Therac-25 - System Failure

Attention! Tutorial is in the game, but also further down in the description, and I recommend you to read it carefuly.

Step into the chilling legacy of one of history's most haunting technological failures in Therac-25: System Failure — a narrative simulation game where you operate and troubleshoot the infamous Therac-25 radiation therapy machine, working in a similar way to that of games like Papers Please. Set in the mid-1980s, this immersive experience blends real-world events with interactive storytelling, inviting players to explore the razor-thin line between human error, software bugs, and deadly consequences.

You play as Sarah, a medical technician recently trained to operate the Therac-25 — a cutting-edge, computer-controlled linear accelerator designed to treat cancer. But beneath its sleek design lies a software system riddled with silent, catastrophic flaws. As you navigate routine treatments, you will find constant malfunctions, which, but just as the director told you: "Oh, don't even worry about that, this is a state of the art machine. They show up time and time again and nothing ever happens. ",  or does it?

Key Features:

• Historical Simulation: Based on real-world events in the 80s, where six known patients were critically injured or killed due to Therac-25 malfunctions.

• Interactive Narrative: You need this job, you can't lose it now... but they are pushing you to the limits.

• Terminal Interface Gameplay: Operate the Therac-25 via a recreated 1980s terminal UI, complete with glitches, typos, and obscure commands.

• Forensic Analysis Mode: Rewind and analyze past incidents to uncover how small software oversights led to massive failure.

• Emotional Impact: Hear journal entries from patients and staff, dramatized from actual testimonies and reports.

Tutorial:

Keep in mind that this is a FULLSCREEN OPTIMIZED EXPERIENCE and you must use a keyboard, so at the moment, no mobile support. If you'd like to see it, please tell me in the comments.

To play this experience you have to input the data that appears in the treatment cards (toggled visible/hidden via CTRL) into the machine. You must get it right, and there's a mandatory number of patients you have to attend, which will increase as said in the letters the hospital will send you. You'll also have a limited amount of time per day, shown in the TIME section in the UI: from 9 to 13.

After you input all of the data, you may encounter a 'malfunction', and, at this development stage you can only proceed (press enter) with it. These will appear in a big box in the center of the screen.

Controls: This game essentially works similarly to a regular computer command prompt, except for the fact that it doesn't include backspace, you have to go up and down again or down and up again. Essentially, the Enter button serves more as a 'save data' key than anything.

• Enter: Proceeds after malfunction or saves data in one of the boxes, which you have to fill with the data in the treatment cards, and also goes down. WHEN IN THE COMMAND PART, DON'T INPUT ANYTHING, JUST PRESS ENTER.
• To navigate the UI, you must use arrow up and down (or enter, which appart from inputting data will make you go down). It's also used to delete: THERE'S NO BACKSPACE, so in order to delete you have to go down and up again or viceversa.
• Ctrl: Toggles treatment cards and letters.

If you haven't found this tutorial good enough or you encounter any errors or things you'd like to improve, please contact me via the comments.

Hope you guys like the game :)

Btw, there's not a minimum price on the game (mostly because I don't consider it to be worth any price, as it's a play once kind of game) but I have set a donation option in case anybody wants to support the project financially.