Ben's Game is a video game about fighting cancer. When normal cells are damaged or old they undergo apoptosis; cancer cells, however, avoid apoptosis. ...

The game is a brain child of Ben Duskin--an American boy who is in remission from Leukemia. Leukemia (leukaemia in Commonwealth English) is a group of blood diseases characterized by malignancies (cancer) of the blood-forming tissues. ...

Eric Johnston, a software engineer from LucasArts supported Ben to make the game. Software engineering (SE) is the profession concerned with specifying, designing, developing and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, and other fields. ... LucasArts Entertainment Company (sometimes shortened to LEC), is a video game developer and publisher. ...

It is free, multilingual and can be downloaded on-line.

Theme

With a child patient as the hero miniaturized to microscopic level adventuring inside the child's own body, the object is to destroy all cancer cells and to collect the seven shields against common side effects of chemotherapy. Each shield is guarded by a "monster" -- an incarnation of one of those side effects. A patient is the name given to any person who is ill or injured and is being treated by, or in need of treatment by, a physician or other medical professional. ... Sir Galahad, a hero of Arthurian legend In many myths and folk tales, a hero is a man or woman (the latter often called a heroine), traditionally the protagonist of a story, legend or saga, commonly possessed of abilities or character far greater than that of a typical person, which... Resizing (including size-changing, miniaturization, magnification, shrinking, and enlargement, is a theme in fiction, especially science fiction. ... A microscope (Greek: micron = small and scopos = aim) is an instrument for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked or unaided eye. ... Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat disease. ... Incarnation, which literally means enfleshment, refers to the conception, and live birth of a sentient creature (generally human) who is the material manifestation of an entity or force whose original nature is immaterial. ...

Three health levels serve as ammunition in the game: Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ...

• Health the child get from the hospital
• Ammo the child get from the pharmacy
• Attitude the child get from home

Trivia

• The game is free and can be downloaded on-line.
• It can be played in 9 languages.
• It has used some of LucasArts' copyrights (including effects used in Starwars game series).
• The image of the hero might be costomized.

Also, Imaging cancer as realistic figures and defeating them is considered helpful to the treatment. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

External Links

Ben's Game - Make-a-Wish (http://www.makewish.org/site/pp.asp?c=cvLRKaO4E&b=64401) -- Official site hosted by Make-a-Wish foundation)