Room 127 Read online

  Dave Ritter

  Video Editor, GameCore.net

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/21/13, 3:58pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: Check the Site!

  Hey Sam! Check out the front page of GameCore! Look on the sidebar for the preview of Open Wheel Dynasty and check the byline.

  I know its just a really basic one page preview and the first comment on the page calls me a “tremendous retard” but it's still been a great day.

  Hope you're doing well. I love you!

  Steve

  [email protected] (Samantha Strickland) 5/21/13, 6:22pm

  to: [email protected]

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  re: re: Check the Site!

  That's so cool! Even if you're a tremendous retard, I'm glad you're my tremendous retard. :)

  Sam

  [email protected] (Ken Greene) 5/22/13, 9:20am

  to: [email protected]

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  re: New Project

  Steve,

  I've got something new for you to look at. I put it on your desk. It's the weird envelope with the floppy disk inside. Yeah, a floppy disk. I don't remember the last time I've seen one of those either.

  It looks like some sort of indie game. Maybe just a single developer's demo. If it fits on a 1.44MB floppy I doubt it's much of a barnburner. The unconventional storage medium is probably just a way of getting attention. I guess it worked. You know we've had publishers send us vinyl records? Not with games on them, but the idea's the same. It's weird.

  The title on the disk is “Room 127”. Like I said, I didn't really look it over. None of us really have the time to deal with it. Figure out how to hook it up to your computer. See what it is. If it's just a virus it will just be a good excuse to replace that sorry computer of yours.

  Ken

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 9:44am

  to: [email protected]

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  re: Floppy Drive

  Ms. Walker:

  I know this is a strange request, but would you happen to have a 1.44MB microfloppy drive lying around? We got in a strange promotional item and the staff up here asked me to take a look at it. It's a microfloppy all right, but I haven't seen one of these since grade school.

  If you can't find anything, that's all right. I'll figure something out.

  [email protected] (Anna Walker) 5/22/13, 10:21am

  to: [email protected]

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  re: re: Floppy Drive

  Believe it or not, Steve, we do have a few microfloppy drives. I'll bring it over during lunch. Maybe I don't really want to know, but what do you plan on doing with our computers?

  Anna

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 10:43am

  to: [email protected]

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  re: re: Floppy Drive

  Anna:

  Apparently a publisher sent a game over on a floppy disk. Or maybe it's just a press release. Ken doesn't know, but he wanted me to figure it out.

  I'll be honest, the whole thing looks shifty. This doesn't look like something sent out by a professional. The writing on the disk is sloppy. The disk itself looks pretty dingy. Are you going to kill me if I try and run whatever is on this thing?

  Steve

  [email protected] (Anna Walker) 5/22/13, 10:59am

  to: [email protected]

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  re: re: Floppy Drive

  Steve:

  Just disconnect from the network before you install anything.

  Anna

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 3:01pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: Room 127

  Ken:

  I've been trying to get this Room 127 disk to work for the last few hours. I feel like an explorer, piecing together the runes of an ancient culture. The IT department scrounged up a floppy drive for me, which I thought would be the hardest part. I was wrong.

  The computer tries to read the disk and seems to hang up every time I put it in. It tries to launch some kind of installer which, as you might guess, Windows Vista wants no part of. I've been disabling security settings one-by-one, hoping that Windows figures out that I actually want to install whatever is on the disk. It hasn't gotten the message yet.

 

  It's particularly strange because as far as I can tell, the installer isn't doing anything weird with the registry. It's just trying to install a single program called 127.exe. Nothing else is on there.

  I'll keep going on this but let me know if I'm wasting my time.

  Steve

  [email protected] (Samantha Strickland) 5/22/13, 3:13pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: Next Weekend

  Hi Steve! I've been thinking about making a trip up to San Francisco. Maybe I could come up the 7th and go back on the 9th? Do you think you'll be free on the weekend?

  Love,

  Sam

  [email protected] (Ken Greene) 5/22/13, 4:31pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: re: Room 127

  Steve, thanks for looking at that. Can't lie. It has me pretty curious what's on that disk. But don't worry too much about it. I'll try and figure out which publisher sent it. I'll get them to send us another copy or maybe just attach the .exe file to an e-mail like a normal person. The publicity stunt was cute, but if it doesn't work it's a waste of time for everyone involved.

  If I hear anything, I'll pass it along.

  Ken

  [email protected] (Brett Jackson) 5/22/13, 4:50pm

  to: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

  cc:

  re: Drinks?

  I've had a shitty day today. The meeting with Activision PR went way late, and I was stuck next to this guy who smelled like—and I am not kidding—rotten yogurt.

  Beers at the Hemlock tonight? I'm buying. Maybe we can see what the new kid is like when he loosens up.

  Brett

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 11:31pm

  to: [email protected]

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  re: re: Next Weekend

  that wouldbe great.I miss you sooo much, Sam. everythings going great hear but its not the same without you

  I tried to skype with you tonitebut i guess you were asleep

  lve

  Steve

  [email protected] (Dave Ritter) 5/23/13, 10:02am

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: Installer Problem

  Yo Steve!

  I was thinking about the installer problem you were talking about last night. There's obviously a separate .exe on the floppy disk that is utilizing the autorun function when the disk is inserted. What if you try running that installer in a compatibility mode?

  From what you and Ken have said this is all probably just a promotional ARG and there's probably some marketing prick just laughing his ass off as we try to access the ad he put on this disk, but it's worth a try.

  Dave

  [email protected] (Samantha Strickland) 5/23/13, 10:55am

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: re: Next Weekend

  You better watch out if you're going to e-mail me when you're drunk. ;) Well, no matter the circumstances, it's good to know you're looking forward to seeing me. You're not having too much fun with your new friends at GameCore.

  Any word about whether you'll be appearing in a video anytime soon?

  Love,

  Sam

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/23/13, 11:43am

  to: [email protected]

  cc: />
  re: Odd Request

  Ken:

  I know this is a strange request, but I thought I'd just throw it out there. When you guys offered me the job here, I took it even though it meant not going home to see my girlfriend in Fresno this summer. She's also a fan of the site, and she's been bugging me to find out whether I could appear in one of your review videos.

  If it's totally not going to happen, that's fine. But I think it might mean a lot to her if she could see me here with you guys. It might help her understand why I decided to stick around in SF rather than go home.

  Just let me know.

  Oh, and I got something going with that Room 127 disk you gave me. With a little help from Dave, I finally got the installer working. I'll let you know what I find.

  Steve

  [email protected] (Ken Greene) 5/23/13, 12:22pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: re: Odd Request

  I'll make you a deal. If you never tell Dave about this, you can totally appear in the next review video. He already thinks that the video content is the only reason anyone comes to our site. If he finds out that your girlfriend cares more about a video cameo than a preview article, he'll be insufferable.

  We might ask you to dress up in a monkey costume, though. Is that cool with you?

  Ken

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/23/13, 4:03pm

  to: [email protected]

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  re: Total Disappointment

  Ken:

  So I managed to get Room 127 working. After all this, it ended up being a total dud. I still don't really know what it is, but it's certainly not a game.

  To get everything running, I had to put the installer on the floppy disk into Windows 95 compatibility mode. Anything else and it would just hang up and freeze the system. The same thing goes for the game itself. I don't know what it is, but there's something about it that Vista just doesn't like.

  Anyway, I load up the game and I don't know what to think. No start screen. No options or anything. It boots up in fullscreen, even though the resolution can't be more than 640x480 if that.

  It looks like something off an old NES The graphics are blocky and monochromatic. I can't even tell exactly what the sprite I'm controlling is supposed to be. It's white and gray kind of like a person, but there's not enough contrast to be sure. It doesn't matter. I don't know what to do with it.

  The whole game is just a single, long black hallway. The background doesn't show anything but light gray windows. I figured I had to run to the right. You know, just like Mario or Sonic or something normal. But nothing happened. There were no enemies to defeat. There was no goal to reach. Just more dark hallway and light windows.

  I probably walked right for three or four minutes before I gave up and closed the game. The music was driving me crazy. It was like a thirty second loop of the same strange midi song.

  To me, it looks like someone's very first project in an amateur gamemaking program. That might explain the compatibility issues, too. Where did you say this came from?

  Steve

  [email protected] (Ken Greene) 5/23/13, 4:49pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: re: Total Disappointment

  Huh, sounds weird. Honestly I don't know where it came from. Just showed up in the mail. I guess you're probably right. We get a lot of fans trying to send us their crappy games, hoping we'll review them. Most of them are courteous enough to send a letter explaining themselves, though. Not this guy.

  Sucks that it wasted your time. By the way, try and not call the NES “old”. Some of us around here grew up with those things. You probably never had to blow on a cartridge in your life.

  Ken

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/23/13, 7:01pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: Hangover

  Sorry about the incoherent message last night. Me and the rest of the guys at the office went out for beers and I got a little out of control. Just so exciting to be working with these guys.

  I'm paying the price today, though. I was fine for most of the day, and I thought I'd survived but just about when I was getting ready to head home I started to feel sick to my stomach. Didn't throw up, but I was sure it was going to happen Now my head is pounding like a drum. My vision is blurry and I can't focus on anything.

  It's gotta be the strangest hangover I've ever had. I know it's crazy early but I think I'll head to bed. Can't wait to be rid of this thing.

  Love,

  Steve

  [email protected] (Jill Wright) 5/24/13 10:12am

  to: [email protected]

  cc: [email protected]

  re: Eventful Conflict Eternia

  I heard Ken ended up sending you on a fucked up wild goose chase over that weird floppy disk we got in earlier this week. That's no fun, but I guess get used to it. People send us all sorts of stuff like that. Last year, a guy mailed in hacked Pokemon cartridge. You know, the original game boy version. Red/Blue. This one was red. Anyway, this guy had gone in and flashed the cart with a messed up ROM that was full of profanity and bizarre sexual situations. You're thinking that any kind of sexual situations are bizarre in a Pokemon game and you're right, but these were bizarre even out of the context.

  The weirdest part was that the cart wasn't sent to me. I've almost come to expect that, you know? It comes with the territory of daring to be a woman on the internet who plays games. It was sent to Brett. With a personalized card. Don't tell him I told you this story.

  Anyway, I put our review copy of Eventful Conflict Eternia on your desk. If you can't tell from the name, it's a niche Japanese RPG. I can't remember if it's Atlus or XSEED or whoever, but we typically don't get their games in. Thought if you had the time this weekend you might put together a review for us.

  Jill

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/24/13 10:44am

  to: [email protected]

  re: [email protected]

  re: re: Eventful Conflict Eternia

  Jill:

  No problem. Not typically what I'm into these days, but I played a ton of Final Fantasy when I was a kid. And I let Disgaea eat up a good month of sixth grade, so I can take a heavy dose of Japanese gaming. I haven't been feeling that great, so I'll probably stay in all weekend. This is just what I needed to pass the time.

  Steve

  [email protected] (Jill Wright) 5/24/13 11:37am

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: re: Eventful Conflict Eternia

  Jesus Christ you were in sixth grade when Disgaea came out???

  Hope you feel better.

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/24/13 7:21pm

  to: [email protected]

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  re: Still not doing great

  Hey Sam, hope you're getting ready for a fun weekend. Not so much for me. Maybe this thing isn't a hangover after all. I'm still feeling like there's a rock in my head. Sinuses maybe? Haven't had problems with those for years.

  Fortunately, today I took home a game that should keep me busy. I'm only an hour in and this thing is crazy. I think there were less stats to manage in that F1 management game. And that was all stats. It's a Japanese RPG. I guess it's kind of like a Final Fantasy type game, but you create your party and there are fifteen different character classes.

  This probably isn't helping my headache, but I think this is going to be my first review so I'm going to power through it.

  Love,

  Steve

  [email protected] (Samantha Strickland) 5/24/13 10:08pm

  to: [email protected]

  cc:

  re: re: Still not doing great

  I'm so sorry you're still feeling sick! You know it could still be
a hangover. If you really overdid it, the hangover can last for a couple days. Try and rest up. You need to be healthy next weekend when I come and visit! ;)

  Thinking of you,

  Sam

  [email protected] (Steve Norman) 5/27/13 9:12am

  to: [email protected]; [email protected]

  cc:

  re: Eventful Conflict Eternia Review

  attachment: ECERev.wps

  Ken, Jill:

  Here's my review of Eventful Conflict Eternia. I thought I was going to be just as lost with it as I was with Open Wheel Dynasty, but something clicked with me on Saturday and I couldn't put it down. Still only gave it three stars out of five—the combat system is convoluted as hell, and gets way too easy when you figure it out and the story is bullshit—but it's a lot more worthwhile than I thought when I first stuck it in my PS3.

  This sounds strange, but I think I'm going to give Room 127 another try. It's still installed on my computer, and I kept thinking about it this weekend. There has to be something I'm missing, right? Even if it's just an amateur's silly project, it has to go somewhere.