When “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline was published 6 years ago all around me people started reading it and were totally excited by it “There’s so much 80s trivia in it”, “It’s about gaming in the 80s”. I didn’t read it. I didn’t want to read some kind of documentary about video games in the 80s. Although one of the first computer games I remember ever playing — Digger — is from the 80s, I’ve got fonder memories of 90s games like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem. The 80s didn’t interest me that much.

Turns out the book isn’t really a documentary and it’s not about the 80s either. It’s actually a quite suspenseful and well written story about people living and playing games in a massive virtual reality universe called OASIS in the year 2044. The protagonists of the book take part in a contest to win much money and control over OASIS.

The creator of that virtual reality universe dies and initiates this contest as a means to find his heir. The contestants need to solve puzzles and play games and because the creator loved the movies, the music and the games of the 80s those are all about the 80s.

Although it’s advantageous to know those movies and games, that’s not a requirement to have fun reading the book. I either don’t know half of the mentioned games or only by name.

I’ve read some game relatated books in the past and most don’t really get it right. Some are Ok, some are just really boring and only a few have been good so far. “Ready Player One” is one of the good ones. It has the right mix of sci fi near future technology, nerdy 80s trivia and — well — gaming in it.