Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 167 The alternation of old and new
"Boss, in the past two months, I designed a scrolling racing game. The reason why it is called a scrolling game is that the car controlled by the player can only move horizontally. The so-called extreme speed is achieved by reversing the scene. The gameplay of this game is very simple. Players will control the car in the game to move forward continuously. In this process, they need to avoid obstacles that appear randomly on the road. As the game progresses, the roads will appear faster and faster. When the player hits an obstacle, the whole game will be declared over..."

"Boss, the game I designed is a collection game. The gameplay is that every once in a while, some stones will fall from the top of the screen, and the player can collect the stones by moving the bag below. It has two modes. In the single-player mode, the player faces the challenge of clearing the level, that is, constantly collecting stones until the speed of the stones increases. If the player fails to collect all the stones, he will fail. In the multiplayer mode, we will set a fixed number of levels and let two players compete with each other..."

"Boss, the game I designed is a shooting game..."

Two weeks later, when the topic of the canal handover was getting less and less popular, Ethan Jones finally came out of the hole and returned to the game of fate he loved. Because he had been away from the company for a month, the first thing he did after returning was to gather the department employees to check the work results.

The game development department led by Damio Dean was the first one he visited. Following the narration of Larry Kaplan, David Crane, the founder of Activision in his previous life, and Trip Hawkins, the founder of EA, pixel games appeared before him one after another.

“You have a great idea.”

After listening to these people's explanations, Ethan gave his own evaluation.

"Racing games can be made directly, I personally think there is no problem... The collection game needs to be slightly modified. The gameplay does not need to change, but the idea of ​​catching stones with a bag is too boring. So, change the stones to gold coins and change the name of the game to Windfall. It will make the players feel much better, right? After all, who in this world doesn't love money? As for shooting... let's do it..."

"Yeah!!!"

“Wow!!!”

“Long live the boss!!!”

The final establishment of each project made everyone in the conference room smile. The reason why these people gathered again was to develop the game. Now Ethan was willing to delegate power and let them follow their own inspiration, which was a wonderful thing for any creative person.

Those excited faces also made Ethan smile and nod.

After his employees left with their project reports, Ethan turned his gaze to his game development director, "Damio, where's your project?"

Unlike those guys who had dreams, Damio Dean, the company veteran, came empty-handed today. Facing the boss's question, this guy who was only a few years older than Ethan smiled shyly, "Boss, I don't have any good ideas for now. If I get some interesting inspiration someday in the future, I will definitely tell you, and..."

He changed the subject and said, "These new guys all want to make a big splash, so they basically study their ideas on their own. But because some people can't program, like Trip Hawkins, they need programmers to cooperate with them when they are conceiving projects. In order to get them on the same starting line, I helped them..."

Ethan smiled widely after hearing this little story. "The newly formed department is actually a mess?"

"Oh - these people really don't know how to cooperate for mutual benefit." He sighed.

Damio Dean didn't think it was a big problem. "Boss, this is just the beginning. After their first game is released, there will be a clear distinction in status in the office. At that time, I think they will naturally choose to cooperate."

"Hahaha——" Ethan laughed.

"Damio, you are so funny! They are clearly competing with each other in terms of talent, but how come it becomes a street story about speaking with fists when you tell it?"

"That's about right." Damio Dean replied naturally with a smile on his face.

But Ethan was not interested in such trivial matters.

"Since you don't have your own project for the time being, how about I arrange two jobs for you?"

"No problem, boss!" Damio Dean responded quickly.

Ethan smiled and said, "Then let me briefly tell you about the project concept. First, we want to develop a female-oriented Pac-Man. I've already come up with a name for the game. It's called Ms. Pac-Man..."

"The second one is the sequel to Snake, Battle. Two players control different snakes on a screen to compete in eating. Whoever gets more points wins. And one of the snakes is green and the other is pink. Then you give them names..."

Since Barbara is a staunch feminist and her junior is the murderous Langmie, the project of maintaining the arcade market will naturally be put on Ethan's agenda.

Eh--

Ethan Jones had no intention of licking it!

The main thing is that it happened by coincidence!
Before this, Ethan had decided to make Ms. Pac-Man, but due to Nintendo's sudden betrayal, the sudden appearance of Alien, and Warner's sudden attack, he had no time to plan a specific project.

Now, when these feminists want to win him over, they respond with their main game, which is the right support. When Ms. Pac-Man is released, they will definitely believe that Destiny attaches great importance to women's rights.

Of course, this is actually a fact, right?
Since the establishment of Destiny Game, Evelyn has been the chairman and CEO of the company. Ethan, a 22-year-old kid who has not received higher education, can only serve as a president with difficulty.

When corporate structures are ahead of the historical trend, who dares to say they are incorrect?
(laugh~
Okay, okay, no more jokes. Since both the donkey and the elephant party have set their sights on them, normal contact is still necessary. Evelyn will maintain the donkey side, while Thomas will maintain the elephant side.

In the past few days, Ethan has communicated with Thomas. Since the former governor of California has come to him, it would be no problem to donate some money in the name of the agricultural company. What's more, Thomas is a farmer with a good family background, so doing this kind of thing is no pressure for him.

As for whether there is a problem with two parties in one family?
There may be problems in other countries, but there will be absolutely no problems on the American continent, because America is such a magical country where one's party identity can be switched at will.

In his previous life, when Ethan was in New York, he witnessed the founder of Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg, jumping back and forth. He was a leader of the Donkey Party at the beginning, but in order to become the mayor of New York, he decisively gave up his Donkey Party identity and joined the Elephant Party to seek support. Shortly after he retired, he re-registered as a Donkey Party member in order to run for president.

Perhaps for ordinary people, standing firmly on one side can reap the benefits they want, but for capitalists, whoever is obedient will be supported. Otherwise, how could the word "financial sponsor" be spread? If the candidates are really brave, they can use their own money to run for election!
"The console is coming soon, because I have a reference in reality, so I know what functions a home game console should have, and I have almost finished drawing the internal circuit board."

"Next, I will ask them to purchase parts and assemble a prototype to see if there are any problems with the design and actual operation, and then see the effects of the combination of various chips and 6502."

"For example, although Texas Instruments' image chips are cheap, they may be incompatible with the 6502. If this is the case, we will probably have to use Motorola's chips. After all, their chips and the 6502 come from the same source, right?"

"Oh, by the way, where is the project book for the shooting game you told me about last time?"

"You've been staying at home these few days, so you should have finished the painting, right?"

After arranging the arcade game development work, Ethan went into his sister's office again and asked her about the console and console game development.

Ethan both understood and didn't understand what Evelyn said.

If he said he understood, it meant he knew the development of the console was going smoothly, and the only problem might be the choice of chips. If he said he didn't understand, it meant he didn't understand whether the graphics processor and the central processing unit were compatible or not. Wasn't the development environment in the early days of computers too poor?

But Ethan did not ask this question. It was not a question of whether Evelyn would give him an answer, but once Evelyn started to answer, she would try to make Ethan understand her words like in class. Ethan would usually resist knowledge that did not belong to him.

Therefore, after getting the answer that the R&D department was ready, he immediately pulled out the "Contra" level diagram he had designed in the past few days from behind him, pushed it in front of his sister, and then took a step forward to escape.

Just as he was about to leap out of the office, Evelyn spoke again.

"You're not going out today?"

"no."

"That's good. An optics expert will come to discuss optical storage later. Although I have decided to cooperate with him, you'd better meet him. After all... this is a project with a guaranteed R&D budget of more than one million. I can sign it directly, but you'd better know it."

During the time that Ethan was hiding from the limelight, the optical storage project cooperation he proposed had been finalized by Evelyn. The person in charge was not a Stanford professor, but a big shot who worked for California Institute of Technology and General Electric and was personally recommended by the chairman of Stanford's physics department.

This big shot is named Robert Hall. He was born in 1919. He once worked for Lockheed and later did research for General Electric. He is currently a member of the American Academy of Engineering.

His greatest invention was a magnetron developed during WW2 that could emit continuous-wave magnetic interference to enemy radar. This magnetron was later phased out by the military and entered civilian use, becoming the heating tube of most microwave ovens today.

In addition, he also invented the world's first laser diode, which enabled the telecommunications, medical, and chip industries to flourish at an unstoppable pace.

So, when the head of Stanford's physics department returned from vacation and learned that Ethan and Evelyn wanted to study optical storage, he directly recommended this industry leader to them.

The process of recruiting people was also very smooth, because during WW2, the US military's radar project research was led by President Fred Terman at Harvard, and the two were originally "colleagues".

Let them start a project to study optical storage, that's really easy!

That’s weird——

"Fred is really annoying me to death!"

"He called me again and again, saying that I rejected Stanford and returned to Caltech, my alma mater, which was disrespectful to him!"

"He said I didn't give him face back then, so I have to give him face now, otherwise he will keep complaining before he dies that he accomplished everything except hiring me!"

"I'm really convinced!"

"In his mouth, serious scientific research is like treating someone to a meal!"

"He's driving me crazy! I have no choice but to come here!"

“What kind of product do you want?”

"You tell me, as long as I can do it, I will definitely do it for you!"

When Ethan met the old man in his fifties or almost sixty recommended by Stanford in the company's reception room, his extremely complaining tone filled the air with a sour taste.

His endless stream of words vented his inner dissatisfaction.

His dancing movements told of his inner anger.

But even so, the old man did not leave. Instead, he sat there with his butt welded to his seat, slamming the table and asking Ethan and Evelyn to quickly make their requests.

This was the first time that Ethan had seen such an unsatisfactory way of cooperation.

And when he turned his head and looked at Evelin...

He saw a hint of affirmation in his sister's eyes.

Such a clear statement made Ethan's eyelids twitch. At this moment, he finally understood what kind of status President Fred Terman had in the American scientific community.

That's simply what people hate and dogs hate!
Ah bah bah!

Just give me some face!

He shook his head, ignored it, smiled and said, "Uh... Professor Hall..."

"Just call me Robert. I know Ralph, and he said you're a great young man. I know Arnold, too, and we worked together at GE before." The thin old man with glasses waved his hand and said, "If it weren't for them, I wouldn't bother with Fred!"

"He's so annoying!"

'oh--'

Ethan understood. "So it's an acquaintance of an acquaintance! Isn't that an old acquaintance?"

When Robert Hall mentioned the names of Ralph Baer and Arnold Spielberg, Ethan was immediately relieved and directly stated his needs.

"Well... what I want is a CD player that can play the sounds and images stored on a CD... Different from the ones currently launched by Philips and MCA, I want a large-capacity CD that can hold games on one disc... And, it would be best if the player is small enough to hold in your hand... Oh, yes! It would be even better if the data on the CD could be easily erased and then re-burned... These... shouldn't be difficult, right?"

Ethan described as best he could what the future disc would look like.

After listening to his description, Robert Hall touched his cheek.

He looked at Evelin with a puzzled look, and said with a toothache, “Uh, Evelin, is this how you usually communicate? He doesn’t know any professional terms?”

“Yes…” Evelyn nodded with a smile.

"Oh! My! God!"

Robert Hall shook his head. "It's amazing that you can still do this."

As soon as he finished speaking, he stood up and said goodbye.

As the old man walked away quickly, Ethan looked at his back in confusion.

"Did he agree to this?"

"of course."

"But he didn't say anything!"

"Maybe it has something to do with your description?"

"Am I that unprofessional?"

"Guess? Hahahahaha—"

As Evelyn's laughter faded away, Ethan twisted his mouth and tutted.

Although he doesn't understand technology, he knows what kind of technology will be developed!
Just on this point, these scientists are far behind!

After gaining a spiritual victory in an Ah Q way, Ethan went back to the office.

With the core business finalized, future products established, and scientific patents collected, he can finally sit back in his boss chair and listen to reports on finance and other aspects.

The company's financial director Aaron Massey said that in the past few months, the arcade shipments of "Star Wars" have reached a new high. In addition to the 10,000 units ordered by Fox, the additional purchases by other small merchants have pushed the total shipments of arcade machines to 48,000 units. If nothing unexpected happens, the sales of this game will create an astonishing history, breaking through 50,000, touching 60,000, looking forward to 70,000, and tapping 80,000.

Although the shipment volume of a single arcade machine in the North American arcade market is not as good as that of the original, Ethan is not surprised by the current performance, because the game he sells is called "Star Wars"! If this name could not create history and break the record of "Donkey Kong" launched by Nintendo in his previous life, then George Lucas would not have made billions of dollars with an IP.

If the number one IP in North America can't compete, then there's nothing America can compete with.

In addition, the payment from Nintendo has also arrived, and they have settled the amount of the report brought in last period. At the same time, they also hope that Ethan can fulfill his promise as soon as possible.

"What?" Ethan didn't understand what Nintendo meant.

He looked at Alan Massey with a confused look on his face and asked, "What promise?"

He doesn't remember promising Nintendo anything.

"Supervisor." Aaron Massey reminded.

"Oh—" Ethan remembered.

Then his face darkened, "Why are they rushing this matter again?"

Ethan has been undecided about sending supervisors to the chip factory because there are very few people around him whom he can trust.

He had been troubled by this matter before, and now, Nintendo is urging him again?

Pooh!
These people are so damn mean!

He didn't react at all when I caused trouble before, but now he has become obedient after being hit.

Just as Ethan was thinking about how to solve his problem, Allen Massey said, "Ethan, if you don't have a suitable person, then let Julis go."

'? '

The suggestion shocked Ethan.

"Julis?" This is the administrative director of their company!

"Yes." Alan Massey nodded and said, "She actually had the same idea."

‘! ’

A big exclamation mark suddenly appeared on Ethan's head.

"What is this?"

"Julis wants to go to the book herself?"

He quickly asked Alan Massey to call the girl.

After Julis Noble sat down in the chair opposite the boss's desk, she finally expressed her inner thoughts, "Boss, do you still remember our initial conversation?"

“It’s the conversation we had when the company was first established and recruiting.”

"At that time I told you that my purpose in coming to the company was to find answers."

"I want to know whether people are free and whether they have absolute freedom."

"I think I have found the answer on the day you scolded Arakawa Minoru."

"That day, I was standing guard outside the reception room, and I heard you say that we don't need evidence to solve a case. As long as we think you have it, then you have it."

"At that moment, I seemed to understand the meaning of freedom. As long as I can decide what others think, or in other words, as long as I can make others accept my will, whether they are willing or not, whether the process is forced or not, then we are free."

"This kind of thing may not happen easily in our country, but in this book, it seems to be easy to achieve."

“So I wanted to give it a try.”

"Go and have a taste of freedom."

Julis Noble looked at Ethan with a smile.

The face beneath the golden hair was filled with desire.

'...'

Ethan blinked his eyes, and his right hand, which was spinning the pen, slowed down.

After looking at Julis seriously and confirming that she was not joking... Ethan immediately complained in his heart, "Damn it, why are all the women I meet more eager for success than the other?"

'Are intellectual women in America in the 1970s so terrible?'

Although he had doubts in his heart, Ethan would not ask about it out loud.

Instead, he changed the subject and asked, "Do you speak Japanese?"

“They definitely know English.”

"Do you know that the lifestyle over there might be different from ours?"

"They'll help me become the same."

"Then do you know what you are going to do over there?"

"We will keep an eye on Nintendo, from its gaming business to its chip business, and collect information about their previous claims about the home game console cooperation to confirm the authenticity of the information we received. Although the truth is not important, the honesty of Nintendo is very important."

"Hiss..." Ethan became interested in the girl's work direction.

"Are you sure you can do it?" He also wanted to know every move Nintendo made.

"Of course!" Julis Noble answered affirmatively, "After that, I started learning Japanese and Japanese characters by myself. As long as the company arranges a translator for me when I go there this time, I am confident that I can master their language and writing within a year..."

Okay, Ethan is convinced.

"I have one last question. Do your family members agree?"

He stared at Julis Noble, wanting an answer.

The girl smiled and said, "My dad wants me to go back and get married, but I don't like that guy."

"Snapped!"

Ethan's eyes went dark and he raised his hand to his forehead.

Got it!

He finally understood why Julis Noble took the initiative to apply for an overseas assignment!

It turns out this guy wanted to escape from marriage!
(End of this chapter)