Fatal Deth III

By far the best-selling Virtugame? of the pre-Conflict era, Fatal Deth III was a fairly genreic exercise in open-ended vigilante noir, developed by the otherwise unremarkable Shion Bug Studios. It was based on the exploits of Dexter Potent's popular antiantihero, Mack Deth; Potent himself never authorized the use of his character, but given the draconian rules of the East Rim Consortium prior to the Copyright Dispute, this was both unsurprising and ultimately wise.

The key innovation of Fatal Deth III was its abrupt shift in control scheme, away from the common direct-brainbase jacks of the day and toward more abstract methods. Players would guide Mack's actions loosely--by designing flowcharts, for example, or moving furniture around in their own houses. Mack invariably responded to such stimuli by inflicting violent injury on passersby in-game, but Fatal Deth III nevertheless sold billions of installs; no successful Virtugame would ever use a brainjack again, and it is rumored that the style influenced the pilot-interface geniuses at [Ryne Shipyards]?.

The sequel, Fatal Deth X, would not see completion. After a few enterprising youths discovered that Mack responded equally well to their injuring actual passersby, the principals of Shion Bug were quickly sued to death.