These are the ways in which characters can leave game, or at least survive at the end:

• Piloting the Ark - The most obvious and most general way to survive is to repair the B Ark and find someone with the appropriate skill to pilot it to a safe landing. Repairing the ship requires some subset of these tasks:
  • The connections of the computer core to the control system can be repaired. This will allow Eddie, who is now resident in the computer core, to program the ship's controls, if he has appropriate navigational data.
  • The manual controls on the bridge can be enabled. This requires cleaning them (they've built up alot of dust and muck from lack of use) and repairing the damage that the years have done. This will allow a character with piloting skill to fly the ship.
  • The ship's nav systems were disabled back on Golgafrincham in order to keep the people on board from returning. They can, however be repaired. Navigational data can be retrieved from the nav systems, but only with effort, since there is nobody with navigation experience onboard.
  Depending on what is accomplished, the characters will have some subset of these choices:
  • The ship can crash on the Earth. This is the default if no action is taken. All characters still on the ship at the time of the crash will die.
  • The ship can make a safe landing on Earth. This requires either that the computer controls are repaired and Eddie is flying the ship, or that the manual controls are repaired and someone with piloting skill is flying the ship.
  • The ship can make one final hyperspace jump (there is only enough fuel for one) to another empty, colonizeable planet nearby, possibly a better one, and one closer to the spacelanes so that passengers might be able to hitch a ride from there. The mice want this option so that the Golgafrinchans don't mess up their computer program. Non-Golgafrinchans would prefer this option to the Earth since they may then be able to hitch a ride to civilization. This option requires the same repairs as an Earth landing, as well as appropriate navigational data.
  • The ship can ake one final hyperspace jump (there is only enough fuel for one) to Barnard's Star, a hyperspace junction near Earth. Non-Golgafrinchans will prefer this option since it allows them to be back at civilization immediately. Golgafrinchans will not like it since it leaves them with nowhere to colonize. The mice also like this option since it doesn't screw up the Earth.
• The Escape Capsule - The escape capsule is recharging, and will take far more than 6 hours to do so. With appropriate engineering frobbing, though, it could be made to recharge more quickly. If this is done, the escape capsule will take 3 people, but their destination will be completely random (in time and space) unless Marvin controls the capsule (which he can only do if he is riding inside).
• The Heart of Gold - The Heart of Gold requires extensive repairs, made difficult by its colocation with the B Ark. In order for it to operate Eddie must also be transferred back into the repaired Heart of Gold computer by someone with computer skill. The ship also must have its drive core to operate, thus it must not have been stolen by the Crickett robots. If the Heart of Gold is operational, it can carry about 10 people in the bridge (most of its chambers have lost life-support, which cannot be repaired in game), and can go anywhere (in time and space) that the occupants desire, as long as they can explain to Eddie where they want to go.
• Wowbagger's Ship - It is opennable only by a passcard which Wowbagger carries, and Wowbagger is rather hard to kill. The ship's controls are also very arcane and confusing, and would require some specialized engineering and/or programming to use. If someone does get their hands on his passcard and figure out how to pilot the ship, though (or if Wowbagger is piloting), the ship will carry 2 people to any hyperspace destination they wish. It does not have time-travel capability.
• The Crickett Ship - The Crickett ship is extremely difficult to access (requiring disabling a robot and using significant feats of programming and engineering to use its systems to open the door) and its life-support system is not currently activated since the robots don't need it (requiring even more engineering and hacking to get it going), but if it works it can carry about 10 people to any destination in space (not time).
• The Projector - The people entering through Zarniwhoop's projector will automatically be recalled to their point of origin whenever they wish. They cannot take anyone or anything with them that was not with them when they arrived, and they cannot return after leaving.

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Andrew Twyman, kurgan@mit.edu
Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative, Spring 1998