Item #: SCP-687
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-687 is to be kept in a secured room at Site-15. The room is to contain a desk with locking drawers, a standard office chair, and a 12” analog color television as well as equipment to record and remotely monitor testing of SCP-687.
When not being actively tested, SCP-687-1 is to be powered down and disconnected from its power source, and SCP-687-3 is to be kept in an anti-static envelope and locked in the top drawer of the desk supporting SCP-687-1 & SCP-687-2. SCP-687-2 should remain attached to SCP-687-1 to prevent wear on the connecting hardware.
When being tested, SCP-687-1 and SCP-687-2 are to be plugged into one standard ███ UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) that is connected to the facility power grid. UPS is to be replaced after each 100 hours of use.
Under no circumstances are Class D personnel to be used for testing SCP-687 (ref: Incident I-687-1). Testing is permitted by personnel with clearance 3 or above with written approval by the site director.
Description: SCP-687-1 is a Commodore 64 home computer built in 198█, serial number S000█████. Non-invasive examination of the hardware confirms that it has not been obviously modified and all parts appear to be from the original manufacturer.
SCP-687-2 is a Commodore 1541 5.25” Disk Drive built the same year as SCP-687-1, serial number S000█████. As with SCP-687-1, all parts appear original and not obviously modified. If an attempt is made to turn on SCP-687-2 when it is disconnected, or connected to any computer other than SCP-687-1, it will fail to operate. When SCP-687-2 is connected to SCP-687-1, both units perform to the manufacturer’s specifications (except when loading SCP-687-3 as specified below).
SCP-687-3 is a 5.25” floppy disk without manufacturer’s markings. Affixed to the disk is a hand-written label with the word “DOCUMENTS” in block capitals. Attempts to read the disk with any drive other than SCP-687-2 results in severe read errors and potential damage to the hardware. Passive scans using [REDACTED] inconclusive and produce conflicting data.
When SCP-687-2 is connected to SCP-687-1, SCP-687-3 can be loaded into the drive and read like any normal disk. Only one file, “NOIR” is visible to the operating system. This file can be executed by typing LOAD “NOIR”,8,1.
When loading and running the “NOIR” program, the heat output of both SCP-687-1 and SCP-687-2 increases by 400%, and power consumption will double. Any testing equipment attached to ports on the computer or drive will experience severe and random voltage spiking. These anomalies do not appear to impact performance or cause any damage to SCP-687-1 or SCP-687-2.
Once the “NOIR” program is loaded, the user is presented with a short graphic stating “Cracked by the Timelordz.” After approximately one minute, a title screen appears. The title screen reads “NOIR: a hardboiled adventure by ██████████ Games. Copyright 198█.” There is no record of ██████████ Games releasing a game with this title. Pressing the space bar will launch the game.
“NOIR” appears to be a text-based adventure game similar to many other games released about the same time. However, the parser appears able to comprehend any intelligible English command, even with some words misspelled. In addition, there seems to be no functional limit to the game’s territory, and it will respond to queries about its environment in detail beyond what should be possible given the data-storage limitations of the hardware running the game. The setting of the game will also change, based on who is playing. A new player will be placed in a new random environment; a returning player will be placed at whatever point that player ceased playing last. All initial environments so far presented by the game have been within urban areas within the United States between the years 1923 and 1942.
By using commands LOOK AT SELF and INVENTORY, it has been confirmed that a player’s in-game avatar matches the appearance and dress the player had when starting the game. The player’s in-game avatar will also possess whatever objects or equipment the player had on their person when starting the game.
The game is free-form and gives no obvious clues about how to win. However, it does keep a score that prints after every action. The score can go up or down with no indication of an upper or lower bound. High and low scores to date are ████ and -████. If a player dies in-game, the score is set at 0, and any future command typed in by that player during any future game session will receive the response, “You cannot do that. You are dead.”
No abnormal effects are detectable on a player during gameplay. However, after a game session, the next time the player enters a REM sleep state they will have an unnaturally vivid dream where they experience the events that occurred during the game. During the dream, the player’s perceptions are indistinguishable from reality. Extreme cases will show physical manifestations of injuries suffered within the dream. Examples include one subject who presented with bleeding of the fingernails after dreaming of unsuccessful attempts to escape the trunk of a car driven into the ████ River, another subject who developed severe bruising of the face and strain of the anterior longitudinal ligament after dreaming of being beaten by a hostile police officer, and another subject who presented with partial paralysis after dreaming being a victim of a 1929 gangland execution in a Chicago garage.
Typically, such injuries are transient even in cases where the dreams end in fatality. However, severe psychological after-effects are likely, and will tend to be more severe than if the dreamed trauma had actually happened during a waking state. This is in large part due to the lack of volition subjects experience in the dream, and the foreknowledge of what is about to happen to them. All subjects report a complete belief in the reality of the dream world, even knowing they are replaying events from the game. If a subject has died violently in the game, the subsequent dream of the event can be traumatic enough that this belief can foster a delusion that the real world is unreal. Victims of this delusion report being convinced that they are still dreaming, or are in purgatory. Both physiological and psychological reactions are not clinically abnormal for the stresses subjects report experiencing within these dreams.
Given the experimental evidence of in-game actions having actual historical impact (ref: Experiment Log 687-A) it is theorized that the dreaming state is a side effect caused by the player’s perceptions of game-directed activity catching up to the present day.
