Road 96

Road 96 is DigixArt’s procedurally assembled road trip through Petria in the summer of 1996, an autocracy on the eve of an election, where a string of randomly generated teenagers hitchhike, steal cars and ride taxis toward the border wall. This walkthrough lists the perks, the three endings, every scene the author met across two full runs with the choices that matter and the collectible tapes, and the border crossings that close each episode.

How the game plays

First person, WASD, Shift to run, E and Q to switch tabs; the mouse looks, left click interacts or fires, right click cancels or zooms; Esc for the menu. There is no inventory. Saves are automatic on exit. Scenes, time of day and bin contents are random; the dialogue choices flagged “with consequences” are mostly flavour. Watch two things per scene: energy (food, drink, rest) and money (buying, bribes, tapes). Scenes end when travel markers appear: hitchhike, bus, taxi or walk. Payphones let you call home, or the number on the posters to earn a few dollars informing.

Endings

Good: all six travellers cross and you choose Join the fight at the end. Neutral: one traveller lost (choose Save Zoe at the crash) and Join the fight. Bad: choose Run away.

Perks

Six, passed to the next traveller, re-obtainable if the holder dies. Vitality sign (Blame It on the Rain): mix John’s drink in his truck and say it is great. Government pass (Police Academy): pick up the pass Fanny leaves on the seat. Hacking (Beep Boop Beep): befriend Alex and agree to rob the diner owner who cheated him. Lockpick (Thieves in the Temple): help Stan and Mitch rob the Happy Taxi office. Lucky star (Video Killed the Radio Star): film Sonya’s report on the Oil Minister. Wits (Enjoy the Silence): choose Run from Jarod’s taxi when he opens the boot.

The scenes

Cruising (Sonya’s limousine): talk, drink the cocktail, open the sunroof, read the fan mail (a threat), slide the cushion on your left for tape 1, call Adam on the console, watch the protesters, and Sonya drives you further and gives 30 dollars.

Smells Like Teen Spirit (Night Sky campsite): read the posters, talk to the girl with the cat and the boy selling tapes and food (10 each), intervene in Zoe’s row with the owner, ask about a free bed (the cardboard by Dancing Carl). Explore: a coded bungalow, the Brigade radio, spoiled food on the drunk’s table, Carl, the tourist, the cardboard. The owner wants 25 or 50; zoom on his sticker for the code 4166; the bungalow drawer holds 45 dollars. Spend as you like. Zoe wakes you: at the fire, take the trombone and play Bella Ciao along the left staff, then with her tape; the owner throws you out; Zoe gives tape 2.

Walking in My Shoes (desert booth): Alex and Mr Bear; agree to fix the connection, take the computer with the metal detector, dig where it beeps: cans (bin them), 3 dollars, a box with tape 3, the key; open the pole box, press the button, then again; he has planted fake transmitters for the Brigade. Talk him into calling his foster mother from the booth; ask about travel (a crazy taxi driver); take the cereal bar.

Enjoy the Silence (Happy Taxi): knock on the glass, “just north”, rest; look at the bomb sketches; lean forward, look at the mat (Jarod’s cold fury meter appears), sit back; knocking from the boot: say nothing three times; then “my stomach’s rumbling”, “nothing”. He stops for a flat; the boy’s head appears; look ahead, steal tape 4, unlock the door, sit back, Run: perk Wits.

Infinity (roadside): Fanny’s flat tyre: remove the tyre, take the spare, fit it, take the pump, pump until the gauge is green, cap. Under the tree hear about her runaway foster son, whose parents were Black Brigade, and the 1986 attack; promise.

Blame It on the Rain (John’s truck): tape 5 in the glovebox; he dozes; tape in the deck wakes him; rest; honk from below; ask for the delivery address; climb behind, wind the music box three times, look at the photos (Connie died ten years ago in the collapse), steal food and 45 dollars; the recipe on the fridge door: move the top-shelf items for the cucumber, bottom shelf for coffee beans, ginseng from the right shelf, mixer, shake, taste, “Great!”: perk Vitality sign.

The Wild Boys (stolen car): the Sanchez brothers hold you up; eat; floor it; radio: Sonya on the laundromat robbery; Mitch’s robber test: cafe, in fog, by helicopter, jump on the bed with them, confirm; the brothers stay a duo and lend you the car.

Video Killed the Radio Star (oil well): bin, the wrecked car’s deck for a tape, the plotters, Sonya needs a cameraman: film her intro, get perk Lucky star, film the Minister, Boo at Florres and Cheer at Tyrak, then swap them; the protest, the police beating; 30 dollars from Sonya; spoiled food on the stage.

Beep Boop Beep (diner): cardboard, tapes and food from the hitchhiker and inside, drinks and a lottery ticket. The man by the window suggests the manager’s car keys in the back room; play Pwong with Alex; drink; the owner cheated him; the border tunnels; the women’s toilet has a credit card; Alex picks the lock; 20 dollars in the drawer, break the locker for the car keys, ask about his hacking gadget: perk Hacking; hack the safe for 60; hide in the cupboard; the manager finds you (minus 60); use the ATM, call home.

Praying for Time (stolen car): cereal bar, radio for tape 6, drive; 3 dollars and juice; Jarod on the road; he will not leave; his gun; drive; “you’re crazy”; his questions about Sonya; stop; he takes the car and offers a lift.

No Concession (Annie and Geoff’s van): 3 dollars under the seat, drink; Zoe’s Connect Four with headphones, tape 7; her father is the Oil Minister; Geoff’s politics; the police stop: play along with the “donation”, quiet Zoe; she is dragged off whatever you choose.

Fire Starter (roadside diner): Zoe cuffed to the police van, two officers at a table, keys on their table. Option one: empty jerrycan, hose from the shed, matches from the diner (2 dollars), siphon the van, light the rubbish by the phone mast, run round, grab the keys, handcuff keys from the cab, free Zoe. Option two: keys from the shed, hack the mast box, same grab. Arrested either way; in the van talk, rest; the Brigade frees you and takes Zoe.

Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here (ruined house): 20 dollars downstairs, a drink upstairs; the plank breaks; the brothers rob you; they need the date of the attack on Sonya: the letter (Lola’s birthday), the photo (6 July), the wall note (the day ten years ago), the second note (leaving tomorrow, four days later), Lola’s last note dated 5 September: enter 9 September; money back; out through the hatch.

Something in the Way (police car): Fanny drives, Alex’s photo on the floor, the teen beside you; the Brigade broadcast, Bear warns Mama Bear off Route 42; the billboard crash; crawl, take 20 dollars, choose Fanny or the teen (the author saved Fanny).

About a Girl: drunk John, who bottled out of his date on learning Mama Bear is police; over the rocks, race to the mountain, penalties: watch the moving line and click five times; talk until he asks to be alone.

Teenage Dirtbag (Alex’s stolen car): tape 8 in the door pocket, 3 dollars; his mother calls on the scanner: tune it, help her reach the cameras from the back seat with the three aerials: two robbers, men; no hostages; they look like idiots.

Burning (amusement park, Tyrak’s party): air hockey for badge one, Pwong (3 dollars on the floor, 1 per game) for badge two, Sonya at the shell game: play, bet small, fetch her purse from the toilets (a man in a hat lurks), play on, buy her a drink at the bar tent, she is gone; the can game (10) for badge three; the manager gives the Tyrak reward; Adam says she is in the car.

Walk the Dinosaur (Happy Taxi): 3 dollars, the pages on the wall; Jarod’s anger; refuse the lottery ticket; the video player, his daughter; rest; engine trouble, the tapes fall, watch Lola, sit back, “killer pineapples”.

Thieves in the Temple (Happy Taxi office): the brothers’ heist; claustrophobia; Mitch’s lockpick: perk Lockpick; through the vent to security, hack the safe: tape 9 and 45 dollars, eat, scratch the lottery card, watch the monitors, the floor plan, silence the alarm with all the buttons, answer the phone: false alarm, the password from the reception sticker A45 D2R CPP12, the manager’s door code 4707 from the right drawer, do not give the agents the code; the attack site is found; car keys from the drawer, chair under the vent, out.

Police Academy (stolen car): tape 10 under the radio, Elaine Winterbottom’s papers, drink, speed; Fanny pulls you over, hand over the papers, “fresh haircut”; the drive-by, the chase, she leaves; take her pass: perk Government pass.

I’ve Seen That Face Before (motel): cardboard behind the fence, spoiled food by the bins, coins in the machine; locked in, climb out on the bin; the receptionist, champagne and staff card, third floor, Adam leaves; photograph Adam’s meeting with the Brigade at the warehouse from Sonya’s window: the handshake, the stairs, the window; they find his earpiece and take him to the roof: save Adam or keep the camera for 100 dollars; downstairs lockers: car keys and tape 11, a lottery ticket, 15 dollars.

The Passenger: pick up John, plot routes to payphones on his map until one works; he calls Robert; 40 dollars.

Short Circuit (dead petrol station): a bar on the fridge, cardboard, the van note; Alex with bomb plans; be his duck; nail gun, follow the ceiling cable, shoot the panel, the generator shed’s padlock; the key in the electrified board: use Alex’s magnet to steer it left without touching the edges; start the generator; shock the Tyrak supporters twice at their car; Alex is gone by morning.

Informer (a taxi without Jarod): lottery ticket, rest, “just north”.

Some Like It Hot (Super Diner): crackers, an ignition key (lockpick) and tape 12 in the back room, drinks and meat to order; the brothers rob it: take the collection tin, collect from Richard, Mona and the man in sunglasses, hand it to Mitch, then Jump on Stan.

Boom Boom Boom Boom: 6 dollars in the glovebox. Sweet Dreams (petrol station): work a shift on the pumps (fuel by litres or by price), defend the hitchhiker, Fanny’s fill-up, the sergeants take the boy; Fanny lets you go. Take Your Time: Jarod at gunpoint thinks you are Brigade; matches, light his cigarette, hot and cold: the jerrycan from the taxi boot, soak the van, ask about his daughter; he lets you go. Too Young to Die (diner): John rages at Robert for involving Alex; eat with him, rest in the truck, use the radio to talk Alex out of the bomb, then let John talk: Alex will not build the bomb. More Than Words (abandoned house): three photos (wall, drawer, upstairs floor) into the album in order car, waterfall, camping; dig under the tree for two rings, lay them on the album. Living La Vida Loca and Come Out and Play (abandoned diner): generator behind the bin, cable, jerrycan from the toilet, hose from the table, siphon the car, fuel, switch, kitchen light, pick the back room (it locks behind you). Jump Around (oil derricks): drink and 6 dollars in the car, 45 in the coded hut. Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now (the brothers’ bike): 20 dollars, the bag of Petrian money, throw bundles at the police, a lottery ticket in the bag. You’re the Inspiration (drunk Sonya): Lola, shoot the coloured spheres. View to a Kill (sidecar): lean with A and D, overtake, catch the taxi; “skinny guy in a hat”: the killer’s face is known. Gold Finger: Alex’s game, 20 dollars, his parents’ photo. The Pursuit of Happiness (John’s truck): drink, the wallet photo, John asks Mama Bear out; robbers: nail gun in the trailer, shoot the padlock, shoot them off.

Road 96: the border

Each episode ends at the pass: reach the cave (random transport), tag the rock, add or topple a cairn stone, rest in the side cave, leave money under the stone, then Gary at the road offers a route. Truck (needs 3 energy): force into a truck, hide behind the crates, hold still for the motion sensor and the dog, drop through the hatch when the torch comes, hold the left button twenty seconds for the breath scanner. Recruitment: at the checkpoint take the exam: your number from the screen; eldest child 1; abroad 5 years; child then 6; Brigade, what brigade; underground radio, yes; the attack, 9 September 1986; Sonya Sanchez, TV host; the great president, Tyrak; skill, radio repair; favourite, patrolling with young patriots; truthful, yes. Tunnels: down the path right of Gary, through the camp, break into the tunnel, torch from the crate, the vent, the family, either fork, pick the door, run when the alarm starts. Zoe (3 energy): a different approach: she leads you past the waterfall, you both tag the rock, the cairn, the cave notebook and matches, three logs for the fire; she leaves; move the boulder, take the player, find her buying a player, the camp tent, tune to 191.1 for the Brigade signal: a truck hits the wall at three; under the wire, the locked door, down the ladder for the switch, up, run, the white door and its ten-second alarm, jump into the tunnel; shots, Zoe falls; crossing means you did not save her. Mountain pass (6 energy): walk the only path, rest under the rock, cross. Smuggler (90 dollars): the camp leader, 50 dollars, 10 for the other teen, the guard wants 25 more, say you have none, follow the teen over the wall. Sonya: watch Sonya remember Lola, Jarod overhear, the brothers attack him, then talk to Gary and choose a crossing. Election Day: arrested at the cave; Max in the cell; tear down Tyrak’s posters, rest; the transport is overturned by the demonstrators; John leads you to Alex and the bomb: ask what code Robert would use, John says 6682, Alex’s birthday, the code of their first bomb; then Join the fight for the good ending.