I read Lucky Wander Boy for the first time about a year ago and loved the hell out of it. For those who've never heard of it, it's a novel about a man whose obsession with games he played as a kid slowly begin controlling his adult life. One game in particular called 'Lucky Wander Boy', which he never beat as a kid, became insanely rare and every decision he makes (taking certain jobs, dating certain women, etc.) is guided by his vague goals of finding the game and it's creator. It gets pretty nuts. I recommend it to any gaming dorks out there.

Anyway, he keeps a log of games that he analyzes and often associates certain games to events of his childhood life. For example, his grandmother was dying of cancer when he was a kid.. and he recalls playing Microsurgeon for the Intellivision during that time as a way of dealing with it, and somehow gets it in the back of his head that playing the game well will cure his grandmother. This got me to thinking about how I associate events to games i've played. Like, do you ever play an old game, and you end up remembering something that was going on when you first played it? Like, for instance, I remember playing Virtual Bart for the Genesis the night my cousin was born. Or that I used to sneak my friends over to play Leisure Suit Larry when I was in 4th grade because my parents wouldn't be home to stop us.

Anybody else read the book? Did it get anybody else get to identifying with it?

Kind of a clusterf-- of ideas, I know. But I thought it'd be something to talk about.