History VisualNovel / DigitalALoveStory

A 2010 VisualNovel by Creator/ChristineLove, developed in UsefulNotes/RenPy and [[http://www.scoutshonour.com/digital/ available for free]].

* ASCIIArt: Or more properly, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_art ANSI art]], as befitting the setting.

* PostCyberpunk: [[spoiler:The story deals extensively with the development of free-thinking [=AIs=]. However, none of them are remotely malicious, and the story largely revolves around saving them.]]

%%* BittersweetEnding

* MoodMotif: Heavy use of Synthesizer of TheEighties.

* ASCIIArt: Or more properly, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_art ANSI art]], as befitting the setting.

* ThankingTheViewer

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://history-computer.com/Internet/Maturing/Thomas.html The Creeper worm was real. As was the Reaper worm]]. And yes, the Reaper worm was created specifically to take down instances of the Creeper worm. Except that the real Reaper didn't go overboard and in actualty destroyed itself after destroying a Creeper instance. And when the last Creeper instance got destroyed, so did the last Reaper instance.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In-universe. A kid who thinks he's hot shit [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld warns the Matrix BBS users that they should start speaking Japanese soon, and that Japan's gearing up to take over the world.]] One problem: he uses "ni hao", which is Mandarin Chinese, and gets mocked and called out for it (in addition to the [[ItWillNeverCatchOn other users pointing out that Japan being dominant is ridiculous]]).

* InternetJerk: Even before the rise of boards dedicated to being total pricks, there were stupid people on the internet, as exemplified by a fan of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and how he thinks [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration this new bald guy is a complete pussy, compared to Kirk]], a black hat hacker desperately trying to convince the rest of the board that he and his mates won a hacking war, and some kid who thinks he's got everything figured out and lectures the board on how JapanTakesOverTheWorld... and can't tell the difference [[WhatAnIdiot between Chinese and Japanese.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: In-universe. A kid who thinks he's hot shit [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld warns the Matrix BBS users that they should start speaking Japanese soon, and that Japan's gearing up to take over the world.]] One problem: he uses "ni hao", which is Chinese Mandarin, and gets mocked and called out for it (in addition to the [[ItWillNeverCatchOn other users pointing out that Japan being dominant is ridiculous]]).

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://history-computer.com/Internet/Maturing/Thomas.html The Creeper worm was real. As was the Reaper worm]]. And yes, the Reaper worm was created specifically to take down instances of the Creeper worm. Except that the real Reaper didn't go overboard and in actualty destroyed itself after destroying a Creeper instance. And when the last Creeper instance got destroyed, so did the last Reaper instance.

* ASCIIArt: Or more properly, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_art ANSI art]], as befitting the setting.

* BrandX: The computers used are "Amie", named after the popular real-world Amiga computer series.

* {{GIFT}}: Even before the rise of boards dedicated to being total pricks, there were stupid people on the internet, as exemplified by a fan of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and how he thinks [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration this new bald guy is a complete pussy, compared to Kirk]], a black hat hacker desperately trying to convince the rest of the board that he and his mates won a hacking war, and some kid who thinks he's got everything figured out and lectures the board on how JapanTakesOverTheWorld... and can't tell the difference [[WhatAnIdiot between Chinese and Japanese.]]

* LateArrivalSpoiler: If you played AnalogueAHateStory‎ first you will already know that [[spoiler: an * preceding a person's name denotes they are an AI,]] spoiling the game's big twist that [[spoiler: *Emilia is an AI.]]

* SequenceBreaking: Immediately talking to the [[spoiler:recompiled *Emilia]] at any point in time will have the conversation act as if you [[spoiler:saw ARPA go down, even if you didn't access it when *Reaper strikes.]]
* ShoutoutToShakespeare: All [[spoiler:third-generation [=AIs=]]] are named after Shakespeare characters. Lampshaded in the ending, where [[spoiler:an AI named]] *Desdemona writes a short epilogue, of sorts, in the style of the Prince's short speech at the end of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', this time [[spoiler:bemoaning the tragedy of you and *Emilia.]] Christine Love also includes "with apologies to William Shakespeare, et al." in the game's credits.

* {{GIFT}}: Even before the rise of boards dedicated to being total pricks, there were stupid people on the internet, as exemplified by a [[FanDumb fan of]] ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and how he thinks [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration this new bald guy is a complete pussy, compared to Kirk]], a black hat hacker desperately trying to convince the rest of the board that he and his mates won a hacking war, and some kid who thinks he's got everything figured out and lectures the board on how JapanTakesOverTheWorld... and can't tell the difference [[WhatAnIdiot between Chinese and Japanese.]]

* RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun: After the protagonist [[spoiler: hacks the Gibson]], there's a BBS post that points out how much of a CrowningMomentOfAwesome it is.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_digital_a_love_story.png]]

* PlayfulHacker: Several users and eventually the player take this role. As the game's release page notes, advancing in the game requires you to commit telephone fraud, exploit a buffer overflow, and/or "[[Film/Hackers hack the Gibson]]".

* AddressingThePlayer: You're asked for your full name at the beginning, just like a real computer would. Mr. Wong, apparently familiar with your father, also addresses you by name.
** [[spoiler:*Emilia]] addresses you by name [[spoiler:when she is recompiled on your Amie]].
** [[spoiler:In the end, your name's used again, in a short article describing the events of the game as part of a compilation by *Blue Sky, and a short soliloquy by *Desdemona.]]

* [[spoiler: AIIsACrapshoot]]: [[spoiler:*Mother, the originator of all AI, saw that she was replicating too fast, too quickly and that her "children" were eating up too much space and latency on connected networks. So she deployed *Reaper, a mindless program killer that is only supposed to destroy copies of herself. It worked... even after the need to destroy copies of herself was gone, and it went on to hunting down the newer generation of AI. Normally, this would only result in the AI being wiped, but due to upgrades in hardware and software making it incompatible with newer systems, *Reaper, instead, completely destroys the system that the AI lurks on by way of data overflow. And since AI have penetrated ''all'' facets of the digital world...]]
* [[spoiler: BackFromTheDead]]: [[spoiler: *Emilia is crashed by the Reaper at one point, but is resurrected from a core dump.]]

** BilingualBonus: Both "Amie" and "Amiga" are feminine forms of the word "friend", in French and Spanish, respectively.
* [[spoiler: BittersweetEnding]]
* ChekhovsGun: Certain users have their handles start with an asterisk. [[spoiler:All of them are artificial intelligences.]]

* HeroicMime: You can't see any of your own messages, so it's on the player to intuit how their character responds to each post.
** Though you can see the titles from the messages your character has sent, and you can suss out what you might have written if you read the replies to your [=PMs=].
* [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]]: [[spoiler: *Emilia sacrifices herself to stop the *Reaper virus.]]

* ShoutOut: Sector 001 BBS. As befitting a Franchise/StarTrek-themed BBS, its phone number is 622-1701, which in telephone letters can be rendered as NCC-1701, the Enterprise's registry number.
** Another one is to one of the author's [[http://scoutshonour.com/heartoffire.html own games]].

** Two handles are seen one early on one in the credits their names [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Kiros and Ward]]
*** [=GibsonBBS=], in general. It's run by a man named [[Literature/{{Neuromancer}} Wintermoot]] (part of which is a shoutout to Website/FourChan, moot being the creator and maintainer of 4chan). There's even a short discussion on the history of {{cyberpunk}} itself.
** When [[spoiler:*Reaper takes down Lake City Local and *Emilia,]] the help message [[spoiler:*Emilia]] leaves for you is [[Film/ANewHope YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE]]
** [[Film/TheMatrix "The Matrix" BBS]], the screen of which is a minimalist black background. [[spoiler:The AI *Delphi]] also refers to herself as "Oracle" and uses "child" a lot, on top of being a reference to Myth/GreekMythology.
*** "Information wants to be free" is quoted on said BBS, said by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Brand Stewart Brand]], a man who ran the WholeEarthCatalog and organized the first Hackers conference.

* ShoutoutToShakespeare: All [[spoiler:third-generation [=AIs=]]] are named after Shakespeare characters.
** Lampshaded in the ending, where [[spoiler:an AI named]] *Desdemona writes a short epilogue, of sorts, in the style of the Prince's short speech at the end of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', this time [[spoiler:bemoaning the tragedy of you and *Emilia.]] Christine Love also includes "with apologies to William Shakespeare, et al." in the game's credits.

* WhamEpisode: Or is it a WhamLine, since all you do is dial a number? Either way, dialing [[spoiler:ARPANET]] and seeing that it's crashed is one hell of a ''wham''.

* [[spoiler:[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman What Measure Is A Computer Program]]]]: [[spoiler: The AIs.]]

*** [=GibsonBBS=], in general. It's run by a man named [[Literature/{{Neuromancer}} Wintermoot]] (part of which is a shoutout to [[ImageBoards 4chan]], moot being the creator and maintainer of 4chan). There's even a short discussion on the history of {{cyberpunk}} itself.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://history-computer.com/Internet/Maturing/Thomas.html The Creeper worm was real. As was the Reaper worm]]. And yes, the Reaper worm was created specifically to take down instances of the Creeper worm. Except that the real Reaper didn't go overboard and in actualty destroyed itself after destroying a Creeper instance. And when the Last Creeper instance got destroyed, so did the last Reaper instance.

* HistoricalInJoke: The [[spoiler: crashing of multiple ARPANET nodes and BBS by *Reaper]] sound an awful lot like the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_worm Morris Worm.]] In addition, Creeper and Reaper are the names of [[spoiler:the first accepted computer worm, and the program that was created to wipe it out.]] Add in the fact that this game is set in 1988, and the joke is complete.

* HistoricalInJoke: The [[spoiler: Creeper and *Reaper viruses]] and their effects sound an awful lot like the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_worm Morris Worm.]] Those names, in addition, are of [[spoiler:the first accepted computer worm, and the program that, at least apocryphally, wiped it out.]] Add in the fact that this game is set in 1988, and the joke is complete.

* PlayfulHacker: Several users and eventually the player take this role. As the game's release page notes, advancing in the game requires you to commit telephone fraud, exploit a buffer overflow, and/or "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_%28film%29 hack the Gibson]]".

** Lampshaded in the ending, where [[spoiler:an AI named]] *Desdemona writes a short epilogue, of sorts, in the style of the Prince's short speech at the end of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', this time [[spoiler:bemoaning the tragedy of you and Emilie.]] Christine Love also includes "with apologies to William Shakespeare".

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://history-computer.com/Internet/Maturing/Thomas.html The Creeper worm was real. As was the Reaper worm]]. Except that the real Reaper didn't go overboard and in actualty destroyed itself after destroying a Creeper instance. And when the Last Creeper instance got destroyed, so did the last Reaper instance.

** AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://history-computer.com/Internet/Maturing/Thomas.html The Creeper worm was real. As was the Reaper worm]]. Except that the real Reaper didn't go overboard and in actualty destroyed itself after destroying a Creeper instance. And when the Last Creeper instance got destroyed, so did the last Reaper instance.

See also ''[[VisualNovel/DontTakeItPersonallyBabeItJustAintYourStory don't take it personally babe, it just ain't your story]]'' and SpiritualSuccessor ''[[VisualNovel/AnalogueAHateStory Analogue: A Hate Story]]'', both by the same author. They also take place in the same universe but are loosely connected.

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** Lampshaded in the ending, where [[spoiler:an AI named]] *Desdemona writes a short epilogue, of sorts, in the style of the Prince's short speech at the end of RomeoAndJuliet, this time [[spoiler:bemoaning the tragedy of you and Emilie.]] Christine Love also includes "with apologies to William Shakespeare".

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Not for this game, but for ''AnalogueAHateStory'': [[spoiler:AI used to have to physically copy themselves into a compressed file, then delete themselves, in order to transmit them anywhere, due to terrible connection speeds.]]

*** [=GibsonBBS=], in general. It's run by a man named [[{{Neuromancer}} Wintermoot]] (part of which is a shoutout to [[ImageBoards 4chan]], moot being the creator and maintainer of 4chan). There's even a short discussion on the history of {{cyberpunk}} itself.