TR-49 offers a satisfying archive puzzle set around a strange basement machine

TR-49, from developer inkle, is a puzzle game that puts you in the shoes of Abbi, a young woman seemingly trapped in a dark basement using a dial-based machine to search a computer archive. The game is out now for PC via Steam and iOS. Gameplay centers on a four-character dial — two letters and two numbers — that brings up marked records for you to read and inspect.

The contraption collates written material and cobbles together inferences, and the experience repeatedly evokes the feel of scrolling through microfiche or an archive. Design-wise the room and machine are shown prominently rather than zooming only to the screen, which enhances the physicality of the space.

The dials are analog and chunky, the CRT flickers and warps with unstable power, and the archive moves between cataloged sources rather than switching like a browser tab. The puzzles can be solved by following clues — dates, authors, follow-ups — or by brute-forcing combinations; the reviewer finished TR-49 in about seven hours without looking up solutions.

The hint system felt unobtrusive to that reviewer, though some players have complained it can be overbearing, and characters like Abbi and Liam can be chatty. Narratively you piece together the digital(ish) lives of Cecil Caulderly, his family, and the material the machine has ingested, gathering titles such as "My God, He Dances," "Revisions," and "Astral Perplexities" until you reach the record you were sent to find.

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