Star Trek: The Next Generation : “The Game”. Wily alien takes over the Enterprise-D with what amounts to holographic beer pong. Videogames are addictive, kids! One of the most afterschool-special-esque episodes of TNG since the first season, and extra-ironic–if not hypocritical–because of the continued presence of the holodeck, which had the potential, if not the reality for crewmembers such as Barclay, to be way more addictive.
Comicsville from Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey comic book series. After Kirby did the official movie adaptation for Marvel, he had a short ongoing series which basically served as a science fiction anthology, with the Monolith serving as a sort of mute Rod Serling. (The last couple of issues introduced Aaron Stack, aka X-51 and Machine Man (although he was known as Mr. Machine at first), before he got his own also-brief series, which means that the Monolith is canon in the Marvel Universe.) Essentially a pro LARP/cosplaying outfit, with the protagonist, Harvey Norton, playing the superhero White Zero. (Jack Kirby: not exactly known for his subtlety.) Harvey gets majorly upset when the princess that he was supposed to rescue is played by a middle-aged woman who doesn’t meet his standards, so Kirby successfully predicted comics con assholes.
Talking of Azad, the novel Walking on Glass by Iain M Banks’ lesser-known namesake, Iain Banks, has in one of its narrative strands a series of unlikely games, such as one-dimensional chess and Chinese scrabble, being played by a pair of political prisoners. As part of their punishment they have no rule books, and have to figure out the rules of the electronically-mediated games themselves.
Does anyone remember Octopus Dare from the Demon Headmaster books?
You know, where the evil headmaster lures all the kids into playing a hypnotic game turning them into brainless slaves doing his bidding and taking over the world?
My biggest disappointment in the film was how little attention that game got. I remember when i read the book, that game made the whole story seem more real.
Periodically I think I should see that movie. Then I read things like this and I think “what else do they do for 120 minutes if they don’t include the only emotional outlet this kid has?”
Star Trek’s spawned quite a few games.
There’s Vulcan Chess in the original, which has probably been made into a real game by now, or at least a real prop/sculpture/toy that Trekkers with too much money will put on their mantelpieces.
There’s Perisius Squares, which got talked about a lot, was plainly dangerous, but I don’t know if it was ever seen in TNG and sequels.
And we shouldn’t forget the klin zha from John M. Ford’s novel The Final Reflection.
The original Realms of Gold (that they played at the computer camp) seemed to be a version of Empire with fantasy theming. The later ones seemed to be a pastiche of the Ultima series (which weirdly exists in the “You” universe). And “Solar Empires” (at least the first one) seemed to be a pastiche of Masters of Orion. I’m not sure if there was ever a spy RPG like “Clandestine”, although there have certainly been spy-themed first-person shooters like the sequels.
I just wanted to add that I have gotten You and am finding it to be just as enjoyable as Soon I Will Be Invincible both for having that same sense of compulsive readability and for general early-80s nostalgia.
Phillip K Dick used games in several stories. Amazed no one’s mentioned him.
Here are three to get you started: There’s “The Game Players of Titan”, it’s a book about gambling with aliens. "War Game"is a story where toy inspectors on Earth need to figure out if any alien import games pose a threat to Terra’s children. (one of my faves) “The Days of Perky Pat” is all about a bleak future where globothermonuclear war has left people with very little and they live vicariously by playing a role-playing game that uses dolls like Barbie and Ken. Perky Pat makes an appearance in more than one short story by Dick.
