Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 178 Clearing Obstacles, Fortune

Although Ethan had provided Evelyn with the design drawings of game controllers before, whether it was XBox or PS, he drew everything he could think of.

Of course, Nintendo’s weird three-legged controller is not included.

But even so, the controller Evelyn handed him still had a heavy sense of age. On the base of the wooden box was a plastic joystick used in arcade games, and on the side was a red button.

After trying it out, Ethan, a hardcore player, quickly found the trick. He held the base with his left palm, with the button facing his four fingers, and could touch it with a light press. His right hand was like holding the manual gear of a car, freely switching up, down, left, and right. If one had to make a metaphor, the whole process was like grinding ink with one hand, holding the inkstone in the left hand and the ink stick in the right hand.

This action looks a bit strange, but it is indeed very comfortable to use. Every time Ethan fiddles with it, the bright bottom under the game name will flash alternately. After testing the sensitivity several times, Ethan selected "Snake Game" and pressed the side button.

With a click, the main menu on the TV screen disappeared like mercury, and the familiar fence appeared, with a small snake outlined by white pixels also falling in the center.

Pulling the joystick, the little snake was controlled to move forward continuously. It hit the white dots, and the crunching sound of eating made the little snake's body grow larger. In less than half a minute, the original five-grid pixel bar grew to ten grids, and the number '5' appeared in the score column in the upper right corner of the screen. However, even so, the little snake's movement speed did not increase much, and it was still at a level where a second of distraction could make up for it.

"You remade the game Snake?" Ethan was a little surprised. If he remembered correctly, the main feature of the game Snake when it was first sold was a quick ending.

It was precisely because Snake had an unparalleled ability to make money that it sold a lot of machines on the day it was launched. But now, there is a clear difference in the speed of the console version of the game compared to the arcade version.

If arcade games test the player's reaction, then console games test their patience.

“I didn’t edit this…”

"I don't have time to modify the game..."

Evelyn leaned against the desk, supporting the edge of the desk with her hands behind her back, and said with a smile, "This is the computer version of Snake written by Stephen. It's the Snake in the programming code book that's now going viral on the market. He adjusted the speed of the game."

"He thinks that home and street are two different gaming environments. The former allows players to calm down and savor a delicious dish, while the latter provides fast food like McDonald's. So as a designer who was born as a player, he feels that he needs to adjust the gameplay according to the player's state of mind."

“Since you are playing alone at home, the player’s goal should be to set a record.”

"So he lowered the acceleration amplitude and frequency of the snake, so that more ordinary players can enjoy the real fun of the game, while experts can still challenge themselves after a certain period of time."

Good guy!
Ethan really didn't know this!

Although he had experienced the APPLE 2 version of Snake from his classmate Xiao Qiao before, he did not get addicted to it. He just confirmed that the project was feasible after entering the code and finding that the game could run.

At that time, all he could think about was using games to promote Apple 2. Even if Apple 2 sold well, he just thought that Jobs' sales strategy was successful. But now...

In order to make players play a better game, that guy Wozniacki directly modified the game?
No wonder this little fat boy can achieve success!

This guy really focuses on user experience!
“This is a good change.”

The comfortable game speed reminded Ethan of the days in his previous life when he hid in bed with his Nokia phone and played Snake crazily. The feeling of trying hard to make the snake's body fill the screen came back.

“Let’s do this for our console version of Snake,” he decided.

“Hmm~” Evelin said with a smile, “I think it’s good too.”

“So after I put it into the machine, I didn’t make any modifications.”

"And we own the copyright to this game. When the two Steves were making the computer version of Snake, they deliberately put our company's logo and the words "Snake Game" on the programming card. It was almost as if they had written 'This game is an infringing product' on it."

"Goose, goose, goose..." Ethan laughed out loud.

He understood what Joe and Wozniacki meant, which was to help him protect his copyright.

Although it seems a bit strange that pirated games help legitimate games to maintain their copyrights, it is not important, right? For the current Destiny game, making Snake more famous is what really needs to be done, because only when an IP is famous can it be possible to develop peripheral products.

Therefore, when planning the first lineup of console games, the game "Snake" was Ethan's first choice. As for the future, if he wants to make other products, this little snake will appear in those products like a nail house, for no other reason than to make friends.

Ethan was also fascinated by the second-life gameplay of "Snake". He stood in front of the TV, talking to his sister while staring at the screen intently. When he made a mistake and the little snake that occupied half of the screen crashed into itself and died, the regret that came to him made him stamp his feet.

"Fuck you!"

Sit on the coffee table and start a new game.

The concentration on the little snake made Evelyn, who was leaning against the desk, smile brightly.

After playing several rounds in a row, Ethan finally found the new rhythm set by the fat boy Wozniacki for the game. When he followed the momentum and spread the body of the little snake across the entire TV screen for the first time, the clearly layered white picture made him jump for joy.

"Yes!"

“This version is very user-friendly!”

“Stephen is simply a genius!”

"Oh no--"

"He's a genius!"

After completing Snake, Ethan returned to the main menu and opened Pac-Man. Since this game was originally made using programming, the experience on the console is no different from that on the arcade. Or in other words...

"Did you solder the arcade machine's mainboard directly into the console?" Ethan asked.

"Of course." Evelyn nodded. "The main purpose of using these games is to demonstrate the machine to you, so direct welding is the best method."

"So I brought a box here today. Didn't you see there are three circuit boards inside? One is the core motherboard of the console, and the other two are arcade game boards for Pac-Man and Star Wars. I just removed the 6502 used for calculations and connected them in series to the console motherboard."

"This is just the simplest way to test whether there are any problems with the design of my console motherboard. In the final drawing, I will definitely use ROM cartridges to allow players to change games."

"I think this machine is OK at the moment, what about you?"

Ethan nodded seriously at his sister's words.

He didn't answer, but continued playing the game.

When the Pac-Man he controlled lost three lives at the 31st level, he quit the game and entered the world of Star Wars, where he scored more than 7,000 points before experiencing the regret of Game Over.

"Can users achieve such an effect?" Ethan put down the controller and turned to look at his sister.

"Okay." Evelyn nodded.

"Are there any other problems with this machine?" Ethan continued to ask.

"Well... yes, but not much..."

Evelyn organized her words and spoke out the difficulties she was facing.

The first problem is the memory of the console. In Evelyn's design, she chose a 2K memory stick produced by Texas Instruments. This capacity can run most electronic games on the market, but... it does not include "Pac-Man" and "Star Wars".

If you want to run Pac-Man and Star Wars completely, you need 8K of memory.

When these games were sold in the form of arcade machines, the memory problem was easy to solve by simply piling up the materials. The extra costs could be easily passed on to the merchants who wanted to make money with the arcade machines, and these guys were happy to pay for this part of the cost as long as the machines could make a lot of money.

But for ordinary users, the situation is different. The cost of 8K memory is two hundred and eighty US dollars higher than that of 2K. This premium is not acceptable to ordinary players, at least not now.

"How does Apple do it? I remember they also have a distinction between 4K and 8K?" Ethan asked.

“Raise the price,” Evelyn said. “That’s their solution, and that’s the solution for every computer seller in the market, because no one can solve the problem of memory chips being too expensive.”

"Then what do you mean?"

"We couldn't raise the price of our home consoles, and we couldn't afford to lose money, so we had to go with 2K memory and give up Pac-Man and Star Wars."

Evelyn said: "Of course, we can also compress the game performance to force these two games onto home consoles, but I don't recommend you do that, because... that would be too shameless."

Ethan frowned slightly at his sister's words.

Killing two birds with one stone was his real idea.

But after thinking carefully for a while, he decided to adopt his sister's advice.

Because the game performance was compressed so that it could be logged on low-spec platforms, in his previous life it was called shrinkage, which meant giving up user experience for money.

Although in this situation, there are still many games that are regarded as gods by players, the most famous of which is "The Legend of Zelda" on NS. The Princess Link on the emulator and the Princess Link on the switch are simply two different people, but this era is not the time for them to play shrinking games.

The current Destiny game has become an industry benchmark. It is a market giant that has players paying for any game it releases. This kind of trust is their real foundation. There is no need to ruin their reputation for a little profit. Of course, this is also related to the fact that the company has no external shareholders.

When all the money earned from the game of fate flowed into Ethan and Evelyn's pockets...

Using high-quality services to exchange for greater profits is an unchanging fact.

Since the goose that lays the golden eggs is in their hands, why should they kill the goose to get the eggs? It makes no sense!

and so……

Pac-Man and Star Wars will be saved for future machines.

"In other words, the only game our console can run right now is Snake?"

“Yes!” Evelin nodded readily, “So you need to keep working hard!”

"..." Ethan's breath was choked. He came to his senses and rolled his eyes, "Okay, okay, okay, I think I understand what you mean..."

Ethan was not a fool, of course he knew that Evelin came over this time to ask him for the game.

After all, when they were planning the console project before, they reached a consensus to equip the first machine with a flagship masterpiece and several auxiliary games.

The big game is out, the movie is ready to be filmed, and the supporting game...

The new version of Snake can be counted as one, and the rest...

"Let me think about it and see what game is suitable. Give me some time." Ethan pursed his lips.

At the same time, he asked, "Oh, by the way, have you started working on the scroll-type shooting game I gave you last time? Is it difficult? When can it be completed?"

The game "Contra" is the focus of Destiny's research and development in the next one to two years. After all, the sales of the console depend on the hit game. When Ethan has already invested money to start making a movie, the game "Contra" can only succeed and cannot fail.

And his inquiry made Evelin shrug, "That's the second question."

“About the selection of image chips.”

"Remember what I told you before, that I wanted to see if Motorola's image chip is the most compatible with the 6502's image chip? I already have an idea."

"This matter is actually a bit complicated..."

The issue of image chip selection actually involves the video signal transmission method in the television industry. Currently, the most common video signal in America is the composite video signal, which is a signal that combines the brightness signal, chrominance signal and synchronization signal in the video signal into the same signal. The most commonly used connector is the RCA connector, which is the red, white and blue lotus head.

Although it is very popular, its shortcomings are also obvious, that is, the brightness and color interfere with each other during transmission, resulting in relatively poor picture quality.

Therefore, how to make the transmission stable is the problem that each image chip manufacturer has to solve, and TV manufacturers have an absolute advantage in this regard because they already have technical storage. This is also the reason why Milova was able to produce the new version of the home game console Apollo so quickly. As a well-known brand in the TV industry, they have such an advantage.

In this regard, Destiny Game has no reserves, so it can only use products from other companies. There are only a few companies that perform well, and Motorola...

"You mean their chips work well?" Ethan asked.

"Yes." Evelyn nodded.

"Is there an alternative?"

"Have."

“Is the gap big?”

"After my testing, the difference is not that big."

"Then use a replacement, because 6502. You decide the details. I trust you."

"Okay." Evelyn laughed.

In fact, the fundamental function of the image processor is to accurately call colors. For example, the color palette of the iPhone 2 uses black, white, dark blue, blue, light blue, magenta, red, pink, dark green, green, light green, orange, yellow, dark gray, and light gray to paint a colorful world. The biggest difference between chips from different manufacturers is that the selected tones may be different, but this...

After Evelyn's test, she felt that there was no serious problem.

As long as you grasp the three primary colors of red, green and blue, the things you make will basically not be ugly.

The reason why she had to make "Contra" after the image processor was confirmed was because the production of "Contra" involved the extensive use of colors. If the base color displayed at the beginning could not be determined, then it would definitely be modified during the adaptation later.

Not only is it troublesome, it is also time-consuming.

With the problems of memory and graphics chips solved, the obstacles on the road to home console development no longer existed, a fact that made Ethan very happy.

When I think about the fact that it won’t be long before every home in America will have its own console…

He couldn't close his mouth anymore!

"Special code!"

"I'm about to achieve something in the 1980s that even Bill Gates couldn't accomplish!"

"Ha ha ha ha--"

"I want to be invincible——"

He was in a good mood and kept wandering around the company. When he arrived at the R&D department, Damio Dean showed Ethan the games they were making. Several projects proposed by them were already in the late testing stage of production, and the "Snake 2" and "Ms. Pac-Man" that Ethan had assigned...

"Snake 2 is done, but Ms. Pac-Man might take a little while."

Damio Dean reports.

"Well, don't worry. It's February now. We will hold an internal exhibition at the end of March. You can show me the games one by one then."

“I want quality, not speed.”

“I believe your pursuit is the same as mine.”

"After all, everyone wants their children to be beautiful, right?"

Ethan's words caused everyone in the office to nod.

After walking around for a while, he gave some words of encouragement, then left the R&D department with his hands behind his back, like a king inspecting his territory. Just as he was thinking about where to go next...

A loud shout reached his ears.

"Boss! Boss!"

"Good news! Good news!"

"You're on the cover of Fortune! You're on the cover of Fortune!"

Steve Ballmer, a bald man, rushed up from downstairs holding a magazine high.

Looking closely, on the brown-bound magazine, a young man was standing there with his arms folded, on his left shoulder was an anthropomorphic soybean with hands and feet, on his right shoulder were four ghosts with different expressions. As they were staring at each other without interfering with each other, a small green snake emerged from behind the young man and lazily put its head on the top of his head.

There was an apple in his mouth.

Not only that, there was also the faint sound of artillery fire against the starry background.

Such a cover made Ethan frown.

After receiving it, scan it carefully...

"Fuck you!"

"How the hell could these people draw me so ugly?"

"There's not even a hint of handsomeness in it!"

“……”This complaint left Steve Ballmer speechless.

But the next second, he found that Ethan had opened the magazine.

Then, the corners of Ethan's mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly.

Because the first line of the homepage directory says:

【Game of Fate, Fortune 500 New Players】

Note: ① The game controllers of that era were a bit weird, and they were no different from car gear levers. In reality, the Alien, Batman, and the Governor's T-800 were all made into controllers. ② The image chip was made in 1975. The home consoles of that era did have this thing, and the real Atari developed it by itself. The engineer... was a chip architect who left MOS, named Jay Miller, who also developed 6502. ③ The Fortune list has existed since the s. And their cover can be made without asking the parties for their opinions, of course, the premise is that real photos are not used.

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(End of this chapter)