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Tricky Journal Entry 6: "Nothing much happened today. In fact, Im a bit depressed. I even tried using the Psychologist service I heard about, but it really wasnt very helpful. I then thought Id 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 wasnt 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 cant get any worse. Can they?!"


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 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.


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”.


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.” Id 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 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!


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...


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.”


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!


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 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 Im done!


Session Time: 0 hours 30 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: Ive 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, Ive not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Tricky Journal Entry 2: “Today seems to be a day for fetching items that already belong to me. I collected my deck from Shin’s Pawn Shop, and then picked up my Cryptology skill chip from Shiva at Gentleman Loser. I’ve still got a few errands to run before the day is out, and will try to increase my skills and warez since people keep warning me that something weird is going on in cyberspace. Thankfully I’ve managed to get my hands on ten thousand credits from some guy called General Armitage, but who knows whether his requirements of me in return will be of a similar value or much, much more. I better go...there’s still much to do!”


I’m really happy to see that I have a lot of companions for this game, not just because that makes the whole experience more interesting, but also because I’m pretty sure I’m going to need some help at some point. I thank all of you that are commenting for using ROT13, but can I please ask you to encrypt more of your messages when they include hints or spoilers. I’m not suggesting I’ve been able to take much from them, but I can’t help reading them and my brain automatically tries to make something out of them (I wouldnt be a very good adventure gamer if it didnt). There was one particular comment that I simply had to follow up on though, and that was Ilmari’s suggestion that I’d missed an opportunity to gain lots of credits right at the start of the game. I considered whether Ilmari’s comment should be labelled a spoiler and punished, but thought it shouldnt if I had indeed missed something important in the opening scene. Knowing how critical funds were going to be in the game, I started again (I hadn’t exactly got very far to begin with) and searched for this missed opportunity. I eventually found it too, after reading the posts on the bulletin board that I previously thought were merely advertising.


Someone called Armitage was looking for a few “good cowboys” that were seeking adventure. You could earn instant money by answering the message with your BAMA id. At the time I hadn’t realised I could actually send a message myself, but now I did. I got my BAMA id from the First Orbital Bank of Switzerland screen, and then sent it to “Armitage”. I then chose to view my received messages and found a new one waiting for me from Armitage. “Thanks for your response to my ad. The amount of $10000 has been deposited to your bank account. Please meet me, General Armitage, in the street directly outside the Matrix Restaurant as soon as possible.” 10000 credits!!! That should keep me going for a while! I downloaded the money, taking my starting total to $12006 (less the $46 I paid Ratz). With that done, I was now ready to leave Chatsubo and venture out into the city. As soon as I left the building, I noticed it was now locked, with a sign informing potential customers of its closure due to public safety issues. It was time to go exploring!


The first location I entered was the Body Shop. Here I discovered human organs on display, waiting to be refrigerated. A man in a green coat stood nearby, described as having “a permanent smile where his lips have been removed”. His name was Chin and he asked me whether I would “like to sell a body part”!!! One of the messages on the bulletin board had mentioned selling a lung for cash, but I hadn’t really thought I might be able to do it. When I looked through my dialogue options, I pretty much just had the choice to sell or buy organs, including those that I might have already sold previously. I agreed to sell a body part, just to see what would happen, and a list appeared displaying the current most in demand parts. My heart would get me $6000, my eyes $5000, my lungs $3000, my stomach $1500 and so on, right down to my appendix which would only get me $3. I had no idea how I could possibly survive without any of my major organs, but decided it was too early to find out. I declined, and Chin told me to come back if I changed my mind. “We’re offering great deals!”


The next location I visited was Donut World. Inside was an SEA cop at a table eating donuts who immediately told me I wasn’t welcome. “Hey! We don’t allow your kind in Donut World, hamsterheard.” I wondered what exactly he meant by “your kind”, so I responded with “I came in for a donut. Is there some law against that?” It turned out that there was! “This is a donut shop, citizen. Only cops are allowed in donut shops.” The majority of other dialogue options I had only seemed likely to rile the cop up (e.g. “Drop dead, flatfoot”), so I chose to say “Am I ever going to get a break in this game?” just to see what would happen. He merely told me to get out, so I did. Making my way to the right of screen, I came to another shop named Larry’s Rentals. The store contained “walls lined with slivers of microsoft, spikes of colored silicon mounted on cardboard”, and owner Larry Moe. I didn’t yet know what the microsofts purpose was, but I knew how they were installed since Larry had “a dozen microsofts protruding from the carbon socket behind his left ear”.


Larry asked me if I was interested in buying any “softs”, but then strangely told me he didn’t have any right now. So what the hell are all the chips on the wall for? Also rather odd was that I could tell Larry that I was “looking for the Panther Moderns”, even though I had no idea who or what that was. When I did so I was told that “the Moderns don’t like networking with strangers”. I then asked whether that included “wealthy strangers”, to which Larry responded with “How much would you pay for a meeting with the Moderns?” I had no clue how much I should try, but my options were $100, $200 or $300. I thought I’d try $300, since I was very likely going to have to play through this section again later and could try a lower amount then. Larry agreed, and demanded the cash upfront! As soon as I gave it to him I discovered how harsh Neuromancer was going to be. “What a rube! You really think I’m going to let you just walk in there? But thanks for the donation, man.” Well at least now I knew not to try bribing Larry again!


There seemed nothing else to do in Larry’s Rentals, so I moved onto the next location. On entering I figured I was in an establishment that offers adult services. “An attractive woman named Akiko is waiting for you here beside a massage table.” She greeted me and asked “what services may I perform for you today?” My dialogue options included “I’m sure I’ll think of something”, “Uh, excuse me, I’m just passing through”, and “I wanna buy some info, babe.” I had no idea what would happen here (I highly doubted I was about to witness Akiko performing sexual acts), so I saved my game before answering. I chose “I’m sure I’ll think of something”, and was immediately confronted by a lawbot! Apparently even the mere suggestion of sex is against the law, and before I knew it I was standing in a “Justice booth” where a Compu-Judge on a large screen was preparing to dish out justice for my actions. “You have been charged with a serious crime, citizen. I will be your Judge.” A lawyer appeared on a separate screen on the left wall offering me his services for my defense. “You need me. Only 250 credits. In advance.”


I had the option to pay the lawyer’s fee, to claim that I couldn’t afford it, to defend myself, or to simply shout my disgust. I chose to accept the fee, at which point the Compu-Judge asked how the defendant pleads. My lawyer piped up with “Guilty, your Honor. Defendant requests the death penalty for his crime.” Huh!!!! It seemed to me that no-one can be trusted in this game! While I voiced my distress, the lawyer merely responded with “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” I was then found guilty, but charged $500 rather than given the death penalty, and sent on my way. I don’t yet know if choosing any other options might let me get off with a lesser fine, but I felt like I was going to get plenty of opportunities to experiment later on. At this point I restored my game and when Akiko asked me what she could do for me, this time I responded with “I wanna but some info, babe”. I got so some too, but it cost me $20. “Here’s a hot tip. The Panther Modern link code is CHAOS. The password is MAINLINE. They can help you.” There’s that Panther Modern group again! I added the link code to my spreadsheet, along with all the other codes I had no idea what to do with.


Sadly, as soon as Akiko gave me the information, the lawbot appeared again and I was once again facing justice. This time I tried defending myself, but the results were the same, with the humorous addition of the lawyer mocking my failure. It appears I get charged $500 and released no matter what I choose, or so I can tell so far. Just as in Mean Streets, I was now wondering why I couldn’t just restore my game and never pay Akiko for the info now that I already knew it!  As long as I was able to use the link code and password without actually having received it, then why wouldn’t I just save the $520 it cost me to get it? I also wondered what would happen if I went back to Akiko now and asked for more information. The answer is that she gave me more info: “The banking center is on the Freeside orbital colony, but the link number for the Bank of Zurich is BOZOBANK.” As expected, I was once again collected by the lawbot too, but this time I simply restored my game back to prior to asking Akiko anything. I had no idea how many times I could get information out of her, nor did I know how many times I could go through the court proceedings reasonably unscathed, but I decided to move on for now.


The next store I entered was Shin’s Pawn Shop. I knew from Ratz that Shin had been looking for me, wanting me to collect my deck from him. Shin had also left a message on the bulletin board telling me to pick it up or he’d have to sell it. The shop was filled with weapons, jewellery and other “junk that nobody wants”. I accessed my inventory, clicked on the pawn ticket, and then selected Give Item. I was then given some dialogue options, including “Why are you in such a rush to give me my deck back?” and “Okay. Give me the deck. I can’t operate without one.” I was very interested to know why Shin wanted me to get the deck so badly, so I asked. “Your deck scare away good customer. No more favour.” I had no idea why my deck might scare away customers, or why I might have left it with Shin to begin with, but obviously I needed it. Interestingly, when I tried to get it, Shin told me I needed to pay $100 and give him the ticket first. I no longer had the ticket though as I’d already given it to him! Thankfully he gave me my deck anyway, making me wonder what use the ticket had in the first place.


I thanked Shin for looking after my deck, only to have him throw me out and slam the door on me. I noticed I could no longer get into the pawn shop, so that must be all that I’m required to do there, at least for now. Wandering along the street, I next entered the appropriately named Cheap Hotel. Ratz had also mentioned that I needed to find a way to pay my bill at the hotel or risk being forced to sell my body parts. The description informed me that my room is “number 92, three meters long with an oval hatch at the end”, but before I could try to go there, the management kicked me out due to the aforementioned unpayed bill. They could’ve let me pay it! I guessed I was supposed to find a way to do it from outside the hotel, so continued my exploration of Chiba City. Further south I came to the oddly named Gentleman Loser, which appeared to be a restaurant. There was only one customer there, which was a woman named Shiva. One of my bulletin board messages had told me to see Shiva, with Anonymous Bosch informing me that he’d left my Cryptology skill chip with her. She called out to me as soon as I entered the restaurant: “Hey, geek! C’mere! I got something’ for ya!”


I joked with Shiva that whatever she had better not be contagious, and she responded with “Anonymous was here earlier. If you’re a friend of his, you know what I’ve got for you.” One of my dialogue options was “Ah! You must be referring to the...........” I chose this option and typed “skill chip” into the empty space. “Yeah. You must be Tricky. I got your chip here for ya. I also have Hardware Repair for sale for $1000.” I really didn’t know whether I should be saving up my credits at this stage of the game or buying stuff, but I chose to buy the Hardware Repair chip anyway. I now had $10860, a UXB deck, a Cryptology skill chip and a Hardware Repair skill chip. I decided to spend some time seeing whether I could figure out how to use all this stuff. It also seemed an ideal time to read through the manual, now that I have a basic understanding of the game’s mechanics and at least some of the terminology. I feel like I’m going to be in for the long haul on this one, but I’m not yet sure whether that’s a good or a bad thing.


Session Time: 0 hours 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: Ive 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, Ive not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!