The world of Simulation – 1989 is centered on a complex, decaying, and forgotten simulated reality that masquerades as a normal human existence in the late 1980s. Its mythology is one of cyclical destruction, manipulation, and the desperate struggle for true escape.
The simulation is a self contained digital environment where the characters, known as simulants, believe they are living genuine lives. The universe operates under several unique digital laws:
A World of Placeholders: The reality is highly unstable and incomplete. Many complex concepts or systems that should exist in a functioning modern society, such as nuclear bombs, delivery services, or even a centralized power grid are merely Placeholders. They are populated by the computer to maintain the illusion of a normal world but lack genuine, physical existence or function within the system.
The Archive (The Past): This is a literal, accessible place within the simulation. It functions as a record of all events that have already transpired. A gifted simulant can enter the archive to hide or seek refuge, but while inside, they are locked out of the present and cannot alter anything that has already happened, ensuring a fixed history.
The Anomaly: When a character returns from the archive to the ‘present’ moment of the simulation, their re-entry causes a detectable digital signature. This is a key event that marks a shift in the system and can be sensed by the outsider.
Digital Construction: The world is fundamentally malleable for certain individuals. The main character, Franco (The Digitally Gifted), holds the unique power to create and build within the simulation due to his origin in an older system. This ability makes him a key target for manipulation by those who want to destroy the world.
The history of the simulation is defined by a catastrophic event and a looming threat, creating a mythology of a broken world:
The Glitch: This is the foundational myth of the simulation’s modern era. It was a massive, system wide failure that reset time back to 1988, trapping all simulants in a cycle where the same day repeated for years. The memory of this time loop is a shared trauma for the characters.
The Fix and the Population Loss: The glitch was eventually ‘fixed,’ allowing the timeline to progress into 1989. However, the fix came at a terrible cost.
The Outsider’s Purpose: The primary force of chaos and destruction is the Outsider (Chuck). He was engineered from the digital patterns of Franco, essentially a corrupted copy created as a “soldier to make the simulation end.” The outsider’s very existence is a prophecy of the simulation’s destruction.
Despite the threats, the core hope for the simulants is achieving escape, which is structured into two conflicting goals:
Waking Up: Early in the story, the character Cass expresses the desire to “get our life back,” believing that destroying the current environment might serve as a ‘reset’ or an action that will wake them up in the real world.
The Live Exit: A group of sympathetic simulants works toward a unified and public escape. Their goal is the Live Exit, a planned, televised mass release of the remaining simulants from the simulation, intended to grant them safe passage to an external, real existence.
