Inside The Game/Part 2

Meanwhile, the Game Master is playing the final battle against Sarkamel in his game, where he was following the pattern of direction pad presses that his opponent was sending him. "You'll never escape the world of Gametron, you little fool," Sarkamel taunted.

"We'll see about that," the Game Master said. "Come on, let's see what you got."

The Game Master focused his concentration on following the pattern, making sure he pressed the direction pad in the right direction at the right moment, even as more and more arrows appeared on the screen, making the situation even more tense. Just a minute or so later, Sarkamel ranted, "Oh, that's not fair! You've beaten me at my own game!"

"YES! YES! YES!" the Game Master shouted in triumph. "I've beaten the game!"

"Atariendo, I think it's time you need to go outside and play," his mother called from outside the room. "You've been spending too much time in front of your magic mirror playing your games."

The Game Master groaned. "Okay, Mother, I'll do that just as soon as I clean up my room," he responded. He then looked around the room before his eyes rested on the Mirror Net terminal he had set up on his desk. "I might as well go and see what's going on in the world at this moment. Maybe someone's got a game system of their own hooked up to their magic mirror, either a Hex Box or a MageStation."

He went over to the Mirror Net and typed in a command that caused the mirror to display all sorts of things he was interested in, mostly games. It was during his browsing that he found mention of Handy Smurf and his new invention, the Game Wand. "Game Wand? Never heard of that system before," he said as he clicked onto the link to the article and saw pictures of Handy showing off the games that were on it to his fellow Smurfs that he posted, the Smurfs having fun trying to play the games with a remote control device.

"Boy, those games seem rather boring," the Game Master said in disgust. "I can't imagine anyone wanting to swing around a wand and pretend that they're playing sports. They need to have a better set of games to play." He thought about the game he was playing on the Hex Box One for a moment and then inspiration finally hit him. "I know...why don't I send them one of my games and see if they can play it on their system? Of course, I need to send them a little surprise with the game so that I can get my revenge on them for defeating me at Wizard Takes All."

The Game Master laughed maliciously at the thought of revenge as he typed in the commands on his Mirror Net terminal. - In the village, Handy was showing Empath, Tapper, and Duncan a new accessory that he created for the Game Wand. "This here is a special Game Wand Pro Controller which I designed for games that don't need to use the remote controller," Handy said as he handed to them the accessory.

Empath was the first to examine it. "It certainly has a shape that feels comfortable to hold in both hands," he said while holding the controller and pressing its buttons.

"But what's with all those buttons and those two small sticks, laddie?" Duncan asked as he was handed the controller to test out how it felt in his hands.

"Those buttons are for the various functions you'll be able to smurf in games that will require them, Duncan," Handy answered. "There are two that are smurfed on each of its shoulders, plus four that are smurfed in a diamond pattern on the right side. The Start and Select buttons are smurfed in the center. The two small sticks will be for movement and camera control -- the one on the left smurfs movement and the one on the right smurfs camera control."

"It's quite an unusual device that you smurfed, but do you have any games that can smurf use of this controller, my good Handy?" Tapper asked as he examined the controller for himself.

"Not yet, but I'm working on smurfing such a game for the Game Wand, Tapper," Handy said. "You can still smurf on the system with the controller and smurf around the current game menu, even if you can't play any games with it."

"That center button in the middle of the controller seems to be what turns on the system, if this smurf understands this correctly," Empath said.

"Well, might as well try it, if that's all that it can smurf for now," Tapper said. He then pressed the button and the Game Wand game screen came on the window vision.

"Great Ancestors, where did that game come from -- the one that is called GAMETRON?" Empath asked when he noticed it on the screen.

"Smurfs me, Empath, for I haven't smurfed of that game before," Handy said, also as surprised as Empath was for seeing it appear on the game menu.

"Well, why don't you try smurfing that game to see what it smurfs?" Duncan suggested.

"I'll leave the trial session of that game in your hands, Empath, since you would undersmurf what that game requires you to do better than I would," Tapper said as he handed the controller over to Empath.

Empath sighed. "Well, here goes," he said as he pressed the Start button.

To be expanded on.