MURDER IN THE ARCADE
Rex Halloway is dead on his own arcade floor. Eight regulars, nine rooms, ten weapons, and the clock runs out at 06:00.
AUTHENTIC
DETECTIVE
WORK
Warning
Please read this booklet before you play. It explains how to run a case, what each clue means, and who everyone is. Keep it somewhere safe for later.
This game is played in landscape on a phone. Hold it sideways. Pass it gently. Detectives who throw the phone at the culprit forfeit their badges.
Anti-piracy notice. Only detectives who have read this booklet may question witnesses at The Neon Vault. Copying the case file, peeking at another detective's hand, or reading the hint book before the third turn is a crime against Rex's memory.
The Dame speaks out loud to the whole table. She never says card names or positions, so nothing private leaks from the speaker.
Like the copy-protection screens of old, this check asks about things printed in this booklet. Use the arrows below to find the page, then come back. Three right answers prove your copy is genuine.
Contents
Midnight at The Neon Vault
The cabinets are still humming. The token machines are still lit. And Rex Halloway, owner of The Neon Vault, lies still in a room nobody will name yet.
The coroner puts the time of death somewhere between 22:45 and 23:30. Every regular who was in the building tonight is a suspect, and nobody leaves until somebody knows who did it, with what, and where.
You are the detectives. Each of you plays one of the regulars. The ones nobody picks stay on the floor as witnesses, wandering the arcade with a story to tell. One of the people in play is the killer. Maybe a witness. Maybe a detective. Maybe the character in your own hand.
Your narrator. She announces every turn, reads out suggestions, scolds wrong accusations and calls dawn. She is built into the game: no AI, no server deciding anything. Same case code, same story, every time.
Your goal
Be the first detective to name the right suspect, weapon and room before 06:00, when the police arrive and the case closes without you.
Getting started
Open mystery.pathofphi.com and turn the phone sideways. There are two ways to play.
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Pass-and-play | One phone for the whole table. Between turns the phone shows a lock screen with the clock and the notifications the next detective missed. Private ones read “Unlock to view”. Hand the phone over, then unlock. |
| Play online | Create a room gives a 4-letter code and an invite link. Everyone opens it on their own phone, picks a character, and the host starts. Each phone sees only its own hand, fog and notices. No lock screens. |
The case code
Every case grows from a code like NEON-K7MX. The same code with the same table gives the same killer, weapon, room, timeline, testimony and deal. Share a code with another group to play the identical mystery.
Pick your detectives
Each player chooses one of the eight regulars. Two players minimum, eight maximum. The size of the case grows with the table:
| Players | Suspects | Weapons | Rooms | Cards each |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 5 |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 4 |
| 4–5 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 3 |
| 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 3 |
| 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 3 |
| 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 2 |
Online rooms remember each phone's seat. Reload or come back days later and you rejoin the same seat. A room expires after 14 idle days.
Controls
- Tap a spot
- Preview a move. Lit tiles show where you can go and the path you'll take.
- Tap again / Go
- Confirm the move.
- Pinch · drag
- Zoom and pan the board.
- Rail buttons
- Open a chest, question, suggest, listen from cover, accuse, end turn. A button only lights when that action is possible.
- Notebook
- Every card you have seen, where you saw it, and every clue: testimony, tapes, CCTV, power log.
- Notifications
- Phone-style pop-ups: Sighting, Witness, VHS, Lock, Cover, Overheard, Accusation.
- ?
- In-game rules sheet.
- Voice on/off
- Mutes the Dame. Remembered per phone. Sound starts on your first tap.
Your turn: 3 actions
Every turn you get 3 actions. Spend them in any order. The clock moves 20 minutes after each full round.
| Action | Cost | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Move | 1 | Blue: anywhere in your room or a neighbouring room. |
| Move far | 2 | Gold: two rooms away. You never stop in a doorway. |
| Open a chest | 1 | Each try at its puzzle lock costs 1. Opening gives the chest's cards and the room's VHS tape. |
| Question | 1 | Ask a witness standing next to you where they were. You can keep acting after. |
| Suggest | 1 | Once a turn, in the room you're in. Name a suspect and a weapon. |
| Listen from cover | all | From a shield spot. Ends your turn. |
| Accuse | 0 | Free, any time on your turn. |
Suggesting
Name a suspect and a weapon; the room is the one you're standing in. Going round the table, the first player who holds any of those cards must show you one, privately. If nobody can, the Dame says so out loud, and that silence is a clue too.
Line of sight
You only see what your character can see. Walls block sight; open doors don't. Witnesses you spot trigger a Sighting notice.
The Neon Vault
A
A
B
B
Nine rooms in a three-by-three grid. Doors join each room to the rooms beside it. Pink pads in the far corners are secret passages, joining the diagonal corners the way a classic murder board does:
- A · Token Booth ↔ Retro Vault
- B · Fighting Game Row ↔ Back Office
Room grid
Doors run between neighbours left-right and up-down, except along the bottom row: Back Office, the Fuse Closet and the Retro Vault each open only upward. A passage counts as one step, so a corner-to-corner trip is a 1-action blue move.
Clues & evidence
VHS tapes
Every room has a camera that recorded the moment of death. Open a room's chest to play its tape. A clean tape clears that room, anyone on camera and any item in shot. Two tapes are static: the murder room's, and one chewed by a power surge. They look identical.
Power log
Inside the Fuse & Server Closet chest. It names the room whose VCR the surge hit. That static means nothing.
CCTV
Inside the Back Office chest: one clip from one room at the time of death, with everyone on screen. It never films the murder.
Witnesses
Regulars nobody picked roam the floor. Question one next to you and they tell you where they were, and with whom, at two moments. Innocent witnesses always tell the truth. The killer, if a witness, lies.
Chests
Leftover cards nobody was dealt are hidden in room chests. Find them and you can cross them off.
Shield marks sit beside furniture. Listen from cover and, until your next turn, you see the card shown for any suggestion made in that room. The two players involved learn that someone was listening, but not who.
The tapes never solve the case on their own: at least two suspects and two weapons always stay off camera.
The nine puzzle locks
Every chest is locked. Each try costs 1 action. Miss twice in the same room and the Dame gives you a hint. Your case code seeds every puzzle, so the same code gives the same locks.
| Room · Lock | The job | |
|---|---|---|
| Token Booth Change log | Find the row where opening + in − out ≠ closing. | |
| Pinball Alley Bumper route | Pick the launch lane that drops the ball in the lit hole. | |
| Fighting Game Row High-score cipher | Turn the dial until the scoreboard reads true. | |
| Claw Machine Corner Claw drop | Two prize tags name a column and a row. Drop there. | |
| Prize Counter Ticket ledger | A receipt line was torn off. Name the prize from the total. | |
| Snack Bar Receipt order | Put four receipts in the order they were bought. | |
| Back Office CCTV scrub | Pick the one frame of six that fits the clue. | |
| Fuse & Server Closet Fuse logic | Flip switches (each flips its neighbours) to match the target. | |
| Retro Vault Meta safe | Three digits, each from a lock solved in another room. |
Accusing
When you're sure, accuse: name a suspect, a weapon and a room. It's free and you can do it any time on your turn, from anywhere.
You win. The Dame closes the case and reveals the full story.
Every detective carries 2 badges. A wrong accusation costs one badge and your next turn. Lose both and you're out. You still show cards when someone suggests, so the table keeps your information.
The clock
The case opens at 00:00. Each full round adds 20 minutes. At 06:00, after 18 rounds, the police arrive. If nobody has solved it by then, the Dame reveals the answer and nobody wins. The same happens if every detective is out.
| Round | Clock | Feels like |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 00:00 | Fan out. Open chests. |
| 7 | 02:00 | Tapes and testimony narrow it. |
| 13 | 04:00 | Someone should be accusing. |
| 18 | 05:40 | Last call. |
Who everyone is
Rex Halloway, owner of The Neon Vault. He knew everyone's business, because most of it was his business: the rent, the side bets, the scores, the money. He never made it to closing.
Trench coat, monocle, opinions. She runs the table: names whose turn it is, reads every suggestion aloud, tells you when nobody could refute, and delivers the verdict at dawn. Miss a lock twice and she'll take pity on you.
Motives on the street
Any regular might be the killer, and the motive changes with every case. The ones the Dame has heard about:
- owed Rex a fortune in back rent and side bets
- had a world-record score Rex was about to expose as rigged
- stood to collect on a quiet insurance policy
- wanted the prototype cabinet locked in the Retro Vault
- was skimming the token machines and had just been caught
- had been promised half the arcade, then cut out of the deal
The eight regulars
Play as any of them. The rest are witnesses on the floor. Any of them, including yours, can be the killer.
Owns the top line of every scoreboard in the building. Always holds the top score, which is exactly what makes a cipher about it crackable.
Goggles up, wrench out. Knows which cabinets are open, which fuses blow, and how to get into any machine in the place.
Counts every ticket in and every plush out. If the ledger is short, Dot noticed first.
Monocle, suit, competing business across town. Came to look around. Says he's just a customer.
Headset on, chat scrolling. Streams everything, so the alibi is either perfect or edited.
Has a key to every door and a mop for every mess. Sees everyone. Nobody sees her.
Clipboard, moustache, overdue notices. Owns the building Rex rented, and was counting on the rent.
Put money into The Neon Vault and expected it back with interest. Gold earrings, gold tokens, cold eyes.
The ten weapons
Small tables play with five of these, the full table with eight. The Dame tells you which are in play.
Hint book
Hint book: the locks
Change log
- Playtest fixes from a three-player table.
- Smaller cases for small tables (5 suspects, 5 weapons at 2–3 players).
- A puzzle lock on every chest; the Dame hints after two misses.
- A VHS tape in every room; Fuse Closet power log names the surge room.
- 3 actions per turn; questioning costs 1 action, no longer the whole turn.
- Room-to-room movement: blue 1 action, gold 2.
- Wrong accusations cost a badge and a turn; two and you're out.
- Secret passages join the diagonal corners only (Claw ↔ Fuse Closet passage removed).
- How-it-ends and the Dame on the start screen, clearer resume labels.
- Footer with version, changelog, help and what the game stores; in-game help.
- Narrator room phrasing. Deployed to mystery.pathofphi.com.
- Online rooms: room codes, one phone per player, server-checked turns, rejoin from the same device.
- The Dame's voice: 69 clips, voice on/off.
- Cover and listening; Claw Machine Corner passage; dash and rotate fixes.
- Landscape board with zoom, XCOM-style moves, line of sight and fog of war.
- Phone-style notifications; 00:00–06:00 clock.
Co-op Escape and Saboteur modes.
Detective's notes
Murder in the Arcade runs on your phone with no AI and no server deciding the story: every case comes from its code. Pass-and-play saves to this phone only. Online rooms keep the game on the server and send each phone only its own view.
No regulars were harmed in the making of this booklet. Rex was harmed, but that's the premise.