SOLVED. 2 Boys get stuck in a Virtual Reality game [s]

[Bucky]

I read this book a long time ago and have been trying to find it ever since, I'm fairly certain the following description is accurate. Also I think it's a children's book seeing as I read it around 10 years old.

Two young boys wag school one day to try out the new virtual reality arcade game at the local video game arcade. They arrive and everything is fine, they pay the game master and he hooks them up to the equipment and then starts the game. The game is in a fantasy setting and quickly after being overwhelmed by how amazing the game was, it malfunctioned, from then on if the players ran out of lives in-game their body in real life would also die. They couldn't simply be unplugged, so the game master guides them through the game the best he can so that they wouldn't run out of lives.

****SPOILER ALERT - skip this paragraph if you don't want any spoilers****
By the time the players get to the last boss in the game they both only have 1 life left each, but to defeat the boss one of them had to sacrifice a life (for some reason I can't remember), so then one of the boys sacrifices them-self for the other, but somehow the two of them survive and make it out of the game alive.
****SPOILER END**********

I remember some other details about game environments, and I'm fairly certain the book cover had some virtual reality goggles on the the front, I always thought the book title was Virtual Reality, but I haven't been able to find anything called that which resembles this story, so it's probably wrong.

Thank you all for taking the time to read my post, and any help you can provide is much appreciated! :)

[Sarah]

Maybe Rodomonte's Revenge by Gary Paulsen? Here's the description: Two best friends, the best video game players in town, eagerly take on the new virtual reality game at the mall. However, the game takes over the boys' minds, and they must either conquer the program or suffer very real consequences.

The Beast by Bebe Faas Rice also sounds similar, although it looks like one of the main character is a girl: Looking forward to playing a new virtual reality game, Wendy and Grant are impressed by its lifelike monsters and other special effects until the final level of the game proves dangerously real.

[Bucky]

Wow, that's amazing, I just did some more research on Rodomonte's Revenge by Gary Paulsen, and it turns out it was also released under the title 'Video Trap' which is probably why I thought it may be Virtual Reality, small title starting with 'V'.
This has to be the book I read, even seeing the cover is bringing back memories.

Thank you so much Sarah, I'm going to order this book ASAP! :)

[Rainbowheart]

Rodomonte's Revenge for the link.