<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Blood-Pigggy @ Jul 25 2007, 05:35 PM) [snapback]301350[/snapback]</div>Seriously: chill.

This was one of the best RPG/Adventure games of its kind, back when it came out.

The graphics aren't amazing, but if you had a C-64 when this game came out, they certainly were at least on par with other games that came out for that system at that time. They may be kind of dissapointing on an Amiga, but again---look at other games out in the late 1980s and their graphics.

The sounds on the other hand---well, until you actually get to go into the Matrix, they're kind of boring.
Case stomps around as he walks (I remember a friend watching me play the game saying something like, "MAN what kind of shoes is he wearing?!?!") and the bleeping MIDI version of the Devo song gets annoying after a while. So turn the sound down and put on a Front 242 CD (or your favorite 80s synth or industrial stuff) until you get to the Matrix part and you'll have a fine time. Maybe the Amiga version has better sound---I don't know, I never played it.

There are a lot of puzzles to solve until you can get a deck that can go into the Matrix---that's the Adventure part of the game---but once you do get in there, that's where the fun begins! (the RPG part of the game)

Some tips:

DON'T SELL YOUR ORGANS. The money is tempting but it's not worth it, and it will make the Matrix parts of the game a lot harder because you won't have as much health to spare (you will NEED IT when you start fignting ICE) and you can't buy the organs back later---once you sell them they're gone.

It's possible to get as much money as you need in the game without cheating.
That's what the banking nodes are for. Be clever and you'll figure out how to get as much money as you could ever need.

For the puzzles to get you to the Matrix part: that Panther Moderns/warez store guy sure is a jerk. I'm sure the law might be interested in his activities...and that's all I'm gonna say :)

Hope you have as much fun with this game as I did back in the day!

I have this game on my C64, which I still have. If you want this game in the equivalent of EGA rather than CGA, I would download the C64 disk version and run that in a C64 emulator rather than this version in DOSBox. It is the same game, just with the better C64 graphics (16 colour) of the time, rather than the PC graphics (4 colour) of the time....!

Actually, that's not at all accurate. You can buy them back, although you will need the Bargaining skill to do so. You're still right - you really need your organs to make it through the game.

A game I always wanted to try, but never did. Maybe I should now.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(humorguy @ Jul 27 2007, 06:55 PM) [snapback]301606[/snapback]</div>Err... look at the main site and you'll see the PC version (although not as good - graphically - as the C64 version) does have the 16 color EGA graphics (not the 4 color CGA as you've mentioned).

That most of the posts in this thread are relevant speaks highly.
Ok, I'll give it a whirl.

can some one tell me how to use the pax machine? i really don't know what its for and i can't seem to do anything to it,

It's the heart of the game really!

It's the terminal through which you can surf the net and you need to inhance yourself before doing that by buying stuff (first of all you need the deck you pawned away). Before that you can't really do anything with it.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Guest @ Aug 13 2007, 05:21 PM) [snapback]304482[/snapback]</div>Sebatianos explained what the PAX machine is: a terminal for accessing the net. Now I will explain how you make use of it.

There are six buttons on the bottom left part of your screen. The button between the "speech bubble" and the "note" is the one you are interested in, you know, the one with a red pattern on it which could look like anything ranging from a chisel being hammered into a block, to an assault rifle, to a mutated fish... but with a little creative imagination, you'll see that it says PAX in a very bold font, compared to the small number of pixels in the space it is written in. You can only use a PAX machine when you are in the room with one.

Once you are interfacing with the PAX machine, the first thing that happens is that you are asked for a verification code. If you started the game running the NEURO.EXE file, you are out of luck, as this verification is shipped physically with the original game, and is not supplied in any text file with the zipped archive. However, if you run the game using the NEUROCRK.COM executable (*), you can write any six digits as a verification code (I used 112358...), and you're in. Using PAX is easy from now on.

I only just started fiddling around in this game, so I cannot explain how to "surf cyberspace" (as you need a cyberspace-capable deck for that, one which I am yet to obtain in the game).

Some interesting links (**):

A story-like walkthrough:
http://faqs.ign.com/articles/594/594443p1.html

A William Gibson fansite, containing this game for different architectures, and, most notably, including a walkthrough and a Game Manual:
http://www.angelfire.com/de3/gibson/download/index.html

Cheers,
TheSatori.

(*) : as hinted by the game reviewer, Sebatianos, in the game's review:
(**) : I hope it is okay that I post these -- if not, then send me a message, or, if you have the priviledges, simply remove them.

The book was awesome, will try this :)