Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 30


Once you encounter the Great White Shark in CHOICE #39, there is no positive conclusion.  At least both endings don't kill you like climbing the mountain in The Lost Jewels of Nabooti.


"You fire the special propulsion charge and zoom upward through the water, frightening schools of fish as you go.  You become dizzy and lose track of where you are.  The world seems upside down.  The shark is nowhere around, you hope.  Breaking through to the surface and floating about a half mile from the Maray, you unsuccessfully try to reach them with your digital communicator.


The lookouts spot you in the water and they quickly rescue you.  Unfortunately, the rapid ascent has given you a bad case of the bends.  It takes a long time to decompress.  And when you are finally all right, the ship's doctor informs you that your underwater days are over.  Someone else will have to find Atlantis.  THE END".


Since the player character's health is permanently worse off, it's a Bad Non-Death Ending.  An illustration shows someone in a diving suit (you) looking through the window of a decompression chamber at a doctor with glasses, a woman with fair hair, and what seems to be a man with a turban and a beard.  The clock says "RT-0:23:06-HRS", and a sign below it says "DECOMPRESSING".


Only about 10 more endings to go!  Early books in the series have an excessive amount of them relative to page count.



Results So Far


12 Good Endings

5 Deaths

8 Bad Non-Death Endings

6 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 31


This next ending is quick, so it'll probably be the last one for today.  One "plot" that's consistent by R.A. Montgomery standards is a storm coming within a few days of the first dive, though I checked the previous CHOICEs before #15 and there didn't seem to be any warning about it on that path.  If you disregard the advice from other timelines, or have the misfortune not to know about it, you get a financial Bad Non-Death Ending.


"A violent storm is reported heading your way.  The captain decides to move the Maray to the shelter of a nearby island.  It's too dangerous to remain where you are.  Deckhands lash the Seeker securely to the deck of the Maray and you get underway.


The storm breaks before you can reach the safety of the lee side of the island.  The Seeker is torn loose and lost overboard.  The computers aboard the Maray are damaged by a surge of electricity caused by a lightning strike.  You are all alive, but there are no replacements for the damaged equipment.  The money has run out.  The expedition to Atlantis is over.  THE END".


There's no budget for an illustration either.


Results So Far


12 Good Endings

5 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

6 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 32


The next path in our oceanography career is to be calm while trapped in the brown seaweed in CHOICE #14.  This doesn't help much when I'm sucked into a whirlpool, complete with illustration!  Whirlpools seem to work like a rip current:  if you fight it, you'll drown.  CHOICE #40 is to encounter this fate and "kick like crazy!" on Page 69, and swimming to the bottom and escaping that way is Page 70.


Swimming against the whirlpool current doesn't kill me in one CHOICE?  That's what would have happened in a You Say Which Way, a generally more lenient series than Choose Your Own Adventure.  What follows in CHOICE #41 is possibly one of the stupidest decisions in any CYOA:  "If you use your laser pistol to blast a hole in the whirlpool wall, turn to Page 96".  The other direction is to swim against the whirlpool on Page 97.  Why would shooting at a body of water even work?


"You have a laser pistol for emergencies.  You blast a hole in the whirlpool wall and dive through it.  Facing you is a school of fish who are puzzled by this strange intruder.  Behind them is a shark.  You swim towards the surface slowly and the shark disappears into the deep.


The Maray is nowhere in sight.  You are wondering how long you'll be waiting when a loud splashing, sighing sound startles you.  A huge whale has surfaced and lies nearby spouting and sucking in great noisy draughts of air.  It takes you a good half-hour to swim to the enormous creature.  It pays no attention to you.  You climb onto its tail and crawl on hands and knees toward the highest point of its back.  It's like creeping up a gigantic gray rock.


From your vantage point on top, sure enough, you can see the Maray and the tiny glint of binocular lenses reflecting in the sun.  The Maray crew is watching the whale.  You wave, feeling certain they have seen you.  It won't be long before they come to collect you.  THE END".


Is it the same blue whale that destroyed the Seeker in another timeline?  Had R.A. Montgomery touched a whale to find whether or not it felt like a rock?  Why is "draught" spelled that way in an American book?  Will any of my questions be answered in Return to Atlantis?


(When I first saw the word "draught", it was in Golden Sun as a reference to Babi's immortality potion.  I thought it was pronounced "drawt" for many years.)


The illustration shows someone looking at a person in a diving suit riding on a whale's back through binoculars.


Results So Far


12 Good Endings

5 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

7 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 33


The Death that results from rejecting the laser pistol option in CHOICE #41 gives the reader false hope at first.


"You faint, and when you come to, you are floating on the surface of the ocean.  There is a heavy ocean swell and the sun beats down on you.  The whirlpool must have stopped as quickly and mysteriously as it began.  You feel dizzy and exhausted and you move gently to make sure you haven't broken any bones.  As you move your head slowly inside your helmet you feel an intense pain shooting across your right temple.


You have to be very still then and gradually your ears pick up the thrum of the search helicopter.  You don't dare move to look, but as the minutes go by, the thrum gets louder and slowly disappears.  The helicopter has passed over you.  It won't return this way.  The pain in your temple increases.  You begin to lose consciousness.  THE END".


The Helicopter of Disappointment doesn't even have to be shot down in order to fail to rescue the player.  No illustration either.


(One YouTube video says "helicopters in games crash as often as Windows Vista trying to sync iTunes".  Even Subnautica does this in a way when the rescue spaceship is shot down by the automated anti-aircraft cannon.)



Results So Far


12 Good Endings

6 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

7 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 34


Descending to the bottom of the whirlpool in CHOICE #40 dumps me out at 2000 feet below the surface.  Is there any ending in this book where pressure kills you when you dive too deep?  "Time has ceased to be a factor", though it's unlikely I'll revisit the "center of the earth Atlantis".  The sky is barely visible, and CHOICE #43 is to either swim up on Page 98, or to investigate the "strange area" nearby on Page 99.  "Lights and colors dance before your eyes", so it's likely bioluminescent life is involved in the latter.  But let's try the "boring" ending first.


"The walls of the whirlpool look like solid ridges sloping upwards to the surface.  The water in the center looks absolutely calm.  You wonder if you could swim up through that calm.  It's worth a try, and you set off.  Before you can tell if you're making any progress, the whirlpool reverses and instead of whirling down, it whirls up and catapults you out of the ocean and into the air.  You fall back onto the surface of the ocean close to the Maray.  Although you are stunned by the fall, you quickly gain your senses and are picked up by the ship.  Of course no one believes your story, but then even you think it is almost too fantastic to have happened.  THE END".


I don't believe it either!  Is it physically possible for whirlpools shoot you into the air?  No funny illustration of someone in a diving suit being spit into the atmosphere here.


Results So Far


12 Good Endings

6 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

8 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings


EDIT:  Exploring the "strange area" in CHOICE #43 takes you to "aliens from planet Ager Atlantis" in CHOICE #7, where they want to inject you with the serum.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 35


Before proceeding, I'd like to feature an Atlas Obscura article by Sarah Laskow.  Laskow discusses the structure of the Chooseco editions of several Choose Your Own Adventure books, and links to articles and maps by other readers.  One of the links involves Journey Under the Sea, and the author even has a similar way of classifying endings to mine!  His equivalent of the "Bad Non-Death Ending" is called "Unfavorable", and he uses an infinity symbol to indicate a time loop.  We must have been reading different books since he claims over 75% of the outcomes in Journey Under the Sea are "Unfavorable" or "Unfavorable, death".  Can't find much on other series I've covered like You Say Which Way or Ultimate Ending.


Collecting bubbles to refill the air tank in CHOICE #25 is yet another path to the giant squid in CHOICE #16, though the reader receives an illustration of a cracked Roman road on the ocean floor as compensation.  The only place I hadn't already covered is the "depth readings" in CHOICE #3, which tell me that the hole may lead to the center of the earth (and the "thought-time-space" Atlantis).  One difference from earlier routes is a "mid-ocean earthquake" that might spook the Maray crew into abandoning the mission.  CHOICE #43 is to descend on Page 23, or go back to the surface on Page 26.


My character has fallen for the old R.A. Montgomery parallel universe trap.


"Now is the time for decision.  You check all the controls of the Seeker, grit your teeth, and push the control column into the deep dive position.  Down, down you go where no person has ever ventured.  The Seeker is built for deep, deep dives, but you are descending rapidly mile after mile into the deep.  The pressure is intense, the darkness is complete, and the depth gauge indicates an incredible 15 miles.  You quickly reverse the control column.


Warning lights flare up on your control panel; they show that gravitational forces are now stronger than the Seeker's propulsion motors.  You have passed the point of no return and your journey downward will continue in utter darkness until the water pressure is too great for the Seeker.  This is the final voyage.  THE END".


Trying to go to Earth's center in CHOICE #43 has a realistic fatal result, but doing so starting in CHOICE #20 rewards you with Atlantean psychic powers.  This refutes any "strategy" that could be applied to R.A. Montgomery's books.  Now you know for sure, sunrise089.


Results So Far


12 Good Endings

7 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

8 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 36


Another contradiction in Journey Under the Sea is that attempting to retreat to the surface in CHOICE #43 whisks you to Atlantis via an artificial current, while doing so in other paths results in disappointing Neutral Endings or eye injuries.  Two Atlanteans shown wearing robes in an illustration say that they've been expecting me, but don't trust surface dwellers and insist "We are not cruel, but you will never leave Atlantis".


CHOICE #44 on Page 26 offers two decisions:  shoot the door with the Seeker's laser cannon on Page 39, or assimilate into Atlantean culture on Page 40.  It's about as much of a CHOICE as when the princess in Dragon Quest I asks if you want to marry her. . .


"The Atlanteans have lived in peace for thousands of years.  They have no love of warfare.  Their civilization is technologically very advanced.  A sensing mechanism tells them that you are about to use your laser cannon.  They fire a special beam at the Seeker.  All its functions stop.  You are powerless to escape.  They calmly approach the Seeker.  'You are now part of Atlantis.  We understand your fear, but do not be frightened.  No harm will come to you and your life will be full.  Follow us'.  As you walk with them, into a new world, you wonder if you will ever see the sky again.  THE END".


How positive this outcome is depends on the reader's perspective.  Especially since you can't rely on using the rest of the book to gather clues.  I'll put it as a Good Ending, though in my Word notes it'll come with a "?".


Results So Far


13 Good Endings

7 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

8 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 37


The CHOICE #44 version of Atlantis has marble floors, glowing walls, and a ceiling that looks like the facets of a diamond.  A woman wearing a toga in the illustration with webbed feet tells their origin, which is similar to the other Atlantis with the possibly evil king.  Both Atlantises were built in extinct volcanoes after the original Atlantis was about to sink.  She implies that the "other spaces to meditate upon" make up for the lack of sunlight and stars.  But probably not the Vitamin D deficiency.


Toga Woman mentions another people living in the region called the Nodoors, and offers a chance to live among them.  CHOICE #45 is whether to accept this deal on Page 55, or live among the Atlanteans on Page 56 long enough to plot escape.  The main city has buildings that "merge one into another", coral in the courtyards, and bright colors.


Staying with the Atlanteans makes my character think they managed to create utopia.  Toga Woman had earlier mentioned "avoiding war and not hating".  But are the Nodoors treated like the Atlantean equivalent of Dalits or Burakumin?  The narration doesn't say anything about Nodoors on Page 56, other than that they had a "split" with the Atlanteans.  CHOICE #46 is to either become an Atlantis historian on Page 78, or walk away as though from Omelas on Page 79.


"Maybe you can learn from the Atlanteans how they achieve such happiness in their lives.  You seek out their history.  Announcing your decision to stay, you are treated with kindness and friendship.  You explain that you would like to help in their underwater food production. 


Atlantis was an advanced civilization thousands of years ago.  The citizens nourished their peaceful thoughts and plucked out their hateful thoughts as one would tend a garden.  Their minds became a rich and dazzling universe, clear and unbounded.  You have so much to do helping with sea plants and studying their history that you soon forget the Seeker.  THE END".


Wait, the CHOICE didn't say I was going to be a farmer!  Oh well, it's utopia, so the history books would have bored everyone like an oyster.  Most of the books probably censor the inevitable oppression of the Nodoors in another branch.  The illustration shows a forest of seaweed with a small fish swimming through it.


Results So Far


14 Good Endings

7 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

8 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea TIME LOOP


Let's figure out a way to trap our hero in an endless cycle of underwater adventure.  Escaping from Atlantis in CHOICE #46 means they're so peaceful they don't even try to stop you when you go up through the brown seaweed in CHOICE #15, allowing you to pile more decisions onto the first cycle.


CHOICE #1:  Visit the canyon on the ocean floor
CHOICE #2:  Follow the bubbles on the Seeker's starboard
CHOICE #3:  Turn on depth readings with sonar
CHOICE #43:  Attempt to go to the surface and be captured by "utopian Atlanteans" via current
CHOICE #44:  Join "Atlantis utopia" willingly
CHOICE #45:  Live with "utopian Atlanteans" while planning to escape later
CHOICE #46:  Escape from "Atlantis utopia" and ascend through the brown seaweed
CHOICE #15:  Dive again tomorrow
*CHOICE #16:  Hide from giant squid
CHOICE #17:  Shoot giant squid with spear gun
CHOICE #18:  Return to sea
CHOICE #19:  Return to Maray to report Greek ship's existence
CHOICE #24:  Enter grotto with the Seeker instead of trying the laser light
CHOICE #34:  Send radio signals through metal "gill slit Atlantis" hatch
CHOICE #35:  Turn back from "gill slit Atlantis" and return to CHOICE #16


There are other ways of reaching the CHOICE #16 squid if you want to, such as:

-Exploring the ledge in CHOICE #1
-Analyzing the bubbles in CHOICE #3, then collecting them to refill the air tank in CHOICE #4


The Word document "map" with page numbers will be posted after the final ending, but I thought Realms Beyond readers might appreciate an eternal limbo with two contradictory Atlantises, and no time travel required.  Maybe all undersea cities claim to be Atlantis in the same way that every city in the Small Kingdoms claims to be Ethshar in Lawrence Watt-Evans's novels?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure Journey Under the Sea Alternate Endings Part 38


I may have been correct about the Nodoors being an "outcaste" society!  They are "heavily armed", "rarely smile", and supposedly look like Atlanteans.  But they have no togas, and their hairstyle looks like a male character in a Japanese RPG in the picture.  For three days, I'm interrogated in a windowless room because they think I'm an Atlantean spy.  The Nodoors want me to be a double agent, though that phrase is never used on Page 55.  CHOICE #47 is whether to escape the Nodoors on Page 76, or join them on Page 77.


"Escape will be difficult, but you decide that you must get away from these people.  The best plan is to tell them that you want to accept their offer to spy on the Atlanteans.  They are of course happy when you tell them that you will work for them.


'You  see, the Atlanteans are jealous of us.  We must be on our guard or else they'll invade and destroy us'.  You don't believe the Atlanteans are jealous of the Nodoors, but you don't argue.  They take you back to the outskirts of their area, and you leave to join the Atlanteans.  Once back with the Atlanteans, you ask them to allow you to live with them.  You know that you will never be allowed to leave the underwater world, but there is always the hope for escape.  It could be a good life.  THE END".


I really should come up with an opposite category to Inconclusive Endings for conclusions that are ambiguous, yet all the scenarios are positive.


Results So Far


15 Good Endings

7 Deaths

9 Bad Non-Death Endings

8 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings