Isso pode ser Interrupção em tempo real por J. P. Hogan, publicado em 1995.
As a brilliant scientist at a leading computer corporation, Joe Corrigan heads an ambitious project, dubbed Oz, to create a virtual reality system capable of mimicking reality in every detail. When he later awakens in a psychiatric ward with much of his memory gone and Oz apparently terminated, his predominant concern is to find a new place for himself in a world that now seems strangely mundane and humorless. Then into his life walks Lilly, who has a recent personal history uncannily like his, and Joe begins to catch on: Oz was never terminated, and he and Lilly are trapped in a computer simulation being run for a purpose Joe never approved (source)
Um jogo não tão bom, Death Dream de Ben Bova, publicado em 1994 ( link ).