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17 - Dot Matrix Civilization
Nov. 23rd, 2020 12:36 amItem 09687893
Object is a piece of paper containing a series of characters, printed by a dot matrix printer.
Object was found in 1989 at a college in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Its source was a college student that had made a game with ASCII graphics, in the model of Hack or dnd. As the computer monitor was faulty, it was designed with a failsafe that would print out the screen on a dot matrix printer at a command from the user. There are more papers printed in this manner, but only one of them possesses anomalous properties.
The object contains a series of symbols that represent a medieval continent with magical elements. (A game manual is also stored as documentation, allowing researchers to understand the symbols.) The original game contained some elements that allowed the game world to evolve depending on the player's actions or lack thereof. The symbols on the paper will change in the same manner, as if it was being run on a computer.
Furthermore, if the paper is pressed against any other paper of small gramature, any instance of the symbol = (which represents bodies of water) will appear on the new paper. Once there, it will treat any symbols drawn on the new paper as landscape and will fill out in the same way as water would. Symbols that sufficiently resemble the original printing (black to grey, in non-serif fonts, between 10 and 12 pt of size) will be treated by the 'water' as if they were the symbols on the game, and can even change in that case (for instance, a symbol of ~ - a desert in the original game - that becomes wet will turn into a ", which stands for a swamp.) Other printings will be treated as hard barriers.
Once the 'water' fills as much space as it can, anomalous activity ceases on the new paper.
The object is to be store on a high value document archive for later research.
UPDATE 15/11/1998 - The object appears to be neutralized. Text is no longer visible. All related documents are to be placed with it and stored in a fragile document folder in the archive vault.
UPDATE 02/06/2008 - Instances of symbols resembling this object appeared on multiple papers on the research site. In addition to the loss of information, each piece of paper affected in this manner possesses the anomalous effects of the original object.
A review of data prior to the 1998 reclassification suggests the following:
1) The ink fading in the original object did not remove its anomalous properties, it merely made them invisible.
2) The continent shown in the object had long stopped resembling that of the original game, and, in fact, barely resembled a medieval kingdom any more. Human-made dwellings had spread through much of the map, and several symbols not mentioned in the manual were present. A new symbol that appeared collecting large cities appears, to reviewing researchers, to follow patterns similar to railroads.
All items affected are to be placed in a high periculosity document vault and are not to be copied using electronic media.
UPDATE 13/10/2016 - All affected objects are to be placed in a hermetically sealed glass cube, placed inside a faraday cage, placed inside a concrete cube, placed at the bottom of a well. All documentation on site is to be copied by hand to papers with a high gramature, then burnt.
Object is a piece of paper containing a series of characters, printed by a dot matrix printer.
Object was found in 1989 at a college in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Its source was a college student that had made a game with ASCII graphics, in the model of Hack or dnd. As the computer monitor was faulty, it was designed with a failsafe that would print out the screen on a dot matrix printer at a command from the user. There are more papers printed in this manner, but only one of them possesses anomalous properties.
The object contains a series of symbols that represent a medieval continent with magical elements. (A game manual is also stored as documentation, allowing researchers to understand the symbols.) The original game contained some elements that allowed the game world to evolve depending on the player's actions or lack thereof. The symbols on the paper will change in the same manner, as if it was being run on a computer.
Furthermore, if the paper is pressed against any other paper of small gramature, any instance of the symbol = (which represents bodies of water) will appear on the new paper. Once there, it will treat any symbols drawn on the new paper as landscape and will fill out in the same way as water would. Symbols that sufficiently resemble the original printing (black to grey, in non-serif fonts, between 10 and 12 pt of size) will be treated by the 'water' as if they were the symbols on the game, and can even change in that case (for instance, a symbol of ~ - a desert in the original game - that becomes wet will turn into a ", which stands for a swamp.) Other printings will be treated as hard barriers.
Once the 'water' fills as much space as it can, anomalous activity ceases on the new paper.
The object is to be store on a high value document archive for later research.
UPDATE 15/11/1998 - The object appears to be neutralized. Text is no longer visible. All related documents are to be placed with it and stored in a fragile document folder in the archive vault.
UPDATE 02/06/2008 - Instances of symbols resembling this object appeared on multiple papers on the research site. In addition to the loss of information, each piece of paper affected in this manner possesses the anomalous effects of the original object.
A review of data prior to the 1998 reclassification suggests the following:
1) The ink fading in the original object did not remove its anomalous properties, it merely made them invisible.
2) The continent shown in the object had long stopped resembling that of the original game, and, in fact, barely resembled a medieval kingdom any more. Human-made dwellings had spread through much of the map, and several symbols not mentioned in the manual were present. A new symbol that appeared collecting large cities appears, to reviewing researchers, to follow patterns similar to railroads.
All items affected are to be placed in a high periculosity document vault and are not to be copied using electronic media.
UPDATE 13/10/2016 - All affected objects are to be placed in a hermetically sealed glass cube, placed inside a faraday cage, placed inside a concrete cube, placed at the bottom of a well. All documentation on site is to be copied by hand to papers with a high gramature, then burnt.
