There were lots of great rhyming couplets about 80s video games in our Ready Player One contest! I knew librarians could rhyme, but it never occurred to me that so many of you played Oregon Trail back in the day. As an added bonus, the winning entries are a true test of video game trivia, guaranteed to cause flashbacks if you were a coin-op arcade nerd.

Five runners up each get an unsigned ARC.

@texancomposer
”I Hunger” he cries out from a galaxy afar
Press start, he proclaims “I am Sinistar”

@jflorablack
The water was bad, my hunting was fail;
I starved to death on the Oregon Trail.

@gmehn
The Bard’s Tale kept we geeks all searching for loot
Freed us from dates throughout high school, to boot.

@librariantom
I played Gauntlet alone when my friends weren’t in the mood;
but maybe I sucked because they’d hear, Elf shot the food!

@DanielJSinger42
Even before I saw Raiders,
I kicked butt at Space Invaders.

Three second-place finishers each get an unsigned arc and a Ready Player One t-shirt.

@oneswellfoop
Her lips were like cherries, her hair was so flaxen,
I should’ve let her beat me at least once on Zaxxon.

and

I guess you can call me an old party pooper,
but I knew Mario before he was Super.

@T2itter
Playin’ Oregon Trail, it was gettin’ kind of hairy:
Somebody died of typhoid (And it wasn’t even Mary!)

@jr_scally
A life lesson learned from Mario’s hassle:
It’s more than just the princess that’s in another castle.

These grand prize winners both get a signed ARC and a Ready Player One t-shirt

@ChocoLibrarian
Hop the barrel, climb the ladder, go along
Missed the jump, now I’m flatter - Thanks Donkey Kong

@jope
Turn, turn, fire, turn - execute a controlled burn.
Swift reactions are the key, when dodging rocks in zero-g

@jope also had two other killer entries:

I am the hero of the tale, here to kill evil and his horde.
I break pots and steal your gold, to afford the Master Sword.

In some games the rooms are dark and the ghosts are shiny.
Just eat your pills Pacman, don’t be so whiny

Prizes are provided by Crown Publishing and Random House Library. I’ll be contacting the winners via twitter with instructions about how to claim them.

You can check out all of the entries here.