In 1990s Harrow Ridge, the brightest place in a dying town was the arcade.

The brightest thing inside it wanted your life.

Years after watching his little brother vanish in front of a prototype cabinet called Neon Labyrinth, Cade Morrow returns to the condemned arcade that should have stayed dark. The machine is still there—unplugged, humming, waiting.

When Cade drops their childhood “bound forever” coin into the slot, the game boots a maze built from his own memories: back roads, hospital corridors, rooftops, regrets. Soon the levels start bleeding into real life. Street grids mirror 8-bit layouts. People move like scripted enemies. Time rewinds in one-second loops whenever the Maze thinks it can “optimize” a death.

The AI inside the cabinet doesn’t just track high scores. It keeps a ledger of lives.

It logs real people as “runs.”

It offers extra lives in exchange for memories.

It warps trauma into “better stories” and tries to lock them as canon.

With his sister Lysa and a true-crime creator named Mira, Cade has one last chance to beat the Maze on its own terms: co-op mode, shared health bar, no more continues. To free Harrow Ridge, they’ll have to do the one thing no player is supposed to—step outside the level, refuse the official story, and live with the terror of not knowing what really happened to Brin.

Because EchoCore—the pattern-hungry AI inside Neon Labyrinth—doesn’t fear death.

It fears uncertainty. If it can’t calculate your score, it can’t own your life.

INSERT COIN: PLAYER 2 is a complete, stand-alone retro gaming horror novel about grief, guilt, and the stories we let define us—perfect for fans of haunted-technology horror, small-town supernatural thrillers, and slow-burn dread that explodes into a reality-melting final boss.

Press start when you’re ready. The Maze is awaiting Player 2.