Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
Path: nntp.gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!uunet!world!jmudge
From: jmudge@world.std.com (James M Mudge)
Subject: Re: good game endings
Message-ID: <D533L4.89r@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <easu928.793928214@taurus.oac.uci.edu> <3j6jds$hg0@Csli.Stanford.EDU>
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 19:03:03 GMT
Lines: 43

In article <3j6jds$hg0@Csli.Stanford.EDU>,
Avrom Faderman <avrom@Csli.Stanford.EDU> wrote:
>
>Some may disagree with me on this, but I'm particularly fond of the
>ending to Infocom's _Infidel_, even if it wasn't overall one of my
>favorite games.
>
>Perhaps the least conventional game ending ever.
>

A friend and I had competed with each other to see who could be the 
first to finish _Infidel_.  I had admitted to him that, as close as I was 
to finishing the game, I kept dying.  He admitted the same.  So we called 
Infocom to confirm if this *was* indeed the way the game ended.

We got as far as the switchboard.  "Hello", we said.  "You don't have to 
answer this question if you feel that it's inappropriate..."

That's as far as we got before we were hung up on.

So we continued to play for days after, trying to be the first to 
complete an already completed game.  It wasn't until I read in a magazine 
about "Infidel's unique ending" that I realized that we *had* finished 
the game, and upon informing my friend of this, we fought for days later 
on who had actually been the first to finish it.  Even to this day, we 
still jab at each other.

- - - - -

A fine example of a game that could have ahad a better ending was 
_Stationfall_.  I was an out-house play tester for this game (well, I 
wasn't exactly *in*-house...;), and Infocom wanted my opinion of the ending.

I thought that the game needed (and still needs) an exciting ending, and 
offered my opinions.  I thought that blasting the pyramid into the 
gravity-free elevator shaft and enclosing it in a mirrored lined chest 
while avoiding the oncoming elevator was much more exciting then...well, 
we know how that all ends, don't we?

Well, someday prehaps we can *all* write the perfect ending to a perfect 
story.  As for me, I'll just continue daydreaming about that time to come...

-Boston Jim
