gun, but only a "flat metal ring".  (The "ring" was foreshadowed on an earlier page.)


And the ending goes like this:


"The chimpanzee is still unconscious when the zoo workers come and take him off in a big cage.  As soon as you tell the officer about the man on the lawn, he and his partner take you back to the house in a patrol car.  'He was right there', you insist, pointing at the blank green space.  'But now he's gone.'  'We can search the woods', the officer suggests, but you're too late.  The body is nowhere to be found.


'The house is empty as well', the officer's partner says, emerging from the front door.  'Though there's definitely evidence some kind of animal has recently been inside.  And the phone's working, which is weird-the phone company has no record of anyone living here.'


The following week, you go out to the zoo to have another look at the chimpanzee.  You can tell that he recognizes you from the angry expression on his face when he sees you.  Somehow you feel sorry for him, since you know that he can talk and now has no one to talk to-that is, unless he wants to give himself away.  You wonder where the rest of the chimpanzees have gone.  No doubt they have a new hideout somewhere.  You also wonder if they have claimed any new victims, like that poor man on the lawn.  The End".


No illustration this time.  This feels like it should be the beginning of another adventure.  At least we'll be warned about the Planet of the Apes rising when the chimp finally goes mad and vows vengeance in front of all the zoo visitors.


Results So Far


4 Good Endings

2 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Gustaran]

Do you actually read these books because you like them or because it's a lot of fun pointing out all the glaring inconsistencies and the ludicrous story lines?  

Holy cow, I don't know what the author was smoking here, but Dave Morris' "Critical IF" books are world class literature compared to this stuff...