Up on the screen, a cartoon elf or sprite or something pokes its head out from behind a window, then draws it back. No, Im not a paranoid schizophrenic - this is the much-hyped intelligent agent who comes with the box. I ignore it, make my escape from Gameland and blunder into a lurid district of the Metaverse where thousands of infomercials run day and night, each in its own window. I watch an ad for Chinese folk medicines made from rare-animal parts, genetically engineered and grown in vats. Grizzly-bear gallbladders are shown growing like bunches of grapes in an amber fluid.
The animated sprite comes all the way out, and leans up against the edge of the infomercial window. "Hey!" it says, in a goofy, exuberant voice, "Im Raster! Just speak my name - thats Raster - if you need any help."
I dont like Rasters looks. Its likely he was wandering the streets of Toontown and waving a sign saying WILL ANNOY GROWNUPS FOR FOOD until he was hired by the cable company. He begins flying around the screen, leaving a trail of glowing fairy dust that fades much too slowly for my taste.
"Give me the damn encyclopedia!" I shout. Hearing the dread word, my nephews erupt from the rug and flee.
http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon/Outlaws/SimoleonCaper.html
