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So which game contains your favorite or most memorable game over sequence?
Let’s discuss the funny, sad, or weird ways that adventure games (graphical and otherwise) have killed us, and the ultimate text or imagery that signals to us our demise.
Bonus points if you supply a screenshot, write up the text, or point out video footage.
YOU DROWNED
However, the fairies have turned you into a water-baby.
GOOD END
I actually preferred the chicken. But there’s also another more serious ending after a rant in Rat Chaos, a typical “game” from the twitter generation
Wow. For as nonsensical and disjointed as most of the early CYOA were, at least you were never LITERALLY disjointed.
I’m almost afraid to google and see if “On Site: A Choose Your Own Adventure Resource for Young Workers” is a parody or not. But thanks for the link, some of these are hilarious!
*** You have missed the point entirely *** from Curses and Jigsaw (and possibly others by Nelson).
Not necessarily my favourites of all time, but good ones:
A not-quite death from Graham Nelson’s Curses, concise and beautiful
[spoiler]You walk confidently into the south wall…
And find yourself in a golden cornfield on a sunny afternoon. You have just time
to admire the ears of wheat before the scythe of the Grim Reaper cuts your soul
from your body.
*** You have died ***
Or have you? No… this isn’t quite the end. You see an intense blue-white
light at the end of what seems a tunnel, and drift toward it until you realise
that you are staring, dazed, into the light of the slide projector, and have
hardly moved at all.[/spoiler]
A hilarious game-over, ibid.
[spoiler]There is a great rumbling sound and then a thunderous avalanche of stone
cascades down the hillside into the valley. The Folly has collapsed! Capability
Meldrew and his workmen come running to investigate. In the ensuing confusion,
they come across you and, of course, blame you for their incompetent masonry.
You are hauled up before the county assizes…
*** You have been transported to Australia ***[/spoiler]
Two gruesome ones from Jimmy Maher’s The King of Shreds and Patches
[spoiler]Unable to resist the temptation of those impossible angles, you gaze into the gem a second time. You feel yourself falling forward through a vortex formed out of four rather than three dimensions. You are horrified, disoriented, yet you are delighted too. Now you understand the wonders that drove Croft to madness. Madness is a small price to pay for this. You plummet ever inward toward a round point. Is that an eye? Yes, it is, hideous and yet so beautiful, like the sigil which is its symbol! You feel your mind being probed – such a delightful penetration! – and then you are suddenly cast back into mundane reality, the glass gem shattered in your hand. Never mind. No one can take away from you the wondrous, blasphemous knowledge you have gained. You must quickly put out your eyes and cut off your ears to make sure the outside world can never come between you and the memories of your master.
*** You have gone insane ***[/spoiler]
(gore warning for this one!)
[spoiler]You kick Moore hard in the groin, but it serves only to increase his rage and strength.
Moore rips his right arm free at last and jams two jagged fingernails into your eyes. He twists them, thrusting deeper, and you feel the soft gelatinous tissue stream down your cheeks. As you sink into unconsciousness, you feel his tongue lapping up the precious meat from your face…
You soon forgive David for his actions. In fact, you become fast friends. He regales you often with tales of the glorious King, and even teaches you to play some of His music. Life is not so bad very bad inside Bedlam. Soon you forget that you ever knew another. Your one regret is your failure to personally meet the King that David has taught you to worship.
*** You have become a permanent resident of Bedlam. ***[/spoiler]
Another really great game-over, logical and merciless, from Planescape: Torment
(If the image doesn’t load: “As the only release from the Silent King’s throne is death, you are bound to it for all eternity.”)
Urgh. Those King of Shreds and Patches ones are excessive. Pretty thankful right now I hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
Please don’t let this put you off the game! It’s really, really good. I picked two gruesome game-overs (as I said), but gore/splatter are not the game’s defining characteristics. (It is a gritty horror game, but mostly not like that.)
Holy crap! I gotta play The King of Shreds and Patches!!
indeed. It’s one of the best literary games ever
Where does the name come from? My first thought was Gilbert and Sullivan: "A wand’ring minstrel, I, a thing of shreds and patches…"but I doubt that’s correct.
It’s real… and it’s spectacular. The ending on the youchosewrong page come from the first choice! (There’s only about three.)
If that’s the worst of it and the game’s really that good, I guess I might as well enjoy the game I’ve already suffered through two horrible endings for!
Having just read thirty-odd pages of published CYOA endings, I’m thinking the safety manual wasn’t as awful as it could have been. At least nobody got disintegrated, dissolved, boiled alive, frozen solid, shot in the face, or accidentally cut their own throat while attempting to remove the noose around their neck. Right?
God bless Queensland.
A less-common one from Hitchhiker’s Guide:
[spoiler]You emerge from a small doorway…
There is a violent explosion around you, leaving you standing in the Bridge. The walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with little pieces of flesh and bone.
Apparently, you just materialised inside your own brain. This is very very very nasty. You have two choices: quit now, or experience this materialisation from the other end, in about five turns.
z
Time passes…
z
Time passes…
The Arthur Dent of five turns ago suddenly materialises inside your brain. There is an incredibly nasty, cracking, scrunching noise, and blood and bone fly everywhere as your head, to be perfectly frank about this, explodes. We did warn you.
**** You have died ****[/spoiler]
And I laughed at this one I just got in So Far:
[spoiler]>burn grass
You hold the flame to a stalk of grass, and it catches easily. So does another. And, and, oh, sh–
*** You have died ***[/spoiler]
From You Will Select a Decision #1:
From You Will Select a Decision #2:
No video game death ever stuck with me (or freaked me out) as much as the cyborg from the beginning of Space Quest IV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR-xyxO24eY
My personal favorite is a series of ones that I made myself. I know it’s slightly egotistical but… Hey we all have that moment.
[spoiler]The transcript will be saved to the file. Type SCRIPT OFF to discontinue
scripting.
take axe
The axe is too heavy for you. You drop it and it splits your skull open. For
a moment you see your brains, what’s left of them, on the floor before you.
*** YOU HAVE DIED ***
Would you like to RESTORE a saved position, RESTART the story, UNDO the last
move, or QUIT?
undo
Taking back one turn: “take axe”.
Entryway
This large, formal entryway is slightly intimidating: the walls are lined with
somber portraits of gray-haired men from decades past; a medieval suit of
armor, posed with a battle axe at the ready, towers over a single straight-
backed wooden chair. The front door leads back outside to the south. A
hallway leads north.
sit
(on the wooden chair)
You sit on the chair, taking the load off of your feet. Suddenly it grabs you
with tentacles, leaping out of nowhere, strangling you to death.
*** YOU HAVE DIED ***
Would you like to RESTORE a saved position, RESTART the story, UNDO the last
move, or QUIT?
undo
Taking back one turn: “sit”.
Entryway
This large, formal entryway is slightly intimidating: the walls are lined with
somber portraits of gray-haired men from decades past; a medieval suit of
armor, posed with a battle axe at the ready, towers over a single straight-
backed wooden chair. The front door leads back outside to the south. A
hallway leads north.
out
(first opening the front door)
You open the door. A giant creature grabs you with a tentacle and shoves you,
whole, into its gaping maw. This is a slimy end.
*** YOU HAVE DIED ***
Would you like to RESTORE a saved position, RESTART the story, UNDO the last
move, or QUIT?
undo
Taking back one turn: “out”.
Entryway
This large, formal entryway is slightly intimidating: the walls are lined with
somber portraits of gray-haired men from decades past; a medieval suit of
armor, posed with a battle axe at the ready, towers over a single straight-
backed wooden chair. The front door leads back outside to the south. A
hallway leads north.
n
Hallway
This broad, dimly-lit corridor runs north and south.
n
Kitchen
This is a surprisingly cramped kitchen, equipped with antique accoutrements:
the stove is a huge black iron contraption, and in place of a refrigerator is
an actual icebox. A hallway lies to the south.
open icebox
You open the door to the ice chest. An icy blast hits you in the chest,
freezing you solid in seconds. Odd, since the icebox is devoid of ice.
*** YOU HAVE DIED ***
Would you like to RESTORE a saved position, RESTART the story, UNDO the last
move, or QUIT?
undo
Taking back one turn: “open icebox”.
Kitchen
This is a surprisingly cramped kitchen, equipped with antique accoutrements:
the stove is a huge black iron contraption, and in place of a refrigerator is
an actual icebox. A hallway lies to the south.
open stove
Opening the stove reveals a loaf of bread.
eat bread
(first taking the loaf of bread)
You tear off a piece and eat it; it’s delicious. You tear off a little more,
then a little more, and before long the whole loaf is gone. It is soo good
that…
*** YOU HAVE WON ***
Would you like to RESTORE a saved position, RESTART the story, UNDO the last
move, or QUIT?[/spoiler]
I’m glad this game was brought up. Some of my favourite death screens are from this game. I also liked the different ways the game would insult you for dying, even as a kid young enough to need my dad to explain a few of them to me, which made him question just what sort of game my cousin had gifted me.