'Balloon Boy' Spawns Online Game
United Press International
Oct 23, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO -- Falcon Heene, the Colorado "balloon boy," has gone viral with an online video game that begins in a balloon and ends in his parents' attic, a gamer said.
The 6-year-old's virtual image fights off falcons -- the bird kind -- and left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore, the New York Daily News reports.
"We saw the incident happening on TV last week and decided to make a game," said Jude Gomila of San Francisco, who helped create the game. "It took us about six hours and we launched it out to our friends on Twitter."
Falcon's parents told authorities last week he might have taken off in their homemade weather balloon, setting off a land and air search across two counties in Colorado. Falcon turned out never to have left the family's Fort Collins home and the parents face criminal charges.
The game is distributed by Heyzap, a new online gaming company. The balloon boy homepage is on Moore's Web site, with a headline: "How Many $$$ of Tax Payer Money Can You Waste?"
Another company, zazzle.com, has set up a Balloon Boy Store to peddle Falcon Heene merchandise like key rings.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International
