Bored as ever Jacob Airs was searching over various game sites. Toward the end of this nightly search while prowling around now on the Underground sites he finally found a game that caught his attention.
"X-Reality.zip", he whispered to himself. Thinking it was more of an adult game he did a quick glance at the door. Seeing no one was near his door, he clicked on the file to download.
Now seeing how much time it would take, Jacob had his doubts about letting it finish. Over 6 hours to download due to the fact it was nearly 160 megs. If he shut off monitor now and went to bed it should be finished in the morning. With some luck his mom wouldn’t discover what he was downloading. He was 14-years-old and would be grounded for a month if anyone found out.
His computer system sat on a desk next to his bed. He could clear the screen in the morning before his mother came in to wake him up for school. As extra safety measure he loosened the cord on the back of monitor so the power was completely cut off now.
"Bed Time!" Jacob’s mother shouted from down stairs. This made him jump slightly out of fear. He was still leaning over the computer reaching for the cord when she called.
"OK!", he called back after he finished loosening it just enough. Already dressed for bed, Jacob switched off the light in his room and lay. As he was about to fall to sleep, he kept reminding himself about the game. He’d have to hide the game file in a sub directory tomorrow morning.
That morning Jacob jumped out of bed and went straight to the computer. A "File downloaded" message faded into view after he put the cord back in and pushed the power button. Smiling, he moved the file quickly into another directory. He opened the file and watched as the files expanded. There were not as many files as they appeared in the directory. It looked like nothing then appeared as database files and one executable file.
Jacob hit the Install one and short message popped-up. "Please read all instructions carefully located in the help file before playing. " Was all Jacob read before he hit install button below the message. Time was wasting and sooner he got it installed the less likely he was to get caught.
To his disappointment, it wasn’t the type of game he though it be. As the game was installed, the game screen popped-up. It looked more like a Sims type game than anything else.
What it lacked in graphics it made up for in details. “Answer some questions like number of brothers or sisters?”, he asked himself, “…and name of each family member?” Mom and Dad were left out and automatically put in as Mother and Father.
The game seemed to be more personalized to the player than the normal role playing types.
Then came a general layout of a house. Jacob did his best to make it as close as possible to the upstairs and downstairs.
The word ‘processing’ appeared.
The game ame finally loaded up. Graphics were less then Sims, it looked like a cheap copy. Characters were moving around on their own. To his surprise there was a character of boy like him sitting at a computer. Did this game somehow know what he was doing?
Jacob waved his hand to see if the character did the same. It didn’t.
He stood up. The character boy did the same.
"No way!", Jacob shouted out loud.
To test his theory further, he moved back a few steps. The character on the screen did the same.
Returning to the computer game, he wondered what else it did. He could see the rest of his family in different rooms. Currently blurred by the game was his older sister. She was getting dressed in her. Down stairs in the kitchen, his Mom and Dad were sitting at the kitchen table eating.
He then clicked back on his room.
Clicking on the bed, he clicked the right mouse button, a set of options popped-up:
Color Size Type
"Better start small,” whispered to himself.
Deciding he didn’t like the color red on his sheets anymore, he selected the color green. As soon he selected it, the sheets instantly turned green.
Turning his head quickly to his own bed he saw that his own sheets were green now.
"Cool," he said out loud.
Turning back to the screen, he decided to change the type of bed he had.
Not watching the screen, he turned his head toward his own bed after he selected bunk bed.
He clicked.
His own bed quickly popped into a bunk bed. It was a funny sight to see a bunk bed in the middle of the room.
Unsure if it was real, Jacob got up and touched the new bunk bed. “Feels real solid,” he thought. To make sure he even climbed the ladder and went back down.
“Better return this to normal or surely someone in the family would notice,” Jacob thought as he sat down at the computer.
To his horror he saw the Mom character on the screen coming down the hallway. With not much time left, he selected another bed called ‘single’.
Hitting the Alt key, he then used his mouse to exit the game when a message popped-up:
"Save Y/N"
"Yes" he said as he hit the Y key.
Then game went off and his Windows Explorer was back up.
"Are you ready yet?", his mother asked as she came in, knocking the door lightly as she entered.
"Almost," he replied from his computer seat.
"OK, shut off your computer and finished getting dressed," she said with a note of impatience.
Jacob could guess from her look on her face that she thought he was spending too much time at the computer
"Just look at that bed," she said.
Jacob turned to see the bed he selected wasn’t the right one. This one was bigger then his own. His must of have selected a different type. Scared now that he might have to do some explaining, he sat there as she approached it.
"Haven’t even made your bed yet?" she asked as she stood over and fixed the covers.
She didn’t notice that the bed was too big and the wrong color.
Then it hit him as he sat there. He saved the game.
"Well, don’t sit there just staring at me. Get dressed now.” she said as she tossed his pillow to the headboard and then left the room.
"OK, Mom." Jacob said as soon she was at the doorway.
“As soon I get home I have got to try a few other things…” he thought as he finished getting dressed. Grabbing his book bag, he left for school.