Did you ever dream of owning a De Lorean like the one Marty McFly drove in the ‘Back to the Future’ movies? Well you can and all it will cost is the price of a book, some detective work, and insane gaming skills!
To celebrate the paperback release of his book ‘Ready Player One,’ author Ernest Cline has come up with a great promotion tie in! You see, he is a big ‘80’s sci-fi aficionado and so he bought himself a 1982 DeLorean and in true geek style (a la MTV’s ‘Pimp My Ride,’) decked it out with elements of ‘Back to the Future’ (he added a flux capacitor), ‘Buckaroo Banzai,’ ‘Knight Rider’ and the Ectomobile from ‘Ghostbusters’. This is the same car that he used to drive around the country promoting his book when it first came out in hardcover. Now one lucky reader will have a replica of this same car!
Cline has bought another DeLorean on E-bay which he will be giving away to the first person who can solve the tasks placed in front of them… and it won’t be easy. The tasks are based on his novel and surprisingly that is your first step in getting the car. All you have to do is find the Easter egg hidden in the text of the English version of his book, ‘Ready Player One.’ This may sound simple but that same Easter egg is hidden in his hardcopy version and so far, no one has found it (to the author’s knowledge) in the 10 months that it has been out. Oh! And did I mention that you won’t find the Easter Egg in the e-book version? So all you who have bought the novel for your e-reader will have to get your hands on the physical version to play. (By the way, I just gave you all a great idea on how you can find the Easter egg ~ just saying!)
The Easter egg is a web address that will lead you to the first gaming challenge. There are 3 games in all each with increasing difficulty. The nice part is that each game will be released once per month. This month the first game is online, then in July, the second will come online, and in August the last and hardest of all the games. If you’re interest is peaked, then check out the video below that has Cline explaining the whole process.
Wondering if the book is something worth investing in? We actually reviewed the novel and from the sound of it, it would be a great read. After all, how can you resist a book that is described as ‘The Matrix’ meets ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?’ In fact, Warner Bros. was enthralled enough to acquire the rights and is currently developing it into a feature film with Eric Eason.
Here’s the official synopsis:
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.
For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.
And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.
Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up
So get ready “Player One” as this read may actually win you a DeLorean!
