A good friend of mine is looking for a copy of a book he read when he was a kid, and I want to help so I figured I would ask you guys and see if anyone is familiar.

From what I understand, the book is from the late 80's or early 90's, and is about a kid who gets home from school and finds a new video game sitting on his front porch. He starts the game up and gets sucked into the game. He has to beat the game to get home.

My friend described the cover art saying that it is a young man brandishing a green sword and is fighting a two headed demon. He said the boy may be on a staircase or raised dais surrounded by flames. If this rings a bell for anyone let me know. Thanks for any help.


Based on the description of the cover, I was thinking it was Killobyte by Piers Anthony. The themes (trapped in a computer game) are similar but there's no porch and no teens.

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The Seventh Crystal by Gary Paulsen

Book Cover - *The Seventh Crystal*

Each day at 3 P.M., Chris Masters faces two great challenges. First, he races home, trying to avoid the school bullies who have made a career out of beating him up. Then, once he's safely home, he takes on another opponet [sic]--a computer game called The Seventh Crystal. Soon Chris is obsessed with the game--and finds he has something much bigger than bullies to worry about.

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    Could you explain which aspects of this work fit the question description? – Adamant Aug 19 '16 at 3:15
  • The description fits exactly, down to the last detail. I can't attach an image from my phone, but if you search for the book I suggested, the cover is identical to the given description. The plot is as well. It was a favorite book of mine from childhood. – Dani Aug 19 '16 at 16:09
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    Great! Maybe you can add a brief plot summary later? – Adamant Aug 19 '16 at 16:12

I'm remembering I read this in the 80s...I can't find the cover I remember, but it sounds a bit like The Battle of Zorn to me.

Book cover

A review:

I can't remember much about this title except that it is about a kid who plays a video game and gets transported into the video game world and has to fight the wars going on therein... I lost this book a very long time ago, but it was the best book I ever picked up from a visit from Scholastic Book Fair


Space Demons by Gillian Rubenstein

The main four characters in the book are Andrew Hayford, Ben Challis, Elaine Taylor and Mario Ferrone. The plot starts when Andrew's dad brings him an exciting prototype video game from Japan. Andrew, who is a video game enthusiast, shows it to his best friend Ben Challis, who agrees to play the game with him. Later, two other players are introduced to the game: Mario Ferrone and Elaine Taylor. It is later revealed that it is possible to get transported into the game by means of a special gun, which only works when a strong beam of hate is directed at someone. Later on, the four get trapped inside the game and gradually work out the only way to escape and thus win the game is if they conquer their hate.

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    It would be quite helpful if you provided some corroborative evidence with your answer. As it is, this doesn't really help identify your suggestion as the best fit. – can-ned_food Mar 17 '17 at 4:05

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