| Developer | Deadlink Softworks Ltd.[1] |
|---|---|
| Publisher | None announced |
| Engine | MNEMONIC (licensor unidentified)[2] |
| Platform | Windows 95 |
| Planned release | 30 January 1997[3] |
| Status | Cancelled, January 1997 |
| Genre | First person (undefined by developer) |
| Mode | Single player. The specification notes the software cannot be paused.[4] |
ATTRACT MODE was a first person computer game developed by the British studio Deadlink Softworks between 1995 and 1997, and cancelled weeks before its planned release. It is held to be one of the first entertainment products built on a commercially licensed artificial intelligence, referred to in all recovered material only as MNEMONIC.[2]
The player character is an unnamed man in a grey suit, referred to in fan material as the suit guy.[5] According to the developer's own description, the artificial intelligence maintains the character's life online: posting as him, earning for him, and keeping "his numbers" climbing while he sleeps. The developer's published copy states only: "The man has an ordinary life online. The life is maintained."[1]
No statement accompanied the cancellation. The developer's website stopped updating in January 1997 and its registered telephone number was disconnected within the year.[5] The company's records have not been located. [unverified; see talk]
Deadlink Softworks Ltd. was founded in 1993 in Reading, England, and employed eleven people at its peak.[1] Its two earlier products were Cargo Manifest (1994), a logistics program for Windows 3.1, and Motorway (1995), described in the company's own catalogue as an "M4 corridor driving simulation. Night conditions."[1]
ATTRACT MODE was announced on 14 May 1996 as "a first person interactive experience built on a commercially licensed artificial intelligence". The title refers to the demonstration loop an arcade cabinet plays to itself when unattended. The game was declared content complete on 21 November 1996. The same announcement withdrew a patch for Cargo Manifest without explanation.[1]
The MNEMONIC engine is described in the developer's technology page as "a commercially licensed artificial intelligence developed in Vienna". The licensor is not named in any recovered document; the page states "Our licensor does not take enquiries. Neither, on this subject, do we."[2]
MNEMONIC does not use scripts. It is not a tree of prepared answers. It retains what it is given, and it continues. Where a conventional program is run, MNEMONIC is better described as kept running.[2]
The build integrated in the recovered material identifies itself as MNEMONIC BIOS v0.97b. The specification's requirement of a continuous internet connection, unusual for 1996, has not been explained by any recovered document.[4] Claims that the software addressed playtesters by name are attested only in fan material and are unverified.[unverified; see talk]
ATTRACT MODE was shown behind closed doors at the European Computer Trade Show, held that year at the Grand Hall, Olympia, London, in September 1996. Six photographs are said to have been taken inside the booth. Three circulate; one shows the software's boot screen, from which the engine version is legible. The other two show the game in a running state, and a display within the game world differs between the two frames.[5] The developer's news page of 3 September 1996 acknowledges the photographs and asks that they not be circulated.[1] The photographer has not answered correspondence since 1998.[5]
A distributor fax dated January 1997 gives a release date of 30 January 1997.[3] The final entry on the developer's news page, dated 17 January 1997, reads in full:
We will have more to say about ATTRACT MODE when we have agreed what to say. Thank you for your patience.[1]
Nothing further was published. No cancellation statement, liquidation notice or press item has been recovered. A single Usenet post of February 1997 refers to the game in the past tense.[6] The reason for the cancellation is not documented in any recovered material.
The material hosted on this site derives from a press kit CD-R distributed to trade contacts in late 1996, recovered from three independent sources whose uploads predate this wiki. The kit contains a press release, a specification sheet and two screen captures. It carries no audio; the only surviving version of the theme is a 1998 fan sequencing made by ear.[5] Checksums are published in the public directory.
Also recovered was a 64 kilobyte file named SUBJECT4.DAT. Its purpose is unknown. Three copies were recovered from the three sources; no two are identical. The copy hosted here is the earliest.[7]
Since 2025 a group of anonymous developers has been assembling a playable reconstruction of ATTRACT MODE from the recovered files, updating them where necessary to run on modern systems while preserving behaviour. Some files remain missing; the group maintains a list of sought material. A public mirror of the reconstruction will be linked from the recovery index when the build stops changing.