#106 Attack Of The Video Villains (30th Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: February 1991
Publisher: Minstrel Books (1991-2000?). No digital edition.
Author: Christopher Lampton
Other Hardy's by Author:

Plot: Joe's a semi-finalist at the world championship for the video game, Hack Attack, in New York City.  Also in the competition is a thief who's stealing video game carts from the other contestants and guests.  Can Joe and Frank catch the thief, or will it be GAME OVER for the Hardy's?

Review:  I remember seeing this in a used book store around 1994, and unfortunately I didn't have enough money for it then and the next time I went it was gone.  So the next Christmas I had the local new bookstore order it in and I bought it with Christmas money.  For a kid growing up in the 90's, the cover really grabbed my attention with Joe playing the game on the screen and the thief pocketing a game cartridge.  Plus the games graphics looked like something from the NES/SNES/Sega Genesis systems!  And then inside, the author was clearly inspired by the late-80's/early-90's videogame war between Nintendo and Sega.

A little over two years after this book was released Frank would be in a virtual championship in Las Vegas in the Casefile Final Gambit, then 15 years later a Zbox would show up in the Undercover Brothers series.

[MacGyver]

Having grown up in the '80s and '90s with the Nintendo Entertainment System and the video games of that era, I definitely enjoy books like this that tap into that community.

[tomswift2002]

On page 54, one of the characters gives a history lesson on video games, and says that Videomundo saved the home video game market in the mid-1980's.  So the author seemed to be using the fictional Videomundo for Nintendo, while Omega was a stand in for Sega.

[MacGyver]

Oh wow! Yeah, I think you're right on that. Neat!