 
Room 127

Malcolm Pierce

Copyright 2013 Malcolm Pierce

Smashwords Edition

jdevries@cdncommunications.net (Jason DeVries) – 5/13/13, 10:33am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: kengreene@gamecore.com

re: Internship Offer

Mr. Norman:

I am pleased to offer you an internship position in our Online Media division with the staff of GameCore.net. As we discussed in our interview last month, this will be an unpaid position. You will report to GameCore Senior Editor Ken Greene, and your internship will begin on May 20, 2013 and end approximately on August 16, 2013.

This position is considered temporary and either party may discontinue the internship relationship at any time and for any reason not prohibited by law.

On your first day, please bring with you documentation showing that you are eligible to work in the United States. This would include but is not limited to a passport or valid driver's license and social security card.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jdevries@cdncommunications.net. We look forward to the prospect of you joining our team at GameCore.net.

Sincerely,

Jason DeVries

Director of Human Resources

CDN Communications – Online Media Division

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) – 5/13/13, 11:05am

to: gnorma@rnfabrications.com; theresa.evans@izmail.com

cc:

re: I GOT THE JOB!!!!

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that I got the internship I was hoping for! Just got the e-mail and I'm totally excited. It's at GameCore.net, a really popular videogame website. I know it's unpaid, but I only applied to one internship that was going to pay me and that was a longshot. Don't think I wanted to work there anyway. It was an advertising company and I don't want to end up in advertising. Ick.

Anyway, the job is here in San Francisco so I guess I'll talk to my landlord about staying out here through the summer. Don't worry, I saved up enough money from the bookstore to make it until my next loan payment comes through. Just have to eat a lot of ramen, that's all.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) – 5/13/13, 12:12pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: Summer

Hey Sam, I guess I've got some good news and some bad news. I was accepted to a really awesome internship at GameCore.com. That's the website with the funny Halo videos I sent you a couple months ago. They're like the only videogame website I trust. All their stuff is really cool. Anyway, I'm going to be working there in a week! It's so exciting!

The only problem is that it's out here in SF, which means that I won't be coming home for the summer. I'm already looking into extending my lease. I don't know how much they'll expect me to be at the office, but I don't want to miss any time, so I might not even be able to make it back to Fresno at all before school starts back up again.

Ugh I feel terrible about this all coming up so quickly. I did apply to a lot of places back home, but this actually came through for me and I really want to work here. These guys get to write about videogames for a living. Can you imagine that? If I'm ever going to get a job like that, I have to start somewhere and there's no better place than GameCore.

I just thought I'd let you know... Any chance you might be able to make it out here during the summer? I know my place is cramped but I really miss you!

Love,

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) – 5/13/13, 3:30pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.net

cc:

re: Welcome Aboard!

Steve:

I just got the word from HR that you'll be joining the GameCore team this summer. I wanted to be the first to welcome you because I know if Brett was the one to do it, he'd probably send you running for the hills.

Don't worry, this isn't like a lot of bullshit internships your classmates are going to be putting up with this summer. You won't be getting anyone coffee or making copies. Your writing sample impressed us enough to know you'd be wasted on that. We can find better ways to exploit you. You'll still have to do the stuff we don't want to do, but with us that means previewing shitty games, not cleaning the bathrooms.

Jason tells me you're a fan of the site, so you know we're all pretty laid back around here. Don't show up in a suit and a tie unless you want a really unflattering nickname for the next three months. And probably the rest of your life. The internet never forgets.

Ken Greene

Editor-in-Chief, GameCore.net

gnorma@rnfabrications.com (Greg Norman) 5/13/2013, 5:01pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: I GOT THE JOB!!!!

Steven:

I took a look at the website. Is this what passes for journalism these days? I don't want to discourage you, but will you want to put this on your resume when you graduate? I can just imagine what an editor from the New York Times or the San Francisco Herald would think if they loaded up www.gamecore.net. They'll think you spent your summer goofing off. I know you don't want to hear that, but it's my job to point these things out to you.

Dad

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/13/13, 5:21pm

to: gnorma@rnfabrications.com

cc:

re: re: I GOT THE JOB!!!!

Dad, the San Francisco Herald shut down like five years ago. This is where journalism is headed. But more importantly, they say they're actually going to let me write previews and stuff. I'll actually get to put my name on something. That's something I do want on a resume!

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/13/13, 6:10pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.com

cc:

re: re: Welcome Aboard!

Mr. Greene:

Thanks so much for the e-mail. I really appreciate the chance to work with you and the rest of the editors at GameCore. It's one of my favorite websites. I watch your review videos every week and send them around to all my friends.

Is there anything I need to bring with me on Monday? Let me know!

Steve

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/13/13, 7:43pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Summer

Steve, I can't say I'm not disappointed. I was looking forward to seeing you for more than a few days. I thought when you transferred to SF State you said you'd come back every summer. It's hard enough being apart for most of the year, and I was already making plans for all the stuff I wanted to do together.

That said, I'm also excited for you. I know how hard it is out there to find anything, and GameCore is an awesome website. I'll try and make it up there on the weekends when I get the chance. The drive sucks, and I know you've made it a lot during the school year.

Do you think they'll let you be in any of the videos? They better if they're keeping you away from me this summer.

Thinking of you,

Sam

kengreene@gamecore.com (Ken Greene) 5/14/13, 9:51am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Welcome Aboard!

If you're gonna call me Mr. Greene, we're gonna have a problem. I'm Ken. Brett is Brett. Dave is Dave. Jill is Jill. Anything else and we all start feeling awkward about not wearing pants around the office.

And you don't need to bring anything. I already have the IT monkeys setting up a computer and a cubicle for you. You're getting the machine that's still running Windows Vista so have fun with that.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/14/13, 11:44am

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: Summer

Thanks for being so understanding, Sam. Probably any other job here in SF and I wouldn't have taken it. I just can't turn down the opportunity. Not now. I couldn't even go out last night to celebrate with the guys from my class. Hardly any of them have anything for the summer, and I'm going to be working at GameCore. I don't even want to tell them!

I don't know about the videos yet, but we'll see. I'm nervous just about writing for them. Ken Greene said he liked my sample, which is amazing enough!

I'll keep you updated with everything that's going on. And if I'm going to be in a video, you'll be the first to know. But you should be reading the site either way!

Steve

theresa.evans@izmail.com (Theresa Evans) 5/15/13, 10:15am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: I GOT THE JOB!!!!

That's great to hear! I know you were worried about finding something this summer but I knew things would work out.

Have you told Samantha yet? Don't put it off too long. She will be disappointed, but I know you two are strong enough to make it work. You're only a few hours away from Fresno, you'll be able to visit each other plenty just like during the school year.

Love,

Mom

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 5/18/13, 1:22pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your first assignment

So you're the new guy? Ken said to drum up some work for you to do. We just got in a copy of the new Iron Man 3 game for the 3DS. It's based on the movie, so that means the company probably had to push it out half-finished and barely playable.

We weren't planning on covering it. Games based on superhero movies are usually shit and we just don't have enough people around here for that.

How would you like to put together a review for us next week?

Brett Jackson

Associate Editor, GameCore.net

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/18/13, 2:30pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Your first assignment

Brett:

Sure, I'd be glad to do that! Should I bring in my 3DS or do you have one I should use at the office? Either way works for me.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/18/13, 4:00pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: brettjackson@gamecore.net

re: Don't Listen to Brett

Steve, if there's anything you need to know before you start on Monday, it's not to listen to anything Brett says. We're not going to make you review the Iron Man 3 3DS game. We both tried it this morning and fuck, we're not that cruel.

I know you were probably excited to write something for the site, so we'll figure out something else for you to review.

Brett, I copied you on this for a reason. We don't want the kid to freak out on us.

Ken

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/20/13, 7:15am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: First Day!

Hey Steve! Good luck today! It was really good to talk with you on Skype last night. Hopefully they won't keep you so busy that you can't keep up with me this summer. I miss you a ton, but I'm also really happy for you! And don't worry, I'll be checking the site constantly now.

Sam

jdevries@cdncommunications.net (Jason DeVries) – 5/20/13, 8:47am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: CDN Communications Policy Manual

Mr. Norman:

Attached is the CDN Employee Policy Manual. I know that the GameCore.net staff has its own standards and practices, but you should still familiarize yourself with the central company rules.

If you have any questions let me know.

Jason DeVries

Director of Human Resources

CDN Communications – Online Media Division

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 5/20/13, 8:49am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your CDN Account

Steve:

Welcome to the CDN networked server.

Your USERID is: NORMAN2

Your TEMPORARY PASSWORD is: xq67tta

Please be sure to reset your password as soon as you log in to your account and you are prompted.

If you have any trouble with your computer or accessing the server, please contact me at extension 488.

Anna Walker

CDN Communications IT Manager

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) – 5/20/13, 9:55am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Employee "Policy" Manual

attachment: CDNPolicy2013.pdf

Hey Steve, did the suits send you the company policy manual? They send that around every year saying how important it is, and that all CDN branches have to abide by it.

Check out page 5. It talks about proper language in the workplace. Fuck that. Page 7 has the dress code. Fuck that, too. Page 8 talks about sexual harassment. Don't fuck that, at least not where we can see it, because then we might have to let you go.

In all seriousness, just chill out and don't worry about stuff like that now. As long as you're not a psycho or anything I'm sure you'll fit right in.

Brett

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) – 5/20/13, 11:22am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: kengreene@gamecore.net

re: Open Wheel Dynasty

Steve:

What do you know about F1 Racing? We got a preview build in for a game called Open Wheel Dynasty and none of us really follow the sport. It looks to be some kind of management simulator and we wouldn't know where to begin. But I know you're eager to put something together for the site, so I thought I'd forward it along to you.

Let's talk if you're interested.

Jill Wright

Associate Editor, GameCore.net

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) – 5/20/13, 12:03pm

to: gnorma@rnfabrications.com

cc:

re: F1 Racing?

Hi dad,

What can you tell me about F1 racing? I know you're more of a NASCAR fan, but it would be a huge help if you know anything about the sport. My first assignment at GameCore is previewing a F1 management game. I'm looking at all these buttons on the screen and I don't know what they mean.

Steve

gnorma@rnfabrications.com (Greg Norman) – 5/20/13, 2:10pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: F1 Racing?

Steve,

Give me a call this evening. We'll go over it together. In the mean time, maybe you should avoid biting off more than you can chew on your first day?

Dad

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/20/13, 8:58pm

to: jillwright@gamecore.net

cc: kengreene@gamecore.net

re: Open Wheel Dynasty Preview

attachment: opwhlprev.wps

Jill:

I've attached a rough draft for a preview of Open Wheel Dynasty Racing. I'll be upfront with you: this game confused the hell out of me. I even ran some of it past my dad, who watches a lot more racing than me, and it confused the hell out of him.

This game is obviously made for a racing enthusiast, so I'm not sure how valuable my preview will be. I didn't know what I was doing and drove my first racing dynasty into the ground. Pun intended.

Let me know what you think. I won't be insulted if you don't think the site should publish it.

Steve

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 5/21/13, 9:14am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: kengreene@gamecore.net

re: re: Open Wheel Dynasty Preview

Steve, this looks great.

You're right, Open Wheel Dynasty Racing is definitely a game for F1 fanatics. Still, it's good to have the opinion from a complete newbie to the sport. You were up front about that in the preview, and with a few edits we can make it clear that your preview is designed for the reader with only a passing interest in the sport.

As long as Ken signs off on this, congrats on your first piece published on the site!

Jill

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/21/13, 11:30am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: First Preview

Way to go on the Open Wheel Dynasty preview. Ken passed it along before he put it in the queue for uploading. I typically write a lot of the sports games reviews and I know it can be a hassle when you're not already an expert.

Be ready, a lot of people are going to comment on the article and tell you that you don't have any idea what you're talking about. They'll correct you on points that aren't even technically wrong. That's the thing about writing on the internet. You need a thick skin. You wouldn't believe the fucking hate mail I got for my Madden 13 review last year.

Dave Ritter

Video Editor, GameCore.net

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/21/13, 3:58pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

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

samthegrey@eeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/21/13, 6:22pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

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

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/22/13, 9:20am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 9:44am

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

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.

awalker@cdncommmunications.net (Anna Walker) 5/22/13, 10:21am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 10:43am

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

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

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 5/22/13, 10:59am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Floppy Drive

Steve:

Just disconnect from the network before you install anything.

Anna

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 3:01pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

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

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/22/13, 3:13pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/22/13, 4:31pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 5/22/13, 4:50pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net, jillwright@gamecore.net, daveritter@gamecore.net, st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/22/13, 11:31pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

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

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/23/13, 10:02am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/23/13, 10:55am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/23/13, 11:43am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

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

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/23/13, 12:22pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/23/13, 4:03pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

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

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/23/13, 4:49pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/23/13, 7:01pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

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

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 5/24/13 10:12am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: kengreene@gamecore.net

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/24/13 10:44am

to: jillwright@gamecore.net

re: kengreene@gamecore.net

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

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 5/24/13 11:37am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Eventful Conflict Eternia

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

Hope you feel better.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/24/13 7:21pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

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

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/24/13 10:08pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

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

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/27/13 9:12am

to: jillwright@gamecore.net; kengreene@gamecore.net

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.

Let me know if there's anything more important I could be doing.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/27/13 10:25am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Another step closer!

Ken:

So like I said, I booted up Room 127 again. I'd finished my review, and I figured what the hell... There had to be something missing. Turns out I was right, though I still haven't figured out much else.

My problem was that I assumed Room 127 was a platformer. I thought it was about running and jumping, because I could run and jump. I should have known that wasn't it. There weren't any platforms or pits. And there wasn't anywhere to go. The black hallway just continues forever off on the right of the screen.

So I was messing around with it this morning and I hit the TAB key. Suddenly there was a blinking cursor down at the bottom of the screen, below the floor of the hallway and my character's feet. It's a text input. I can type things in and try to get the game to respond.

I still haven't figured out any commands that work. I tried the basic adventure game tropes. Look around. Look at hallway. Go north, east, south, and west. Everything I've put in just gets the same response: INPUT NOT RECOGNIZED.

At least I got somewhere, right?

Steve

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/27/13, 11:30am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127

Yo Steve, Ken forwarded your last e-mail to me. I used to play tons of adventure games back in the day. Back when Telltale wasn't the only one making 'em.

Try typing in INVENTORY or INV or maybe just the letter "I". Maybe you start with some object that you can interact with that will give you a clue about what to do next. Also try INFO or ABOUT. Sometimes interactive fiction writers hide a tutorial in one of those commands.

Good luck, man.

Dave

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/27/13, 1:12pm

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Okay, so I tried everything you suggested. INFO and ABOUT got me nothing. Just the usual INPUT NOT RECOGNIZED. I and INV were the same, but when I typed in INVENTORY the screen went black. I had to press the space button to return to the main screen.

What do you think that means?

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/27/13, 1:44pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

I think it means that you have an inventory, it's just that there's nothing in it yet. When you pick up something in the game, it should appear on the blank page that comes up. That doesn't help you now, though, does it?

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 5/27/13, 2:02pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: What is that fucking music?

Steve, seriously, what are you playing over there? If I hear that song loop one more time I think I'm going to have to come over there and put a pen into your speakers.

st_norman@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/27/13, 2:11pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: What is that fucking music?

Brett:

Sorry about that. I guess I wasn't even thinking about it. It's this weird disk Ken gave me. I think it's an indie adventure game, but I still haven't figured it out. I tried to turn down the volume, but even muting the speakers in the task bar wouldn't work. I'll plug in my headphones.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/27/13, 2:31pm

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Thanks for all your help. I think I need to put it down now. I'm getting a headache again. Had to put in earbuds to keep from driving Brett crazy and now even though I've shut down the game, I think I can still hear that god damn midi loop.

Any clue why muting the computer wouldn't make it stop? Everything else goes quiet, just not Room 127. Compatibility mode? Maybe I should send Anna down in IT a message.

Steve

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 5/27/13, 3:25pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Sound Volume Issue

Steve:

I got your message. Are you sure you're muting the computer from the task bar? If you accidentally clicked into the mixer, you might be individually muting the system sounds. Either way, that sounds real weird. I'll be up to look into it soon.

Anna

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/27/13, 8:07pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: WAIT

Steve:

Okay, I know there's no way you're at the office, but I just thought of this and you need to give it a try. Next time you're playing that game, try the command "WAIT". I know that sounds crazy, but maybe you can't do anything because it's not the right time in the game. Maybe you have to wait for something. If that doesn't work, try "Z".

In a lot of adventure and some interactive fiction games, there is a fail state if you wait too long without doing anything. At least if you get a game over, you'll know you can do something to affect the game, right?

Dave

shinji420@eeureka.com (THE ULTIMATE NINJA) 5/28/13, 1:09am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your "Review"

Steven, if that is your real name, I have an issue to take with your so-called review of Eventful Conflict Eternia. First, you fail to point out that the proper translation of the title should be "The Decisive Battle Eternia", which immediately tells me that you have not done your due diligence before committing to an evaluation of the game.

Second, I quibble with your characterization of Dark Touya as an antagonist. Based on the amount of time that he spends assisting your party rather than hindering it, I believe that he would be more properly described as a "foil". The relationship between Dark Touya and the player character is vital, and it is not surprising that you were unable to appreciate the story if it went over your head.

Third, the battle system is only simple if you are determined to exploit it. There are, in fact, limitless ways to build your party. Sure, if you go straight for characters that "exploit the systems", as you put it, the game will become trivial. You obviously did not come into the experience with the proper mindset.

I hope you will take these criticisms into consideration the next time you review a game. If not, I hope instead that you are lobotomized.

SHINJI420xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 5/28/13, 7:41am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your Computer Checks Out

Steve:

Nothing seems wrong with your computer. I was able to mute the whole system without any problems. I wasn't able to run the program you were talking about. It just crashed on me when I tried.

I can't imagine that a program like that is overriding the system settings, though, so you should be set.

Anna

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/28/13 9:05am

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: re: Your Computer Checks Out

Thanks Anna! I just tried it out and the music still plays, even with everything muted. Don't worry about it, though. I guess it's just part of the experience.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/28/13, 9:30am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: fwd: Your "Review"

Ken:

I think I just got my first piece of hate mail. Is this normal?

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/28/13, 10:21am

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: WAIT

attachment: hallway.png; hallway2.png; hallway3.png

Dave:

We're getting closer. I did like you suggested. I'm attaching a few screen shots to show you what happened. The first one is the black hallway when I first start up Room 127. You can see the windows in the background. At least I think they're windows. They are almost pure white. After I typed in "wait" they got darker. See the second picture. I did it a few more times and then they were almost completely dark. See the third picture.

I think there's some kind of day/night cycle. Maybe the first thing I have to do happens at a certain time of day. I just need to figure that out.

Thanks again,

Steve

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/28/13, 10:42am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: WAIT

I think you attached the wrong pictures, dude. But that photo is pretty creepy.

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/28/13, 10:59am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: fwd: Your "Review"

Hey Steve, don't let it get under your skin. I had someone tell me that he wanted me to die unsuccessful, alone, and senile because I only gave Halo 3 a 9 out of 10.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/28/13, 11:09am

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc: daveritter@gamecore.net

re: Another Computer Issue

attachment: wall.png

Anna:

I'm really sorry to keep bugging you about stuff like this, but something else came up with my computer. I was trying to take screenshots of a game I was playing but the pictures came out weird.

Normally if I'm trying to take a screenshot of a game I use FRAPS. But I don't think this game uses DirectX so I'm pretty sure that won't work. I didn't know what else to do, so I simply tried a standard alt print screen. The results were...unexpected.

I pasted the clipboard into photoshop and it looked fine. But when I saved it and e-mailed it to Dave, it turned into... this. I attached the photo. All three screenshots turned into this photograph. I don't even know what this picture is.

Where do you think this came from? I didn't have anything like this saved on my computer.

Steve

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 5/28/13, 12:31pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: daveritter@gamecore.com

re: re: Another Computer Issue

Steve, that is bizarre. I'll take a look at this file but if you want my honest opinion, you probably had the picture saved to the clipboard before and you didn't take the screenshot right. That's my best guess.

Were you browsing UrbEx photos before you played? Maybe you copied one to your clipboard? It's no big deal if you were. Trust me, I've seen much worse pop up on the webfilter. Abandoned buildings aren't anything to be ashamed of.

Anna

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/28/13, 1:14pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127 Disk?

Hey Steve, this whole picture thing has made me so fucking curious about this game of yours. Do you mind if I borrow the disk and install it on my computer? Like I said, I've got a history with adventure games. Maybe we can work on this together. Two heads are better than one.

Don't worry, I'll let you write the article if it comes to that.

Dave

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5//28/13, 2:50pm

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Disk?

Dave:

No problem. I also have a USB floppy drive from the IT department. You'll probably need that, too.

Steve

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/28/13, 8:11pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Disk

I'm finally on my way home for the night. Spent probably the last hour and a half trying to figure out what to do next in that game. You were right about the music. What is that song? It sounds familiar, and it's freaking me out. Where have I heard it before?

Whatever. I managed to push forward, if only a little bit. We were right. There's some kind of day/night cycle but for now it ends at night. I can keep waiting and it never gets to be day again. The game isn't any different in the middle of the night, so I restarted. However, in the middle—when the windows are gray instead of white or almost black—I think I heard the music slow down a little.

I walked forward some more, and the hallway was different from before. It wasn't just the same repeating background texture over and over again. The windows disappeared. I tried some more text commands here, but nothing happened.

Then I looked at the clock. It's way too late for me to be here. I think I'm the only one here. Not sure where the time went. We'll look at this more tomorrow.

Dave

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/29/13, 7:03am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net; st_norman1992@izmail.com; brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Wednesday Morning

attachment: prompts.txt

Ken:

I think I'm going to stay home today. Something's up with my stomach. I got Taco Bell on the way home from work today so yeah, I know this is my own fucking fault. I have a review to work on from home and I'll try to make something of my free time.

Brett:

If it's not a big deal, could you edit the video of our review for Deathzone? I've got most of the work done. Just need to synch up the sound and cut out the bit where Jill has the sneezing fit. I know we wanted to get that out today.

Steve:

Looks like I won't be able to fuck around with Room 127 today. Too bad. I've been thinking about it a lot. Take a look at what I wrote you last night. Let me know if you get anywhere new. I think there has to be something you can do in the darkness. I've attached a list of common interactive fiction prompts. Just start throwing them into the text field. Something has to work.

Dave

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/29/13, 8:59am

to: JaneOfFools@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: Music Question

attachment: room127.mp3

Hi Jane! Hope everything's going well. Did I hear right that you're doing sound work for the Custom Made Theatre? That's really awesome. Let me know how that is. I've been wanting to get down there to see a show.

I had a strange music question for you. I'm interning at GameCore.net. It's a videogame website. We have this computer game in and it's a complete mystery to us. There's only one music track, and one of our editors says its really familiar. I recorded it with my phone. I know its a little choppy, but do you mind taking a listen? Do you know it? Or do any of your friends?

Let me know if you recognize it. We're really puzzled.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/29/13, 9:23am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127

C'mon, Steve, you let Ritter know about the Room 127 disk? He's not going to get any real work done now. You know he claims that he beat Gabriel Knight 3 without looking up any of the puzzle answers? Probably stayed home sick from school back then to do that, too. Thanks a lot, kid.

I'm just fucking with you. Glad that project is keeping you busy. Sorry we haven't had more legit work for you to get in on. With E3 coming up next week, there's just nothing being released.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/29/13, 11:41am

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc: kengreene@gamecore.net

re: The next stage

I did it! I made it out of the hallway. It took half the morning, but I finally made it somewhere in Room 127. Here's what you have to do:

You were right about waiting until dusk and walking to the windowless part of the hallway. I stayed there for a while, just randomly putting in the prompts in the list you sent me. Some of them it didn't recognize. Others just said I couldn't use them yet. But I finally hit on one. I typed in "OPEN" and I heard a noise. Thankfully, I guess, my computer still doesn't let me mute the game. If I'd managed to turn off the sound I wouldn't have even known that I accomplished something.

It was a creaking noise, like a hinge, and I figured I'd opened a door. This got me pretty excited, so I started up the movement commands again. None of them worked until I typed "ENTER". This time, for the first time, the text prompt replied. It asked "ENTER ROOM 120?". Of course I said YES.

The screen faded completely to black. Even my character disappeared. Then it faded back in and I was somewhere else. It's a small gray room with just one window. There's what looks like a table on one side and a large lightbulb on the other side. The lightbulb is like three times as big as my character.

I tried to interact with the bulb several times but nothing worked. I guess I'm stuck again. I'm really not good at this adventure game thing.

Steve

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/29/13, 3:10pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: This Weekend!

Hey Steve! I'm so excited about coming up to see you this weekend. I have Friday off, so I'm just going to drive up in the afternoon. Maybe I could swing by your office and pick you up. That way, you don't have to take the BART home. Since they're not paying you, they can't really complain if you take off if I get there early, right?

Love,

Sam

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/29/13, 3:56pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: This Weekend!

Sounds great to me! I'm sure they won't mind if I leave early. Things have been so slow around here with E3 coming up. Most game companies are holding back releases and there are press embargoes on previews. I've been spending my team with this weird little indie game someone sent us. I think it's an adventure game, like those Sherlock Holmes games you play but much, much simpler. The graphics are black and white and totally 8 bit. We don't even know who made it.

I'll tell you all about it this weekend!

Steve

JaneOfFools@eeeureka.com (Jane Goolsby) 5/29/13, 6:24pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Music Question

Holy fuck, Steve, what the hell is that? That's godawful. MIDI has its purposes, but playing music straight out of a PC speaker with no instrumentation sounds like an auditory abortion. But I still played it for my friends, and they all rolled their eyes when they heard it was from a video game.

This is a very, very, very poor rendition of "Trei Culori", or "Three Colors". It was the Romanian National Anthem during communist rule.

J

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/29/13, 7:25pm

to: JaneOfFools@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: Music Question

Thanks, Jane. But this raises a bunch of questions. First, how do you have a friend that recognizes the national anthem of communist Romania? And second, why did it sound so familiar to us?

Steve

JaneofFools@eeeureka.com (Jane Goolsby) 5/29/13, 8:02pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Music Question

I have cultured friends. That doesn't explain you guys though.

J

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/30/13, 10:01am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: That's not a lightbulb

Is it your god damn job to make us all feel old here, Steve? I followed your instructions. Good job, by the way, even though you were just doing what I told you to. I got to Room 120. That's not a lightbulb. It's a vacuum tube. They used to be in our televisions, back before everything was LCD or plasma.

On a related note, using the command "TOUCH TUBE" crashes the game, so that's a dead end.

Dave

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/30/13, 12:21pm

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: That's not a lightbulb

EXAMINE TABLE

READ NOTE

Just do it.

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/30/13, 1:03pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: That's not a lightbulb

HOLY SHIT! What is this game? When I read that, I felt my fucking heart rate double. Do you have any idea what it's talking about?

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/30/13 1:19pm

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: That's not a lightbulb

No clue. Unfortunately, it doesn't get us any further in the game to find out. I'll keep screwing around with it, but Jill gave me a couple pieces of copy to proof. Might not get to it until later, if you want to keep pushing on.

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/30/13, 1:46pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc: st_norman1992@izmail.com

re: You gotta read this

Yo Ken, I think you need to hear about this. Steve and I have really been laying into this Room 127 game. I know, I know, I probably have better shit to do than play around with some kid's experiment in Game Maker. But we've finally made a little progress. The game doesn't tell you anything. Nothing at all. We had to fuck around to even find out there was a text input prompt.

Best way to describe it is like a more lo-fi Hugo's House of Horrors. Weird ass text input, flying blind without instructions, it's just like the good old days. Didn't seem like there was much to it—no story or even context for why the character is in this hallway—but then Steve finds a note on the table in the first room.

"They take the blood from us. They put the blood in us. They mix it in. They pull it out. I am not myself anymore. Not whole."

That's it. Just a random note on the table. It's the first sign we have telling us what this game means. I think we should do a story on it. Maybe just a feature. Steve can write it, I told him this is his thing. But I want to know if anyone else has seen this game or played it. Or beat it. I want to know what it is.

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 5/30/13, 3:33pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: daveritter@gamecore.net

re: Room 127

Hey Steve

I think we're going to have you write a quick feature on Room 127. You don't have to finish the game or anything. From what Dave's said, it seems hella obtuse. But I guess it's a total novelty. No other site on the internet has written about Room 127, so we might as well be the first.

Would be nice to get some unique content up during E3, maybe just to distinguish us from the pack and drive traffic our way.

Ken

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/30/13, 4:21pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Tube Room

Steve:

I've figured out this much so far. You can BREAK the vacuum tube. That's not a common verb in adventure games, but this is not a common adventure game. The background sprite then shatters. At that point, you can TAKE GLASS. Don't ask me why it works. Just does. Now to figure out what to do with the glass...

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/30/13, 4:39pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Thanks, Ken, that sounds great. It seems like Dave and I keep making incremental progress in this game. I'll work on something tomorrow and Monday and have it ready to put up by Tuesday, no matter how far we are. With any luck, we'll have our minds wrapped around this game and we'll have beaten it.

Steve

samthegrey@eeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 5/31/13, 9:02am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Headed up!

Hey Steve! I'm just going to shower, pack, and head on up! I can't wait to see you!

Love,

Sam

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/31/13, 9:29am

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Glas

Exit the tube room and USE the glass in the hallway at night.

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/31/13, 10:11am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Glass

Oh man, what the hell was that? WHAT THE HELL? Where did that dude come from? Why did the screen go red? Why did he take me to the next room?

WTF is this game, man. Seriously.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/31/13, 11:35am

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Glass

Don't TOUCH the lab equipment once the nurse takes you to the clinic. Just like the vacuum tube, touching it crashes the game. Also you can't BREAK it.

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/31/13, 12:10pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Glass

The note that's on the board in the clinic is just as fucked up as the note about the blood in room 120. Make sure you don't miss it.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 5/31/13 1:51pm

to: daveritter@gamecore.net

cc:

re:re: Glass

I drank the liquid in the vial. Crashed the game. Another dead end.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 5/31/13, 3:03pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your Girlfriend

Hey Steve, your girlfriend is sitting in the lobby. She's cute enough that I might try and steal her.

Shit, she is over 18, right?

Brett

daveritter@gamecore.net (Dave Ritter) 5/31/13, 4:19pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Glass

There's a hole below the table in the room with all the cages. If you ENTER it I think it takes you outside. But it's too dark to see anything.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/2/13, 2:51pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: Weekend

Hey Sam...

I'm so sorry about how everything turned out this weekend. I don't know what was up with me. I was a total jerk. That wasn't me. You know I'm not like that. Ugh... I just feel so shitty about it.

We should have gone out to the park like you wanted. It was such a nice day and... I guess everything spiraled out of control from there. I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me.

Please call me when you get in. This is eating me up. Let me know if there's anything I can do.

Love,

Steve

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/2/13, 6:10pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: This Weekend

Steve,

You know it didn't start on Saturday. It started right when I showed up, when you made me sit in the GameCore lobby for like half an hour while you played a game. And then you wouldn't stop talking about the game, even when I said I didn't want to hear about it anymore.

I'll call you later. I need a bit more time to cool down.

Sam

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/2/13, 6:33pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: This Weekend

You're totally right, Sam. Again, I'm sorry about everything. I'm finishing up a story about Room 127 tonight for the website and once it's up I'm going to put the game down. I've been thinking about it too much. It got in the way of paying attention to you this weekend and that's completely uncool.

Please call me.

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/2/13, 10:52pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: This Weekend

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the long talk on the phone. Maybe I overreacted. It's good there's something your job is interesting, but it's also good you're going to be done with that damn game. Every time you said something about it, it just gave me this uneasy feeling... I'll read your article but honestly I hope it's the last time I have to even think about it.

Love you,

Sam

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/3/13, 9:39am

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net; jillwright@gamecore.net; st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Dave?

Hey guys,

Has anyone heard from Dave this morning? He left a backlog of video work that he swore he'd get done over the weekend.

Brett, sorry if you get stuck with the editing

Ken

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 6/3/13, 9:52am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc: brettjackson@gamecore.net; st_norman1992@izmail.com

re: re: Dave?

Nothing on this end. Usually he's pretty good about letting someone know if he's not coming in.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/3/13, 10:31am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc: daveritter@gamecore.net

re: Room 127 Feature

attachment: Room127.wps

Ken:

I've finished up my story on Room 127. Let me know what you think.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/3/13, 12:49pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Feature

Hey Steve,

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you. Dave being out of the office has put us behind on several projects. All of our pre-E3 coverage is going to be coming out way late tonight. If you happen to be proficient with Final Cut Pro, now would be a great time to let me know.

The article is real good and suddenly I'm curious about this game. I particularly liked this bit:

"The bits of text scattered throughout the game carry you through the incomprehensible puzzles and obtuse gameplay systems. There is no telling what Room 127 wants you to do next. In one moment, it tells you that a command prompt is not recognized. In the next, it requires that same prompt to move forward. But somehow, despite the frustration and guesswork, you are pulled through by sheer curiosity. You want to know where this story is going, and if there is a story at all."

Did you end up beating the game? Where does it go? Does it have a story? I guess these are the questions I'm left with. I understand why you'd leave them out of the article; if this game ever goes wide, you don't want to spoil anything. But I want to know.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/3/13, 1:22pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Feature

Ken:

No, I haven't beaten it. This morning I hit yet another roadblock. I made it to a shed outside what I guess is the main building and I have no clue what to do. The background makes it look like some sort of distillery. I don't know... I think I need to put the game down. I have to start over every time it crashes—which is often—so it takes forever just to try a new theory on how to progress. I have no idea how long it is. I don't think I want to take the time to find out.

The game is intriguing, but that's all it is. I've probably let it take up too much of my life. Maybe if this article gets someone to send me a walkthrough, I'll burn through it. But until then I'm probably done. I still haven't even figured out how to take screenshots of it!

And no, sorry, I've never used Final Cut.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/3/13, 2:01pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Feature

No problem on either account. But like I told you, you've got me interested in this game. Maybe I'll swing by your office and pick it up so I can pick up where you left off. How about we just pass this thing around the fucking office until we finish it off?

You said a walkthrough would be helpful. Mind sending me instructions as far as you've gotten?

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/3/13, 3:15pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Feature

Ken:

The disk and the USB floppy drive are both in Dave's office. I gave the game to him after I installed it. As for a walkthrough, here's a quick and dirty explanation of everything we figured out up to this point.

WAIT until dusk and go to the dark part of the hallway. OPEN the door. ENTER Room 120. EXAMINE table. READ note. BREAK tube. TAKE glass. EXIT room 120. Walk back to the windows. WAIT until night. USE glass. Once you've been taken to the clinic, EXAMINE board. READ note. EXAMINE equipment. TAKE vial. EXIT clinic and walk left for thirty seconds. When you see the door, ENTER room. EXAMINE cages. READ note. Then step to the black spot under the desk and EXIT room. Now you're outside. Walk right until you reach the shack and ENTER shack. EXAMINE Desk. READ note. From here... I really don't know.

Steve

kengreen@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/3/13, 3:50pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Feature

Steve,

I know you and Dave were e-mailing a lot about the game last week. Did he send you any messages over the weekend? I just went into his office to grab the disk and the USB drive. The place is a mess. He came into the office like he said he would, but he wasn't working on the videos we needed to have up today.

Don't worry. You're not in trouble. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm just trying to figure out what's been going on. I haven't been able to reach Dave.

In better news, I put your story up on the site. Hopefully we can get a better idea of what this damn game is about.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/3/13, 4:19pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Feature

Ken:

Sorry, haven't heard anything from Dave since Friday. If he was playing Room 127, he wasn't keeping me updated on his progress.

Good to see the article up! The nice thing about the internet is that there are probably a hundred people out there waiting to correct me on everything I got wrong about that damn game.

Steve

tn_books@izmail.com (Thomas N. Smith) 6/3/13, 6:44pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: warning

You need to take down your article. You don't know what you are doing. Please just delete it and forget any of this ever happened. Please.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/3/13, 8:02pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re fwd: warning

Ken:

I just received this e-mail. Should I respond to it or ignore it? Is it something I should worry about?

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/3/13, 8:54pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: fwd: warning

What do you think? It's just someone being dumb. The internet is full of people who are dumb. That's pretty much all the internet is. Just delete it and move on.

archer42@eeeurka.com (Vivek Archer) 6/3/13, 10:19pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your Article

Mr. Norman:

I just read your article. Interesting work. I thought I thought I'd never hear the name of Room 127 again in my life. You seemed curious about the game, so I thought I'd send along some of its history.

As far as I can tell, Room 127 began its life as an urban legend on the rec.games.video newsgroup back in 1996. It was started by a poster who went by the name of Alex Gogoasa. He wrote a lengthy description of a mysterious disk that he allegedly found in a thrift store. At first, he was just asking for help getting it to work. He was assisted by a second poster who was only known as Admiral Decker.

For several weeks, this was a lengthy discussion thread that largely only had two participants and mostly talked about subjects unrelated to the game. They went off on many tangents during the thread, discussing other computer games and even mundane aspects of their personal lives. Eventually, Gogoasa gave up trying to get the Room 127 disk functioning and offered to send it to Decker to keep working on the project.

Decker managed to install the game on his computer and continued to post in the thread about the strange adventure game. It was very similar to what you describe in your article. Mostly it sounded like a buggy Maniac Mansion rip-off, with creepy notes to piece together that formed some kind of story. I don't remember it much now, because what came afterwards overshadowed the game itself.

Decker, who had not posted much on the board before the beginning of the original Room 127 thread, became a major participant in several PC gaming threads. He was belligerent, pushing his opinion and generally trolling. His posts got more and more erratic over time, then abruptly stopped.

A third poster by the name of Hobbes Hhallas, that, again, was completely new to the group submitted an article a few days after Decker's disappearance. It was about a strange suicide that Hobbes claimed to be the board's own Admiral Decker.

At this point, Gogoasa shows up. He replies to the story about the suicide minutes later and posts a single message:

"I thought he would like it. I was right :-)"

None of the parties ever posted again. Not Hobbes, Gogoasa, or Decker. For a few days, the board went crazy. We all freaked out. Eventually, though, after some investigating, the members of the board who'd been watching the threads decided that it was an elaborate hoax. Gogoasa, Hobbes, and Decker were all the same person under three different names, playing a bit of a trick on the rest of us.

I suspect what you've stumbled upon is a sort of "fan game". One of us back from the rec.games.video board who was caught up in the original frenzy decided to try and code something resembling Alex Gogoasa's Room 127. Maybe they eventually planned on showing it off, but never quite got it right. Maybe they just decided it was dumb like the rest of us. But somehow their unfinished build made it out into the wild.

If you decide to update the story with this information, I'd appreciate if you cite me. I haven't chatted with anyone from rec.games.video in almost fifteen years and maybe they'd get a kick out of seeing my name when they stumble upon this.

On the other hand, if you'd rather leave Room 127 a mystery, I totally understand. It's a lot less fun when you know the backstory.

Vivek Archer

FiftyNineNine Networking Solutions

Systems Analyst

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/4/13, 9:45am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc: daveritter@gamecore.net

re: fwd: Your Article

Ken:

Looks like I was fooled. This is all just part of an old internet hoax. Kind of disappointing. Think we should add this part of the story or leave it be?

Steve

st_norman@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/4/13, 10:01am

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: fwd: Your Article

Hey Sam! I know the last thing you want to hear about is Room 127. I'm probably lucky if you actually read my article yesterday. But I thought I'd forward it along. What a silly thing to get fixated on.

Hope you're having a great day!

Love,  
Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/4/13, 10:19am

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net; jillwright@gamecore.net; st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Dave

Seriously guys, this isn't funny. Have any of you heard from Dave? I'm starting to get worried. Check your phones.

I think I'll probably swing by his place on the way home tonight if we don't hear from him.

Ken

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/4/13, 10:55am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: fwd: Your Article

Huh... To be honest, I think that's actually more of an interesting background for the game than I expected. I figured for sure this was just the freshman project of some game design student. Didn't make any sense why it was on a floppy disk but then again freshman art projects never make sense.

If someone actually coded this back in 1996 as a response to a hoax on a message board, that's pretty cool. I wonder if you'll hear from any of the other rec.games.video crowd. I posted on their for a while, back before '96 though. The name Alex Gogoasa even sounds vaguely familiar.

I'd wait to see if the story is corroborated by another commenter before posting an update on the story. It's also possible that this Vivek Archer character is making this all up. Internet, man. Internet.

Ken

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/4/13 12:12pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net; jillwright@gamecore.net; st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Dave

Ken:

This is going to sound weird but I talked to Lawrence in maintenance this morning and he said Dave came into the building on both Saturday and Sunday this week. Lawrence didn't know what the fuck he was doing, but apparently he stayed in his office for several hours on both days.

I feel weird ratting him out, like I shouldn't be telling you this. But I figured you should know. I'm worried about him, too.

Brett

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/4/13, 1:50pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: fwd: Your Article

Well, Steve, I guess it's good to have closure. Now you know where the game comes from—it's based on nothing but an old internet urban legend. It's the Slenderman of 1996. Still weird that someone sent it to GameCore, but maybe its creator thought it was time someone experienced it.

E3 is coming up. Are you excited about that? What are GameCore's plans?

Thinking of you,

Sam

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/4/13, 2:41pm

to: samthegrey@eeureka.com

cc:

re: re: fwd: Your Article

I really don't know what the plans are. Last year the GameCore crew went down to LA for the show, and presumably they'll do the same thing this year. They haven't said anything about taking me along, but I can hope... I haven't wanted to bring it up. Weird things are going on around the office. Dave hasn't been in the last couple days and no one's heard from him.

If I do go down with the crew, I wish there was a way I could stop in Fresno. I still feel like I need to make up for this weekend.

Love,  
Steve

tn_books@izmail.com (Thomas N. Smith) 6/4/13, 3:53pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: what did i tell you

Why is your article still up? Didn't you listen to me? Don't you get it? Quit fucking around. Take it down before someone gets hurt.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/4/13, 4:27pm

to: tn_books@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: what did i tell you

Mr. Smith:

I'm going to need more than that if you want me to take down the story. What are you talking about? Who is going to get hurt by the story? I don't get it. If you want me to take it down, you're going to have to make me understand.

What is going to happen if I don't take it down?

Steve Norman

tn_books@izmail.com (Thomas N. Smith) 6/4/13, 7:01pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: what did i tell you

It took almost twenty years for the wounds of Monmouth Valley to heal. Don't re-open them.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steven Norman) 6/4/13, 9:53pm

to: tn_books@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: what did i tell you

Mr. Smith:

I realize you are probably being obtuse for a reason, and probably because you're just trying to troll me or something. Good job. You got me to spend an hour and a half googling "Monmouth Valley". Are you talking about the 1995 bomb scare? That's the only thing I could I could come up with. Because that couldn't have anything to do with Room 127. Room 127 wasn't around until 1996 at earliest.

You're going to have to be a lot clearer if you really want something from me.

Steve Norman

mailer-daemon@izmail.com (Delivery Subsystem) 6/4/13, 9:54pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: what did i tell you

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

tn_books@izmail.com

Technical details of permanent failure: The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the address of the recipient for typos. See information located at support.izmail.com.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/5/13, 8:55am

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: Technical Question

Hi Anna! Don't worry, I haven't messed up my computer again. I actually had a random question that you might be able to help me with. Is there any way to trace an e-mail? God I probably sound like such a dumbass asking that, but I've never really had to try and my computer experience is mostly limited to playing games to be honest.

Don't worry, I'm not asking for any creepy reasons or anything. It's actually about that weird game I was going on about last time we talked. Someone sent me a few messages about it. When I tried to reply, I got a message that the user didn't exist. I still have the e-mails, though, and I'd like to get more info about the sender if possible. His name, unfortunately, is very common and googling his e-mail address gets me nothing. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks for your help,

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/5/13, 9:31am

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net, jillwright@gamecore.net, st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Update on Dave

Hey guys:

I went by Dave's apartment last night to check up on him and try to figure out what's going on. I figured he would be home, at the very least. He wasn't. I knocked on the door several times and couldn't get a response. Didn't hear anything inside, either.

I'm not sure what to do now. Please let me know if any of you hear from him. I'm considering calling his father, though if he has some legitimate reason for falling off the map it feels like a dick move. But we're headed out to E3 this weekend and I need to know what' sup.

Ken

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 6/5/13, 10:14am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Technical Question

Steve:

That's sort of a tough question, and it depends on what kind of client the e-mail's sender was using. If he was accessing his account through a web browser, it's very likely there's nothing you can do to find out any more about him. Same if he happened to be using a proxy. If this guy didn't want to be found and had even a bit of sense about how to go about hiding himself, he's hidden and there's nothing you can do about it.

That said, if he used an e-mail client independent from the service—Outlook, Thunderbird, or something like it—there's a chance his IP address will be included on the e-mail. Go into your izmail account and pull up the full original header. Look for the part that reads "Received: from" followed by a number in brackets. That's the IP address. It won't tell you everything, but it will tell you an approximate location for the sender.

There's really nothing much you can do beyond that. I hope this helps.

Anna

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/5/13, 10:33am

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: re: Technical Question

Anna:

The IP Address of the sender was [216.66.121.188] What's the next step?

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/5/13, 12:19pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your Big Break?

Hey kid, so here's the thing: I wish it didn't have to come up like this, because I'd much rather it be a fun surprise, but I guess I need to know ahead of time whether you'll be able to go down to Los Angeles for us for E3.

We'd planned to invite you along from the beginning, but now it looks like we might really need you with Dave going incommunicado like he has. I like having someone from the site at all the major conferences and meets. Looking at the schedule, we can divide up Dave's work mostly among the rest of us but scheduling conflicts are giving me a headache on like three things. It would be way easier if we have a fourth body along. You won't get the fun stuff, but you'll get to represent GameCore on your own.

If you can't come down with us this weekend, that's fine. It's not part of your internship or anything, but we could use the help and hopefully you'd have come along anyway.

Let me know.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/5/13, 12:33pm

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Your Big Break?

Ken:

I'm definitely free to come along this weekend. To be honest, I was hoping I'd be able to join you guys. I just wish the circumstances were better. I guess there hasn't been any more news from Dave today?

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/5/13, 12:58pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: I'm going to E3!

Hi Sam! Since we talked about it earlier, I thought you'd want to know that I am headed to E3 this weekend with the GameCore crew. I bet this will be my chance to show up in some video content, so keep an eye out!

Love,

Steve

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 6/5/13, 1:11pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Technical Question

Steve:

All I could find was that it's a Vermont IP address. It's located somewhere near Burlington. Other than that, there's nothing. Sorry if that isn't useful.

Anna

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/5/13, 1:45pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: I'm going to E3!

Steve that's so exciting! I'm really happy for you! Keep me updated!

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/5/13, 2:01pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re:Your Big Break?

That's good to hear. Like I said, this should have been something fun for you but it turned into something I needed from you. Sucks but, hey, maybe you'll get a couple more articles to your name.

I talked to Dave's mother on the phone today. God damn did I feel like such a weirdo about it all. Dave is a full grown dude, and here I am calling his mother to ask up about him. I just didn't know what else to do. He's never disappeared like this before. It's not just about the video work, or his articles, or his E3 assignments. I'm fucking worried about him.

A few minutes ago I got on his computer to snoop around. Not normally my style but, like I said, I'm freaked. Thought maybe I'd see that he was searching for plane tickets to Buenos Aires or something. At least then I'd have a clue what happened to him. From what I can tell, when he came in this weekend he spent almost all of his time playing Room 127.

I decided to install the game and poke around with it a bit. I don't know why. Just... I have to do something, right? And what else am I supposed to do?

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/5/13, 6:12pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: Monmouth Valley Bomb Threat

Dear Mr. Rand:

My name is Steven Norman and I am researching the 1995 Monmouth Valley Bomb Threat. Naturally, my research led me to your article, written shortly after the incident. I suppose it might be too much to hope that you remember anything else, but I'd really like to know everything you can recall. The bomb threat has come up in another story that I'm working on and I'd like to pick your brain about everything you discovered during your research.

Every story I could find about the incident told me the same thing. A man called in a bomb threat to a school in Monmouth Valley. The authorities came, found the bomb, and diffused it. Signs pointed to the man who set the bomb being the same man who reported it. But that's it... Was there anything else? Anything you couldn't report? Anything that didn't quite check out? I know this is an awkward request, but I'd really appreciate being able to talk about it.

Most importantly, I'd like to know if you ever came across anything by the name "Room 127" while you were working on the story. "Room 127" is a piece of software which is really the focus of my inquiry, but I've come to so many dead ends... But one source pointed me to the bomb threat.

Thanks for any help you can provide,

Steve Norman

Intern

GameCore.net

A CDN Communications Company

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/5/13, 6:49pm

to: archer42@eeeurka.com

cc:

re: Room 127

Mr. Archer:

Thanks for your informative e-mail about the history of Room 127. I was wondering if you happened to have any additional information from the rec.games.video posts regarding the game. This is going to sound strange, but a friend of mine has gotten wrapped up in the version of the Room 127 game that we received in our office and he might be in trouble. Anything else we could know about the game might be helpful.

You probably think this is crazy, getting all worked up about a fifteen year old newsgroup hoax. But we're worried and I'm following any lead I can get.

Thanks,

Steve Norman

Intern

GameCore.net

A CDN Communications Company

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/6/13, 7:05am

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net, jillwright@gamecore.net, st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Thursday

Hey everyone,

Looks like it's happening again. Every year, I feel like one of us gets sick right before E3. Just in time to infect the rest of the world of games journalism with another super bug. I'll be staying at home today, trying to recuperate so I'm not too miserable this weekend.

Of course, I'll still have my computer so let me know if you need anything.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/6/13, 9:14am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Thursday

Ken:

I have to know... Did you play Room 127 yesterday at all?

Steve

brettjackson@gamcore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/6/13, 10:50am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Midnight Street

Steve:

We just got in a preview build of Midnight Street 3. It's a racing game. Normally Dave would handle previews of racing titles but, well, you know. If you're bored, you can come by and pick it up. I'm certainly not going to fucking touch it. I don't even drive in real life.

Brett

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/6/13, 11:19am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Monmouth Valley Bomb Threat

Mr. Norman:

I have to admit that your inquiry caught me off guard. Even I had to go back through the paper's archives to determine what exactly you were talking about.

I suspect, if you have gone as far to e-mail me, that you have already read my article. You already know the details. Some lunatic calls in a bomb threat to a school. This probably does not even make the news, but this was just a few weeks after the Oklahoma City bombing. The country is on edge, and any threat of violence seems connected.

Unlike most bomb threats, the police did indeed find an explosive device on school grounds. It was hidden in a vent right next to the computer lab. The bomb wasn't terribly complex and they were able to disarm it without any difficulty. No one ever found the person who set it or the person who called in the threat, but in the end that's not what was important. No one was hurt.

I'm not sure what else there is to say. Honestly, it was not even the most interesting thing to come out of that high school. Ever heard of Benjamin Rickett? He killed four women in the Burlington metropolitan area back in 2002. Absolutely brutal. Maybe the worst story I ever covered. That's what I think of when I hear about Monmouth Valley High School. He was a student there. Even was in the computer lab when the bomb squad descended on the school. More than once I wondered if those girls would still be alive if the device had gone off...

As far as Room 127, I've never heard of it. Sorry.

Yancy Rand

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/6/13, 11:44am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Thursday

Yeah, I played it for about an hour yesterday. Didn't get much further than you. I thought that the obvious thing would be to use the vial on the still equipment. But I did that and the game crashed. Maybe there's some other step you need to do before you go to the distillery shack but I can't think of it yet.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/6/13, 12:30pm

to kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Thursday

Ken:

I just asked because I've noticed a strange pattern. You're going to think I'm crazy for even suggesting this, but I got sick after I played Room 127 for the first time. So did Dave. It's probably just a coincidence, but... I feel like there's a lot of weird stuff going on. I thought I should bring it up.

As far as the game goes, I think it crashes instead of giving a game over sequence or anything like that. I think about the times I've had it crash on me and it feels like right after I do something I shouldn't have.

Hope you feel better.

Steve

archer42@eeeureka.com (Vivek Archer) 6/6/13, 1:44pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Steve:

I really can't be much more help. It was just too long ago. I tried to go back and track down some of the old newsgroups posts, but they're gone. You know, some of that stuff is still out there and just waiting to embarrass me if anyone finds out my old handle. Too bad the original Room 127 posts were lost to history. Up until the hoax was discovered, it was a real big deal in the admittedly insulated video game newsgroup world.

Vivek Archer

FiftyNineNine Networking Solutions

Systems Analyst

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/6/13, 2:30pm

to: archer42@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Vivek:

I am sorry to keep bothering you, but I just have one more question for you. Do you remember if, in the original posts, there was any mention of Admiral Decker getting physically sick after playing Room 127 for the first time? Headache? Vomiting? Anything like that?

Steve

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 6/6/13, 3:12pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: E3 plans

attachment: reservation.pdf; hotel.pdf

Hi Steve: Here's the plan for getting down to Los Angeles this weekend. I've attached the reservations for our rental van and hotel rooms. We'll meet up Saturday morning in the parking lot where I'm picking up the van and drive down together.

Make sure to bring plenty of clothing changes. Inevitably someone is going to spill a drink or a plate of chili fries on you. It will probably be Brett.

Jill

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/6/13, 3:29pm

to: jillwright@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: E3 plans

Thanks for the info, Jill! I'm totally looking forward to the trip, even if it's starting to look like I'll be spending most of it working if Dave's not going to be there.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/6/13, 4:12pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:  
re: re: Thursday

Steve:

I took home my laptop with Room 127 installed, so I was able to fuck around with it a bit more. I was right about there being another path other than the distillery shack. If you keep walking past it, you get to something that looks like a guard tower. I went inside. There are three floors to this room. The first one is empty. The second one is being patrolled by some kind of guard. Is this the first enemy or NPC in the game? Other than the blobby looking nurse that grabs you when you use the glass in the dark hallway? I don't know.

The stairs are in the middle of the floor and you can only go up by typing in "UP". You have to time it just right so the guard has his back turned while you're on the second floor. It's really tough. If he sees you, he rushes towards you and the game crashes. God damn I wish there were save points in this game.

There's some kind of cabinet on the third floor. When you search it you find a syringe. I haven't been able to get down past the guard on the second floor, though. He always sees me.

I'll be in tomorrow. I'm already feeling better. You're right about your theory that the game made me sick. That does sound crazy. The only games that can make me feel ill are the Petz series of games, which is why the last one I played was Hamsterz Talent Show. I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Like I said, I always get sick right before E3. Apparently, I subconsciously enjoy being patient zero and spreading a cold all around the show floor.

Ken

archer42@eeeureka.com (Vivek Archer) 6/6/13, 5:59pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

You're right. How did you know that? I didn't even remember it until you brought it up. Admiral Decker's first post after he started playing the game was to say that he'd been throwing up for the last hour. His next said that he went to the doctor and that nothing was wrong with him.

This isn't another stage of the hoax, is it? I can't possibly guess how you'd know about those posts. It's gone from rec.games.video. I should have known you were just messing around.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/6/13, 6:29pm

to: archer42@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Vivek:

I swear I'm not screwing around with you. Until I got your first e-mail, I'd never even heard of rec.games.video. I'm still in undergrad. You can check my profile on GameCore.net. I couldn't have participated in those discussions. If anything, I'm worried that you're screwing around with me because right now I'm freaking out a little.

One of my friends seems to be missing, and he got further in the game than the rest of us. It made me sick. It made my editor-in-chief sick. I'm starting to get scared that this is a real thing and I just want answers.

Steve

archer42@eeeureka.com (Vivek Archer) 6/6/13, 7:10pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

The game is a hoax. That's all it is. Please don't e-mail me again.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/6/13, 9:02pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: E3 Requests?

Hey Sam, looks like I'll be driving down to Los Angeles on Saturday with the crew. It's a good thing. Feeling a bit stressed out right now and I could use something like a massive video game convention to take my mind off of stuff.

I think I told you that one of the associate editors has gone missing. Somehow I got it into my head that Room 127—yes, that damn thing—was involved and I started poking around and asking questions about a couple of the responses I got to the article. It hasn't gone well. I know it's my own fault. I shouldn't even be thinking about that game anymore, just like I said. At least I stopped playing it. Still... It freaks me out how it's gotten into my head and that just makes me think it's somehow more significant than it really is.

Fortunately I won't have time to think about Room 127 this weekend. Let me know if you have any requests for stuff I should try and see at E3. I have a few appointments scheduled, but I still will have a decent amount of free time to check out the show floor.

Love,

Steve

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/6/13, 11:30pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: E3 Requests?

Steve, you really have to stop fixating on that game! It's probably nothing, and I don't know how it could possibly have anything to do with the editor going missing. I think you're just looking for something that isn't there. When weird stuff happens, we look for reasons that it happened. Dave disappearing and this game showing up are both strange, and you've just connected them in your head to try and make sense of it all.

Hopefully E3 will give you the time away from it that you need!

As far as requests go, make sure to check out whatever Capcom is up to. I really want to know what's up with a new Darkstalkers game.

Thinking of you,  
Sam

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/7/13, 9:04am

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net; jillwright@gamecore.net; st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: E3

Staff:

Due to today's events we will be canceling our trip to E3. Further, if you'd like to go home for the day, please do so. I don't think I can be here today and I don't expect you to be here either.

Ken

jdevries@cdncommunications.net (Jason DeVries) 6/7/13, 9:39am

to: mailinglist_onlinestaff_all@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: Counseling Available

To all CDN Communications Online personnel:

I have arranged through our insurance services and counseling provider Apex Therapy for an on-site counselor to be available today in our HR office. I realize that you may need someone to talk to today, but please be aware that not everyone deals with grief in the same fashion. Your co-workers may prefer to be on their own, so if you want to speak with someone, please call our office and schedule an appointment. CDN Communications will cover any related co-pays or deductible costs for the visit.

Sincerely,

Jason DeVries

Director of Human Resources

CDN Communications – Online Media Division

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Bretty Jackson) 6/7/13, 10:01am

to: jdevries@cdncommunications.net

cc: mailinglist_onlinestaff_all@cdncommunications.net

re: re: Counseling Available

Jesus christ, what the hell is this? How fucking dare you send out a message this morning telling us how and what is appropriate right now? Oh, and real gracious of the corporation to spring for the "co-pays or deductible" costs for this counselor you're bringing in. Couldn't you wait at least one day before pulling this bullshit on us?

Dave was our friend. He was the friend of a ton of people on your mass-mailing list in this office and even outside of the fucking GameCore division. If all you can fucking do is send out the same form letter to everyone—from employees who didn't know him to people who knew him as a brother—then maybe you should just stay quiet and let those of us who want to mourn do it in peace.

And yes, I know I sent this to everyone on that same mailing list. That's not a mistake. That was intentional. I wanted everyone to know how I fucking felt.

Brett

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/7/13, 11:13am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Dave

Hi Steve...

I just checked the website and saw it wasn't updated. Then I checked Twitter and oh my god... I'm so sorry, Steve. I know you weren't there for long, but this must still be so hard on you. And I can't even imagine what the other guys must feel like.

If you want, I could drive up again this weekend. I don't know if it would help, but I know you might not want to be alone. Just let me know. If you get a chance, tell the rest of the crew that I send my best wishes.

Love,  
Sam

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/7/13, 12:37pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: Dave

Thanks for the thoughts, Sam. I'd love to see you this weekend, but you don't have to drive up. Everyone here is just in shock. I'm in shock. While I only knew the guy in person for a few weeks, you know I've been a fan of the site for years. It feels like he's an old friend or something. It's so weird.

Jill and I are the only ones in the office. We're sorting through the content set to go up over the weekend. We're holding back a bunch of articles because we don't want the site to put up any content related to death or violence. Given that we write about video games, that means trimming a whole lot of our articles.

Ken went home. He knew Dave longer than anyone. I think they went to high school together. Brett was...uh...sent home by the HR department. You should see the letter he sent to them. Maybe I'll forward it to you eventually...

No one even knows the details of what happened yet, but I hear it was bad. Real bad. The people who do know won't even talk about it. Just makes me sick to my stomach. I'll probably head home as soon as we're done here...

I'll be all right, Sam. I'm more worried about the rest of the crew. E3 is basically canceled for us. I assume we'll all come in on Monday, but what it's going to be like... I can't even guess.

Thanks again for the e-mail.

Love,

Steve

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 6/7/13, 1:55pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Articles

Looks like we're done, Steve. I'm going to head home. You should too. I don't really want to be in this office any more. Not right now.

Jill

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/7/13, 3:30pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Monmouth Hills

Mr. Norman:

I did not think that I would be writing you again, but I have found some new information. Since you are the reason I started looking into this again, I thought it was only fair that I pass it along.

In my last message, I told you about Benjamin Rickett. He was a member of the Monmouth Hills class that was present during the bomb incident. It was only because I happened to investigate the murders he committed that I ever connected the two events.

So it turns out that Rickett was not the only member of that class to end up rather infamous. Andrew Mullin, who graduated in the same year, was one of the three men who robbed a series of banks in Denver, Colorado back in 2006. They met a poor fate at the site of their sixth robbery, dying in a shootout with the police. Rhonda Bourn became a high school teacher in New York and was arrested for sleeping with several male students under the age of 16. Tyler Norris left the country in 2004 and joined a terrorist cell in Pakistan. As far as anyone knows, he's still fighting out there against the U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

I can not begin to guess what all of this means. I don't believe that this is normal. All of these people were students who were present in the lab when the threat was called in to the school. Perhaps the trauma of the bomb squad bursting into their classroom set them down a dark path. I don't know. But I will continue to look into it. I am too curious to give up now.

Yancy Rand

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/7/13, 5:54pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: re: Monmouth Hills

Mr. Rand:

Thank you for the follow-up, but I have to admit that I am not sure how much I really want to delve into this story. Recent events have shaken some things up for me. If you find anything else, please send it along... But I'll need to think about how much I want to be involved.

Thanks again,

Steve Norman

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/8/13, 8:13am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Monmouth Hills

Mr. Norman:

I do realize how life can get in the way sometimes. Nevertheless, I hope you reconsider. In almost three decades as a journalist, I have become rather jaded about some things. The one thing I have not become jaded about is my role—our role—as reporters and investigators. There is always a greater truth to discover.

Yancy Rand

gnorma@rnfabrications.com (Greg Norman) 6/9/13, 9:27am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Is this right?

attachment: sf_man_dies_in_bizzare_self_mu.pdf

Steve:

I just stumbled upon this article. It says that he worked at GameCore.net. That's your office, isn't it?

I can't even guess what drives a person to do that to himself.

Dad

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/9/13, 10:44am

to: gnorma@rnfabrications.com

cc:

re: re: Is this right?

Dad:

Yeah, he was a friend of mine at the office, actually. I didn't know about the details, and I certainly don't understand them. Honestly I think it's kind of an insensitive article.

Steve

gnorma@rnfabrications.com (Greg Norman) 6/9/13, 12:05pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Is this right?

Sorry... I didn't know. I didn't think he was actually at the same place you're working. If I knew, I wouldn't have sent the article. My e-mail would have probably been a bit nicer, too. That's truly awful. I am sorry for your loss.

Dad

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/9/13, 2:44pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: fwd: Is this right?

Hey Sam,

I figure if there's anyone I can talk to about this, it's you. Even though I bet you'll be mad at me. I'm forwarding an article that my dad sent to me about Dave Ritter's death. I'm guessing he didn't really know that I worked closely with him. Otherwise, it was a total dick move sending this to me...

Anyway, I can't get it out of my head. I just don't understand. When I heard he killed himself, I could at least wrap my mind around it. Some people are depressed. It's an illness. You don't always see the signs, even when they should be apparent.

But this is something different. This wasn't a suicide, no matter what the doctors or police or newspapers say. No one kills themselves like this.

You know what I'm thinking. Dave was further into the game than I was. He spent the whole weekend before playing it. That's not the only thing... I've been talking to this reporter from Vermont. Or, really, he's been talking to me. I really think there's more to this game than meets the eye.

I don't know whether I want you to talk me out of it or I want you to give me permission to keep digging. I guess I'd be happy either way. I just need to know what to do. Reading this article makes me need to do something—anything--to try and understand. This was someone I knew. Someone I chatted with. Someone I read and watched for years even before I began working here. He didn't just do this to himself out of nowhere.

Tell me what you think. Tell me what to do.

Love,

Steve

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/9/13, 4:51pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: fwd: Is this right?

You know what I want to say, Steve. I don't think you should spend one more minute thinking about that game. Let's say you're right and it has something to do with what happened to Dave. That's a huge step, and not something I'm willing to believe. You don't want to have any part of anything capable of doing that to someone. If there's even a chance what you say is true, uninstall that program and never look back. Never think about it again.

But I know you, Steve, and I know that's not how you think. You see a mystery. You see something that needs to be solved, even though it's probably a waste of your time. I hope it's a waste of your time...

Go ahead. Find out what happened to Dave. Just try and do it without playing the game. As much as I want to guarantee it had nothing to do with any of this, I still don't want you taking any risk, no matter how absurd.

Be careful,

Sam

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/9/13, 5:30pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: fwd: Is this right?

Don't worry, Sam. I won't do anything stupid. You're right. I'm probably just seeing patterns in the chaos... But I can't just let this go.

Love,

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/10/13, 10:22am

to: st_norman1992@Izmail.com

cc:

re: Apology

Hey Steve,

I'm sorry about this morning. I shouldn't have yelled at you. You weren't trying to be insensitive. You were only trying to help and I overreacted. We're all on edge here. I've already been looking into getting us all into another office in the building. Maybe that will help. Maybe not. Maybe things won't be the same again. I don't know.

While shouting at you wasn't the right way to go about it, I still disagree with you. I don't see any reason I should quit playing the game. This morning I made another breakthrough. I realized that if you use the syringe while you're in the top level of the guard tower, the movement of the guard slows down and he changes shape. This lets you escape the tower.

With as much respect as I can muster, your theory that the game has anything to do with Dave's death is ridiculous. I appreciate your attempts to understand what happened, but there are some things that we can never make heads or tails of. I knew him for most of my life and I've accepted that.

Even if you're right—and this is a really big fucking "if"--and the game will help me understand why he did that to himself... I don't think that means I should stop playing. It means I have to keep going.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/10/13, 11:03am

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: My biggest favor yet

Anna, please don't hurt me. I'm pretty sure almost everything I've asked of you has been well outside of your job description. Still... I think you're the only one here who can keep a level head about everything that's been going on. The editors in the office were close friends with Dave. I don't really want to bother them with my investigation. I'm worried that they'll think that I'm trivializing his death by trying to tie it to this damned computer game.

But I think there might be something to this and I might not have much time. Ken is playing it now, and he's advancing further than I ever have. Jill has been talking about picking it up, too. Even I admit that I'm tempted to try to push forward in Room 127. Something about it calls to me. Curiousity, I suppose...

I need to find some kind of proof that Dave was playing the game. I need to be able to show them—and show myself—that it's dangerous. I need to get onto Dave's computer.

A few minutes ago I went by his office. The computer is gone. I figure your office might have it. Is there any chance I could get just a few minutes on it. You can look over my shoulder the entire time. I might even want your help searching it.

This is way too much to ask of you. Turn me down if you have to. I just need to try everything I can to figure out what is going on with this game.

Steve

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 6/10/13, 11:31am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: My biggest favor yet

Steve, you have to know that would be a huge violation of company policy. I'm sure you'd want me to get past his password, too.

I'm not saying I won't do it, but I need more. Right now, this all sounds a little crazy to me.

Anna

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/10/13, 1:06pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: I've reconsidered

Mr. Rand:

Looks like I was a bit premature to reject your help. I read through everything you sent me again and it's a huge step in the right direction. Granted, I'm still not sure how it connects with the events I'm trying to piece together.

I know you couldn't get the roster of the class where the bomb was found, but is there a chance you could find the teacher's name? That wouldn't be protected information and he might be able to help us out.

Thanks for your assistance,

Steve Norman

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/10/13, 1:28pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: The next steps

Steve:

When you get out of the guard tower, things start getting weird. My screen was warping and tearing, like somehow this barely 8 bit software was pushing my machine too hard. The music got all distorted and it was even more jarring than usual. I thought it was another glitch—this really is a poorly coded piece of shit—but even when I went back and did it all over again the same thing happened.

There was a note on the top level of the guard tower where you get the syringe. It was shorter than the rest. All it said was this:

"We are working on a better way to see the world."

Do you think this is a new gameplay mechanic?

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/10/13, 1:45pm

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: fwd: The next steps

Anna:

Take a look at this message Ken just sent me. This is what I'm worried about. This doesn't sound right. Even I know that if a game installed from a floppy disk is pushing the processing limits of a computer built in 2012, something is wrong. And it doesn't look like Ken wants to stop pushing forward.

I need proof so he'll quit.

Steve

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/10/13, 1:59pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your investigation

Ken told me you were trying to figure out why Dave killed himself. At first, I was furious. After all, you haven't even been here a month. It's not your place. But then Ken said that you thought it had something to do with Room 127. That's the name of that weird game you and Dave were playing right?

When I sat down to think about it, I decided I couldn't stay quiet any more. I needed to tell someone.

Last week, Dave sent me an e-mail. I didn't think of it much at the time. Even after I found out what happened, even when I knew he sent it only hours before...

I didn't want anyone else to find out about it. The whole thing was weird enough. Adding this to it would only make people hurt even more. I didn't want his family to read it. It wasn't him. Maybe it was the depression that had overtaken him. Maybe it was something else. I don't know... But right now, Ken has spent the last hour in his office with the screeching music of that damn game playing. I told him to turn it down and he won't.

If there's even a chance these things are connected, you better fucking make sense of it. So I forwarded the e-mail to you.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/10/13, 2:01pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: fwd: I heard a beautiful sound

Good morning Brett.

When I was a child sometimes I would turn on the television and turn the dial to a station that we didn't get. This was back when televisions had dials and when you could set the dial to a station that simply didn't exist. These days there is a station for everything; for every number. Not then. Everything passed through the air but not everything was received and not everything made sense.

I would put the static on the screen and turn up the volume and look at the screen. I would pretend that I could see and hear something in the random noise. Something only I could hear. Something meant for my ears only.

You can't do that anymore today. Everything is regulated. Everything is gated off. It is so difficult for the noise to get through. But it's still there. It's still waiting.

I heard a beautiful sound today. Will you listen with me?

Dave

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/10/13 2:14pm

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: fwd: fwd: I heard a beautiful sound

Anna, now look at this. This is the last e-mail Dave sent to someone in the office. At least to that I know of. Presumably he sent it from his computer here. I have to see what else is on there.

Steve

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 6/10/13, 2:31pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Okay

Steve: Meet me in the employee lounge on the second floor at 6:00. Most people should be out of the office by then. I know the entire IT team is usually gone by five.

Anna

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/10/13, 3:57pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: I've reconsidered

Mr. Norman:

That is truly good to hear. I, too, am unsure how the bomb incident could have anything to do with what you are investigating, but I am glad that we are helping each other. More, I am glad that you pointed me back towards this case. If not for your initial request, I would have never realized how many students from that class had met terrible fates.

Now, to your question. The bomb in question was planted in a vent underneath a computer lab. I looked into the computer science teacher at the high school at the time. His name was Victor McDowell. Unfortunately, he will not be much help. He was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers in 1995. He was only fifty-two. If he's alive—and I highly doubt it—he wouldn't be in any condition to answer our questions.

The good news is that I have a bead on an administrator who worked at the school in 1995. he was an assistant principal at the time. Now he's a superintendent of Chittenden County. I thought to send you his name and e-mail address, but it is probably best if you send your questions through me. I cannot guess how he would respond getting inquiries about the bombing from a college student who writes for a video game website.

Let me know if you have any specific questions for him.

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/10/13, 4:44pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: re: I've reconsidered

Yancy:

I know you mentioned it before, but I never put it together. The bomb was set in the computer lab, right? How much trouble would it be to figure out what kind of computers the school had? What was installed on those computers?

Most importantly, I need to know if this adminstrator has ever heard of something called Room 127.

The computer lab wasn't Room 127 in the school, was it?

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/10/13, 6:51pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Files from Dave's computer

attachment: notes.txt; trephination.pdf; bacau.png; bacaustreets.png

BLANK

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/10/13, 8:24pm

to: awalker@cdncommunications.net

cc:

re: Thanks

Hey Alice, I just wanted to thank you for letting me take a look at Dave's computer. I know we didn't find much, but anything is better than nothing. And I've felt like I've had nothing for the majority of this investigation.

From glancing at the notes file, it looks like Dave made it pretty far into room 127. They become increasingly incoherent as he progresses. I thought about showing this to Ken in the hopes that it would prove my theory—the game had some effect on Dave that we can't understand.

Here's the problem: I believe the notes also reveal the solutions to the next few puzzles in Room 127. If I show Ken and he doesn't believe me, he'll blaze through that part of the game. Then he'll be right at the point where Dave's notes stop making sense. Showing him these might be dooming him to the same fate, so I won't be telling Ken that I even found this. I hope it takes him a long time to figure out the puzzles on his own.

Honestly, I'm not sure if the notes are even referring to the game by the end. I start to feel anxious even reading them, as if I can sense an echo of whatever was going through his mind.

Based on the file names, I've figured out that the maps we found are of the city of Bachau in Romania. This fits with the music in the game, which is a loop of a former Romanian national anthem.

I know you're as curious as anyone by now. I'll try to tell you if I stumble on anything new.

Steve

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/11/13, 7:51am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127

Steve:

No, the computer lab was on the second floor of the building. It couldn't have been Room 127.

I went back over some of my old notes last night. I found something that I didn't mention earlier. It wasn't in my original story because my editor thought it wasn't necessary and might draw too much sympathy to the bomber.

The bomb that the police found was an amateur job. The explosive element was constructed well enough and, if they hadn't gotten to it in time, it would have destroyed a good portion of the school. However, the timer was wired strangely. It had been set for twelve hours, though the bomb squad technician who disarmed it theorized that its builder had tried to set it for twelve minutes.

Whoever called in the threat told the police exactly where the bomb was and even how to disarm it. It was as if they'd had second thoughts about going through with it.

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/11/13, 8:55am

to: levin@doccs.ny.gov

cc:

re: Contacting a prisoner/Rhonda Bourn

Ms. Levin:

My name is Steve Norman and I am a reporter working out of San Francisco on a story regarding a prisoner who is housed within the Albion Correctional Facility named Rhonda Bourn.

I have researched the standards and procedures for contacting inmates within the New York Department of Corrections, but I am in something of a difficult situation. The story I am working on is time sensitive. I need to get in contact with Ms. Bourn as soon as possible, preferably via phone.

Please let me know if this could be arranged and what steps I would need to take in order to facilitate this.

Thank you for your help,

Steve Norman

levin@doccs.ny.gov (Marcia Levin) 6/11/13, 9:55am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Contacting a prisoner/Rhonda Bourn

Mr. Norman:

I am writing in acknowledgment of your request to speak with one of our prisoners, Rhonda Bourn, through alternative channels. I regret to inform you that at this time your request has been denied. To be quite honest with you, the circumstances of Ms. Bourn's incarceration at our facility has made her a subject of particular interest for many reporters, investigators, and members of the public.

We do not believe that it is in the interest of our facility or Ms. Bourn to take any action which might foster media interest in her case. With that in mind, we do not intend to allow access to her beyond the postal system which is available to contact any of our prisoners. You are free to send her correspondence through this system and she is free to respond, but keep in mind that any such communication is subject to monitoring by facility personnel.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this decision.

Marcia Levin

New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/11/13, 10:28am  
to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com  
cc:  
re: Rhonda Bourn

Yancy:

I've hit a brick wall with trying to get in contact with Rhonda Bourn. She was the only name you gave me that was both alive and not in maximum security prison. I'd hoped that the NY Department of Corrections might give me a bit of leeway and I could get her on the phone. I get why they're doing it. She probably has desperate high school guys and weirdos who are all Normally I wouldn't mind interviewing her via mail but time is something of an issue...

Any luck on the assistant principal you tracked down?

Steve

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/11/13, 11:41am  
to: st_norman1992@izmail.com  
cc:  
Re: re: Rhonda Bourn

Steve:

Sorry to hear about the situation with Bourn. I could look into it myself. Perhaps the official you spoke with saw your email address and assumed that you were one of the desperate weird young men he's worried about. It's regrettable, but it's a problem any young reporter must deal with. Many people will think you're just playing around until you're established. And good luck getting established in this day and age...

I spoke to the principal just this morning. He doesn't remember much of anything from the time of the bombing. It was a big deal at the time but even the most frightening day can fade to nothingness over two decades. He was able to provide one key piece that had been missing from my original story.

Two weeks before the bomb incident, the computer science teacher had taken a few days worth of vacation time. He'd been replaced by a substitute-a young man named Corey Thatcher-who had not gotten along well with several of the other teachers. For quite a while, this young man was the focus of the investigation. The police had him pegged as both the one who planted the bomb and the one who called in the threat. When they looked into it they found that he moved out of the area right after leaving the assignment at Monmouth Hills. By the time the bomb was planted, he was somewhere in Iowa so he couldn't have been the suspect.

Do you mind if I ask why this story is time sensitive? I can't guess why all this would suddenly be important after over eighteen years.

Yancy

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 6/11/13, 11:59am  
to: st_norman1992@izmail.com  
cc:  
re: Coffee

Hey Steve! I hope this isn't too weird, but I was wondering if you'd like to grabcoffee after you get off work. Let me know!

Anna

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/11/13, 1:02pm  
To: brettjackson@gamecore.net; jillwright@gamecore.net; st_norman1992@izmail.com  
Cc:  
Re: E3 Coverage  
Attachment: releases.pdf

Hey everyone, I know everything has been hard lately. It isn't easy to think about work, and it isn't easy to be here. Our fans understand that and I'm sure they'd forgive us if we took the next few weeks off. But that's not what I want to do and I don't think that's what Dave would want us to do.

Today's the first day of E3 and I'd like to start putting some fresh content on the site. I've compiled a list of games that have been announced leading up to the show. Pick out a couple of these, find the trailers and demo videos. Write up your thoughts. Try to make them funny. Make sure you credit your sources! Normally we're there to see things first hand. Our fans will tolerate our absence from the show this year, but they won't tolerate plagiarism or, as some writers like to call it, homage.

Swing by my office and let me know what you're working on. I've hit another dead end in Room 127 so I might even give you my full attention.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/11/13, 1:47pm  
to: awalker@cdncommunications.net  
cc:  
re: re: Coffee

I have to admit that I am a totally clueless guy about some things, so... I'd totally be down with going to get coffee and talking about my investigation but I also should tell you that I'm in a relationship.

I don't know whether I just avoided future awkwardness or created a ton of it. Anyway, if you still want to get coffee that still sounds good!

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/11/13, 2:36pm  
to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com  
Cc:  
re: re: Rhonda Bourn

I've been reluctant to fill you in on the whole story because I was afraid I would sound a little crazy.... I wrote an article about a strange video game that showed up at our offices. In response, I was emailed by a man who told to pull the article. He acted like the game was dangerous. He wrote a vague reference to the "wounds of Monmouth Hils" and then deleted his email account.

A few days later, Dave disappeared after, I believe, finishing the game. You can google his name to find out what happened to him. The reason that I'm in a hurry is that another one of my editors is playing the game now.

I hope this isn't too insane for you to believe.

Steve

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Alice Walker) 6/11/13, 2:55pm  
to: st_norman1992@izmail.com  
cc:  
re: re: Coffee

No, Steve, that sounds great. Totally understand. Sorry if I made anything awkward.

Let's meet at the Starbucks across the street at 5:30. I've actually been poking around in Dave's computer some more and I might have something interesting for you.

Anna

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/11/13, 5:09pm  
to: kengreene@gamecore.net  
cc:  
re: Articles  
attachment: CoD.wps; NFS.pdf

Ken:

Attached are my articles on the new info we've received on the next Call of Duty and Need For Speed games. Thanks again for letting me handle these, even though they aren't long they'll probably end up with more pageviews than everything else I've written put together.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/11/13, 5:33pm  
to: st_norman1992@izmail.com  
cc:  
re: re: Articles

Don't worry, it's not really a favor. The rest of us are tired of writing about that shit.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/11/13, 7:49pm  
to: awalker@cdncommunications.net  
cc:  
re: re: Coffee

Hey Anna, I figured you probably just decided against meeting me this afternoon. I totally understand. It's too bad everything will be weird now. I'd still like to be friends, and I'm really curious what you managed to find on Dave's computer. Maybe we should meet up tomorrow at the office, before we start work. That should be way less awkward.

Steve

awalker@cdncommunications.net (Anna Walker) 6/12/13 1:08am   
to: st_norman1992@izmail.com  
cc:  
re: Subject

I don't know why I did it. I shouldn't have done it. I started the game. We'd found all those hints and I just wanted to see. I wanted to understand.

There are some things we're not supposed to understand.

jdevries@cdncommunications.net (Jason DeVries) 6/12/13, 8:58am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: This Morning

Steve:

I just wanted to thank you for everything you did this morning. Our family here at CDN Communications has lost too much already this month. Your quick thinking saved Anna's life. I don't know you knew... But you did the right thing. I probably sounded angry with you on the phone. It was the middle of the night and I didn't understand why you were calling or why you needed her address. I was just confused. But I'm glad you persisted. We all are.

Again, thanks.

Jason DeVries

Director of Human Resources

CDN Communications – Online Media Division

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 9:21am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Anna

Ken:

I don't know if you've heard what happened to Anna. She was hospitalized last night. She tried to play the game. Room 127. She found it on Dave's computer and decided to boot it up.

You have to stop. I know you don't want to believe me, but it does something. Something we can't understand. Until I know more, I think everyone should just try and stay away from it.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 10:01am

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: fwd: Subject

Yancy:

After my message yesterday you probably think I'm insane. It was hard to send that e-mail because I knew that would be your response. I stayed up late last night waiting for a reply, because I think I need your help on this. It's a good thing I did.

A girl at my office played the game, too, and she sent me a very disturbing e-mail message. I'm forwarding it to you. I immediately contacted an HR rep and informed him that someone needed to check on the girl.

She didn't pick up the phone when we tried to call her, so we called 911. They found her unconscious on the floor of her apartment. She'd had a seizure after making it a good way into the game. Now she's at the hospital. She hasn't woken up.

This is real, and I need your help before this hurts anyone else. I can't let it spread any more.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/12/13, 11:44am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Anna

Steve:

How can I stop now? If this game—and the more I think about it, the more I realize its barely a game—is causing these things, I have to keep going. This goes beyond everything we know about video games. This is unexplored science. To think that a computer program, a collection of data small enough to fit on a 1.44mb floppy disk, has the power to alter human behavior...

I can't believe it's true, and if it's true I just want to experience it. I know why you're feeling this way. This game is insidious. I hear the music even when I'm not playing. I see the sprites when I close my eyes. I just want to know what it's doing. I want to see where it is taking me. Stopping isn't a choice. If I stop it's going to hurt even more.

Maybe that's what Dave and Anna did wrong. Maybe the problem wasn't that they played. Maybe they stopped.

Ken

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 1:03pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: fwd: re: Anna

Yancy, just look at this. I'm sorry for all the e-mails but I think you're the only lead I have and it's getting worse. Don't give up on this. I need your help.

Steve

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/12/13, 1:50pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Sorry

Steve, I truly apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I admit that your first e-mail made me suspicious. No, it is more than that. All of this makes me suspicious. It feels like a hoax. I have no way to verify what you're telling me. You could be making all of this up and stringing me along. I know how addictive video games can be. I pumped more quarters into the Pac Man machines than I'm willing to admit. This does not sound real.

However, I cannot deny that I am curious. Perhaps when this is all over I will be made a fool for believing you—or at least going along with you. But it is too late to look back. We will keep going, at least for now.

I have some good news for you. I was able to acquire a copy of the 1994-1995 Monmouth Hills yearbook. The class rosters were off limit, but the yearbook was available at their library. Now, there's no way to know for sure exactly which students were in the computer lab during the bomb incident, but then I saw the picture of the school's technology club. Rickett, Mullin, Bourn, and Norris were all members.

This couldn't just be a coincidence. Maybe we're not looking for students who happened to be in the lab at the time of the incident. Maybe this is what we want. There were two other members of the club. Alex Grant and Brenda Fischer.

I wasn't able to find out much about Alex Grant. Apparently, he didn't even make it through the rest of the 1995 school year. His father pulled him out of classes shortly after the bomb incident. The alumni association only keeps track of students who graduated. Unfortunately, he has a very common name.

Fischer is a different story. She's still in Monmouth Hills, working at the county Humane Society. Unlike the rest of the technology club, she seems to be living a perfectly normal life.

Here's her e-mail address: bfischer@mmhhs.org . I have a pretty good idea of what you want to ask her, but you can do a better job of it than me. I still have a few old police contacts I want to track down. Even if everything you say is right and this is all connected to this video game, that leaves a question of why someone set a bomb in the school.

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 2:33pm

to: bfischer@mmhhs.org

cc:

re: Monmouth Hill High School

Ms. Fischer:

My name is Steve Norman. I am writing concerning the 1994-1995 Monmouth Hills High School technology club. You are listed as a member in the yearbook. I have a feeling you might already know what I want to ask about, so I'll get straight to the point.

Does the title "Room 127" mean anything to you?

Steve Norman

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 6/12/13, 2:49pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Ken

Hey Steve,

I don't know if you've noticed, but Ken's been acting strange lately. I talked to him a short while ago and I asked him what was wrong. He told me I should talk to you.

What's going on?

Jill

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 3:15pm

to: jillwright@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Ken

Jill,

It's the game. It's Room 127. He thinks he has to finish it, but I've told him what I think will happen. He doesn't want to hear it I don't know if he'll listen to you, but try... I'm really afraid of what will happen the further he gets into the game.

Steve

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 6/12/13, 3:55pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Ken

You're going to have to explain a bit better than that. I've been out of the loop on this game. Is this was what Dave was playing before he disappeared?

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 6:12pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: Call me

Hi Sam... When you get a chance, could you please give me a call? I tried calling you but I think your phone is off. I need to talk.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 8:41pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: Anna Walker

Yancy:

I am glad you're still on board. I already emailed Brenda Fischer. Once she gets back to me, I'll let you know.

I thought I would give you an update on Anna Walker. She's the girl at my work who played the game—the one I told you about. I'm still shaken up about everything that happened. Especially now.

This afternoon I went by the hospital on the way home from work. I wanted to see how she was doing. Turns out that she woke up around noon today. I was happy and I was excited. I thought that I might be able to get a chance to talk to someone who played deep into the game.

Almost as soon as Anna woke up, she started screaming. She ran to the window, broke it, and used a shard of glass to cut out her own tongue.

I feel sick even thinking about it. Why would she do that, except that she was afraid to talk? She didn't even want to be able to communicate what the game showed her.

I wish I'd never even started this. I wish I'd just thrown that disk away. No one would have been hurt. None of this would have happened.

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/12/13, 9:39pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Anna Walker

Steve:

I am sorry to hear about your friend. When you write things like this, I admit that I hope that you are just making this up. If this is all the truth, it is almost too horrible to conceive.

At least I was able to make some progress today. Like I told you, I was able to speak to some of my old friends in the police department again. They filled me in about the investigation of the bombing incident. Remember, I told you that for a long time they believed that a substitute teacher was responsible for planting the explosive. Then they realized that he couldn't have. He'd left the state, let alone the school district.

Afterward, the focus shifted to a new suspect. He was a parent of one of the students at Monmouth Hills. His son was having difficulty at school and was on the verge of being expelled. Apparently his car was seen near the school the night before. They thought that he fit the profile they were working with. They believed that their bombed wanted to damage the school but not hurt anyone. He'd set the bomb for twelve minutes, realized that it was accidentally set for twelve hours, then called in the threat to make sure it was disarmed before it exploded.

The police were never able to solidly connect the man to the bomb. He ended up pulling his son from the school district before he could be expelled. I wasn't able to find much information on him.

His name was too common. How was I supposed to find someone named Thomas Smith?

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/12/13, 10:02pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: re: Anna Walker

That's the man who e-mailed me. That's the one who started this, and who told me to pull my article. It was Thomas Smith. It was a throwaway e-mail address, but still used his own name.

We have to find more about this man, no matter what it takes.

bfischer@mmhhs.org (Brenda Fischer) 6/13/13, 12:13am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Monmouth Hills High School

in all my years, i never thought i would meet another.

what do you want to know?

how do you keep the screams at bay?

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/13/13, 7:48am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:  
re: Thomas Smith

Steve:

I'll do everything I can to track him down. I can't promise much, but if the last suspect the police had for the bombing is the same man who e-mailed you and told you to pull down your article about the game, I think we're getting close to tying both everything together. We just need to understand where the pieces fit

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/13/13, 9:09am

to: bfischer@mmhhs.org

cc:

re: re: Monmouth Hills High School

Ms. Fischer:

If you have played the game, I have a lot of questions for you. What do you mean by "another"? Do you mean that I've played the game, too? I haven't completed it. The only person who I think completed it ended up dead. Someone else got really close and she's in the hospital.

How far did you get in the game? Where did it come from? Did you play it at your school? What is it? What did it do to you? What did it do to the others?

I'm sorry for throwing all these questions at you, but I'm afraid I might not have much time.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/13/13, 9:41am

to: jillwright@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Ken

Jill, Room 127 is indeed the game that Dave was playing. It's a really long story, but if you want to talk about it we can... But I'd prefer not to get anyone else involved. The game has a way of sucking you in that I still can't explain. I think Ken even believes me that it's dangerous now but he refuses to stop. Anna from IT knew it and she still booted it up. I'd rather not risk losing anyone else to this game.

Steve

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/13/13, 10:03am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127

Steve:

I'm stuck in the distillery again. I thought everything was going smoothly. After the guard tower, the interior of the main hallway changes and there are new rooms to explore. I have two more vials of liquid. One is green and one is red. I can't use any of them in the distillery. I need to keep going, though. I feel like I'm close. Do you have any idea what you have to do next? Even a guess?

I know you refuse to play the game but at least let me be the guinea pig. I want to see what happens next.

Ken

bfischer@mmhhs.org (Brenda Fischer) 6/13/13, 10:51am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Monmouth Hills High School

i was luckier than the others. it shows us all different sights. i found a way to control it. the others here dont like to do it. the animals have to die, there are just too many of them. but they say it makes them too sad, so they let me do it.

i like to watch the lights go out.

you should really finish the game for yourself, steve. i wouldnt want to spoil you on the ending :) just be ready for it. nothing will ever be the same :)

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/13/13, 12:12pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: fwd: re: Monmouth Hills High School

Yancy:

I don't think we'll be getting anything out of Brenda Fischer. Check this out.

Steve

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/13/13, 2:24pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: The Plot Thickens

Steve:

I spoke with my contact in the Burlington school district—the one who used to be an assistant principal in Monmouth Hills. It was probably a bad idea, but I told him what the police had passed along to me. This was information the school had never been privy to. Thomas Smith was never formally charged with anything related to the bombing and he wasn't an employee of the school, so the administration was kept in the dark about this part of the investigation.

Remember Alex Grant? The member of the technology club that didn't graduate in 1995 because he was pulled from the school? He was Thomas Smith's son. Adopted son, that is. That's why there's no record of Grant. I should have put it together. I should have guessed that the two students who disappeared—Grand and Smith's son—were one and the same.

So where does that leave us? In early 1995, the teacher who supervises the technology club has an extended leave of absence and is replaced by substitute Corey Thatcher for a little over a month. The substitute isn't well liked, quits, and leaves not just the school but the state. Weeks later, Thomas Smith—the father of one of the students in the technology club—plants a bomb in the middle of the night. When it doesn't go off, he realizes that he he set it for twelve hours instead of twelve minutes. He calls in a bomb threat and the explosive is discovered before it can hurt anyone.

Thomas Smith pulls his son out of the school and they both disappear into the ether. The remaining members of the technology club all end up deranged, dead, or both. Including the teacher. At least one of them, and probably all of them, played the computer game that killed your friend.

Am I missing anything? What's the next step? If we can't find Alex Grant or Thomas Smith, maybe we need to ferret out Corey Thatcher. His abrupt departure from Monmouth Hills can't just be a coincidence. But how do we find him?

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/6/13, 3:49pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net; jillwright@gamecore.net

cc:

re: I need your help

Brett, Jill:

By now, I've talked to both of you about what happened to Dave, Anna, and what I think is happening to Ken. I know you both have your doubts, but I am pretty sure it all has something to do with Room 127. There's something I need your help with.

I want to put something up on the site. It's a follow-up to my Room 127 article. It will be short, unobtrusive, and won't look like anything but a continuation of what I've already published. But it's real purpose is to hopefully stir up one of the people involved in the history of the game.

I strongly suspect that there is someone out there that wants this game to be played. This person sent us the disk. Maybe they are even watching from afar as it tears us apart. I don't know. But this isn't the first time something has happened with this game. My first article got the attention of a couple people, but the one I really want to talk to disappeared. If I can scare him out again, maybe I can get some answers.

The reason I'm coming to you guys is I'm not sure how Ken will react. He's way into the game now. Thankfully, he's been so busy with E3 coverage that he hasn't had too much time to play, and I suspect he's not particularly good at weird adventure games.

I think he knows I want to stop him. I don't think he'd okay putting this up on the site. Can you guys help me?

Steve

jillwright@gamecore.net (Jill Wright) 6/13/13, 4:12pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: brettjackson@gamecore.net

re: re: I need your help

I don't think that's such a good idea, Steve. Ken will figure it out eventually, and we both know he's been in a terrible mood lately.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/13/13, 4:19pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc: jillwright@gamecore.net

re: re: I need your help

Sure, I'll put it up. Why the fuck not? We gotta do something.

Jill, lighten up, what the fuck is Ken going to do to us, anyway? Worst case scenario is he gets HR to fire the kid, and he knows what he's getting into. Besides, HR loves the kid after what he did for Anna. Seriously, let's just do it.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/13/13, 4:35pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc: jillwright@gamecore.net

re: re: I need your help

Thanks! I really appreciate it. I will write something up tonight.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/13/13, 6:51pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: re: The Plot Thickens

Yancy:

I think there's one more step that you're missing. It's just a hunch, but I believe that two years after he was pulled out of Monmouth Hills High School, Alex Grant joins the newsgroup rec.games.video. There, he sends a copy of Room 127 to a fellow member of the board who then kills himself.

According to Vivek Archer, the man who contacted me to tell me the game was a hoax, the poster who sent the game was named Alex Gogoasa. Alex G. Think that's the same guy? I do.

You're right. The substitute teacher might be the linchpin to all of this. Maybe he's the one who created the game. Maybe he can tell us how to stop it. I'm putting up an update to an article. In it, I'm going to state that I found the creator of the game. I'm going to credit it to him—to Corey Thatcher. We don't know that he made Room 127 yet, but maybe we can stir the pot a little.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/13/13, 11:00pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Room 127 Update

attachment: Room127followup.wps

Brett:

Here's the follow-up I want to put on the site. Thanks again for your help. I think we're getting close to cracking this. I just need a little more...

Steve

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/14/13, 7:19am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Hold up on Corey Thatcher

Steve:

I'd wait on putting that article up. I don't think that Corey Thatcher's the one who made the game—not based on what you've told me about it and what I've just learned.

There wasn't any hope for tracking down Thomas Smith and Alex Grant. Even assuming that Alex was Thomas's adopted son, the names are just too common. But Alex Gogoasa? Now we're getting somewhere. I Googled the name. All I could find was a Romanian chain of donut shops, Gogoasa Infuriata. Apparently his last name means "donut". Go figure.

This might sound silly, but it gives us two things. First, it tells us that Corey Thatcher isn't the one who made this game. You said yourself that the music that plays throughout Room 127 is the Romanian National Anthem. Doesn't that make it far more likely that Gogoasa—who also spread the game to the message board—is the creator?

Second, we now have a lead. If Thomas Smith adopted Goagasa, it was likely done in a very specific time frame. You're not old enough to remember this but shortly after the fall of Communism in Romania, it was all over the news: Romania was full of orphans. The previous regime had outlawed contraception, leading to thousands of unwanted children abandoned to the state.

Many of those orphans were adopted to Americans over the years—to the point where Romania ended up shutting down adoptions to American families. But we know that if Goagasa came over in that first wave of orphans to enter the United States, it was likely between 1990 and 1995, when he was a senior at Monmouth High School.

He was likely adopted when he was 13 or 14, in the very earliest days of the crisis hitting the news in the U.S. Very few children who came over were teenagers. I wouldn't be surprised if there are State department records about this very adoption. I will start looking into it.

In the mean time, I'd just try and wait patiently. Don't publish the story. Not yet. Let's be cautious for the moment. We're making great progress. Better than I expected.

Yancy.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 9:22am

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: re: Hold up on Corey Thatcher

Yancy: It's too late. I already put the article up.

Steve

52881ts@izmail.com (Tom Smith) 6/14/13, 10:01am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Fucking Idiot

What did I tell you? Shut it down before you get yourself killed. You obviously haven't actually played the game.

Are you just taunting him? What do you want?

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 10:36am

to: 52881ts@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Fucking Idiot

Mr. Smith:

I know who you are. I know what's going on now. Alex Gogoasa is your son, isn't he? And he's the one who created Room 127, not Corey Thatcher. You found out. You knew what he was going to do. That's why you tried to blow up the computer lab at Monmouth Hills in the middle of the night. You were trying to prevent the students from playing Room 127. But you set the bomb wrong, and you had to call in the threat so the police would disarm it. You didn't want to hurt anyone yourself.

We really have a copy of the game. It's killed one of my friends already, and severely hurt another. Someone else is playing it right now, as we speak. I need your help. How do I help him? What do I do?

At the very least, tell me I'm right. Reply back to me and explain what the game does. Some people kill themselves. Other people go crazy. How is it possible? Give me something to show my friend so he stops playing.

If you do that, I'll shut everything down. I'll destroy the disk. Just tell me the truth.

Steve Norman

mailer-daemon@izmail.com (Delivery Subsystem) 6/14/13, 10:37am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Fucking Idiot

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

52881ts@izmail.com

Technical details of permanent failure: The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the address of the recipient for typos. See information located at support.izmail.com.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 10:44am

to: 52881ts@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Fucking Idiot

GOD DAMN IT FUCK FUCK FUCK I WAS TRYING TO WORK WITH YOU WHY WON'T YOU HELP ME?

I know this is going nowhere I know you can't read this. Maybe you can. I don't know how this works. FUCK. Just please help me. You're the only one who can. You didn't stop it once. You can stop it this time. I don't know who Alex is. I don't care. Just help me save my friend. Quit being a fucking coward!

mailer-daemon@izmail.com (Delivery Subsystem) 6/14/13, 10:45am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Fucking Idiot

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

52881ts@izmail.com

Technical details of permanent failure: The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the address of the recipient for typos. See information located at support.izmail.com.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 11:01am

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: Giving Up

Hey Sam, I don't know what to do anymore. You probably saw my update on the site. I was trying to smoke out more information about Room 127. I came close. I had a source e-mail me again, just to disappear again.

I don't know what I'm doing. Nothing I do gets me anywhere. I wouldn't even be close to where I am now on this story without the help of another reporter. A real reporter. I just want to give up. I don't know how to help Ken. I don't know what I have to do to keep him from finishing the game...

Do you have any ideas?

Steve

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/14/13, 11:49am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Giving Up

Steve, you know I'd rather you stop... But I don't think you should give up just yet. It's obvious you're really passionate about this. If anyone can stop this thing, it's you.

Call me tonight. We'll talk.

Love,

Sam

mactavishfan98@eeeureka.com (MacTavishfan98) 6/14/13, 12:19pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: room 127

Hi Mr. Norman,

I have read both of your stories about the Room 127 game. In your first story, you say that it was on a 1.44 megabyte disk. That is small enough to send in an e-mail.

Do you think you could send the game to me? It sounds interesting and creepy and I can't find it for download anywhere on the internet.

Thanks,

Nate

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 12:41pm

to: mactavishfan98@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: room 127

Nate:

Sorry, I can't send it to you. And please don't go looking for it. You won't find it anywhere. You don't want to.

Sincerely,

Steve Norman

Intern, GameCore.net

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 12:59pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: SHIT

Brett:

We have a problem. I didn't think this through. Thanks to my articles about Room 127, people are looking for this game. Now, I don't think it's anywhere to be found. But what if I'm wrong? Someone sent it to our offices for a reason. What if they're trying to spread it around the internet?

We need to pull down both my stories. Thomas was right. Can we do that?

Steve

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/14/13, 2:03pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: SHIT

Who is Thomas? Not like it matters. You sure you want to pull down the stories? It won't be easy. Easier putting something up on the god damn internet than it is to take it down. Let me tell you...

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 2:29pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: SHIT

As soon as possible... Thanks. I'll have to find another way to get information about this game.

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/14/13, 3:51pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Nothing So Far!

Steve:

No thanks to you, I'm still progressing in Room 127. I think I'm getting close. And I'll have you know that I haven't felt any ill effects. The headaches have even stopped, and the music is starting to grow on me.

cthatch@izmail.com (Corey Thatcher) 6/14/13, 8:38pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127

I have dreaded this moment for almost twenty years. I feel like only recently I was able to convince myself that it would never come. Now here you are, bringing up my name... Tying it to that monstrous project.

I suppose I deserve it. There's no clearing my conscience. The game is not mine, as you claim, but my fingerprints are all over it. I have to live with every life it takes.

When you posted your first article, I thought I could ignore it. Now I can't. At the very least, I need to correct you. I am not the creator of the game. It comes from the mind of another, though even now I do not believe I could tell you who he truly is. I knew him as Alex Grant, but I suspect that name was just a lie.

I would ask you to re-attribute the game to him, but I fear that the results may be worse if you do. In truth, all I would ask of you is this: tell me where you received the game. I thought it was long buried, and now I fear I was wrong.

Corey Thatcher

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 8:50pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: Corey Thatcher

Yancy:

I've made contact with Thatcher. Looks like my article worked after all. Though I told my editors to pull it as soon as possible, so it should be gone soon.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/14/13, 9:24pm

to: cthatch@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Mr. Thatcher:

I apologize for the article. To be completely honest, I didn't have any reason to believe you authored Room 127. I posted the article in the hopes of getting your attention, or the attention of Alex or Thomas Smith.

A few weeks ago, Room 127 showed up on a disk in our offices. I played it first, but didn't get very far. One of our editors picked it up. He's dead now. When I was trying to get into his computer, the game claimed a friend of mine. She worked in IT.

I know that you taught for a brief time at Monmouth High School. I know that you substituted for the sponsor of the technology club. This club membership included Alex Grant, as well as a few others. They've turned into maniacs and killers. Every one.

I need to know what happened. I need an explanation, because I have an editor nearing the end of the game. Even worse, I have people e-mailing me trying to find it. I'm afraid that someone is trying to distribute it again, and I may have provided the marketing.

Please, Mr. Thatcher... It sounds like this game weighs on your conscience. This is your chance to make good. Help me stop this.

Steve Norman

Intern, GameCore.net

cthatch@izmail.com (Corey Thatcher) 6/15/13, 1:03am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Steve:

I have written and re-written this e-mail a dozen times now. I've thought about what I would say, how I would phrase it... How I would unburden my soul. But when it all comes down, it doesn't matter. You will think poorly of me no matter how much I cushion the truth. And if you have played the game for even a brief moment, or you have lost people to the game, you deserve the truth.

When I temporarily joined the staff of Monmouth High, I was fresh out of undergraduate school. A degree in computer science wasn't the solid career path it is now, or the gold mine that it was back in the early 2000s. It was a risk, and I didn't know what to do with it. While I searched for a job, I put in to substitute in schools all around Vermont.

Monmouth Hills was my first and last assignment, for reasons that will soon became clear. I didn't know what I was doing. I was a programmer, not a teacher. How could I connect with these kids? I didn't understand them.

But there was one boy... A senior. I understood him, or at least I thought he did. He was a delinquent and a malcontent. He didn't care about school. He didn't seem to care about anything, except for computers. His name was Alex Grant, and he reminded me of myself. Just a little younger.

Alex was strikingly ambitious. He wanted to make a computer game. Now, this was something I could understand. I was big into old school gaming. Wizardry. SSI Gold Box. At the time, I was obsessed with Dark Side of Xeen. Not that this matters at all... Alex wanted to do something bigger than any of this.

He said he was a refugee from Romania. He wanted to make a game about his experiences at an orphanage there, before he was adopted to the United States.

Keep in mind, this was 1995. Just a year after the first Myst game was released. No one was trying to tell real, serious stories like this with video games. I was enthralled by the idea that someone could express these painful experiences with interactive media... I wanted to help him. I was in awe of him.

You can probably guess what happened next. I crossed a line—a line between student and teacher that should never be crossed. The feelings I felt for him turned into something wrong... And he led me along, like he felt the same way about me.

I didn't see it coming. He didn't care about me. He just cared about the game. From that point on, he blackmailed me into helping me finish it. Even when I realized what he was trying to do, I was helpless to stop him. If I refused to help him code, he would tell everyone what we did... And I would be ruined.

Alex wasn't just trying to tell a story with his game. I still don't fully understand it. The only parts I helped with were the graphics and animation. He coded everything behind the scenes. He created everything that made the game more than a game.

He never let me actually play it. No matter how much I asked, no matter how much I begged him, he wouldn't give in. I still wonder why. Did he care about me after all? I don't know. All I know is that as soon as my assignment was finished, I left Monmouth Hills. I left Vermont. I never looked back.

After I left, I heard about what happened. The bombing. The rest of the students in the technology club. I realized that Alex had done exactly what he hoped to do. He distilled his own pain and suffering into this game and forced it upon the rest of them.

I feared it was just the beginning, but the game never resurfaced. It all disappeared. I hoped it was over. Now I know it wasn't. The game wasn't destroyed, and now it's back.

I wish I could help you, but I don't know what to tell you. Don't play Room 127. Destroy the disk. Destroy every computer it's ever been on. Never look back. It's the only way.

Corey Thatcher

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 10:33am

to: cthatch@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Corey:

Thank you so much for your response. You don't know it, but you have been very helpful.

Do you know what happened to Alex?

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 10:41am

to: kengreene@gamecore.net

cc: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

re: fwd: re: Room 127

Ken:

Please read this. I received this e-mail from someone who helped program Room 127. This should show you why you need to stop playing the game.

Steve

cthatch@izmail.com (Corey Thatcher) 6/15/13, 11:12am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

I'm sorry. I didn't keep up with Alex for obvious reasons. And I never made any attempt to find him.

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/15/13, 12:01pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Nice Work

Steve:

I wasn't sure publishing that article was the right move, but it paid off. This is getting stranger by the moment. I'd like to believe that it's still just something you're making up, forging all these e-mails and forwarding them to me, but I'm beyond the point where I can justify that sort of denial.

This morning, I spoke to friend of a friend who works in the State Department. Like I said before, the adoption of a teenager is strange enough that I hoped it would have raised some flags with the government. I was right.

Alex was apparently rescued from a compound in Bachau by U.N. Peacekeeping forces requested specifically by the revolutionary government in 1990. This was a very unusual orphanage, cut off from the rest of the country by a large stone wall. Inside, the officers, teachers, and scientists didn't even know that the Communist government had fallen four months earlier.

I gave my State Department contact your e-mail address. She'll write you with more information.

Looks like we're at the end of this. You did a good job. This is going to make a fantastic feature piece. I'd be happy to co-write it with you. Maybe this will get your foot in the door with a legitimate news outlet.

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 2:09pm

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: Wrapping things up

Hey Sam, just thought you'd like to know that I've gotten a lot more information on the game. I won't go over the details here, and you probably don't want to hear it, but I think pretty soon I can stop thinking about it. Thank god.

You should come back up to SF soon. Or maybe Ken will give me some time off when he realizes that I saved his life. I miss you!

Love,

Steve

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/15/13, 4:19pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Your Article

Steve, you may have noticed that your article is back up on the site. I'm sorry about that. I have no fucking clue why it happened. To be honest, I'm afraid that Ken may have put it back up himself. He has just as much access to the editing tools as me.

Brett

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 5:55pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Your Article

Brett:

Don't worry about it. Maybe Ken will pull it down after he reads what I sent him. You may not believe me still, but this game is something real and dangerous. Hopefully he backs down in the face of all this evidence.

Steve

deveridge@state.gov (Donna Everidge) 6/16/13, 9:49am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Bachau Orphanage

Mr. Norman:

I am writing on the request of Yancy Rand, who spoke to me earlier this week concerning the U.N. operation that secured Bachau Orphanage in 1990. He told me that you would want to know as much about the orphanage as possible, and that I should send any reports along.

I regret to inform you that there are no official reports of what happened at the Bachau Orphanage, at least not that are available to me. This was U.N. initiative that was supervised by Romanian officials, so any United States participation was minimal. We had a few boots on the ground, and provided financing as well as homes for several of the children. But the only reports we have are second-hand, typed up by analysts after interviewing the operation commanders. Some of that information is classified, and all of it would normally require a FOIA request. But Yancy is a friend of mine, and he said this was time sensitive, so I looked over everything we have for him.

The Bachau orphanage was rather unique. It wasn't just a place to stash the unwanted children of the Ceausescu regime like most of the others. This was a state-sanctioned research facility, staffed by government scientists and protected by PCR soldiers. It was hidden away from the public, walled off and designed to be entirely self-sufficient. There were gardens to grow food, a stream that provided water, and other amenities.

Many of the children raised there—raised and experimented on—grew up to become control the facility. They were guards and they were the scientists who continued the inhuman experiments on the children. Of course, the only education these children would receive would be at the hands of their captors, so the second generation scientists were performing tests and experiments that were entirely unscientific.

Even though the PCR had fallen a year before, none of the inhabitants of the orphanage knew it. It was secluded enough that the revolution didn't reach its walls until the U.N. Officers arrive to survey the damage. The guards fought back, as if they were an invading force. Even some of the children took up arms in defense of the facility.

Inside, the officers found evidence of the terrible experiments, which had taken on a life of their own. The details are classified, and you'd probably rather not know them anyway. But I can tell you what we believe they were trying to accomplish. Most of the experiments dealt with sleep and sensory perception. They approached the boundaries of what the human body could sustain and perceive. And then they pushed on further.

The children rescued from the orphanage were all troubled. We placed them with families across the country. Very few were able to re-integrate into society. Some of them, once they were adults, even tried to return to the site of the orphanage. Every few years, even to the day, a body is found in one of the rooms. It's always one of the orphans rescued there.

Unfortunately, any information about any individual child rescued, such as Alex Gogoasa, is classified.

All of this is public record—fully available with a proper FOIA request—so if you want to write about this in your story, I have no problem. I would ask that you omit my name. I really don't have much to do with Romania or Eastern Europe. I just pulled the file for Yancy. My bosses would think it was strange if I ended up cited in an article about the area.

I hope this was all helpful.

Donna Everidge

Civil Service Officer

Public Affairs

U.S. Department of State

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/16/13 10:33am

to: deveridge@state.gov

cc:

re: re: Bachau Orphanage

Ms. Everidge:

Thank you so much for your help. You mentioned rooms... Is there any way you could tell me if there was a Room 127? And, if so, what was inside?

Steve Norman

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/16/13, 11:19am

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: The Game

Yancy:

I got an e-mail from Ms. Everidge. I think I'm starting to understand. The scientists in Bachau were performing experiments on the children at the orphanage. They were trying to enhance their senses or something like that. It doesn't matter. The things they did were unorthodox, but they must have worked. The children didn't want the experiments to end, no matter what was being done to them.

Room 127 is an experiment. It's the extension of what was done to Alex in Bachau, and he subjected his classmates to it. But it's gone beyond that. It has continued to exist.

I'm going to destroy the disk and all the computers it was installed on. I don't care if I get fired. I don't care if they think I'm crazy. The experiments have to stop now.

Steve

deveridge@state.gov (Donna Everidge) 6/16/13, 6:46pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Bachau Orphanage

Steve:

How do you know about Room 127?

Donna Everidge

Civil Service Officer

Public Affairs

U.S. Department of State

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/16/13, 7:20pm

to: deveridge@state.gov

cc:

re: re: Bachau Orphanage

Ms. Everidge:

Alex Gogoasa is continuing the experiments. Something he learned there... I don't understand it. But it has something to do with what happened in Room 127.

kengreene@gamecore.net (Ken Greene) 6/17/13, 2:01am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Start spreading the good news

I made it to the end. I solved the last puzzle. I opened the last door.

It's so beautiful, Steve. It's so god damn beautiful. You have to see this. I have to show this to you. I have to show this to everyone. At first it is like knives in the eyes but then you get past the darkness. And it is so amazing.

Everything is so fragile but it is not so bad being broken.

emergency_safety@cdncommunications.net (EMERGENCY SAFETY) 6/17/13, 8:44am

to: mailinglist_onlinestaff_all@cdncommunications.net

cc: mailingles_all@cdncommunications.net

re: ALERT

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE PREPARED AND DELIVERED BY THE CDN COMMUNICATIONS EMERGENCY SAFETY NOTICE SYSTEM. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.

At approximately 8:00 AM this morning, an armed gunman entered the main lobby of the CDN Communications building. Police currently advise that he has taken hostages within the building. All employees are advised to remain at home until further notified.

THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/17/13, 9:02am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Please Call Me

Steve I just saw the news. You didn't pick up your phone. Please tell me you're at home.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 9:15am

to: samthegrey@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: re: Please Call Me

Don't worry, I'm not in the building. I got an e-mail from Ken telling me he finished the game this morning and I froze. I couldn't go in to find out what happened to him. Now I see this...

It's him, Sam. He's the one with the gun. Apparently he's claiming he wired explosives in the building, too.

I think I have to go down there. I have to see if there's something I could do. I was too late to stop this, but I'm the only one who knows why he's doing this. Don't worry, I won't go inside... But maybe I can figure something out. I need to check with a few people...

I love you.

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 9:29am

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: Turn On The News

Yancy: That's him. That's Ken. He finished Room 127 and now he's doing this,

How can we know so much about this game but we still don't understand... Why is this happening?

Steve

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 9:44am

to: cthatch@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127

Mr. Thatcher:

Check the news. The game did this. Room 127 did this. You helped program it. You must know something. There has to be something we can do.

I'm going downtown with my laptop. I'll find a wifi spot, so I will get your responses.

Please, I know this is painful for you, but I need your help.

Steve Norman

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/17/13, 10:03am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Turn On The News

Steve:

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but if everything we've learned is true, there may be nothing you can do to help your friend. And isn't every copy of the game in the building? If it's destroyed, at least we know it's gone.

Just something to think about.

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 10:45am

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: re: Turn On The News

I'm not going to give up that easy. I took a cab. I'm here, outside the barricades. The police are saying that they have the situation under control, but I'm not so sure.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 10:51am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Ken

I managed to get on my phone for a moment. Ken has us all here. He wants us to play the game. He's threatening to fucking shoot us if we don't. I don't know what to do. FUCK why don't skills from Rainbow Six transfer over to real life, I could fucking e-mail the police and tell them breach points and shit but instead I'm doing this.

This is all about the game. It's driven him crazy. His eyes... He blinded himself with a pair of scissors shortly after he pulled the gun. I thought that was going to end it, but it didn't.

He can still see.

cthatch@izmail.com (Corey Thatcher) 6/17/13, 11:06am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Steve:

I am terribly sorry to see what has happened. You are correct, I was responsible for some of the coding on Room 127. But I assure you, I have very little idea of how it works. Most of my work was on the graphical interface. I didn't design the puzzles. I didn't write any of the text. The effect that it has on people... I still cannot understand it, and I have looked at the full code of the game.

That being said, there may be one way that you can help your friend. But I suspect you will not want to do it.

Alex told me that he wanted to observe the effects of the game from a distance, in different environments. To that end, he didn't want it to immediately affect the player. He needed to be able to suppress the effects of the game after beating it for a short while.

There is a song that plays at the very end of the game which will calm your friend. If you can make him hear it, he will likely become docile for a short amount of time. This would allow the police to take him alive, and prevent him from hurting anyone.

But to do this, someone else will need to play the game through to the end.

Corey

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 11:14am

to: cthatch@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Corey:

Is there anything you can tell me about how it works—anything at all? Even if it's the smallest detail, it might let me play through the game without being affected by it.

Steve

cthatch@izmail.com (Corey Thatcher) 6/17/13, 11:27am

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

Sorry, nothing at all. I've told you everything I know.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 11:48am

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Plan

Brett:

I know it's a long shot that you'll get another chance to see this, but I think I have a plan. I spoke to someone who had a small part in the creation of Room 127. He says that there is a sort of...song that plays at the end of the game, when you beat it, that will probably lull Ken into a moment of calm. That means someone in the building will need to play the game and make him hear it.

I can't ask anyone to play through Room 127, but I think I have a theory about how to do it safely. Tell Ken you're ready to play. Act like you're completely entranced and maybe he'll ignore you. Set up your phone to skype and point it at the screen. Find something to block up your ears.

I will solve the puzzles. I will tell you what to do in e-mails and instant messages, and you will perform the act while paying as little attention to the game as possible. We won't read any of the notes and we won't do any superfluous parts of the game. Just play to the end, as fast as possible. I have some notes from Dave that will help us do it quickly. The only reason that it took Dave and Ken so long to beat is that all of the "puzzles" lack any logical sense. They're arbitrary and meaningless, and getting one wrong means replaying the entire sequence because so many things crash the game. I have almost all the steps you have to take. We can mainline it in a matter of a couple hours, even accounting for the time it will take to send you instructions.

What do you think?

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 12:03pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Plan

Fuck it, let's do it. Ken's getting worse and I don't think we're making it out if we don't do something.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 12:16pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Plan

All right. Start the skype session as soon as you have it set up. I'll send over the instructions for the first part of the game. Remember, plug your ears. I think the music is a big part of what affects the brain. I think if you're not hearing it, or watching the screen, you'll be safe.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 12: 19pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: fwd: re: Room 127 Feature

Here's an e-mail with several of the steps listed in the game. Don't read any of the notes. I don't think they're necessary and they may be dangerous.

After this, find the hole and go outside. Walk left until you reach the guard tower. Inside, go past the guard and up to the top floor. Find the SYRINGE. USE it on yourself. That will let you get back down to the bottom of the tower.

Once you're there, I'll e-mail you with the next instructions. Look away from the game whenever possible. I'll watch for you.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 12:38pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: Playing The Game

Yancy:

Corey Thatcher tells me there might be a way to stop Ken, but it requires someone inside the building to play the game. One of the other writers is willing to do it. He thinks Ken is going to force them to play it anyway, or kill them. Even if it's a risk, he's willing to give it a try.

I am going to be giving him instructions and watching him play. I think if we separate the act of playing the game from solving the puzzles and watching the screen, he'll be safe.

Steve

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/17/13, 12:51pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Playing The Game

Steve:

I get that you want to help the people in the CDN building, but do you realize what you're suggesting? I don't think you can just do this without any consequences. You're assuming that this is some kind of science, and that the game is sending out some sort of signal that you can block or ignore.

What if we're not dealing with science?

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 1:05pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Next Step

Okay, I see you're out of the guard tower. Now walk back to the main hallway. There are new rooms in the dark hall. The geography has changed. There are vials you can pick up in all of the new rooms. They are labeled room 121 and room 122 respectively.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 1:17pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Next Step

Got it. Ken's still declining. He's installed the game on several computers throughout the building. He's forcing a woman from another department to play through it and keeping her in line with his gun. I think he won't be around much so we should be safe. I'll wait to take the last step until he's close.

Ken refuses to help me or the other woman with the puzzles, so I think you're fucking right. I think if I just let you play the game while I press the buttons, we should be safe.

That's how it works, right?

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 1:25pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Next Step

That's the hope, Brett.

Next, according to Dave's notes, you need to USE the GLASS again. Once this happens, I'd look away from the screen. Dave says there are some flashing lights when the nurse comes to retrieve you for the second time. Might as well not risk seeing them.

This time, the nurse won't grab you and rush you to the clinic. She'll run past you and collapse. EXAMINE her. You will pick up the KEYCARD.

Now you can go back outside the way you came in. Go right and you'll reach a small shack. Dave and I called this room the distillery. You still can't go inside. There's still nothing you can do there. You need to keep going until you reach the INNER WALL. There, you can USE the KEYCARD to get inside.

From there, you can reach room 123 where you find the last vial. There's also a note there. Don't read it. According to the notes, it says:

"Even after their mouths were sewn they continued to cry"

Like I said, no reason to look at any of this. We're rushing to the end. Once you have the last vial, you can go to the distillery.

I'll send another e-mail once you get there.

t13991s@izmail.com (T. Smith) 6/17/13, 1:40pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Alex

Mr. Norman:

I see your office is on the news today. I wish it brought me joy to tell you that I was right. No good comes of re-visiting the past, especially when it comes to my dear Alex. Perhaps this is all my fault. I should have been more forthcoming, but I doubt it would have dissuaded you. There may be nothing else we could have done, either of us, to prevent this.

When I took Alex into my home, I thought I was doing something good. I saw reports of these children... They were malnourished, they were abused, and I thought they just needed a good home and everything would be fine.

Alex was never fine. In the first week at home, he tried to run away from home. He started fights at school. He killed the neighbor's dog and then he tried to bring it back to life. He was convinced he could fix the broken animal, and locked himself in the garage while he tried.

I thought he would spend his life in juvenile detention and jail until he discovered computers. Working on the computer seemed to calm him. For a while, he seemed normal. Years, even. He was a computer whiz, and founded a technology club at his school.

Then, one day I discovered what he was doing. He sent a file to one of my nephews. He said it was a game. A few days later, my nephew burned down his parent's house. When the firefighters came to save him, he refused to leave the building and even fought them off. Barely twelve years old, he pushed out three grown men just so he could die in the fire.

Alex wouldn't stop talking about it. I confronted him and he admitted that the "game" was responsible. He tried to blame my nephew, calling him weak and cowardly. Alex said he was just trying to "open his eyes".

I found out that he put the game on the computers at school. He was going to expose all of his classmates to the same thing that had killed his cousin. I thought I could stop it, but I'm no bomb maker... Things went wrong and we had to go on the run.

Alex is gone now. He went even further and I realized that saving him wasn't the right thing to do. I had to save everyone else.

I thought it was all over. But now it looks like he continues to rack up victims. I wish I could understand what happened to him to create this... But I never will, and that's my own hell to live with.

I will not be able to apologize to those in your building, so I am apologizing to you. I am sorry that I brought Alex Gogoasa to this country, and into your lives.

Thomas Smith

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 1:43pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Next Step

I'm in the distillery. Ken is walking around the halls, muttering something. It sounds like he's saying the same thing over and over again.

"I need to keep cutting."

It's freaking me out.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 1:49pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Next Step

You're supposed to have earplugs in. You shouldn't be able to hear anything. Put them back in. I think the music is particularly important to the effect of the game.

USE the VIALS in front of the distillery equipment. It will start flashing. Again, look away. Can't hurt. When it's done, just type TAKE. You will pick up a BOTTLE. Walk back to the inner wall and enter there. You will find a new room inside this hall. It's room 124. Inside, there are a series of glasses. You have to POUR the liquid in front of all the glasses.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:01pm

to: t13991s@izmail.com

cc:

re: Alex

Mr. Smith:

Thank you for finally explaining everything. There is still something you can do. What do you know about the game? How does it work? Surely Alex must have explained something to you. You knew that you had to destroy it. What did he tell you?

Steve

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 2:09pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Next Steps

Fuck, what the hell was that? Did you see that? As soon as I poured the bottle into the glasses, all those kids walked into the room. I thought they were going to attack me but they didn't. Then they picked up the glasses. They started running into each other, hitting each other and blinking away.

What is going on?

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:21pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Next Steps

Quit watching that stuff, Brett. It doesn't matter. It's just the game trying to get into your head. That's what we're trying to prevent. Don't let it get in your head.

SEARCH the floor. There's a dark spot near where one of the children disappeared. You'll find a NEEDLE AND THREAD. TAKE it and leave Room 124.

Head back outside, now go to the main hallway. Return to the Clinic. There's someone on the table in the Clinic. USE the needle and thread in front of them.

Make sure you have your earplugs in.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 2:28pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Next Steps

That sounded like screaming. Like real screaming. Like that couldn't have come from the fucking computer.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:32pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Next Steps

What did I just tell you?

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 2:36pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Next Steps

I had them in! I heard the noise through them. It was like it wasn't coming through the computer. It was like it was coming from inside my own head.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:45pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Next Steps

I heard it too, and I have the sound off on my phone.

Don't let it get to you. We're getting closer, but we're running out of time. The police are planning to storm the building. They don't think Ken can be taken out from afar. This is about to get real violent and we need to cut it off.

Go back outside. WAIT. This time, it will do more than just change the time of day. Look away. Don't pay attention to it. Wait until the screen stops flashing and go back to it.

Here's where Dave's notes get weird. They stop making sense, but I think we can still figure out some of it. Room 125 is now open, at the right end of the hall. Go inside. I'm not sure what you'll see in here. Maybe you shouldn't look. But there's a shelf and you need to go to that. OPEN it. TAKE the BOOK.

Go back out into the hallway and READ the BOOK. The screen will go black. It will look like its glitching out. But the game isn't crashing. This is normal, or at least Dave says something like this.

When the game comes back, you need to go back outside. The sky will be strange. Dave said he couldn't stop looking at it. Don't look at it. Just walk right, to the interior wall. There you will find Room 126. There is a chair inside. SIT DOWN.

I'd just walk away from the game now based on the notes I have. Give it a minute or two. Come back.

When it's over, you will be in Room 127. Now... Now I don't know what to do. Daves notes are now incomprehensible.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:58pm

to: cthatch@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127 Question

Corey:

Something happened. We're playing through the game. Just like you suggested. I hoped that we could avoid it having any effect on the player in the building if I gave him instructions through e-mail. He was to look away from the screen and just carry out my orders. He trained his phone on the computer and I just sent the steps.

We reached the last room and I told Brett—he's the one playing—to walk away. Dave—he's the one who killed himself—left notes that told me that he shouldn't look at the screen at this part. He shouldn't even let himself be tempted.

I forgot about myself.

I watched. As soon as it began, I couldn't look away. I could see beyond the screen. Beyond the tiny image on my phone and far beyond the 8 bit sprites on the computer. For just a moment I felt like I lost myself.

Right now, I'm okay. But I'm worried. What happened to me? What happened in Room 126, and what are we supposed to do in Room 127?

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 3:05pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Come on

Steve, you gotta have an idea of what to do next. Give me something. I managed a peek outside and you're right. The cops are on the move. I don't want to be in here when Ken realizes what's going on. We need to get him calm NOW.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 3:09pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: Come on

I don't know! There's nothing here. I watched the whole thing but I have no clue what the next step is.

The room looks weird. There are strange lines on the walls. It doesn't look like any of the other rooms. Smaller. Lonelier. I don't know what it means.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 3:13pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Come on

Well figure it the fuck out!

cthatch@izmail.com (Corey Thatcher) 6/17/13, 3:20pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127 Question

Steve:

I don't know much about the game. I told you that. I want to help, but I don't know if it did anything to you or what to do next.

Sometimes I heard Alex talking about his time in Romania. He'd mutter about it while he was working, or in his sleep. He mentioned Room 126 sometimes, but never Room 127. Room 126 was where the children were restrained when they were violent. They were strapped into chairs and sedated. Apparently violence was common at the orphanage, but the administrators were very strict and did everything they could to prevent it.

He said that by the last days of his time there, he knew children who would act out—severely injure another child—and then calmly walk to Room 126. They would punish themselves for their own actions.

Corey

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 3:25pm

to: rand@burlingtonfreepress.com

cc:

re: fwd: re: Room 127 Question

Yancy:

Look at this. It seems like the rooms in the game are a progression. Each room represents a specific action taken on the children. Alex is taking us through his experiences. This is how he's continuing the experiments.

No matter what all of this represents, I still need to finish the game. What comes next? How do I finish the game? What follows this sort of punishment? Death?

Steve

t13991s@izmail.com (T. Smith) 6/17/13, 3:29pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Alex

I don't know anything about the game, unfortunately. I just know that it works.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 3:37pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: HURRY UP

I heard an explosion, Steve. The police are breaching the lower floors of the building. Ken has herded everyone into the computer room. This is our fucking chance. If I beat it now, he'll have to hear the music play. Figure out what we need to do.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 3:40pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: re: HURRY UP

But I don't know what to do.

deveridge@state.gov (Donna Everidge) 6/17/13, 3:43pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Bachau Orphanage

Mr. Norman:

I ran your query past the officers in charge of the Romanian Consulate. They have no problem with me disclosing information regarding the Bachau Orphanage to you. It's all passed into the realm of history anyway. As far as they know, very few of the rescued children still live. Those that do were too young to remember any of it.

Room 127 was a sensory deprivation chamber. A quiet room of sorts. It was an anechoic chamber that was designed to muffle all sounds, and was capable of cutting off all light as well.

No one thought it was particularly important, but every single orphan from the facility has mentioned it. Even as they were being taken away, they talked about how much they wanted to return there.

It was a request that made a certain amount of sense. The conditions at the orphanage were so terrible that the halls were filled with horrifying sounds—screams, cries, the grinding of the machinery that kept the facility running—that absolute silence was likely a relief. But when they were asked, this wasn't why the children wanted to return to Room 127.

The children said that Room 127 was the only place they could see the angels. The children said they wanted to listen to the angels sing.

Curious, a few of the U.N. Officers returned to the facility. They set up instruments inside Room 127. Ultra-sensitive cameras and microphones. As expected, these machines didn't pick anything up. It was completely silent and completely dark.

One of the officers volunteered to go into the room to observe it himself. In less than thirty minutes, he was begging to be let out. He scratched at the door so hard that he lost three fingernails.

To this day, he won't talk about what he heard in Room 127. All he will say is that he listened, and that there was something terrible beyond the silence.

Donna Everidge

Civil Service Officer

Public Affairs

U.S. Department of State

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 3:50pm

to: brettjackson@gamecore.net

cc:

re: Room 127

Now that you're in Room 127, LISTEN. Just type that command in. I think that's all you have to do. That is all there is you can do. It was a silent chamber, where no sound could be heard. But the children heard something, and I think that is what changed them.

Just LISTEN.

brettjackson@gamecore.net (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 4:03pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Room 127

It worked! Holy shit! It worked! The screen went black and the music changed. I looked away, just like you'd want me to. Something changed in Ken. His whole body went slack. He dropped his gun, and let go of the detonator. The police are about to arrive...

You did it, Steve. We did it. We stopped this.

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/17/13, 4:55pm

to: st_norman@1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: CDN Building

Steve:

I saw what happened on the news. No casualties. They even managed to take Ken Greene alive. Amazing. I didn't think it was possible. How did you do it?

Yancy

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 5:28pm

to: to: t13991s@izmail.com

cc:

re: Help

Mr. Smith:

I made a mistake. I watched it. I watched the end.

I can feel it creeping in. Part of me understands it, and wants to hold it back but I don't know how long I can do it.

Where is Alex? I think he could stop this. I need to talk to him. I don't want this to happen. It's happening and I can't stop it.

The sounds of hell are just so welcoming

Steve

mailer-daemon@izmail.com (Delivery Subsystem) 6/17/13, 5:29pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: re: Help

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

t13991s@izmail.com

Technical details of permanent failure: The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the address of the recipient for typos. See information located at support.izmail.com.

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/17/13, 6:45pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Today

Steve:

Pretty amazing that today ended without anyone getting hurt. I wish you didn't go down there, but I'm glad everything worked out okay. Give me a call when you get a chance.

Love,  
Sam

cthatch@izmail.com (Corey Thatcher) 6/17/13, 7:12pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Room 127

Steve, Now that everything is over, I just have one request for you. Please make sure every copy of the game is destroyed. I'm sure the police are seizing equipment from inside the building. If possible, wipe the drives. If not, stick around long enough to do it. I'm sure that CDN communications owes you enough to keep you employed, if only for a while.

Corey

rand@burlingtonfreepress.com (Yancy Rand) 6/17/13, 7:37pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Article

Steve:

I was thinking about how we'd write this article. I still don't know how to approach it. The whole thing seems rather unbelievable. Even though we have multiple parties who played the game and experienced unusual mental effects, we can't prove anything.

Any thoughts? This is too much of a story just to ignore.

Yancy

samthegrey@eeeureka.com (Samantha Strickland) 6/17/13, 8:49pm

to: st_norman1992@izmail.com

cc:

re: Call me

Please give me a call. I'm worried.

st_norman1992@izmail.com (Steve Norman) 6/18/13, 12:12am

to: mactavishfan98@eeeureka.com

cc:

re: Room 127

attachment: Room127.exe

Nate:

I thought about it and I reconsidered. You should be able to play the game. Everyone should get a chance to experience Room 127.

When you are done, make sure to pass it on :)

Steve Norman

