Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 235 Everyone, Welcome to Witness the Future

Ethan admitted that he had always been craving Star Wars. This was not only because Star Wars was America’s number one IP, but also because this American national IP was so useful.

When Ethan in his previous life came into contact with video games, he witnessed the richness of Star Wars in the video game industry. They had collaborated with Lego and made a Lego version of the Star Wars role-playing game. They had also collaborated with Nintendo and released a home version of the Star Wars game.

In addition, there are also pinball version of Star Wars, racing version of Star Wars, and shooting version of Star Wars.

Star Wars seems to be the origin of all things, and no matter who comes, they can be closely integrated.

But there's nothing we can do about it, right?
Who made Star Wars a fairy tale for generations?
When a story can influence people born in the 1940s and 1950s, and those born in the 1980s and 1990s, it will make money no matter how it is told. In Ethan's previous life, Star Wars belonged to Mickey, but now...

He can also try to wield a lightsaber!
From now on, if anyone dares to snatch his release schedule, he will close down and release Star Wars!

He wanted to let those enemies know what it meant that no grass would grow where the sword reached!

Hahaha--

Ethan tried hard to suppress his excitement and not let himself laugh like a villain, while Lucas was actually trying hard to control his facial muscles, not wanting Ethan to see his true feelings.

Of course he knew that if he made the Star Wars game independently, he could keep all the profits for himself, but he also understood that while keeping all the profits for himself, the risks he would face would also increase dramatically.

Because Ethan Jones has always considered the video game industry his exclusive domain.

After Disney brought out Mickey and Warner brought out Superman, Ethan still had a way to suppress them and make them speechless. This situation of being higher than the mountain made Lucas not want to confront them head-on.

If George Lucas made the game himself, he would most likely become Ethan Jones' enemy. When no one knew what other inspirations were in Ethan Jones' mind, such confrontation would be very unwise. Therefore, taking a commission based on sales was the best option he could think of.

Because no matter how crazy he was, he didn't have the confidence to sell 100,000 Star Wars arcade machines.

but……

Ms. Pac-Man is just one step away from breaking the record!
As for ten percent?

If the future Star Wars arcade machines can sell 100,000 units, at 2,000 per unit, he can earn 20 million for nothing! Although it seems a little less than the movie dividends, but...

The money from North American theaters cannot be earned in a year or two.

But Ethan Jones' dividends can be calculated in one month.

"That's it. I'm going over there now?" After celebrating with a smile, Lucas pointed to the crowd and said, "Steven is about to go on stage. I'm going to cheer him on."

"Yeah." Ethan nodded and told Lucas to go ahead. "We'll discuss the details next year. Although you don't celebrate Christmas, and I don't take a break on Christmas, the lawyers do have a holiday."

"Okay, I'll come find you later."

"Okay, remember to bring your script, and have fun."

After a simple hug with Lucas and watching him disappear into the crowd, Ballmer also faced his failure amid a burst of regret. The big bald man shook his hand in annoyance and handed the handle to Spielberg.

Since Ethan only brought out one console, the order of everyone's experience was determined by drawing lots. This practice does seem a bit stingy, but the scene of a bunch of people huddled in front of a TV is really lively. And the cheering, cheering, cursing, and talking to each other, such as "I'm your dad", is much better than playing games alone.

After all, humans are social animals.

Playing games while socializing and socializing while playing games, that is the real happiness.

"Hey Boss~ The game you and the chairman secretly developed is really awesome!"

“The feeling of running and shooting is exactly the same as the action in real life!”

When Ethan was lost in emotion, a voice of praise disturbed his thoughts. Although he did not look back, the enthusiastic voice had already confirmed the identity of the visitor.

"Steve, if you have anything to say, just say it."

Ethan glanced in the direction of the voice and said, "You don't have a dog's nose, do you?"

"George just came to sit with me for a while, and you smelled it?"

"Hehe~" Ethan's joke made Ballmer smile shyly.

She leaned on the sofa familiarly and said, "Oh - Boss - So in your mind I am the kind of person who uses the company as a springboard? Oh - your idea really makes me uncomfortable."

The pretentious accusation caused Ethan to snort and said, "Then prove it with facts."

"Sure!" Ballmer looked righteous, as if to say that he would live and die with the company.

Not only that, while answering, he reached behind him with both hands and pulled out a stack of documents from his waist.

This fact surprised Ethan a little, because when Ballmer stepped on Lucas' heels and appeared, Ethan instinctively thought that this guy came for his dream of being a screenwriter, but he didn't expect...

The preparation is quite complete!

Ethan rolled his eyes at Ballmer. He shook his head at his wild display of loyalty. He took the document and looked at it carefully. What the hell! How did this guy think of reporting his work at a party?
The document Ballmer brought was the video game event plan that Ethan had asked him to write before. In his handwritten manuscript, he proposed three plans with similar ideas but not the same.

Since Ethan had previously stated that he wanted to hold a competition that would cover all cities, the process of selecting all cities was necessary. However, the concept of selecting all cities was too big, and if Destiny Game were to do it on their own, they simply could not complete it. Therefore, Ballmer wanted to subcontract the city selection, which involved three different routes.

The first route is to communicate directly with local arcade operators and ask them to select spokespersons for the city.

Since all the electronic arcade machines of Destiny Games are directly sold, starting with Pac-Man, they have established communication channels with merchants in various places, so it is a common idea to delegate them to help with the selection.

The Game of Destiny directly brings together regional merchants and sets a competition time for them. During this period, the merchants need to promote the competition, provide machines and venues for the competition, and finally report the results of the competition to the Game of Destiny. The Game of Destiny confirms the candidates, and then the merchants invite them to participate in the state competition.

However, although this plan seems perfect, there are big problems in its implementation.

First of all, it is impossible to charge for the competition, but all merchants are aiming to make money. If the Destiny Game requires merchants who undertake the competition to provide machines and venues for the competition, then merchants who cannot make a profit during the competition will definitely be charged fees.

Even if Ethan has decided to pay out of his own pocket, the expenses related to the competition are actually difficult to define. If it is paid according to the merchants' daily turnover, then the merchants who feel that there is no profit will probably be unwilling to pay. And if it exceeds their daily turnover by a lot, the merchants will definitely fight for the right to host the event.

In addition, when merchants host city selections, they may also engage in some shady operations. For example, some players have a good relationship with the merchant owners, spend a lot of money with them, and are big customers of the merchant. In this case, they may communicate with the merchant owners just to get prizes, fabricate the content of the competition, fabricate the results of the competition, and directly enter the state competition.

Therefore, in Ballmer's annotation, he personally thinks this solution is the most convenient, but not easy to use.

The second route is to cooperate with North American theaters and let them take charge of city selections.

The operation mode of this plan is similar to the previous one, except that small and medium-sized businesses are replaced by North American theaters. However, there is actually a problem with this plan, that is, the carrying capacity of theaters in a region is not as good as that of businesses. Previously, when "Star Wars" was released, the crazy North American people crowded the theaters. When the reception volume does not meet the reception standards, forcing the movie to be held is likely to cause major accidents.

A large number of people watching may lead to pushing and shoving. Once pushing and shoving occurs, the risk of falls and trampling will increase sharply, leading to terrible death tragedies.

This kind of accident is something no one wants to see, so Ballmer thinks it is not acceptable.

Therefore, with his consecutive passes, he felt that he still had to cooperate with event groups that had experience in running large-scale competitions, and in North America, there are many organizations with this experience.

"So... outsourcing?" Ethan understood.

"Yes, outsourcing is the most convenient for us now, isn't it?"

Ballmer said, "Boss, I don't know your specific plan, but since you said that Starfield will be released together with Alien, and Alien will be released next summer, then our finals will be held in June at the latest, right?"

"Even if we announce the competition details on January 1st, we only have half a month left. In this case, it is obviously too late to set up the competition ourselves. Borrowing mature venues and operators can save us countless troubles."

Ethan felt that the bald man was right.

So he directly delegated the power, "Then I'll leave this matter to you."

"Okay." Ballmer was not afraid and nodded in acceptance.

"How much do you expect to spend?"

"Well... it's hard to be sure, but I think it should be profitable, because this kind of competition must have sponsors, although they haven't come to us yet..."

To be honest, Ethan, who has the memories of his past life, has always known that this bald guy has his own wisdom. Otherwise, he would not have been chosen by Bill Gates to become the chief steward of Microsoft.

But when Ballmer really showed his abilities, he was still a little surprised.

This is not to say that his ideas are great, but that his smooth operations combined with his high-spirited emotions will make everything easy to solve.

In business, there are many unexpected things that are difficult to predict. When these difficult things happen, even if you don’t know how to solve them, as long as you can deal with them head-on, you’ve actually won half the battle.

As for the other half?
As long as you dare to do it, it doesn't matter whether you succeed or fail.

Because as long as you do it, the problem will eventually be solved.

Only by procrastination will things develop to the point where they cannot be reversed.

“Wow~ Is this data true?”

"Oh my God! Bill! You are so amazing!"

A loud exclamation interrupted Ethan's thoughts and caused Ballmer to look around curiously.

When they found out that the sudden exclamation came from Evelyn, and the person chatting with her was Bill Mensch, the technical director of Western Design Company, they both smelled something unusual.

Putting down her work and asking, Evelin did not hide anything and said directly, "Bill said that he made a series of modifications to 6502 in the past six months!"

"Although the new chip is still eight-bit, its performance is greatly improved!" When the words '6502' and 'greatly improved' appeared at the same time, Jobs, Wozniak, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who were watching games in front of the TV, all turned their heads. Everyone's face was filled with surprise and everyone's pupils were filled with curiosity.

"Really?" Ethan was also a little surprised.

"Is there anything?" he asked impatiently.

"Of course." Bill Mensch nodded with a smile, "It's in the car. I'll get it."

Although Ethan called them over in the name of playing today, none of these guys had the consciousness to play. Bill Mensch went out of the house to look around, and then he came in carrying a suitcase with a combination lock. After opening it, a black chip without a number appeared in front of everyone.

Evelyn reached out to take it and ran to the study. Wozniacki also wanted to witness history, so he followed with his short legs. As for Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who seemed a little reserved...

They turned their attention to the design drawings in Bill Mensch's hands.

After Ethan nodded, Bill Mensch handed over the information.

then--

"Oh Sxxt! The new chip is at least 6502 percent more powerful than the ?"

The data on the information made Paul Allen look up suddenly.

"The average clock cycle is one point five? Oh - how did you do that?"

Bill Gates was also a little surprised.

Ethan didn't understand and asked what was going on.

And under his gaze, Paul Allen also spoke:

"The average number of clock cycles refers to the number of clock signals required by a microprocessor to execute an instruction. The clock signal is a periodic voltage waveform that determines the operating speed of the microprocessor. To put it simply, the average number of clock cycles reflects the performance of a microprocessor. Generally speaking, the smaller the average number of clock cycles, the shorter the time required for a microprocessor to execute an instruction, and the higher the performance. Of course, the average number of clock cycles is not the only factor that determines the performance of a microprocessor. It must be considered together with things like clock frequency."

"Take 6502 as an example. The average clock cycle number of 6502 widely circulated on the market is 2.0."

“在1MHz的时钟频率下，6502每秒可以执行的指令数为1乘以10的六次方除以它们的平均时钟周期数2.0，也就是500，000。”

"And Bill's current chip has an average clock cycle of 1.5."

“在1MHz的时钟频率下，它每秒可以执行的指令数为1乘以10的六次方除以它们的平均时钟周期数1.5，约等于666，666。”

"This means that at the same clock frequency, the new chip can process 6502 percent more instructions per second than the previous ."

Ethan didn't understand, but he was shocked.

Bill Mensch optimized 6502 in just half a year and improved its performance?
Oh--

He made the right investment!

"It seems like this guy really wants to prove himself in front of Chuck Pete!"

Looking at the group of excited guys, Ethan's face was full of smiles.

Although he couldn't join the group chat, it didn't matter, right?

As long as he knows that everything is moving in a good direction, that's enough.

When Bill Mensch came up with his own work, the gatherings that were originally centered around games now had a more academic atmosphere. Even though Spielberg, like Lucas and Ethan, didn't understand these things, the former had a father who built computers, while the latter was very interested in the application of computers.

"Um, I have a question. As computer performance improves, can we use computers to make movies in the future?" Lucas asked, raising his hand while leaning on the sofa.

Several people present didn't understand what he meant, so Spielberg helped explain, "Oh, George's meaning is very simple, that is, whether many scenes can be completed with computers."

"For example, when we were making Star Wars, the explosion on the Death Star was made out of cardboard and titanium blocks, and Luke's land speeder looked like it was gliding on the beach, but it actually had wheels."

“We are very excited about this kind of creation, but we also encountered a lot of troubles during the production process. So, we thought, in the future, with the development of computers, they may bring great convenience to film production? Just like "Starfield", before Ethan and Evelyn used pixel blocks to piece together a world, no one thought that games could do this.”

"Oh——" everyone understood.

"It should be possible." Wozniacki was the first to say, "Everything is possible."

"People's imagination is endless, isn't it?" Bill Mensch said, "Before Intel came up with the micro-CPU, no one thought that these things could be put together."

"As long as someone does the research, then there won't be any problems." Jobs was even more straightforward, pointing at Wozniak and saying, "It's just like him and I. I came up with the idea, and he came up with the technology. And then..."

"Snap—" He clapped his hands and said, "The apple appeared."

"Hahahaha——" The behavior of talking while standing without any back pain made everyone at the scene laugh.

The little fat boy Woz rolled his eyes and was too lazy to pay attention to his good brother.

As they expressed their opinions one after another, Spielberg and Lucas looked at each other, as if they had some ideas. But before the people around them started to make a fuss and ask questions, the two guys turned their attention to Microsoft.

"William, Paul, what do you think?"

This question diverted everyone's attention.

Just when everyone wanted to know what answer would be given by the two people who were not famous in society but came to the party anyway, the duo, who had no sense of presence since they greeted everyone, pursed their lips.

They didn't answer immediately, but turned their eyes to Ethan.

After seeing Ethan curled up on the sofa and staring at him with a smile, Bill Gates said, "I think this question should be answered by Ethan..."

Paul Allen nodded at the right time and said, "Just like Steven praised publicly before. Steven said before that when Ethan Jones closes his eyes, he can see the future of video games."

"We feel that this statement is inappropriate."

"Because it seems that he can see more than just video games. He can also see movies, chips, computers, and so on. As long as it is something he wants to see... he seems to be able to see it."

These words brought silence to the scene.

Almost in an instant, everyone instinctively turned their heads and looked at Ethan.

Ethan was a little scared by the zombie-like gaze, but the next second, he smiled at Bill Gates and the other man and said, "Are you guys here with something too?"

"Yes." Bill Gates nodded shyly, looking a little student-like.

"Then show it..." Ethan waved his hand, signaling them to hurry up.

The incoherent conversation left everyone at the scene confused.

But after Bill Gates said he needed an Apple computer and an external floppy drive, he got the demonstration tools and took out a disk from his briefcase.

Power on, plug in, run.

Then, a crude Excel appeared in the center of the screen.

This situation made everyone present frown, narrow their eyes, and sit up straight.

They always feel like something is wrong.

While waiting for the menu to appear, Bill Gates hit enter, and a blackboard divided by vertical and horizontal lines, similar to accounting paper, appeared in front of everyone.

The cursor flashes and the keyboard clicks.

比尔·盖茨在A1栏目里敲上了数字1，在A2栏目里敲上了数字2，接着A3的栏目里便瞬间跳出了数字3……

"Oh Sxxt..."

This action caused everyone at the scene to swear instinctively.

"You put the accounting forms on the computer?"

Spielberg raised his voice.

Bill Gates, who was standing next to the computer, was looking at everyone with a smile on his face.

When he caught a glimpse of Ethan with his arms folded and his legs crossed...

The slight nod of appreciation made him feel relieved.

He placed his hand on the Apple computer's monitor.

"Everyone——"

"Welcome to witness the future——"

Note: ① The data related to 6502 in the article was picked up from Stack Exchange, so there may be some problems, because the 6502 circulated in those years was too mixed, with all kinds of data.

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(End of this chapter)