William Higinbotham turned on the first game of 'Tennis For Two' in 1958. It was the first ever video game. Its relationship to Videoland is not understood, but to the inhabitants of the realm, it has existed for centuries... millennia. Videoland is ancient, its origins shrouded in mystery. In the beginning, all was void.

Videoland itself grew slowly, the shadows of the Earth's oldest games forming the foundation of the realm. The endless skies of Videoland were the homes of Space War and Pong, the stars in the sky discarded Pong balls, lost ages ago. Sometimes, on dark nights, ghostly scores from the first games still glow in the distance. As the games began to progress beyond simple shooting and ball-bouncing, Videoland, still a nameless void, began to change as well. As though anticipating what was to come, life emerged in Videoland. Beings not unlike humans came to live there, their origins known only to them.

Taking residence in their strange land, they built a civilization, cities, and dozens of areas where games could be played... it was these games that were the focus of early civilization, and none more important than Pong, the game whose arena is the oldest surviving structure in Videoland, older even than the Palace of Power itself.


Slowly, the nature of Videoland changed. Portals opened to the worlds, worlds that would seem familiar to outsiders as those implied in video games, with inhabitants who had no idea that Videoland existed. These portals were few and far between, and only a select few had any idea that a world existed beyond their own reality.

The chosen ruler of the natives of Videoland decided that these portals, which came to be known as Warp Zones, should be protected, and built the Palace of Power, a royal residence in which the warp zones could be watched and guarded.

On Earth, it was 1980, and the first home systems were beginning to truly catch on. The number of warp zones skyrocketed overnight, but after a while, they were contained, and the appearance and handling of new warp zones became a routine task. It was, of course, only a matter of time before something went wrong.


In late 1981, a young girl named Lita was playing a system called the Atari VCS: one of the first cartridge-based home video game systems, and inarguably the most popular of them. A new game called Yar's Revenge was in her system, and she was controlling her digital avatar, a Yar Warrior, dedicated to eradicating the threat of the Qotile from the innocent Yars, as he blasted away at the shield surrounding the enemy ship. Suddenly, a light flickered on her screen... the Ghost of Yars, a shimmering spirit rumored to be in the game. Maneuvering her little fly hero to it, she touched it, expecting an extra life, or points, perhaps, but not what happened next. The television began to glow, and Lita was sucked into it, finding herself in a new world: Videoland. The warp she fell through closed behind her, and no amount of work by the people of Videoland was sufficient to open it.


At first she was frightened, but over the next few years, she grew to love this new world, and was an accepted part of it. It was a dream: to live among the games she played, visiting different worlds and meeting the characters she saw on the screen. One night, however, asleep in the Palace, a nightmare gripped her: Videoland in chaos, under the sway of a powerful evil force. She awoke with a scream, but in her mind, she knew more than what the dream had shown.

"Though this land will see strife and chaos, never despair, for in the hour of your darkest peril, a hero will come through the Ultimate Warp Zone, the same portal that brought me to you."

These words became known as the Prophecy. The next morning, Lita was gone. No one knew how she left or where she went, but she did not return to the Palace of Power, and noone was ever able to find out where she went.


In 1986, A portal opened to a world known as Zebes, the home of a race of Space Pirates led by a being known as Mother Brain. When the portal opened, Mother Brain was the first being from her world to enter. Making pretenses of friendship with the king, she learned about Videoland, and immediately was intrigued... here was a place more useful that Zebes to have a base. It was a place where no one from her world could find her... least of all Samus Aran. Zebesian pirates stormed through the warp zone the night Mother Brain returned, and for a single devastating day, they held the castle while Mother Brain studied the warp zones. The hyperintelligent Brain was relentless, finally discovering the key to creating warp zones of her own.

Retreating to her own world, she closed the warp to Zebes, opening a new one to an empty sector of Videoland, slowly beginning work on a fortress of her own, her minions working while she opened portals to different worlds, slowing discovering other beings like her own, and preparing to invade and conquer Videoland and use it as a haven, where evil beings could strike in secret to conquer their worlds.


Her first attack was devastating. It was very nearly a rout, and during the battle, the king of Videoland vanished, leaving only his teenaged daughter, Lana, to rule the kingdom alone. However grief-stricken she was, Lana was not about to let Mother Brain simply walk over her. Responding to the threat of the forces of evil, Princess Lana began inviting the heroes of different worlds to the Palace to help in the war that had just begun. The first of these were Simon Belmont of Transylvania, Pit of Angel Land, and Rock Light of Monsteropolis, better known as Mega Man. Other heroes soon followed, and began to work against Mother Brain and her allies.

Noble aims and good intentions aside, the war did not go well. Mother Brain conquered nearly half of Videoland in a bliztkrieg of raids and invasions, countless allies rallying to her banner. After the better part of two years, dozens of game worlds had fallen under her control... her plan was working better than even she had imagined. Nothing would be able to stop her, not even the Ultimate Warp Zone, the only warp she was unable to duplicate. She couldn't have been more wrong.


Kevin Keene, a teenager from Northridge, California, was the first of the Gamemasters. During the middle of an intense game of Punch-Out!, he and his dog Duke were pulled through the screen by the Ultimate Warp Zone and dumped rather unceremoniously in Videoland. His coming was a shock to the people of Videoland, who never expected another person to come through the Ultimate Warp Zone. Though he wanted to go home, when he found out about the war with Mother Brain, he volunteered to help, unknowingly fulfilling part of the prophecy given by the Lita more than six years before. His sense of righteousness would not let him stand idle while Videoland suffered. Equipped with a Zapper, a Power Pad, and the Power Glove, prototypes developed by Videoland scientists, he set off to fight Mother Brain and find a way to go back home. Through his efforts, the people of Videoland were able to fight back, gaining new footholds in every game world once more, and reconquering much of their homeland.

Kevin Keene never found a way home, though for a time, it seemed that the forces of Lana and Kevin would win the war. But he was not to be the last of the Gamemasters... and things were about to take a turn for the worse.


Scotty Johnson was a gaming elitist. Despite his young age, he had picked his system, and declared it the superior choice: Trip Hawkins's 3D0. The Ultimate Warp Zone opened late in 1993, pulling him through into Videoland. No one could explain why the Zone opened, as only one hero had been prophesied. Nevertheless, Scotty was hailed as a hero-to-be, and outfitted to help Kevin in his fight against Mother Brain.

Despite being in the game world, Scotty was terminally unhappy. He played games to have fun, and he didn't like that here, everyone seemed to be getting along... There were no system wars... No one here had even heard of the 3D0. After a few months in Videoland, Scotty became something of a pariah. He ceased to care about helping out, to care about anything. Mother Brain was not idle. Having already noted his dissatisfaction through spy reports, she arranged a meeting, luring Scotty into her clutches with dreams of power and glory.

Scotty was outfitted with the latest gear from Mother Brain's labs, and took a new name for himself. He would be Agent 3D0. At the side of Mother Brain, he gained a new confidence and fervor for victory, and soon the tides turned against Captain N, the war coming to a standstill.


Travis Cross was the worst kind of gamer. He never played fairly, and used all of his considerable skills to cheat the games he owned. He owned each and every cheat device, from the Game Genie, to computer hex editors, to the Gameshark. He was not called by the Ultimate Warp Zone... he cheated his way to Videoland.

Some call it luck. Travis called it skill. One evening, he was attempting an massively devious and complex cheat while waiting for a friend to come over, he opened the Ultimate Warp Zone, stepping through with trepidation. The cheat had torn open the Warp Zone, and he was now in Videoland. When his friend arrived, he found only a blank TV and the molten remains of his system, the Gameshark melted into the circuitry.

Captain N and Lana knew immediately that something was wrong, but Travis gave them no time to act. Upon finding himself faced with a confused group of heroes, he ran, slipping out of the palace and into the open. Travis wandered this new world for a week by himself, slowly discovering that his cheats still worked... the equipment he had on him when he entered the Zone still had the ability to affect this realm.

It was fate, perhaps, that the next human he met was Agent 3D0. Scotty told him of his glorious job for Mother Brain, and the potential to have power... maybe even rule a world of his own. It was an offer he couldn't refuse. Travis Cross became Gameshark, and slowly, Mother Brain's forces began to win.


Upon joining Mother Brain, Gameshark's equipment was upgraded, and he was given new weapons by her scientists, weapons to better cheat and manipulating the world around him, to take advantage of the weaknesses of those he fought. In return, he gave the Zebesian tyrant what she had always wanted... a way to open the Ultimate Warp Zone on her own.

Wasting no time, Mother Brain tasked her three most brilliant scientists, Dr. Wily, Dr. Robotnik, and Dr. Neo-Cortex to build a copy of the Ultimate Warp Zone, a copy that would allow Gameshark to pull new recruits from Earth to serve Mother Brain. Well, at least in theory. Mother Brain wanted the power and skill that the humans seemed to have here, and she didn't really care how she got it.

In the end, and with no lack of infighting among the three egomaniacal scientists, Gameshark's plans came to fruition, Mother Brain's own Ultimate Warp Zone complete, waiting to be opened on an unsuspecting world.


Corey Michaels was a fourteen in 1997. Young, malleable, and addicted to his new Playstation. Mother Brain activated her Warp Zone, pulling him into the game world... seemingly a random selection. His natural reaction to this was fear... he didn't know where he was, but he did know that he was surrounded by what he considered the worst bad guys imaginable. Mother Brain wasted no time trying to sway him, but to no avail, and he was made a prisoner in the Fortress of Evil. He was trained, reeducated, and warped by torture, conditioned to serve her over a year's time. He became The Player.

Though swayed by force to the side of evil, he was hardly the most cooperative subject. Corey fought the control often, many times proving more trouble than he was worth. Mother Brain tried to summon another, but her false Warp Zone never functioned again. It had been a one time only deal... and she had wasted it.


With The Player proving to be an unpredictable, almost counter- productive factor, an assault was planned on the Palace of Power. Though her own Ultimate Warp Zone was ruined, Mother Brain believed, as did Gameshark, that he could open the real one if he could get close enough to it. The assault would be a diversion... 3D0 believed he could sneak into the Palace the same way Gameshark escaped from it when he crossed over... and there was their opening.

As the attack commenced, and the trio worked their way into the palace under the cover of Mother Brain's assault. They didn't count on Captain N, however, who noticed their absence from the battle. He figured out what they must be doing, and was waiting for them when they arrived, alone... despite his knowledge, he could spare noone else from the attack outside.

Despite having years of experience, with three to one odds, there was no way he could win. In moments, Kevin found himself on the ground, barely conscious, The Player's GunCon pointed at his face.

Agent 3D0's response was immediate: "Kill him."


Confusion raced through The Player's mind. He'd killed before... but they were just video game characters... right? Kevin was human. He stared at Captain N's unconscious form, and his resolve broke. The Player was gone, and Corey Michaels stood there, frightened and alone. The GunCon slipped from his hand, and he fell to his knees, conditioning broken, his mind free for the first time in four years.

It took a moment for Agent 3D0 to even notice what was going on, working feverishly with Gameshark to open the portal, which ripped open in a shower of sparks and flames, the pure Warp Zone fighting even Gameshark's considerable power, unwilling to open on its own. When it finally opened, he turned to see The Player, their flawed tool, kneeling mutely over Kevin's body.

Agent 3D0 didn't seem to care. "Fine. If you won't kill him, I'll bring someone through who will."


Isaac Stewart was a college freshman, a guy who considered himself better than everyone else. Locked in an intense game with his roommate, he was wrapped in the thrill of playing his new PS2. He'd gotten two on launch day, and second rapidly racking up a massive bid on EBay. His opponent was good, but he knew that he was better. In Videoland, Gameshark opened the Ultimate Warp Zone, and Isaac had no time to react. He was pulled in.

As Isaac's eyes cleared, he noticed that he was not alone. Agent 3D0 stood before him, GameGun pointed at his head. Isaac moved fast, launching forward and disarming the Agent, and soon Scotty found his own gun pointed back at him.

"There's no time for this," Gameshark said, opening a portal, drawing Isaac and Scotty away to the predesignated pickup area. However, when he tried to grab Corey, the cheat failed. Baffled by the failure, he left Corey there, retreating himself.

Once they had reached a relatively safe place, Isaac and Agent 3D0 talked. At gunpoint, the best Scotty could do was try and indoctrinate him, to sway him to their side. Fortunately for him, Isaac didn't take much convincing. Luck, it seemed, had won the day for Mother Brain's side, and soon Agent 3D0 and Gameshark had a 'replacement' for The Player... as Isaac became Dual.


As the others made good their escape, The Player remained at Kevin's side, still in shock. Staring down at the unconscious Gamemaster, he knew that they'd hurt him more than they'd thought. Kevin wasn't simply knocked out... he was dying. Bringing all his will to bear, he did the only thing he could do... cried for help, not knowing that his cries went unheard over the din of the battle outside.

Though unheard in Videoland, they were heard somewhere. Shaun Felton, the hapless roommate of Isaac, stood staring at the vortex his opponent had vanished into. As the swirl of colors began to diminish and fade, he heard Corey's plaintive cries echoing from within. Not even taking the time to think, he dove into the vortex, appearing in Videoland as the Ultimate Warp Zone closed behind him.

Together, Shaun and Corey were able to carry Kevin to a place where he could be treated. He didn't die, and that day, Videoland gained two new allies. Corey discarded his old identity, taking up the cause of good... and the name Station. Shaun decided to stay as well... not that he could go home, but he no longer wanted to. Possessed of a strong sense of justice, he took on the name of his favorite system, becoming The Dreamcaster.


The battleground was set, and the forces were now tied, each side with three Gamemasters. But the damage done to the Ultimate Warp Zone had taken on a power its own... and a face was about to enter Videoland.

Francis Xavier Cole was the epitome of bad gamers. He played for fun... but the fun he wanted was getting kicks from the things he did to the characters. He would beat up civilians, blow away innocents in shooting games, and always play the bad guy when he had the chance. His favorite occupation was beating up civilians in Grand Theft Auto 3. During one spectacular session, he managed a killing spree into the hundreds, on foot, before the cops were able to get him.

One night, Francis screamed at his X-Box... his TV had dissolved into a blue system error screen... something that wasn't supposed to be able to happen on and X-Box: The dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. He'd just gotten a personal best kill rate in HALO, and the young man's deep anger welled up inside of him. Raising a fist to strike the television, he was grabbed by the force of the Ultimate Warp Zone, and found himself sitting in the Fortress of Evil. They never truly understood how it had happened, whether it was an accident of Microsoft's technology, or mounting damage to the Ultimate Warp Zone because of the hack the year before... Francis didn't care. He was in a place where his dreams could come true. Mother Brain didn't even have to approach him... he came to her, and joined of his own free will. In turn, she turned him into her perfect soldier, the new leader of her Gamemasters, her perfect foil to Captain N... and she gave him the name Captain X.


With Captain X's timely arrival, Mother Brain decided to press her advantage. Captain N would be no match for her new warrior, and with a team of the strongest of Mother Brain's monsters, the evil Gamemasters assaulted the Palace of Power. The most powerful allies of Mother Brain assaulted the palace: hordes of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters, the fearsome WarMech, Dracula's most loathsome demons, Metal Gear REX...

Despite The Dreamcaster, Station, and Captain N's best efforts, they had been caught off-guard. Even though they were able to fight off the three Gamemasters they already knew, Captain X's power was the turning point. With each Gamemaster paired off, X moved from fight to fight, decimating the heroic Gamemasters in turn, until all three had fell, and the bitter reality of defeat approach.

All seemed lost.


Suddenly, Agent 3D0 fell, a derezzing Pong sphere dropping from his skull to the ground. A momentary silence fell over the battlefield, and the Gamemasters turned. A female form stood behind them, a Pong paddle strapped to one arm, an Automazeon blaster in the other.

"Who the hell are you?" X asked with a sneer.

"A little girl who got tired of doing nothing, while morons like you power game like spoiled brats."

Lana stared from the battlements, alone recognizing the girl she had known long ago. It was Lita Marshall, the first human to visit Videoland. She had disappeared twenty years before... and was no longer a scared child: she had arrived, the fourth and last of the heroic Gamemasters.

At the arrival of this new force, the battle turned, the heroes finding a second wind in Lita's appearance, and Mother Brain's forces began to retreat, their victory no longer assured.

Lita introduced herself to the others as Lady A. "I had another dream," she said to Lana and the others. "One that I couldn't ignore. Four would stand against the darkness, the light when all else was lost. I've searched for a way home for twenty years, and I've come to know this land... to love it. This is our home now, and we must join together and defend it. We are the Gamemasters, and together we must stand."

And so the story continues...