Just a clarification on the Nov. 17th fact of the day - CV2 was definitely not the first game to have multiple endings, at least not in the strictest sense. Ghosts 'n' Goblins had two distinct endings, each aquired at a different time in the game. While the method is more roundabout on the GnG game than it is in CV2, they are in fact distinctly different.

Fun tidbit about CV2's good ending: The "Good" ending is in Black and White while the "Bad" ending is in color. A bit backwards to be honest.

The whole point of the VGFotD is to spark some conversation. I have to re-disagree with you and claim that in fact 'Bubble Bobble' was the first.

By the way, I didn't know that about Castlevania 2's ending. Guess I need to play it and see if the ending really is black and white vs. color. Thanks.

Mmmm...Bubble Bobble. Even I had forgotten about that game. Both BB and GNG were in the arcades at the same time (I know - I spent many a quarter on both). Time to look up which came out first

Looks like i win. Bubble Bobble was a 1986 release while GNG was a 1985 release.

I'm going to continue to disagree (mostly for the sake of argument) and claim that Ghosts 'n Goblins 'multiple endings' appear to simply be from beating the game multiple times. This doesn't really create 'multiple endings', just two different endings from different play throughs (there's no real decision to be made).

Bubble Bobble's multiple endings are based on a decision (1p vs 2p).

What does it matter if you have to beat the game multiple times or if it's a 1p v. 2p choice? It's still multiple endings. ^_^

It's strange, so many of the games I play have multiple endings. Sometimes I die on level 1, sometimes level 2 or level 3 or level 4 or...

Is Game Over an ending?

Come to think of it, anyone know the first game that had ~any~ ending? (as in accomplish a certain finite task rather than just play for points until you died)

Most original video games were board games, such as Chess or Tic Tac Toe, etc.

I don't know if they had "endings" but they had end games.

Arcade games were made for people to just dump money into them, hence the lack of a discrete end. Pac-Man didnt have an ending, but it did have a Kill Screen.

Most text adventures are story driven and many have multiple endings. I don't think I want to enter this argument... oh wait...

This thread has got me back in the habit of looking at the VGFotD, after I progressively focused more and more on just looking for new comments and forum posts.

There are some fascinating tidbits in there -- great work, people/person posting the facts.

As for this multiple endings thing, I have no idea, but I did consider making the same points as jetboy and menace.

mossy_11 wrote:


Person in fact. And if anyone would like to submit a couple (or say 300), I would greatly appreciate it. You can post them here, or message me if you're interested.

I think that, first, we have to determine what should be called an "ending."

Oh, and Metroid beats CV2 to the punch as well. 1986 release vs. CV2's 1987 release. While the variation was minimal to say the least, so to was CV2's endings.

Wikipedia seems a little vague on what multiple endings are. A few notes I took:
- Game Over at different stages does not count.
- For a game to have multiple endings, you need a sequence at the end of the game that changes significantly based on your decisions/success throughout the game.
- Bubble Bobble is widely accepted as being the earliest because the ending changes if player 2 is still alive. It also changes based on how many points you score.

Vagueness...
- Blade Runner (one of my favourites) has 13 endings because there are so many different ways to finish the game. That said, it only has 3 or 4 ending movies... is each movie an ending, or is each way of finishing the game an ending?
- What constitutes a significant change? For example 2p double dragon... you fight your best mate for the chick and kill him. The ending is the same regardless, just it's either a blue or red guy. In the 1p mode there is no fight to the death between billy/jimmy but the ending is the same. Does DD have multiple endings?
- Do text adventures count? Some have upwards of 20 legitimate endings, but only 1 ending where you score full points. All just end with rolling text, but arguably the stories are richer so this should count IMO.
- Does being a b@stard/random idiot at the end count as an ending? For example Half-Life has that cr@ppy ending where the stupid guy tells you to choose between a battle you can't win and going with him. Since you don't actually have a chance to fight out this supposedly impossible battle and just get a game over screen does this count? Wikipedia says yes, but I would argue no because there is no separate ending, and you don't get to fight, so there is no chance for you to earn a 2nd type of victory.

Other b@stard/random idiot examples: *warning retro spoilers ahead*
- Radical Castle... you get the oracle back to the king, he says "give me the oracle or I will kill you..." you can say yes or no. Yes you win, no is a game over. If HL counts then surely this does too? I would count neither.
- Gabriel Knight... you have 3 choices... save the lady (she dies anyway), leave her to die (she kills you so you both die), stab the lady (she kills you and both of you die)... how many endings is this?
- Phantasie III... after going through the gates of hell to find Nikademus, you cast a spell that allows a powerful magician to come into hell and weaken Nikademus. Nikademus then says "kill the magician and I will give you a piece of the world"... if you (stupidly and difficultly) do that then it is game over. Who knows... maybe you get a piece of the world? But you get a real ending if you kill Nikademus... based on HL again... is this multiple endings?
- A game like Titanic (awesome game I thought BTW) has a story ending. You need a notebook of secret nazi leader names, a painting with hitlers battle plans/strategies on the back, a necklace (that is used to fund terrorism if you don't have it), a baby (poor family but ends up being a famous leadrr if saved)... the original of the Rubayat... bunch of other things. The ending is the same whatever you do, as you cannot save the Titanic. If you have all the goods then the ending (which is always you as an old guy looking at what you have achieved) lists more achievements. You prevent WWII if you get them all because stalin, lenin, trotsky and hitler are all killed. Some Serbian terrorst leader sinks with the ship + the black hand has no money to start. LOTS of other things. You also get rich if you do everything the selfish b@stard way. That said... whatever you do the Titanic still sinks and there is nothing you can do about it. How many endings does Titanic have?

I tried to e-mail this b@stard guy you kept mentioning to see what he thought. But the e-mail keeps bouncing back... something about a hostname not being found.

Bubble Bobble - how does the ending change based on your points? I never heard that one before, and a quick search didn't turn up anything.

My thoughts on game endings follow. Also note that I haven't played any of these games besides Bubble Bobble.

Blade Runner - each movie is an ending. The choices you take during a game are collectively called a path.

Text Adventures - if the text in the endings are different, then yes the game has multiple endings. If there is an ending only achieved with full points (or items or something) then I would call that a true (or best) ending.

Game Over screens - if you get a game over screen, it's not an ending. It's game over, man.

Gabriel Knight - 3 endings.

Titanic - multiple endings. Just cause the boat sinks doesn't mean anything. Was the game ever about saving the ship?

Just as a note about game over screens, my original post about it was purely a joke about my sometimes pitiful video game performance!

Sorry last night I spat out soooo much misinformation! I'll correct a few of my errors (many of which have already been pointed out by others.)

1) Bubble bobble's ending does not change depending on your score.

2) My Titanic/WWI history is just punk... the game obviously has nothing to do with Hitler/WWII. Also I called a member of the Serbian black hand a terrorist... probably the wrong word?

3) Titanic is a "what if I could turn back time" game. This instantly made me think "oooh you could have stopped it sinking!!" when I first played. Since the game is in real time and you don't actually hve to do anything to finish it, it's hard to identify solid goals while playing. That said after "winning" you are basically given a list of things you didn't do and should try to do next time. It's a pretty easy game... the biggest goal IMO is to explore more of the ship, and enjoy their accurate reconstruction.

Probably more... tiring few days... I have ranted too much already. Maybe I should just sleep? *zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Edit: Forget what I said about Titanic, I'm too tired to remember correctly.

Wikipedia > Jetboy

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic:_Adventu...e?wasRedirected=true

It's funny that the Metal Gear movie is mentioned as 'upcoming' in today's fact. The process of its creation has been quite a rollercoaster ride and more often than not its status can be described as 'on hold'. I think currently it's off the cards but do a little Googling to follow its timeline. As I believe I stated in my RGOTW article here a while back, every Metal Gear game since the mid-90s has been very well known for lengthy cinematic cutscenes, IMO a movie is not necessary and could cause more harm than good for the series. On that subject, who saw the recent Tekken film? Awful but hilarious.

AWESOME fact.