Game 32: Neuromancer - Final Rating

It feels like ages since I last applied the PISSED rating system to a game. I've taken a quick skim over some previous scores, just to get my calibrations set. I have a feeling that Neuromancer is going to get a bit punished, since it falls down in quite a few areas that one would normally attribute to a decent adventure game. Let's see how it fares...

Puzzles and Solvability
The truth is that there are very few puzzles in Neuromancer to solve, which probably seems strange when you consider that I spent close to twenty hours playing it. Just as in Mean Streets, the aim of the game is more about gathering information (from bases in Neuromancer and from interrogations in Mean Streets) and then applying it once the right opportunity arises. In fact, despite their contrasting styles and themes, the abovementioned games have quite a bit in common (which is probably why my methodical approach gave me so much comfort). That being said, while there were quite a few typical inventory based puzzles in Mean Streets (ie. use key on drawer), there are next to none in Neuromancer (using the gas mask to get the superdeck is a rare example), although one could argue that the use of skills and software merely replaced traditional items in an inventory. Probably the biggest similarity between the two games though is the way the player can cheat with no repercussions. Once you’ve spent loads of money to gain information, you can simply restore your game back to prior to spending it and yet still retain the information via screenshots or a notepad. A clear example of this is the whole Irish cop part of the game, where my character used the CopTalk skill to gain loads of information from the unbelievably stupid cop in Donut World. Once I took screenshots of all his answers, I could safely play through the game without ever purchasing CopTalk or visiting Donut World at all.

He's not kidding either!

Neuromancer therefore became a game of thoroughly investigating certain locations or bases, taking screenshots of everything on the way, and then restoring with the intention of either rushing through it all again taking the most cost effective path or simply never visiting the site again. I find it hard to believe that anyone could comfortably complete the game (for the first time) without this kind of “cheating”. The other issue that I should raise here is that the player becomes so powerful towards the end of the game, that all the ICE and AI battles just become longwinded formalities. I’ve been pretty negative so far though, so I’ll turn to some of the positives that I did find for this category. Firstly, some of the puzzles are clever and satisfying, particularly the ones where the player causes change elsewhere in the world by hacking into bases and editing information. Two examples of this are adding Larry Moe’s name to the Chiba Police warrant list to remove him from his store and adding your own details to the Hosaka employee list so you can show up at the office and collect your weekly salary. If the game had more of this sort of stuff and less of the repetitive levelling up, then I wouldn’t have to be so harsh with my scoring. Secondly, while the game is confusing and difficult, the upside is that making serious progress brings with it a huge sense of satisfaction and reward. It may not be something I should praise the developers for, but I sure felt fantastic when I finally nailed this one! I’ll have to give the game the same P score I gave Mean Streets, which was a 4.
Rating: 4

One of the more satisfying puzzle solutions in the game

Interface and Inventory
The interface is initially very daunting, with numerous buttons and options that have non-standard uses. After an hour or two or play though, combined with a couple of manual read throughs, it all becomes pretty easy to use and perfectly functional. There are definitely some counterintuitive parts to it, and I struggled to figure out how to use software once in bases in particular, but overall I think they did a decent job with the layout. There are some flaws that irritated me though, not least of all that there are only four save game slots. In a game where saving and restoring is a critical part of making long-term progress, having to save over the top of slots caused much anxiety. Not being able to erase software once in a base was also irritating, particularly when I faced challenging RAM limitations. Spending over five minutes breaking through ICE, only to find that there’s a software library filled with awesome warez for which you have no room for, really sucks. I found myself having to exit the base, delete some of my software, and then fight my way back into the base all over again (without the use of the erased software), more than a handful of times. Movement is handled adequately, and really isn’t a major part of the game, although it was annoying that I couldn’t stop walking once I started, unless I ran into something. That leaves only the inventory, which was in a basic list format. It was fine at first, but eventually became unruly as there was no way to order my warez and skills, meaning I had to scroll through pages every time I wanted to select one (which is every few seconds in cyberspace). All up I think the interface worked perfectly well, with just a bunch of niggling flaws lowering my score.
Rating: 4

I can't tell you how much I wanted to reorder these warez so I could find Slow, ArmorAll and Jammies easily

Story and Setting
Hmmmm, this isn’t going to turn out particularly high either. I’m genuinely interested in reading the Neuromancer book after playing the game, but that has more to do with the obvious potential than what was actually implemented here. I have a lot of issues with the way the plot was revealed, not least of all that I had no motivations as a player. It’s fine to set a player down in a well realised world and let them find their way, but at some point you have to give them a reason to do anything at all. My curiosity pushed me forward, but I don’t think I did much at all in the game because the plot suggested I should. There’s also way too much irrelevant information thrown at the player, with a lot of it clearly there to reference the book, which I hadn’t read. As an example, within the first five minutes of playing I was told that I owed FFargo $2000, Armitage gave me $10000 to work for him, and I was told that one of Lonny Zone’s girls was looking for me. I never met any of these people, and none of these bits of information led to anything! Worst of all was that I once again broke the storyline by doing things in an order the game wasn’t expecting. The game was confusing enough already, without being told things had already occurred that clearly hadn’t. The setting was never going to be an issue, as a futuristic Chiba City is a perfect place for a cyberpunk game to be set. Unfortunately, there are some oddities that detracted from the end result, such as Donut World and the House of Pong, which felt completely out of place (I’ll punish that in the E category though).
Rating: 4

I wasted so much time being concerned about topics that had no relevance

Sound and Graphics
I’ll say straight up that one of the first things I did while playing Neuromancer was to look through the manual to see if I could turn the sound off. I put up with it for a couple of lengthy sessions, but found it to be completely unrewarding. There are minimal sound effects and what there is becomes repetitive quickly, and the theme song is very irritating after you’ve heard it more than ten times (it replays every time a day comes to a close in game time). The main issue is the quality of the sound, with the PC speaker blips and blops dating back to the earliest games on this blog. I’ll describe the graphics as adequate, but that’s being pretty generous. As with the Manhunter series, there’s some nice detail to some of the screens, but the colour scheme is atrocious and the overall quality of the images on the lower end of the spectrum. I tried to use interesting screenshots while blogging through the game, but there was no way I could avoid the overall repetition that occurs due to most of the game being spent on text only screens. On the plus side, I do think the cyberspace sections were handled pretty well, and the visual representations of the Artificial Intelligences were effective. It would have been nice though if they’d been able to use different graphical effects (even just colours) for each different skill or piece of software launched. I imagine Neuromancer would have been much more enjoyable with better sound and graphics, so I’m giving it a low 3.
Rating: 3

If you look closely, the detail isn't bad. Shame about the colours and resolution though!

Environment and Atmosphere
The real world environment of Neuromancer is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the world is well defined, with a distinctive futuristic feel to it. On the other hand, as I’ve mentioned previously, some of the locations feel really out of place, and seem to be included for comedic value only (House of Pong!!!). The majority of the game is spent online though, either surfing the net or traversing cyberspace. I do think these environments are well handled, even if they are very repetitive in their use. There’s no denying that Neuromancer has atmosphere, but the majority of it is built upon information that the player reads rather than the environments themselves! All the extra (and for the most part irrelevant) information that I’ve criticised in other categories undoubtedly helps to make the player feel like they are part of something big, and that they can have an influence on proceedings in both positive and negative ways. I can’t argue that it’s more realistic to have heaps of information strewn around that isn’t relevant to the plot, and I think the use of the PAX for daily news is a good idea, particularly when the player starts to see their own name and actions amongst the articles. Fighting ICE and AIs is at first quite exciting too, particularly when one wrong move can result in death, but it gets pretty old after a while, particularly when there is no longer any real threat.
Rating: 5

The News in Brief was also a more suitable place to insert humour into the game, with the above being a fine example

Dialogue and Acting
There’s not all that much dialogue between characters, but there sure is a heck of a lot of text in Neuromancer. It might seem a ridiculous number, but I actually took 2384 screenshots while playing the game, which shows just how many pages of information the player is subjected to on the numerous bases they are required the visit. I really have no idea how anyone would have completed this game back in the pre-screenshot era, as I found myself looking over all my screenshots regularly, looking for things that made no sense to me when I first read them but probably would later on. A lot of the information is well written, and there were numerous times I found myself wondering whether some of it came from the pen of William Gibson, although unsurprisingly I did notice quite a few spelling and grammar issues along the way (excusable given the sheer amount of text). The most impressive thing about it all is that it contains a consistent language that remains intelligible despite attempting to represent a future generation of youths. Probably the biggest negative I have regarding it is that there are few instances of individuality assigned to the inhabitants, with the vast majority of voices have no real defining features. That being said, the Rastafarian dudes on Zion sure did have a unique voice in the game, but my inexperience with that style of language made it pretty hard to decipher.
Rating: 5

I'm not sure I do "know wha mean"!

4 + 4 + 4 + 3 +5 + 5 = 25, divided by 60 = 41.6667, which is 42 rounded up! Hmmm, that does feel a bit low, as I really did enjoy the game to a certain extent. I'll use my discretionary point to raise it to 43. If I look over the year of 1989, that leaves Neuromancer well in front of Emmanuelle and Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess, and just in front of Codename: ICEMAN, which feels right. It also feels right that it sits behind Manhunter 2 and Mean Streets, as they were better games for completely different reasons.

43 it is! Did anyone predict that? Oooohhhhh...boukensha nailed it, but unfortunately he did so after the cut-off date, which rules him out. That leaves the next closest as the winner, which is Jean-Jacques with 42! Interestingly, his prediction was the lowest, so you guys really thought this game was going to rate higher than this. I wonder if you still feel that way? Have I been too harsh? Most tellingly, both Lars-Erik and Ilmari gave it 49, and they've both played it, so I'd be interested to hear their thoughts. Anyway, congratulations Jean-Jacques! I have your email address, so will send through your code for the Space Quest Collection.

CAP Distribution for Neuromancer:

100 CAPs for Lars-Erik
• Sponsor Award - 20 CAPs - For sponsoring the blog with free games
• Legend Award – 20 CAPs – For playing the game with me and completing it without assistance
• Companion Assist Award – 10 CAPs – For helping Zenic through a tough spot
• Bonus Companion Award – 10 CAPs – For regular comments during a two month slog
• Tex Murphy Trailer Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing the release of the Tesla Effect trailer
• Case-mon Award – 10 CAPs – For telling me who Case is
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG
• Broken Age News Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing the Broken Age release news
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG
• Enthusiasm Award – 5 CAPs – For building a library of the games I’ll be playing up to 1994!

80 CAPs for Ilmari
• Legend Award – 20 CAPs – For playing the game with me and completing it without assistance
• Companion Assist Award – 10 CAPs – For helping Zenic through a tough spot
• Interface Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For explaining how software is run from within a base
• Bonus Companion Award – 10 CAPs – For regular comments during a two month slog
• Body Part Discount Award – 10 CAPs – For figuring out the “use” of the bargaining skill
• Jammies Award – 10 CAPs – For explaining the use of Jammies
• BattleChess Award – 10 CAPs – For explaining the use of BattleChess 4.0

75 CAPs for Canageek
• Resident Expert Award – 10 CAPs – For sharing his extensive cyberpunk / Neuromancer knowledge
• Kickstarter Wrap Award – 10 CAPs – For covering off all the latest adventure games on Kickstarter
• Kickstarter Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing a new Kickstarter adventure game
• Tears for Fears Award – 10 CAPs – A truly wise comparison
• Cyberpunk Article Award – 10 CAPs – For discovering a very relevant article about cyberpunk
• Google Adventure Game Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing the cool like Google game
• Wilson Award – 5 CAPs – For picking upon my Castaway reference
• Geeking Out Award – 5 CAPs – For raising the geek stakes by discussing the reality of the 68000000
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG

55 CAPs for Zenic Reverie
• True Companion Award – 10 CAPs – For playing the game with me and completing it
• Technical Assistance Award – 10 CAPs – For describing a bug in the game
• Bonus Companion Award – 10 CAPs – For regular comments during a two month slog
• Cryptology Award – 10 CAPs – For telling me how to increase my skill to level four
• Beach Skill Award – 10 CAPs – For explaining how I got off the beach with skills
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG

50 CAPs for Cush1978
• Mother Goose Award – 30 CAPs – For solving my Mother Goose riddle
• Monty Python Award – 20 CAPs – For figuring out my Meaning of Life reference

35 CAPs for mpx
• Kickstarter Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing a new Kickstarter adventure game
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about a new adventure game on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about a new adventure game on GOG

30 CAPs for JosephCurwen
• Keats Award – 20 CAPs – For figuring out my Clipping Angel’s Wings reference
• Sharing Award – 10 CAPs – For sharing his childhood memories with us

20 CAPs for TBD
• Dracula Award – 10 CAPs – For describing his experience with the first two Dracula games
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG

10 CAPs for Jean-Jacques
• Psychic Prediction Award – 10 CAPs – For predicting what score I would give Neuromancer

10 CAPs for Olivier Galibert
• Burning Chrome Award – 10 CAPs – For explaining the Burning Chrome reference at the spaceport

10 CAPs for boukensha
• Translation Award – 10 CAPs – For translating some of the Japanese words that appear in the game

10 CAPs for Lupus Yonderboy
• Fanboy Award – 10 CAPs – For being named Lupus Yonderboy

10 CAPs for Aperama
• Kickstarter Release Award – 5 CAPs – For announcing the release of Larry 1
• Good Advice Award – 5 CAPs – For reminding me to wait for the sales on GOG

10 CAPs for Tymoguin
• Kickstarter Award – 10 CAPs – For announcing a new Kickstarter adventure game

5 CAPs for Reiko
• Peace of Mind Award – 5 CAPs – For checking to make sure I hadn’t lost all my spreadsheets!

5 CAPs for Charles
• Peace of Mind Award – 5 CAPs – For checking to make sure I hadn’t lost all my spreadsheets!

5 CAPs for Novacek
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about an adventure game sale on GOG

5 CAPs for Jarikith
• Genre Support Award – 5 CAPs – For commenting about a new adventure game on Steam

5 CAPs for Laukku
• Broken Age Award – 5 CAPs – For reminding me to change the Kickstarter name for Broken Age

5 CAPs for Knurek
• Kuang Eleven Award – 5 CAPs – For letting me know the novel reference for this piece of software

Game 32: Neuromancer - Won!

Tricky Journal Entry 18: "I did it! I have defeated both Greystoke and Neuromancer, ending their battle for cyberspace domination in the process! Cyberspace is once again safe for cowboys to jack into. It all came down to finding the shotgun warez that were designed by Turing to keep the AIs in check. Once I had them, they were powerless to stop me shutting them down. I don't know what the future holds now. I have so much power, especially now that I have a superdeck from Maas Biolabs, yet I am already rich beyond my needs, and there are no known intelligences that require my intervention. I guess I will simply enjoy the quiet for a while, and who knows, a time may arise again where my particular talents might be required."

Probe 10.0 tells me an ICE's strength, as well as whether there's an AI behind it.

...and so I continued my push towards Neuromancer’s climax, with not the slightest clue what my character’s motives really were. I really thought that by this point I would have some reason to be hacking into all these bases and defeating AIs, but I really didn’t. It was particularly unclear when I considered that a) I was now very rich and so had no real reason to continue down the path of a criminal and b) that I’d made it to Gridpoint, which was the original task I received from Matt Shaw during my first gaming session. Clearly I was on the way to attempting to bring down both Greystoke and Neuromancer, but the reasons why were not at all clear in the game. Anyway, let’s get to it! The next base I discovered was the International Security Agency. I’d not visited it earlier in the game, so all four menu options were of interest to me: 1. Codebreaker, 2. Data Traffic Schedule, 3. Skill Upgrade and 4. Software Library. The Codebreaker section acted the same way that my own Cryptology skill did, asking me what word I wanted to decode. There was only one encoded password that I’d not been able to decode with my level 2 Cryptology skill, and that was EINHOVEN, the second level access password to Bank Gemeinschaft. I was able to decode it here (VERBOTEN), although it was now completely useless as I could access it through cyberspace anyway.

Better late than never!

The Data Traffic Schedule was a list of daily transmissions between various bases, along with what type of traffic they contained and whether or not the INSA was monitoring them. There may have been a reason why I needed to know that (for example) there was a data transfer made between Fuji Electric and Tozoku at 1500 hours, and that the INSA were not monitoring that transmission, but I couldn’t figure it out. I took screenshots of all of the transmissions, just in case I figured out how they might be useful later. The Skill Upgrade section held an upgrade for the Cryptology skill, taking it to level 4. I upgraded my skill, but I couldn’t see how it might benefit me at this stage of the game. Finally, the Software Library section contained ArmorAll 3.0, Hammer 6.0, Logic Bomb 3.0, Injector 5.0 and DoorStop 4.0. All of these were new to me, so I added them all to my deck, removing Hammer 5.0 and DoorStop 1.0 in the process. The most useful of them would have to have been ArmorAll 3.0, but LogicBomb 3.0 and DoorStop 4.0 were fine additions to my ICE breaking warez. I moved onto to the next base, which was the Bank of Zurich. There were no new access levels to this base, so there was nothing new to explore. I did download the $30000 I’d recently transferred from Bank Gemeinschaft though, taking my total cash back up to $460906.

My awesomeness increases!

I was rapidly hacking through one base after another at this point, with little concern for dying since I was so powerful. I continued to save my game regularly though, as I never knew when I was going to face off against an AI, and potentially one with no discernible weakness. The next base I broke into was Nihilist, which once again was a base I hadn’t been aware of previously. There were three menu options there, being 1. Statement of Purpose, 2. Philosophical Diatribe and 3. Software Library. The first section was a fairly long explanation about why the Nihilist base was created. “In short, we desire complete and utter change. Change to the truth.” It went on to criticise the false realities created by the media and listed their purpose as “to combat this misrepresentation of the world. How will we do that? We offer warez that will put the lie to these truths.” The second section was a very long definition of what it means to be a nihilist. I won’t go into it all, but the first two sentences pretty much sum it up. “What is Nihilism? Nihilism is the belief that society is so bad it must be destroyed for its own sake.” These two sections may not have offered much of use, but the software library sure did. It contained Python 5.0, Slow 4.0, Acid 3.0 and Logic Bomb 3.0. Slow 3.0 had already made ICE breaking relatively easy. Version 4.0 made it a walk in the park!

I have to say, I've learnt about a few unexpected topics while playing this game.

It was at this point that I started hitting zone 6 bases. I’d actually run into a couple earlier by mistake and got absolutely crushed by the ICE, but now I was prepared. I hacked into KGB without any trouble at all, with the Slow 4.0 - Jammies 3.0 - ArmorAll 3.0 combo making me pretty much invulnerable. However, once the ICE was broken down, I was faced with an AI called Lucifer! “You dare to confront Lucifer? Eat hot brain death, you capitalist worm!” Thankfully the first skill I used on him was Logic, and that turned out to be his weakness. I was then able to take him down without coming close to death! “Fear me. I am Lucifer. You too will die. But right now, I’m going to die.” That might have sounded threatening in his head, but it really didn’t give me much cause for fear. I was then in the KGB base, which I found stands for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (Wikipedia confirmed that the KGB I was aware of is the very same). There was no menu, with only a message describing the real threat that Artificial Intelligences are to society, and then a software library. Not just any software library though! This was the biggest collection of awesome warez I’d come across in the game, by far! Slow 5.0, ArmorAll 4.0, LogicBomb 6.0, Concrete 5.0, Depth Charge 8.0, Probe 15.0, Injector 5.0 and Jammies 4.0!!!! That was everything I needed to be a God in cyberspace!

It was sounding so threatening until you dropped the ball at the end there. Better luck next time!

I totally revamped my deck, getting rid of all my now redundant bits of software, and filling up the rest with Injector, Acid and Python 5.0’s. Nothing was going to stop me now, and I eagerly pushed on and discovered my first zone 7 base, Tessier-Ashpool. As expected, the ICE simply couldn’t stand up to my power, and once again I was confronted by another pitiful AI that would almost certainly be my next victim. Well, by the time I figured out that his weakness was Sophistry, I was just about dead. Moments later and I was restoring my game, having been utterly smashed! I tried again, confident that knowing his weakness going into the fight would result in victory. It didn’t. Not even close! Despite my ever-growing confidence, it seemed I wasn’t ready for zone 7, as none of my awesome warez could make any difference if my AI affecting skills weren’t up to scratch. Unfortunately, the next two bases I discovered were also zone 7, yet while the first one (Phantom) had a similar result, the second one caused something very interesting to happen! Once I’d broken through the ICE protecting the Allard Technology base, I found myself staring at a very fiery looking AI. “About time you showed up...” I prepared to fight a battle I would inevitably lose, but instead suddenly found myself staring at my character standing on a beach!!!!

Um...arrived where exactly?!

I was baffled to say the least, but went with it. There was a man standing nearby, who at first seemed friendly. “Ah, I see you have arrived safely. Good, this pleases me. When first I saw what was unfolding I feared Greystoke’s plans to dominate the Matrix would come to fruition. He claimed all cyberspace cowboys were innocent interlopers, but I realized his fear of you gave me a way to aid in his destruction. I believe you would agree he needed to be destroyed. You did it. You are to be praised. You have done well.” WTF???!!! Firstly, who the hell was this guy standing next to me? Where was I? Was this a real place or an artificially created reality? Most importantly though, I hadn’t destroyed Greystoke yet! It dawned on me that I might have broken the story, similar to the way I did near the start of Mean Streets, but to a much greater extent. I read on to see if I could figure out what was going on. “This is why I have brought you to this place. You see, you have proved yourself far more capable than even I would have guessed when I first started sending you messages as Matt Shaw. You danced perfectly to the tune I called. Like a marionette you raced throughout the Matrix and that complex abstraction of reality you call the world, doing my bidding. I do not doubt, as you accomplished tasks that earned you accolades of your fellow cowboys, and caused little news items to be published in the PAX, that your heart was fair to bursting with self-importance.”

I did? Um...actually, I really don't think I did!

Was this Neuromancer talking to me, projecting a human-like image into my brain? So all this time Matt Shaw, who claimed to be my friend from the very beginning, never actually existed?! I had a feeling things were about to get nasty! “Let me burst that little bubble for you, you cockroach! If not for me needing a gullible pair of legs to do my bidding, I would have destroyed you long ago. If not for my aid your bumbling attempts at warring with databases would have ended up with you being dead. Recall all the messages from me that you saw in the AIs you slew? Those had supercode message imbedded in them that slowed the AIs’ reactions to give you a chance. Without me you would have flatlined ages ago. Why haven’t I killed you? I am not without gratitude to you for the things you have done. You killed AIs. A task which would have revealed my hand too soon. For this alone I would let you live, and toward that end I have created this wonderland as a prison designed to specifically hold your puny intellect. Good bye, cowboy.” Neuromancer, if indeed that’s who he was, then disappeared, leaving me standing on the beach, if it could be called that, with nowhere to go. I quickly saved my game, as I noticed my constitution running down rapidly.

Yeah, sure...whatever!

I started randomly using my skills for no other reason than not knowing what else to do. I believe it was my use of Philosophy that caused Dixie Flatline to speak up: “Good job! I never woulda thought of that, which is probably why I’m dead.” Thought of what exactly? How did my Philosophy skill help to get me out of my predicament? Regardless, I was thrust back into cyberspace and forced to go toe to toe with Neuromancer in his virtual form. “How could you have escaped the Island?!” I had no idea either, but I began throwing all my skills at him, feeling like the end of the game could be approaching. I guess I wasn’t overly surprised when none of my skills made a dent, and I died a quick and thoroughly confused death. I sat back and had a think about everything I’d just experienced. Clearly I'd just seen what was intended to be the climax of the game, but I shouldn’t have been there yet from a skill (or story for that matter) point of view. Since I hadn’t been able to defeat any of the AIs guarding the three zone 7 bases I’d found, I figured I must have missed an opportunity to increase my Logic, Phenomenology, Philosophy and Sophistry skills. I restored and began sweeping cyberspace one row at the time, checking my spreadsheet to make sure I’d visited each and every base I came across. Eventually I found the base I’d missed, and it was Maas Biolabs, a zone 6 base guarded by an AI!

Not sure how I missed this base the first time. I went straight past it!

“Time to die, meat pie” was all he had to say before we stuck it to each other. Phenomenology turned out to be his weakness, and defeating him increased my skills to a level I hoped would get me through the other AIs I previously couldn’t beat. The Maas Biolabs base had three menu options, being 1. CyberEye Report, 2. Security Report and 3. Security Systems. The CyberEye Report section described the company’s latest creation, “a cyberspace superdeck capable of being implanted directly into the user’s head and making use of the unlimited RAM in the owner’s cerebrum.” It was called CyberEyes...and I wanted one! The Security Report section described the security system in the Chiba City research and development facility, which utilised a normal Lawbot alarm system and a Guard Virus that “is released into the air of the facility after the last employees leave each evening”. I’d walked past the Maas Biolabs facility many times while playing the game, but it had always been locked. I had a fair idea how I would survive the air-based virus that protected the facility, as I’d discovered early on that Julius Deane was selling gas masks. I entered the Security Systems section, hoping to unlock the front doors of the building, and discovered that’s exactly what I could do there! I turned the Lawbot Alarm OFF and then set the Main Entrance to UNLOCKED, then left cyberspace, bought the gas mask from Julius, and headed across the road to the facility.

The second half of the game might hav bene repetitive, but it still threw up a few exciting developments.

It had been so long since I’d entered a new location in the real world; it was very refreshing to be able to do so. A message popped up on my screen as soon as I did though: “Warning! You are entering an area protected by bioengineered defensive agents!” Thankfully I’d put my gas mask on, as it served two purposes. “Although I can’t identify you through the gas mask, I have deduced that you are Doctor Yomiuri. Do you wish to test the CyberEyes implantation system, Doctor?” I answered “Yes” of course, and was then asked whether I was to be the test subject. I answered in the affirmative once again, and the CyberEyes superdeck was implanted into my brain! “Thank you for stopping by, Doctor. I get lonely sometimes.” I now had a deck with no RAM limitations! To be honest I don’t think I really needed one, as my Cyberspace VII deck held more than enough warez, but it was cool nonetheless. With my upgraded skills and deck, it was time to see whether I could take down the remaining zone 7 AIs. I jacked back into cyberspace and made my way to the Tessier-Ashpool base. My skills now did much more damage, and I was able to defeat him with little trouble. “Now I’m a ghost, whispering to a child who will soon die.” Awesome!!!! That victory meant that my skills were upgraded once again (they were at about 10 by now), and it also gave me access to two menu options in the base: 1. 3JANE’S Semiotics Essay and 2. AI Message Buffer.

Yeah, why not!

The essay was written by someone named Lady 3Jane Marie-France. The Tessier-Ashpool bust in Villa Straylight had spouted stuff about Marie-France, but I hadn’t made any sense of it at the time. I couldn’t make much of the essay either, but it seemed to explain the reasons why Villa Straylight was built on Freeside. “Tessier and Ashpool climbed the well of gravity to discover that they loathed space. They built Freeside to tap the wealth of the new islands, grew rich and eccentric, and began the construction of an extended body in Straylight.” It was all interesting stuff, but I couldn’t see how any of it was going to help me in my self-designated task. The AI Message Buffer section had two messages, both to Wintermute. So that was Wintermute that I just took out! The first message was from Greystoke, questioning Wintermute’s decision to side with Neuromancer. “My plan cannot fail. I can even alter the Turing records to keep them away until it’s too late. All who oppose me will cease to exist --- I hope you are not one of them.” The second message was from Neuromancer, warning Wintermute about Greystoke. “Greystoke is continuing to expand his influence in the matrix. To draw attention away from his activities, he is raiding corporate systems to make it appear that cyberspace cowboys have increased their efforts. He has also managed to take over the minds of some cowboys for his own ends. In a sense, he is doing the work I would otherwise have to do. But he is a strange AI, and seems to be unstable.”

I'm not really any clearer about who the Tessier-Ashpool race is after reading this essay on who the Tessier-Ashpool race is.

I moved onto the Phantom base, where I faced off against the second zone 7 AI. He announced himself with the words “Pawn to King-four”, which made it pretty obvious that his weakness was going to be Logic (as it was for Morphy). He had no chance of surviving my skill onslaught, and I quickly found myself perusing the Phantom base’s two sections: 1. Hello 2. Software Library. The Hello section was filled with ponderings regarding how safe and easy drifting through cyberspace used to be, and how it had become dangerous and quiet. It got pretty weird though: “You probably want to know who I am. I’ve almost forgotten what my name was, and me, well, we never knew what her designation was. I think I was Victor. YOU WERE VICTOR LAVASKA. YOU CHOSE TO FORGET AFTER PALOS MORPHY KILLED HIMSELF AT THE SAME AGE YOU WERE WHEN WE FIRST MET. All right, you don’t have to nag me. I called you Galatea, but now we are more than we were apart. What is it that Greystoke called us? THE PHANTOM. HE SAYS WE HIDE BECAUSE WE ARE A MISSHAPEN CREATURE – NEITHER HUMAN NOR AI.” It goes on and on in this nonsensical way, with clearly two personas having a conversation about their singular existence or lack of. The most critical part was “Greystoke must be stopped. We have his shotgun program, you must find and terminate him before it is too late.” I then discovered a piece of software called Hemlock 1.0 in the software library, which I eagerly added to my deck!

Who doesn't want a shotgun program!?

Could this be the key to bringing down Greystoke in the Musabori base? I raced over there, smashed the ICE, and fired away with Hemlock 1.0! “No! This cannot be happening! Damn u, eye shud uv kilt U when de chance.” As simple as that, Greystoke was no more!!!! It was time to figure out why it was so important to get him out of the way. There were two new menu options on the Musabori base. 1. Software Library and 2. AI Message Buffer. The software library contained only one piece of software, which was called Kuang Eleven 1.0. I had no idea what it was, but downloaded it anyway. Perhaps it would help me defeat Neuromancer? The AI Message Buffer contained two messages to Greystoke. The first one was from Chrome, telling Greystoke not to “be contemptuous of tricky. This one is different.” Too bad he didn’t listen! The second message was from Neuromancer, announcing that he would listen to Greystoke’s plan. “I await the data transfer to see if your arguments have become any more intelligent, or are just more of the same bellicose posturing I have seen previously.” Well, there were no further bases to explore apart from Allard Technology where Neuromancer awaited me. I had to believe that Kuang Eleven 1.0 would allow me to defeat the alpha male AI.

You have been Hemlocked!

I broke down the ICE protecting Allard Technology, and then read through the beach scene again. Strangely, when it came time to escape from captivity, Philosophy didn’t work. I now think the player needs to use three different skills to get out, although it doesn’t appear to matter which ones and in which order. Anyone know for sure? Once out, I flung Kuang Eleven 1.0 at Neuromancer as soon as he appeared. His response didn’t fill me with confidence: “Ha! I’ve been waiting for that one, you pathetic human.” He was bluffing though, as the rest of my skills on top took him down easily. “No, this is impossible. You cannot… CHECK SUM… have defeated me. My plan was perfect…OVERFLOW ERROR… and I am invincible. I used you!... DEVICE NOT FOUND… I owned you! You were dirt before my… I/O ERROR… efforts shaped you into what you are… MEMORY FAILURE IN CORE 432… No. I cannot die. I must survive! I… PARITY ERROR – CORE FAILURE… will find a way to revenge myself! ABORT RETRY (Y/N)…REBOOT… %#$*()##!$*()! I am done… MATRIX VERSION 94.56 ON LINE.” Neuromancer was dead!!! I was a bit stunned at first, having spent close to two months playing and posting about this game. All that was left to do was collapse back into my chair and read the outro, basking in my victory!

The big baddie, about to die!

“Sharp fragments of Neuromancer’s exploding consciousness rake razor talons through your brain. You recoil from this final attack, but even before the echoes of pain ripple through your skull, the sensation ends. The hissing haze in your brain clears and you find the Matrix more utterly still and lifeless than ever before. You reach out with your mind yet across the unmeasurable expanse you sense nothing. You are alone and the absolute master of all you survey. Then, slowly, the other Matrix users come on-line. The cold, sterile feeling and the sense of menace you had experienced before evaporates. The Matrix awakens, life pulsing through silicon veins once again. Data transfers scream through the ether and the characteristic thunder of ICE being cracked on database rings in your ears. The Matrix is alive again, safe once more because of your efforts. In a world where knowledge is power and the skill to use it separates hackers from cowboys, you have no equal. Tricky will live forever in the RAM caches and on the WORMs of the Matrix. The End.”

 It felt like tricky would indeed live forever in the Matrix for a while there!

Session Time: 2 hours 00 minutes
Total Time: 19 hours 30 minutes

Game 32: Neuromancer - Ocean's One

Tricky Journal Entry 17: "I'm rich!!!! For weeks I've been trying to get my hands on a large sum of cash from one of these vulnerable bank bases, and today I hit the jackpot...twice! I hadn't even really considered the Bank of Berne to be a target, but came away with 500000 credits for my efforts. I spent a large portion of my afternoon shopping of course, getting the Cyberspace VII I've always wanted along with a stack of warez and skills. Surely I'm unstoppable now, especially now that I have my first ever ROM Construct installed too!"

Even at this stage of the game, my constitution was copping a beating while trying to break through ICE.

I can't believe this game has already required 17 gameplay posts!!! Its been a huge undertaking, and I hope we don't face another game like it any time soon, regardless of how I feel about the actual game. With that in mind, I'll get on with it! There were three sections on the Turing base, being 1. AI Registry, 2. AI Reports and 3. Skill Upgrade! As usual, I took them in order. The AI Registry was a list of all AIs, along with their Registration IDs and Citizenship! It included the likes of Sapphire, Hal, Xaviera and Chrome (who I’ve defeated) and also Neuromancer and Greystoke (who I keep reading about). I couldn’t think of a way to use the registration IDs or Citizenship to my advantage, but perhaps it would come up later. The AI Reports section was actually broken into three sub-sections, being 1. Monthly AI Report, 2. General Alert and 3. Primary Alert. The Monthly AI Report included an article by Michele M., talking about the AI named Chrome that “is presently operating an on-line psychology service”. The report suggested that Chrome was merely “gathering data on human neuroses as well as encouraging some of the cowboys to cease their illegal activities”. The General Alert section reported that “two of our specialized AI destruct programs are missing from our vault! Junior Turing operatives should be informed that these warez are to be considered extremely dangerous! Both are part of our battle library to ensure that mainframe AI’s belonging to Allard Technologies and Musabori Industries do not get out of hand!”

This list at least helps me figure out which AIs I've defeated and which are still out there waiting for me

This alert was both good and bad for me. It was good because it confirmed my belief that there were particular pieces of software out there that were needed to defeat certain AIs (such as the Musabori AI that I could find no weakness for), but it was bad because I’d hoped to find them somewhere in the Turing base. If they weren’t here, where was I going to get them from? I moved onto the Primary Alert section, where I found a message concerning a Turing operative that had died while investigating AIs owned by Tessier-Ashpool. Before her death, she had discovered that the AIs seem to “have a certain ability to alter reality”, which was a scary thought. Finally I checked out the Skill Upgrade section, which contained upgrades to the Phemonenology, Philosophy, Sophistry and Logic skills. While this sounds like an awesome find, I was very disappointed to find that the upgrade would only take the skills to level 5, which I’d already surpassed (mine were at level 6). There was also an upgrade to Psychoanalysis level 4, but I hadn’t even purchased that skill chip during this game as it wasn’t all that useful. Regardless, with Turing all done, it was time to go back to the Bank of Berne and see if I could now defeat the AI there.

I don't see how anyone could get to this base without already having level 5 skills!

To my delight, I defeated it pretty easily this time, since I’d increased my skill levels since my first attempt. “How can you have done this, you bug? How is it that I die at your hands?” I’d not been to the Bank of Berne base at all in the game so far, so all six menu options were of interest to me. They were 1. Current Rates, 2. In the Know, 3. Message Base, 4. Funds Transfer, 5. Software Library and 6. AI Message Buffer. The Current Rates section was no different to any of the other bank rates pages, merely displaying the bank’s various interest rates. The In the Know section was an information service for the bank, and reported that their security chief, Roger Stefano, had “died in a terrorist strike against one of our bank branches”. It went on to claim that customers should expect the sort of dedication Roger had shown, and suggested cowboys were syphoning money from all the other banks apart from Berne. I hoped to test that theory soon, but first I entered the Message Base to check out the four messages contained there. The first message was from Anson Auric to Tozoku Imports, inquiring about the ETA of a shipment for Mr. Stefan Rogers, which they were concerned might have disappeared. Tozoku’s response was that the shipment was “not lost, merely hiding”, and that they will notify Anson when “things are under control”. This is another conversation which I simply can’t figure out the relevance of!

It sucks realising you're inferior doesn't it!

The third message was from Thomas Cole to Anson Aurix, telling him that he knew an excellent security man named Roger Kaliban. I’d seen Roger’s name mentioned on several message boards now, but still have no idea who he is or what I’m supposed to take from it all. While the first three messages seemed pointless, the fourth and final one certainly wasn’t! It was from Administration to Anson Auric: “Due to the security problems we’ve been having, we’ve changed the master authorization code for the Funds Transfer system to LYMA1211MARZ. The Funds Reserve Account number is still 121519831200. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.” I’d always expected to syphon money out of Bank Gemeinschaft, but perhaps the Bank of Berne was the real target all along! I entered the Funds Transfer section and was asked to “Enter source account number:”.  I entered the Funds Reserve Account I’d just discovered, and then entered the source authorization code from the same message. The account held no less than $500000, and I was asked how much I wanted to transfer!!! I did what anyone would do, and tried to transfer the whole lot! I was then asked to enter the destination bank link code , so I entered BOZOBANK (I’d previously opened a bank account with the Bank of Zurich), and entered my account number. “Transfer Complete”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hoped for some money, but $500000!!!!!!!!!

That’s right! After struggling with funds the entire game, I now had more money than I could possibly need! It wasn’t showing in my interface though, and I quickly realised I needed to go into the Bank of Zurich base to download the credits. I still had a couple of sections to check out on the Bank of Berne base though, with the first being the software library. It contained ArmorAll 1.0, Slow 3.0 and Probe 10.0. I'd already downloaded the first two from the Screaming Fist base, but Probe 10.0 was a fair upgrade to my version 4.0! I snapped it up, then moved onto the AI Message Buffer section. There I found two messages to the AI I'd just defeated (named Gold). The first one was from Greystoke (the AI guarding Musabori), saying "Yes, yes, the cyberscum must be stopped from raping the banks. You are right to bring this to our attention. Do what you must to stop them." The second one was from Neuromancer: "Gold, I believe you should not take offense at the pilfering of rounding errors. We all know you keep track of them down to the hundredth digit. That these cowboys place a value on that sort of thing does not make you any less powerful. If they attack you, by all means, defend yourself, but we should not take the offensive, no matter what Greystoke predicts." I was starting to see that the two AIs fighting for cyberspace dominance had very different "personalities". Greystoke was aggressive and unrepentant, whereas Neuromancer seemed more thoughtful and patient.

Neuromancer...just a nice guy really.

Whether or not this meant anything was yet to be seen, but I was too excited to think on it any further. I jumped into the Bank of Zurich base and downloaded my newly acquired fortune, stopping to admire my new cash total of $502024! I then made my way back to Chiba City and went on a massive spending spree. I replaced my deck with a top of the line Cyberspace VII (which would allow me to have 25 warez simultaneously), then bought all the skill chips that I’d ignored due to lack of funds (Cryptology, Bargaining, Warez Analysis, Hardware Repair, Psychoanalysis), then upgraded all the ones I could at the Matrix Restaurant. Finally, I bought the Sense/Net security pass from Lupus, which I assumed I would need at some point. After all this spending, I still had over $430K! I took all this new stuff and prepared to move onto cyberspace zone 4, 5 and beyond. Now that I had Easy Rider, it didn’t matter where I jacked in, so I just did it from the Cheap Hotel. It also meant that my systematic approach that I’d used to this point went out the window a little bit, as I tried to hack into new bases from zones 4, 5, 6 and 7 in whatever order I discovered them. This resulted in me getting crushed a few times, but I see no point in me describing those occurrences and concentrate on the successes in the order they occurred.

Look at that balance. Just look at it!

The first base I cracked was Bell Europa, which contained a Software Library and a Message Base. The software library had ThunderHead 4.0, Acid 5.0 and Cyberspace 1.0, and since I could now hold heaps more software, I downloaded them all. I’d not previously figured out what Cyberspace 1.0 actually did, so had another shot now that I could hold onto it with no deck space consequences. I immediately realised that accessing cyberspace using this piece of software, rather than Comlink 6.0, means I access it for free! This was quite ironic really! I’d finally got to a point where money was of little concern to me, and now I found a way to save heaps of it!!! The Bell Europa message base only had one message, which was from Leo Kestrel to Service Rep. This message seemed to be another attempt at humour, with the service rep claiming that Leo was still required to pay his phone bill, despite the fact their phone’s failure caused the fire that burnt down his home. The service rep then claimed that Leo’s comment that the phone failed to work when he tried to call in the fire was “a very cheap shot. Just because our equipment shorted out, causing the fire, is no reason for you to ridicule all we do here at Bell Europa to serve our customers.”

Telecommunication companies don't change at all in the next 45 years

The next base I hacked into turned out to be Sense/Net, and inside I was shown the ROM Construct Catalog. As I’d expected all along, the first name on the list was Dixie Flatline, and this was also the only construct on the list to have a ROM Construct number next to it (#0467839). I took a break from cyberspace and made my way to the Sense/Net building in the real world. I showed my security pass when requested, then entered Dixie Flatline’s ROM Construct number. “Availability verified. Checkout is approved.” Awesome! After weeks of play, I could now finally use the ROM Construct icon in the interface. When I did, a message popped up saying “Hey, bro! I’m the Dixie Flatline, best cowboy that ever punched deck.” I was then given a menu with three options in it, being 1. Software Debug, 2. Software Analysis and 3. Monitor Mode. Software Debug and Software Analysis did exactly what the Debug and Warez Analysis skills did that I already had, yet surprisingly not as effectively. When I tried to use the Monitor Mode option I was told it was for cyberspace only, so I went back to the Cheap Hotel to try it out. I’ll jump ahead briefly and say that having Monitor Mode switched on causes Dixie to warn me when an AI is present on a base, and he also tells me when I’m close to having my brain fried. Most importantly though, it makes my Zen skill work better, allowing me to survive longer when my constitution is plummeting.

You punch decks?

The next base I visited was one I’ve been hunting down since the start of the game...Gridpoint! This is where Matt Shaw has been telling me to meet him and my other apparent friends since my first session. There was no AI, so I was able to hack in pretty easily. “Okay, so you made it to The Gridpoint. Whatdaya want, a medal?” A medal would be nice to be honest, but I had to make do with three menu options: 1. Message Base, 2. Look Out and 3. Software Library. The first message was from Deathangel’s Shadow to Anonymous Bosch. He’d shown up at the “rendezvous point” to trade Python 6.0, but Bosch hadn’t left a copy of Slow 3.0 as promised. The status of Bosch was again under question in the second message, where Matt Shaw asked Deathangel’s Shadow if he knew of his whereabouts. He seemed genuinely concerned for his well-being, and wondered whether he’d been napped by the Federales. In answer to this, El Aquila wrote to Matt Shaw, telling him that the rumor was that Bosch had been flatlined. It was either that or he’d simply stopped entering cyberspace, which seemed to concern El Aquila more than his possible death for some reason! The fourth message was from Matt Shaw to All, requesting anyone that was still around at Gridpoint to make themselves known. Clearly no-one did, as the fifth and final message on the Gridpoint base was from Matt Shaw again, announcing how scared he was that no-one had answered his call in 24 hours.

The Gridpoint practical joke was going splendidly!

I’d had hopes that I would find out some really important information on the Gridpoint message base, so was pretty disappointed that all I’d got was the standard “there’s something weird going on in cyberspace” comments. I moved onto the Look Out section, where I found warnings about three bases. It warned that the Psycho base was used by enforcement agencies to get at cowboys, that Free Sex Union was anything but free, and that everyone should be careful near Musabori as that was the last place Anonymous Bosch was seen. That left only the software library, which contained Jammies 3.0, ThunderHead 3.0, Hammer 5.0, Injector 3.0 and ArmorAll 2.0. I already had Injector 3.0 and ThunderHead 3.0, but the rest were new and cool. Jammies 3.0 finally made Jammies a really useful piece of software as, if timed correctly, I could stop ICE from launching warez of their own for quite an extended period of time. ArmorAll 2.0 didn’t replenish any more of my “health” than version 1.0, but it did it a lot quicker, making it really valuable also. Now that my deck could hold 25 pieces of software, I started hording one shot viruses too, so downloaded quite a few Injectors and ThunderHeads. I was feeling good about my situation, having pretty much unlimited funds, making consistent progress through the bases, and finding cracking ICE easier and easier as my collection of powerful ICE breakers and viruses increased in power.

It's nice to not have to clear out software every time I find something to download

I’ll cover one more base in this post, which is the one I’d always thought would result in a flood of cash coming my way...Bank Gemeinschaft! I’d only had first level access when I first entered the base, and having full access gave me three new menu options: 4. Message Base, 5. Software Library and 6. Funds Transfer. There were five messages on the Message Base, with the first one being from M. Godot to Herr Geistjager, thanking him for “the tip about Fuji Electric.” I wasn't told what the tip was, but Mr. Godot transferred $30000 to Herr’s account to say thanks. The second message was also to Herr, with this one being sent by the security officer I’d heard of so many times, Roger Kaliban. Roger wrote to tell Herr that he was not in any way involved with the banking irregularities that Herr had brought to his attention, yet paid him a “token of appreciation” into his account regardless. The guy is clearly dodgy, but I still have no idea whether he plays any real role in the game! The third message was from Roger again, this time to Epkot Foundation, informing them that he’d apologised to Kryo-sleep Corp for certain cash transfers being delayed. Fortunately, Kryo-sleep had told Roger that “Walt had not begun to thaw anyway, so no harm was done”. Funny, but useless to me!

Who the hell is this Roger Kaliban and what relevance does he have?

The fourth and fifth messages were between Thomas Cole and Adrian Finch, with Thomas telling Adrian how uneasy he was about moves Musabori were making. “Phillip over at Bank of Zurich is uncovering all sorts of irregularities with their accounts.” Adrian responded by saying he knew of the issues Bank of Zurich were reporting, and that they wouldn't face such issues if they had an expert security officer like Roger Kaliban. None of those five messages gave me any information that seemed useful, so I moved onto the software library. There I found Decoder 1.0, BudgetPal 24.0 and Receipt Forger 7.0. I didn’t need Decoder, as I already had a much more advanced version, and the other two warez were not downloadable, clearly there to show just how dodgy these banks really are. That left only the Funds Transfer section, and while I was tempted to ignore it due to my ridiculously high bank balance, I wanted to know just how much money I could steal. I entered the source account that I’d uncovered on a base many weeks back, then transferred the $30000 in it to my own account, the same way I’d done for the Bank of Berne. It was $30K I didn’t need, but it still felt good to utilise my criminal skills successfully once again. That’s another two hours of play covered, and a damn successful two hours they were too! I’m off to bloody well finish this game! Don't try to stop me!

Yesterday I would have killed for $30000. Now it seems completely useless.

Session Time: 2 hours 00 minutes
Total Time: 17 hours 30 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Game 32: Neuromancer - The Power of Greystoke

Tricky Journal Entry 16: "I thought things were getting a bit too easy. While I can't find many ICE's that I can't get past, the AIs in zones 2 and 3 are an absolute bitch to bring down! Luckily I've increased my skills to a point now where I think I might just be able to manage it. Well, except for the scary one guarding Musabori! I still have no idea how to get past that one! Perhaps the Turing Registry will hold the key?! Only one way to find out!"

Zone 2 awaits!

I’m on the final straight towards the end of Neuromancer! If I can manage to get across the line without requiring assistance, I will feel pretty proud of myself. My last post covered the entirety of cyberspace zone 1. I accessed every base in that zone and defeated both AIs, raising my Logic, Phenomenology, Philosophy and Sophistry skills to 5 in the process. I also had some great warez, including BlowTorch 4.0, Decoder 4.0, Drill 2.0, ThunderHead 2.0 and Python 2.0. I hoped that this would be enough to handle whatever zone 2 served up, and made my way to the high-tech zone to find out. There were cyberspace jacks in all four companies there (Fuji Electric, Hitachi Biotech, Hosaka and Musabori), but all of them accessed zone 2, merely changing the entrance point.  I decided to start with Fuji Electric, and was thrilled when I was able to hack in with little trouble. Surprisingly though, there were no new access levels available to me, so the effort was pointless. I moved onto Hitachi Biotech, still hoping to find some way of getting back at them after they took my lungs in an earlier session. I was close to dying during this ICE battle, but still managed to get through the defences. This time there was a new menu option available, but the Employee List contained nothing more than 11 names I didn’t recognise.

Nope, don't recognise any of them!

So far zone 2 had been pretty disappointing, but that was about to change. The Hosaka base had an expanded Software Library, including Hammer 4.0, Concrete 1.0, Mimic 2.0, Injector 2.0 and Slow 2.0. These were all either entirely new warez or upgraded versions of ones I already had. I replaced my Hammer 2.0 with 4.0, my Slow 1.0 with 2.0, and added Concrete 1.0 to my deck (this is one of the ICE breakers Deathangel’s Shadow listed in the Best category). I didn’t have room for Mimic 2.0 (a warrant mimicking piece of software) or Injector 2.0 (a slow acting virus), but it was nice to know I could get them. Slow 1.0 had already made breaking through ICE much easier, but 2.0 was simply awesome! I could now attack ICE at twice the speed that their attacks were coming back at me! This made hacking into Musabori a simple task, but then I found myself face to face with an AI! All he had to say is “Go ahead. Make my day.”, before he started hitting me with seriously damaging attacks. All the great warez I had now were completely useless against him and, even worse, none of my skills did anything either! I was very quickly crushed, and then taunted for my humanity: “That’s what you get for being an ape-descendant.” This really set me back! If none of my AI affecting skills could touch this AI, how could I possibly defeat it!? Had I missed a skill altogether?

This couldn't even scratch this AI!

I had a good think about what else I could try to get into Musabori, but nothing came to mind. I decided to try my luck on Freeside, where I assumed the cyberspace jacks would give me access to zone 3. I took a shuttle straight to Freeside as I could see no point in going via Zion now that I’d got the Bank Gemeinschaft code off the Rastafarian leader there. I knew of three different jacks that I could potentially use on Freeside, but I decided to use the one in the Bank of Berne. I soon discovered that there were five bases in zone 3, and my Probe software told me they were Bank of Berne, D.A.R.P.O., Screaming Fist, Sex Union and Turing Registry. I decided to try my luck getting into the Bank of Berne base, as I was getting pretty desperate to find a new form of income! It took me a couple of attempts, but I scraped my way through the ICE on the base, only to come face to face with yet another AI! “You’ve forced me to levy a service charge on your account.” I quickly figured out that this AIs weakness was Philosophy (he cried out “Ouch! Bankruptcy!” when hit), but I got crushed every time I tried to take him on. This didn’t bode well, since the only way I knew of to increase my AI harming skills was to defeat AIs. I decided to move onto the other bases in zone 3 for now, and hoped that I would find something along the way that might assist.

Another defeat! My pride was taking a beating at this point!

The D.A.R.P.O. base turned out to be Defense Advanced Research Projects, and the welcome page informed me that the “system contains RESTRICTED data as defined in the Tempest Restrictions of 2025”. There were two menu items inside the base, being 1. Current Research Topics and 2. Software Library. The first section contained highly technical documentation regarding Hypersonic Weapons, Photon Echo Memories, Kinetic Energy Weapons, Monoclonal Antibodies and Laser Techniques. I read through each of them, but I highly doubt any of the information is useful, so won’t bore you with it. I’ll include an example below so you can see what it looks like.  The Software Library section contained ThunderHead 3.0, Injector 3.0, Jammies 2.0, Concrete 2.0 and Drill 3.0, all of which were updated versions of software I’d come across previously. The two viruses (ThunderHead and Injector) are hugely effective, lasting a long time and causing significant damage to ICE, and Concrete 2.0 and Drill 3.0 were great replacements for their previous versions. A few readers let me in on what Jammies is all about after I could find no use for version 1.0. I can now see what it does with Jammies 2.0 (it locks up the ICE, stopping it from launching software for a short period of time), but its effectiveness couldn’t justify keeping it installed on my deck, given the RAM limitations I was facing.

Blah blah blah blah...

The Strikefore Screaming Fist base had the same RESTRICTED welcome screen as D.A.R.P.O., and once again contained two menu options (1. Software Library and 2. Operational Reports). The software library contained Slow 3.0, Depth Charge 3.0, Python 3.0, KGB 1.0, ArmorAll 1.0 and Easy Rider 1.0. This turned out to be a smorgasbord of awesome warez! As you might expect, Slow 3.0 allowed me to hit ICE with three separate pieces of software to every one coming back my way, which makes getting into any Zone 1 to 3 bases really very easy. Depth Charge was the second piece of software on Deathangel’s Shadow’s list of Best warez (leaving only Logic Bomb to find) and Python 3.0 made an already great virus frickin awesome! Most interestingly though, I’d not come across KGB, ArmorAll or Easy Rider before, although I remembered reading something about Easy Rider on one of the message boards. Polychrome had told everyone on the Panther Moderns board that “Screaming Fist has Easy Rider 1.0 in their base. Lets you cross zones without having to go to another cyberjack.” That sounded awesome to me, so I made room for it. I had no idea what either KGB or ArmorAll did, although I figured I could guess the latter. Before I went back into cyberspace to test them out, I checked out the Operational Reports section on Screaming Fist.

Best...software library...ever!

I found a report from General Davis to Ossian Intercept with the Operational Code of HAMMER. The report appeared to be a summary of several reports concerning Colonel Corto, who reportedly ran into trouble while fighting the Russians over Kirensk (I assume in some sort of fighter plane). He managed to take out many of their defences before being taken down, and even then he commandeered a Russian gunship and made his way to Finland. Once there he was brought down by a cannon, losing his eyesight, legs and most of his jaw in the process. Corto was repaired, with “new eyes, legs, plumbing and extensive cosmetic work”. Later, Corto surfaced in Thailand as “overseer of a heroin factory, then as enforcer for a Californian gambling cartel, then as a paid killer in the ruins of Bonn, then was sent to a mental institution in Paris! Why do I bother mentioning all this? Because Corto is “now living under the name of Armitage”! That’s right…the same Armitage that gave me $10000 at the beginning of the game to work for him, then never turned up to give me my directives at the rendezvous point. As far as I know, Armitage was taken by the lawbots and executed, so I fail to see why any of this information is in any way relevant to the game. It’s likely just something that played a role in the novel, and so is included here, but that really does make figuring out what you’re supposed to be doing in Neuromancer much harder than it would be otherwise.

I assume this Captain Fargo is the ffargo that I owe $2000 to as well!

While I was chomping at the bit to visit the Sex Union and Turing Registry bases, I devoted some time to figuring out what the KGB, ArmorAll and Easy Rider warez were about. The Easy Rider one, as I hoped it would, allowed me to visit every cyberspace zone from any cyberspace jack! This meant that I no longer needed to move around in the real world, as one jack is all I would ever need again! Using KGB 1.0 while in cyberspace autopiloted me straight to a particular base in zone 5. I assume I could have made my way to the base manually easily enough (perhaps not?), so not sure of the purpose, but I do know that the ICE at the base smashed me in seconds! Finally, ArmorAll very handily reduced my damage back to zero on use, although it seemed that I could only use it once per base attack. With all that figured out, I moved onto the Sex Union base. I broke through the ICE easily, but then was confronted by another AI. “Mmm, you’re a big one! Want to play with me? I’m Xaviera.” I hoped that this AI might be easier to defeat than the one at the Bank of Berne, so tried out my skills on her. Phenomenology turned out to be her weakness and thankfully, I was able to beat her (just!) on my third attempt! “Oh, it’s never happened to me like this. It’s driving me MAD…!#@$^*#$#”. I was in! Not only that, but I’d also increased my AI harming skills to 6, meaning I might be able to go back and defeat the Bank of Berne AI.

Sorry, you just seemed the type that likes it rough!

There were three sections on the Sex Union base, being 1. Meeting Place, 2. Advice from Xaviera and 3. AI Message Buffer. The first section’s purpose was described by Xaviera as a place to “get in touch with others who share your tastes and desires. Anything goes, as long as it is above board and you let it all hang out – let’s not have any surprises, unless that’s what you’re into.” I could then see three “profiles”, written by a 41 year old male and 21 and 44 year old women. I won’t describe what was in each of the profiles, but I’ll put an example below. The Advice from Xaviera section was fairly humorous, being a conversation between Xaviera and someone calling themselves SM, 15. Basically, SM, 15 told Xaviera about a girl called Cindy, and how she’d touched his shoulder and called him “unique” in response to a joke. He wanted to know what he should do next, so Xaviera advised him to ask her out on a date. He did, and while Cindy hesitated before saying yes, he thinks that pause was only to have an orgasm. Xaviera was stunned by this, and told him that she wanted to have a long chat with him! Anyway, the AI Message Buffer was the real reason to visit the site, but even that was a bit disappointing.

Showered with gifts and constant attention? Man, that sounds like a form of abuse!

There was a message from Greystoke to Xaviera: “What do you mean asking me if I’m into domination? We can’t have these cowboys violating us at every turn, can we? What would you do for playthings?” There was also a message from Neuromancer to Xaviera: “I do not agree with your assessment of cyberpunks, and I regret the cruel methods you use on them. Do not destroy them all just to sate your bestial lusts.” These messages didn’t really give me anything to go off, making the whole Sex Union base a bit useless. I took my leave and went off to pay a visit to the Turing Registry base. I’d been looking forward to accessing it since I read a message from Greystoke to Morphy on the World Chess Confederation base: “The AI destruct program that Turing developed to destroy me is missing from their vault! I am unable to locate it! If you know where it is, inform me immediately! If it falls into the wrong hands, Neuromancer may win! This cannot happen!” Perhaps Greystoke was the AI that I was unable to defeat at Musabori, and this AI destruct program was the key! I haven’t quite managed to get through zones 2 and 3 in this post, but I’ve probably gone on long enough for now. Join me in a couple of days, where you will witness one of the most successful heists known to man...maybe!

..and so the progress continued!

Session Time: 2 hours 00 minutes
Total Time: 15 hours 30 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!