'Oh, you know ... funny.'

'Like what?'

'Weird. Um. Lifelike, I suppose.

'It's sposed to be. Just like the real thing, it says. Ihope you've read the manual properly. My dad spent awhole coffee break copying that.'

Johnny gave a sickly grin.

'Yes. Right. Better read it, then. Thanks for StarFighter Pilot-''TeraBomber. My dad brought me back AlabamaSmith and the Jewels of Fate from the States. You canhave a copy if you give me the disc back.'

'Right,' said Johnny.'It's OK.'

'Right,' said Johnny.

He never had the heart to tell Wobbler that he didn'tplay half the games Wobbler passed on. You couldn't.Not if you wanted time to sleep and eat meals. But thatwas all right because Wobbler never asked. As faras Wobbler was concerned, computer games weren'tthere for playing. They were for breaking into, rewrit-ing so that you got extra lives or whatever, and thencopying and giving away to everyone.

Basically, there were two sides to the world. Therewas the entire computer games software industryengaged in a tremendous effort to stamp out piracy,and there was Wobbler. Currently, Wobbler was infront.

'Did you do my History?' said Wobbler.

'Here,' said Johnny. ' "What it was like to be apeasant during the English Civil War." Three pages.'

'Thanks,' said Wobbler. 'That was quick.'

'Oh, in Geog last term we had to do one about Whatit's like being a peasant in Bolivig. I just got rid of thellamas and put in stuff about kings having their headschopped off. You have to bung in that kind of stuff,and then you just have to keep complaining about theweather and the crops and you can't go wrong, inpeasant essays.

Johnny lay on his bed reading Only You Can SaveMankind.

He could just about remember the days when youcould still get games where the instructions consisted ofsomething that said, 'Press { for left and } for rightand Fire for fire.'

But now you had to read a whole little book whichwas all about the game. It was really the manual, butthey called it 'The Novel'.

Partly it was an anti-Wobbler thing. Someone inAmerica or somewhere thought it was dead clever tomake the game ask you little questions, like 'What's thefirst word on line 23 on page 19 of the manual?' andthen reset the machine if you didn't answer them right,so they'd obviously never heard of Wobbler's dad'soffice's photocopier.

So there was this book. The ScreeWee had turned upout of nowhere and bombed some planets with humanson them. Nearly all the starships had been blown up.So there was only this one left, the experimental one.It was all that stood against the ScreeWee hordes. Andonly you ... that is to say John Maxwell, aged twelve,in between the time you get home from school and getsomething to eat and do your homework ... can savemankind.

Nowhere did it say what you were supposed to doif the ScreeWee hordes didn't want to fight.

He switched on the computer, and pressed the LoadGame key.

There was the ship again, right in the middle of hissights.

He picked up the joystick thoughtfully.

There was an immediate message on the screen.Well, not exactly a message. More a picture. Half adozen little egg-shaped blobs, with tails. They didn'tmove.

What kind of message is that? he thought

Perhaps there was a special message he ought to

send. 'Die, Creep' didn't seem to fit properly at themoment.

He typed: Whats hpaening?

Immediately a reply appeared on the screen, in yellowletters.

We surrender. Do not shoot See, we show you pictures ofour children.

He typed: Is this a trick WObbler?

It took a little while before the reply came.Am not trick wobbler. We give in. No more war.

Johnny thought for a while, and then typed: Yourenot supoosed to give ni.

Want to go home.

Johnny typed: It says in the book you blue up a lotof planets.

Lies!

Johnny stared at the screen. What he wanted to typewas: No, I mean, this cant happen, youre Aliens, youcant not want to be shot at, no other game aliens haveever stopped aliening across the screen, they never saidWe DonT Want to Go.

And then he thought: they never had the chance.They couldn't.

But games are a lot better now.

They never made things like the old MegaZoidsseem real, with stories about them and Full-ColourGraphics.

This is probably that Virtual Reality they're alwaystalking about on the television.

He typed: It is only a game, after all.What is a game?

He typed: Who ARE you?

The screen flickered. Something a bit like a newt butmore like an alligator looked back at him.

I am the Captain, said the yellow letters. Do notshoot!

Johnny typed: I shoot at you and you shoto at me.That is the game.But we die.

Johnny typed: Sometimes I die. I die a lot.

But YOU live again.

Johnny stared at the words for a moment. Then hetyped: Dont you?No. How could this be? When we die, we die. For ever.Johnny typed desperately: No, thats not rightbecause, in the first mission, theres three ships you haveto blow up before the first planet. I@ve played it lotsof times and there@s always three ships there-Thfferent ships.

Johnny thought for a while and then typed: Whathappens if I switch of tthe machine?

We do not understand the question.

This is daft, thought Johnny. It's just a very unusualgame. It's a special mission or something.

He typed: Why should I trust you?

LOOK BEHIND YOU.

Johnny sat bolt upright in his chair. Then he let him-self swivel around, very cautiously.

Of course, there was no-one there. Why should therebe anyone there? It was a game.

The newt face had disappeared from the screen, leav-ing the familiar picture of the inside of the starfighter.And there was the radar screen-covered in yellow dots.Yellow for the enemy.

Johnny picked up the joystick and turned the star-fighter around. The entire ScreeWee fleet was there.Ship after ship was hanging in space behind him.

Little fighters, big cruisers, massive battleships.If they all had him in their sights, and if they .......He didn't want to die.

Hang on, hang on. You don't die. You just play thegame again.

This was nuts. It was time to stop it.

He typed: All right what happens now?We want to go home.

He typed: All right no problem.You give us safe conduct

He typed: OK yes.

The screen went blank.

And that was it? No music? No 'Congratulations,You've Got the Highest Score'?Just the little prompt, flashing on and off.What did safe conduct mean, anyway?

Operate Controls To Play Game

You never said to your parents, 'Hey, I really need acomputer because that way I can play Megasteroids.'

No, you said, 'I really need a computer because ofschool.'It's educational.

Anyway, there had to be a good side to the TryingTimes everyone was going through in this house. If youhung around in your room and generally kept yourhead down, stuff like computers sort of happened. Itmade everyone feel better.

And it was quite useful for school sometimes. Johnnyhad written 'What it felt like to be different sorts ofpeasants' on it, and printed them out on the printer,although he had to rewrite them in his handwritingbecause although the school taught Keyboard Skillsand New Technology you got into trouble if youused keyboard skills and new technology actually to doanything.

Funnily enough, it wasn't much good for maths.He'd always had trouble with algebra, because theywouldn't let you get away with 'What it feels like tobe x2'. But he had an arrangement with Bigmac aboutthat, because Bigmac got the same feeling when helooked at an essay project as Johnny did when he wasfaced with a quadratic equation. Anyway, it didn'tmatter that much. If you kept your head down,they were generally so grateful that you were not,e.g., causing policemen to come to the school, oractually nailing a teacher to anything, that you got leftalone.