Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 1


My character doesn't believe they're in Another World in CHOICE #3, and decides to go home.  In this scenario, the sky must be blue because the detail that informs me something is off is that the dog has "green eyes instead of brown, and long whiskers like a big cat".  The eye color can't be properly shown in the monochrome illustration, but the whiskers sure are!  Mom tells me we're going to a place called Moropa on the other side of the Paclantic Sea, so we need to pack by 6:00 AM tomorrow.


I'd complain about these inconsistencies in an R.A. Montgomery book, but Hyperspace explicitly doesn't play by the rules of other CYOAs, so it's exempt.  CHOICE #4 is whether to reroll the hypolaser and hope I don't "end up in a much worse universe" on Page 63, or to live with the new "Mom" (with quotation marks in the original!) on Page 64.


Most of my possessions in my room are the same, except for a 14 hour clock.  Some stars are visible during the day when I look out my window.  Dog Whisker World Mom shouts "Why did you go out again, just when you promised to start packing?".  Looks like Dog Whisker World me showed up.


"You listen from your bedroom doorway for a few moments while the other you tries to explain the situation to your mom.  Then you start toward the kitchen.  Not surprisingly, Mom is upset to find out that she suddenly has twins.  Soon your dad comes home.  You're glad to see that he, too, seems to be the same as the one you left behind.  Like your mom, he can't seem to tell you from the other you. 


At first you are afraid that the other you will want you to leave, but you soon find that the two of you are the same in every way-and that includes enjoying being a twin!  The other you shares everything with you, just the way you would, though you can't help but feel that it's you who is doing the sharing.  The next day the two of you set out with your new family on a trip to Moropa, just across the Paclantic Sea, on a planet like earth in another universe, that is almost, but not quite, exactly like your own.  THE END".


If Homer Simpson can settle for living in a world where humans have forked tongues, I can deal with a world where dogs have cat whiskers.  Moropa and the Paclantic Sea are probably the equivalents of Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, but the narration doesn't discuss them in any more detail.  Due to the enjoyment of being an identical twin, this is a Good Ending.


Results So Far

2 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 2


Other geographical differences in Dog Whisker World are shown on license plates that say Texarkansas and Manitona.  Orange flowers by the road are "as big as dinner plates", and the maple tree from Home World is replaced by pine trees with corkscrew needles.  I barge into Zinka's lab after CHOICE #4 and notice no one is home.  I pull on the red lever for the hypolaser anyway.


The next universe seems more similar to Home World, but I can't tell:  I have retrograde amnesia!.  Kids are feeding bread to ducks in a pond, and I have deja vu.  I catch a Frisbee (with the official capital F) and a girl named Susan compliments my ability.  CHOICE #5 is whether to make up a pseudonym on Page 73, or tell Susan the truth about my amnesia on Page 101.


Susan is satisfied with the lie and leaves.  I "flop down on the grass" in desperation while trying to figure out my name.  Eventually I pull out the copy of Hyperspace and start reading:  "You've got nothing to lose, so you open it and riffle through a few pages, skipping a few until you come to page 10".  My character is literally playing Cheat Your Own Adventure as the real me is flipping pages as instructed.  Then my memory returns, and I realize I'm in Home World.


I'll quote Page 10 verbatim, as it's relevant to the next decision:


"It was a good idea to turn to this page.  You can tell you're in for plenty of action.  And, much to your surprise, the page is set up like a Choose Your Own Adventure book!


Imagine that your spacecraft has just entered hyperspace, you read.  You streak through a black hole and instantly enter another universe.  You're in a new state of existence where even the laws of physics are different!  Suddenly three disc-shaped craft close in on you.  They must take you to be an intruder.  Quickly you activate the radio and shout into the transceiver:  'Don't fire!  I come in friendship!"


Did Edward Packard just foreshadow the writing of Through the Black Hole?  That book didn't have cupcake spaceships!  Unlike the Mind of Marabou, these aliens don't speak English, and are about to attack.  CHOICE #6 is to attack the cupcakes on Page 7, maneuver around them on Page 18, or return to the black hole on Page 19.


Might as well try offense.  That always works well in an Edward Packard CYOA, right?


"You hate to do it, but it's self-defense.  Pft!  Pft!  Pft!  Your laser-driven impulse cannon selects its targets.  You obliterate the enemy craft one by one!"


"Pft!" sounds wimpy for a spaceship weapon, but you can't deny its practicality.  My CYOA within a CYOA character feels guilty about killing the aliens, but their ships merely disappeared instead of crashing or exploding.  My "astrocraft" lands smoothly enough that I don't realize I'd landed for a while.  The ships that I shot down have returned. 


The aliens take it well, as indicated by the computer's translation.  They are anthropomorphic, have "short, sleek hair" all over their bodies, and have "spindly arms".  One bows to me and congratulates me in its musical language:  I've conquered their "kingdom", and they're eager to accept me as their new monarch!


Becoming a ruler in Hyperspace-within-Hyperspace is as overrated as it is on Earth.  The promise a Sword of Damocles style reign.  I'm to live in a marble palace, but I have to spend much of the day shaking hands with lords "and talk with them about nothing".  I'll have to travel with 12 bodyguards at all times, and ride in "long black cars" with a chauffeur.  My Hyperspace-within-Hyperspace character tries to reject this offer.


"The aliens scowl and shake their heads.  One of them steps forward and points a long, thin finger at you.  His stern, round eyes burn into yours, and his voice is cold as steel.  He seizes the computer from his comrade and thrusts it toward you. 


You start to speak but are silenced by the loud musical tone and then by these words:  'You defeated our patrol ships.  You showed yourself to be a conqueror.  Justice requires that you will be our ruler.'  'No, please!' you shout.  But the aliens have already placed a heavy gold crown upon your head.  THE END".


Turn to Page 112.


Italicized passages in Hyperspace seem to be fictional events.  This is not only a Second Chance Ending, but one that depends on whether my character decides to continue reading.  That'll be covered in the next post.  The illustration shows my Hyperspace-within-Hyperspace character looking disappointed with a large crown on their head.


Results So Far

Real?

2 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 3


Page 112 is only three sentences long, and offers the decision of continuing to read Hyperspace on Page 113, or revisiting Zinka on Page 6.  Page 6 is actually a time loop to CHOICE #2.  The book gives the example of not knowing what up and down are on a 2D surface, and that any extra directions in 4D and beyond would be hyperspace.  Will I turn into A. Square?


Another possibility is that other universes might be "around and within us".  Zinka calls me and tells me not to come close to his house, because the experiment malfunctioned.


"Instead, my molecular structure has started to break down.  It's as if hyperspace has entered me!"  I hear a click, and wonder whether I should approach his house anyway on Page 22 in CHOICE #8, or call the cops on Page 16.  (As if law enforcement could handle physical anomalies!)


Zinka starts to talk like an H.P. Lovecraft character when the police arrive.  "None of us is all right!  The hole I punctured has connected us to a hostile universe. I tried to stop the flow but. . .too late".


The hypolaser will probably be destroyed, because Zinka's house is "silently crumbling into a pile of ashes".  In the picture, the ashes appear in streaks around the house.  It doesn't stop there:  a second house is dissolving along with trees and shrubs.  What follows is a conclusion that's somehow worse than the time I destroyed Earth in the CANONICAL ENDING for Choices That Matter:  And the Sun Went Out.  In that game, I deliberately sacrificed the world to save Moti.  This disaster is caused accidentally by calling 911.


"Car Fourteen.  We have a serious emergency!'  The other cop is on the radio.  'Yes, it's spreading', says the professor, 'and there's no way to stop it.  There is no cohesion of matter in the universe that is leaking into ours.  We take it for granted that things hold together, but the alien laws of a formless and shapeless universe are overwhelming us.  The nuclear force that holds molecules together is going-'


'Look at that car!  It just turned into dust!'  The officer at the wheel seems paralyzed with fear.  The other policeman grabs him by the shoulder.  'We've got to block off this area!'  'It's no use', says the professor.  His voice is hollow.  'There's no way of stopping it.  Even if we could get to the moon, it wouldn't help.  Our entire universe is doomed.'


The driver seems hypnotized by the sight of houses, cars, and trees silently turning to dust.  Suddenly a gust of wind sweeps the dust up into a whirling gray cloud.  'Step on the gas!' you cry.  'We've got to get out of. . .'  THE END".


In a materialist worldview, the probability of our universe existing is extremely slim, so most universes would have to have incompatible physics to account for this one being just right.  Professor Zinka's research has a 1/15 chance to destroy existence, making him the most dangerous villain in any gamebook.  Even the Evil Power Master contents itself with destroying the occasional planet.


The illustration shows me in the car with the two police officers.  The view is from behind us, and we see vehicles and trees starting to dissolve as the dust spreads.


Results So Far

Real?

2 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 4


Let's try this again.  The computer had a seizure while I was typing this post for the first time.  In CHOICE #8, I "throw" the green lever when Zinka orders me to, and the resulting force knocks us down and paralyzes us.  Home World is now safe.


Zinka is so disturbed by his experiment that nearly destroyed the universe that he moved back home.  A few months later, I receive an envelope with the address


Professor Karl Zinka
Spica Laboratories
Kartoom, Alberta, Canada


It begins with "To my old young friend", which I don't know if I should take literally considering what can happen in this book.  He says he's staying in Canada and won't come back to the United States for a while.  He's sent me a bottle that will open if the cap is turned 14 times.  Does the number 14 have special significance in Hyperspace?  The clock in Dog Whisker World had 14 hours instead of 12.


Zinka continues the letter with "Do you remember when we sealed off the hole and stopped the leakage of hyperspace into our universe?"  It sounds absurd that I might forget this, but then again I did go to Amnesia World. before this decision.  A hyperspace gas is trapped in the bottle and obeys different laws of gravity.  If I release it, I could become weightless for a time.  But it only works once!


The tradition of Calypso in Return to the Cave of Time and the emergency code Pi from Through the Black Hole is established early in the Choose Your Own Adventure series.  CHOICE #9 is whether to open the hyperspace bottle right now on Page 81, or save it for later on Page 88.  The narration's rationale for opening it is to prove whether or not Zinka's experiment is a "fraud".  The warning against opening it is that perhaps the antigravity is too powerful, and will send me to the stratosphere where I'd asphyxiate.


Hyperspace's narrator's warning should be taken verbatim.  Six months later, and I read a newspaper article that says Zinka shot himself over 80,000 feet into the air in front of scientists from the National Research Institute.  This newspaper's headline reads "PROFFESSOR'S DISCOVERY FATAL!" in the illustration.  The budget must have been too tight for an editor.


"After reading the article, you take out your own bottle of hyperspace and gaze at it with new respect.  Three days later a group of scientists from the National Institute pay a call on you.  The leader of the delegation, Dr. Wolsetter, tells you that Dr. Zinka's papers revealed that you own the only other bottle of hyperspace in existence.


'First of all', says Dr. Wolsetter, 'we must warn you not to open the bottle.'  'You don't need to tell me', you reply.  'I'm not taking any chances.' 


'I didn't think you would', says Dr. Wolsetter.  'We would like to study the hyperspace in your bottle.  It could be of enormous benefit to mankind.  But the bottle must only be opened under carefully controlled laboratory conditions.  We are authorized to pay you for it.'  'How much?' you ask.


Dr. Wolsetter smiles.  'I'm afraid we can offer you only a tiny fraction of its true worth.'  'Okay, but how much?'  'One million dollars.'


One million dollars!  That's a lot of money.  You almost blurt out, 'I'll take it.'  But then you stop for a moment to wonder.  How much is a bottle of hyperspace worth?  'I'll think it over and let you know tomorrow', you answer.  The scientists bid you good night, saying that they will call on you again in the morning.  You have trouble sleeping that night, but you don't mind one bit.  THE END".


This must be the setup to the later Choose Your Own Adventure:  "You Are a Millionaire".  My hyperspace bottle would later be used to invent jumping scrolls in Tamriel.


EDIT:  The $1,000,000 offer is only given because Hyperspace Hero is from 1983.  A couple of decades later, and government agents would probably club them on the head to take it.


Results So Far

Real?

3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 5


I had typed another version of this post, but my computer froze.  Don't know whether to blame Bill Gates, God of Microsoft and Unwanted Updates, or Al Gore, God of the Internet and Global Warming.  (They're only "gods" in the sense of people acquiring 4 or 5 MAGI in Final Fantasy Legend 2 and going mad with power.) 


In CHOICE #9, I open the hyperspace bottle like a nin-cow-poop, assuming Professor Zinka is a fraud or something.  Since I'm not outdoors, this isn't a Death, but a Neutral Ending where I might as well have not gone on the adventure.


"An hour or so later you come to with a bad headache.  Good grief, you're lying on the ceiling!  Your head still hurts, and you lapse back into unconsciousness.  When you next awaken, you're drifting slowly toward the floor.  A few minutes later you touch down, but you feel strangely light-as if you weighed only a few pounds.


It's several hours before you return to your normal weight.  You're grateful to have survived your encounter with hyperspace, and thankful you weren't outdoors when you opened the professor's bottle.  If you had been, you'd be passing the moon by now.  THE END".


Am I playing as Charlie Brown?  The narrator's reaction makes it sound that way.  The Argentine comic Mafalda does have the title character turning the world upside down at one point, and they are drawn a bit like Peanuts characters. . .


Chances are the hyperspace gas comes from the Mind of Marabou's universe.  Edward Packard's CYOAs sometimes have continuity, so it's possible.



Results So Far

Real?

3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 6


Let's not become king of the cupcake spaceship people in CHOICE #6 and instead try to outmaneuver them.  I flail around with the levers, so my vessel "plummets, swerves, and climbs at sickening rates".  Since my character is reading a CYOA right now, they didn't graduate from Space Academy and can't fly.


"Even if you escape the oncoming missiles, you'll crack up".


Maybe I will if Hyperspace Hero mistakes these italicized events for reality.  Fortunately, the Hyperspace-within-Hyperspace ship has autopilot.  A missile explodes in front of me, and I'm approaching it at Mach 1000.  When I come to, I see two anthropomorphic aliens with sacs on the side of their necks.  In the picture, they're also scaly with large eyes, ears, noses, and eyebrows.  Their arms and legs are about as thick as twigs.


Telar and Raza introduce themselves by reading my mind.  They say I'm in the Omega universe, and their "attack" was really a "loving greeting".  When I tried to fly away from them, Telar and Raza realized that the social customs in Home World were different.  No one is breathing right now, as it is a "primitive nuisance" in "any advanced universe".


Now we're rising into the air, but Telar laughs (telepathically) and reassures me that gravity can be controlled by thought in Omega World and "only a few universes".  CHOICE #10 is whether to stay in the Omega universe on Page 70, or whether to try to go home on Page 72.


"This is pretty wild', you say.  'I'll stay!'  'Very good', says Telar.  'Let's go swimming.'  'Great.  Do you have a swimming pool?'  'Why a pool?  We'll go in the ocean', says Raza.  'It might be too rough for me.'  'Not under the surface!' Telar laughs.  'But I can't stay under the surface!' you protest.


'Of course you can', says Raza.  'Remember that in this universe you don't need to breathe!'  'Wow, I forgot.  But is the water warm enough?'  'Actually, it's very cold', says Telar, 'but don't worry.  Here, cold feels warm!'  You swallow hard and then ask, 'Where is your ocean?'


'Right up there!' Raza points upward.  'We haven't told you the best thing about our ocean-it's in the sky!'  'In the sky?  Even after all I've seen, that's hard to believe', you say.  'How could it possibly stay up there?'  Raza laughs.  'Don't you remember?  We can control gravity!'


Shaking your head, you follow your new friends as they float up into the blue green ocean in the sky.  The swimming is the best it could ever be.  Soon you're sure that you'll never want to leave the Omega universe, where life is just one miracle after another.  THE END".


Turn to Page 112.  It's another Second Chance Ending that dumps the player at CHOICE #7.  Do all conclusions in Fiction World go this way?  This is one of the few endings with an illustration.  It shows myself, Telar, and Raza swimming in the sky above rolling hills and a field with a wooden fence.


EDIT:  Deciding to leave the Omega universe in CHOICE #10 also returns to Page 112, but there is no THE END here.  Instead, there's a passage where the narration ponders "Could the Omega universe really exist?  Or could it only exist in the minds of the author and the readers of a book?"


Edward Packard should be careful lest he reenact "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius".


Results So Far

Real?

3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 7


Fiction World's final decision is to fly to the black hole in CHOICE #6.  This is just another way to CHOICE #7 on Page 112, since time stops in the black hole.  Much like certain endings in Through the Black Hole.  Edward Packard must have been recycling Hyperspace ideas by 1990.


"You will be spared from being torn apart in the black hole, because you will never reach it.  You will never even reach the end of this book. . ."


Next stop is to return to Amnesia World in CHOICE #5 and tell Susan that I can't remember my name.  Amnesia World was really Home World when I made up a pseudonym, but will it hold true this time?


Susan introduces her brother Pete, and their dad happens to be Dr. Howard Reid.  Presumably to check for head injuries, he examines my eyes with an ophthalmoscope and tells me to touch my nose with one eye shut.  He can't find any physical explanation for my "acute amnesia", and wants me to meet Dr. Firenze so he can try hypnosis.  Hypnotic regression memories are known to be unreliable today; was this known in 1983?


The strange part is that no one matching my appearance is missing.  So perhaps this Amnesia World is different from Home World?  CHOICE #11 is whether to walk to the park where I came to, or wait for Dr. Firenze's appointment on Page 109.  If I see the doctor, it leads to one of the strangest endings in Hyperspace!


"Later that morning you're sitting in the consulting room of Dr. Guido Firenze, psychiatrist and hypnotist.  'Just keep your eyes on the light swinging from the chain.'  The doctor speaks in a kind but monotonous tone.  'You're beginning to feel sleepy, very sleepy. . .'


Slowly you close your eyes and think.  Slowly you begin to remember.  It's coming back to you.  You were born on the planet Zog, and pulling the red lever must have caused you to switch identities with a creature that's rare even on Zog.  This creature begins life in the form of a human being.  At the age of sixteen it spins a cocoon around itself.  About three months later it emerges as the furry-haired gurumba, a Zogian animal that looks very much like an Abyssinian cat.  THE END".


This really is Chrono Cross when the main character is sent to another universe and switches bodies with a cat!  There's an illustration of the feline too.


Results So Far

Real?

3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

1 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Chrono Cross Ending



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 8


I'll be busy all day tomorrow, so I'll throw in an ending for tonight.  Upon going to the park in CHOICE #11 in Amnesia World, I see my parallel self.  They tell me Zinka is ready to use the hypolaser again in Home World.  I ask who both my clone and Zinka are.  Our "identities were scrambled", so the Amnesia World double has my memories.  I should have inherited their memories, but that somehow didn't happen.


When my "hair stands on end", that means Home World Zinka has found my "coordinates".  CHOICE #12 has to be decided quickly:  go with the Amnesia World double to Home World on Page 97, or stay in Amnesia World on Page 98.  Amnesia World's double recommends staying, since I may end up receiving their memories and be able to live normally there.


If I stay, it seems I'm about to go to Professor Zinka and learn that I'm a cocoon cat person again.  Until Professor Zinka draws near.


"There you are!' he cries.  'I felt so badly that you'd lost your memory.'  'Professor Zinka?  I thought you were in another universe!'


The professor smiles.  'That's the other Professor Zinka.  I'm right here in this universe.  And one thing that's different in this universe is that I'm more competent than the other Professor Zinka.  So follow me back to my laboratory.  I'm going to get you back to your own home in your own universe with your own memory.'


'Thanks, Professor', you say.  'I don't know if you know it or not, but the other me went back there already because he thought our identities had been switched.'


'No, no, no!'  The professor pats you on the back.  'It was the other Professor Zinka and I whose identities were switched.'  He gives you another pat on the back.  'I'm not sure of much, my young friend, but I am sure of this:  You definitely are YOU!-At least I hope so.'  THE END".


Serge doesn't know how lucky he is to only have one version of himself.



Results So Far

Real?

3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

2 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Chrono Cross Ending



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 9


Daffy Duck's "pronoun trouble" quote is good for more than just deciding Wabbit vs. Duck Season.  Navel gazing occurs after returning to Home World in CHOICE #12 with a "terrific jolt".


"The professor must have found your coordinates, because here you are, reading this book.  Apparently you are back in your own universe, and you are you.  Best of all, your memory seems normal again.  In fact, everything seems okay, except-suppose that, instead of being yourself, you're really the other you.  It's just possible, and in that case you might never know it, for the other you may have the same memories you have.  There's just no way of being sure that the you you were is the you you are now.  THE END".


Hyperspace Hero eventually cures this ontological doubt by adopting Cartesian solipsism.


To placate any confused readers, a black and white drawing of the hypolaser is included in the book.


Results So Far

Real?

3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

3 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Chrono Cross Ending



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

0 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Chance Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hyperspace Alternate Endings Part 10


"I don't want there to be two of me', you say.  'I just want to get back to my own universe!'  Your hand comes down on the red lever."


Zinka protests "No-it's not set!", but I reactivate the hypolaser anyway in CHOICE #3.  I appear in a hospital bed asking where I am and what day it is.  A doctor claims they already know about me, and that my hyperspace destination is an imaginary universe!  The nurse tells me "I know it's hard to accept, but the problem is that. . .you're not real now".


My character wonders for a moment whether it's a prank by the doctor, but then dismisses the possibility.  Guess Hyperspace Hero hadn't considered the idea of a shrink who deliberately drives people insane so they can offer expensive treatments for life.


The nurse reveals that all of us fictional characters live inside of the nightmare of the Mr. Gravly, and that if he awakens, we will all be destroyed.  Add Link's Awakening to the list of video games that have plagiarized Hyperspace.  Mr. Gravly is dreaming about a surgical operation right now, and CHOICE #13 is whether to follow Mr. Gravly on Page 89.  The Page 59 option is worth quoting in full:  "If you feel it's hopeless to do anything and you might as well lie back and accept your fate".


As Mr. Gravly leaves the hospital room, I still exist.  I decide to walk to the elevator in order to leave Dream World's hospital.  A woman who looks like an illustration from a book approaches:  it's Dr. Nera Vivaldi!  My character recognizes her from Third Planet from Altair, Survival at Sea, and Underground Kingdom, so those CYOAs are fiction within this book.  The Perfect Planet comes almost 60 installments later, so it's not mentioned here.  She's carried out similar experiments to Zinka's, but both she and I will be fictional characters no matte what.


"You feel so frustrated you could cry.  Being a character in a book is no better than being a character in someone's dream!"  Dr. Vivaldi wants to show me something in CHOICE #14:  Page 74 to go with her, or Page 75 to leave.


Nera Vivaldi thinks I've got a better lot than her, since at least I can make CHOICEs.  She reassures me that although it's not as good as being real, there are Good Endings in CYOAs.  Maybe not in this case, since "scores of gleaming disc-shaped objects are filling the sky" and flying at us.  Dr. Vivaldi tells me they're "invaders from the Arcturus system".  Wait, didn't Kodor in The Perfect Planet come from the direction of Arcturus?


Dr. Vivaldi tells me to climb into the spaceship that the author gave us, and CHOICE #15 is whether to board it on Page 110 to fight the Arcturans, or to think that it's not worth the trouble since we're fictional anyway on Page 90.


"The enemy craft close in.  They're coming at you from all directions.  Dr. Vivaldi wipes her perspiring brow.  Then she sits motionless, the blood drained from her face.  'It's no use.  They are a very advanced life form.  We have only a few seconds to live.'  You start to scream, but she leans over and punches your arm.  'It's only a book.  We'll have another chance. . . .'  THE END".


A Death which Dr. Vivaldi knows is fake.  The four ellipses at the end aren't a typo. 


Results So Far

Real?

3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

3 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

1 Chrono Cross Ending



Fictional?


0 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

2 Second Chance Endings