Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 94 Industry news, invitation list, and criticism of the Oscars!

Chapter 94 Industry news, invitation list, and criticism of the Oscars!
Thursday, June 1976, 4.

On this day, Steve Wozniak was pulled away by Steve Jobs. Ethan knew the reason, which was to start Apple.

Ethan had no intention of caring about this kind of thing for the time being, because after half a year, he was online again and returned to his loyal company.

To be honest, Ethan felt that his company was losing a lot of money. After operating for half a year, not only did it not have any business, but it also had to pay full salaries to two administrative staff and one financial staff. How come he didn't get this good opportunity of getting paid for doing no work in his previous life?

In a trance, he even thought he was Boss Jia.

The person disappeared, but the salary was still paid. This perfectly illustrates why the boss is the one that needs to be fired the most in a company...

Because it's the same whether he's there or not!
But this thought did not last long and disappeared.

Because when he showed up at the company in Thomas' Ford pickup truck carrying a freshly-made Pac-Man arcade machine, the male executive Damio Dean, who got the news, was very tactful and asked the financial officer Allen Massey to take the machine off the car and deliver it to the company.

Ethan felt very comfortable with the boss taking a shit and me handing him the toilet paper.

What made him feel even more comfortable was that after he entered the office, another administrative staff member, Julis Noble, handed him tea and reported to him.

Although Ethan had not assigned them any work in the past six months, the girl in professional attire was holding a stack of documents and reporting to Ethan on their recent work results. "Mr. Jones, although our company has not conducted any business in the past six months, we have not been idle at the same time. We have been collecting news about the industry."

'Um? '

This topic interested Ethan very much, so he asked, "What's the news in the industry?"

In the pre-Internet era, seclusion for half a year was no different from being isolated from the world. Ethan really had no idea what was happening in the outside world.

In response to his question, Julis Noble immediately flipped open the file in her hand and said, "Mr. Jones, after sorting and identifying, we think there are three pieces of information that you should be very interested in."

"The first piece of news is the video game sales rankings from last year published by the Wall Street Journal."

"In this list, our company's Snake Game ranks first in North America with an installed base of 12,000 units."

"Oh... Sure!"

Ethan was very satisfied with the result.

Although the game "Snake" brought him a lot of trouble, it also made him earn countless money and praise.

When choosing it, Ethan's starting point was that it was simple to produce and easy to make money, but after experiencing all these twists and turns, he hoped that "Snake" could receive some positive and active reviews.

This is not because he seeks fame or profit, but because he wants to let those who covet Snake know...

You are not seeing things!

"Snake" is a great game!

It won the U.S. sales championship for 1975!
Eh!
The key point is that the copyright is still in my hands!

Are you angry?

Hahahaha...

Ethan laughed secretly in his heart, with a hint of pride on his face. At the same time, he became interested in the entire content of the list.

"So, what about the next few?" he asked.

Julis Noble answered immediately, "The second place is a game invented by Taito of Liben Game Company, called Speed Race. It is distributed by Midway Games, and the cumulative sales of the first and second editions are 8,000 units."

Ethan had heard of this game. It was a racing game with two different versions: single-player and two-player. Although it could not be compared with later racing games, the quality of the game was still very good in that era.

"The third place is Tank, published by Kee Games, with sales of 5,000 units."

Ethan also knew this game. It was a two-player game in which two players controlled different tanks to attack their opponents in order to defeat them. It sounded familiar, right? Because it was the true predecessor of the FC classic game "Tank Wars".

"The fourth place is a table tennis game released by Meadows Games, which sold 10 units. The fifth place is a game released by Atari before it reached a settlement with MILO, called Gran Trak , which sold units."

"The sales of the games ranked 6 to 10 are all estimated by the Wall Street Journal to be 500 units, which is of little reference value..."

Following Julis Noble's report, Ethan also gained a brief understanding of the North American gaming industry in 1975.

Although it seems that the current gaming industry is flourishing with a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending, because the games on the sales rankings come from different companies, but in a few years, these companies will all disappear. This is not only because Ethan's memories of his previous life do not have them, but also because these companies cannot pay high patent fees to Milova while making great strides in allowing their products to move from the circuit board era to the CPU era.

And this... is a good thing for Ethan!
As a gamer, he naturally hopes that there are more and better games on the market.

As a businessman, what he wants to do most is to strangle friendly competitors!
"What about the other two pieces of news?" Ethan asked, "Are they also rankings?"

Rankings are just a rehash of the old stuff, so just listen to them once.

After he asked, Julis Noble shook her head decisively and said:

"No, Mr. Jones, the other two pieces of news have nothing to do with the rankings."

"The first piece of news came from MIRO. At the end of November last year, MIRO officially announced that the first-generation home console Odyssey would be officially discontinued at the beginning of this year. At the same time, they would release new products this year."

"A month ago, they announced that their new machine, the MILO Odyssey 300, will be available to the public this summer. They said that this game console will have three games built in, namely Tennis, Hockey and Squash. At the same time, they have designed three different levels of difficulty for the games, namely novice, intermediate and expert. In their words, their design is a revolution in the game industry, because no game has ever been able to divide the difficulty levels before."

"Not only that, they also said that this difficulty division is more friendly than our Snake, because it allows players to have real choices and return the game to the essence of fun rather than the pain of masochism."

'WTF?'

This news made Ethan stunned.

Is Mirohua going to release a new machine?
And they also used the adjustment of game difficulty as a promotional focus?

And stepped on him at the same time?

This……

Ethan didn't know what to say.

The third piece of news surprised Ethan even more...

"The third piece of news is about Atari. Atari's founder Nolan Bushnell announced that they will launch their new game "Breakout" in two months, that is, in June. Nolan Bushnell said that this game is the best work since the birth of Atari. It is a truly infinite flow game and is much more fun than our "Snake"..."

Having said that, Julis Noble glanced at Ethan anxiously.

Because she felt that Ethan would be angry after hearing Nolan Bushnell's slanderous remarks.

But when she turned her eyes to Ethan, what she saw was her boss who suddenly laughed.

That's right!

After hearing that MILOVA was about to release a new machine and Atari was about to release "Breakout", the thing Ethan wanted to do most was to laugh!

So these three families with grudges against each other are squeezed together again?

Ethan admitted that "Breakout" is an excellent game, and the difficulty adjustment of MIRO Odyssey 300 is a milestone in the history of games. But no matter how awesome they are, they can never be as awesome as the anthropomorphic AI of "Pac-Man"!
He had just finished Pac-Man, and now he learned that his two rivals were about to release new products?
hiss……

This situation...

Doesn't that force him to be a good person?
"Okay, I know."

Thinking of this, Ethan smiled and nodded, saying, "Julis, you have done a great job. I will give you bonuses at the end of this year."

"Then, I came to the company this time to tell you that the company's new product has been developed. Next, our company needs to apply for a provisional patent for the new product and then hold a press conference."

"As for the patent application, let Damio Dean handle it."

"Regarding the venue of the press conference, please contact Stanford for me to see if there is a large lecture hall or auditorium on campus that can be used. If there is, we can discuss the time of use. If not, we can just set up a stage downstairs."

"A new company has limited resources, so it's understandable that it's a bit rough, right?"

"As for the guests attending the conference..." Ethan took out a list from his briefcase and handed it to the other party, "I have drawn up a list here. After you confirm the venue of the press conference, send invitations to them according to the time of the press conference."

"Then……"

"Add Nolan Bushnell and Miloš Škr to the mix!"

Yes!

Ethan originally had no intention of inviting Atari and MILO to participate in the release of Pac-Man.

He is not a devil, he will let it go after he has taken revenge.

But now, since these competitors still want to pull him down, he will be a good guy and help them save operating costs!

He had already demonstrated Pac-Man in front of both companies. If they still released a new product under this circumstance, it would be their own problem, right?

hehehe~
Of course, Julis Noble didn't know what her boss was thinking.

At this moment, she only knew that the company, which had been resting for half a year, would soon be busy again.

She nodded in agreement and went out to get busy. However, after a while, she came back.

"What's wrong?" Ethan was a little surprised.

"Mr. Jones, there is a guest you need to invite personally," said Julis Noble.

"What?" Ethan was a little confused.

"Who?" He wanted to know who was such a big shot.

"It's Mr. Steven Spielberg," Julis Noble said. "He's very angry now, so we can't send him a letter."

'? '

Ethan was confused by Julis Noble's words.

And when Julis Noble took out a copy of the Los Angeles Times, he was even more shocked by the bold headline on the front page.

Because it says...

[Hollywood upstart, "Jaws" director Steven Spielberg angrily criticized the Academy for not understanding movies! ]

After taking a look, the news inside was even more explosive——

[At the just concluded 48th Academy Awards ceremony, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" swept all its competitors and won five awards in one fell swoop, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. ]

[Hollywood's new director Steven Spielberg was very dissatisfied with this result. He said that the Academy of Oscars did not understand movies. His "Jaws" was the most popular best film. Whether it was the award-winning "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon", Al Pacino's "Dog Day Afternoon", or Robert Altman's "Nashville", none of them could be compared with his record-breaking movie! ]

[At the same time, he also said that he would never participate in the Oscars again in the future! ]

"Fuck! Are you so brave?"

The Los Angeles Times report blinded Ethan's eyes.

He never expected that after not seeing each other for a few months, this guy Spielberg would actually start a quarrel with Oscar?

When this situation occurred, it was no wonder that Julis Noble did not dare to send the letter!

Because no matter who does this, they will be embarrassed!

Of course, Ethan would only be surprised, not scared.

After reading the report, he was full of curiosity and decisively called Spielberg.

Because Spielberg didn't know the company's number, he didn't get through at first. But after Ethan made a few more calls and asked Universal's staff to help transfer the call, the panting voice also entered his ears -

"Oh Ethan, I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you who called."

"Oh, it's not your fault because I forgot to give you the company's phone number."

"Is there something you want to talk to me about? I'm quite busy right now..."

"Because of the Los Angeles Times?"

Upon hearing this name, Spielberg immediately raised his voice -

"Yeah! These bastards totally misunderstood what I meant!"

"I didn't even get an Oscar nomination this year, so why would I criticize the Academy for not understanding movies? Am I crazy?"

"I said this in an interview. I said One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was great, but it couldn't compare to my Jaws in terms of business. There was nothing wrong with what I said, right? I made the highest-grossing movie in North America! It was even the first movie in the world to have a box office of over 100 million yuan in its first release! Can't I say that I'm great?"

"Then what……"

"Those damn reporters said I said Oscar didn't understand movies..."

"Oh! Sxxt!"

"These are truly a bunch of sons of bitches!"

After hearing Spielberg's explanation, Ethan immediately laughed.

But he showed no sympathy, and continued to add fuel to the fire: "Ah? Is that so? I wanted to support you..."

"I'm going to have my company contact the Los Angeles Times. I want to buy a front-page headline saying that you, Steven Spielberg, will be the greatest director in our country! Jaws is just the beginning! In the future, the whole of Hollywood will tremble under your rule!"

“Cough cough cough…” Ethan’s arrogant words made the guy on the other end of the phone cough non-stop.

Putting away his anger, Spielberg said, "Oh Ethan, although I feel the same way, movies still have to speak for themselves. I'm going to shoot a new movie in May. When the new movie comes out, I'll tell them what a movie is!"

This confidence made Ethan smile.

'Sure enough, every successful person has a determined heart.'

He sighed inwardly, and then said: "Really? Then you are really lucky."

"What?" Spielberg didn't understand what Ethan meant.

Ethan didn't keep the secret and said directly: "It's simple. The new game is ready, and I'm going to hold a new product launch conference."

"Steven, may I have the honor to welcome you here?"

After the words were spoken, there was silence on the other side.

Not long after, a roar was heard -

"Oh——Fxxk——"

"You finally finished your new game?"

"Do you know that I have been waiting for you for half a year?"

"Oh no..."