Beat the Devil
Scott Siegel
Mass Market Paperback
(Bantam, Feb. 1, 1984)
Doug is a video game fanatic, and his best friend Warren and girlfriend Maura are not too thrilled to hear that Doug's dad has bought a computer. Will they ever see Doug again, or will he spend every minute of free time closeted in his dad's computer room? Unfortunately, it's worse than Warren and Maura think-Doug has purchased a game called "Beat the Devil" from a mysterious store he'd never noticed before. The graphics are incredible: a pure white heart is battling pitchforks and fires from hell. If the heart survives long enough, the devil himself will appear to battle the heart, and only if the heart shoots a white lightning bolt into each of the devil's eyes, can the heart win! Doug becomes obsessed with winning this difficult game! Soon Doug is acting strangely-picking fights, staying up all night to play the game, missing dates with Maura. When Warren visits a fortune teller, she warns him that he will soon have to risk his life for his friend, who is being consumed by the devil