Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 223 Angry! Angry! Angry!
"Can anyone tell me what's going on right now?"

An hour later, in the conference room of Warner Communications.

Warner Group Chairman Steve Ross's neck was throbbing with veins, and he banged the table angrily, spitting at everyone present.

"Why did Ethan Jones suddenly decide to release a new game at the end of the year?!"

"Why can Ethan Jones gather the owners of North American theaters to sell them video arcade machines?!"

"Why was Ethan Jones able to get past our blockade?!"

"Why did Ethan Jones have time to snipe us?!"

"Hasn't he been entangled by countless enemies in the past half a year?"

"How did Ethan Jones lock on to us in this situation?!!"

"ah?!!!"

The heart-wrenching roar caused everyone present to frown instinctively.

At this moment, everyone sat upright, watching their surroundings, not daring to say a word.

In fact, when these people received a call from Steve Ross and learned that Steve Ross asked them to rush to the headquarters for an emergency meeting, they felt that something was wrong and began to inquire about the reason.

then……

They learned that the chairman was cursing Ethan Jones.

When this information appeared, everyone was stunned!
Because they couldn't understand why Ethan Jones had the time to mess with them?
You know, since the New Year, Ethan Jones has been busy under their arrangement -

Whether it is Columbia's thunderbolt or Philips's Feimidi faction;

Whether it’s MGM’s new tour or Alan Bradley’s backstab;

These things keep Ethan Jones very busy!
When Ethan Jones transformed into a firefighter and continued to put out fires...

How could he have time to pay attention to Warner Communications?

Moreover, judging from the words and attitude of Chairman Steve Ross, Ethan Jones seems to have discovered that they are the masterminds behind the chaos?
But this——

"That doesn't make sense!" A director of Warner Communications spread his hands and said, "We all know what Ethan Jones has been through in the past nine months."

"Those things were all carried out reasonably, and we seldom intervened. Normal people would be exhausted after dealing with just one of them, and they would just feel that they were very unlucky. But what about Ethan Jones? He suspected us even after he had dealt with all the things?"

"This is impossible!"

"Yes." Another director nodded and said, "If I remember correctly, we only contacted two people from beginning to end. One was Kirk Kerkorian, the owner of MGM, and the other was Cornelis van der Krucht, the CEO of Philips North America."

"It's impossible for the two of them to leak the news of our collaboration."

"Then in this case, it's impossible for Ethan to target us."

"unless--"

"Is there a mole?"

When this judgment came out, everyone in the conference room looked stern.

When their external allies have no shortage of money and just want to strangle Ethan Jones with their own hands...

You can imagine the probability of leaks from these people!
All the problems that arise in this situation could be the fun that arises from within them!
So, when the idea of ​​"the mole" came up, Steve Ross, who was so angry that he couldn't even sit still, looked around immediately. His eyes swept over the directors beside him one by one. These old men who had fought with him to conquer the world all looked calm at this moment.

This fact made him nod slightly.

While he was waiting to focus on the remnants of Warner Bros....

The CEO of Warner Bros. Pictures straightened his chest and said, "Steve, this matter has nothing to do with us. Although we were the one who scheduled the release date of Superman, I never mentioned our video game of the same name to North American theaters."

"I have been waiting for your order. Without your order, I would not have told any outsider about our movie-game linkage plan. Moreover, if it was really me who leaked the information, the news that we were making a Superman game would have spread everywhere, right?"

This explanation made Steve Ross ponder for a moment, then he nodded in agreement.

There is indeed a possibility that Warner Bros. Pictures leaked information, but if they did, the impact would definitely not be as calm as it is now. Moreover, so far, no one at Warner Bros. Pictures has seen the specific content of the "Superman" game. When they themselves don't know what kind of game the brother company has made, their leak would not have made Ethan so alert.

"So..." Steve Ross stretched out his voice.

He turned his gaze to Atari's current CEO, "Is that you?"

This question made Atari's CEO shake his head violently, and he quickly tried to absolve himself of responsibility, "Steve, the Superman game was developed in secret."

"So far, few people in Atari know about this."

"We haven't mass-produced this game yet!"

"We have been waiting for your order!"

His words were also recognized by everyone present.

Although Atari's current CEO joined Warner Communications after Nolan Bushnell was "fired", everyone knows that as an ordinary professional manager, he does not have the courage to betray Steve Ross who has cleaned up his mess.

Perhaps to the real big guys, Steve Ross is just a small fry, but in the eyes of ordinary people, this guy who started out as a gangster has become a man with connections everywhere.

And when all the suspicions of everyone present were cleared, an emotion called sadness surged into their hearts. They couldn't understand why things turned out like this.

What they didn't know even more was how much Ethan Jones knew about their plan.
Just when they were puzzled, another director spoke up, "So, is it possible that Ethan Jones simply wants to mess with Disney?"

"After all, Roy Disney has come to him many times."

"Moreover, with our intervention, his projects have been jumping back and forth between Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures. This behavior is actually very dangerous. So he needs his own film company?"

This idea made most of the people present's eyes light up.

They thought it made sense.

However, just as they were about to open their mouths to agree, Steve Ross shook his head violently.

"This is impossible!" he shouted.

The decisive words made everyone at the scene a little confused, but Steve Ross shut his mouth and stopped talking about his judgment. As for the reason...

When Ethan Jones arrogantly said that he had to keep his opinions to himself, even if Steve Ross's head was struck by lightning, he would not believe that Ethan Jones was just talking nonsense!
When he thought of this, Steve Ross waved his hands in annoyance!

"He must know our plan!"

"Say nothing else!"

"He must have known that our Superman movie has games!"

Since Steve Ross was so sure, others stopped speculating. When this fact was confirmed, the feeling of powerlessness without finding the reason also made everyone not want to delve further into this topic. A man with gray hair of directors looked at Steve Ross and asked, “Do we have a plan for this?”

"I mean, will Ethan Jones' new game affect us?"

"If his new game affects our Superman, then we may have to change the schedule of the movie and the game, but if we are confident that we can beat him..."

"So even if he already knows everything, it doesn't matter, right?"

"We have been enemies for a long time anyway."

The straightforward words made everyone present nod frequently.

Having experienced the fierce competition in the business world, they understand that direct confrontation is the norm in this circle. In the entertainment industry, it is extremely common for multiple films to compete in the same schedule.

In this case, as long as they are confident in their own products, they will give it a try. Only if they feel guilty will they change the release date. As for the battle that is sure to win with all the advantages?

Well this...

They had never seen it before.

Moreover, they tried their best to torment Ethan Jones, wasn't it to prepare for the film and game combination at the end of this year? When Ethan Jones was in a mess under their attacks, he had to use his overseas performance to deal with the public opinion of MGM...

What game can Ethan Jones, who only now realizes that they have laid out everything, come up with at the end of the year?
Did Ethan Jones, who was hastily prepared, want to confront them head-on?

Oh--

Come here!

The director's words made Steve Ross take a deep breath. In fact, he had long understood that when things came to this point, a head-on confrontation was inevitable.

The reason why he was angry was purely because Ethan Jones's performance just now was too disgusting! He wanted to vent his anger! He wanted to tear everything in front of him apart!
And since there is no traitor in the company, then...

The only way for him to vent his anger is to strangle Ethan Jones to death!
Thinking of this, he calmed down and put his hands on the table, saying:
“Ethan Jones’ decision will certainly affect us!”

"But the impact was that we were able to step on him and regain the world's number one spot for Atari!"

The confident words made everyone present breathe a sigh of relief, and just when they wanted to ask the chairman what their "Superman" game looked like, Steve Ross, who knew that he had to reveal everything at this moment to stabilize the morale of the troops, slammed the table and raised his chin towards the CEO of Atari.

Following his instructions, the guy who brought the game with him after receiving the meeting notice quickly stood up and left the meeting room. A moment later, an arcade machine was pushed in by the staff.

The appearance of this machine is no different from the electronic arcade machines on the market. Not only that, the illustration of Superman flying is also very exquisite. It's a pity that the people at the scene are not interested in the appearance.

Perhaps because he knew that everyone only wanted to know the content of the game, Atari's CEO immediately turned on the power of the machine after it arrived. When he pressed the power button, the classic BGM of "Superman" came out from the speakers.

Superman in capital letters appeared on the screen. Tap the confirmation button on the control panel. With a "Duang" sound, the Superman logo flashed as if struck by lightning. Then, an anthropomorphic world appeared in front of everyone.

The dark blue background represents the sky, the undulating gray squares represent the towering metropolis city, and the dark blue figure made of mosaics and the red battle robe hanging behind him make it possible to identify his identity at a glance - Clark Kent.

When this scene appeared, all the Warner executives at the scene opened their eyes wide!

"Oh! Sxxt!" The director who had previously said that Warner might have a mole put his hands on his head and screamed, "MFxxk! Is this our game?"

"Oh No—Oh No—" the director who had said Ethan Jones shouldn't know about Warner's plan kept shouting, "Can we actually make something like this?"

"Is this what Atari has achieved in the past year?"

"Oh my God! With this thing here! How can Ethan Jones beat us!"

The sudden sound seemed to pierce the sky!
The words full of emotion made everyone at the scene nod their heads repeatedly!
Because since the birth of video games, all the video games on the market are basically top-down games! Although designers have brought players one wonderful character after another, they are all a bunch of pixels! But now? Their Yada uses pixels to piece together a person!

They created a city using pixels!
They, Yada, created a world using pixels!
If Ethan Jones is a genius, he has used Snake, Pac-Man and Star Wars to show people one vivid world after another, but——

No matter how vivid those worlds are, all people see is darkness!
You can only use your imagination to fill in the gaps in the game!

But now - players don’t have to think about it!

Because Warner Communications has already done all of this!
When the living world is placed in front of the players, they can fully appreciate the beauty of it!

"How do you play this game?"

The director who had previously comforted Steve Ross not to worry too much walked forward quickly, wanting to experience it.

Following his question, Atari's CEO also introduced their secret weapon to everyone present, "The gameplay of this game is actually very simple. Players will play the role of Superman in the game, looking for the fragments of the bridge blown up by the villain in the city of Metropolis, and then fight the entire criminal gang."

“The operation of the game is also very simple. Players will use the joystick to control Superman. Every step of the player will make Superman take off directly. When Superman touches the edge of the game, the whole game will refresh and let the player enter the next map.”

“Once the player has collected all the bridge fragments and defeated the criminals, they will have completed the game, and the countdown on the game screen is the player’s available play time.”

Under the explanation of Atari's CEO, the content of the game "Superman" was presented to Warner executives like a scroll.

Superman's old enemy, Chrysler Luthor, once again launched a terrorist attack on Metropolis. He blew up the waterfront bridge in Metropolis. The player's goal is to collect the bridge fragments to repair the waterfront bridge, and then arrest Chrysler Luthor. In the process, the player will also have to face many threats.

For example, the Kryptonite Satellite: There is a satellite in the universe that carries Kryptonite, which will release energy to attack Superman. When the green rays falling from the sky hit Superman, the player will lose his life.

Another example is villain attack: As a super villain in DC, Cress Luthor can release rays that make Superman unable to fly. Superman can only remove the Debuff by finding his girlfriend.

When the CEO of Atari showed us the gameplay that had never appeared on the market...

All the senior executives of Warner felt that they had a sure win!

“No matter how powerful Ethan Jones is, he can’t beat us, right?”

"Even if he is a genius! There is no way he can cross the top-down game into the tablet world!"

"And he's been bogged down by all sorts of things this year! Where does he find the time to make games?"

When his companions gathered around the arcade machine with excitement, chattering about what kind of sensational effect this game would have after it was released, Steve Ross, who had already played the game, also laughed.

If he was really mad at Ethan Jones before, then now...

"Ethan Jones, you want to confront me head-on?"

"Okay! I'll give you this chance!"

"I'm going to strangle you to death with my own hands!"

Steve Ross, who was leaning on the table with his hands, had a ferocious look on his face!
He didn't want to make the war so bloody!
But it's a pity——

Ethan Jones is going to die!

Then we can't blame him for being cruel and ruthless, right?
When the senior executives of Warner Communications witnessed their own excellent game, they knew that Atari would regain its glory and left the company contentedly. Just as they were thinking about how to promote it so that Ethan Jones' death would be more miserable, Steve Ross, who was still unhappy, called the Disney Group and said in a harsh tone -

"Ron Miller! Are you a piece of crap? Roy Disney has already reached a cooperation with Ethan Jones, and they are going to snipe your game in December!"

"If you can't control Roy Disney, then get out of here!"

"You're a real disgrace to Walt Disney!"

After criticizing Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron Miller, Steve Ross called the CEO of Philips North America and angrily yelled at the guy on the other end:

"Cornelius van der Kreucht! Are you fucking blind or deaf?"

"The alliance you formed has been broken by Ethan Jones! Ethan Jones is about to sell his video games to North American theaters!"

“Paramount, MGM, and Disney didn’t stop it!”

"Next, Ethan Jones is going to shit on your head again, Philips!"

"You are such a disgrace!"

"Click!" Steve Ross hung up the phone.

At this moment, he suddenly felt that Ethan Jones had lived a really great life before!

This kind of behavior of scolding someone and not letting them talk is really satisfying!
While Steve Ross was relieved, Disney and Philips were confused.

When Cornelis van der Krucht, CEO of Philips North America, learned that the alliance he had formed had collapsed, he immediately picked up the phone to find out what was going on.

then--

"We at MGM are now being watched by the U.S. Department of Justice!"

"You want us to influence North American theaters again?"

"MFxxk! Are you fucking crazy?"

"Clap!"

MGM hung up the phone.

"We at Paramount are already in trouble! How can we possibly influence North American cinemas?"

"What? You said the New York Police Association's statement will only boost sales of our game?"

"Oh - if you think so, then we have to contact the New York Police Association!"

"I'll tell them that it was you, Philips, who asked us to do this!"

"What a fool!"

"Clap!"

Paramount also hung up the phone.

The two consecutive rebukes made Cornelis van der Krucht, the CEO of Philips North America, begin to doubt his life. No, it was Philips that controlled the patent rights of video games. But now, why did he feel that he was the one who owed the debt?
Why are these guys who got the authorization so arrogant?
Just when he dialed Disney's phone number without knowing why, wanting to make a last-ditch effort...

"Get out of here!"

Ron Miller on the other end of the line shouted, "I don't have time for this!"

"I will now purge Disney of the traitors!"

"pat-"

The phone hung up again.

The repeated roars made Cornelis van der Krucht a little confused. In order to solve his doubts, he called his subordinates and asked them to go and collect intelligence.

When he found out that in the past year, Ethan Jones had gone crazy and overturned the negotiation table of Lawrence Rockefeller's family, scolded MGM so much that it couldn't take care of itself, threatened Komodor, which was backed by the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, Citibank and Morgan, and once again started to act as an annoying troublemaker, making the Walt Disney Group in chaos...

Countless question marks popped up in his head.

"Oh Sxxt..."

"Is this guy mentally ill?"

Cornelis van der Krucht looked at his subordinates in surprise.

At this moment, he only felt that his opponent... No, the guy who brought down his predecessor was a madman who bit everyone he saw!
The guy who was helping him collect intelligence nodded and said, "Before, in 1975, when Ethan Jones was not really famous, he had already threatened Atari's founders Nolan Bushnell and Don Valentine to pay for his copyright infringement."

"The point is, they actually paid for Ethan Jones."

"Afterwards, after Ethan Jones found Ralph Bell and signed a consulting contract with him, he published the news in the newspaper, fearing that we would not know about it."

"And then, when Pac-Man came out, he invited Nolan Bushnell and us to come watch it... and it was... just... spectacular..."

"???"

Cornelis van der Krucht opened his mouth wide at Ethan Jones's behavior.

At this moment, the airborne manager from the Netherlands finally understood why he had been sprayed just now.

When a person finds out that he has been caught and bitten by a madman, no matter who goes up to say hello, they will scold him so badly that he won't even be able to find his mother.

"MFxxk!"

Cornelis van der Krucht knocked on the table!

What does this mean?
But the next second, he felt something was wrong.

"Ethan Jones is releasing another game at the end of this year? He's not going to invite me to go, is he?"

When the whole world knows that Ethan Jones loves revenge, no one would want to be targeted by him!

"I don't know." The Philips staff shook their heads quickly.

This situation made Cornelis van der Krucht a little worried.

As an airborne leader from the Netherlands, he came here to gain experience, not to embarrass himself!

Just as he was anxiously praying that the madman Ethan Jones would not come after him, so that he could ignore the chaos in Hollywood...

Ethan didn't think of this minor character at all.

After signing the order with North American theaters, he asked Steve Ballmer to contact the three major broadcasting stations, ABC, CBS, and NBC, hoping that one of them would provide a full live broadcast time slot from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, December 1.

To do this, he could charge the radio station a symbolic fee of one dollar for the live broadcast.

That's right!

After version T0 was completed, Ethan no longer planned to hold any offline press conference!
He wants to broadcast live!

Live broadcast all over the world!

He wants to let everyone know that everything made by his competitors is garbage!
As for charging a dollar?
Ethan Jones is so popular in America, why does he not charge for appearing on TV?

Doesn’t that mean that the capitalists are taking advantage of you for free?
And want to get Ethan Jones for free?

Ah--

nonexistent!

Note: ① The real Superman is a horizontal flying game. It is a color horizontal game before the concept of "horizontal scrolling game" appeared. Although the Atari crash has become an important moment in history, Atari's technology cannot be questioned. In other words, those technicians at that time really tried to make some fun games under the condition of hardware shortage. The real problem was Warner. The size of Superman is only 4KB. Because it does not mix textures, it is just a simple application of color blocks.

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(End of this chapter)