Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 157 Going Bald

In Ethan's plan, Destiny Game should walk on two legs at the same time. The specific way to show this is to continue to work in the electronic arcade industry while launching home consoles.

Since they have already dominated the North American arcade market, or in other words, when most of the arcade markets in the world can bring them huge profits, it is impossible for them to easily give up everything they have in order to push the console. Firstly, it takes time for players to switch platforms. Secondly, giving up the arcade market easily will undoubtedly leave opportunities for the other two companies... No, it is to leave opportunities for Atari.

Therefore, in Ethan's vision, after he designed "Northern Cube" as a flagship masterpiece for home consoles, the focus of the remaining work would be concentrated on the company's R&D department, allowing the guys there to create his inspiration while making the games they like.

He has also made up his mind about the game aspect. He will continue to operate the two IPs of "Pac-Man" and "Snake", and launch "Ms. Pac-Man" and the two-player competitive version of "Snake 2".

There is no need to say much about the former, which is a female version of Pac-Man, and the game levels are recreated for it; the latter is simpler, which is to split the screen into two, make two joysticks, and let players have a thrilling survival duel on the streets.

Although this practice of re-using games may be suspected of making bad money and may damage the company's reputation, in many cases, business and reputation cannot coexist, right? When the company's development goal is to maintain the existing market and attract users in the existing market to new projects, the games launched in the existing market naturally cannot steal the limelight from the new projects.

If not...

When arcade games are always fun, how many users will buy home consoles?
In this case, should "Northern Cube" be released into the arcade market?
MFxxk!

So what kind of games should he come up with to attract users to the console?

Even if he is a time traveler, he cannot answer this question!
Because in his previous life, after "Northland Cube" was launched, it slaughtered all competitors!
"Uh—Evelyn—you should know what your thoughts mean, right?"

Ethan straightened things out in front of his sister.

And after listening to his description, Evelin smiled and nodded, saying, “Of course.”

"I understand what you mean, and I believe you have the ability."

"Come on!" While speaking, the girl raised her right hand to cheer Ethan.

Ethan felt helpless seeing her full of energy.

"Oh - I told you, I was joking."

"Oh - I thought you were being modest now."

The girl's crazy squeeze made Ethan laugh and cry.

He raised his hand to signal to stop. He didn't want to continue on this topic that was getting further and further away. "Okay, okay, let's change the subject. Can you tell me, is this game difficult to make?"

The topic of returning to the right track made Evelin stop teasing. Looking at the face full of curiosity, the girl sighed and said, "This is the second big problem."

"Even if we solve the chip computing power problem, it will still take a lot of time to make this game. Because in my initial reading, I have already found two difficulties. The first one is the infinite game you emphasized."

The girl pointed at the concept map on the table and said, "Although we have already dabbled in the field of infinite games when making Star Wars, such things as infinite games will never appear in machines. Moreover, the infinite games in Star Wars and the infinite games in Destiny Cube are two different concepts. The specific difference, I think, lies in the cube itself."

"In Star Wars, the unlimited game is about the constant appearance of Imperial ships and the confrontation with players. The biggest change is that as time goes on, the appearance and speed of Imperial ships will undergo some special changes, but their operating nature and trajectory will remain unchanged."

"And in the "Destiny Cube" you are designing now, the unlimited game allows seven kinds of blocks to appear continuously, and players are asked to put them in the appropriate positions to eliminate them."

"On the surface, the blocks in Fate Cube and the spaceships in Star Wars are of the same nature, but in fact, there is a difference between the two. The appearance of the spaceships in Star Wars is artificially set, while the appearance of the blocks in Fate Cube is 'random'."

The girl emphasized the word 'random'.

Ethan thought he understood and said directly: "You mean, machines can't be truly random?"

Although Ethan didn't understand technology, he was clear about the fact that computers could never achieve true randomness. To describe it in a literary sense, no one in the world could give a true definition of randomness. When the human brain couldn't explain this metaphysical abstract concept, computers that relied on logical calculations couldn't do it either. So no matter now or in the future, at least before Ethan traveled through time, randomness on computers was pseudo-randomness.

When Ethan said 'really random', the girl was stunned for a moment, then said, "Yes."

“But it’s not.”

"I said yes because what you said is correct. I said no because I personally think that the game "Fate Cube" itself cannot be written simply in a pseudo-random way."

Evelyn pointed to the blocks on the blueprint and said, "In your imagination, this game has a total of seven blocks, namely, a small square represented by the letter 'O', a long strip represented by the letter 'I', a staggered trapezoid represented by the letters 'S' and 'Z', and a mirrored right angle of 'J' and 'L', and a 'T' shape."

"Whether it's a square, a strip, 'J' and 'L', or 'T', these blocks can appear indefinitely, because even if more of them appear at the same time, the game can proceed. However, the 'S' and 'Z' blocks cannot."

"If there are too many 'S' or 'Z' shaped blocks at the same time, the game of Destiny Cube will inevitably fail."

Evelyn came to her own conclusion.

And Ethan frowned.

"What?" he was puzzled.

"Simply because they can't eliminate themselves by themselves."

Evelin said something very confusing.

The next second she picked up paper and pen and started drawing.

When the girl drew an interface and continued to fill it with 'Z'-shaped blocks, Ethan suddenly discovered that no matter how the 'Z'-shaped blocks were changed, stacked, or flipped, there would always be a small section at the end that could not be filled by themselves.

This fact means that the arrangement of 'ZZZ' and the arrangement of 'NNN' after flipping the blocks are not feasible without any brains. Although this problem may seem ridiculous, because the game "Northern Blocks" allows players to eliminate multiple blocks, it will not provide players with an unlimited number of blocks, but... what if there is a bug? Once the game algorithm does not add restrictions, many identical 'Z' or 'S' shaped blocks will randomly appear at a single time, then the player will face a situation where he is doomed to die.

This……

It is a problem that absolutely cannot occur.

Because it goes against the original intention of game design.

That is, let the players control everything instead of the machine giving the answers.

"So... Evelyn, what you're saying is that if we want to solve this problem, we must artificially control the number of 'S'-shaped and 'Z'-shaped blocks that appear at the same time?"

Ethan understood what his sister meant. He touched his chin and said, "And this limit value takes time to calculate. At the same time, the appearance of this limit value will affect the calculation function of the random appearance of the blocks? This may be a very difficult process?"

“The process is not difficult, it just takes time.”

Evelin shook her head and said, "I can do it, but it's troublesome, and—"

She paused and said, "After solving the problem of random blocks, a new problem arises, which is how to combine the infinite rotation gameplay you designed with infinite randomness."

"In your imagination, these blocks appear from top to bottom, and players need to place them in the right position to ensure that they can be connected and eliminated. In the process, players can rotate the blocks to ensure the fun of the game."

"Although I think this design is good, when infinite rotation is added, there are not only seven types of blocks in the game. In addition to the square, which cannot be changed no matter how it is rotated, the long strip has two postures: vertical and horizontal. There are more 'L', 'J', 'S', 'Z', and 'T'. Their changes will bring a lot of calculations to the game. For example, a 'T' has four different ways of insertion. When the player changes it, in order to ensure that the game does not end due to design reasons, the related calculations will become very large."

"And this..."

“It takes time to do that, too.”

At this point, Evelin patted the drawings Ethan brought with emotion and said, "I really want to do this project, but I don't have time for the time being... I haven't finished the home game console project, and I haven't finalized the project personnel for the disc. If you let me do this now... then even if I have 48 hours a day, it won't be enough!"

The development of the home console was officially finalized after the release of "Star Wars", and the actual operation was actually only for more than a month. When it was difficult to recruit suitable personnel and Evelyn was left alone to research it, it was normal that it was not completed. After all, this was not a pile of materials for a single game circuit board.

As for the indecision about the CD candidate... Evelyn also talked to Ethan about this.

Since Ethan's inspiration came in the summer, during this academic season when classes were optional, many Stanford teachers were on vacation, and some even went abroad on the first day of their vacation. In this era of extremely underdeveloped communications, they simply could not contact everyone, so in order to be fair, well, actually the director of the Stanford Physics Department also had a similar project and was not there, so the final decision on the collaborator would be made in the new academic season, that is, when autumn comes.

Although the delay was only more than a month, when the war just for storage could last for decades, it wouldn't matter if we were a few years behind, let alone a few months behind.

In a protracted war, those who start early can indeed gain an advantage, but it is more about who can outlast others.

And in this regard...

Ethan is not afraid of anyone!
Hehe ~
After confirming that the game "Northland Cube" could not be made, Ethan, who did not want to release it on the arcade, directly burned the idea in front of Evelyn, then returned to the office and scratched his head. Now he really didn't know what to do.

There are indeed countless games in his mind, but there are very few that he can make in this era. Among them, the only ones he can recall the entire content of are "Snake", "Pac-Man", "Space Invaders" and "Northern Cube".

There's nothing we can do about it. Who told him that his brain isn't ChatGPT?
It is simply impossible to store all the experiences of the previous life in its entirety.

He was able to name four games thanks to their simple gameplay.

If it's a little more complicated, he really can't remember it all. For example, "Super Mario"...

Even if he balds his head, he can only recall the classic 1-1!

Speaking of Super Mario...

Ethan admitted that this game is actually the most suitable game for them at the moment.

Because the performance of the home console he asked Evelyn to fix was not very close to that of his previous life's FC, it was exactly the same. The CPU was 6502, the memory was 2K, the color reserve was , and as for the sound source, it was also mono, with a maximum of one synthesized audio.

When the previous FC was able to carry "Super Mario", their current machines would definitely be able to carry the greatness of the plumber, but... Ethan actually didn't want to make "Super Mario", one because he couldn't recall all the levels, and the other was that he wanted to keep operating the "Pac-Man" IP.

That's right!

What he actually wanted to make was Super Pac-Man!
Isn't Super Mario about an Italian plumber saving a bitch princess who was kidnapped by Bowser? Then the plot of Super Pac-Man is about Pac-Man saving Ms. Pac-Man who was kidnapped by ghosts! The mushroom in Super Mario is the Power Ball in Pac-Man, the turtle, chestnut and other monsters in Super Mario are the little ghosts in Pac-Man, and Bowser in Super Mario is the four wise ghosts in Pac-Man!
It’s all copycat gameplay anyway!
So why not cultivate your own IP?

Since a single type of maze adventure game cannot make Pac-Man the world's number one, I will add more elements to it! Let it appear in front of the world again and again on the wave of the times!

If pushing once doesn’t work, push twice. If pushing twice doesn’t work, push three times.

As long as you push it enough, you will eventually get Mickey Mouse, right?
Yes!

The idea of ​​continuing the Pac-Man IP came about after a meeting with Disney.

The reason for its creation is very simple, that is, he really likes these games.

In his previous life, these games brought him endless joy.

In this life, these games allowed him to achieve financial freedom in a very short period of time.

So since these guys have already given enough, why can't we give them a push?

If you fail, you will only lose a little time and money.

If successful, it will give these furry kids a new life.

"What the hell—"

Thinking of this, Ethan sighed as he leaned back in his seat.

"Sure enough, no one in this world can resist being Disney."

He smiled and shook his head. The fairytale kingdom created by Walt Disney was truly enviable.

And since "Super Pac-Man" was to be produced after "Ms. Pac-Man", the escort masterpieces for home consoles would definitely have nothing to do with them.

in this case……

"Oh my god! I need to think of a game that can help the machine sell better!"

Ethan is going crazy!
At this moment, the office door was suddenly knocked from outside.

"Come in," Ethan shouted after he had calmed down.

With a click, Julis Noble came in.

This situation made Ethan's eyebrows twitch, and he took the initiative to ask: "Nothing happened?"

"..." Julis Noble was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "No, Boss, nothing happened in the outside world. And I came here because someone came to visit you in our company."

"Hollywood."

The first half of Julis's words put Ethan at ease, but the second half...

It made him frown.

At this moment, Ethan wondered if these guys had zero emotional intelligence!
He has rejected these people's invitations to cooperate many times, and was very tactful in his words, but they still come to disturb him again and again?
It's like giving them some sunshine makes them shine!
"Who?" he asked unhappily.

"Disney? Paramount? Or MGM?" he guessed.

"Uh - neither of them -" Julis Noble shook her head, "He said his name is Ronald Shusett, and he met you in Los Angeles before and had an appointment with you."

Ronald Shusett?

The name made Ethan look confused.

Because in his memory, he didn't seem to know anyone named Ronald Shusett!
Julis Noble also understood the boss's behavior, and she suggested, "He said he talked to you about the script, a science fiction script? It's called... STAR... STAR... STAR..."

Julis herself had forgotten the name of the script.

"Oh——" Ethan suddenly remembered, "STAR BEAST?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" Julis nodded continuously.

"It's him!"

Ethan knew who the person was. It was a screenwriter he had met at the Star Wars celebration party. At that time, he said that he was not interested in movies. Why did he come here again? And he wanted to meet him under the banner of having an appointment with him?

'Tsk——'

'Why do I feel like Gates' son-in-law?'

To be honest, Ethan didn't really want to see this guy because he was busy with something.

But just as he was about to wave his hand to ask Julis to drive the man away, he put his hand down again as soon as he raised it, and said, "Tell him to wait for me in the reception room. I will be there in five minutes."

Although this follower was a bit annoying, since the other party was a creative person and was persistently promoting his scripts, and was not trying to engage in some weird collaboration, he was still willing to take a few minutes to meet him.

After he finished organizing the documents in his hands and arrived at the reception room on time, he simply shook hands with the other party and asked him straight away whether he had brought the script.

"Of course! Mr. Jones—that's the script."

Ronald Shusett was a middle-aged man with thinning hair. After hearing Ethan's question, he immediately opened his handbag and took out a brand new script.

When Ethan took the script that smelled of ink, he immediately laughed.

"Newly printed?"

"Yes, for your convenience."

Ethan nodded at this preparation, and was very satisfied with this guy's seriousness.

"Good~"

He praised it, then opened the script, wanting to see what this guy had written.

However, after just two glances, his eyes narrowed instantly!
Because it says -

【This is a story about a great white shark in space. 】

[In the future, humans can already travel between stars. The commercial haulage ship Nostromo is carrying seven crew members and 20 million tons of ore back to Earth from the planet Cedus. When passing by an asteroid, they receive a mysterious signal. They go to investigate and find the wreckage of an alien spacecraft. Entering to explore, they see countless eggs. Then, one egg suddenly breaks, and a strange creature pounces on the crew's face. Its name is...]

【Facehugger! 】

Note: ① In the basic setting of the "Northern Kingdom" blocks, the "S" and "Z" shaped blocks cannot appear 13 times in a row. ② "Northern Kingdom" did not have the function of infinite flipping at the beginning, which is very computationally intensive.

PS, reply to a question about hardware performance. All along, when I write about game production, I always use Atari's home console as a reference. As long as Atari's machine can be used, I dare to write that 6502 can do it. This approach of mine has also caused some readers to think that things cannot be generalized. Among them, some say that "Pac-Man" and "Bee" perform very poorly on Atari consoles. For such a question, I take "Pac-Man" as an example. Atari did restore the original Pac-Man with 6502. All the pictures and effects are the same. The reason why the game is reduced when it is sold is that Atari's machine is a 2K ROM, but the game they demonstrated is an 8K ROM. It is because Warner is unwilling to upgrade the machine, so it uses the original version for publicity and sells the reduced version. This was revealed by Todd Fry, an Atari engineer who handled the porting of "Pac-Man". In order to prove himself, he also took out the game restored with 6502+8K ROM. I am indeed not a professional in the field of hardware, but I have tried my best to find out the limits of 6502, and this time I found that I really couldn't make this "Northern Cube". I was cheating, which would violate the laws of physics. I didn't write this just to increase the word count.

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(End of this chapter)