Neuromancer PROGRAMMED DESIGNED By: By: TROY A. MILES BRUCE BALFOUR MIKE STACKPOLE BRIAN FARGO TROY A. MILES PRODUCED BY: ARTWORK BY: SOUNDTRACK BRIAN FARGO CHARLES H.H. WEIDMAN III By: DEVO SOUND FX BY: DAVE WARHOL TESTING By: BILL DUGAN BRUCE SCHLICKBERND TOM DECKER FASTDOS BY: BILL “BURGER” HEINEMAN Special thanks to Timothy Leary for all his help and inspiration for making Neuromancer a reality.
Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................... The Real World ......................................................................................... Your Purpose in Life .................................................................................. Basic Decks and Comlink Access ............................................................. Cyberspace ........................................................................
Neuromancer INTRODUCTION He closed his eyes. Found the ridged face of the power And in the bloodlit dark behind his hypnagogic images jerking past like a faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala Please, he prayed, nowA gray disk, the color of Chiba sky. stud. eyes, silver phosphenes boiled in from the edge of space, film compiled from random frames. Symbols, figures, of visual information. NOW- Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of paler gray.
THE "REAL W O R L D ” Neuromancer is a science fiction role-playing game set in the year 2058. Your real world location is Chiba City, by Tokyo Bay in the Kanto District of south-central Honshu, Japan. Chiba is a magnet for the Sprawl’s techno-criminal subcultures, notorious for its shadowland of black medicine and Body Shops.
BASIC DECKS AND COMLINK ACCESS The best way to get started in your quest is to locate the basic hardware-your deck-and the software needed to jack into the public computer network. Having already spent a short time in Chiba before the game begins, you’ll find a basic deck with Comlink software waiting for you right where you left it, wherever that is.... Deck hardware and software can be upgraded at several locations in the city. Money is the key factor.
CYBERSPACE Once you get a cyberspace deck, you’ll want to access the “matrix” itself, also known as cyberspace. Hidden from the common citizen who is limited to accessing bases through the Comlink system, the cyberspace grid represents information in its pure form. All of the private, corporate, government, and military bases can be reached in cyberspace. Many of these bases can be reached only from cyberspace because they are isolated computers with the highest levels of protection.
Certain bases contain a second line of defense-an AI, which stands for “Artificial Intelligence.” Beginning with primitive 20th century attempts to model human intelligence in computer programs, modern day AIs have developed into individual entities capable of being granted citizenship by certain countries. Specially programmed for the military and for corporations that can afford them, modern AIs have personalities and mental capabilities far beyond the humans that originally created them.
CYRERSPACE SURWAL Survival in the cyberspace environment depends on the skills, equipment, software, and information you’ve acquired in the earlier phases of the game. You may often find it necessary to return to the Real World, because you’ve run out of money or need a new deck, more software, more information, or you need to move to a new jack location to reach another area of cyberspace.
RAM LIMITS: The programs that drive the operating systems in both types of decks, as well as icebreaking and other application softwarez, are enormous in comparison to the size of programs in archaic 20th century computers. Modern deck RAM (Random Access Memory) is highly efficient and can handle a number of these programs with remarkable speed. Decks are continuously powered by an internal power supply so that the memory is non-volatile.
BODY SHOP The Chiba City Body Shop serves two major functions-body part sales and “re-animation.” If a wealthy cowboy is unfortunate enough to get killed, and his body is found before it rots, it may be taken to the Body Shop for re-animation. This is an expensive process, but the dead cowboy rarely has any say in the matter. By sheer coincidence, the cost of re-animation almost always equals the amount of money the cowboy was carrying on his credit chip when he died.
CONVERSATIONS In Talk mode, you can carry on a conversation with other characters in a room through the use of “word balloons.” Word balloons allow you to choose among several responses or questions that are appropriate to the situation in that room. In some cases, you will find an option that reads something like this: If you think the character you’re talking to knows something about a particular subject, you can ask them about it by typing a word describing that subject.
Once you are identified, the PAX Main Menu will appear, listing your options. You can always exit from any menu by selecting the EXIT option or by typing “X” on your keyboard. The Main Menu lists the following services: EXIT SYSTEM 1 . FIRST TIME PAX USER INFO 2. ACCESS BANKING INTERLINK 3 . NIGHT CITY NEWS 4. BULLETIN BOARD Make your selection by typing the option number on your keyboard, or by selecting it with your joystick or mouse. A brief history of the PAX network.
BULLETIN BOARD: This option puts you into the personal message system on the PAX. You can view the daily messages or send one yourself. If you select VIEW MESSAGES, a message menu will appear. To read a message, select one from the list with your joystick or mouse, or by typing the message number. Be sure to read all the messages by using the MORE option. DECK OPERATION The given examples use keyboard commands, but these steps can also be accomplished with a joystick or mouse.
CYRERSPACE DECK OPERATION If you have a cyberspace-capable deck, you can either use it to log onto a database in the usual way, or you can enter cyberspace. You need Comlink 6.0 to access cyberspace. Follow this procedure for cyberspace access: 1. Type “I” (for Inventory). The Inventory list will be displayed. 2. Select your cyberspace deck by typing the corresponding number from the list. The Operate/ Discard/Give/Erase menu will be displayed. 3. Type “O” to operate the deck.
TO INSTALL A SKILL CHIP: When you acquire a skill chip, you carry it in your Inventory until you implant it in your skull using this procedure: 1. Type “I” to display the Inventory list 2. Select the skill chip you wish to implant by typing the corresponding number from the list. The Operate/Discard/Give menu will be displayed. 3. Type “O” to operate the skill chip. The skill chip will disappear from your Inventory list since it has been implanted in your skull and is now available for your use.
USING SOFTWARE IN CYBERSPACE: 1. Type “I” (for Inventory). The list of your softwarez will be displayed. 2 . Select the software you wish to use by its corresponding number. USING A ROM CONSTRUCT: 1. Type “R” (for Rom Construct). The Rom Construct options will be displayed: Exit Rom Construct 1. Software Debug 2. Software Analysis 3. Monitor mode When you select the Software Debug or Software Analysis options, you are making use of the Rom Construct’s skills in those areas.
APPENDIX A: LIST OF SKILL a (See the “SKILL CHIPS” section on page 7 for a general discussion of this subject.) COPTALK: 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. BARGAINING: 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.
