Aladdin

-3-

I needed to take a break, so I hunched over my desk and rubbed my eyes a little bit. What the hell just happened? What was the point of that little incident? How did that even happen? I then felt tears streaming down my face. I was scared beyond comprehension and I just wanted everything to end. But, in order to do that, I had to do one thing.

I had to play the whole game.

I had no idea what to expect at all and I was not ready for what was to come. I furiously wiped my tears away and continued playing the game.

I had appeared in the Cave of Wonders level, playing the regular background music. I was suspicious of any tricks the game had up its sleeve, so I cautiously proceeded. I was shocked to discover that I had no lives left at all, and if I died even once, it was game over. All of the apples and rubies I have collected had depleted. When I advanced through the level, I found out that there were no apple or ruby pickups at all. Just health icons. Not even any Genie or Abu bonus icons. I went through the level cautiously, trying my best not to get hurt or fall off any edges or platforms. I felt like whatever was haunting this game was taunting me. I'll get whatever's coming to me. I guess.

I had noticed at the beginning of the level, I saw a message, but it wasn't the level's objective. I just happened to catch it just before it disappeared.

"Remember me"

It was in the font of the game's style and everything. This was not funny, and I was not amused. I got a sneaking suspicion that my game was possessed.

When I got to the Shiva Monkey boss, the point meter morphed into "Yes/No?" and I suddenly got 123 lives. The max was supposed to be 99. The Shiva Monkey held rubies in all three of his hands, but the rubies resembled Ouija Board planchettes instead. Why did the game remind me of an Oujia Board?

And then I realized right there why the game was acting this way.

A while back, just after I moved into my apartment, I had heard rumors that the place was haunted, so one of my friends bought me an Ouija Board as a housewarming gift. She loved paranormal things. I wasn't really into Ouija Boards, but I gave it a try anyway. We played it the first night, and we actually summoned a spirit, whose name was Randolf, or Randy for short. We asked him all kinds of questions, even asking him if he was the ghost of a murderer. He said he wasn't, but he told us he used to live in the apartment I lived in now. I remember him spelling out the word "accident," probably indicating he died from an accident that happened in the apartment. After goofing around with the ghost some more, thinking he was benevolent, we forgot to say goodbye, thinking nothing would happen. Saying goodbye is the most important way to end a session. Now I know. That would explain all of the bumps I heard during the night, and occasional out-of-place noises during the day like glass breaking. The game was reminding me of that night. It was reminding me to say goodbye.

I couldn't move Aladdin at all, no matter how much I tried. The Shiva Monkey's eyes glowed green and attacked me with his sword. The screen faded to black and I appeared before a black screen with only the options "Hello" and "Goodbye" with the sword pointer. I chose "Goodbye" because I wanted all of this to end and I didn't get to say goodbye to Randy after ending the session.  The result was not what I had in mind.

I was taken to the Sultan's Palace level, but the screen was shaking, making it harder for me to see.

"COME GET ME" the text said.

I raced through the level, finding out that there were no enemies again, except for the flamingos that you had to jump across. The music was the "Escape" music from the level where a wave of lava chases you when the Cave of Wonder collapses and you ride the Magic Carpet. It was a lower, but faster version of it, picking up the tension of this level. Suddenly, knives started flying across the screen, and before I knew it, my health was down to its last bit of smoke. I didn't do anything because I didn't know that would happen at all. Plus, the screen's shaking hindered my vision. It just happened so fast. I needed to find health points soon. Also, the more I advanced in the level, the more distorted the music was getting.

I had managed to get my health meter to a decent size before the miniboss in the cellar with Iago. But instead of Iago and the boss theme, there was the snake version of Jafar, except his color palette was different shades of green. His eyes were also green, and the music was the 16-bit version of "The Final Battle," the score from the battle scene with Jafar from the film. Fitting, I guess.

The snake then did something I would have never expected it to do.

It looked at me and smiled.

That sent a slight chill down my spine. And now, I was prepared for anything that was going to happen to me. I guess the only thing I had to do was defeat him. However, if the game could see me, then maybe it would hear me.

"Goodbye Randy," I said out loud.

The snake, or Randy, sent a giant version of the flames you had to dodge during the regular boss. There was no way to jump over it (the cellar had no other platforms than where Iago is supposed to turn the wheel) and it took out a good amount of my health. I guess it was the game's way of saying that I had to say goodbye a different way: defeat the boss. My apple ammo was pretty low, but I could nothing but throw them at Randy, and about 10 apples later, I was all out. In the original Jafar boss, the snake did nothing but stand there and summon flames, and if you got too close, you would take some damage. To make things interesting, the snake actually lunged at me and tried to bite me. I didn't expect that to happen at all, and it surprisingly took a lot of damage. I was down to my last bit of smoke again. I had forgotten about my amount of lives, so I checked them. I had about 3 lives, the default amount when you first start the game. I knew that I had no chance of beating Randy, so I just went all batshit crazy and swung my sword furiously at him.

About a couple swings later, I thought I had defeated the boss. Instead of taking me to the "Level Complete" screen, I was taken to the cheat code menu. The head of David Perry, the game's creator, usually appeared with a beige background with the text, "Ah! David Perry, what is your wish?" and takes you to the debug screen, but instead of beige, the background was black, and the text was white, for contrast against the black. In place of the original phrase, the text read, "Are you ready?" What also made this screen spookier was that David Perry's head was grayscale, rather than his original skin color.  I pressed the A button, and I was taken to Jafar's palace, right before the original boss battle with the evil advisor himself. But, there was no one here. There wasn't even any music. It was silent, and dread started building up inside of me. And when it happened, I didn't even expect it. I thought I was suffering a heart attack.

Randy appeared from the right half of the screen, lunging at me and killing me instantly, followed by a loud hissing sound. The screen flashed something just before the screen where Aladdin is KO'd and the Genie rubs his shoulders, but I couldn't make out what it was. It looked like some kind of garbled text. When the screen for Aladdin being KO'd appeared, the Genie didn't poof to his rescue. Aladdin just keeled over and fell on his back. I had never seen him do this before. I played this game dozens of times and died a good amount too, and I don't remember Aladdin just falling onto his back. This made me a little sad, but at least I had two other lives to spare.