The Game Read Free Page A

sweeps
his arm dramatically. “Is going to bring them back.”
    Paul follows Singleton to the back of the game.
Affixed to the stage is a metal cabinet with computer monitor and
keyboard. Singleton pushes a power button below the monitor. The
screen flares to life and the word upload flashes across the
top. He pushes enter and a long menu appears. Paul looks over the
other man's shoulder and reads down the list.
    “ Oohh...Choose the space
scenario!”
    “ Okay.” Singleton scrolls to the
bottom of the list, hovers the cursor over the selection, and then
presses the enter key again.
    Loading flashes across the monitor. The
whole sphere lights up and the same word, projected in bright red
letters, scrolls around its surface.
    “ This’ll take about five minutes,”
Singleton says as a quiet hum fills the room. He walks around the
sphere, admiring his creation. Paul trails a few steps behind
him—fairly certain the same look of awe is on his face.
    A large bay door separates this room from
another, larger room. As they walk by, Paul glances into the other
room. “Hey,” he says. “You've got another one in there.” It’s dark,
but he can tell that the two machines are very similar. However,
the one in the other room looks twice as large.
    “ Yes, that one's still in its
experimental stage. We still have a few bugs to work
out.”
    Singleton stoops to point at the hydraulic arms
under the stage and moves the conversation away from the larger
game in the other room, “These are what make this game so lifelike.
These move the cockpit in sync with the rear-video projection. This
game is pretty much a flight simulator on acid.
    “ You can do barrel rolls, loops,
engage in dogfights, just about anything a plane or spaceship can
do, you can do here.” He touches the sphere again. His hand blocks
the projection of the cameras and casts a shadow across the face of
the sphere in the shape of his hand. “Are you ready to try
it?”
    “ Am I? You bet.”
    Singleton leads him to a hidden door. The
hinges and locking mechanisms are all made of the same milky
material as the rest of the sphere. He opens it wide and Paul
doesn't hesitate—he storms in to examine the cockpit.
    “ Now, you must wear the safety
harness, this thing will throw you around.”
    Paul climbs inside and straps himself in. He
feels like he’s strapping himself into a metal cocoon. Singleton
steps up to the side, placing his hand on top of a stick rising up
between Paul’s knees. “This is the main control. Move it left, the
ship turns left. Move it right, it goes right—push it forward and
it dives—pull it toward you and it climbs. Easy enough?”
    “ Sure. I’ve played flight simulators
before.”
    “ Good,” Singleton says, then points
toward Paul’s feet. “Those pedals in the foot-well will bank the
craft—the same principle as the control stick—left foot banks
left—right banks right.”
    Paul grabs the control stick—the molded plastic
fits his hand perfectly. At the top of the handle, near his thumb,
are two buttons. There’s also a trigger at the front under his
index finger. “The button on the left is target lock. Once you lock
on, slide your thumb over and hit the other button—that launches
your missiles.”
    Rising out of the left armrest, like the letter
T, is a metal bar. He touches the polished surface. “That’s your
throttle control,” says Singleton.
    “ What are these?” Paul asks,
indicating more buttons on the console. It’s obvious what the big
red button does—it has the word START printed on it in bold, black
letters. Above it are six orange buttons.
    “ The top three are weapon selects
and the bottom three are craft modes. You can mess with those as
you play.”
    A helmet rests on top of the console—he grabs
it and slides it over his head.
    “ The helmet is more for show than
protection. A wireless receiver transmits your location in the game
and other information onto a heads up display built