America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 313 The Sega President Who Submitted to the Devil

"Damn, it really is."

Lin Lixin slapped his forehead, finally realizing what he had just realized.

I did have a habitual way of thinking, and I misjudged the impact of this game on players of this era.

Looking back now, I realize just how outrageous this game was.

It brings together the world's top CG technology and features the participation of Hollywood's leading studios such as Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic.

The core development team, led by himself, included top programmers and graphics workers such as Carmack and Ben Goch.

It features comprehensive online multiplayer support, as well as integration with radio stations and albums.

A top-of-the-line peripheral combination supported by Lockheed and Sega technology —

It's hard for this thing not to explode.

However, the upper limit is basically capped here.

To showcase the charm of EuroCard, Lin Lixin and his team lost a lot of hair.

If we want to go further and create something like Need for Speed, that's truly impossible.

"By the way, Motorola is coming over later tonight to discuss a radio collaboration. Are you going in person?"

Sam quickly organized the documents and found Motorola's letter of intent.

For a company whose main business is communications, this well-made radio board with very controllable costs has great potential.

It would be such a waste to use it only for video games!

In fact, several days ago, letters of intent for cooperation from various companies had already arrived like snowflakes, including some Walkman specialists like Sony.

Sony believes that using this level of LCD technology in gaming peripherals would be a complete waste.

Imagine if the next generation Walkman used a Gamenova LCD screen, combined with their own CD technology —

No one can ever beat them in the Walkman market.

"Motorola? I won't go. Let's stick to what we agreed on before."

Lin Lixin shook his head; another guest was coming to visit him at GAMENOVA today.

Sega North America.

Hayao Nakayama stood silently in front of a young man, watching him disassemble the mainboard that held the hopes for the future of SEGA piece by piece.

He is Hideki Sato, head of the Hardware Department.

Not long ago, due to Genesis's R&D work and multiple semiconductor orders with GAMENOVA, Hayao Nakayama simply transferred him to North America as well.

If Lin Lixin were here, he would definitely recognize that this casing is from Sega's 16-bit home console—SEGA—

MEGA-DRIVE.

It is commonly known as the Sega MD, or the American version of Genesis.

However, that was just its outer shell; the internal hardware structure was completely different from the MD that Lin Lixin was familiar with.

The CPU is still Motorola's 68000 and Z80 dual CPU configuration of 16+8.

However, whether it's the graphics chip, memory, or even the audio chip, they have all been completely replaced with products manufactured by Micron, or rather, products from Gamenova.

Even the modem and mouse peripherals that were prepared were made by GAMENOVA!

In other words, this thing was essentially manufactured for them by GAMENOVA in a sense.

To think that making game consoles has gone to this level is truly something that Hayao Nakayama doesn't know what to say.

"Um----"

He hesitated for a moment, then gently patted the young man's shoulder.

"well done."

After trying his best to come up with a response, all he could offer was this lukewarm, meaningless encouragement.

He truly saw no hope of victory against a monster like Gamenova.

As for Hideki Sato, who is truly in charge of the hardware, his understanding of this is no less than that of President Hayao Nakayama.

"President—with this kind of setup, we have no chance of winning."

Although these words were completely designed to boost the morale of others and diminish his own, he had no choice but to say them.

Yes, everyone knows that game consoles sell games, not hardware.

But the problem is... that's GAMENOVA's main battlefield!

If they can't even compete in hardware, wouldn't making games be pure suicide?

"Our enemy is not GAMENOVA, nor are we obligated to face an enemy we cannot defeat."

Hayao Nakayama shook his head.

Hayao Nakayama had already decided on the fate of this long-awaited 16-bit machine.

Although North America was completely unaffected by Gamenova's dominance, Hayao Nakayama knew very well that now was the perfect time to launch the final battle.

Six months ago, NEC Neon Electric collaborated with Hudson to develop an 8-bit supercomputer, which was also considered a near-16-bit supercomputer.

Positioning machine.

This machine, which was born with the reputation of being an "FC killer" from the very beginning, has now become a more disgusting threat than Gamenova in Nintendo's eyes.

GAMENOVA may indeed be in danger, but as long as they continue with their high-price strategy and don't easily venture into the handheld market, they can continue to cultivate their low-price market and the Mario IP.

With the support of a group of third-party developers, they can still gain a foothold by relying on the number of games and price advantages.

But now it's different.

PC-E is clearly targeting them.

Now, anyone with eyes can see one truth—

We can't beat Gamenova, but we can beat you?

People tend to compromise.

If they were to directly confront Nintendo's gaming empire, perhaps everyone would be wary.

But once they're sent to deal with that game Cthulhu across the ocean, then dealing with Nintendo doesn't seem so unacceptable anymore.

Hayao Nakayama thought so too.

With PC-E leading the way, Nintendo is now disgusted, feeling like they've swallowed a fly.

What I need to do now is to go all out and develop a 16-bit machine for the lower-tier market, and steal NEC's thunder.

"The eighth software development department is already considering a new project, so don't worry, everything will be fine."

Hayao Nakayama spoke again to reassure the troops, then glanced at his wrist, saying, "Do your best and leave the rest to fate."

In order to win this war, he had to resort to any means necessary.

They would even sell their souls to the devil without hesitation.

GAMENOVA headquarters.

Hayao Nakayama arrived ten minutes early and met the devil who had been waiting for him for a long time—oh no, it was Lin Lixin.

"How has President Nakayama been lately? How's the quality of our products?"

Lin Lixin shook hands with him with a smile before taking his seat first.

That question was really unnecessary; judging from the other person's expression, it was clear that they had been extremely anxious lately.

Faced with this inquiry, Hayao Nakayama gave a helpless wry smile, exchanged a few simple pleasantries, and then got straight to the point, throwing out his question.

"Hmm—in short, you want to take advantage of PC-E, right?"

Japanese people like to beat around the bush when they talk, but Lin Lixin doesn't have that habit.

After listening to what Nakayama Yoshio said, he directly pointed out the situation.

"Uh... haha, that's definitely true."

"Taking down both NEC and Nintendo with a low-cost true 16-bit machine is no easy feat."

Lin Lixin rubbed his chin.

If GAMENOVA were to do this job, they could simply delegate the technology and dump their wafer fabs on Japan, and that would be the end of it.

In a price war, all the game companies in the world combined couldn't compete with them.

After all, this is the only game company that owns its own wafer fab.

But for Sega to do this job—it's a thorny path destined to be full of hardships.

"President Nakayama, how much do you know about the PC-E machine?"

"Hmm? PC-E?"

Hayao Nakayama paused for a moment, quickly retrieving its data in his mind: "Two 7.16MHz 8-bit processors, one 16-bit graphics chip, and—"

"No, no, no, I meant their games."

Lin Lixin waved his hand, interrupting him.

A true 16-bit machine, in terms of configuration, will absolutely crush these 8-bit machines.

What's more, Sega is using their own Micro-Nova components.

"Games? You mean Ys and Alien Fighters?"

The works on PC-E have a distinctly neon style, which is out of step with the North American market.

However, perhaps it is precisely because of this that they are able to maintain their market share in this day and age.

After all, GAMENOVA basically doesn't touch the JRPG market at all.

"Of course not."

Lin Lixin shook his head. "PC-E, and the companies behind it, NEC and Hudson, have one thing in common."

He paused, met Nakayama Hayao's gaze, and said, "They are 'peasants'."

When talking about peasants, Lin Lixin deliberately gestured with his hand as if he were looking at quotation marks.

"----so?"

Hayao Nakayama was puzzled.

He could roughly understand what Lin Lixin was trying to express.

Neither NEC nor Hudson had ever been involved in the gaming hardware business before.

They hit it off immediately and barged in.

Compared to companies like Sega and Nintendo, which have accumulated technology over generations, they are indeed like grassroots workers who only know how to work hard.

Fortunately, Lin Lixin didn't intend to keep them in suspense any longer and explained directly.

"What I mean is that PC-E can do whatever they want without being restricted, and they don't have to be as aloof as Nintendo or Sega."

""

Lin Lixin stood up. "Wait a few minutes."

After saying that, he went to the entertainment area next to the reception room, took a few things, and returned to the reception room.

Hayao Nakayama recognized what it was at a glance.

Naturally, it's the "FC killer" they were just talking about, PC—Engine.

"President Nakayama, I don't like to mince words, so please forgive my bluntness, but neither Hudson nor Sega can possibly compete with Nintendo in terms of game development lineup."

"But PC-E will definitely do what they want to do, and will even have its own market for a long time to come."

"It's not because their game is so amazing, or their computer configuration is so incredible."

"The only reason —"

Lin Lixin held up a stack of game packages. "PC-E is the only place for R-rated games."

It was a stack of game titles whose covers alone were enough to make one blush.

This is also one of PC-E's core strengths.

As manufacturers with humble origins, this identity means they don't need to cultivate a "family entertainment" image like Nintendo does, allowing them to openly and freely relax game censorship.

As a time traveler, Lin Lixin knew very well that Sega could never do this.

The "X-Designation" rating on the Sega Saturn, which was short-lived, almost cost Sega its life.