Things I Played: Digital: A Love Story - Romance and Mystery in Cyberspace

History of the internet is something I find fascinating. I took a class on it earlier this year which cemented my belief that it's important for everyone to know how we got to today's world of top-quality communications. Thankfully I'm not the only one it seems because last night I finished a game called Digital: A Love Story - an anachronistic mystery/romance about that sprightly world before the internet.

In its own words, the game is a visual novel set 'a minute into the future of 1988'. This was a time before Google; before Windows; hell, even before Netscape. Graphical user interfaces were made up of ASCII text - basically command line interfaces with some pretty graphics, as you can see above.

The plot is set in motion when you meet Emilia, a strange but endearing girl who professes a fondness for you. She disappears one day leading to strange occurrences involving your favourite online haunts and searching for answers brings you face-to-face with a virus threatening to wipe out data as we know. Naturally it's up to you to save the world, which consists of traversing through bulletin board systems, an early progenitor of internet forums. You punch in numbers to access boards, read messages posted by users and type things back to them. It gives a strong impression that you're an online sleuth seeking out important cryptic information.

All in all the game is heartfelt and cool, which is a wicked combination. It was made by Christine Love who's made some great Twine games in the past including Even Cowgirls Bleed. I've been meaning to check out more of her work for a while. The music is great too, especially this track.

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