As far as I've seen throughout the game, he never once seems to realize he's in a video game or anything like that. It's not even somewhat implied like it is for Jevil (in a way that can be interpreted to mean other things, that is), it's just... never really shown from what I can remember. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me it seems like he went mad when the person he was talking to over the phone disappeared. Since that person was aiding him in his sales, once they abandoned him, he didn't have any success. It seems that that was when he started going mad, judging by dialogue from other characters, since that's when he started praying to the machine in the basem*nt.
dude went mad because his whole life came crashing down in seconds after he finally got a taste of success.
it seems that his backstory was basically the Dark World's equivalent to what happened in the Light World, where Spamton is probably the printouts of spam emails you can find in the recycling bin of the Computer Lab.
Tbh, this could also apply to Jevil, since nothing ever states he explicitly knew he was in a video game, just that he started viewing life as a game (and games can come in multiple forms... like card games...), and Jevil is pretty obviously a Joker card, a card which is usually discarded from the deck (like how Jevil was locked away) due to being able to trump any card it faces. He's the wild card, and probably got thrown out of the deck, thus resulting in the Dark World having him be locked up.
Something like that.
Jevil's backstory perfectly encapsulates what he is clearly meant to be. Spamton's backstory seems to work with what he is in the Light World.
See AlsoDeltarune/ShipsHowever, the strange someone (or possibly even multiple people) that caused these things for them (Jevil's madness and Spamton's success followed by him crashing and burning) is still unknown.
I mean it hasn't been confirmed yet so nothing explicitly SAYS it can't be Burgerpants-
(ok, jk, jk, I don't actually headcanon that-)
Basically: Spamton got sales advice and when that advice was ripped away he couldn't actually keep his life afloat on his own, and that's why he went mad. Nothing about being in a game, that's Jevil's, and for Jevil it's ambiguous as to what it actually means anyway (could be multiple things at once, who knows-).
Even the strings thing could just be a reflection of Spamton feeling like he was manipulated by that person, probably for their own amusem*nt, and once they got bored of him they just stopped talking to him and let his life come crashing down, I think? did I miss a line of dialogue or something????
though hey who knows maybe in the next chapters I'll be proven wrong let's see-
