Thoughts on the terminal. (SPOILERS)

[Some Donkus]

I think I figured out the story and wanted to share it.

Greg Milk worked at UFOSoft during a declining period. The management was terrible because the main boss was hopping from game to game trying to make one that he thought was perfect, hence the reason he is a giant grasshopper. The people working there came to resent their jobs, especially Greg. For an unknown reason, there is an impending apocalypse coming, and the main boss wants to get this game done in time so that he has something to leave the future generations that may or may not survive. Also, if you put in the final meta game code, you are taken to a strange room with capsules that have "2039" printed on them. That is 50 years after the release of UFO 50, which is 1989 in this universe. So either the top management are going into a cryo freeze to escape the apocalypse, or they are putting the game in there so that 50 years into the future, people can play forever.

I skipped over the stuff about the possibly dead ex employee and the water in the basement because I think the main part of the meta story was about the first thing. Thoughts?

[nintendude794]

Interesting

[BiggerJ]

The grasshopper has another meaning. Tao Nemuru is depicted as one because he came up with Combatants, which also features a grasshopper. In the Ausop fable of the grasshopper and the ants, the grasshopper did nothing but play while the ants worked. When winter can, the grasshopper begged the ants for food. Tao Nemuru wants a future where humanity does nothing but play forever.

Re: the capsule room: its metal door implies that it's what's behind the mysterious door in the basement. If you flush the toilet enough times, you'll flood that basement enough that the message upon checking the metal door implies that it will now never open - thus ruining Tao Nemuru's plan.

Ironically, as the 'cracktro' that plays each time you start UFO 50 shows, the collection is eventually found in a time capsule of a different kind...

And as for the apocalypse, maybe it's still coming, or maybe not. People have been worrying about the collapse of society and/or the extinction of humanity for a very long time. Look up the term 'polycrisis'. (The secret game, Miasma Tower, might be more specific, at least about Tao Nemuru and his employees' attitudes toward it - I haven't played it much myself.)

Oh, and here's an archive of a couple of 4chan posts where someone data-mined to figure out more about UFO Soft's history: https://arch.b4k.co/v/thread/689371826/#689411874

[Malkav0]

Why do people keep calling it Miasma Tower when in the game it's called UFO Tower ? Not the first time I see that name, no idea why.

[♥Puroseki (she/her)]

Originally posted by Malkav0:

Why do people keep calling it Miasma Tower when in the game it's called UFO Tower ? Not the first time I see that name, no idea why.

INFO-MIAS or INFO-0051

[BiggerJ]

Also, 'miasma' is another word for 'vapor'. Greg clearly believes that the company is doomed, and thus, that all its then-current projects will end up as nothing but vaporware.

[TerraSleet]

Originally posted by Malkav0:

Why do people keep calling it Miasma Tower when in the game it's called UFO Tower ? Not the first time I see that name, no idea why.

It's labelled "Miasma Tower" in-game when you type INFO-MIAS into the terminal.

[Malkav0]

Originally posted by TerraSleet:

Originally posted by Malkav0:

Why do people keep calling it Miasma Tower when in the game it's called UFO Tower ? Not the first time I see that name, no idea why.

It's labelled "Miasma Tower" in-game when you type INFO-MIAS into the terminal.

Well it wasn't before, I don't know it's from last patch, it was called UFO Tower before

[octoambush]

on gregs desk you can interact with a stack of "miasma tower" disks that he promptly hides.