Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 21


In CHOICE #18, the other path is to stay focused on Kenda instead of entering the Axle disease subplot.  I rationalize my cowardice/survival instinct by saying "I can't risk getting infected and spreading this disease to other planets".  They reply with Gleeb Fogo, the Universal Salute of Friendship.  Gleeb Fogo was reused as the name of an alien in the much later installment Alien, Go Home! by Seddon Johnson.



My space pod enters a new region with another subplot.  Four ships of Lodzot, six ships of Marly, and a UGB police vessel are fighting it out with lasers.  "Whammo!  The laser beam hits the Universe Governing Body police ship.  It explodes into a million bright, shining patterns, but one of the Lodzot ships breaks off to investigate you!"


The Lodzot commander orders me to stop, turn off my laser cannon, and introduce myself.  "Okay, okay, keep your hat on.  I'm friendly".  The commander asks me to join Lodzot's battle against Marly.


"If you don't join them in their fight, you are vaporized and it is. . .The End.


BUT


If you join them, turn to page 77".


The closest equivalent to this ending I've seen in gamebooks is on some occasions when you fail every Skill, Possession, or codeword check in the Virtual Reality/Critical IF series by Dave Morris.  But Choose Your Own Adventure doesn't have those RPG mechanics.  I'll count this one as a Death for completion's sake even though no player would actually decline the option of moving on to page 77.


Supposedly By Balloon to the Sahara by D. Terman has fake out The Ends too, but I haven't played that one.



Results So Far


4 Good Endings

6 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

9 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 22


There are so few ships left in the Lodzot-Marly war that a truce will occur with me as the negotiator.  But another CHOICE #25 option is to try to escape while Lodzot's guard is down.  When I read this CHOICE to my friend, she recommended running for it.


"Make a run for it!  It's foolish to stay in the middle of this fight.  Who cares what they are fighting about.  You push the maximum acceleration button and leave the area.  Laser cannon shots follow your path but the computer-directed evasion tactics enable you to escape.  Finally you are back alone in space.  The End".


A non-ending with an illustration showing the spaceship from the beginning dodging a laser blast.


Results So Far


4 Good Endings

6 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

10 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 23


"No one really wants to fight.  Too many have been killed already.  You negotiate a peace between the opposing forces.  They are all that is left of a great armada of spaceships who have been fighting for more than three thousand galactic years.  They are the last survivors.  They have even forgotten the original cause of the war.  The End".


That's what happens when I negotiate in CHOICE #25.  Nobody reads history books in the future, apparently, if they've forgotten what caused the Lodzot-Marly war.  It could be why I can't figure out what caused the rebellion on Mars even though I have both time travel and mind reading abilities.


The length of a galactic year is never specified, so I assume 3000 of them are equivalent to 3 sforzits.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

6 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

10 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 24


To find more endings, I'll have to rewind to CHOICE #12 and try to return to the mothership.  When I put the ship into reverse, the systems stop because of "swirling gas and dust particles".  The problems end as quickly as they began, and the "green/yellow warning color" deactivates.  CHOICE #26 is to either return to the mothership with SOS, or move on.


According to the space pod's computers, I have only 3 hours and 16 minutes of life support, and no one is answering the SOS.  I'll have to keep going to survive.  The only hope is to "follow a light/island message beaming from a black hole".  Light/islands seem to be exceptions to the rule of nothing escaping a black hole's gravity.  "Some say that it is telepathic communication-or T Web".


CHOICE #33 is to either pursue the light/island, or "drift in helplessness waiting for a chance rescue ship".  The 2nd option is as bad as it sounds.


"You did not expect to find black holes on your trip to Kenda.  No preparation was given for this type of problem.  True, you are bright and creative, but this problem facing you is too much.  You can't risk the dangers of approaching the black hole.


You drift in space locked in an orbit just beyond the reach of the black hole.  Watching your instruments, totally alone and desperate, you realize that time has stopped.  All other equipment works, but no time is recorded.  You check it all out, the clock seems fine.  Then it hits you with full force.  Time doesn't exist out here in this void.  Nor does space.  Nor do you.  The End".


In my 3 days of education, I never learned that black holes are common in galaxies.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

7 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

10 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 25


Pursuing the light/island in CHOICE #27 has several strange effects.  Instruments on the space pod go to zero, my hand stands up "like a wire brush", and blood rushes to my limbs.  I hear this cry:  "Go back, before it is too late.  Go back now".  CHOICE #28's options are to ignore the warning and continue, or go into reverse.  


"Hitting reverse engine and power output buttons frantically, you feel the space pod tumble wildly as if out of control.  A period of calm, quickly followed by more tumbling surprises you.  Now you are awake, wide awake.  You glance at the control console to check the graph and the navigational computer. 


You realize that you are on the route to Kenda, that all is well, that you had simply passed into a programmed sleep period which had produced the dreams of nebulae showers, light/islands, and black holes.  On you go toward Kenda.  The End".


An "only a dream" conclusion combined with ending in the middle of the journey?  This is a troll CYOA, not merely a badly written one.




Results So Far


5 Good Endings

7 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

11 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 26


Space and Beyond may almost be worth reading just for the illustration on page 48 when I ignore the warning cry from the black hole in CHOICE #28.  Imagine 3 pale-skinned babies with old people's faces.  The context involves creatures from the light/island rapidly changing age.


"You realize that it is beginning to happen to you, as well.  You look down at your hands and they are small and pink-baby's hands.  Before your very eyes they grow and change color and texture.  A rush of time and experience engulfs you.  It is not unpleasant, but you have no control over it.  Then, you are horrified to see the wrinkled skin and dark liver spots of old age appear on your hands".


And the illustrator's attempt to conceal the player character's skin tone is destroyed on this page.  The creatures tell me I'll get used to this, but that I will now have to decide between the future and the past, because "the present doesn't really exist".  Guess what CHOICE #29 is.


CHOICE #30 appears when the narrator realizes "the past" isn't specific enough.  The options are 2 billion years ago, or some time within the past century. 


"Two billion years ago.  You can't even conceive of two billion as a number.  What is it?  Then you are there.  Stars appear, planets burst forth; blackness is turned aside by the light from millions of stars.  You wander in a mist of light and small particles.  It is beautiful.  The End".


A non-ending where my character appreciates the scenery.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

7 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

12 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 27


Going back to recent history on Earth is the other result of CHOICE #30.  My character is more interested in Earth than Kenda or Croyd for reasons unknown to even the narrator:  "Why not somewhere else?  You just want to see Earth.  It's up to you, so let's go".


The description of Earth is a long list which I won't quote in its entirety here.  Social problems include overpopulation, fossil fuel depletion, and poverty.  However, Earth is also a spacefaring civilization with telepathy, fingertip computer implants, solar power, and most surprisingly, "future-predicting that actually works".  CHOICE #31 is to watch Earth's future or go somewhere else.


"The future of life on Earth is almost too much to think about.  Anything could happen.  You give it a try.  Selecting the future in 50 years, you find yourself with a group of about 60 people, all young, all healthy-looking.  They tell you that they are in a select group that is about to leave on a mission to find another planet to live on.  Earth has become overcrowded, badly polluted, worn out, and dangerous.  Wars, famine, and disease have made it unlivable.  You don't really believe them, but they seem serious.


'Look!' one of them shouts just as a large spacecraft arrives.  You all get aboard and accelerate into space.  It's all too familiar to you.  This is the way you started, on a spaceship going between galaxies.  It's starting all over again.  Will the adventures never end?  The End".


Since it's implied that I might as well have restarted the adventure, this will be a Neutral Ending.  Shouldn't Earth be less polluted if there's no more oil and everyone uses solar power?



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

7 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

12 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 28


A Neutral Ending with even lazier writing can be found if I leave Earth in CHOICE #31.


"So, Earth was too much for you.  Wanted to escape, didn't you?  Where to now?  What planet can you go to?  What galaxy?  What time?  The choice is yours.  Maybe back to the beginning.  The End".



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

7 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

2 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

12 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 29


The future path in CHOICE #32 reuses the "cleansing of Fleedes" illustration.  The page goes on to mention ways people have tried to predict the future, including the Roman haruspex.  "Sometimes they even cut open animals to search for the truth".  My trip into the future requires "a long ramp surrounded on all sides by constantly changing light and images".  CHOICE #32 is to believe in the future, or doubt it.


"It's just a lot of talk-you have heard this tale before.  You can't waste your time on them.  Maybe you can find your way back out of this crazy mess.  Past and future the same!  Bunk!  But there is no way out-at least it appears that way.  The End".


A cheaply written Bad Non-Death Ending will add to the conclusion count on the cover.  But once you've seen babies with old people faces on a "light/island" near a black hole, chances are something strange is going to happen instead of an illusion.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

7 Deaths

3 Bad Non-Death Endings

2 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

12 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Space and Beyond Alternate Endings Part 30


Maybe the hero was right about the future trip being "Bunk!" after all.


"In an enormous, dimly lit room, a small light rests on a table.  You know that you must go to the table.  There is a faint smell of sagebrush (a plant found in some deserts on the planet Earth).  A voice instructs you to look at a hologram that appears in front of you.  It is a history of your past lives for six million years.  You are staggered by the great number of lives you have lived.  You have been a success and a failure, many times over.  You have been happy and miserable.  Only twice in all that time were you bored. 


'Hey, wait a minute, I thought I was going into the future.  That's what I agreed to, you guys.  Come on now.  An agreement's an agreement.'  'The past is also the future.  You have much to learn.  Look to what you have learned.  Then the future will reveal itself.  The End".


Perhaps my character would be better off reading Hindu, Buddhist, or Jain texts to examine the cycle of samsara rather than talk to these babies with old people faces.


The vision should have extended hundreds of millions of years into the past, so we can see the Velociraptor past life again.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

7 Deaths

3 Bad Non-Death Endings

2 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

13 Wait, This Isn't An Ending!