2064: Read Only Memories

2064: Read Only Memories is a Cyberpunk Visual Novel that masquerades as an Adventure Game. It is lovingly rendered in 16-bit graphics, despite its 2015 release, as an homage to the Sierra games of old. Re-released the following year with voiceovers of the main characters.

You star as an Intrepid Reporter drawn in to investigate the disappearance of your friend Hayden. As you get drawn into the investigation, people start to die mysteriously as you get drawn closer and closer to The Singularity.

The game is deeply immersed in California and Valley culture, and projects puts together a lot of the memes about how the Golden State will run into the ground. It also explores the fluidity of gender norms in SF with lots of LGBTQI characters. If you're a local, this is probably what elevates the game over So Okay It's Average territory. The puzzles are pretty weak if you were expecting a classic adventure game instead of a visual novel.


 * AI Is a Crapshoot: A lot depends on how well you treat Turing.
 * Ambiguous Gender: TOMCAT, who is referred to as "they".
 * Back-Alley Doctor: Installing your cyborg parts, surprisingly with a medical license!
 * Bad End: I, for one, support our new robot overlords. One of four endings.
 * Break the Cutie: Jess.
 * Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Or fox-ears lawyer: Jess.
 * Cowboy Cop: Detective Lexi Rivers. She's mad enough about the problems you caused her back when she was still dating your sister, but still willing to let you get by with turning up in random crime scenes.
 * Cyborg: New parts are getting installed on people for fun or profit. Largely possible due to the neural mesh product developed by Melody Flores' company.  Frequently installed by Back-Alley Doctors, natch.
 * Gayborhood: The Castro, obviously, home of the club Stardust, run by Majid and his adorable bear boyfriend, Gus.
 * Lego Genetics: Genus, the gene change clinic. Sometimes used to treat disease, sometimes for Bio-Augmentation, and sometimes just because people want to become Petting Zoo People.
 * Neo-Tokyo: Neo-San Francisco, or Neo-SF for short
 * Otaku: Ramona and Oli nerd-bond over this stuff.
 * Pronoun Trouble: Turing at one point speculates about their gender, but doesn't want to pick one yet . TOMCAT, on the other hand goes exclusively with they/them/their.  At the beginning of the game, it asks you which pronouns the player prefers!
 * Read Only Memory: The stuff Turing keeps in his permanent storage.
 * Robot Buddy: Turing, of course!
 * Shout-Out:
 * Turing, naturally, is named after the great Alan Turing
 * Grace, is named after Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, the creator of COBOL.
 * Stardust has the feel of a hacker club, probably inspired by jwz's DNA Lounge.
 * Leon Dekker is obviously a reference to.
 * Show Within a Show: Magical Commander Yukino. Ramona is a dai-fan!
 * Stylistic Suck: A futuristic setting rendered in magnificent 16 color pixel art.
 * True End:
 * Tsundere: At least one interpretation of Jess. "I believe in you... Prick."


 * Transhuman: See Lego Genetics and Cyborg.