Blockbuster¶
Calm
Friday night at the video store. Be kind, rewind.
| Kind of world | Calm |
|---|---|
| Serum in the arrival Box | 2 ampoules |
| Native Serum stand-in | None: bring spare Serum |
| Quests | None |
blockbuster-aisleWhat happens when you arrive¶
The Box opens in the Sci-Fi aisle of a Blockbuster Video, with its back to the back wall. It is a Friday night in the early 2000s: blue carpet with little squiggles on it, the smell of popcorn, and a New Releases wall that seems to go on forever. Trevor is at the register and barely looks up. Nothing here can hurt you. This is a place to browse, rent a movie or three, and buy a TV to watch them on.
The rule: it's always Friday night¶
| What's different | How it plays |
|---|---|
| Nothing can hurt you | No monsters spawn, and nothing in the store can be hurt. |
| The store is unbreakable | You can't break or build anything in the store or the strip mall. The stockroom stays shut. |
| You can't leave | Walk out past the strip mall, or into the fog over the road, and you find yourself walking back toward the store. |
| Time stands still | It is always the same Friday evening. Beds work. |
blockbuster-lotThe store¶
The shelves are stocked with real movie boxes of the era, sorted into sections. Each section's boxes are tinted its color, so an aisle reads as one block of color, just as the real stores did.
| Section | Sign |
|---|---|
| New Releases | NEW RELEASES |
| Sci-Fi | SCI-FI |
| Horror | HORROR |
| Thriller | THRILLER |
| Comedy | COMEDY |
| Action | ACTION |
| Drama | DRAMA |
| Family | FAMILY |
| Romance | ROMANCE |
| TV on Video | TV ON VIDEO |
| Staff Picks | STAFF PICKS: TREVOR |
Browsing: right-click a box on a shelf to pull it out, and right-click a shelf with a box to put it back. Every shelf is stocked the first time you see it, with a few gaps left, as on any real Friday.
Renting a movie¶
- Pull the boxes you want off the shelves. Bring the boxes to the counter, not tapes.
- Talk to Trevor at the register. He shows the boxes you are carrying, the hardware for sale, and a few of his recommendations.
- Tick what you want and check out. Each box you rent becomes its
VHS Tape.
| What | Price |
|---|---|
| A rental | 1 emerald each. Your first rental is free ("you looked like you needed it"). |
The tape is yours to keep. Most boxes in the catalogue rent as a one-minute pixel-art short of that movie that comes with the mod. A box with no tape behind it is "out".
Can't find a title Trevor recommended? Ask "Where is it?" and an arrow appears over the shelf that has it, or he owns up that they're all gone.
blockbuster-counterYour own movies
Movies you convert into the tapes folder of your game directory (next to mods and saves) fill the New
Releases wall, several copies of each, and turn up there without a new world. A catalogue box also rents as your
own tape of that movie, when you have one with a matching title.
Trevor's hardware¶
Trevor sells everything you need to watch, record and play tapes at home. Pay in emeralds, as many of each as you like.
| Item | Price (emeralds) |
|---|---|
 VHS Player |
6 |
 Portable Television |
4 |
 Television |
8 |
 Console Television |
12 |
 TV Screen |
3 |
 VHS Remote |
2 |
| VHS Tape (blank) |
1 |
 Camcorder |
10 |
 Bookshelf Speaker |
3 |
 Floor Speaker |
5 |
 Gold Member Card |
6 |
How the gear works:
- VHS Player: right-click to open its deck (tape slot, play, eject), right-click with a tape to load it, sneak-right-click to play or pause. Set it touching a television (usually underneath) and the picture shows there. An ejected tape remembers where it stopped, so a finished tape has to be rewound. Be kind, rewind.
- TV Screen: thin panels. Build them into a wall of any shape and the biggest picture that fits shows across it.
- VHS Remote: right-click a player to pair it, then use it from up to 48 blocks away: scrub, skip 10 or 30 seconds, play, pause, power and mute.
- Speakers pair with a player the same way.
- Camcorder: records your own home videos onto blank tapes. Right-click to raise it to your eye; click to record, scroll to zoom. Sneak-right-click to load a tape and set the brightness, color, date stamp, VHS look and label.
- The Gold Member Card is Blockbuster's signature good: a card that never expires, with someone's name almost worn off.
The strip mall¶
Either side of the Blockbuster stand four more units: a laundromat, a pizza place, a nail salon and an empty unit for lease. Each has a glass door off the sidewalk and its lights left on, and the things of the people who were just here: a load mid-cycle, half a pie on a booth table, a pedicure basin still full, a folding chair facing the wall of a unit nobody rented. Nobody is in any of them.
What to bring home¶
| Find | Why it's worth it |
|---|---|
| Movie tapes | Real movies (well, one-minute ones) to play on a TV in your base. |
| A TV and VHS player | A working home cinema. A screen wall makes it as big as you like. |
| A camcorder and blank tapes | Film your own adventures and play them back. |
| Gold Member Card |
This world's signature good. |
Serum and getting home¶
- The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
- There is no native Serum ingredient, and nothing to gather: the store can't be mined. Bring what you need to get home.
Tips¶
- Bring emeralds. Everything here is bought with them, and a full setup (console TV, player, remote, speakers) is about 30.
- Spend your free rental on something good: ask Trevor for a recommendation. He is never wrong about a movie.
- The Staff Picks shelf is Trevor's own favourites, and he recommends from it more often than not.
- Don't bother trying to break in to the stockroom or wander off into the fog. The store always brings you back.
Everything this world adds¶
91 blocks and items (click to open)
Blockbuster Carpet
Blockbuster Wall
Blockbuster Wall Stripe
Drop Ceiling
Fluorescent Ceiling Light
Entry Tile
Blockbuster Fascia
Storefront Glass
Blockbuster Sign
Blockbuster Door
Employees Only Door
Parking Lot Asphalt
Parking Stall Line
Road Center Line
Strip Mall Sidewalk
Curb
Flat Roof
Strip Mall Stucco
Strip Mall Fascia
Dark Shop Window
Laundromat Floor Tile
Laundromat Wall
Pizzeria Checker Floor
Pizzeria Wood Paneling
Pressed Tin Ceiling
Salon Floor Tile
Salon Wall
Recessed Ceiling Light
Bare Concrete Slab
Patched Drywall
Stained Ceiling Tile
Tube Light Panel
Papered Window
Laundromat Door
Pizzeria Door
Nail Salon Door
Papered Shop Door
Back Room DoorThe traveler's tape¶
Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.
Read the journal (spoilers)
Friday. The Box opened in the Sci-Fi aisle of a Blockbuster Video, between two copies of Galaxy Quest, and the guy at the register didn't even look up. Blue carpet with little squiggles on it. Popcorn smell. The new releases wall goes on forever. I walked out the front doors to see where I was, and the parking lot just sort of goes back to itself past the road. I tried three times. The sign is always in front of me again. So I went back in. The clerk is called Trevor. He recommended a movie for every mood I've ever had and my first rental was free because, quote, I looked like I needed it. Bring emeralds. Bring the boxes up to the counter, not the tapes. And rewind before you return anything, or Trevor gets this look.