Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 237 Planning and Scheming

"explain."

Willard Rockwell Jr. put his hands behind his back and didn't look back.

"Good boss."

The female secretary said: "The RAM and ROM you want to know are indeed not the same thing. RAM is a volatile storage. As long as the computer has power, it can store data, but when the power is turned off, the data will be lost. ROM is just the opposite. It can retain data even if the power is lost..."

"No, No, No..." Willard Rockwell Jr. interrupted the secretary before she could finish. "I don't want to hear this kind of professional report. Just tell me whether Benzi is currently researching these two fields and whether they can come up with products in the short term. That's enough."

"Okay, boss." The female secretary replied calmly, "The public-private partnership laboratory you mentioned earlier is a research and development alliance led by the Japanese government and composed of Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and Japanese Electric. It does exist and its headquarters is in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan."

"Although no one has been able to infiltrate them yet, they will occasionally announce their research and development results to the outside world. Therefore, the 64Kb storage you mentioned before and the DRAM research and development you want to know now are actually public data. In addition, the target selling prices announced by those companies are indeed cheaper than Intel's."

"More importantly, they do have the intention to sell and have no intention of blocking the products."

Having said this, the secretary paused.

There was a rustling sound, as if someone was flipping through the documents in his hands.

After a moment, she continued, "According to the discussion of the R&D department, if the products produced by Toshiba, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi meet the standards, then after introducing their products, we will be able to manufacture computers similar to the Apple II at a very low cost."

"This is extremely low and cannot be quantified, because if most of the chips used by Apple come from Intel, then we can get at least 20% cost advantage when using notebook products."

“……” Willard Rockwell Jr. said nothing.

But he understood what this 20 percent meant.

When two products with the same performance appear on the market, the one with a lower price will definitely gain more preference, even if the higher-priced product has an extremely large user base.

This is not a question of brand effect, but rather a question of spending trade-offs that users will make.

To lower the price, either the seller of the product has to spend money to grab the market, or lower the cost to drag down the opponent. Although both methods are good, if you can hit the opponent while lowering the cost to grab profits, then no merchant will choose to burn money.

After all, all companies are founded and operated for the purpose of making money.

“What about the Microsoft investigation?”

"Our engineers studied Excel and said that it is not difficult to make a computer spreadsheet, but it is difficult for someone to come up with such an idea. Similarly, they also admitted that the only computer on the market that can perfectly adapt to Excel is the Apple II, not only because its DRAM is large enough, but also because it has an external disk that allows users to quickly transfer data."

"I understand."

"You go down."

Willard Rockwell Jr. waved his hand.

"Okay, boss." The female secretary responded and left.

In fact, after joining the Avengers formed by Warner boss Steve Ross, Willard Rockwell Jr. stepped up his collection of information on the books. This was not only because he wanted to know whether what Steve Ross said was accurate, but also because he was very tempted by the behavior of the film king who made profits at low prices.

Without knowing the specific facts, he didn't dare to act rashly. Now, when his own intelligence agency said that Steve Ross's plan was profitable...

"Sigh..." He sighed heavily, stared at the white clouds outside the window for a long time, and finally turned around, walked to the desk, picked up the phone, and dialed a number.

"Hello?"

After a while, an excited voice came from the receiver, "Willard?"

"Yeah." Willard Rockwell Jr. said with his nose, "Steve, I'm in. But before I do anything, I need to see your sincerity."

"Oh - no problem!"

Steve Ross on the other end of the line laughed and said, "A month at most."

"Okay." Willard Rockwell Jr. hung up the phone.

There was a bang and old fingers moved. Steve Ross did not put down the receiver. Instead, he tapped the numbers on the landline phone and dialed another number.

About ten seconds later, a rough voice sounded.

"Oh - Steve - why did you call me out of the blue?"

"miss you."

"Forget it! I don't believe it!"

"Really, are you okay now? Still in Texas?"

"Of course, where else would I be if not in Texas? After all, I am no longer Nolan Bushnell, the owner of Atari, but the operator of Chuck E. Cheese~ I love my restaurant!"

"Oh - really - that's great! I can enjoy my retirement life before I'm forty? It's a wonderful thing to think about, unlike me, who is still working hard."

"Hmph~" The guy on the other end of the phone snorted twice and didn't answer.

Steve Ross, who was leaning back in his chair, was not embarrassed and asked directly: "Are you still in touch with Tang? Is he still in San Jose?"

"Yes."

"How's that software you mentioned earlier going? The one related to the CIA?"

"I do not know."

"Can you help me find out? If possible, ask them to deliver something to the CIA within a month. This is very important to me."

Those words made Nolan Bushnell of Irving, Texas, sit up straight.

He stared at the calendar on his desk and calculated the time.

"Are you going to play big this time?" He said, "You lost badly last month."

Steve Ross didn't care about that and admitted coolly, "Yeah, so..."

“We will try our best this time.”

"Full strength? How full strength?"

“Harder than you think, because if we lose again…Warner might not exist.”

This answer made Nolan Bushnell laugh. “Wow~Wow~Wow~” He cheered. “Okay.” He said, “Since you said so, I’ll make the trip for you.”

"Thank you."

"Need not."

"uh-huh?"

"If I could, I would like to see Ethan Jones jump off the Empire State Building."

Nolan Bushnell's eyes were cold, but a smile appeared on his face. "Undertaker Ross - as long as you can kill him, that would be the greatest thank you to me!"

Steve Ross, who was leaning back in his chair, was stunned.

After a moment, he laughed.

"Don't worry, this day will come..."

he murmured.

…………

"Oh - Roy - I already did it!"

"Yes, yes! Let's buy 5 million first to test the waters. We will definitely buy the rest within this year."

"Oh~ Don't worry, you will definitely get the position of chairman of Disney next year."

"What? You heard that George Lucas and I have reached a long-term cooperation? What the hell! Where did this rumor come from? George only commissioned me to make games for the sequels of Star Wars. We don't have a long-term cooperation at all! I can't help you bring the distribution of Star Wars to Disney! If you really want to get that series, you have to find him yourself!"

"Steven? What happened to Steven? His new movie? How do I know what his new movie is? He's busy with Alien right now. I'll ask him when he's done."

"Okay, okay, that's it, I'm hanging up now."

Ethan hung up the receiver and wiped his forehead with his hand.

The sweat of non-existence left him physically and mentally exhausted.

Although Ethan had been a good boy in the past half month, not provoking any enemies, not doing anything, and mainly being harmless to people and animals, but...

The related contacts are still endless.

no way!
Who caused Excel to crash?
For the general public, the popularity of Excel is another manifestation of the American dream!

Because Harvard dropout Bill Gates took the script of the theory that studying is useless and single-handedly created a product that changed the world. This is simply a representation of God bless America!

America is where miracles are born!
America is where dreams come true!

There is a place for everyone in America!
But for the small group of people who already have the resources...

What the hell is this!

Ethan Jones invested in Microsoft as early as last year!

Lawrence Rockefeller has also joined the game!
Plus, Bill Gates publicly stated that Excel was not his own idea...

Even if a smart person uses his feet to think, he can guess that it is Ethan, the stick, who is stirring up trouble.

The same is true for feedback in reality.

The collapse of the stock prices of companies such as Tandy and Commodor has made Apple extremely popular.

As a result, congratulatory calls flooded in.

Ralph Baer, ​​who was far away in Boston, called to praise Excel, saying that it was a great idea because it could change the way humans produce.

Barbara Babcock, who works in Washington, also called to express her feelings, saying that this thing has set off a tsunami of admiration in Washington, and if people can master the skills of using Excel, their work efficiency will be greatly improved. Not only that, she also said that after watching the demonstration video released by Microsoft, Washington has already intended to purchase large quantities of Apple computers and Microsoft software.

In addition, Spielberg's father Arnold also called. He was surprised that Ethan had such inspiration because he had a headache about the promotion of computers when he was developing computers at General Motors. Their greatest achievement in the 1960s was the development of an automated check processing system and magnetic ink characters on checks. They thought that pushing computers to banks was a great achievement and a sign of the civilianization of computers. But they didn't expect that only ten years later, Apple and Microsoft had already entered the field of daily office work.

"Ethan, this is an amazing leap."

"Believe me, IEEE will send you an invitation letter this year. Oh, and your sister, the presentation of that home console is also amazing. Ralph and I will write recommendation letters for you. You deserve it."

When even retired old men can smell the pulse of the times, let alone others.

The old principal invited them to his home for dinner and expressed his joy in person.

And Roy Disney...

After congratulating Ethan, this guy started pestering Ethan to buy Disney stock.

Ethan originally wanted to take care of these things after "Alien" was released in the summer, but Roy Disney was in a hurry. He really wanted to control Disney, so Ethan spent five million first.

First buy 0.8% of its shares.

After calming down this restless guy, Ethan went back to dealing with other tasks.

After the New Year, George Lucas brought the cooperation contract and had the Destiny Game's law firm review it. After confirming that it was correct, Ethan signed it.

Then he got the script for The Empire Strikes Back.

After opening the script and reading it carefully, Ethan knew how to produce next year's arcade blockbuster "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back".

The plot of "The Empire Strikes Back" continues from the first film. It tells the story of Darth Vader personally going out to hunt down Princess Leia and the rebels after the Death Star was destroyed. Under his pursuit, Han Solo and Princess Leia fled everywhere, while Luke Skywalker found Master Yoda under the guidance of Obi-Wan Klobbi. Under his guidance, he received Jedi training, but did not become a Jedi Knight.

During this process, Han Solo and Princess Leia were betrayed by their friends and successfully captured by Darth Vader. Darth Vader used them to set a trap and lure Luke Skywalker to rescue him, trying to make Luke Skywalker turn to the dark side. After a big battle, Luke Skywalker learned the truth.

That is--

"I am your father!"

Darth Vader yelled at Luke Skywalker.

If we follow the game production ideas of later generations, "The Empire Strikes Back" will definitely be made into a game with three protagonists: the first protagonist is Han Solo, and his main storyline is to take Princess Leia to avoid being hunted by the Empire; the second protagonist is Darth Vader, and his main storyline is to lead the army to hunt down Han Solo and Princess Leia; the third protagonist is Luke Skywalker, and his story will intersect with the first two.

But in this day and age, making a game with three protagonists?

This is simply a dung beetle pushing a dung ball and eating too much!
So, after thinking about it, Ethan decided to make two games. One game is about Han Solo and Princess Leia breaking through the blockade of the Empire and escaping. The other game is about Luke Skywalker, who has received guidance from Master Yoda, breaking into the Empire's trap alone and killing Darth Vader.

"So, over the next year, you will be divided into two groups and make different games."

“I hope to make the escape version of Han Solo and Princess Leia into a multi-role mode that can be selected. When there is only one player, the player can choose to escape the game as Han Solo or Princess Leia. When there are two players, the whole game can be played by two people at the same time.” “They will appear on the same map and fight the same monster.”

"The map design and escape attacks are similar to those in Starfield. You are free to create them."

"A game with Luke Skywalker as the protagonist can be directly copied from Starfield, but I want to make one thing clear in advance: Luke Skywalker can't shoot, he can only attack people with a lightsaber, so you need to design special attack moves for him, and you can't be lazy and make it a shooting game."

"I'll give you one month to form groups and design your own ideas. Submit a written proposal for me that includes character modeling, element design, map flow, level conditions, etc."

"After I review it, if there are no problems, you can start directly, okay?"

"Oh yeah, there's also a plot."

Although storage was expensive in this era, Ethan didn't care at the moment, because when making arcade games, cost control did not need to be as strict as that of consoles.

After all, arcade machines are not toys, they are money-making tools for major businesses.

When merchants who purchase arcade machines want to earn huge profits, arcade games that have lost their consumer attributes and acquired the investment label have the option of increasing prices.

Even if the merchants are reluctant from the bottom of their hearts, it is useless.

Because in this investment market, the seller has the final say.

More importantly, the seller now is not just Ethan Jones, but also George Lucas.

If merchants are unwilling to accept price increases, then we can only say that they deserve not to make any money.

After assigning the production task of the "Star Wars" game, Ethan welcomed McDonald's again.

After more than a month of "consideration", they finally decided to cooperate with Ethan to introduce the two IPs of "Snake" and "Pac-Man" for their upcoming Happy Meals.

Since both parties had the intention to cooperate, the details of the contract were discussed quickly. The person in charge of Happy Meals came to sound out the situation first, and then their chairman came to finalize the agreement.

Ethan directly licensed the cartoon characters of male Jack the Snake, female Shredded Snake, Mr. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and four little ghosts to McDonald's for a flat price of 10 million. McDonald's, which obtained the license, can produce a total of no more than 50 million toys.

One copy in the contract refers to a single image.

For example, a green jack snake is a toy;
A Ms. Pac-Man in high heels, that’s also a toy;
And the four ghosts are packaged and count as one toy;
The quantity ratio is controlled by McDonald's itself, and the game of fate does not interfere.

To be honest, with 10 million US dollars and the licensing of 50 million toys, Destiny Game is losing money no matter how you look at it, because they only made 20 cents on each toy.

But considering that McDonald's meal combos are not expensive to begin with, and that in this day and age, you can buy a hamburger, a serving of fries, and a Coke for one dollar, Ethan is still satisfied with the fact that the Destiny Game takes one-fifth of every children's meal sold.

As for whether the 50 million copies can be sold out?
This is not what Ethan has to consider, right?
After all, in a previous life, McDonald's sold joint toys separately.

Since over-proportioned distribution is a traditional skill of McDonald's, then he...

There is no need to worry about others.

After signing the contract, when McDonald's chairman Fred Turner was about to leave, Ethan said, "Mr. Turner, we have another project in the Destiny Game. Are you interested?"

"What?" Fred Turner lowered his butt back into his seat.

If he thought last year that the marketing of the Destiny game was more important than the content, now he really thinks his boss is awesome. Because they found out that Ethan Jones invested in Microsoft as early as last year; they also found out that Ethan Jones' secretary is a schoolmate of Microsoft founder Bill Gates; and they also found out that Excel was listed after Bill Gates met Ethan Jones at the end of last year.

And speaking of Excel…

"Mr. Jones, you are not going to sell me Excel, are you?" McDonald's Chairman Fred Turner said with a smile, "There is no need for that, because we at McDonald's have already decided to purchase 100 Apple computers and 100 copies of Excel for office use in the future."

"We will first learn how to use it, and then gradually popularize it after we have learned it."

"Oh - thank you." This fact made Ethan laugh and shook his head: "But the project I want to talk about is not this, but the competition related to Ms. Pac-Man."

"I wonder if you, McDonald's, have any idea of ​​sponsoring?"

Ethan waved towards the door, and the bald-headed Ballmer who was guarding there immediately stepped forward and explained the game plan of the Game of Destiny to Fred Turner.

When Microsoft released Excel, Lucas brought the script, and Ethan assigned tasks, Steve Ballmer also followed his boss's instructions to find partners for the competition that the company had to hold.

then……

This guy is crazy and found the National Football League.

"Mr. Turner, we have reached a preliminary consensus with the NFL and will use their venues and personnel to host the competition. At their suggestion, we will issue a joint announcement on February 1 to announce our cooperation and the process of the competition. The initial plan is that NFL professionals will set up registration points in large cities in various states, and the registration period will be set from February 8 to 28."

"We don't have a registration fee, but there are registration requirements. Participants who want to participate must have their own clear identification information, which can be a social security account number or a driver's license. They must also have an accurate address where they can be found, and if possible, a phone number."

"If they are underage players, their family members must help them register."

"After collecting the registration information, we will confirm the competition time according to the personnel's division and notify the contestants for confirmation. The audition time will not be later than April 1st at the latest."

"The rules of the selection competition are simple. You have one life, and you are ranked according to the number of levels you clear."

"The top 100 from each state will enter the elimination round. The rules are the same. One life counts for each level."

"The top 30 players from the elimination round will advance to the finals. The rules will change at this time. Each player will have three attempts, and the best one will be the final score."

“Finally, the top 10 from each state will come to California for the finals.”

“And the format for the finals is the same as the state finals.”

"Since we will hold at least six games, and on-site registration will cost the NFL a lot of manpower and resources, and since this is the first time we have a game related to video games, no one knows how the response will be and whether tickets can be sold. So we don't know whether tickets will be sold and how much they will cost. Therefore, the NFL can only treat the game as if there are no spectators, so they gave us a bid to host it..."

"Fifteen million."

"Of course we can come up with the 15 million, but at the same time, we also want to get some sponsorship to reduce the pressure of hosting the competition. If McDonald's is willing to sponsor us, we can put your logo on the arcade machines, hang it on the banners, and put it in the competition venue..."

"Wherever there is competition, there will be a McDonald's."

Ballmer spent several minutes explaining his plan to McDonald's chairman Fred Turner, and after listening, Fred Turner's face showed surprise.

"Are you really going to have a competition?" he asked in surprise while holding the plan.

"Of course." Ethan nodded with a smile and said, "Businessmen can cheat everyone, but they can't cheat those who are willing to pay for you, right?"

"But your plan is too crazy." Fred Turner shook his head and said, "A nationwide audition?"

"Do you have any idea how many people this might involve?"

"According to estimates from the Wall Street Journal, it could be as much as 20 million!"

"Organizing a competition for 20 million people?"

“This is only slightly worse than the US election!”

Fred Turner made a gesture that would cause some physical discomfort to pickle men in the future.

"I know, but there won't be that many people." Fred Turner was surprised, but Ethan didn't think it was a big deal. "Just clear information can stop a lot of people, because when we ask them for their social security card number or driver's license, it is telling the public in disguise that we only welcome adults."

"After eliminating minors, there aren't that many applicants."

"Of course, we also know that there will definitely be minors who will ask their parents to sign them up, but how many of them are there? Mr. Turner, how many parents do you think would be willing to see their children participate in video game competitions during school hours?"

"You know, our schedule is set from April to June."

"If it was summer vacation or Christmas, there would definitely be a lot of people."

"But... the spring semester... it's hard to say."

After this explanation, Fred Turner suddenly felt that it made some sense.

If the Game of Destiny sets a registration threshold for the competition, then the only people who can join in the fun are college students and adults with a driver's license. But when the participating groups are restricted, the risks are actually controllable?
"Mr. Turner, we will also buy insurance for this event." Seeing Fred Turner hesitate, Steve Ballmer said, "We will buy accident insurance for the event and hire a professional security team to maintain order. All this will be done under the guidance of the NFL."

"If you don't believe us and think we can't host large-scale events, that's fine, but you should believe in the NFL. After all, the sensation caused by the Super Bowl every year is visible to the public."

When Ballmer mentioned the NFL again, the confusion on Fred Turner's face suddenly faded a lot.

After all, the Super Bowl is a game for all the fans, and when the NFL thinks it's okay...

McDonald's has nothing to worry about!

"Do you have any sponsors yet?" asked Fred Turner.

“There are already two.”

"Who?"

“Apple and Walmart.”

"How much did they pay?"

The question caused Ballmer to glance at Eason.

After seeing the boss nod, he said, "We have three levels of business cooperation. The highest level is A-level, which costs five million. It will allow your logo to appear in all places related to the competition, and even a flag with your logo will be raised at the entrance of the competition. The next level is B-level, which costs three million. It will allow your logo to appear in places other than the arcade. Of course, it does not have a flag. The last level is C-level, which costs one million. This will allow you to get large-scale standing advertisements and venue banners."

“How much did the apples cost?”

"A-level."

“How many A-grades will you sell?”

"Only two."

The clear and concise answer made Fred Turner nod.

"The last question is, why did the NFL agree to cooperate?"

This matter made Fred Turner a little confused.

Steve Ballmer shrugged and said, "To be honest, I don't know, but one thing is certain, their Super Bowl will end on January 21st of this year, and they will have a long offseason after that, so if they can make money during the offseason, then..."

"why not?"

"Oh..." This explanation made Fred Turner suddenly realize. He smiled and said, "Okay, McDonald's will take the remaining A-level one, but I have two requirements. First, we cannot appear side by side with Apple, because McDonald's is more famous than Apple, so we don't want to give people the idea that we are on the same level. Do you understand this? Secondly, if the competition is good, then I hope that you can put up a banner for McDonald's that says "There is a surprise for Children's Day" in the state finals. Is this okay?"

"Of course!" Ethan laughed and held out his hand. "Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Turner!"

"I hope you won't let me down."

Fred Turner also stretched out his hand and shook Ethan's tightly.

With McDonald's generous donation, Ethan completed all the work related to the competition.

After sending Fred Turner away, he looked at Steve Ballmer and said, "Since you participated in formulating the procedures of the competition, you should continue to monitor the subsequent events."

"?"

Ballmer was stunned. "Boss, why don't you come forward?"

"I'll be there during the finals, the rest of the time is up to you."

Ethan patted the guy, who was only one year younger than him, on the shoulder and said earnestly, "This is also a test from the company. Come on! The company is very optimistic about you."

"..."

Ballmer was silent.

At this moment, he only felt that his mother tongue was speechless.

He is just a young man who has just graduated from school for two years!

Why are we starting a national competition?
What's the difference between this and just learning how to add one plus one and then starting to solve functions?
“Is it so cool to be the boss?”

"Nothing to do?"

Looking at the departing figure, Ballmer felt as if a few more hairs on his head had fallen off.

what?
Did he have a bald head originally?
Oh, excuse me.

Steve Ballmer thought Ethan was a hands-off boss, but Ethan himself knew that what he had to do next was much more important than arranging the competition system and audition registration for the national competition.

Because those were just the fulfillment of promises, but now... he wants to write the future!
Back to the office, spread out a piece of paper.

Ethan thought for a while with the pen in hand, and finally wrote a string of English words on it:

"Super Pac-Man"

Note: ① The IP of "Star Wars" cannot be thought of with common sense. In reality, after the Atari crash, the whole world was mourning the game market, but Lucas still forced a video game to be released in the form of an arcade machine, and it was just a reskin of "Space Invaders", and then sold more than 2 units. In reality, the IP of "Star Wars" can go against the will of heaven. There is no way, they are just awesome. ② McDonald's always over-stocks the toys for Happy Meals. In reality, they do this, they are rich and willful. ③ The off-season of the NFL is from February to June. After the Super Bowl, they will open the training camp in July. During this period, those venues are originally rented out. For example, the current stadium in Santa Clara, California costs 6 US dollars per hour.

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(End of this chapter)