UFO 50 Retrospective Part 51 - The Terminal & Miasma Tower - SPOILERS AHEAD

UFO50 has a built in terminal. It’s not a secret thing, it’s right there, in the menu. This is implied to be the terminal of the computer itself, which you can use to access files and execute commands directly, rather than use the GUI of the game itself. There are a lot of more obvious uses for this terminal. Several games will tell you codes that can activate hidden modes and cheats, like the WOLF-PACK code that lets you play as four dogs in Grimstone, which I mentioned. But there’s also more to the terminal. A secret. A very, very in depth secret, which will blow the story of UFO 50 wide open.

The story of Miasma Tower is a very deep and interesting thing, and I am going to go very in depth. If you want to experience it for yourself, do not read ahead, as I am going to go FULL on with spoilers. Everything will be laid bare. Ready? Okay, let’s go.

There is a secret 51st game in UFO 50. Even before I started playing the game, I guessed there might be. This is the kinda game that screams meta secrets. But how do you find this hidden game? The most obvious, and correct answer, is the terminal. It’s gotta be chock full of secrets. But how do you get at them? There are a few ways to discover Miasma Tower, the hidden 51st game. I discovered it by noodling around in the menus. The terminal is like an old computer terminal. It has commands, and once you have a general idea of those commands, you can do a lot. A common command from back then was HELP. And sure enough, it works here. Each game has a four letter name, like UFO1 for Campanella, SAC1 for Mortol. But they are also numbered. So 0001 is the first game, Barbuta. You can do HELP-0001 to learn all the commands you could use with Barbuta. It’s very simple stuff, basically stuff you can find in the GUI already. The history, the name, etc etc. But if you put in HELP-0051, you get shown a different game. And it’ll helpfully tell you its name. MIAS. Input EXEC-MIAS to start the game…

That’s the way I found it. But there’s another way. A more complex way, and the way most people found it. When you look at the terminal, you notice something. It’s two words, each four letters, seperated by a hyphen. Where have we seen that before?

Our boy, Greg Milk. Milkdud here gave us a clue. Remember, Gregory Milk is the person who MADE UFO50. And he also made Miasma Tower, and he wants it to be seen. But it’s hidden away. Why? Miasma Tower was never meant to exist, and it was not meant to be in UFO 50. But it had to be, for reasons we’ll get into, so Greg hid it, deep in the terminal. And your first clue is by typing in GREG-MILK, which will give you a cryptic message.

I’m not going to go in depth with these messages. They are a hidden meta puzzle that will take you into many of the 50 games in the pack. You need a knowledge of all 50 games to proceed, and as you follow Greg’s trail of bread crumbs, you’ll eventually come to a message that says “EXEC-MIAS”. So there you go. The other way to find Miasma Tower. But what IS Miasma Tower?

Let’s hop in and find out…

In Miasma Tower, you play as Gregory Milk. This is an autobiographical adventure game, not quite a game as much as a visual novel, showing you what life is like at UFO Soft. The game is explicitely from the point of view of Mr. Milk, who’s opinions, views, and thoughts are on full display. As you interact with things inside the UFOSoft office, you’ll see what Greg thinks of them, and how they effect the world, and the people around them.

The game takes place inside the current UFOSoft HQ, and has all the workers and coworkers there. They’re all represented by weird little critters, but it’s not actually that hard to put a name to a character. This wasn’t really meant to be seen by outside forces. It was a game made by Greg, basically for Greg. He knows who they are. We have to do a bit more sleuthing, but based on where people are, what they say, and what their job is, we can make a guess. This is Meesha! The characters are all represented by little weird critters, and I like how Greg represents himself. He’s a brown lumpy… thing, with a permanent frown. If you read Greg’s inner thoughts, the man is clearly depressed and anxious. The years have not been kind to him, and the recent events at UFOSoft have left him with serious scars.

Greg isn’t the only one. A lot of the people around the office are overworked, and exhausted. They’re being put on jobs that aren’t really what they’re good at, and being milked, and it’s pretty obvious they know. The corporate culture of the office ia also quite toxic. There’s references to a kind of hazing ritual that poor Shayn had to go through recently, which Greg is HORRIFIED at the idea of ever happening to him. Thorson Petter is hard at work in his office, as it lights on fire around him, as he overworks himself to death to add more games to Campanella 3. Why? It’s never explained.

And that last one there, that’s Benedikt Chun, the only founder left. He’s getting neurotic himself. He sold the company over to the devil a few years ago, for just the safety of being able to make the games he loves, and now he’s asking if Greg thinks anyone will ever play their games. What does he mean by that? I’ll get into that in a moment…

First, you should know the structure. This game is split into a few parts. You start in a closed space, and then find a disk and play it. It’s an old beta demo disk. After beating that, you get more puzzles which lead you to a new execute command, and now more of the offices are open. You then find another disk, beat THAT demo, and get more puzzles, and then even MORE of the offices are open. It’s an interesting progression mechanic, as you go through the past to reach the present.

All throughout the offices, you’ll find references to the fact that the games that the company has been making for the last year do not seem to actually be released. The workers seem to know this too, as is hinted from that message in Diskonia I mentioned: “HOW FAR IN THE FUTURE ARE YOU READING THIS?”. What kind of company can continue running when it’s not even releasing its games? For what purpose? There are so many expenses, but no income. And yet, the HR accountant tells you flatly that the boss has allowed her to give out raises. They’re spending a LOT. The offices are filled with things that aren’t neccessary to make games. A barely used gym. A dormitory which Greg feels weird about using. A whole arcade and game room, filled with Nemuru’s personal collection. How can they justify this?

Becuase the point isn’t to sell games.

Tao Nemuru has connections to a company that’s hinted at in Miasma Tower in a few places: <MPI. Or the Murtzbach Preservation Institute. There was a tester called Sten Murzbach, who’s name also leads to a code that shows a bunch of time capsules. What does this mean? What is the purpose? It’s never said, but we can make some inferences. And to reach that conclusion, let’s talk about the people in charge.

All of Greg’s coworkers and friends are represented by weird critters, but the people Greg doesn’t like are represented in two ways. The boss’s minions and enforcement, HR and the middle manager Ian Spinzer, are represented by giant groteqsue dinosaur like monsters. And the boss, his child, and their psychophant tester, are all represented by bugs. Nemuru is shown as having a kind of… cultist energy to him. He has a book of philosophy he pushes on others, the psychophant following it heavily. And that book is this one:

The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia. I have not read this book. But it’s clearly at the root of the grasshopper and ant imagery, especially seen in Combatants, Nemuru’s baby. It’s based on the classic kids story of the grasshopper and the ant. Y’know, the grasshopper plays all summer while the ant works, then winter comes and the grasshopper starves like the ant plays. The book itself takes this further and turns it on its head a bit. It’s a book of philosphy that consists of rumination on the nature of games, told through reconsideration of the fable in ways that parallel the game, ranging from both the concept of saving games in preparation for a future utopia where we will play forever, and the framing of games as an obstacle.

That first part is the thing that really hits at key here. Nemuru is a games collector. He is shown to have a vast collection, and he’s gathering more. He’s very, very into preservation, but in a… bit of a twisted way. More of a collection for a collections’ sake. What it took to make that collection, and what it contains, doesn’t quite matter, so much that he has it. Murzbach Industries seems to be some kind of group, almost cult like, which collects and is locking away games in a kind of time vault. That’s why Nemuru is so interested in pumping out more games, and in UFO 50 as a culimation, a grand testemant to what they’ve made. That’s why there’s a paper showing multiple game companies, and next to UFO Soft, it shows the words “Almost done?”. They’re almost done using up UFO Soft, and then these games will be locked away, forever. For some idyllic future where the billionares will play and play.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, and I’ll talk about them in a conclusion to this entire story. For now, there’s a few other things hinted at in the backstory of UFO 50 through Miasma Tower that are extremely interesting, and should be shown.

I’ve seen people going “this game feels like it could hold a creepypasta meta secret, I sure hope it doesn’t”. I have bad news for you. We’ve got to talk about Chiffon Bola.

Chiffon Bola was one of the first people to join the company. She was a game designer, a developer, a bit of a jock. She likes bikes. She thanked bike clubs in the special thanks of her games. Some time in 1988, she went missing, and was presumed dead.

https://imgur.com/MMvWEoK

Hints of her are still in the company, and any time you come across them, Greg averts his gaze. When he enters her old cubicle, he spells out I’m Sorry on the wall, and doesn’t elaborte or comment further. He doesn’t even say who’s cubicle it was, you just have to theorize. When he gets to her name in the company’s registry, he stops reading. He’s HAUNTED by Chiffon Bola. Later on, near the end, you run into a ghost of a floating bike helmet…

The ghost blames Greg for what happened to her. Or Greg blames himself, more accurately. What happened? What happened to Chiffon Bola? Well, Greg has some theories…

Chiffon Bola very obviously chaffed against the new leadership as soon as they showed up. Everyone kind of did, but Chiffon seems to have been a rather independant woman, and would make her opinions known. In one of her games, Vainger, she shows the space station has being taken over by a malignant, insect-like force, who only wanted to save themselves, the universe be damned. In her cancelled game that you can find in her old cubicle, the cyberpunk RPG I mentioned, she deliberately calls the evil supervirus calling all the problems the Spinz/net.

Chiffon Bola clearly chaffed against leadership, especially Spinzer, who is a raging meathead dinosaur, according to Greg. And Greg has some ideas as to what happened to her…

You can find several hints that her disappearance is foul play. A detective is snooping around. There are stains near the bike rack, now empty. There’s a shattered bike hidden in the vents. The only way into the vents is a ladder, which is in Spinzer’s office. One of Spinzer’s coats is missing a button, which can be found in the stairwell. You find photos being thrown away, and you quickly avert your gaze, as if you don’t want to see them. It’s never directly said or explained, but I think the implication is clear.

However, I should specify that all of this is MY interpretation. Someone else could easily have their own interpretations about the things going on here.

In the end, Greg has had enough. Everything that’s going on here is too much. He cannot be a party to this. After he finished Miasma Tower and UFO50, no matter what happens, he’s done. You end the game by taking the Nemuru’s chopper and flying away into the sunset. I don’t think Greg LITERALLY stole their chopper, I think it’s just a metaphor. He’s moving on to different pastures.

And that’s Miasma Tower.