Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 60 Celebration Party and Secondary Dividend

"Welcome my friend! Steve - Jobs - welcome to my party!"

"Hi~ Teacher Barbara~ Nice to meet you~ Your dress looks great today, and it matches your hairstyle really well~"

"Oh~ Are you Mr. Vinton? Nice to meet you! I'm Ethan Jones... Oh, yes, Evelyn is my sister... Is this your wife? Oh~ Mrs. Joseph, hello..."

"Hello~ Chuck~ We meet again~ Oh... Why do you look so good? Your cheeks are so rosy! Is it because the problem has been resolved?... Hahaha~ I didn't expect that the law can also cure diseases~"

Saturday, September 1975, 8.

The clear weather makes people feel relaxed and comfortable, and the endless blue sky makes people want to show their voices loudly. However, what is more likely to make people restless than the natural environment is a three-story villa in Palo Alto in the Bay Area, because at this moment, it is full of people.

Men and women of all ages and styles gathered together, some because of Ethan Jones, and some were invited by Evelyn Johnson to celebrate the success of "Snake Game".

Although it has been several months since the release of "Snake Game", the party that should be held is still necessary.

From Ethan Jones's perspective, this is actually a good opportunity to maintain the relationship.

For Evelyn Johnson, it's a great way to enjoy life.

Two people may have different ideas, but that doesn’t matter, right? As long as the process is the same, we can play together.

As for why in Palo Alto...

This is quite a coincidence.

Evelyn Johnson received nearly $200,000 in the first batch of dividends from Snake Game. She didn't want to give most of it to the IRS, so tax avoidance became her only option. However, there are only a few ways to avoid taxes, either investing or buying a property. In the absence of a good project to operate, buying a house near the school is her best choice.

The villa she chose is also very good. The 6,000 square feet of living area can fully meet all her needs. The configuration of front parking space and back garden makes this villa the most beautiful one in the downtown area.

The most important thing is that the selling price here is only 160,000 US dollars!

"160,000 US dollars? Is it that cheap?" Barbara couldn't believe it. She looked around while sitting on the sofa and exclaimed, "My apartment costs 180,000 US dollars! And it's not even as big as this one!"

"That's because you live closer to Stanford!" Vinton Cerf, wearing a hearing aid, said in a hoarse voice, "How long does it take to drive from your home to Stanford? And how long does it take to drive from here to Stanford?"

"But there can't be a difference of 20,000 US dollars, right?"

"How can there not be? Don't you always tell your students that a lawyer's time is money?"

"Oh - Vinton - we're not in class now! And please keep your voice down, I can hear you!"

Ethan was amused by the two professors' shouting conversation.

Vinton Cerf has some hearing problems, so he needs to wear hearing aids for a long time.

And because his wife also has hearing impairment, even with hearing aids, the sounds she can hear are very limited, so their daily communication as a couple is all through yelling. Over time, when he speaks, it sounds like he is quarreling, which is a headache.

This little story was told to him by Evelyn. The girl asked him to speak louder when communicating with Vinton and not to be afraid of scaring the other party.

Barbara obviously didn't like this way of speaking, after all, she was a soft-spoken person.

He smiled and shook his head, then turned his gaze. Then Ethan was surprised to find that the fat boy Woz was surrounded by Evelyn's other teachers. He leaned over to listen -

"Wow! Woz, you actually know Evelyn's brother?"

"Uh...yes...we are friends..."

"Oh! Then you can't sell those toys to school through them anymore..."

"I won't, I won't." The little fat boy shook his head frantically.

Ethan found this conversation interesting, so he took the initiative to ask the fat boy if he had any unknown dark history.

After hearing this question, several Stanford teachers immediately said that this guy relied on his identity as a HP employee to sell some strange toys for pranks to Stanford students.

For example, electronic chickens, electronic dogs, electronic bombs...

Since everyone knew his situation and Lockheed was brought in personally by President Fred Terman, people usually turned a blind eye to him. Every time he made a joke, everyone could only communicate with him properly.

There is no way!

You can’t hit him! You can’t scold him! So you can only persuade him with kind words!
This fact made Ethan laugh out loud. He patted Wozniacki on the shoulder, gave him a thumbs up and praised him for being awesome.

After having fun, he turned around and went to listen to Mr. Ferbole and Chuck Pete telling stories.

Half an hour later, Thomas' voice came from the courtyard.

"Guys! I've got the fire lit! You can come over and have a barbecue!"

Only then did Ethan and everyone else rush into the back garden.

The parties in Los Angeles may be extravagant, but normal people's gatherings are not that extravagant.

Eating, drinking, singing and dancing, that is the mainstream.

The party started at 11 a.m., and during the barbecue, Ethan performed a few shows and played the guitar he learned in his previous life, which caused a sensation, because even Evelyn, Thomas and Linda were curious about when Ethan learned this thing.

In response to this question, Ethan just laughed it off and said that he learned it during the three years of silence.

Evelyn could accept this answer. As for Thomas and Linda... their daughter didn't even ask, and they didn't bother to care.

And Ethan's proofing also attracted others to show their talents.

Mr. Faberle whistled, the fat little Wozniak told a few jokes, Jobs got out a harmonica from somewhere and played a Beatles tune, and Evelyn sang a few Barbra Streisand songs.

The group of people played happily for a long time, and only said goodbye to each other when the sunset appeared in the evening.

Since people in the United States have to bring gifts to the host when attending a party, there were many gift boxes in Evelyn's new home. And because the theme of this party was to celebrate the success of "Snake Game", Ethan and Evelyn did not want to let the guests go home empty-handed, so they specially prepared a return gift for the guests. Ethan asked Jobs to order 20 "Snake Game" machines from Atari, and then he and Evelyn signed their names on the panels, packaged them as gifts and gave them to everyone.

This fact made Vinton Cerf and his friends very happy. After all, in this era, there is no one who does computer research who doesn't play video games. This is the best pastime in their daily lives. As for Mage Barbara, well...

"Oh Ethan~ How am I going to carry such a big arcade back?"

Looking at the machine that was as tall as herself, Barbara put her hands on her hips, looking helpless.

"It's okay, Teacher Barbara. I'll take it back for you."

Thomas reacted quickly and summoned his pickup truck.

At the same time, he said to the people around him: "Who else has something that's hard to get? I'll give it to you!"

"I may not be good at other things, but I am very good at providing services! If you have any needs, just tell me directly, you're welcome!"

…………

Happy times are always short-lived, and after the party is over, everything returns to normal.

Nothing major happened in the next two weeks. Except for Evelyn starting school, everything else was going on in an orderly manner.

Chuck Petrus's 6502 was now ready for production, and the first batch of chips was delivered to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. With the arrival of the chips, Apple No. officially entered the production stage. Of course, the name "Apple" was called out by Ethan in his heart, because up to now, Steve Jobs had not thought about creating a company. He was just thinking about how to sell the unnamed Apple No. .

This kind of trivial matter was not important to Ethan at all. He just let Steve Jobs and others do whatever they wanted, because even if they did not name the company Apple in the end, but something like Pear or Navel Orange, it actually didn't matter much.

After all, the key to a person's success lies in his ability, background and funds, but not his name.

You know, in Ethan's previous life, Steve Jobs's face had become a negative example for many masters, saying that he was not good at making money, so he was kicked out of the company.

and then?
When he was invited back to the company to develop the iPod, all the masters of success studies and physiognomy fell silent.

And when the iPhone 4 is released...

Steve Jobs's face has become the most classic image of a successful person.

Apart from these things, the biggest trouble that lingers around Ethan is emptiness.

When I wake up every day, I have to think about what I should do.

Oh, days like this are so damn boring!
When September 10th came, Nolan Bushnell called and told him that the second phase dividends of "Snake Game" had come out and asked him to reconcile the accounts.

This fact made Ethan even more helpless, because he had not yet spent all his first batch of dividends!

However, although he said no, his body was still very honest. After hanging up the phone, Ethan ran over happily.

When he drove to Atari, the oncoming bear hug almost strangled him to death.

"Oh - Nolan - I'm suffocating -"

Ethan patted Nolan Bushnell on the back, hoping that he would let him go.

Nolan Bushnell excitedly shouted, "Oh, Ethan, if this can make you suffocate, then won't the financial report later make your head congested and your blood pressure soar?"

Ethan was looking forward to this statement, and when he followed Nolan Bushnell into the office, he laughed at the thumb-thick document, because it described the performance of "Snake Game" in the central and eastern United States in the past three months.

The general outline of the matter is this:
Although Ethan Jones did not make his own statement on agency cooperation last time, after he left, Nolan Bushnell chose to cooperate with Chicago arcade companies Midway Games and Chicago Coin.

Of course, the agreement finally reached by both parties was different from the document Ethan Jones had seen before.

At Nolan Bushnell's request, Midway Games and Chicago Coin had to sell Snake Game arcade machines at $1,300 each and provide board replacement services at $450 each, because only in this way would there be no price confusion in the central United States and areas close to Texas.

After all, when merchants in Texas ordered circuit boards for "Snake Game", Atari quoted them four hundred dollars a piece. If the agent's price was cheaper than the original factory price, how would Atari do business in the Midwest in the future?
Therefore, the pricing power must be obtained.

After raising the agency's selling price, the commission rate that Nolan Bushnell negotiated with them was also raised accordingly.

For every arcade machine they sold, Atari took 18 percent of the sale price.

For every electronic motherboard they sold, Atari would take 20 percent of the sale price.

On these two items, Ethan Jones's margin of profit from Atari was 15% and 18%.

Although on the surface Atari did nothing and could take $39 from each video arcade machine and $9 from each electronic motherboard, at the same time, Ethan Jones's commission actually increased. When Atari sold video arcade machines, the selling price was $1,200, and Ethan Jones could get a commission of $180. But now, when the selling price is $1,300, the commission Ethan can get is actually $195, which is $15 more.

Since his own interests have been improved, Ethan no longer cares about Nolan Bushnell and others' extortion.

After all, they raised the contract price, so there's nothing wrong with taking some hard work pay.

In the past three months, Midway Games and Chicago Coin have sold a total of 3722 video arcade machines, earning $4 in revenue, and 838 circuit boards, earning $600.00 in revenue.

After a simple calculation, the dividends belonging to Ethan Jones and Evelyn Johnson are $1...

When this number appeared, Ethan Jones couldn't stop laughing!
He did nothing in the past three months, and yet he got an extra dividend of more than 600,000 yuan?
This special code...

It's so cool too!
Uh, that's not right...

He actually did get something done in the past three months!

I got a MOS 6502 for free! I got Jobs' promise for free!
Hahahahaha——

He tried not to laugh!
Hehehehehehe~
:)
Thanks to [Yishan Daojun] for the reward of 500 Qidian coins.

Note: ①There is physiognomy in the West, and the earliest theory appeared in 1598. At the beginning, Jobs was indeed analyzed as a bad person, saying that he had a bad face and could not keep money, so he was kicked out of Apple. He also failed when he founded his own computer company. But when Pixar became popular and he returned to Apple, those masters said that Jobs' face was very good. In short, it was a slap in the face.

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(End of this chapter)