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I trying to track down a book I read in the 80's.
It was about a boy (who I think was called Colin for some reason) who was obsessed with a Space Invaders-type arcade game.

He was involved in some competitions and somehow got sucked into the game and ended up working the machine from the inside.

I bought this from a school book club here in the U.K., and it would have been from around 86-88, I would imagine?

I've searched a few of the "sucked into game" book threads on here, but this one doesn't seem to have cropped up yet.

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    Could it be Colin's Fantastic Video Adventure by Kenneth Oppel? Seems to be more a "the game's spaceships are real and come out" rather than being sucked in the game, but it came out in 1985 and the name matches. Also found a description where they help him wins some contests with the game, so I'm going to risk adding it as an answer.
    – starpilotsix
    Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 23:34
  • Brilliant! You are exactly right, I've just found the exact front cover of the version I had! Two little men carving an apple! Hahaha, top marks sir, and thank you!
    – Big deano
    Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 23:41

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Possibly Colin's Fantastic Video Adventure

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Goodreads description:

Eleven-year-old Colin discovers that the spaceships in his favorite video game are actually controlled by tiny men, who promise to help him in an upcoming contest.

I also found this description from the School Library Journal on an Amazon page for it:

When Colin's favorite video game, Meteoroids, breaks down, he discovers that its space ship is actually piloted by two little men, Snogel and Drogel. With their help, Colin wins a local and a regional Meteoroids contest but decides that it would be cheating to use their help in the national contest. Playing on his own, he loses, but knows that he has been honest. The story ends with Colin entering the video game with his two small friends.

So, we have the 'contest' aspect, the 'video games are real', entering the game at the end, and the name Colin, in addition to the publication date of 1985 (interestingly, written when the author was 14/15).

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