Digital: A Love Story Walkthrough

I've been playing a great game: Digital: A Love Story, which is available for free on the Internet. You should really try it sometime.

Digital: A Love Story Walkthrough

By fuser

Digital is created by Christine Love for Windows, OSX and Linux, and is based
on the BBS scene around 1988, around the same time the Morris worm spread out. This
game is based upon that, but with an unexpected twist that you never saw coming.

Let's begin, shall we?

At the Title Screen, choose RUN to begin a new game

Enter your screen name, First and Last names when prompted.

Check your messages, which is represented by the mail envelope on the desktop.

There are two e-mails here, one from your computer manufacturer on using
your system and the second one is from Mr.Wong, (who you bought the computer from)
who's kind enough to supply you with a dialer application along with a bbs
number and a reminder for you not to make any long distance calls.

Download the 'dialer.exe' application attached with Mr. Wong's email.

The dialer application will now show on the bottom-right corner of your screen, and is
represented by a telephone icon.

Using this application is simple:

Click on Dialer, and enter the telephone number when prompted, and then press Dial.

The number is 698-5519 (Just type in 6985519, the game will add the -).
Wait for your call to finish.

At the BBS screen, choose Log in. Since you're obviously new, type in "new" to create and account, followed by a password.

After registering, check out the Messages section. There are three messages, one from 0rph3o,
another one is a poem from Emilia, and an article on Computer Viruses by Blue Sky (foreshadowing). Note that both Emilia and Blue Sky has asterisks in front of their usernames.

Read all messages, reply to them and download them as well. Now close the BBS dialer, and re-dial the BBS. You'll now have a alert box that informs you that the your latest PMs have been downloaded into your computer, press ok and close the dialer and check your Messages.

There are three new PMs, one is from System, which informs you that you have successfully registered into the BBS, another is a reply from Blue Sky, who explains a bit about the
ARPANET, as well as a PM from Emilia on your feedback about her poem. Reply to the PM's from both Emilia and Blue Sky, and re-dial the BBS.

Login as usual, and you'll get an alert box on your latest PMs. Check out the Messages section of the BBS, there should be three new messages, one is from Blue Sky, which is a continuation of his previous article on viruses, another one is from Figaro, who supplies us with a new BBS number, The Matrix. The third article is the second part of his article on The BBS FAQ.

Close the dialer, and check your messages. You should receive one from Emilia, reply to her PM.

Remember the BBS number Figaro gave us? It's 220-7683, where there are more interesting stuff going on there. Let's call it, shall we?

Like the first board, create a new account and login.

As usual, go to the messages section of the BBS. There are three new messages, two from Rocky, the first explaining about the "PC LOAD LETTER" Now how was anyone supposed to know that meant put in more paper, dammit?

Back on topic, a second article is on VRAM overflow, a much more important post concerning a bug in the Amie's memory management, which a poorly coded application can turn your computer into a paperweight. Reply to this message.

The final message is from Figaro, who is complaining about a bug in the Amie's C compiler. Reply to this as well. Exit the BBS, and dial back into Lane City Local. You should receive some new PM's, and check out the messages section to find a post from Tiberius about The Next Generation. Reply to his post if you want, it's hilarious.

Exit the BBS dialer, and check your messages, you should receive a message by The Matrix BBS about your registration, as well as another letter from Emilia. Reply to Emilia's PM.

Now..who do you want to call first?

I would suggest visiting The Matrix first, as Rocky will send you a PM concerning his post titled 'VRAM overflow'. You will receive an attachment for the latest version of the Amie Workbench, download the attachment and you should be safe now. If it appears that nothing has happened, the Workbench upgrade has basically been installed, there's no need to literally
restart the game like the message suggests.

Now redial the Lane City Local BBS, where you will receive new PM's. Check the Messages section, there's a new post by 0rph3o which is the third installment on the BBS FAQ. Read the message, and note that he mentions that the SysOP (admins of the BBS era) can read any message sent in his system, esp. PM's.

Exit the BBS, and check your messages. There are two new PM's, one is from Emilia, who seems to enjoy you messaging her, and another one from Tiberius, who clearly shows wit, eloquence,
maturity and intelligence in his PM. Reply back to Emilia's PM, you can reply back to Tiberius if you want, but that's his only message.

Dial The Matrix BBS, with two new messages, one from Rainbreeze, whose post, Nihao, bitches! is a clear indicator of his mastery with foreign culture, international affairs, and economics. Reply to his post.

Another post is from Ward, who has a uploaded a new program, a Notepad application, but unlike the Notepad we normally see, this one is mainly for storing BBS phone numbers, telephone codes as well as passwords. Download the application and reply to his post.

The notepad application should be at the bottom-left corner of your screen now, and is represented by the Notepad icon (duh).

Check the program out: The program has three tabs, which I had listed earlier. The numbers we have so far are Lake City Local BBS and The Matrix BBS, and the passwords section only has passwords for the BBS's that we have accounts on.

Now dial back into Lake City, and you should receive some new PM's. Close the BBS and check your PM's. Ooh, a new PM by Emilia. Reply her message. Dial into The Matrix, you should receive some new PM's. And check the Messages section of the BBS, which a user, POSEIDON, posts a rebuttal on Rainbreeze's earlier post. Close the BBS and check your messages.

The first one is from Ward, concerning the program he uploaded earlier. Hmm, he found it posted anonymously? Interesting. The second one is from Raintree, who replies back to you about your opinion on his post. Close Messages and re-dial Lane City Local.

You should receive a new PM from Emilia, reply back to her PM. Now call The Matrix. Ok, there's nothing much, just another rebuttal on Raintree's post by Sean Smith. Exit the BBS and re-dial Lane City Local. You should get a new PM by Emilia, reply back to her PM.

Call back Lane City, receive a new PM from Emilia, and reply to her. I've to admit I feel pretty close to her at this point. Now let's call The Matrix, there's two new posts, one is from #42 (an obvious reference) about a new game he uploaded "Super Roberto Bros", which, unfortunately, is for another Operating System, so you cannot download it.

There's another post, by RobFugitive, with the title "New c0dez". Reply and download this message. Exit, and re-dial the BBS.

You should receive some new PM's. Check your messages, it's a reply from RobFugitive on what c0dez are, how to use them, as well as a new BBS number, GibsonBBS.

From here, you should receive two new numbers, the first one is the local calling card number, 915-3347, and GibsonBBS, (714) 402-5691. Reply back to his message if you like.

Call Lane City first, you should receive a new PM from Emilia, who asks us about running away from home..ok, this is scary. Dial into The Matrix, and you should receive a new message, and the Messages section has a post by Five which is about a Password Cracker, which unfortunately is for DOS. Reply to his post and exit the BBS and read through the messages you have downloaded.

It's a new PM from Rob, he seems kinda nice about your reply. Let's give the GibsonBBS a shot, shall we? Open up the Notepad application, and it should show the two latest entries, which is the Long distance calling card and the GibsonBBS number. Start the Dialer, and enter the Long Distance calling card number first.

It will then ask you for your calling card access number, which the Notepad will automatically switch to the c0dez tab of the application. Enter any number you like. You can now call GibsonBBS, which you can type in as 7144025691, as the program will then place (714)
in brackets, and the numbers 402 and 5691 are separated by a (-)

Great. The BBS in invitation only, which means that you cannot register just to use the site. Exit the BBS. Dial the Lane City BBS, and you should receive a new PM from Emilia who seems to be pretty lonely. Reply back to her PM. Now dial The Matrix, and again you will receive some new PM's.

It's from Five, and it seems that maybe he couldn't work on an Amie version of his Password Cracker. Dial back into Lane City, it seems that Emilia is determined to run away from wherever she is from. Reply back to her PM. Call The Matrix and send a PM to Figaro. Exit the BBS and dial Lane City, you should receive another PM from Emilia, and send a PM to Blue Sky. Reply back to her PM, and Re-Dial Lane City to receive new PM's from BlueSky and Emilia.

Blue Sky seems to be collecting information for a book on online computer use, and reply back to his message, read Emilia's and reply to her PM as well. Re-dial into Lane City, and you'll receive two new PM's from Emilia...Oh My God. Reply back to her PM.

Now dial into the Matrix. Check out the messages section, where there's four new posts, one is from Akuma, who I have no idea what he won. The second post is from Rob, who points out Akuma's intelligence. The third is from J.Rook, the admin of Lane City...apparently the Lane City Local BBS is thrashed.

The final post is from Figaro, who has written an Amie version of the Password Cracker, and is available for download. Download the Password Cracker, and reply to both Figaro and Rook's post.

Dial Lane City Local, and Rook was right, and there's this weird "ACCESS ERROR 0xAA" that keeps on showing at all times.

The Password Cracker, called dict hacker, is located just next to Notepad. How does this application work? Remember that GibsonBBS is invitation only, so that means the BBS most likely chose passwords based on dictionary letters. So, let's start another long distance call. Remember to run Notepad first, so that it will show you the numbers and c0dez needed.

After the Dialer shows the GibsonBBS front screen, close Notepad and run the cracker. It should be able to find a password, where it will then save it into Notepad and immediately log you into the BBS. Read, download and reply to all the Messages on the BBS. Now exit the BBS and dial into The Matrix.

You'll receive some PM's, and the messages section has two new ones: One from J.Rook, who seems to be looking for you, and 0rph3o, who mentions that you now post on his BBS. Reply to 0rph3o's and Rook's messages and download it. Exit the BBS, and read through the Messages.

Oh, it's from Akuma, who, like Tiberium, shows a high level of maturity. Call back The Matrix, and you'll receive two new PM's from Rook. Read through the two messages: what the..Emilia? What's going on here?

Reply back to Rook's PMs and call back The Matrix to receive a new PM from Rook. Well, that's bloody nice of him. Let's call Gibson, shall we?

After one call using the "borrowed" c0dez, login using the "borrowed" password. Read through the posts on the Messages section, there'll be three new posts, two from Hollinger, which is basically around Neuromancer (I guess) and one from Fritz, who has has a new number for a FidoNet BBS. Reply to both parties if you like. Hollinger seems to appreciate it though.
Download the messages, especially Fritz's.

Now let's call Sector 001. Another long-distance call. Luckily, you can make a new account on this system. There are 6 posts, Sean Smith's "Illegal access" on which he was impressed that you had "HACKED THE GIBSON!!". The second post is just nonsense, but the CoreBBS RNG exploit from NOMAD is important. Read through it, and download it. Reply if you want to. The next two posts are from #42 about some game of fanfic, god knows. The final post, from RobStewart is important, as he includes a C compiler for your Amie C along with the compiler. Download the compiler.

The compiler doesn't appear anywhere on the desktop, but don't worry, it'll play a role later on in the game. Now let's call The Matrix, and you should notice that there's a new section in the BBS, labelled LCL Archives. You can read it if you want. Now read the messages, and there are three new posts, one is from The Finn, who is kind enough to host the files supplied by Blue Sky.

Read the next post, which is from Nauseahare on "Dead AIs" In here, you'll find a number for a new BBS, THE UNDERGROUND LIBRARY and a list of AIs that have been murdered. You'll notice a familiar name in there. Reply to Nausea's post, and download it.

The final post, from Rocky, has a fix for the Amie C compiler. Download the fix. REturn back home, and it will alert you that you have new PMs. Exit the BBS. Check the Messages you received, one is from Sector 001, and another is from Nausea, who does think it is a bit weird. Reply to his PM, and note the password given, which is for the Underground Library. Dial back into The Matrix to receive another PM by Nausea.

Open Notepad, and in the Passwords tab now includes the password given by Nausea.Now connect to The Underground Library BBS. When you reach the title page, try using the password. Damn, it didn't work..wait, this BBS apparently uses CoreBBS. If you remember the post at Sector 001 converning on how to exploit it, so you can just guess the password yourself. 

It should work, and the password will then be updated automatically in Notepad as well. Check the messages section, and download all the posts there first. Now open a new message, you will receive an Alert Box, which informs that you have downloaded a new message and have been disconnected.

Go through your messages, you'll receive a warning from Delphi about accessing his system. Weird..Delphi apparently made the original post on the Dead AI's. Reply to both PM's, and go through Montjoy's Nomenclatures and AI Interaction, Blue Sky's History of ARPANET, and Delphi's Traversing networks. Montjoy's articles concern on how AIs will use forms of verbal interaction, as well as some AIs which are given Shakespearian names. The most prominent feature of all these articles is concerning "Mother", which could be the original self-aware AI, and that the later generation began escaping out of the ARPANET, again giving us another clue about what is going on. Reply to Montjoy's, Delphi's and Blue Sky's messages.

Now call back The Underground Library, and you'll need a new password this time. Disconnect, and re-dial. You'll need a new set of c0dez, so dial back into The Matrix to get new ones, read and download the latest c0dez posted by Rob.

Re-dial the BBS with the latest c0dez, and read select any of the posts in the Messages section, and you'll be kicked out with a warning by Delphi. Reply back to him, and call back the Library.

This time, send PM's to Delphi and Montjoy, now you can either go to the Messages or the Title Screen of the BBS, and you'll get an alert box to inform you that you're received new PM's.

The first message is from Delphi, who carries not-so-pleasant news. Blue Sky's message explains the truth about The Creeper virus. Now make a long-distance call, all c0dez are now invalid, so you have to get new ones from The Matrix. Remember to download the message.


Using those c0dez, call The Gibson and PM Hollinger and Wintermoot, Hollinger about academia not taking sci-fi seriously, and Wintermoot who is confused on how you got access into his BBS. Now, dial The Library, you should get two new PM's from Delphi and Blue Sky.
 Blue Sky is incapable of answering your queries concerning The Reaper as it is a historian foremost, but notify him if any disoveries are made for book-keeping.


Delhpi's post is is still unhelpful, unfortunately. Reply to both messages. Now call Sector 001, and check the messages section; there is now four new posts, the ones from #42 and Nero are practically useless, so just disregard it. Read the one from Figaro concerning the CoreBBS exploit, but it doesn't seem to work for him. Weird. Exit the BBS.

Now dial The Gibson BBS, and there are four new messages. The one from Victoria is particularly useful, as it gives us the number for the crown jewel: The ARPANET. Funny that a BBS that could be bruteforced holds the number to the ARPANET. Download the message.

Any c0dez are invalid now, so dial into The Matrix for new ones. The new one doesn't work now, so it looks like you have to re-dial into The Matrix for a new set of c0dez.
Call The Library to receive a new PM from Delphi who explains about Paris.Reply to him.

Now dial into The ARPANET, (805) 524-4742.

Try logging in, and it seems that only authorized people can access it. The number on the screen is apparently not connected to a modem, so use the Dict Hacker to get a password.

Using the new password, now go through the "Send Email" section of the BBS, and note two interesting names there: firstly, Paris, who has an asterisk in front of his name, indicating that he's an AI, as well as an interesting name, Robert Morris. Send a message to Paris, and go back to the title screen, where it will inform you that you have a new PM.

Go through the e-mail, and it seems that unlike his brothers and sister, Paris can not reply in a human way, and replies in syntax. Reply to his message.

Now we need more c0dez, as usual. Get some more at the usual place. Now dial into the ARPANET to receive a new message from Paris about our old friend, in source code format. Download the source code, and exit the Messages program. A build.bat should be on the desktop, directly above the Dialer program. Compile it, and check back your messages.

Welcome back, Emilia. Keep on replying to her messages in the program.

Now run the Dialer application, and it notes that there is a glitch in the telephone system, so you can use any c0dez you have right now. Now dial into The Library, and there are four new messages by Delphi. The first one is a warning for other AIs to go to ARPANET as it is becoming dangerous, as well as a weakness in the Reaper, discovered by another AI program.

The last two messages, is concernig the Anti-Reaper payload. The first one is the payload, and the second one is on how it works, as well as informing users that both he and Blue Sky are now in the ARPANET. Leave the BBS.

Now go through your messages, and Emilia will try to defeat Reaper at a cost. She also provides us with a recompiled version of the payload. Download the payload.

The payload, payload.bat, should be directly about the Messages shortcut. Run the payload. Now check your messaging program, Emilia will provide you with the final steps.

Dial the ARPANET, even the ARPANET is apparently affected now. Check your messages,
it'll be Emilia's final message to you.

Goodbye, Emilia.

You've now finished the game. There are messages by Blue Sky, Paris and some guy called
Kiros and a poem by an AI on the fight against Reaper and the personal tragedy of you and
Emilia. In a related note, it didn't take long for the authorities to blame the worm attack on a user named Robert Morris. 

In case you were wondering why I decided to post it here instead of GameFaqs or NeoSeeker, it's because those sites are mostly devoted to block buster games, and there's no way I could make  a new profile with my limited membership.

I've been waiting for NeoSeeker to accept Digital: A Love Story profile as well, but it's been taking too long.

Sorry I haven't wrote much lately, too busy with life. Will update later on what's happening with my life.


Some things have been going on:

I got employed by IBM as tech support.

Learning to play guitar, mostly concentrating on old school hardcore punk and pop-punk.

Still haven't got around to driving.

That's about it, I guess.