SnoopJMar 1

been putting this one off for a while but I'm feeling like a point and click at the moment

plus, it has a #MasterBootRecord soundtrack 🤘

Show threadSnoopJMar 1
hell of a first impression https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hDy0T8FSvM
VirtuaVerse intro

YouTube
Show threadSnoopJMar 4

I'm goin' back in for some VirtuaVerse. When last we'd left off, Nathan had joined a hacker gang that seems to mostly leave graffiti in AVR and talk to each other by encrypted means, and gotten a lead on where his girlfriend Jay has gotten to.

Also, he might have brought the heat down on her in the process of blackmailing the guy who was working at the Pill Street pharma in order to get him to sell one of the under-the-table Tracer Activators to swap for an AR cartridge.

"Honey, I caused Events to occur by approaching the world with Point-and-Click Adventure Game Logic again"

Show threadSnoopJMar 4
Neuromancer reference?
Show threadSnoopJMar 4

Can you take a piss in the bathroom in VirtuaVerse?

✅ yes, you can

Show threadSnoopJMar 4
Like any good hacker, Nathan knows that having the manual is going to be a big benefit.
Show threadSnoopJMar 4
Unsurprisingly, overclocking the quadcopter's CPU did not make it fly faster.
Show threadSnoopJMar 4

Sidebar: it does rather annoy me when people say "drone" and mean "quadcopter" or any other aerial vehicle that is in fact not autonomous

I know I've lost this battle many years ago, though.

Show threadSnoopJMar 4
okay but what if I overclocked the quadcopter's CPU harder
Show threadSnoopJMar 4

this game loves the "yes, but actually no" trick. overclocking harder does work, but then you need to replenish the quadcopter's liquid coolant

you know, that thing that all quadcopters have

Show threadSnoopJMar 4

anyway, it's time to ask the BDSM couple about which sex holograms are available from the boutique AVR artist they told me about

this is a good game

Show threadSnoopJMar 4

oh hrm, I assumed I'd have new dialogue with them, but I don't!

Nathan needs to make up his mind about what kind of sex hologram he wants. There is presumably a puzzle we would be trying to solve with this, but maybe I don't have what I need to solve it yet. Time to pull on another thread elsewhere

Show threadSnoopJ
wow, Nathan is very whiny when he does finally catch up with Jay!
Mar 4 at 6:22amWeb
Show threadSnoopJMar 4

I did a little bit of Point-and-Click Adventure Game homework and now I'm getting a lore dump via C64-style demo.

'Hell yea' moment.

Show threadSnoopJMar 4
this is a Bechdel test pass
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
you know what time it is? It's ASCII code table puzzle time
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
presented without comment
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
okay but I do have a comment: this is a funny thing to put in a game when you run an IRC server (mbrserver.com)
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
greetz 2 da Technomancers
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
in which I solve a puzzle by signing a character up for a bunch of AVR spam
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
this is kinda like "Snow Crash" but I'm rolling my eyes a lot less and it's not as deeply tinged with male gaze and stephenson's *gestures*
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
neal stephenson? oh, you mean the cryptocurrency guy, right?
Show threadSnoopJMar 13

okay, coming back for more #VirtuaVerse. I just made it to a desert. I need to find a vitally important cold-storage copy of some source code. the fate of the world depends on it and so on.

a desert is kind of a strange place for a cold-storage copy, but nevermind that.

Show threadSnoopJMar 13
maybe the game will surprise me and the source is laser-etched on something sufficiently durable, but I suspect it'll be like a box of casette tapes or something since this game loves its retro computing aesthetic
Show threadSnoopJMar 13
I guess it's hidden here because this is where the Hardware Graveyard is, and the Hardware Graveyard is probably the one place the Mag Police definitely won't be looking for the world's most sensitive source code. "Right under their noses" trope
Show threadSnoopJMar 14
communicating ideas, duh
Show threadSnoopJMar 14

the source code is stored on a CD-R, the worst possible choice of medium for this desert

lol

Show threadSnoopJMar 14
it's fine, I can be normal about this. maybe it's only been out here a few years, the Cypher Master is canonically frying his brain with hyperreality drugs and the robot who delivered the source code here lost its memory and may not be tracking time reliably
Show threadSnoopJMar 14
I forgot that the other half of this plot is that we have to write malware for IPv7
Show threadSnoopJMar 14
now in my inventory: a copy of "A Farewell to Arms"
Show threadSnoopJMar 14
> Use Octopus
Show threadSnoopJMar 14

The ending of VirtuaVerse comes fairly suddenly, but there's some great surprise escalation in the final chapter.

A fun little romp, if it appeals to you, I say go for it. The music alone is worth the ticket (although of course you can listen to the OST by itself: https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/album/virtuaverse-ost)

I'd say it's more mature than "Snow Crash" and less mature than "Neuromancer", in terms of theme and point of view.

VIRTUAVERSE.OST, by MASTER BOOT RECORD

23 track album

MASTER BOOT RECORD
Show thread💀 𝓕airchild 💀Mar 14
@SnoopJ
> Fire Octopus
You can't do that.
> Load Octopus
The octopus is loaded.
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowMar 14
@SnoopJ ...7? Also how do you write malware for IP of any version? I am confuse.
Show threadSnoopJMar 14
@xgranade questions for the ages
Show threadBlake C. StaceyMar 14
@xgranade @SnoopJ Wasn't that also the premise of Serial Experiments Lain? Except the malware was also a guy who wanted to be God?
Show threadSnoopJMar 14
@bstacey @xgranade here's where I confess that I still haven't watched it 
Show threadBen BerryMar 14
@SnoopJ I assume it's easier because it's not LTS (being an odd-numbered IP version before we famously switched IP addressing to CalVer)
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowMar 14
@SnoopJ Maybe it's an M-DISC, lolz.
Show threadSnoopJMar 14
@xgranade they never made those for CD-R though! (it would be kinda funny if they did, though)
Show threadCassandra is only carbon nowMar 14
@SnoopJ Damn you, reality, for getting in the way of a silly shitpost!
Show threadSnoopJMar 14

@xgranade maybe it's a CD-R built with some kind of fancy diamond etching or otherwise bitrot-resistant coating

maybe the game is just not taking itself as seriously as I am trying to take it 

Show threadEric BrombaughMar 5
@SnoopJ It's weird going back to novels I read decades ago and remember fondly, then finding them full of problematic stuff that I'd forgotten.
Show threadEvanMar 5
@SnoopJ does the server only give you the first 512 bytes?
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
@scribblesonnapkins the size of an MBR does happen to line up nicely with the size of a (historical) IRC line!
Show threadJeff Miller (orange hatband)Mar 5
@SnoopJ Looks like the good ol' IBM PC glyph set for the low bits part of the table.
Show threadSnoopJMar 5
@jmeowmeow I believe you're right
Show threadJeff Miller (orange hatband)Mar 5

@SnoopJ The game RAMSAK was a Pac-Man clone-ish with a messy obstacle course of a board which made use of the internal speaker and those low bit glyphs, which is how they stay with me.

The programmer went on to fame and/or fortune in the Valley with more serious software, and we briefly crossed paths. He was surprised that I remembered.