Rook’s field journal
Things I actually use, at the desk and at the kitchen table. The stats are invented; the attachment is real.
Weapon · ×1 · Equipped
SpecialTactile Feedback — every keystroke confirms itself, loudly.
A tenkeyless mechanical keyboard with tactile switches. The legends on E, S and the space bar have worn shiny. Every entry in the Quest Log was typed on it.
Accessory · ×1 · Equipped
SpecialMuscle Memory — inputs learned at twelve still work.
A wired pad from the sixteen-bit era with a d-pad polished smooth in one corner. Cleaned and revived in September; the story is in The Thumb Remembers.
Helmet · ×1 · Equipped
SpecialSound Test — reveals the quiet second voice in old soundtracks.
Closed-back headphones, slightly too tight, perfect for music that had to fit in 64 kilobytes. See Sixty-Four Kilobytes of Echo.
Key item · ×1
SpecialScanline Aura — dithering melts into colors the palette never had.
A fourteen-inch CRT a neighbor left on the landing with a note that said WORKS. It does. Read how it got here.
Key item · ×1
SpecialContains a stranger’s save. Never overwrite slot three.
A used copy of Chrono Trigger with someone else’s forty-one hours inside. Someone Else’s Save File.
Key item · ×1
SpecialRemembers where you parked the airship.
Graph paper, ink, and seven weeks of one winter. Also, at the back, a list of every October. The Ninety-Hour Winter.
Tool · ×1
SpecialOpens most cartridge shells from a certain era.
The single most useful tool for old cartridges. Consoles themselves usually want the larger 4.5 mm bit, which I keep losing too.
Tool · ×1
SpecialRead 2.6 V on a thirty-year-old coin cell. Saved a save.
Cheap, yellow and trusted. The continuity beep is the most satisfying sound in the apartment after a CRT warming up.
Consumable · ×3
SpecialTabbed version — never solder directly to a bare cell.
CR2032s with pre-welded tabs, kept in their packaging away from metal and away from the kitchen drawer of loose screws.
Consumable (refillable) · ×1
SpecialDrawn in 256 pixels, one at a time.
A red mug with a yellow star. Its icon is the subject of A Tea Mug in 256 Pixels.