Joe Hardy has been bitten by the video-game bug, and he, Frank, and Chet are in New York City for the national Hack Attack tournament. The tournament is run by Videomundo (which is probably a thinly veiled Nintendo), whose wildly popular game, Hack Attack, is basically like Grand Theft Auto without the adult themes. And as is par for the course with the Hardys around, there is crime afoot at the tournament…

I’m convinced I read this about 20 years ago but can’t be certain. The cover looks familiar. It was published in 1991 and is laughably dated now, but was probably cutting edge for the time. What cracked me up about this book was that it had to have been written by aliens: it describes in minute detail how the wires in the game console are hooked up to the TV, and it describes one of the other tournament players as wearing a shirt “with the name of a popular rock band on it”. It made me think of Steve Buscemi and the “How do you do, fellow kids” meme.

I don’t know how much modern kids will get out of this unless they are interested in life before the internet. ( )

Frank and Joe Hardy try to find out who has been stealing video games from a gaming convention. ( )