Steins;Gate: Variant Space Octet (visual novel)

Steins;Gate: Variant Space Octet (Steins;Gate: Henikuukan no Octet, Steins;Gate 8-Bit), not to be confused with Steins;Gate: 8-Bit ADV, is a text adventure-styled visual novel that was released on October 28, 2011 for Windows PC. The game's retro design mimics that of various text adventure games released during the 8-bit PC era. The story is non-canonical, and takes place after the true ending of the Steins;Gate visual novel.

Steins;Gate: Variant Space Octet shares numerous elements with Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate's predecessor.

Plot overview
The story begins one month after the events of Steins;Gate, on the Steins Gate worldline. Whilst taking a train to Akihabara Station, Rintaro Okabe is hit with the ever-familiar sensation of Reading Steiner. He receives a D-mail from himself 15 years in the future claiming that the worldline has shifted away from the Steins Gate worldline thanks to the meddling of an esper named "Neidhardt" (Takumi Nishijou, Chaos;Head).

According to Okabe's future self, Neidhardt obtained the only IBN 5100 present in Akihabara through his online intelligence network and used it in conjunction with his esper abilities to convert the world's key industries into "moe industries". This conversion would go on to cause a global depression over the next fifteen years, a tragedy worse than the SERN dystopia and World War III in the words of Okabe's future self.

Future Okabe then outlines "Operation Razgriz" to Okabe, which tasks him with finding Neidhardt and recovering the IBN 5100, thereby preventing the deviation of the worldline.

Gameplay
In the style of many text adventure games, the player assumes control of Okabe's actions by typing in commands such as "up", "left", "look", "talk", and more. Segments of player action are interspersed with conversations, monologues, and other reading segments that are remniscent of the traditional visual novel style that Steins;Gate is known for. As the story progresses, the player will revisit familiar locations from Steins;Gate, newly redesigned in PC-88 graphical fashion. The player can choose to save to and load from a total of nine slots. In total, the game contains five "game over" endings and one true ending.

Trivia

 * Fans have ported Variant Space Octet to platforms such as TI-84+CSE calculators, the Nintendo Game Boy, and the ZX Spectrum.
 * The player can choose from different "machine types" in the game's settings menu to change the graphical style and audio output.