Game 32: Neuromancer - The Boy Yonder

Tricky Journal Entry 9: "Haha! Larry Moe won't be ripping me off again! I entered his details into the Chiba City Tactical Police Warrant List and then waited for him to be picked up by the cops. That gave me free entrance into the Panther Moderns meeting room, where I found Lupus Yonderboy. I got stacks of useful information out of him, but most importantly he was selling an Evasion skill chip and a Security Card for Sense/Net. As if the above didn't make my day a success, I then collected a heap of link codes from Julius Deane, figured out that the Sequencer 1.0 software will let me figure out the passwords for them, and found out how I can gain entrance to the Matrix Restaurant. A solid day's work all up!"

Damn java issues!!!

After my recent successes fooling the idiot cop in Donut World, convincing him to give me numerous link codes and passwords, I was forming a lengthy list of bases to check out in my spreadsheet. Unfortunately, in most cases I had either just a link code (Bank of Zurich, Hitachi, Eastern Seaboard, Bank Gemeinschaft) or just a password (Fuji Electric), but not both. It seemed pretty unlikely that I would be able to guess a password for a base, but perhaps I could guess the link code for Fuji Electric? I tried connecting to FUJI...it worked!!! I’d already decoded the password that O’Riley had given to me, so entered UCHIKATSU to get in. The menu contained five options, being 1. Company Notes, 2. Executive Survival Kit, 3. Press Releases, 4. Personnel Management and 5. Memo. I started from the top, reading through the lengthy company news from boss Harry Watkins. The majority of it was standard management positivity, but the increase of “meat puppet breaks from 10 to 11.5 minutes for all line employees” stood out as unusual. There was also a name that appeared on the New Hires list at the very bottom that really caught my attention. Larry Moe, of Larry’s Rentals, had been hired as a consultant!

Andy needs to get his priorities right!

The Executive Survival Kit appeared unimportant, merely explaining the two Fight Club-like rules that all working at Fuji Electric should follow. 1) Mr. Watkins is always right and 2) See rule #1. The Press Releases section contained an article describing how NASA had “signed a multi-trillion dollar contract with Fuji to provide ROMcards and software development for the Prometheus ship.” Interestingly it finished with “For further information contact Watkins at FUJI or Bob Shepherd at VOYAGER”. I assumed that VOYAGER would be the link code for NASA, so I added it to the ever-growing list. I moved onto the Personnel Management section, where I found what I was hoping would be there. There was a list of all the new employees, along with their BAMA ID’s! I’d already tried adding Larry Moe’s name to the Chiba City Tactical Police warrant list, but hadn’t known his BAMA ID at the time. I was now convinced that this was exactly what I needed to do, and wrote down 062788138 for later use. The final section, Memo, contained a message from Harry Watkins to all Management Level Employees. It talked about Fuji being bought by another company named Tozuku. “I know some of you think of them as common criminals, but I can assure you there is nothing common about them at all.”

Seeing Larry's BAMA ID made me finally feel like I was getting this game.

The memo closed with some rather disturbing imagery: “I thank all of you who were concerned about my wife and child. They’ve been returned to me and we’ve found all of little Harry’s parts. The doctors say he’s got an excellent chance of recovery and I agree that he doesn’t really look like the Frankenstein monster at all.” That was all pretty weird, and I didn’t know what to make of it. I wrote Tozuku into my spreadsheet, thinking I might be able to guess its link code the way I did with Fuji. That would have to wait though, as now that I’d finished exploring the Fuji Electric base, I was super keen to see if my instincts about adding Larry Moe’s name to the warrant list were correct. I once again accessed the warrant section on the Chiba City Tactical Police base and replaced one of the names there with Larry’s. I then put his BAMA ID next to it, exited and made my way straight over to Larry’s Rentals. I pumped my fist and literally shouted out my success when I found that Larry was no longer there, and the door to what I assumed would be the Panther Moderns meeting place was open! I entered the room and found the leader of the Panther Moderns, Lupus Yonderboy, standing in the corner. “Lupus is watching you with a slight smile on his lips. Tattooed on his hand is the word, “CHAOS”.

Yonderboy III: Panther's Lair

Lupus didn’t seem all that impressed with my presence. “You got past Larry. That’s good. You won’t get past me. That’s business.” I had a few dialogue options available to me: 1. “Top of the mornin’. I arrested your friend and I’ll do the same to you unless you answer some questions.” 2. “Lupus, my man! I hear you’re the kind of guy who helps stray cowboys. Can you answer some questions for me?” 3. “Geez, you’re really a funny-looking dweeb, aren’t you?” 4. “Exactly what is a Panther Modern?” All but the third one seemed like decent options to me, so I took them in order. Lupus wasn’t at all convinced by my CopTalk act: “It’s not morning and you’re not a cop. Drop the act and take a hike.” However, when I asked for his assistance, he was much more positive: “Matt Shaw says you’re all right. So talk. What do you want to know?” I then had the option to ask him about any topics I wanted. I remembered an earlier message where Larry Moe had stated that he had Coptalk and Lupus had Evasion, so I asked Lupus about “evasion”. “I can sell you an Evasion skill chip for $2000. You’ll need it for protection in cyberspace.” That sounded like something I would definitely want later on!

My ma taught me to always use protection!

The manual describes Evasion as follows: “Gives you a chance to retreat from combat with an AI when you realize you’re not prepared yet for this particularly horrible form of suicide.” I wasn’t sure whether I would get another chance to see Lupus, so I bought the chip and implanted it. The next topic I questioned him about was software, to which he responded with “Try the Finn. I hear Drill 1.0 is a great icebreaker.” Given I didn’t know what any of the warez Finn was selling actually did, this was valuable information. I went through all my screenshots looking for anything that Lupus had been involved in, since his name had appeared a few times. A couple of messages had mentioned how Lupus had “burnt” Gemeinschaft, which I now knew was a bank. I asked Lupus about “gemeinschaft” and was told “I’ve be siphoning from account number 646328356481, for years.” Unfortunately, although I’d been pretty confident it might work, asking Lupus for the bank’s security code (which I needed to enter it) didn’t result in any further information. Another message on the Panther Moderns board had been from Lupus to Angelo, talking about Mr. Who and something called Sense/Net. I asked Lupus about “sense/net” and got even more information! “If you want a ROM Construct from Sense/Net, I can sell you a Security Pass to get you into the building.”

Um...can you tell me where the building is?

There’s an interface icon called ROM Construct, but to this point I hadn’t come across one. The manual describes ROM Constructs as follows: “Highly illegal and not available to private citizens, cowboy or otherwise, are the ROM Constructs. Each ROM Construct is a recording of an individual human’s personality responses, knowledge, and memories. Constructs are occasionally used by cyberdeck operators in the government and large corporations, which is why top of the line cyberdecks contain a slot for a ROM Construct cartridge.” As cool as that sounded, I didn’t have the $4000 required to get the security pass, nor had I come across a company called Sense/Net during my travels. I was starting to wonder whether I’d missed part of the game environment, since I hadn’t seen a place called Gridlock either, which had been mentioned numerous times by various characters. I couldn’t think of any other topics to ask Lupus about, and the dialogue option asking him what the Panther Moderns were all about was only met with “Chaos. That is our mode and modus. That is our central kick. Believe it.” I left Lupus and Larry’s Rentals, and headed back to Julius Deane’s office. There was something I wanted to try!

You actually have an organised group based around chaos? How ironic!

While scrolling through my screenshots looking for any mention of Lupus, I’d come across something that hadn’t meant anything to me when I first read it. Someone named Scorpion had asked Red Snake whether he knew the link codes for Fuji or Hosaka, and Scorpion’s response had been “Why do you keep asking me about Japanese companies? Do I look like Julius Deane?” I hadn’t known who Julius Deane was at the time, but now I did. Could it be that he would be able to give me link codes for any of the Japanese companies? I asked Julius about Hosaka, Fuji, Hitachi and Musabori, the four Japanese companies I’d come across in the high-tech zone (I asked about Tozuku as well, but he didn't know anything about that). He gave me answers for all four of them!!! Hosaka: “I’ve heard the password is VULCAN but that’s probably in code.” Fuji: “I’ve heard the password is DUMBO, but that’s probably in code.” Hitachi: “Just one word you need to remember: GENESPLICE” Musabori: “I’ve heard the password is PLEIADES, but that’s probably in code.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough cash left to upgrade my Cryptology chip, and the only code my 1.0 version was able to decode was DUMBO (the Fuji first level password is ROMCARDS, but I already knew the second level code so this was pretty useless).

This is the coded password. By the way, did I mention I'm selling a Cryptology upgrade?

I’d gained a lot of information during the last hour or so, but I still found myself uncertain what to do next. I had plenty of new link codes and passwords, but in every instance I was missing something I needed to access them. I felt like I should restart and save enough cash to get the security pass from Lupus, but then I had no idea where it would be useful. I did know that there was one building I hadn’t been able to see a name for in the high-tech zone (since the entrance was at the base of the screen), but I didn’t know if that was Sense/Net or something else. I decided the best thing to do would be to try and figure out what the Sequencer 1.0 software that I’d downloaded could do for me, and that meant going back to Cheap Hotel where there was a jack. I hadn’t accessed the PAX for a while either, so I took the opportunity to see whether there was now any fresh news or messages on the board. There was, on both accounts! I now believe that my style of play could be limiting the amount of information I can get from the PAX, since I keep restoring and replaying through my progress as quickly as I can. This was the first really long session that I’d played without restoring, and therefore the first time that the day had ticked over from the 16th to the 17th and then the 18th. There were new articles and messages dated the 17th, so maybe I need to let more time pass to read this stuff?!

Does the game really withhold valuable information until you've spent a certain amount of time playing?

There was a article on the PAX titled “NASA AND FUJI DO BUSINESS”, which of course I’d already found out about by accessing the Fuji base. I gained nothing new from the article, so I moved onto the News in Brief for today. Once again there was an article about me! “SAVAGE NIGHT OF TORTURE: Strange Chatsubo patron spends night sleeping in synth-spaghetti. Customers shocked.” The other new article was titled “SON RETURNED TO FUJI PREZ”, and talked about Harry Watkins’ son. I knew from the Fuji base that the boy had been kidnapped by Tozuku and used to convince Harry to sell the company, then returned in pieces, yet the article suggested that they “must have misplaced him”, and that the son was “in one piece, more or less.” Not really gaining much from any of this, I checked out the three new messages on the bulletin board. One of them was an advertisement for something called CFM, suggesting anyone that’s angry about being locked out of cyberspace because they can’t afford the required equipment should log into a base using link code FREEMATRIX and password CFM. Another of the messages was an advertisement for the Internal Revenue Service, where anyone having tax related issues or concerns should visit comlink IRS with password TAXINFO.

I'm just shocked that there were actually other customers!

The most significant message on the board though was one from Emperor Norton to me, answering a question I’d had for ages! “Shiva at the Gentleman Loser has a Matrix Restaurant guest pass for you. Let’s talk.” Finally I was going to be able to get into the restaurant! Rather than head straight for the Matrix though, I thought I would finish my session by trying to use the Sequencer 1.0 software. Using it straight from the inventory resulted in a “Database Only” error, so I entered a random base (Gentleman Loser) and tried using it. To my astonishment, the software cracked the first level password one letter at a time, eventually telling me that the password was WILSON!!! This meant I was going to be able to enter all the bases I had link code for and use Sequencer to get the passwords! Unfortunately I was down to around $50 at this point, so I was in no position to spend time jumping in and out of bases. This last minute discovery though has opened the game right up to me, and I’m really excited to jump back in and see where it all leads. I'll just have to start again...again!

Sequencer 1.0: This...is awesome! Can't wait to use it!

Session Time: 0 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 6 hours 00 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 Luck of the Irish

Tricky Journal Entry 8: "Story? This yoke helps me give out to your man for codes! Perhaps a pot of gold awaits me der! Ahem...sorry, I forgot I was using CopTalk 2.0. Today I discovered something amazing. That stupid cop in Donut World thinks I'm someone else, as long as I speak in an Irish accent. It sure has been useful, as I can ask him for link codes and passwords that only an SEA Agent would know. I've cracked into a bunch of bases and have some nice software and upgrades for my trouble. I'm bound to get into one of these bank bases soon enough. Pot of gold indeed!"

Surely he won't fall for this!

With my offshore adventures temporarily done with, I restored back to Chiba City with a plan. Now that I’d been everywhere I could get to, I intended to revisit every location systematically, applying my newly installed chips and software, and asking questions relating to topics I’ve learnt throughout the course of the game so far. It didn’t take me long to have some serious success, as the first location I could get into (the Chatsubo was still closed for health reasons) was Donut World. As soon as I arrived I had an idea I was sure would work. Since only cops were allowed in the joint, I used my CopTalk 1.0 skill and then spoke to the guy at the table. “Sure and begorrah, O’Riley. If you don’t recognize me, you’ll get my Irish up.” As much as it defies belief, O’Riley responded with “Finnegan, old pal! Top of the mornin’ to you! I didn’t recognize you!” Once the introductions were over, I had a bunch of new dialogue options that had me pretty excited. 1. “Begorrah! I forgot the comlink number for the Chiba Tactical Police!” 2. “What’s the password for the Software Enforcement Agency? Is it Wild Irish Rose?” and 3. “O’Riley! I heard they changed the Fuji Electric password to Uisquebaugh. Is that right?”

Actors the world over thank the heavens that voice acting hadn't been introduced yet

Obviously these questions were designed to get the real codes and passwords out of O’Riley, and he obliged like the idiot he is. The Chiba Tactical Police comlink is KEISATSU, the coded password for the SEA is SMEEDLDIPO, and the coded password for Fuji is ABURAKKOI, all of which I added to my spreadsheet. This appeared to be the right time to try out my Cryptology skill too, since the two passwords I’d been given by O’Riley needed to be decoded. Unfortunately, when I tried to decode SMEEDLDIPO and ABURAKKOI, both returned a message saying “Unable to decode word.” I thought I must be doing something wrong at first, and even tried unsuccessfully to use the coded passwords to access the bases. Only then did I remember that Julius Deane was offering an upgrade to my Cryptology skill chip to version 2.0. I rushed across to him and gave him the $2500 he required, then successfully decoded both passwords (SMEEDLDIPO became PERMAFROST and ABURAKKOI became UCHIKATSU). I then cheekily restored my game so that I hadn’t spent the $2500, realising that I had the passwords I needed. This is a pretty big flaw in the game really, and I’d be stupid not to take advantage of it given how important money is for success.

The makers of the Cryptology skill chip made sure their early versions didn't decode everything!

Now that I had a new link code and two passwords, I headed on over to the Cheap Hotel where I could jack in and try them out. I didn’t have a password for the Chiba Tactical Police base, but since I’d already retrieved the link code for the SEA base by sending a message to Modern Bob on the Panther Moderns board, I now had all I needed to access it. I entered SOFTEN as the link code and PERMAFROST as the password, and found myself looking at the Software Enforcement Agency menu. I’d intended to use my Scout 1.0 skill to see how many levels there were to the base, but since there was no welcome screen, there was no way for me to use it. I could only assume that this particular base only has one level. The menu had five options: 1. Supervisor’s Memo 2. Bulletin Board 3. Software Library 4. Skill Upgrade 5. View Arrest Warrant List. As much as I wanted to jump down to the Software Library and Skill Upgrade sections, I started with option number 1. The Supervisor’s Memo turned out to be quite interesting. To summarise, it was a memo to firstly tell all Field Supervisors that it’s their responsibility to make sure all of their operatives have the latest matrix simulator protection softwarez installed. Secondly, the memo told all SEA Field Agents to make use of the CopTalk tutorial, and that fourth level CopTalk is required for Senior Field Agent status.

Tutorial shmutorial!

Next I checked out the Bulletin Board, which contained four messages that appeared to be all part of the same conversation between SEA and W. Gibson (the author of the novel). Mr. Gibson was very concerned that one of his field agents, MR. DOS, had gone missing while trailing some Microsoft design thieves in cyberspace. The SEA responded to say that they had no idea where he was, and strangely asked if Mr. Gibson had “misplaced him”. Mr. Gibson very rightly responded to this by stating that “This isn’t a piece of software we’re talking about. MR. DOS is a human field agent.” SEA had the final word though, telling Mr. Gibson to “Solve your own problems. That’s what we hired you for in the first place.” I have no idea whether this little conversation has anything to do with the game or not. It seems more likely to be referencing the novel or a bit of humour that went over my head. The Software Library was much more useful, giving me the opportunity to download Comlink 4.0 and Sequencer 1.0. I didn’t know what Sequencer was all about, but I was pretty happy to have yet another upgrade for my Comlink software, since this seems to be a bit of a progress meter during the early stages of the game.

So let me get this straight...MR. DOS...is NOT software?

The Skill Upgrade section gave me CopTalk 2.0, which was pretty cool given how useful version 1.0 had turned out to be. That left only the last menu option to check out, being the Arrest Warrant List. There were five names on the warrant list (Miki Matsumoto, Parsifal, Fergus Fargo, Mikl Stackpolnik and Ashley Robinson), along with their BAMA ID’s, yet the only name I recognised was Fergus Fargo. I’d received a message from FFargo way back on the PAX Bulletin Board, telling me that I still owed him 2000 credits, but hadn’t run into him or heard the name since. I was able to select each of the names to see what crime they were wanted for, including piracy, smuggling, software pandering and supercode programming (Fergus was in trouble for this one), but didn’t appear to be able to do anything else. Since there were no further menu options to choose from, I exited the base and considered my next move. I decided to act on a hunch and revisit O’Riley in Donut World with my newly upgraded CopTalk chip. Perhaps I’d be able to get even more information out of him?!

Irish 201 course complete!

Even before I enabled my CopTalk 2.0 skill I had a new dialogue option available to choose. “Saint Patty’s Day. I’m looking for the Little People, don’t you know.” This isn’t the first time that the game has given me dialogue options that mean absolutely nothing to me. Who the hell are the Little People? Is it just supposed to be leprechauns? (Please correct me if I just missed a reference earlier.) Anyway, choosing this option once again convinced O’Riley that I was someone else that he knew: “Mulligan! I can barely understand your thick Irish accent! And I almost didn’t recognize you!” I now had two knew things that I could say, being 1. “Have you heard any news, then O’Riley? Found out where the Little People keep their warez?” and 2. “Fergus gave me the second level password for the Chiba Tactical Police but I seem to have forgotten it again!” To the first question he replied “Just got through questioning Shiva. She says, illegal warez are available on the Gentleman Loser DB.” Well that’s interesting! I didn’t even realise there was a base for Gentleman Loser. Perhaps I haven’t been asking the right questions?! O’Riley once again gave me the password I was after as well, telling me the coded password for the Chiba Tactical Police base is SNORSKEE.

I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

So it seemed I was going to have to pay Julius another visit to decode another word. I used the Cryptology 2.0 software to decode SNORSKEE and found that SUPERTAC was the real second level password for the Chiba City Tactical Police base. I didn’t even have the first level password, but I quickly accessed the second level and found that the menu contained only two options: 1. View Warrants and 2. Edit Warrants. I’d expected the names on the warrant list to match those found on the Software Enforcement Agency warrant list, but the only one included on both was Ashley Robinson. The other names on this list were Roy Milestone, Bal 4, Kristoffer Ulm and Kim Tyger, and once again their crimes included piracy, smuggling, software pandering and supercode programming. It was interesting and likely important that I could edit the list of warrants, but I struggled to come up with something to enter. The only person I could think of that I wanted to get out of the way was Larry Moe, who appeared to be guarding the meeting room for the Panther Moderns in his store. I tried overwriting one of the names with Larry Moe, but since I didn’t know his BAMA ID (I went through all my screenshots but came up empty handed), wasn’t able to finish the job.

I thought I'd gotten rid of the bastard for a minute there!

With no other bases to check out due to missing either a link code or a password, I continued to visit various establishments, trying out the CopTalk 2.0 chip with varying results (nothing worth mentioning). When I got to the Gentleman Loser, I remembered that the cop in Donut World had told me there were illegal warez on the Loser base. I asked Shiva about “Loser”, to which she responded with “The Loser link code is LOSER. The password is WILSON, which is a term you should be familiar with.” Her taunt had no effect on me, as I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself! Either I was having some good luck, or I was finally starting to figure out how to play this game. I quickly accessed the Gentleman Loser base, hoping to find whatever these illegal warez were supposed to be. My Scout 1.0 software told me there are three levels to the base, but my first level access only gave me permission to see the Loser BBS. There were however no less than seven messages on the board, making this a little goldmine of information.

Yes, I use it to describe your mother every day!

The first message was from Osric, who I’d briefly seen in the Matrix Restaurant before being kicked out, to Pol Oconner. Osric was telling Pol that the folks at the Body Shop have been asking for him, hoping to sell a complete set of his body parts to a buyer named Random. They would then replace all of his parts with plastic replacements, making a New Human out of him. The second message was from Lord B4 to Ulm Kris, both of whose names I recognised from the Chiba City Tactical Police warrant list (in slightly different forms). Lord B4 was reminding Ulm Kris that he still owed him $4000 for the Bushido deck he’d sold him. Messages three through to five were a single conversation between Keefer, Bleys and Chaos. Bleys asked if anyone had seen Amber, as she never turned up to meet him at the Loser. Keefer suggested Chaos might know something, but Chaos replied to say that he’d met with Amber three weeks ago at Gridpoint, that “she’d found a big stash of softwarez and was now looking for some Thunderhead to crack in and get it”. He recommended Bleys check the Eastern Seaboard base for more info with link code EASTSEABOD.

Ouch! That sounds painful!

I wrote the Eastern Seaboard link code into my spreadsheet and moved onto message number six. This one was from Red Jack to the whole board, and was basically him / her asking everyone to log onto Bank Gemeinschaft’s base at once to tie up their lines (because they’d been “ripping” his account). It listed the bank’s link code as BANKGEMEIN, so once again I put that into the spreadsheet. Finally, the seventh message was from Someone to Red Jack, telling him that Lupus and his Panther Modern friends had been “burning the banks”, so he would be the one to ask about his missing funds. So what did I get out of all that? All I really got were the link codes for the Eastern Seaboard and Bank Gemeinschaft, yet I had no passwords for either. Still, I was making consistent progress, and was really starting to figure out what made Neuromancer tick. There were some bases left on my spreadsheet that I hadn’t attempted to connect to with my upgraded Comlink 4.0, and I hadn’t yet tried out my new Sequencer 1.0 software. I was feeling like more success was just around the corner, and that feeling turned out to be justified! Join me for my next post to find out exactly what, or more specifically who, went down in Chiba City!

Nothing a good old Denial of Service attack can't sort out eh fellas?

Session Time: 1 hours 00 minutes
Total Time: 5 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 - Remember Zion, Mon

Tricky Journal Entry 7: "Now I remember why I hate travelling off Earth! I haven't written since I went on a whirlwind tour of Zion Cluster and Freeside, looking for ways to make a quick buck and upgrade my warez. As if the flights weren't bad enough (seriously, those hostess' could at least try to make me feel safe), the people I met during my travels were completely insane! That drugged up Rastafarian dude on Zion might as well have been speaking another language, and the less said about the disembodied Tessier-Ashpool member that tried to kill me on Freeside the better! I certainly didn't find what I was after at either location, but I did find out enough to know what I might want to take with me if I ever have a need to go again. Here's hoping that day never comes!"

You didn't hear anything about them planning the same treatment for me did you?

You might recall that I’d asked the prostitute in my last post whether she knew anything about General Armitage (the guy that paid me $10K to work for him then never turned up to give me any instructions). She’d explained to me that someone had set a trap for Armitage outside the Matrix Restaurant, but gave me no further information about what had become of him. Well, the next time I walked past the very same restaurant, the lawbot outside suddenly stopped me: “Hold it there! We got Armitage, not we’ve got you.” I was once again sent to face virtual justice and had to pay $500 to be allowed back out into the city. So what was it that caused this arrest? At first I’d figured it must have been triggered by me asking about Armitage, but I was still arrested at the same point after restoring to an earlier game where I never even spoke to the hooker. Was this just scripted to occur at a certain time, and merely being associated with Armitage was all it took? Or did it occur due to something I did, such as clearing my bill in the Cheap Hotel base? I wasn’t sure at the time, and I’m still not sure now.

Um...for what exactly?!

What I do know is that I entered a PAX straight after being released from court, and found a new article in the News section. “CRIMINAL HITS CHIBA CITY: Tricky, a notorious criminal who recently arrived in Chiba City, has been arrested and taken to the Justice Booth. This comes as no surprise to police, who have been watching this criminal ever since he arrived. “We knew he’d break the law eventually”, said Officer Watanabe. “These habitual criminals can’t go a whole day without committing a crime.” So, I’m a notorious criminal? I can’t say that had been communicated to me prior to this article. Regardless, it still left the reason for my arrest up in the air, perhaps pushing me further towards believing it to be entirely scripted and unavoidable. I let it go, and since I had no other available locations to explore in Chiba City, I decided it was time to head back to the Spaceport and catch a shuttle elsewhere. I purchased a ticket to Zion Cluster for $500, and was informed that the holo-movie for the flight would be Aliens III. It’s funny to think that the game developers were merely predicting that the Alien series would get a third movie, but they would have had no idea that it wouldn't arrive until 1997 (with the title Alien³ mind you).

Prepare to be disappointed!

Soon after getting my ticket, I found myself aboard a JAL shuttle, preparing for departure. The hostess went through the standard security announcement: “In the event of a fire on the ground, all passengers will have to fend for themselves, because the crew and I will be the first ones out that door. In the event of a pressure loss while we’re in transit, we’ll all be sucking cold vacuum in a matter of seconds, so we hope you bought flight insurance.” The look of the scene immediately reminded me of Zak McKracken, and once the hostess began humorously playing up the danger of the flight, I felt a real sense of déjà vu. While the flight scene in Larry 2 had a very different look to the others, the hostess banter was also very similar there, all of which made it pretty hard for me to appreciate what otherwise would have been an amusing touch. The concluding part of the message was unique to Neuromancer though, so is worth mentioning. “You will note that our in-flight holo-movie has just been zip-shot directly into your brain using psycho-graphics. We hope you enjoyed it. There will be an additional charge if you’d like to “see” the movie again.”

I kind of expected to have to put an egg in the microwave as a distraction

Tell me this wasn't a huge inspiration!

Not to mention this!

On arrival at Zion Cluster, I was very surprised to find that it was a “thirty year old Rastafarian orbital colony”, and the room I was standing in was filled with pot-smoke. An old man, apparently “one of the original Founders who built Zion”, was standing in front of a wall filled with hippie symbols and listening to dub music. He spoke to me: “Measure twice, cut one, mon. Have you come up the gravity well out of Babyon to lead the Tribes home? Or be you the tool o’ the demons. A tool of the banks.” My dialogue options were suitably confused, being: “Excuse me?”, “Uh, yeah, sure...”, and “I think you’ve confused me with someone else.” I chose “Uh, yeah, sure...”, to which the man replied “Soon come, the Final Days...Voices cryin’ inna wilderness, prophesyin’ ruin unto Babylon...” It appeared to me that this guy was either completely mad or just off his head on drugs, and my character agreed with me. I only had the option to say “Right. Can I get a ride to Freeside from here?”, “I’d like to pay for a ride back to Chiba City.”, “Do you speak English or what, you crusty old wilson!”, and “Do you know anything about______”  Uncertain of what to do, I saved my game and tried all four options!

This no' makin' sense mon. I an' I no' un'stand it!

The man refused to assist me in getting to Zion, but would allow me to pay another $500 to get back to Chiba City. Most interestingly though, if I abused him and called him a wilson, he sent me back to Chiba City for free! None of this helped me though, and since I wasn’t able to go anywhere else on Zion, I tried asking the guy for information on anything I could think of. Babylon: “Babylon mothers many demon, I an’ I know. Multitude horde!” Zion: “Zion? Zion be home, mon.” Most tellingly though, this guy seemed infatuated with music, having mentioned it several times before I asked him about it. Music: “Dub be the music, mon. I an’ I have great respect for dub musicians, ya know?” This gave me an idea, but it wasn’t one I could act on just yet. I’d noticed previously in the manual that there was a skill chip called Musicjanship, which was described as “Used in the Real World to play various styles of music for amusement.” I figured that was the key to achieving anything on Zion Cluster, and so restored back to the spaceport to buy a ticket to Freeside. This one cost me $1000, so I hoped there was something more useful there.

You're just a tool!

The ticket woman told me that the holo-movie this time was Burning Chrome (not sure if anyone knows the reference there because I don’t recognise it). The safety message was identical, and I soon found myself in Freeside Spacedock, where a ticket agent “who looks like a clone of the Chiba ticket agent” was present. All I could do was buy a ticket back to Chiba City or leave the dock through an exit. I chose the exit, and reappeared in a corridor with exits left and right. I saved my game and went left, which took me to a doorway to some place called Villa Straylight. Inside the Villa was a rather striking sight! “This is the Villa Straylight, home to the Tessier-Ashpool clan. A platinum bust of a human head sits on a pedestal, its cool ruby eyes staring at you with quiet menace. It speaks to you in a melodious voice generated from tiny organ pipes.” That all sounded ominous, and the words that came out of the bodiless head didn’t help: “In this room lies death, my friend. This is the road to the land of the dead. Marie France, my lady, prepared this road, but her lord choked her off before I could read the book of her days. Stay and become a ghost, a thing of shadow in the land of the dead. Keep me company. Become a sphere of singing black on the extended crystal nerves of the universe of data, your consciousness divided like beads of mercury.” Huh!?

I really wasn't expecting scenes like this when I started the game. Is this part of the book???

It was then that I noticed my view at the bottom of the screen had changed from the amount of cash I had to my constitution level. It began going down, 20 at a time! I couldn’t say anything at this point, nor did I have anything in my inventory or skill list that might assist, so I decided to just wait and see what would happen if my constitution hit zero. The answer is that I died, and reappeared in the Body Shop back on Chiba City with my cash balance at zero. I really have no idea what I was supposed to do at Villa Straylight, and can only imagine I will get an item or skill that makes it clear later. I restored back to the space dock, and this time went to the right of screen. The first place of interest I came to was the Bank of Berne. Inside I found a desk where a secretary mocked my presence in such a fine establishment: “And what, may I ask, do YOU want? This is a very exclusive bank...” I had four dialogue options available to me, being 1. “I could use a cup of coffee about now. Why don’t you make me a cup?” 2. “I’d like to see the Manager.” 3. “I’d like to open an account with your fine establishment.” and 4. “I’d like to hold up the bank. Give me all your money.”

Hell, if I'm going to be a criminal, I might as well have a real crack at it!

Unsurprisingly, the first option resulted in the secretary telling me to drop dead, and the fourth one put me in front of the virtual judge back in Chiba City. Asking for the manager resulted in her saying “I can make an appointment for you in 6 months, if you’d like to wait.” I was then able to either demand to see the manager or tell the woman that “I’d be happy to wait if it means I’ll have the pleasure of your company.” The latter option once again put me in court for loitering, whereas demanding to see the manager resulted in me simply being thrown out. That only left trying to open an account, which resulted in the secretary telling me that “You need money to open an account with this bank. I doubt you qualify in that category.” When I informed her that I did indeed have money and was serious about opening an account, she went off to find an application form, saying it would likely take a while. A message popped up saying “You notice that the door to the manager’s office is slightly ajar”, so I walked through it. The manager wasn’t there, but the only thing of interest in the room was a cyberspace jack on the wall. I didn’t have a cyberspace compatible deck, so there wasn’t much I was going to be able to do.

Not a bad view really!

Taking my leave from the Bank of Berne, I made my way further to the right of screen, ending up at the last location to be found on Freeside. It was another bank, being Bank Gemeinschaft! There was a warning on the wall that said “WARNING. SECURED AREA. Unauthorized entry punishable by termination.” I ignored it completely of course and entered the bank, being greeted by a security computer demanding to know my security code or be destroyed. I of course didn’t know what the code might be, so entered three random guesses before I was destroyed and reappeared in the Body Shop as before. So, it seemed there wasn’t a lot of point visiting either Zion Cluster or Freeside since I didn’t have certain specific skill chips, decks and access codes. At least I now know what to keep an eye out for in the real world, which is exactly where I’ll be restoring to when I kick off the next post. Surely now that I’ve visited all the available locations in Chiba City, Freeside and Zion Cluster, it won’t take me a full post to describe what occurred in a mere thirty minutes of gaming time. I guess we’ll find out with the next post!

Um...are there any other options?

Session Time: 0 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 4 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 - For the Good of the Country

Tricky Journal Entry 6: "Nothing much happened today. In fact, I'm a bit depressed. I even tried using the Psychologist service I heard about, but it really wasn't very helpful. I then thought I'd cheer myself up by doing a good deed for the community. You know, some volunteer work down at Hitachi Biotech. The crazy woman took my bloody lungs, and only gave me $3000 in return! Finally, as if all of that wasn't bad enough, I bought a bargaining skill chip from Julius that seems faulty. Everything is still out of my price range, not to mention that I wasted $1000 on the chip. Sigh...at least things can't get any worse. Can they?!"

So now that I have Comlink 3.0, I assume I can erase 1.0 and 2.0. They're taking up valuable RAM.

A couple of readers have suggested that Neuromancer would at some stage just “click”, and things would start to make a bit more sense. As despondent as my intro sounded, I’m happy to announce that I’ve reached that stage of the game! My wife is currently away, meaning I’ve actually had an opportunity to really get my teeth into it (after putting my daughter to bed of course). Last night I played Neuromancer for two and a half hours straight, and made some really solid progress! It does mean that I’m now well behind on posting, particularly when I note that each post has so far only been covering about 30 minutes of play, but it was something I felt I needed to do if I was going to get my head around all the information I’ve collected, and also  to start enjoying the game more. There’s every chance that I’ll be writing up to three posts (possibly more) before I get to play again, but the enthusiasm I’ve gained should help me get them out pretty quickly. My last post ended with me scouring through the Panther Moderns base with my newly downloaded Comlink 3.0. That wasn’t the only base I’d not been able to access with 2.0, so I’ll start this one with my attempts to access the rest.

The Bank of Zurich really needs to learn about backwards compatibility!

The first link code I tried was BOZOBANK, which was the code Akiko the masseuse had given me for the Bank of Zurich. I still wasn’t able to access it, so I tried PSYCHO, the link code for the Psychologist service I’d read an ad for on the Cheap Hotel base. This time my attempt was successful, and running my Scout 1.0 software on the welcome screen told me that there were three levels to the base. The welcome screen told me I would have to log in using my personal password if I wanted to “initiate my own mindprobe session”, but handed out a password (“NEW MO”) for first time visitors. Once in I was given my personal password (BABYLON) and I was informed that I could think of the psychologist service as “Sigmund” (presumably after Sigmund Freud), if that made me feel more comfortable. While I couldn’t be analysed while logged in as a visitor, I could read some sample sessions. I have no idea whether any of the samples have any relevance to the rest of the game, so I’m not sure how much space I should take up describing them. It seems to me that the first two samples are fluff, while the third one may have some relevance, so I’ll summarise the first two and expand on the last.

Psychoanalysis between a patient and a computer. Scary!

Molly Sample: Someone called Molly is constantly stressed that Yakuza assassins are after her and her boy Johnny after the two of them took one of the assassins out that was trying to retrieve data stored in Johnny’s head for the purpose of bribery. Sigmund’s diagnosis after four visits from Molly was that “the strain of your illegal activities is distorting your view of reality by directing your psychic energies into unhealthy channels, such as paranoia.” Corto Sample: Some crazy guy call Colonel Corto was going on and on about having to testify and “tell them all of about Girling and the others”. None of it made much sense and the diagnosis (by a psychologist named Friedrich) was that Corto was most likely on a bad trip and that “the strain of your activities in Screaming Fist is distorting your view of reality”. I’d heard of Screaming Fist on the Panther Moderns board, where Polychrome mentioned being able to get Easy Rider 1.0 from their base, but otherwise it meant nothing to me. Snowman Sample: This one was more interesting, with Snowman talking about a scary experience he had in the matrix. Something started tailing him while he was “buzzin the green cubes of the Mitsubishi B of A”. He tried to evade it by using Mimic and Probe, but it kept coming! Snowman barely had time to jack out before the thing nailed him, and was certain it was “controlled by some sorta intelligence”. Alfred’s diagnosis was that Snowman should “retire from cyberspace and get a real job”, since “things like that just can’t happen in cyberspace”.

"Pay me more often and I'll regurgitate the same vague diagnosis endlessly"

I didn’t take much from any of that, apart from the fact something weird was going on in cyberspace (which I was already well aware of). On a positive note though, while I was going through my screenshots looking for the Screaming Fist reference, I stumbled across one of the ads I’d received on the bulletin board way back in my first session. I’d mistakenly assumed the Armitage message was nothing more than an advertisement, and now I was wondering about another one. It had read “Need some quick cash? Come and see us at Hitachi Biotech in the high-tech zone of Chiba City. We need volunteers for a simple experiment that won’t require much of your time.” I'd since learnt that the high-tech zone is beyond the blocked off section where a machine was asking me who I worked for, it suddenly dawned on me that the answer to the question might very well be Hitachi Biotech. I quickly made my way back to the barricade and checked out my dialogue options. One of them was “I’m a volunteer for Hitachi Biotech”! I tried saying it, and the machine responded with “You are cleared for limited access. Please proceed directly North to Hitachi Biotech. Be aware that you will not be allowed admittance to any other buildings in this zone.” I was then able to pass the barrier.

I can't understand why I didn't see this option the first time I arrived here. Perhaps I never checked my dialogue options?

I then found myself on a screen with five company entrances. I couldn’t see what company one of them was for since it was at the base of the screen, but the other four were Fuji, Hitachi Biotech, Hosaka and what looked like Husabori. I tried entering all of them, but just as the machine had said, the only one I could get into was Hitachi Biotech. Inside was a woman in a lab coat, who asked me if I was a “volunteer for the lung experiment”. That didn’t sound promising, but my dialogue options left me with little choice apart from saying yes.  “Great! We’re currently paying our volunteers $3000 apiece. Wait here and I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I then had the opportunity to walk around the room for a while by myself, yet despite feeling like I was supposed to do something, simply couldn’t. The interface is so limited that there’s no way I could open, pick up or even look at anything. I couldn’t leave either, so I simply had to wait until the woman came back. Perhaps I could use a particular chip while in the room (none of the ones I had seemed likely), but I couldn’t think of what I might achieve. On her return the woman informed me that I would likely feel no pain during the experiment, but that “it’ll hurt like hell” afterwards. She then took my lungs, thanked me, and sent me on my way!

Yes, in the same way Freddy Krueger likes to have fun!

Once outside, I noticed that my constitution had dropped from 2000 to 1850, but I was $3000 richer! A trip to the Body Shop a bit later on would reveal that I would have got $3000 from the guy there for my lungs too, so there must some other reason to do the experiment. Feeling like a really should restore, I decided to try my luck telling the machine that I worked for some of the other companies beyond the barrier. Saying “I work for fuji” resulted in the machine telling me that I wasn’t a listed employee, and once I tried Hosaka it summoned the authorities and I found myself back in court. I restored back to before the horrific experiment and re-entered the Psychologist base. This time I entered my own personal password, which gave me level 2 access to the base. Now I had the opportunity to start my own mindprobe session, and I was informed that the “fee will be based on the severity of your problem”. I was then faced with “Enter your thoughts”, and a blank screen just waiting for me to type something. This took me by surprise, and I had no idea what to type. I also had serious doubts that the game was going to have the intelligence to decipher anything that I might input. I entered my thoughts regardless...

I can add Zenic Reverie to the list now

As you might expect, the diagnosis was fairly vague, telling me that I seem to be concerned with my well-being, that my illegal activities seem to be the source of my stress, and that I should relax and take a vacation. Maybe I’ll find a use for the service later in the game, but for now I decided to move on. I looked over my notes and found one reminding myself to ask Julius Deane about Cryptology and skill chips, since Modern Miles had told the Modern Panthers board that they should. This trip proved profitable, since asking about Cryptology revealed that Julius had an upgrade to version 2 available for sale, and asking about skill chips revealed that he had no less than four available to check out. I hadn’t yet found a use for my Cryptology skill, let alone needed an upgrade, so I hung onto the $2500 he was asking for, at least for now. The four skill chips he had for sale were Bargaining, Psychoanalysis, Phenomenology and Philosophy, with each of them costing $1000. Only one of those skills was listed in the manual, with Bargaining described as: “Used before purchasing things in the Real World, this skill can bring the price down. Most people already know this trick or they have a Bargaining skill chip of their own, so it won’t always work.”

Phenomenology? I really hope I don't need to deal with the philosophical study of subjective experience and consciousness in this game!

Since I’d restored to a save game fairly early on, I had plenty of cash on me, so I thought I’d buy all the chips and see if I could figure out what they did. After implanting them all, I set off to visit one of the computer stores to try out the Bargaining skill. I had screenshots of the original prices, so I was hoping to see a significant difference to justify the $1000 purchase price of the chip. Something interesting happened on the way! I’d walked through a particular screen containing a sign for Chin’s Pawn Shop and a lamppost a few times already, but this time there was a woman there, in a revealing red dress. Her profession was made immediately apparent when she said “Hey, sailor. New in town?” I had a few different dialogue options available to me, including “I’m not a sailor. Do I look like one?”, “Buzz off, sister. Zone’s a close personal friend of mine.” and “Drop dead.” All of these resulted in her telling me to go away and then disappearing, but choosing “Yes, I’m new around here. Why?” at least let me continue the conversation. I recalled that Ratz had told me that one of Lonny Zone’s girls was looking for me way back in the first scene of the game. I figured this must be her!

Tricky really has a way with women!

The woman responded with “You look lost. Something I can do for you?” None of my dialogue options seemed very good to me, being “Got any good software?”. “I doubt it. I’m not lost.” and “I can’t afford your kind of help.” In fact, all of them resulted in her simply going away, usually with a sly remark! However, I was able to ask her about whatever topic I wanted, and also where a particular place is located. Perhaps the hooker is only there to give out information on stuff? Given the connection to Lonny, I asked her whether she knew anything about “Lonny Zone”. She replied with “Lonny was picked up by the feds for tax evasion. He said the wrong thing to the judge and was given the death penalty.” Well that wasn’t what I’d expected! It didn’t look like I was going to find out what my relationship with Lonny was or why “one of his girls” was looking for me. I also asked her about Armitage, since he’d given me $10000 and then never showed up to make me earn it. “I heard they set a trap for him in front of the Matrix Restaurant.” Hmmmm, was I supposed to think that Armitage was just out of the way now, leaving me with the $10K and no consequences? What sort of trap? I asked a bunch of other questions (software, chips, cyberspace etc.), but only got stock answers such as “Yeah, sure. I’ve got a degree in Computer Science and I just work the street for laughs.”

I hope there was a telephone booth there!

I eventually had the opportunity to test out my new Bargaining chip, but sadly it made absolutely no difference to the pricing I was offered in the computer stores. The Gaijin deck was still $3600 in both stores, meaning I really had to question the value of purchasing the chip off Julius. I also tried using it on Julius himself when purchasing the gas mask, but it still cost $300. I also tried using some of the other chips I’d purchased off Julius, including Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, but couldn’t see that they achieved anything. I’m really hoping that at some point I gain the ability to find out what certain skill chips can be used for, since the manual list is by no means exhaustive. For now, I’ll stick to the plan of purchasing only those chips that are described in the manual and that I can find a good use for. That pretty much rules out all four that I purchased during this session. Well, this post is probably long enough now, yet once again I’ve only covered thirty minutes of game time. As soon as I press Post, I intend to begin writing the next one, and will try to push them through as quickly as I can. I want to play the game again, and I expect you guys will tire of this well before I'm done!

If the bargaining chip doesn't let me buy a deck for less, then what good is it?

Session Time: 0 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours 00 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 One True Computer Game

Tricky Journal Entry 5: "Today was...well, a bit weird really! It might sound like I'm tripping, but I really did meet a man that claimed to be the Head Monk of the House of Pong today! What's Pong? Well, it appears to be a very simplistic computer game from last millenium, which these monks for some reason consider to be the "One True Computer Game". I went along with Nolan's rubbish, and he ended up sending me on a quest for some Holy Joystick. Oh well, I guess if I come across something resembling that, I might just take it back to him, just to see what happens! I also gained access to the Panther Moderns base today, uncovering quite a bit of interesting information. It's still not clear what's going on, and I'm no closer to getting the cash I need to get to cyberspace. Perhaps tomorrow?"

Not being able to name my save files means I have to take screenshots to remind myself of which one is the most recent.

Neuromancer is a tough game! It’s not so much that the puzzles are challenging to solve. The game just throws an incredible amount of information at you, with little to differentiate between what is vital and what is throwaway. It also gives the player absolutely no motives, so all you can do is explore and try to figure out what the plot is. It’s also by far the trickiest game to date to blog through, since I have to restore and restart regularly. I fear that I’m missing a lot of important information simply because I’m not asking about certain topics when talking to people, but by the time I realise those topics are of interest, I've missed the opportunity and have to go back. As usual, all I can do is push on, and hope that the whole thing clicks at some point. I was going to start this post by covering the oddness that was the House of Pong, but first I need to inform you of a discovery I made after restarting again and playing through to my current position. If restarting before every session sounds like a bitch, well I should point out that it takes a matter of minutes to run through all the actual things that I’ve achieved so far. The vast majority of my time has been spent in bases and on the PAX, yet now that I know the information held on them, I don’t need to go through it all over again (apart from downloading software).

These are the only skill chips described in the manual. You'll find out why I mention this in just a moment.

I was concerned that I’d not managed to procure anything at all from Larry’s Rentals on previous playthroughs, so I spent a bit of extra time there asking questions this time. Just as getting names and nav codes was the driving factor of progress in Mean Streets, the collecting of skill chips and software seems to be the driving factor of progress for Neuromancer, so I’ve started making a habit of asking people if they know anything about them. When I asked Larry about chips, he responded with “I can sell you a CopTalk skill chip. $100.” I guess the game hinted that Larry might have skill chips, since they're all over the wall behind him and stuck in the port near his ear, but I hadn’t known the difference between software and skill chips when I’d first visited his store. CopTalk was one of the skills listed in the manual, so I read up on it to see what it does. “Used in the Real World to disguise yourself by talking like a cop with an Irish accent. This can be useful for interrogating the right people.” That seemed a bit ridiculous to me, but since the chip was only $100, and it seemed likely that the skills listed in the manual were the most important ones, I purchased it.

Now you tell me!

One of the original dialogue options I’d had when talking to Larry was “I’m a cop. You’re under arrest unless you answer some questions.” Larry hadn’t been convinced back then, but I wondered whether using the CopTalk chip he’d just sold to me might help. Now my dialogue option had changed to “I’m a cop, sure and begorrah, and you’re under arrest unless you answer some questions.” Larry clearly isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, since he responded with “Yeah, you sound like a cop. What can I do for you?” I felt like I was onto something, yet the only options I had available were “I’m looking for the Panther Moderns”, “Heard any unusual rumors?” and “Do you know anything about_________”. I told him I was looking for the Panther Moderns, to which he replied “How fascinating. I happen to be looking for a way out of this boring conversation.” I then asked him if he'd heard any unusual rumors, and all he had to say was “Something’s happening in cyberspace. A lot of people are getting flatlined.” Nothing new there! I wondered whether there was a specific topic I was supposed to be asking people about, but at this stage of the game I still didn’t have anything to work with!

Top of the morning to ya, to be sure to be sure! Very convincing indeed!

Right, let’s get to the House of Pong! On entering, it was clear that things were about to get weird! There was a screen on the back wall with the game Pong on it, just waiting for two brave contestants to grab hold of the large red joysticks on pedestals in front of it and do battle. There was also a mysterious man, robed in red, standing with his arms crossed as though guarding something precious and sacred. “This is the House of Pong, a quiet and restful place occupied by Pong Monks who spend their days meditating on the Mysteries of the One True Computer Game. Nolan, the Head Monk, is here to greet weary travellers as they come through the door.” Nolan asked me whether I’d come to worship the One True Computer Game, and the available responses I had were humorous to say the least. I actually tried choosing mocking answers such as “Worship a computer game? Get real!” and “Oh, sorry, I thought this was the massage parlor.”, but the end result was me being banished from the House. The “correct” response was “I am but dust on your feet, O Great Nolan. I seek to learn the ways of the One True Computer Game.” Nolan then told me that “Apprentice Monks must contemplate the mysteries of the One True Game for 20 years before they are allowed to play.”

Things just went from a bit weird to truly outrageous!

Once again I was given the option to go along with Nolan or to blatantly mock him (“20 years! Are you out of your mind! It didn’t take me that long to play Wasteland!”). After I told Nolan that 20 years was a bit longer than I’d planned to wait, he very wisely advised me that “It is a long and hard road, but one that must be travelled. A caterpillar does not become a butterfly overnight.” My character was clearly getting impatient at this stage, so the least mocking option I had was “All right. You must be leading up to something. What is it? I have to make a fool of myself, right?” Only then was I given my quest: “Before you may become an apprentice Monk, you must go on a Great Quest for the Holy Joystick. Then the Masters can play Pong again. Our Joystick is worn down to a nub! Then I’ll teach you Zen and Sophistry.” Right! Once again it seems that game developers in the eighties just weren’t confident enough to take a dark theme and run with it. They were always adding quirky humour (think Manhunter and Mean Streets), assuming that fans of classic Sierra and LucasArts would not be satisfied without it. The House of Pong took it to a whole new level of silliness!

It feels like it might just take me that long to get through this one.

I still hadn’t explored the whole Chiba City environment at this point, so I continued to travel east, knowing that I could always get a shuttle from the Spaceport once I ran out of locations. The next location of interest I came to was the Matrix Restaurant. This was the location General Armitage, the man that had given me $10000 to work for him, had told me to meet him outside of, yet I’d not seen anyone there apart from a lawbot. Perhaps I was too early, or perhaps I was too late! I had taken a fair amount of time to go to the meeting point. Ignoring that possibility for now, I set myself to check out the restaurant. The description told me that Emperor Norton (whose name I recognised from the bulletin board) and King Osric were there, in deep conversation, but before I could even consider talking to them, I was kicked out for not having a pass! It appeared that the Matrix Restaurant was for members only, and I wasn’t one of them. General Armitage still wasn’t waiting for me outside, so I continued on to the east.

I don't recall Neo facing these sorts of issues!

Eventually I came to what looked like a dead end. There was a barrier made up of red lasers, and a machine on the wall demanding to know by which company I was employed. I had no idea what to answer, and figured an incorrect one might be detrimental to my health, so I decided to turn around and go back from whence I’d come. Now that I’d finally checked out all available locations in Chiba City (at least for now), it was time to go check the PAX and try to access some more bases with my upgraded Comlink software. I made my way back to the Gentleman Loser and accessed the PAX. There was no new articles and no new messages on the bulletin board, so I jacked in and operated Comlink 2.0. There were a few bases I hadn’t been able to access using 1.0, but the first one I tried was the Panther Moderns base. I was now able to get in, and I used my Scout 1.0 software to find out that there are only 2 access levels to the base. I only knew the first level password, but that gave me access to 1. Software Library, 2. Modern BBS, and 3. Send Message.

I'm not sure what I'm doing to be honest. Do I even have a job? Why am I walking in this direction?

The Software Library contained three bits of software to download, being Comlink 3.0, Mindbender 3.0, and Chaos Videosoft 1.0. Unfortunately, I received a message informing me that my deck was incompatible when I tried to download the latter two, meaning I was only able to upgrade my Comlink software to the third version. The Modern BBS section was very valuable though, with a bunch of messages similar to the PAX bulletin board. The first one was from Modern Yutaka to everyone: “Cowboy named Chipdancer owed me a favour. Broke into the Hosaka base with Comlink 5.0, used “FUNGEKI”, and then added my name to their employee list. Received paychecks for six weeks before anyone noticed. Only risk was walking in to pick up check.” I wasn’t certain whether FUNGEKI was the link code or the password, but I wrote it into the spreadsheet nonetheless. It looked like I might not be able to attempt this piece of fraud until I had Comlink 5.0, not to mention that I had no idea where I would go to pick up the check. The second message was from Modern Miles to everyone, and mentioned that Julius Deanes knows about cryptology and has some hard to find skill chips. I’d asked Julius about hardware and information, but not chips. I marked it down to do when I next paid him a visit.

I tried connecting to link code FUNGEKI, but it told me there was no such link (rather than incompatible link). That suggests it's not a link code at all!

The third message was from Polychrome to everyone: “Screaming Fist has Easy Rider 1.0 in their base. Let’s you cross zones without having to go to another cyberjack.” I assumed that Screaming Fist was the name of a base, but I didn’t know the link code or a password to access it. I also had no idea what “crossing zones” was all about. The fourth message, from Lupus Yonderboy to Angelo, was really quite cryptic: “Mr. Who paid us on the SENSE/NET gig. He’ll remain a Mr. Who, not a Mr. Name. He understands now. Chaos is our mode and modus. Our central kick. Stories to be told, offline in the meeting room. All you have to do is ask.” Hmmm…who is Mr. Who and what is SENSE/NET? Where is this meeting room? The fifth message very possibly gave me the answer! Larry Moe (of Larry’s Rentals) sent a message to everyone saying: “Don’t worry about the meet room, no wilsons will get past me. If you’re Modern, you’re in. Good place for biz. I’ve got CopTalk now, Lupus has Evasion. See you on the other side.” So that’s why I had dialogue options to ask Larry about Modern Panthers! The door behind him must lead to the meeting room! I vowed to question him further when I next visited his store.

Are you sure it wasn't Dr. Who? This seems like the sort of place he might turn up.

The sixth message from Polychrome to Modern Miles was pretty useless, giving me the first level password for the Cheap Hotel, but the seventh one seemed more promising. Modern Bob sent a message to everyone with the following: “I have the link code for Hitachi and the SEA. If anyone’s interested, leave me a message.” I wrote myself a reminder to do that, then checked out message number eight (from Modern Jane to Lupus): “Congrats on burning Gemeinschaft. Heard the fire was so small they don’t even know who started it.” That meant nothing to me, so I moved onto the ninth and final message in the Modern BBS section. It was to me! Matt Shaw wrote to say that “Word of warning: some dumb Wilson just got fried by jacking into cyberspace from the Loser’s outlet. His first (and last) try. The ICE is softer at the bases you can reach from the Cheap Hotel’s jack, so brush up on your cyberspace techniques there first.” This Matt Shaw guy sure seems to want to help me out. This was yet another thing that I was going to need to remember, so I wrote it into my spreadsheet.

Wilson? Wilson!!!!!

Now that I’d read all the messages on the board, it was time to send a message to Modern Bob. I created a new message and simply typed “hitachi and sea” in the body, then sent it to Modern Bob. As soon as I chose to view the messages on the board, I could see a new message from Modern Bob to me. All it said was: “Got your message. Hitachi link code is “HITACHIBIO”. SEA link code is “SOFTEN”. Regular Fellows link code is “REGFELLOW”. I already knew the last code, but the first two were new. Unfortunately I didn’t know the passwords to access either of them, so they wouldn’t be much use to me at this stage. Once again, while this post covers a fair amount of information, it doesn’t actually cover much game time. I fear that I could be going at this for a while! I should also point out that my screenshots tell me that I have actually spent upwards of seven hours, on and off doing stuff in Neuromancer, but the vast majority of that time has been spent switching between writing posts and trying things out as I think of them. For that reason, despite this session really only taking 30 minutes, I’m increasing the total game time by an hour and a half. That's probably a more accurate amount of actual game time.

Microsoft decided to keep things simple for Outlook 2058

Session Time: 1 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 3 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!