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.