Lucky Wander Boy

Hello Kitty writes "As far back as 1981, the videogame industry was pulling in more than Hollywood and Vegas combined; that year it raked in $5 billion, and for the most part did so one quarter at a time. So why haven't the arcade games so formative to geek youth (okay, geek 30somethings, young in the glory days of arcade play) gotten their due from the rest of popular culture? Lucky Wander Boy, DB Weiss' debut novel, is a step toward correcting that oversight. It's also a meditation on the bardo (the Buddhist notion of that which lies between the moment of death and the afterlife), on the excesses of the late dot-com era, and on where Pac-Man went in that split-second between disappearing on one side of the screen and reappearing on the other. And oh, yeah, it has a lead character screwed up just like your hysterical older relatives thought you would be if you didn't quit playing those nasty computer games. Bust out the rasterized graphics and Atari cartridges -- it's a party." Hello Kitty's review continues below. Lucky Wander Boy author DB Weiss pages 272 publisher Plume rating 9 reviewer Hello Kitty ISBN 0452283949 summary the Big Videogame Chill

It's the mid-90s and Adam Pennyman's got no particular place to go, so he finds himself in a Los Angeles apartment with a cranky soon-to-be-ex girlfriend and a copy of MAME, everyone's favorite game emulator. His collection grows until he feels compelled to document it, or his life as realized through his gaming, in an unpublishable text called the Catalogue of Obscure Entertainments.

Unimpressed, his girlfriend starts edging out of his life just as a chance meeting with a former friend lands Adam a copywriting gig at Portal Entertainment, a dot-com ostensibly in the process of turning various videogame properties into movies. (The real business, of course, involves turning smoke and mirrors into venture cap; alumni of, oh, D*N or El*ctr*m*dia are encouraged to up the dosage of whatever they're taking to quell the flashbacks during the passages describing Portal's office culture.)

But Portal puts Adam within reach of the gamer's Grail: Lucky Wander Boy, a rare and bizarre game created by the reclusive Araki Itachi. Lucky Wander Boy was years ahead of its time, and so intricately coded that no one, no one, ever reached third level. Or have they? Adam nearly did once, long ago, and has been haunted ever since by a memory of gameplay that just couldn't have truly happened... could it? Adam will go far to find out. Very far indeed.

I love me some metaphysical conceits in my fiction, so strictly for the description of the Lucky Wander Boy game I'd rate this book highly. (It doesn't exist. It couldn't exist. I want it to exist. Dammit.) The author's done a fine job capturing a certain kind of thinking that occurs when smart people start reading deeper meaning into their obsessions.

Adam's ruminations on many of the classics (Pac-Man, Microsurgeon, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., et al.) ring player-true -- which is why it's so glorious and scary when he goes off the rails with you right beside him. If you played in the days when primitive graphics and freshly-minuted archetypes made gameplay somehow even more addictive, this book will cause howls of recognition. Best of all, it's well-written and for the most part affectionate to the subculture; be glad this quasi-historical novel was written by the promising Weiss and not by that maiden aunt of yours who wouldn't let you have any more quarters.

You can purchase Lucky Wander Boy from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Does it detail the part...

[The Beezer]

where Lucky Wander Boy becomes the 43rd President of the United States?

Implausible

[tmark]

so he finds himself in a Los Angeles apartment with a cranky soon-to-be-ex girlfriend and a copy of MAME,

Right here is where the story would lose me. It is nigh impossible that some nerd with MAME whose mission is to seek out this one mythical video game is going to have a girlfriend in the first place.

If it were a movie I'd be screaming at the screen.

Can't read

[l33t j03]

It would take time away from gaming.

Lucky Wander Boy

[larien]

Does it include his arch-nemesis, Nastyman?

Lucky Wander Boy == Buddy Lee!

[embedded_C]

Anyone else think the Lucky Wander Boy looks a little like Buddy Lee?

Let me guess

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone that makes it to the third level gets a visit from Robert Preston.

Pacman? That's easy...

[Anonymous Coward]

"and on where Pac-Man went in that split-second between disappearing on one side of the screen and reappearing on the other"

There was a urinal just off-screen. You wouldn't think he'd drop his load in front of a crowd of teenagers, 4 ghosts and a bunch of cherries do you?

I can prove you're wrong.

[solarrhino]

It is nigh impossible that some nerd with MAME [...] is going to have a girlfriend in the first place

Behold! I give you CmdrTaco!

Title Rhythm

[Iridar]

I'm sorry, but every time I see this title I think "Happy Fun Ball" for some reason.

Do NOT taunt happy fun ball...

Amazon's "Also shopped for list"

[pbemfun]

Since this book is about geeks and games, I think its kinda appropriate that Amazon's "Customers who shopped for this item also shopped for" list contains: The Definitive Book of Pick-Up Lines. :)

Re:Stop Whining

[Shalda]

Let's not forget movies based on Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy, Wing Commander, Tomb Raider, Double Dragon, and so many others. No, on second thought, let's please try to forget all of them.

Re:Stop Whining

[Luveno]

Am I the only one who saw Tron?

Homer: "I'm in a place I've never been before!"
Marge: "What does it look like?"
Homer: "Did you ever see the movie Tron?"
Marge: "No."
Apu: "No."
Doctor Hibbert: "No."
Otto: "No."
Dr. Frink: "No."
Chief Wiggam: "Yes.... I mean no."

You got the subject wrong...

[wikthemighty]

...I think you meant to say non-fucking geek steroetypes.

Either that or you're thinking of a different one than I am.

Not surprising

[Powercntrl]

Yet, I've dated a lot, had a lot of girlfriends, and don't understand this geek steroetype BECAUSE NO ONE I HAVE MET HAS EVER BEEN ONE.

My God man, no wonder you've never met any stereotypical geeks! There're not going to be at places you MEET people! True geeks avoid social meeting places and if you approach them at work they just mumble something about staplers until you go away and leave them to their coding.

Want to find some REAL geeks? You need to stay IN more - go on IRC, start a blog. The geeks will come.