Jon Åslund

While trying to convince a friend to come to Syntax Error, now on Saturday at H62, (Hornsgatan 62, Stockholm), she asked what you do there. I first wrote that you have fun. Well, that didn’t sound fun. It needed more spice, more adventure, more text and so I wrote. My brain proudly presents:

Syntax Error

West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is small mailbox here.

> open mailbox
Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet and a Nintendo Power Glove.

> get leaflet and glove
Taken.

> read leaflet
You read the leaflet out loud to yourself.

“Weeeeeeee!!!”

You look around and decide to read the rest silently. It’s an invitation to Syntax Error 21st November at H62. It’s the final Syntax Error of the year, promising more blip, more blop, more video game music remixes, more everything. It opens 21:00. On the back there is an instruction manual, describing how you use a Nintendo Power Glove to travel through space and time.

> inventory
You are carrying:

a jailbreaked iPhone
your personal Syntax Error membership card
a Nintendo Power Glove
a leaflet

> use spotify on iphone
You put this game in the background, start Spotify and start playing a Syntax Error playlist: While having Spotify running in the background you return to this game.

> time
It’s 16:45. Don’t worry, you have plenty of time.

> go to hornsgatan
Walking would take too much time, and you are also not in the right universe. Use the glove Luke!

> use glove
Using the Nintendo Power Glove turns out to be a lot harder than you think. After a few hours of beaming yourself back and forth between different universes you finally manage to do the correct arm movement while randomly pressing the correct button. It looks like you are going to make it in time.

Hornsgatan 62, Stockholm
You are standing outside Hornsgatan 62. People that you can not relate to are walking past you, looking at your glove, which is giving off steam and starting to feel warm. You smile because it is freezing. Cars are driving on the street behind you. They look funny. While looking at the cars, Spotify suddenly stops playing.

> go inside
The door is closed.

> open door
The door is locked.

> time
It’s 21:01. It should be open now.

> what year is it?
A newspaper conveniently blows into your face and reveals that it’s OMG 1989!

> go back to the future
Your convenience has run out.

> shake power glove
Nothing happens.

> swear at power glove
Nothing happens.

No, wait! It is blinking faster and faster. More steam comes out. It’s getting hotter. Something is going to happen. It’s going to be legen-

> wait for it
Dary!!! Spotify starts playing and a newspaper conveniently blows into your face and reveals that it’s OMG 2009! The cars look normal. You are looking good. Your hand is smoking hot.

> go inside
You go down the stairs and are welcomed to Syntax Error by three smiling geeks. While moving their hands a lot they explain that the card reader is in a state of flux and might actually work if you don’t observe its state. They say that they can’t let you in just yet.

> look around
“Great observation skills! You probably just killed the poor cat.”

You see three geeks. They are not smiling. On an ad-hoc desk, you see a computer. It is rebooting. There is a hole in the ceiling.

> smile
It’s not helping.

> examine hole
You see a cat. It is watching you.

The geeks notice the cat noticing you noticing the cat and are now smiling again.

> give geeks card
“Not now, the computer has not rebooted yet. Whoa, is that a power glove?”

> yes
“Is it a real power glove?”

> move your hand a lot
“I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad!”

> give geeks glove
You hand over the glove and agree that it’s bad.

“We have to fix the card reader. Just go in and have fun, a lot of fun! The bar is straight ahead, video games, and ooh, we have dj hero. Dance floor cave thingie to the left. You are early. More geeks will arrive soon. Enjoy SYNTAX ERROR!”

> go to the bar
SYNTAX ERROR!

> talk to geeks
SYNTAX ERROR!

> wtf, they were not kidding
SYNTAX ERROR!

> madness
Madness? This is SYNTAX ERROR! Why don’t you have some fun.

> have fun
You move further inside, almost tripping over an old friend. You spend an hour talking about programming.

> time
It’s 21:15. Yes, it felt like an hour, but it’s because you geeks talk so fast. You can cram in an hour’s worth of talking in just 10 minutes. Give yourself a pat on the back.

> give yourself a pat on the back
SYNTAX ERROR!

> haha
Yes, wasn’t that fun? Why don’t you have some more?

> have fun
You try DJ Hero. Weeeeeeeee!!

> have fun
Now we are talking. All your friends arrive. You talk and dance to chip tunes and drink beer.

> have fun
Everybody shows off some cool iphone app and people go oooh and aaah and hahaha. You turn off Spotify.

> have fun
You give someone a hug. More people come over and you give out more hugs.

> have fun
You stand in silence and read people’s t-shirts while overhearing someone explain the ultimate zombie makeup and where you should hide in case of an outbreak.

> have fun
You mention that you have written a piece of non-interactive fiction where you use a Nintendo Power Glove to travel through time. Your geek level increases and you are now cool as a fox.

> have fun
Ghostbusters theme tune dance off. It’s amazing what kind of dance moves you can pull off when you can move through walls.

> while true: have fun
You have an endless amount of fun. You win the geek quiz, sing along to theme tunes of your favorite cartoon shows and end up in discussions that fills you brain with nice warm feelings. At 03:00 when they close you and your lovely friends continue to the after party.

Game over!

You scored OVER 9000 out of a possible 6581, giving you the rank of totally awesome.