Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 87 2 3.

Although Ethan had played many video games in his previous life, and could get inspiration if he squeezed his brain, there were only a few games related to minimalist pixel style. Because in the era when he played games, the performance of arcade machines had improved, and the popular games on the market were "Street Fighter", "King of Fighters", and "Mortal Kombat".

However, even though the original black screen romance had disappeared when Ethan was playing games, the pixel games that survived to that time were all true classics, such as "Northern Cube", "Space Invaders" and "Pac-Man" that he wrote on paper. They were all super IPs that leveraged a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars! If any of them were made, it would absorb all the development funds needed by Silicon Valley companies in this era!
Make two?

That would make countless people worship you!

What if all three were copied?

In the words of the book, this is the God of Games!

There's no way, because in Ethan's previous life, there was someone who achieved the achievement of creating three epic hits in his lifetime?

"Donkey Kong", "Mario" and "Zelda" made Shigeru Miyamoto reach the top of video games.

The most terrifying thing is that "Pokemon" was also made under his influence. Satoshi represents the game producer himself, Satoshi Tajiri, and Shigeru, in the words of Satoshi Tajiri, made it to pay tribute to his mentor Shigeru Miyamoto.

Of course, this kind of game that exploded on home consoles has nothing to do with Ethan for the time being, because the hardware cost of this era is high. When he set his sights on the most basic pixel charm, as a mortal, what he wanted most was - I want it all!
He has already given up financial speculation and started his own business. If he doesn't make a name for himself, all his hard work will be in vain!
So, when he rolled up his sleeves and started to work, he directly brought out all the trump cards in his mind.

But he was at a loss as to which one to blow up first.

Make "Northern Cube" first?
Ethan circled the name of the game.

After thinking it over again and again, he finally painted it black.

Although Ethan didn't understand technology, he knew that "Northern Cube" was the most difficult to make of the three games.

First, there are many types of blocks controlled by players, and the design of their display methods and pseudo-random formulas require a lot of thought and writing.

This amount of work cannot be completed in a short period of time.

Second, the elimination setting of this game is very difficult to write. When manually eliminating blocks, the game must be able to identify the height of the highest filled grid block, and must always calculate the maximum number of blocks placed on the screen to leave players a glimmer of hope to ensure that subsequent pseudo-random calculations do not affect the player's gaming experience.

This point is completely beyond the scope of circuit board arcade games. No matter how good you are at simple physics, you can't make it.

In addition to these two points, there are a series of problems such as the increasing game speed under the score detection mechanism.

When these needs arose, Ethan thought it would be better not to cause trouble for Evelyn.

He didn't know whether Evelyn could write "Northern Cube", but he knew that he couldn't waste time on it.

In the era of arcade games, what matters is speed, accuracy and ruthlessness. Spending one more second on research and development when the technology is not good enough is like committing suicide.

Besides, the game "Northern Cube" is actually not suitable for sale on arcades, because -

"This game is only for players to buy themselves. If you put it on an arcade machine, the boss will go crazy."

Ethan chuckled and shook his head, because the scene in his head was already popping up, where the owner of the arcade was so driven by a great player that he wanted to smash the machine.

After strategically placing "Northern Cube", Ethan turned his attention to "Space Invaders".

To be honest, Ethan has never played the real "Space Invaders". What he played was actually a copy of "Space Invaders". If I remember correctly, it seemed to be "Bee" produced by Namco.

But that doesn’t matter, right?

Because the content of the games is the same!

Both "Bee" and "Space Invaders" are fixed shooting games, where players can only move the plane or turret at the bottom of the screen horizontally, press the firing button to shoot bullets and clear the alien enemies coming down from above. The only difference is that the enemies in "Space Invaders" move together as a group, while the enemies in "Bee" can attack individually and dive into the player.

Although this game also deviates from the content of simple physical feedback, from a technical perspective, it should be simpler than "Northern Cube"?
Ethan was unsure and circled the name of the game.

What made him even more hesitant was actually another memory in his mind.

Because that memory told him——

"This game seems to have become really popular because of Star Wars?" Ethan muttered to himself while scratching his head.

Yes, in Ethan's memory, the release of "Space Invaders" was actually a bit of a coincidence, riding on the popularity of "Star Wars".

After "Star Wars" captured the hearts of countless audiences with its breathtaking visual feast, the game "Space Invaders" was officially released, and then it became popular overnight, and then swept across North America with a devastating force.

It was precisely because of this legend that Ethan was so impressed that when Steven Spielberg said that his friend wanted to make a big news, he took the initiative to ask if it was George Lucas and if it was "Star Wars".

If so……

Ethan actually wanted to stay outside for a while.

You’re not going in!
As for the reason?

The inertia of history is the best experience for success!

However, he was not sure whether his memory was correct, so he was a little worried now.

Let’s skip this for now and continue reading. The game “Pac-Man” immediately made him feel at peace.

"Pac-Man" is a maze chasing game in which the player plays a yellow ball in a closed maze. The player must eat all the beans in the maze while avoiding the pursuit of four ghosts on the map, and then he can move on to the next level.

If you are caught by the ghost, you will lose a life. After three lives are lost, the game will be over.

Ethan felt that this game was actually the most suitable for him to make because he had already made "Snake" before.

When the claustrophobic environment and eating all the food come together, Pac-Man is like the spiritual successor to Snake. Or...

It is a creative upgraded version.

With this kind of gimmick, are you still worried that merchants won’t buy crazily enough?
"It seems that Pac-Man is the most suitable game for now."

Ethan thought about it and finally put a check mark behind the name of Pac-Man.

Then I wrote a two after Space Invaders.

As for the blackened "Northern Cube", it is the third one in his mind.

When this ranking appeared, Ethan felt relieved.

"First, use Pac-Man to open up the real situation, then use Space Invaders to sweep the world, and finally release Northland Cube to let these stupid people see what a real pixel game is!"

At this point in the painting, Ethan's mouth corners raised in an inexplicable arc.

Because in his mind, scenes after three games were released in succession have already appeared.

That tsunami-like scene...

The loud shout of expectation...

He raised his right hand slightly, gesturing towards the crowd...

Just thinking about it makes my heart boil!

"Hey hey hey hey..."

Ethan couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Hahahahaha..."

He smiled happily.

Just as he erased everything and opened a new piece of paper, ready to draw the Pac-Man idea in his mind...

The sound of "dong dong dong" penetrated into his ears and disturbed his sweet dream.

"Come in." Although he was unhappy, Ethan did not show it.

The door opened and the company's administrative clerk, the blonde girl Julis Noble, walked in.

"Mr. Jones, a gentleman claiming to be the CEO of Sega has visited the company and wants to see you."

'? '

Such words surprised Ethan.

'Sega?'

'Why did it come to me?'

Ethan was a little confused and asked directly: "Did he say anything?"

"Yes, the other party said they want to discuss cooperation with us." Julis Noble replied.

'Negotiation of cooperation?'

These words made Ethan even more surprised.

Because he doesn't have any projects that can be cooperated with Sega!

Patent licensing for video games?
This is absolutely impossible!
Not to mention that Ethan didn't have any authorization at all, and he completely circumvented the patent by relying on the banner of Ralph Baer. Even if he had it, Sega wouldn't need it!

Because in April this year, after Nikola Mozart reached a settlement with Atari over the "Pong" issue, he immediately sued Sega.

After that, the two sides reached a consensus in a short time.

If nothing unexpected happens, Sega should have obtained the patent license from Milova, but the price may be quite expensive.

After thinking about it for a while, Ethan didn't figure it out, so he stopped thinking about it.

After putting on the pen, he asked, "Is the reception room on the second floor available?"

"can."

"Then please ask him to come over."

Ethan threw the blackened paper into the shredder.

Since it is not clear why the other party came, it would be better to meet him.

Note: ① Although "Northern Cube" is a game on Game Boy, it is indeed the most difficult of the three in terms of production difficulty. The algorithm for detecting the capacity of the cube to match the pseudo-randomness has been published in a paper. And it is precisely because the design concept of this game is to prevent pseudo-randomness from destroying the gameplay, so when we play it, we will find that every failure is due to the reaction not keeping up, not the game itself. ② "Space Invaders" is indeed made by riding on the popularity of "Star Wars", this is what the producer Tomohiro Nishikado said himself. He said that "Space Invaders" borrowed from many games and film and television works, including "Star Wars". In order to make the game more successful, the first version of the promotional poster of "Space Invaders" in the book was made according to the opening of "Star Wars". The word "Space Invaders" is a reverse angle close-up of the "Star Wars" logo (there is this picture on the English version of Wikipedia). Not only that, this game was not officially distributed in batches until August after "Star Wars" was officially released in the book (June 1978, 6). When it was sold in North America, it was directly promoted by taking advantage of the "Star Wars" campaign.

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(End of this chapter)