I think when a lot of people think of World War II, they think of the big moments that sound important to talk about: Bombing Japan, Invading Poland, the Blitz, France and Italy being liberated, and maybe if someone is a bit more of a history buff, Dunkirk. Pieces of history you can easily visualize as war, and in some cases, the moments of allied victory. One aspect that isn’t spoken about nearly as much is Bletchley Park, unless you watch the film about Sherlock being gay, which doesn’t show the actual impact on his life from it. Hint: I’m talking about Nazi Germany’s Enigma Machine.

It seems that the people at Inkle Ltd, the developer behind 80 Days, Heaven’s Vault, A Highland Song, and a few others, is set to release another interesting narrative title, TR-49, set around a World War II computer created at Bletchley Park. The funny thing is, if Chumbawamba is right and “the Nazis never really went away,” we don’t need to worry about codebreaking their lines of communication – just check Grindr. Snide remarks aside, TR-49 is extremely interesting as a concept. Here is what the press release had to say about the game:

“A voice is saying your name. A WWII-era machine, long hidden in a church basement, whirs to life. Through a crackling speaker, a man asks you to find a stolen book. He only knows the title. Time is running out. The machine, created by Bletchley Park engineers Cecil Caulderly and Beatrice Dooler, contains a vast archive of obscure books, letters, and journals fed in over the span of fifty years in an attempt to crack the code of reality. As their lives fell apart, the machine kept working.” I’d imagine that Cecil Caulderly is a play on Cecil George, and Dooler is probably a play on the many Beatrices there, as Bletchley was about 75% women.

Continuing on with the description, in TR-49, you’ll “Navigate the computer’s archive. Link its obscure texts and uncover its creators’ secrets. Communicate with the man behind the speaker to figure out your role in this mystery. Destroy the book at the core of the machine — before it’s too late.” Best of all? You don’t need to wait too long to play it either.

As announced last week, and emails went out today, TR-49 is set to release on January 21st for PC via Steam and on iOS. No note of price just yet, but we do know the voice cast of Paul Warren from A Highland Song, Rebekah McLoughlin (Eternal Threads) and Philipe Bosher (Big Finish Doctor Who, and Baldur’s Gate 3). Though if we’re talking extra details, it is worth mentioning the inspirations for TR-49: “TR-49 takes inspiration from narrative deduction games like The Roottrees are Dead, The Return of the Obra Dinn, Type Help, and Her Story, and from audio dramas like The Magnus Archives and ars PARADOXICA.”

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