Conference rusure::nintendo

314.0. "Endings" by BEING::POSTPISCHIL (Always mount a scratch monkey.) Mon Aug 21 1989 22:05

    I've reviewed a number of games, including Sega and Commodore
    games, to see what the endings were like.

    Here are the categories I came up with and the number of games in each: 

	Short Loops		14
	Series of Rounds	 8
	Missions		 5
	Contests		15
	End of Story		15
	Open Ended		 2
	Other			 3
	Final Challenge		19


                            Short Loops -- 14

    14 games are short loops.  They repeat after a few rounds, perhaps
    five or less, or almost repeat, with some increases in difficulty
    (speed, number of monsters) or slight changes in the screen.  The
    Donkey Kong games fall into this category.  Except for Tetris (for
    its addictiveness) and Mario Brothers (for its unique two-player
    action), most of the games in this category are worth playing only
    through a few repetitions at most.

                                                                           
                          Series of Rounds -- 8

    8 games consist of a series of many rounds with a good deal of
    variation.  Additional rounds present new problems, new tasks,
    and/or new objects in the game.  Examples are Gyromite and
    Wrecking Crew.  Some of these games loop back to the beginning
    after the last round and some do not, but that is unimportant
    compared to the number of rounds.


                         Mission Completed -- 5

    In five games, a mission is completed.  There may be an evaluation
    on your performance or a few more complicated but similar missions
    to take on.  Psi-5 Trading Company is the best of these.


                             Contests -- 15

    15 games are contests.  A person plays against other players or
    the computer in some sort of competition.  Examples include
    Monopoly, Family Feud, card games such as Hearts, or golf.  As a
    group, these games have a lot of repeatability; you can play them
    again and again on different occasions.


                           End of Story -- 15

    In 15 games, you reach the conclusion of the story, and the game
    gives a summary or reveals interesting information, and you are
    congratulated.  11 of these games are Infocom text adventure
    games.  The other four are Hacker, Hacker II, Portal, and Killed
    Until Dead.  The last of those is a game something like Clue but
    more interactive as a computer game.  It has a series of small
    mysteries, each of which is a conclusion-type game.


                             Open Ended -- 2

    Two games are open-ended -- you can play for quite a while for
    your own purposes; there is no set conclusion.  One of these is
    Sim City, a simulation of a city.  The other is a mathematical
    recreation.


                               Other -- 3

    2 other games are contest games, Archon and Ogre, but I did not
    include them above because they are not as repeatable; they are
    more interesting for learning the game once than for playing
    repeatedly.  That is, you play the contest over and over again,
    getting better and better at it.  Once the contest is won, playing
    it again holds significantly less interest.

    Little Computer People is in a class by itself.  It's an
    entertainment program you mostly just start up and watch.


                          Final Challenge -- 19

    The final challenge games have perhaps the most interesting
    endings.  At the end of a game, the player finds themselves with a
    last task to perform.  There are several variations the final
    challenge can take.  The most common final challenge is to defeat
    an enemy or enemies that is harder than any that have come before. 
    15 of the final challenge games have hard enemies at the end.  The
    final challenge can also involve something new.  For example, in
    Super Mario Brothers II, the final castle has conveyor belts which
    are not seen previously in the game.  And the final monster must
    be defeated by hitting it in a certain place, unlike previous
    monsters.  7 of the final challenge games introduce something new
    at the end.  (Note that these numbers add up to more than 19
    because some games have more than one of these features of the
    final challenge.)

    Another possibility is for the final challenge to make use of
    something old.  There's something the player has seen and probably
    done or made use of previously in the game that comes into play in
    the final challenge.  For example, in Super Mario Brothers, the
    player must duck into pipes in the last castle, something which
    most players have done before in either the warp zones or the
    bonus areas.  In this case, something old (ducking into pipes) is
    done for a purpose that is a bit new.  The games Fantasy Zone,
    Head Over Heels, and Legend of Zelda also make use of something
    old to some extent in their final challeneges.  In my opinion,
    these are the most interesting endings.  Any game designer can put
    a feature in only at the end; it is more intriguing to foreshadow
    the ending with a variation earlier in the game.  Then at the end,
    the player has an opportunity to think and make a realization
    rather than just trying things randomly or being surprised with
    something new.


				-- edp