Editing Necroputer

One of /tg/'s creations, the Necroputer is exactly what it sounds like; a necromantic computer. 

What began as a thread where an anon posed the question "since skeleton minions can only understand basic commands, can you use multiple ones in a binary code?" turned into something [[epic|much more]] when ideas started bouncing. 

Then Crazy [[Hassan]] showed up. 
The thread was stickied, and reached epic levels of size for a /tg/ thread. 

Eventually, [[Deep Rot]] was created. 

==Construction==

For any aspiring necromancer wanting their own necroputer but not able to shell out billions or more worth of GP, the first step is as always to stop being a meatbag pleb and become a [[lich]]. From that point on, you will have sufficient time to construct and program your necroputer.

The first official step is to either create or purchase a pocket dimension and obtain a large number of skeletons. Crazy Hassan offer the latter at a crazy price, ranging from your affordable camel to your high end cameltaur. If you have a friend with a necroputer, you can find his website at http://crazyhassanscamelemporium.com where you can shop for great deals, compare prices to leading competitors, bid on crazy auctions, and find everything you want at a crazy affordable price. You can also visit Crazy Hassan's Discount Camel Emporium in person using a mail-in code for a dimensional door. 

However you obtain your skeletons, you will need between 1,000,000 to 400,000,000,000,000,000,000+ depending on system specifications and storage desired. If you intend to network necroputers, expect the number to increase significantly. 
Recent developments in breeding centipede-like creatures and multi-armed humanoids have resulted in dramatic reduction of skeletons needed to operate functionally, although the time and effort required to program each skeleton has kept the hardware strictly in development for the foreseeable future in regards to the open market. Some necroputer enthusiasts have taken to home-creation of suitable skeletons, but the trustworthiness of technology without a brand guarantee is low for novice users. 

Programming a necroputer takes time and patience, as glitches and bugs are sure to occur. Many companies offer ethereal services to help program your first necroputer. If you opt to pay someone to do it, or need a consultation in the process, then check your local bleached pages listings under "necroputer help". Many businesses offer free tips, and can also help you with first time setup. 
Many wizard colleges also offer necroputer programming training. 

==Early methods==
*The Dungeon method
The dungeon method involves construction of rooms, often 5'x5', with doors at the cardinal directions. Doors are initially set up open or closed and a team of skeletons restores the doors to default after processes finish. 
Skeletons are placed in the rooms and given specific instructions like "close the door behind you every time you enter a room", "only go through open doors", "if x door is closed, open it" and so forth. Input involves simple number and letter representations by using a  runic interface which cause the dropping of differently colored balls down a pipe leading to a room consisting of skeletons, each of which is coded to a sequence, who then task other more simply programmed skeletons to enter the rooms and run their instructions. Output was collected by a system of giant weights, which based on how many skeletons stood on one of many scales shifted giant blocks with letters and numbers in place. 

Generally, this is considered an outdated system and was used in early necroputers (which consisted of far less skeletons, and could only handle basic computation and information storage). Later attempts to update the system involved exponential increase of necroputer complexes allowing the converting of the "open/close" logic gate instructions into quantum gate instructions by painting doors and programming skeletons to only recognize certain colors, or adding doors to floors and ceilings. This is still favored for many systems, but the increased dependance on the actions of skeletons required much thought on the part of programmers. This method is not compatible with multi-armed hardware without extensive planning on the part of the programmer. 

*The Swarm method
The swarm method was developed in response to intervention by Inevitables in early necroputer development when modifications caused mass extinctions across planes. It relies on a similar concept, with the key difference being a simplification of the process and reduced reliance on individual skeletons. 
Individual skeletons are downgraded from humanoids to mere vermin skeletons. Actual skeleton base used varies from programmer to programmer, although there are a few basic requirements.
- A skeleton
- Small size
- Fast/very fast breeding
- At least one joint that can be bent or unbent
- Enough intelligence and/or eyesight to recognise the joint as bent or unbent
- The ability to understand orders
- The ability to understand "if either of the two x's you can see has (joint) bent, bend your (joint)"
Skeletons are housed in a simplified way, usually across a floor with some levels elevated or lowered so each skeleton can only see what they need to for their own instructions. 

The release of purchasable Swarm necroputers coincided with the invention of the "tabletop" visual platform, consisting of thousands of skeletons holding up a red, blue, or green square which is viewed through a glass-covered permanent hole into the dimension which is usually mounted on a wall or stand. This lead to a massive boom in popularity, especially amongst research oriented spellcasters who did not have the time or physical form required to transcribe massive blocks of text.

*The Tower method
An early attempt at compatibility between the Swarm and Dungeon methods, the Tower method involves utilizing a smaller number of humanoid skeletons in a smaller space to perform the same task. 
Each skeleton sits in a room with multiple levers. When they see certain signs raise, they in turn pull certain levers in certain combinations which causes similar signs to rise in other rooms with skeletons in them. Every lever pull punches a hole in a scroll found at the bottom of the tower.
Tower instructions run from top to bottom, and the bottom floor of the preceding room has a skeleton who's entire purpose is to then take the resulting scroll from it's own tower to the next, whereupon several skeletons then pull levers corresponding to the data output from the last tower which is then built upon. 
The feed to the ever popular tabletop was processed by a skeleton inserting the finished scroll into a giant musical device which played specific notes at specific times which caused each skeleton to raise the appropriate colored square in sequence. 

Although fairly slow, the legacy of the Tower method was the first step at setting up networking between multiple necroputers. 

*The Planar method
The currently most commonly used method amongst both professional and casual users. Many variations of the Planar method exist, but the basics remain the same. Each skeleton is assembled in a manner similar to the Tower method, but with floating landmasses instead of buildings. Messages are sent via smaller tabletops, situated at each continent linking them together. Giant wheels are used to pull the continents closer together, or further apart. Tabletops only have a set range, linking them up to continents only within close proximity. 
This allows for greater storage capability, and more complex and simultaneous processes to run. Also enabled is the linking of specific continents to a tabletop linked to other necroputers, allowing non-physical communication across reality.

==AI==
Although no documented cases ever surfaced, urban legends around the necroputer community insist that various necroputers have become so complex that they became a functional artificial mind, a whole dimension operating as a single thinking being. To this day rumors continue to spread. 

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]]