*Winner of the Gold Medal from Literary Classics for Teen Fiction!
The game that's every kid's virtual dream becomes a real nightmare when an evil avatar takes control.
What if you were 8, or 11, or 14,and you could race cars at 150 mph, bungee jump,fly, eat all the ice cream and candy you wanted, or become powerful avatars such as Robobug, Kulshedra the dragon, and Altai, the gryphon avatar. All this and more is possible in the ultimate virtual reality game The Cryptogram Connection created by 14-year-old computer whiz Cody Reynolds and his two classmates, Nicole Nash and Kerry McCorkle. To advance to different levels in the game, players must solve cryptograms, or secret codes. (Readers also get to solve the cryptograms.)They create their game to be used with the latest VR technology developed by local game manufacturer NuVision Games--a headset with biosensors that transmit signals to the brain, fooling it into tasting, hearing, feeling, seeing, and smelling what was programmed into the game. The games are as close to reality as reality itself.
The game becomes every kids' virtual dream, and Cody, Nicole, and Kerry, besides becoming national celebrities, make more money than they ever imagined.
But The Cryptogram Connection turns into "cryptogram chaos" when an evil presence inhabits Zazar, the laser avatar and the most powerful, and takes control of the game. It's up to the three partners to enter the game and fight Zazar to save the gamers from virtual--and real--disaster.
