Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 118 Combination Punch!
"What did you say?"

"problem occurs?"

"Oh Julis—don't scare me—"

Ethan pursed his lips and looked at his company's executive director with fear.

It's no wonder he behaved like this, mainly because he was frightened by the actions of these people before.

Previously, the fired workers at the factory had already caused trouble, but his subordinates said there was no problem. In this case, when they felt there was a problem...

Wouldn’t that be like the sky falling?
Julis Noble had no intention of joking. She pressed the door of the office and said to Ethan, "Boss! Come and take a look! Something really happened!"

The urgent words made Ethan get up quickly and follow the other party to the company's lounge, which was already crowded with people at this moment. Unlike the usual short rest, now they all cast their eyes on the Sharp TV in the middle of the lounge. At the same time, an advertisement was flashing on the black and white screen.

Since the commercials were already playing when Ethan arrived, he didn't see the synopsis, but that didn't matter, because the content shown now was enough to give him a full picture of the situation.

"I am very happy to introduce our new product of Mirohua to you here..."

A young man in a suit and tie held up a square machine and said to the camera:
"The home game console that we are about to launch is called MIRO Apollo. The reason for this name is that this product is more powerful than the previous Odyssey..."

"The previous Odyssey was just a simple home console with a circuit board. A single machine could only carry a maximum of eight electronic games. When switching games, players had to manually replace the game motherboard in the machine. The gaming process was also very troublesome because the signal source and the TV could not automatically match. Many players had to manually find the signal source of the Odyssey on the TV..."

"but……"

“All these inconveniences are now a thing of the past!”

"Because it uses Intel 8080 Apollo, it can now connect to TVs of all specifications!"

“When switching games, you can even use the joystick to operate directly!”

“Most importantly, this Apollo comes with a total of twelve video games!”

“Moreover, these twelve games are not simple ball games in the Odyssey machine!”

"In addition to the most classic video game "Ping Pong" that we are all familiar with, the Apollo game console also has the well-known space adventure game "Space Race"..."

"The popular maze game Tank..."

"Gunfight is a shooting game that simulates a revolver duel between western cowboys..."

"The submarine simulation game Sea Wolf..."

"The racing game "Wheel"..."

"And our new racing combat game... Death Race!"

As the young man spoke, the images on the TV kept flashing.

The trial screens of the games carried by Apollo were continuously displayed on the screen.

First, the ping-pong ball that fiddles with the joystick;

Then there is the speed racing car that shakes the joystick;
Then the maze battle with dual joysticks was shown;

Finally, a violent car race with a single joystick is presented!
When the dazzling practical effects appear...

The staff in the Destiny Game immediately exclaimed!
Because they had never seen the scene before!

And that sudden shout was like a heavy hammer, hitting Ethan so hard that he saw stars and felt dizzy!
That's right!

Ethan was shocked!

Although he and Miluohua were rivals, and he was also a time traveler who had seen the development of technology, at this moment, the new machine released by Miluohua still shocked him.

The reason is simple, the effect presented by Apollo can be described as epoch-making!
Before the emergence of Apollo, the game consoles on the market were crude and simple. Not to mention the comparison with the later PS and XBox, people in this era find it troublesome.

As for the reason, it is that the television industry has developed too fast, resulting in inconsistent standards.

In 30, the FCC had already established the standard for analog television, using interlaced scanning, 525 frames per second, and lines per frame to form black and white images. This was the technology of RCA.

In 1953, the FCC approved the standard for color television, which adopted the NTSC format and used a combination of chrominance signals and luminance signals to transmit color images.

Although this is also RCA's technology, in actual use it is also compatible with black and white TV signals, but it is very unfriendly to game consoles, because they have no CPU and have to manually set the compatibility, and this kind of thing is already very difficult for ordinary people who don't understand signal science. And if they are a little dumber... many people can't even understand it with a manual.

When these troublesome problems arose, it was normal that the original version of Odyssey, which was a circuit board game console, did not sell well, but what about now?
Under the demonstration of the young people, the Apollo product can be played normally just by plugging in the cable! Turn on the power to see the game homepage! Flip the joystick to select the game! Press confirm to switch at will!
Even if Ethan lived two lives as a human!

Even if Ethan and Mi Luohua have a grudge!

He also had to applaud this product!

Because Apollo is a really great product.

At the same time, he was also very confused——

Although he has always known that even if Milova was beaten up by him, they would still continue to work in the field of electronic games. They purchased more than 8080 s from Intel and continued to acquire some game production companies. That is the best proof.

But he never expected that Milova's new machine could be released so quickly!
Oh, that's not right.

How can they produce it so quickly and so well?
If the Odyssey product is an elementary school math problem of one plus one equals something, then the Milova Apollo product is definitely an argumentative question to prove why one plus one equals two!

'What the hell is this?'

Ethan was confused.

"If I remember correctly, Mi Luohua bought the chip in July or August last year, right?"

"It's only been half a year, how come they have come up with such a machine?"

Ethan couldn't figure it out.

"No, this machine is aimed at me, right?"

'A home console comes with 12 games, five or six of which are original arcade hits. This is obviously intended to attract arcade players to buy it!'

Thinking of this, Ethan's pupils suddenly shrank.

'MFxxk!'

At this moment, he already felt that Miluohua was punching him fiercely!

But in front of many employees, he did not show any panic.

After watching for a while with a smile, he said in a casual tone, "The machine is doing well."

"But the game is still far from Pac-Man."

"Milova still hasn't realized that content is the key to the gaming industry."

"No matter how good the machine is, it's useless if the game isn't fun."

"More importantly, they brought a lot of arcade games to home consoles."

"Players have already played it once, so why would they spend money on it again?"

When these words appeared, the company employees who were watching the advertisement all breathed a sigh of relief.

Yes.

After discovering that Milova's gaming console had incredible potential, the employees in the company became very nervous.

There’s nothing I can do about it. Who can blame the good treatment in the Destiny Game?
Once the year-end bonus is paid, it is equivalent to half a year's salary for a normal person. Where can you find such a company?
But even though Ethan showed complete calmness in front of his employees, he still couldn't hold back after returning to the office, and shouted at Julis Noble:

"Hurry, hurry! Go collect information about Milova Apollo for me!"

"I want all the information about it! All the information!"

At the same time, he did not let go of Damio Dean. Looking at the young man who was running around with him, he also shouted: "What are you still standing here for? Help her!"

He knew the boy wanted to make a game, but in this situation, how could he make a Der game? His house was about to be robbed!
Perhaps because the product had been officially released, information related to Mirowa Apollo was quite easy to find. After a while, the two came back with a pile of newspapers.

'...'

Although it seems strange to get information about the enemy by reading the newspaper, Ethan can't bear it now. He picks up the newspaper and reads it directly, regardless of whether the news is right or wrong.

If television advertising is about promoting products to the general public in the shortest possible time, then newspaper publication is about introducing products to the general public who are willing to read through detailed descriptions.

After reading it, Ethan found that Milova Apollo was not as simple as advertised on TV.

Those twelve games are just selling points that the public can see.

There is much more in-depth content.

For example——

Although MIRO integrated twelve video games into one product, in fact, this machine can play more video games because MIRO Apollo has a ROM tape interface.

As long as users buy Milova's external box and then buy Milova's game cartridges, they can switch freely between more electronic games.

Although this function is very common in later generations, but now...

Mirowa used to sell in-flight games.

For another example——

The shooting games that Milova mentioned are not simulated operations with joysticks like electronic arcade games, but they realize the free combination of light guns and screens.

If nothing goes wrong, this is a special patent of Nintendo.

What Ethan couldn't understand the most was that the Milova Apollo also had a CD interface.

According to media reports, the real vision of the company, MILOVA, is to bring happiness to more people. Electronic games are just one of the means of entertainment. Home movies are also a difficult problem they want to overcome. To this end, they are actively communicating with Hollywood companies to strive to produce more CD content before the CD equipment is launched on the market...

When this description appeared, Ethan just felt his teeth hurt!

Now he has no idea what Milova is doing!

'Can I play games and watch videos?'

'You have peripherals, but you can also take over?'

'Isn't this an XBox?'

That's right!

At this moment, he felt that the guy he was fighting with was not an electronic consumer product company at all, but a giant company! Because this new game console called Apollo was too much like an XBox!
Or...

Perhaps the only difference between it and XBox is that it doesn't have the Internet?

At this moment, Ethan almost pulled all the hair off his forehead!
Because he couldn't understand why they could become as smart as Sun Wukong overnight and produce such a perverted product after he only slapped Miluohua twice.

“Isn’t this too unscientific?”

Ethan just felt like he had traveled through time again.

Because in his memory, such things should not exist in the world today!
At the same time, he also had a sense of crisis.

If the home consoles made by Milova were electronic garbage like the Odyssey, Ethan Jones would have ten thousand ways to make those junk die violently.

But now, when people start making machines seriously...

This kind of product should not be underestimated, right?
But unfortunately, Ethan's sense of crisis only lasted for a few hours.

Because that afternoon, an even more explosive piece of news shocked him.

"Our reporter has recently received news that Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, a subsidiary of Hollywood film company Warner Bros. and a former giant in the video game industry, has publicly announced that Atari's home console product has been developed and is now in the testing phase..."

"If everything goes well, the product will be officially released at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago on April 1 this year, and will be officially sold on June 1 this year..."

"This product uses the Intel 8080 micro-CPU as its core and is equipped with 2KB of built-in storage. It is expected to be able to carry up to nine games at the same time..."

"According to Nolan Bushnell, this unnamed product will carry not only Pong, the most famous game in the history of video games, but the remaining eight games will all be brand new products, including Breakout, which Atari had already developed last year but cancelled its sale in arcades due to the company's strategic planning..."

"In Nolan Bushnell's words, he has deeply realized the harm that electronic arcade products have on consumers. Although the price of 25 cents per time can allow countless people to experience the beauty of electronic games, the continuous insertion of coins will actually bring huge economic pressure to people..."

"He said that in the early days of promoting electronic games, it was okay to use electronic arcades to let people know about this product, but now that people have accepted this form of entertainment, as a responsible entrepreneur, he needs to take the lead and bring more benefits to the public..."

"From today, Atari will officially withdraw from the video arcade market and focus on the research and development of home game consoles. He is eager to bring cheaper and more fun video games to fans who support Atari and the public who love video games. In an interview, he even claimed that Atari is not the kind of unscrupulous company that only cares about its own interests and abandons user experience..."

When Ethan finished listening to the ABC news report, he almost overturned the table in front of him!
He was not a fool, of course he could clearly hear that Nolan Bushnell was scolding him!

What does it mean that 25-cent electronic arcade machines bring huge economic pressure to the people?
What does it mean for a responsible entrepreneur to bring more benefits to the people?
"I—"

"You ran away because you couldn't beat me, didn't you?"

Ethan was furious!
At the same time, he also felt something was wrong.

If he remembered correctly, didn't Atari buy a few thousand MOS 6502s from Chuck Pete last year? Didn't they buy ten APPLE 1s from Apple?
How come it suddenly became Intel 8080?
more importantly……

"When did they start developing home consoles?"

Although Atari did make home consoles in Ethan's previous life, that was after Atari dominated the world. In this time and space, Atari had been beaten by him so badly that it hadn't made any real profit in two years, and yet they still made a home console?
What the hell is this?

Ethan couldn't figure it out!
But there was one thing he could confirm.

That means Atari is also punching him!

If this wasn't a premeditated production, how could Atari suddenly come up with a home game console product?
If this wasn't a premeditated operation, how could Atari choose to launch its new console at this year's summer Consumer Electronics Show?

"Fuck!"

"You guys are just putting on a show for me, right?"

The more Ethan thought about it, the more something seemed wrong!

Ever since his "Pac-Man" last year swept across North America with overwhelming force, the North American video game market has been silent.

At that time, he thought that the group of people were all scared by him.

Because many companies are ordering MOS 6502 and APPLE 1 crazily.

This scene made Ethan think that these companies were engaged in an arms race.

So when he heard about MIT and Atari acquiring other game companies at the bicentennial celebration, he just thought they were taking advantage of the situation.

The orders they placed with Apple and Chuck Petrus later confirmed Ethan's idea.

But now...

What does it mean to be afraid of being beaten?
These two guys have obviously learned their lesson!

I know that I can’t expose it before it’s done!
"What the hell! I was outshined by two natives?"

Thinking of this, Ethan became even angrier.

Not for any other reason, I just feel a little embarrassed.

"It's a good thing no one knows about these things." He muttered to himself.

At the same time, he was also thinking about how to get his place back.

No more at night

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(End of this chapter)