Neuromancer (DOS)

Discuss Review + Want + Have Contribute

Description

Based on the cyberpunk novel by William Gibson. In a grimy future, you play Case, a cyberspace cowboy who finds himself broke in Chiba City. Find yourself a laptop and the right software for it so you can hack into databases around the city to regain your access to cyberspace. Buy and upgrade brain implant chips to augment your computer skills, and sell your body parts to afford new technologies. When you get to cyberspace, you'll take on the nasty AIs that guard the most important databases. Within all this information is the bizarre secret of this world of inbred corporations.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Part of the Following Groups

• Game feature: Simulated Internet
• Games with code-wheel copy protection
• Inspiration: Literature
• Theme: Hacking / Pseudohacking
• William Gibson licensees

User Reviews

Excellent Illusion of Living World	Adam Baratz (1484)
Trying to stuff two universes into a can - almost, but not quite...	Colin Rowsell (45)	unrated

Critic Reviews

The Games Machine (UK)	Jan, 1990	90 out of 100	90
Zero	Sep, 1990	78 out of 100	78
Joker Verlag präsentiert: Sonderheft	1993	70 out of 100	70
Just Games Retro	Feb 18, 2004		70
The Good Old Days (Staff Reviews only)	Jun 24, 2016	4 out of 6	67

Forums

There are currently no topics for this game.

Trivia

Music

The game's theme song is Some Things Never Change by long-lasting group Devo, from their 1988 album Total Devo. It was featured in instrumental versions on all platforms the game was released on, however on the C-64 a portion of the real song was actually sampled and used in the intro.

Novel

Several descriptions in the game have been taken from the novel's text. Two examples appear in the screenshots: The bartender's (Ratz) description "His teeth are a webwork of East European steel..." and the Cheap Hotel's description "...smells of cigarettes and cheap perfume..." which, in the novel, describes the smell of the hotel's elevator.

References

• If you look closely at the man with the chips and wires coming out of his head on the opening screen, you'll notice a striking resemblance to William Gibson, author of the book that this game is based upon.
• There are a few different references in this game to other Interplay games. One thing in the game is said to take longer to finish than Wasteland. Another reference can be found in the Battle Chess 3K program you can download off one of the game's pseudo-BBSes.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • October 1989 (Issue #64) – Adventure Game of the Year
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #108 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #15 Best Way To Die In Computer Gaming (selling own body parts)
• Power Play
  • Issue 01/1989 - Nicest Self-Promotion (for the in-game advertisement for "Bard's Tale 714")

Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Apogee IV and HeX-Open

Related Web Sites

• Commodore 64 Boxed Sets (For C64: game packaging digitalisations. Include box, manual, brochure, additional material.)
• DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS (Compatibility statistics page between DOSBox versions and the original game.)
• Hall of Light (For Amiga: game database entry; digitalised manuals; game packaging; screenshots; additional material.)
• IMDb, the Internet Movie Database (Game database entry: reviews, trailers, ratings.)
• Lemon 64 (For Commodore 64: game entry database; advertisement; magazine reviews; music; documentation; cover art; additional material.)
• Lemon Amiga (For Amiga: game database entry; magazine reviews; music; manual; additional material.)
• Museum of Computer Adventure Game History (Interplay, Amiga) (For Amiga: game packaging; manuals; media; additional material.)
• Museum of Computer Adventure Game History (Interplay, C64) (UK version.
  For Commodore 64: game packaging; manuals; media; additional material.)
• Neuromancer Fan Site (Fan site about the PC version of Neuromancer with gameplay description, screenshots, hints and links.)
• Neuromancer - the game (Guide to Neuromancer, including database codes, cyberspace coordinates, soft- & hardware descriptions, walkthrough and more.)
• Neuromancer Walkthrough (posted on The Spoiler Centre)
• Replacementdocs (PC, Manual) (Documentation for DOS/Windows.)
• Replacementdocs (PC, Quick Reference Card) (Documentation for DOS/Windows.)
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (novel) (Encyclopaedic entry for the novel which was the inspirational source of the game.)
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (video game) (Encyclopaedic entry for combined platforms.)
• William Gibson aleph (The site of the Neuromancer book which the game was based on)