Welcome to Neuromancer from Interplay Productions, You may have heard of some of our other products, such as Wasteland, Tass Times in Tonetown, and The Bard's. ‘Tale series, all of which were published by other companies. Neuromancer and Battle Che are our very first games to be published under the Interplay name. We would love to hear any comments you have concerning the products we make. Most of all, we hope you have fun! Please write us at Thanks, From the crew at Interplay Interplay Productions 1575 Corporate Dr. Costa Mesa, Ca 92626 Should you have any problems you can reach us at (714) 549-2411, The Bard's Tale and Wasteland ate trademarks of Electronic Arts. Tass Times in Tonetown isa trademark of Activision, Inc Bale Chess is irademark of Interplay Productions. Neuromancer isa trademark of Cabana Boy ProductionsNeuromancer PROGRAMMED BY: DESIGNED BY: PRODUCED BY: ARTWORK BY: SOUNDTRACK BY: SOUND FX BY: ING BY: FASTDOS BY: TROY A. MILES BRUCE BALFOUR MIKE STACKPOLE BRIAN FARGO TROY A. MILES BRIAN FARGO CHARLES H.H. WEIDMAN III DEVO DAVE WARHOL BILL DUGAN BRUCE SCHLICKBERND. TOM DECKER 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 Cyberspace Survival... Limitations on Cyberspace Travel ... Cyberspace Decks Skill Chips... Body Shop...... Life and Death A Note about Taking Notes Conversations ‘Your Credit Chip. cl Using the PAX System . Basic Deck Operation Cyberspace Deck Operation jn. Action Examples .sc.csnensnee Appendix A: List of Skill ChipsNeuromancer INTRODUCTION He closed his eyes. Found the ridged face of the power stud. ‘And in the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes boiled in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking past like a film compiled from random frames. Symbols, figures, faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala of visual information. Please, he prayed, now— A gray disk, the color of Chiba sky. Now— Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of paler gray. Expanding— ‘And flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity. Inner eye opening to the stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority burning beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi Bank of America, and high and very far away he saw the spiral arms of military systems, forever beyond his reach. ‘And somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft, distant fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his face. —jacking into cyberspace; from the book NEUROMANCER, by William Gibson “The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games,” said the voice-over, “in early graphics programs and military experimentation with cranial jacks.” On the Sony, a two-dimensional space war faded behind a forest of mathematically generated ferns, demonstrating the spacial possibilities of logarithmic spirals; cold blue military footage burned through, lab animals wired into test systems, helmets feeding into fire control circuits of tanks and war planes. “Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts...A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...” —a kid’s show describing cyberspace; from the book NEUROMANCER‘THE “REAL WORLD” 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 Spraw!’s techno-criminal subcultures, notorious for its shadowland of black medicine and Body Shops. Criminal activity in Chiba is a constant subliminal hum, and death is the punishment for laziness, carelessness, lack of grace, or the failure to heed the demands of the intricate protocol. At one end of the city is the towering hologram logo of Fuji Electric, dominating the skyline over the high-tech zone. At the other end is the Chiba Spaceport, gateway to the orbital colonies of Freeside and Zion Cluster. Since Neuromancer is a role-playing game, you'll start the game by maneuvering your character through the “Real World” areas of Chiba City. Skills, in the form of “skill chips” implanted directly into your brain jack must be purchased and developed to ensure your continued survival in this complex world. Skills will be discussed later in more detail. In the Real World, interactions with the citizens of Chiba are important. Through dialogue, you can make friends or enemies. Some people can be very helpful, going so far as to give you things you need. Others can be downright unfriendly, keeping vital information from you if you say the ‘wrong thing. Information is power—and you don’t have much when you start the game. Another important source of information is the PAX, Public Access booths conveniently located around the city, providing private citizens with the means to stay current with the rest of the world, The PAX offers a newspaper, the Night City News; a Public BBS (Bulletin-Board System) for personal messages; and friendly Banking services (yes, money is important to your survival} ‘The Night City News is updated daily, so it’s a good idea to refer to it at least once every 24 hours. The PAX BBS will remind you that you're not alone in this world—you have friends who are happy to help when they can. YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE And what about your friends? Curiously enough, you seem to have fewer of them these days. Is it because of your breath? Maybe it’s because you haven't taken a bath recently? Or in Chiba City, is survival more valuable and less costly than friends? You've heard rumors that several cyberspace cowboys have disappeared—and not all of them were your friends. Where have they gone? You suspect that the answer lies in cyberspace, but you've fallen on hard times. You had to pawn your deck for some cash as soon as you arrived in Chiba City. You've spent the last two days in a drunken stupor, wondering what to do, Now it’s time to act. The fate of your remaining friends, and yourself, depends on your successful solution of this bizarre mystery. Ls a ee ene eee a My 2 ——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 i Deck hardware and software can be upgraded at several locations in the city. Money is the key factor. Better equipment means better reliability and the capability to earry and use more software—but the price goes up accordingly. Most people in Chiba end up buying their equipment from the used equipment stores, such as Crazy Edo’s Used Hardware Emporium. But Edo has a limited stock, so serious cyberspace cowboys buy from Asano Computing, the only local dealer who carries full-blown matrix simulators called “cyberspace decks” Normal Comlink access requires the use of one of the cyberspace jacks scattered around the city. With a basic deck and Comlink software, you can use these jacks to access computer systems (“bases”) all over the world. If you know the Comlink access code for a particular base, you can reach it with the proper level of Comlink software. Low security bases require only Comlink 1.0 for access, but the corporate and government bases with the highest security require Comlink 6.0 to make a connection. Keep in mind that the cyberspace jacks are used for both Comlink and cyberspace access. Comlink software can get you there, but most bases are protected by passwords. Certain bases will give you a visitor's password in their introductory message, but most passwords must be located by you. Some passwords that you come across will be coded, requiring the use of the Cryptology skill chip to decipher them before they can be used for entry toa base, ‘As rumors have it, bases can often be penetrated at the lower levels with a new kind of software that allows you to bypass the simpler password systems. Once you've been admitted to a base at a given level, you have access to everything contained in that level of the base. Many bases have multiple levels of access, each level requiring a different password. Ifyou can log onto a database at a higher level after finding its password, you will have access to more of the contents of the database—including secret information. Valuable software can also be downloaded from some of these bases. You will be automatically charged for your Comlink access time, so use your time wisely because it will be limited by the amount of money you have on your eredit chip. When you are logged onto a database, time passes at the same rate that it does in the “real world”. ee 3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. Visually, cyberspace is a three-dimensional representation of all the bases, which look like geometric shapes. These bases are laid out in specific zones of the horizontal cyberspace grid. In actuality, eyberspace is just an image generated in your brain by your cyberspace deck. Without the deck, cyberspace would just be a complex sea of information that humans would never be able to understand. In operation, you might compare travel in cyberspace to driving around in a city. The streets are represented by the lines of the grid. ‘The buildings are the geometric shapes of the bases. Your car is your cyberspace deck. As with moving around a city, you can keep driving past the buildings or stop and enter them (if you can get past the security guard). Speaking of security guards, you may have guessed that you can’t just waltz right into a base, even though you're entering from cyberspace. Each base is protected by ICE, which is designed to keep unauthorized users from accessing the private information contained in the base. ICE AND ICEBREAKERS Bases are protected by ICE—Intrusion Countermeasure Electronies—which acts as an independent, semi-intelligent barrier, keeping cowboys like you from getting inside the base However, cowboys do manage to break in with their specialized icebreaking softwarez. The trick is finding the appropriate versions and types of softwarez to break through the ICE before it ean adapt its defenses to the attack. There are subtle, slow-acting viruses that sneak up on an ICE layer and destroy it gradually, as well as brute force icebreakers that can crush an ICE layer all at once. There are many different kinds of icebreaking programs—some good and some bad. You'll also notice that icebreakers vary in their effectiveness, but you'll have to experiment on your own to learn more about each one. ‘You'll find that the low-security bases are protected by the weakest ICE. By breaking into these, you can develop your abilities, test your softwarez, and generally prepare for stronger and deadlier combat with medium and high security ICE. ‘And there's one more minor point you need to know. ICE has an annoying tendency to fight back. In fact, it can kill you. EAA 4Als 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 Als 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 Als have personalities and mental capabilities far beyond the humans that originally created them. Among other tasks, Als run large corporations and design the ICE that protects bases in cyberspace. Because of the potential threat of such an intellectual power, a government agency was formed to keep the Als under control. The Turing Registry has the responsibility of watching for signs that any AI might be developing into a dangerous, ultra-intelligent program. While this is impossible with the limited computing facilities available to a single Al, the Turing Registry makes certain that the Als are unable to communicate as a group. As soon as an Al is created, the manufac- turer is legally bound to register its name, number, and citizenship with Turing. Turing also ‘keeps track of humans suspected of illegally helping Als. So far, this has been sufficient to restrain the Als. Als are fully capable of defending themselves. Sane cowboys avoid combat with these formidable entities, because icebreaking softwarez ean’t harm them. An AI attack is a unique experience Cowboys refer to this type of hattle, which is aimed directly at the brain, as “flatlining.” The AI feeds a neural shock into the vietim’s brain, keeping the cowboy braindead long enough for his physical body to stop functioning. While it's rumored that there are skill chips available which allow mental combat with Al's, no one has lived long enough to talk about the details. The late McCoy Pauley, a.k.a, “Dixie Flatline”, is said to have run into Als in three different bases, and supposedly only survived because he found a weakness in each AI. His “joeboy” assistant managed to jack Pauley out of cyberspace during three flatlining attacks before his hody died. The fourth time, Pauley’s heart Just gave out, and he went to cyberheaven, But he was paid handsomely for his liver.CYBERSPACE SURVIVAL 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. LIMITATIONS ON CYBERSPACE TRAVEL There are two primary factors governing the distance that ean be travelled at any one time by a cowboy in eyberspace: JACK RANGE LIMIT: There are several cyberspace jacks available in Chiba City. Physically connecting your deck to one of these jacks (“jacking in”) determines where you will be located when you enter cyberspace. Most jacks can access only a limited area of cyberspace, called a “zone”. Normally, you can only access areas of cyberspace within the jack's zone limit. CONNECT TIME: Few things are free in Chiba City. Using a cyberspace jack costs money just like the long distance telephone charges of the 20th century. This creates another limit on how far you can travel when you're jacked in—if you run out of money on your credit chip, your connection is broken, putting you back in the Real World. CYBERSPACE DECKS Cyberspace decks, also called cyberdecks or matrix simulators, are illegal for private use, but certain dealers have a liberal definition of private use, and continue to sell them to “independent agencies.” Most cowboys define themselves as independent agencies. If a cowboy can afford it, there are a wide range of matrix simulators available. So many, in fact, that an independent reviewing service known as Consumer Review exists to help people decide which deck to buy. ‘There are a number of differences between the standard deck, which is legally available to the average consumer, and a deck with cyberspace-capability. SHIELDING: Cyberdecks have built-in combat shielding which protects the cyberdeck and its software from ICE attacks. Fc a ee 6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. Once you've downloaded a program, it stays in memory permanently unless the deck is damaged or You erase the software. Some softwarez, however, are one-shot programs, consuming themselves after you execute them. Each deck has its own limit of the number of softwarez it can handle. ‘Top of the line decks, such as the Ono-Sendai Cyberspace Seven, can manage up to 25 programs simultaneously. ROM CONSTRUCTS: Highly illegal and not available to private citizens, cowboy or otherwise, are the ROM Constructs. Each ROM Construct is a recording of an individual human's personality, responses, knowledge, and memories, Construets are occasionally used by cyberdeck operators in the government and large corporations, which is why top of the line eyberdecks contain a slot for a ROM Construct cartridge. SKILL CHIPS Skills, in the form of “skill chips,” are available for purchase in Chiba City. Skill chips are implanted directly in the brain jack on the side of your skull, giving you instant access to that particular type of knowledge. For example, the Cryptology skill chip gives you the ability to decipher certain types of coded passwords. Skill chips cover a wide range of abilities, ranging from foreign languages to high-tech cyberspace skills. Skills can be improved through tutorials found in bases and training from knowledgeable Chiba citizens. Some skills are improved with experience in using that skill. In general, skills improve your chances of success both in the Real World and in cyberspace. Once you learn a skill, you remember it permanently When you want to use a skill chip in a room in the “Real World,” you should always use the chip just after you enter the room, before doing anything else—including talking with other people. A list of skill chips can be found in Appendix A. EA 7BODY SHOP ‘The Chiba City Body Shop serves two major functions—body part sales and “reanimation.” Ifa 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 reanimation. 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. That's why smart cowboys keep a little money stashed in their bank accounts. Body Shops are also handy places to pick up cash. Of course, the drawback is that you have to sell one of your body parts to get the money, but who needs a spleen anyway? Important body parts, as determined by the Body Shop, will sell for more money. Curiously enough, you'll find that the important body parts tend to be the same ones that most affect your Constitution level if you sell them off. As a publie service, the Body Shop replaces any part you sell them with a cheap plastic replacement. Replacement parts are almost as good as the real thing, except for their short life Fortunately, you can buy your parts back when you get the money together...for a higher price...if they're still available.. LIFE AND DEATH ‘A wise philosopher once said, “Death is when your constitution hits zero. Life is anything above that.” While walking around the Real World, there’s little chance of losing your constitution, but in eyberspace it can get whomped on by killer ICE, If you find yourself selling off lots of your flesh at the Body Shop, keep in mind that cheap plastic replacement organs don't suit your system very well, and you won't ever have as high a constitution as you would with good, natural body parts. You can monitor your constitution by using the “Mode” command icon. ANOTE ABOUT TAKING NOTES You'll discover many passwords, link codes, ID numbers, and other bits of data throughout the game, and you'll have to thresh through the information yourself and decide what's important enough to write down. We've provided pages in the back of this manual for notetaking purposes. nn reee 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: “Tell me about - Ifyou 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. For example, if you want to ask Julius about skills or skill chips, you could type: “Tell me about SKILL.” Keep in mind that not everyone in Chiba City will want to or be able to answer all of your questions. YOUR CREDIT CHIP When the game starts, your Orient Express Credit Chip will contain only six credits. Your credit chip acts like a wallet—it contains the money you want to carry around with you in the city. Your bank account holds the remainder of your funds, which can be downloaded to your credit chip through any of the PAX terminals in Chiba City. While it's tempting to download all of your funds to your credit chip, it’s not always a good idea—see the “Body Shop” section. USING THE PAX SYSTEM PAX booths are conveniently located around the city, providing private citizens with the means to stay current with the rest of the world. The PAX offers a newspaper, the Night City News; a Publie BBS (Bulletin-Board System) for personal messages; and banking services through the First Orbital Bank of Switzerland. When you operate a PAX terminal, you will be given three access codes and asked for a verification code, which is obtained from the PAX Verification Codewheel included with the game. See your reference card for details. ee ER NT OR 9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 FIRST TIME PAX USER INFO. ACCESS BANKING INTERLINK NIGHT CITY NEWS. BULLETIN BOARD BEY Make your selection by typing the option number on your keyboard, or by selecting it with your joystick or mouse. FIRST TIME PAX USER INFO: A brief history of the PAX network ACCESS BANKING INTERLINK: This option brings up the Banking menu, At the top of the screen, your name is displayed along with your BAMA account number, the amount on your credit chip, and your current bank account balance. ‘The DOWNLOAD CREDITS option lets you transfer a specific amount of credits from your bank account to your credit chip. ‘The UPLOAD CREDITS option lets you transfer a specific amount of credits from your credit chip to your bank account. ‘The TRANSACTION RECORD option lists the four most recent transactions in your bank account—downloads, uploads, and official government fines. NIGHT CITY NEWS: This option puts you into the Night City News system. To read an article, select one of the listed headlines with your joystick or mouse, or by typing the headline number. The MORE option should be used to view headlines that have appeared after the first screen fills up.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. BASIC DECK OPERATION If you're in a room with a cyberspace jack and you've learned some database link codes, you can use your deck to “dial” into the database using this procedure (if you have the proper level of Comlink software): 1, Type “I” (for Inventory). The Inventory list will be displayed. 2. Select the “UXB” or whatever deck you have with you by typing the corresponding number from the list. The Operate/Discard/Give/Erase menu will be displayed. 8. ‘Type “O” to operate the deck. A list of software will be displayed. 4. Select. your highest level of Comlink software (Comlink 1.0, for example) by typing its number. You will be asked to enter the Comlink code for the database you wish to access. 5. Enter the Comlink code. A proper code (such as “CHEAPO" for the Cheap Hotel database) with the proper level of Comlink software will jack you into the database. If you enter an incorrect code, you can keep trying again until you press Return to exit. If you make a mistake while typing the Comlink code, just backspace and type over your mistake. 6. Press the space bar to bypass the database's introductory screen, and then type the password for the database when requested to do so. EEE A tyCYBERSPACE DECK OPERATION Ifyou 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 eyberspace 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. A list of software will be displayed. 4, Select your Comlink 6.0 software. 5, Comlink 6.0 will give you the option of either entering a link code or entering eyberspace. Select the Enter Cyberspace option. Your screen display will be altered to show cyberspace and your eyberspace deck controls. Your initial location in cyberspace is determined by your cyberspace jack location. If you're using the cyberspace jack at Cheap Hotel, you will enter cyberspace beside the geometric form that represents the Cheap Hotel base. ACTION EXAMPLES Note: The given examples use keyboard commands, but these steps can also be accomplished with a joystick or mouse by pointing to the desired option and pressing the joystick/mouse button. ‘TO GIVE SOMEONE AN ITEM: 1, Display the Inventory list by typing “I”. 2, ‘Type a number on the keyboard to select the item you want to give. You may give anything away, including credits. 3. The Operate/Discard/Give menu will be displayed. Type “G” for Give. 4. Ifyou selected “credits” to give away, the amount of credits you have on your credit chip will be displayed, followed by “Give how much?”. Type in the amount you wish to give (46, for example), followed by a Return, The amount will be deducted from your credit chip. 5. The item or number of credits you specified will be given to the other person in the room.KILL. ‘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. You may now select the Skills icon to use the skill. ‘TO USE.AN IMPLANTED SKILL: You can only use a skill after it has been implanted in your skull. 1. Type “S” for Skill. Your implanted skills and skill levels will be displayed. 2. Select the skill you wish to use by typing the corresponding number from the list. For this example, we'll select “Cryptology.” The Cryptology window will appear, asking for a word to be decoded. 3. Type the word to be decoded and press Return. The answer will be displayed. 4, The Cryptology skill can be used repeatedly, so it will ask for another word to be decoded. Just hit Return to exit. DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE TO YOUR DECK: When you're in the software library of a database, viewing a list of programs, you may wish to download (transmit) some software to your deck. This is accomplished by selecting the software you desire, by its corresponding number. You will receive a “download complete” message when the transmission is finished. The software is now available to you when you operate your deck. ER 13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. Once selected, they each display your software list. Select the software you want to debug or analyze and the Rom Construct will go to work: The Monitor option must be activated if you want the Rom Construct to be aware of your current. activities. This is useful when things are happening so quickly that you may not be aware of certain things...such as your impending death. In monitor mode, if the Construct realizes you're about to die, it won't hesitate to let you know about it. )FTWAREZ FROM Y‘ i; 1. Type “I” (for Inventory). Your list of items will be displayed. 2. Select your deck by pressing its number. 8. The Operate/Discard/Give/Erase menu will appear. Type “E”. 4. Alist of software in your deck will appear. Type the number of the piece of software you want to erase, It will be erased, permanently. The only way to get it back is to download it again from the place you got it. 5. You can keep erasing softwarez one at a time. Type “X” (for Exit) when you're finished. SL 14APPENDIX A: LIST OF SKILL CHIPS (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. CRYPTOLOGY: Used in the Real World to analyze passwords and decode them. You may occasionally come across a password that can't even be decoded by the highest level of this skill chip, in which case you'll have to figure out where to go to decode it yourself. MUSICIANSHIP: Used in the Real World to play various styles of music for amusement. SOFTWARE ANALYSIS: Finds out and tells you the function of your software. DEBUG: Repairs damaged software in your deck HARDWARE REPAIR: Locates and repairs problems with your deck. ICE BREAKING: Used at the beginning of an ICE combat session in cyberspace, this skill applies your previous experience with ICE breaking to locate weaker points in the ICE protection, making it easier to break in. EVASION: Gives you a chance to retreat from combat with an AI when you realize you're not prepared yet for this particularly horrible form of suicide. ZEN: Calms your mind after mental shocks. It's said Dixie Flatline was a Zen master. You'll find other skill chips throughout the course of the game, but you'll have to find out about those yourself. Try as many as you want—if you can afford them. Be, EE ee 15DATABASE NOTES [Database name Link Code Password(s) | Levels [NotesCYBERSPACE NOTES [Database name Zone # _[X/¥ Coordinates [Notes 7NOTESINTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS LIMITED 90-DAY WARRANTY Interplay Productions warrants to the orignal consumer purchaser of dhs computer software product thatthe recording medium on which the software programs are recorded wil be fe from defects in material and workmanship for 90 days from the date of purchase, Ifthe recording medium is found defective with °O days of original purchase, Imerplay Productions agrees to replace, free of charge. any product discovered 1 be defective within. setiod upon receipt at its Factory Service Center of the product. postage paid, with proof of {date of purchase. This waranty is limited tothe recording medium containing the software program originally provided by Interplay Productions and is not applicable o normal wear and tear. This warranty shall not be applicable and shal be void ifthe defect has arisen ‘ough abuse, mistreatment, or neglect. Any implied warranties applicable to this product ate limited to the 90-day period described above. If dhe recording medium should fail after the original 90-day warranty peri has expired, you may retum the software program 10 Inveqplay Productions a the address noted below witha check or money onler for $7.50 (U.S. currency). which ineludes postage and handling. and Interplay will mal a replacement to you. To receive a replacement. you should enclose the defective mediuin (including the original product label) in protective packaging accompanied by: (1) a 87.50 check, (2) a bee statement deseribing the defect, and (3) your retum address. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH ABOVE, THIS WARRANTY IS IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ‘A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NO OTHER REPRESENTATION OK CLAIMS OF ANY NATURE SHALL BE BINDING ON OR OBLIGATE INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS. IN NO EVENT WILL INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGE RESULTING FROM POSSESSION, USE, OR MALFUNCTION OF THIS, PRODUCT, INCLUDING DAMAGE TO PROPERTY AND, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL INJURY, EVEN IF INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS AND/OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS AND/OR EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS, AND YOU MAY HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. URS. or registred mal is reo ride for returns. Please send to WARRANTY REPLACEMENTS ‘Consumer Relations MEDIAGENIC SES Hohannon Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 COPYING PROHIBITED, ‘This software product is copyrighted and all rights are reserved by Interplay Productions, The distribution and sale of this product are intended forthe use ofthe original purchaser only and for use only on the computer system specified. Copying, duplicating, selling, or otherwise distributing this product without the express written permission of Interplay Productions are violations of U.S. Copyright Law tnd are hereby expressly forbid, (© 1988 Interplay Product os, All rights reserved. NOTICE Interplay Productions reserves the right to make modifications oF without notice.TROY MILES It’s hard to believe that it has been a year since Neuromancer was conceived. It has been a long and arduous adventure. Spending day after day, night after night, pushing myself to the max. Forsaking sleep and fun, to the ideal of making the best game I could. And now it’s done. [ hope that everyone out there has as much fun playing Neuromancer as I did writing it. Now that it’s finished I find my head is so full of new ideas that maybe, after I've had time to rest, I'll think about doing a sequel No truly great game is done by one person anymore, so I'd like to thank the following people: Bruce Balfour and Mike Stackpole for the game design. Charles H.H. Weidman III for putting all his heart into every picture. ‘Tom Decker, Bruce Schlickbernd, and Bill “Weez” Dugan for all their helpful suggestions. Bill “Burger” Heineman for BurgerDOS. Brian Fargo for understanding why it took so long. Lisa Amold for telling callers; “He’s in a meeting.” And most of all my wife Lynene and daughter Ashley for allowing me to work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to finish it. — From the left: Troy Miles, Charles H.H. Weidman MI, Bruce BalfourEUROMANCER.. Reference Card Apple Ie/IIc/IIGS BEFORE YOU BEGIN ‘You must play with a backup of Side 1, and we recommend you play only with backups of all four sides. Back up all four sides of Neuromancer onto blank disks with any copy program, or use the utility program on the title page. LOADING INSTRUCTIONS 1. Insert Neuromancer disk Side 1 (label facing up) into the disk drive. 2. Turn on your computer and the program will load automatically 3. Ifyou have two drives, Neuromancer uses both drives automatically. PLAYING NEUROMANCER STARTING THE GAME After it finishes loading, the NEUROMANCER title page will appear. Press the space bar to continue. You will then be asked if this is an OLD or a NEW game, or run the BACKUP ulitity. If you are playing for the first time or you want to start a new game, type “N?” (for “New”). You will be asked for your name; type it in and press RETURN. If you want to return to a game in progress that you have saved before, type “O” (for “Old”). You will then be asked to type the number of the old game If you want to backup your game disks , type "B" (for "Backup"), You will then enter the backup utility. GETTING AROUND IN THE REAL WORLD While walking through Chiba City, you'll see the world one “room” at a time. Many rooms have exits or doorways you can walk through. Exits at the bottom of the main screen are represented by a black line, Some doors may be locked or guarded; in this case it is up to you to find out how to get in.As you cruise through each room, you'll see and talk to other people. You can control your actions and movement using keyboard commands or a joystick (more commands later). The screen is divided into three main areas. The largest section shows the room itself. In the bottom left corner are the eight command icons. In the bottom right corner is a special text window used for room descriptions and other short bits of text, When a conversation is in progress, “word balloons” will appear above the speaking characters in the room. JOYSTICK CONTROL To toggle the joystick on and off, press “J” while holding down the "open apple” key. If you have a joystick, you can use it to move a “pointer” arrow around the screen. Whenever you want to select anything on the screen—a command icon, a menu option, some softwarez to download—you can just point to it with the pointer and press the joystick button. COMMAND ICONS You use the command icons to perform actions. You can pick an icon by either pointing to it with the joystick pointer and pressing the joystick button, or pressing the corresponding key on your keyboard. The command icons are arranged as in the figure to the right. The table on the next page refers to each icon by number, as shown in the figure. SOUND CONTROL To toggle the sound effects on and off, press "S" while holding down the "open apple" key.Here is a list of the command icons and what they do. EY ICON DESCRIPTION Toggles through these display options: Current amount on credit chip Time Date Constitution level INVENTORY Displays what you're currently carrying and lets you operate, discard, or give items, or erase software in a deck PAX Access the PAX system if there's a PAX terminal in the room. TALK Talk with another person in the room. SKILLS Use a skill you have acquired. WALK When using a joystick, puts you back in control of your movement after performing some other action. (See Movement Commands.) ROM CONSTRUCT Access your ROM Construct abilities (if you have one). DISK Save your current game position, load an old game, pause the game, start a new game, or quit the game. MOVEMENT COMMANDS: You can use either the keyboard or a joystick to walk around town. With the keyboard, you can take one step by pressing a direction key once or keep walking by holding a direction key down. The direction keys are shown in the figure to the right. The arrow keys will move you immediately from room to room.To walk around with a joystick, first select the “Walk” command icon. The joystick pointer will disappear to show that you are walking around. Moving the joystick in the direction you want to go will then make you walk in that direction, When you want to select a different command icon, press the joystick button again to stop walking and get the joystick pointer back COMMANDS WITHIN MENUS: Menus may appear throughout the game when you look at lists of items—prices in a shop or your inventory list, for example. You can select a menu option with the keyboard, or point to the option with the joystick pointer and press the joystick button. There are several commands commonly used within menus: COMMAND ~— KEY _— DESCRIPTION EXIT x Leave the current menu. MORE M View more menu options (if available). After you select an item in your Inventory menu, you can choose from three special commands: OPERATE ° Operate an item. GIVE G Give an item to another person. DISCARD D Discard an item, permanently. CONVERSATIONS In Talk mode (type “I” or select the Talk icon), 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. When a word balloon appears over your head, you can see all of your possible responses by pressing the space bar orpulling back on your joystick after each response is displayed. When you decide on the proper response, press RETURN or the button on your joystick. The response you select will be displayed a second time as you “say” it. After you read a word balloon that you or another character has “said,” press the space bar or joystick button to continue. You can leave a conversation your character initiated with the “talk” command by pressing the key. USING THE PAX When you operate a Pax machine (by selecting the Pax icon or pressing “P”), the machine will give you three access codes and ask you for the verification code. ‘Take the PAX Verification Code Wheel and align the first access code, found on the outer wheel, with the second access code, located on the inner wheel. Find the window that corresponds to the third access code. Type the number found in the window, then press RETURN. For example, if given the codes Freeside, Comlink, and Holy Joystick, you would line up the words “Freeside” and “Comlink”, and then type in the number in the “Holy Joystick” window: 512. Whenever text is displayed on the PAX or a database, you may press the “+” (plus) key to speed up text display, or the “~” (minus) key to slow it down. ‘THE CYBERSPACE DISPLAY: (Cyberspace jacks appear as yellow circles with a red dot in the middle.) The top half of the screen shows the view from your current cyberspace location. The bottom left corner of the screen is occupied by the cyberspace command icons. The bottom right corner of the screen contains your EEG monitor, which gives you a visual representation of your brain wave activity. Just below the EEG there is a gauge of your cyberdeck’s shielding, and to the right of the EEG is a gauge of ICE shielding for when you're in combat with ICE. ‘The center of the cyberdeck panel is where information will appear when needed. At the bottom center of the cyberdeck panel, there are four numbers; from left to right, these are the cyberspace zone number you're in, your X and Y coordinatesin cyberspace, and the amount of money in your credit chip. CYBERSPACE ICONS The cyberspace command icons are arranged as in the figure below. KEY ICON INVENTORY SKILLS ROM CONSTRUCT DISK [3 [4 In cyberspace, the SKILLS, ROM CONSTRUCT, and DISK icons behave just as they do outside of cyberspace. The INVENTORY icon displays a list of softwarez in your deck to operate, rather than a list of your items. The MODE, PAX, TALK, and WALK icons are unavailable in cyberspace. There are three new controls: The EXIT button (“X” on the keyboard) exits cyberspace. The ERASE button (“E” on the keyboard) will erase a piece of software from your deck. The “Movement” button, just above the four command icons, is used to control your movement with the joystick. The “Movement” button is similar to the “Walk” button in the real world. fenro ora Apple Computer, Inc. makes no warranties, either express or implied, regarding the enclosed computer software package, its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose. The exclusion of implied ‘warranties is not permitted by some states. The above exclusion may not apply to you. This warranty provides you with specific legal rights. There may be other rights that you may have which vary from state to state ProDos {(c) Apple, 1983] is a copyrighted program of Apple Computer, Inc., licensed to Interplay to be distributed for use only in combination with Neuromancer. Apple software shall not be copied onto another diskette (except for archive purposes) or into the memory unless as part of the execution of Neuromancer. When Neuromancer has completed execution, Apple software shalll not be used by any other program.Cheap Hote] CowboyJulius Deane Cowboy Cyberdeck q a g 5 § 34 3 & Julius Deane Donut Worrg ROM construct NEUROMANCER PAX Verification Code Whee! sary TIS sxeys WON.Microsofts IFUROMANCER Ni PAX Verification Code Wh eelCheap Hotel z database Cowboy NEUROMAN ds PAX Verification i fm, fs Page | 5,2 | tg uated S.uryg sondsi9q cyShiva Cyberdeck 5 g > yeypsursureryz Ss gi 2 8 wang suryg opg Azeagsoftwarez ea? gree Cowboy gous” al ‘ing / Tepu9g | tee | “2% uuneg suryg, syosororyyNEUROMANCER PAX Verification Cod ie WheelNEUROMANCER PAX Verification Code WheelMatt Shaw ROM construct [ g 3 3 5 g E sdiyo 11FIS auvag satinpity News q Night € Hatsuby suck % (ROM const Cowboy NEUROMANCER PAX Verification Code WheelChatsubo ROM construct syoso1DTTW 3 Justice Booth sdep TiS. yoque'loe neinschan ROM construct | Combe, NEUROMANCER PAX Verificati lon Code Whee} guts | areqyoned asoqeiePGemeinschatt ROM construct & & a S a [0919 [ouogoea sdiyo 11S AtyS,