Austin Grossman - You

1982: The hit single “Pac-Man Fever” by novelty act Buckner and Garcia reaches number 9 on the Billboard chart.

The movie TRON is released.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, widely accepted as the most loathed home video game of all time, is released for Atari 2600.

1983: Ultima III: Exodus, often cited as the foundation for the computer fantasy role-playing genre, is released.

Realms of Gold I: Tomb of Destiny is written in Mr. Kovacs’s intro to programming class.

The movie WarGames is released.

Electronic Arts runs the famous “Can a Computer Make You Cry” advertisement in Creative Computing.

Realms of Gold II: War in the Realms is written at KidBits computer camp.

1985: The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is released in the United States.

1987: Realms of Gold III: Restoration is released.

1988: Clandestine for the Commodore 64, Black Arts’ first commercially published title, is released.

1989: Solar Empires I is released.

1990: Realms of Gold IV: City of Hope is released.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is released for NES.

1991: Black Karts Racing is released.

1992: Realms of Golf is released.

id Software releases Wolfenstein 3D, introducing the first-person shooter genre.

Clandestine II: Love Never Thinks Twice is released.

1993: Cyan releases Myst, an artistic milestone and the first mainstream hit on the CD-ROM platform.

Realms of Gold V: Aquator’s Realm is released.

Realms of Gold’s Worlds of Intrigue: High Society is released.

Clandestine III: Mirror Games is released.

1994: Clandestine IV: On American Assignment is released.

Realms of Gold VI: Far Latitudes is released.

1995: Clandestine V: Axis Power is released.

Solar Empires II: The Ten-Thousand-Year Sleepover is released.

Pro Skate ’Em Endoria: Grind the Arch-Lich is released.

1996: Tomb Raider, featuring the first successful female action hero in a video game, is released.

Clandestine VI: Deathclock is released.

Clandestine: Worlds Beyond (Limited Edition) is released.

Tournament of Ages is released.

1997: Clandestine VII: Countdown to Rapture is released.

Ultima Online, the first massively successful multiplayer-only role-playing game, is released.

Solar Empires III: Pan-Stellar Activation is released.

Founding member Darren Ackerman leaves Black Arts and founds his own studio, Vorpal, which will continue the Clandestine franchise.

1998: Mike Abrash publicly reveals the technology behind the Quake game engine in a talk at the annual Game Developers Conference.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of several games often referred to as the greatest video game of all time, is published.

Clandestine: World’s End is released.

Realms of Gold VII: Winter’s Crown is demonstrated at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

2000: The Sony PlayStation 2 is released.

2006: The Nintendo Wii, the first mainstream motion-sensing console, is released.

2008: Gary Gygax, principal inventor and popularizer of Dungeons & Dragons, dies.

AUSTIN GROSSMAN is a video game design consultant who has worked on such games as Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, System Shock, Flight Unlimited, Trespasser: Jurassic Park, Clive Barker’s Undying, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider Legend, Epic Mickey, and Dishonored. He is also the author of Soon I Will Be Invincible, which was nominated for the 2007 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. His writing has appeared in Granta, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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Soon I Will Be Invincible

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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Copyright © 2013 by Austin Grossman

Cover design by Kapo Ng

Cover copyright © 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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First ebook edition: March 2013

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ISBN 978-0-316-19855-4