Thursday, June 12, 2008

A Game Called Chaos (#160)

A Game Called Chaos cover

Plot: Phil asks Frank and Joe to help his cousin Chelsea, who works for a software company that suddenly finds itself missing their major game designer.

“Borrowing” from the past: A character is assumed dead after a plane crash, just like a pilot in the revised version of The Great Airport Mystery (#10).

Oy, gevalt: Phil Cohen, apparently the only Jew in Bayport High School, asks for a favor for his cousin. Her name? Chelsea. You couldn’t find a more WASP-y name if you tried.

Fine upstanding citizens, those Hardys: With Phil’s help, Frank and Joe hack into the records of Northern Connecticut University, then Joe uses his lockpicks to enter the university’s steam tunnels. Never mind that they’re hacking into the records on a library computer, after having given their high school IDs to a librarian; but given that students try to break into the steam tunnels at every university that has them, this seems extremely improbable and impossibly easy.

Later, when they confront a crazed fan who has ransacked the apartments of the missing game designer and one of the chief suspects, she protests Frank and Joe would have done the same thing. Joe denies it, of course.

Ah, kids and their computer games: The Chaos series of computer games seems to be a cross between a puzzle solving game like Myst and Tomb Raider, even down to having a sexy female archaeologist as a protagonist. Later, a female character shows up dressed like Carmen Sandiego: a fedora and a trenchcoat.

Do NOT hire Frank as your lawyer: When it’s revealed the game designer changed his contract so he would get all the money for producing the game, presumably taking on the burden of paying any other designers or subcontractors involved from his employer, Frank weighs in his legal opinion: “[He] had complete control over how Cross Enterprises was paid. ... Suppose he decided to pay her less than they had agreed. He could do that legally now.” No, it wouldn’t be legal; it would still be breach of contract or promissory estoppel or what have you. He just might be able to get away with it more easily.

That’s tough talk from a man with “Jewel Ridge” on his badge: Frank and Joe are told to stay out of the investigation by the Jewel Ridge (Conn.) police, who say, “Maybe the police in Bayport need help from amateurs, but in Jewel Ridge, we do things by the book.” Frank and Joe solve the case anyway, far away from the jurisdiction of the Jewel Ridge police.

For those who are curious: Frank uses his skills as a baseball pitcher to throw a flashlight at a mechanical spider, his track skills to outdistance a wolf for a brief period, and his basketball skills to jump a fence. Joe uses his wrestling skills to hold onto a female prisoner. (I wonder if Iola lets him practice on her?) Extracurricular activities really do prepare kids for the real world, evidently.

After their van gets bombed by exploding bats (mammals, not baseball), Joe says, “So much for our safe driving discount.” Any insurance company that would give Frank and Joe a discount has clearly traded its actuarial tables for a large quantity of hallucinogens.

Opinions: Since this one deals with computers and the Internet, we learn computers can tell us everything if you’re clever enough. Plans for the university steam tunnels, wills, kennel records — anything. (Why would anyone put kennel records on a server to begin with? Wait; I don’t want to know.) Also, with robotics, you can make snakes and a giant spider that move in a lifelike way with just standard Radio Shack parts. Did you know that?

The book does a good job of making the villain’s lair seem like a set copied from a computer game. Trap doors, electrified booby traps, and spiked pits abound in a seemingly abandoned mansion in a ghost town. These descriptions are far more convincing than the robotics. And how do you make exploding bats that can home in on a target? The villain pleaded poverty as an excuse for her actions, but these things have to add up in expenses.

The Franklin W. Dixon who wrote this one gets extra points for one of Joe’s quips; when the female villain is knocked out by a giant mechanical ape, another character shouts, “You got her!” Joe replies, “Oh, no ... ’Twas the beast that felled the beauty.”

Grade: A-. Frank and Joe are getting as shady as the crooks they stalk.

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