America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 320 A Quick and Easy Popcorn Game (3k)

Los Angeles, Southern California.

The car slowly came to a stop in front of a not-so-wide store.

Above the shop entrance, a row of large letter signs are neatly arranged.

GAMENOVA

The sign was very clean, clearly indicating that someone had been maintaining it all along.

Lin Lixin stopped in front of the store and looked at the signboard. For a moment, he really felt like he was in another world.

He and Sam put up the sign together back then.

Sam skipped his classes and went downtown to retrieve those things, and cleaned the dilapidated shop inside and out.

Sam was exhausted that day.

In the blink of an eye, GAMENOVA has grown from a run-down arcade on a street corner into a Silicon Valley giant spanning the semiconductor and entertainment industries.

It can be said that they did not disappoint the expectations they had when they first chose this name.

Born from the destruction of an old star, it suddenly became brilliant.

Lin Lixin glanced into the store a few times.

There weren't many people, but it was still quite lively.

Although it can't compare to those professional large arcades, it still has the reputation of GAMENOVA to back it up.

Every day, there is no shortage of players coming here to check in and make a pilgrimage.

However, perhaps because Lin Lixin rarely appears here anymore, and even Sam rarely comes here now that the journey is longer, the long lines that used to stretch for thousands of meters are no longer seen here.

jingle"

A welcome bell was installed on the door, and it rang as he pushed the door open.

"Welcome to GAMENOVA Arcade! This way for the photo booth and gift shop—ah!"

The young female shop assistant greeted the customers as usual.

Before she could finish speaking, she recognized who it was.

"Mr. Lin, Mr. Lin?!"

The legendary Lin Lixin actually appeared before me, looking so fresh and beautiful?

Don't underestimate me just because I'm a seemingly insignificant shop assistant; in a sense, I'm a member of the GAMENOVA team.

regular army!

How many people in the world can earn a salary from GAMENOVA?

Which one isn't a leader in the industry!

I myself fought my way out from millions of people to get this position.

Whenever she thinks of this, she can't help but puff out her chest with pride.

"Yeah, I just happened to be back in LA, so I thought I'd drop by and take a look."

Lin Lixin nodded and glanced at the store's furnishings.

The space is indeed not very wide, and it's difficult to fit medium to large arcade machines here.

However, standard-sized universal frames are quite readily available.

Even old items from the last era, like Space Invaders, can be found.

The sound effects from various machines were mixed together, making the store extremely noisy.

Even so, the clerk's exclamation just now still attracted the attention of the group.

For a moment, it was as if the entire store fell silent.

All eyes turned to Lin Lixin, their burning gazes as if they were looking at a heavy piece of gold.

If Lin Lixin didn't have a certain aura about him, he might have been completely surrounded.

After saying a few kind words to calm the frenzied crowd down, his gaze finally fell on an arcade machine in the corner.

The sharp synthesized sounds unique to 8-bit BGM are exceptionally easy to recognize.

A kid of about ten years old was sitting in front of the arcade machine, completely engrossed in playing.

Lin Lixin silently came up behind him and looked at the screen.

Contra

One of GAMENOVA's early works.

It looks like the little guy has only just reached the second level.

Schwarzenegger crawled on the ground and wiped out all the enemies in front of him.

"Low-resolution bullets, rudimentary collision detection —"

Lin Lixin stood to the side with his arms crossed, carefully observing every detail on the screen.

The bullet processing is very crude, relying entirely on screen segmentation, with no real physical detection whatsoever.

Simply put, it divides the screen into blocks, and checks every frame whether the bullet and the enemy's blocks overlap.

But when it was created, this game was as dominant as a AAA title.

"Ugh!"

It seems the child's skill level isn't very high; he struggled with the sudden change in perspective in the second level.

In a moment of carelessness, Schwarzenegger was hit by an enemy bullet and suffered a regrettable defeat.

A prompt appeared on the screen asking if you wanted to renew your subscription.

The child reached out and touched the small basket used to hold game tokens, only to find that it was empty.

He pouted in frustration and prepared to get up and leave.

A hand landed on his shoulder.

"Are you just giving up like that?!"

Lin Lixin pulled two 25-cent coins from his pocket. "Two-seater, bro, I'll carry you!"

The other people in the shop were no longer interested in playing any games.

My goodness, games can be played anytime, but if Lin Lixin misses this opportunity, he might not get to see it again.

A group of players stood around the corner, watching the two childish kids, one big and one small, fight tooth and nail over a single enhancement item.

"Give it to me, how can I carry you if you don't give me your S-rank bullets?"

"You clearly took an M-level bullet—"

The group looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

So this is what Lin Lixin's character is like?

Perhaps this is what they call contrast.

Being able to play games with Lin Lixin is an experience that makes people green with envy.

Is this something you can really remember for a lifetime?

However, the child didn't seem to understand any of this nonsense; he just thought he had met a kind person who invited him to play games together.

"Ugh!"

One of the children didn't dodge and was blasted away by the fortress's cannon.

"To be continued!"

"Ugh!"

To be continued!

In my memory, Contra was a masterpiece that was both massive and satisfying.

But when you actually sit down and play a game seriously, you suddenly realize that the process only takes less than half an hour.

In a burst of fire, the alien heart was completely shattered by the two.

As the end credits rolled and the helicopter took off from the island, Lin Lixin cheered and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

-

That's what makes a good game. Even with the rapid advancements in both hardware and software, Contra is still a game that he's willing to invest time in playing.

The seemingly modern design strategy of fast-paced, exhilarating shooting and clearing games actually originated in the golden age of video games.

The next project, Metal Slug, aims to take it to its fullest potential and bring it to its peak.

"Well played."

Lin Lixin patted the child next to him and laughed, "By the way, let me interview you. Do you like Contra?"

The child thought about it seriously for a few seconds and nodded vigorously.

"Yes, I like it!"

"Tell me? Is it because of the graphics, music and sound effects, gameplay, story, mechanics design—or something else?"

Children's perspectives are different from others.

If I can get some different perspectives from him, it might be of great help to my future development work.

This problem was clearly a bit too complicated for him.

His brows furrowed, and he swayed his head as he chanted.

After a long while, he suddenly grinned, revealing a missing tooth, and gave Lin Lixin a silly grin.

"I just like it! Contra is fun!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Lixin suddenly paused in surprise.

"I'm a genius!"

Spending all his time in the lab has made his thinking a bit rigid.

I almost forgot the most fundamental thing about video games.

These types of games excel at creating this kind of simple, straightforward, and almost thoughtless enjoyment.

It's like a popcorn movie on an assembly line, a top-notch audiovisual feast.

Although you might not remember much after watching it, the cheap yet plentiful dopamine it provides is real.

"I think you're a promising talent with a bright future."

"Um----"

Lin Lixin patted his head with satisfaction and then opened a box for him.

Marco Merrill

The name doesn't really ring a bell.

But it doesn't matter. With this mindset, this guy will succeed at anything he does.

After a brief tour and a study of several mainstream arcade side-scrolling beat 'em up games, Lin Lixin finally set off, satisfied.

Playing a game of Contra with Marco from the beginning gave him a completely different perspective on this type of game.

Metal Slug has many factors contributing to its success; it can be considered a textbook example of a game.

It is even more standard than Contra, the pioneer of this type of game.

Unlike the tough-guy style unique to the early 80s, such as Contra, Metal Slug takes a completely different approach.

Relaxed, cheerful, and nonsensical.

There are no earth-shattering conspiracies or deeply tragic character backstories; it's like a hilarious war comedy from beginning to end.

Even the game characters were designed with a cartoonish, three-headed proportion.

From the very beginning, Metal Slug's goal was very clear and very simple.

Dude, I'm here to make you happy!

Therefore, I'm going to go all out and give you the ultimate popcorn movie!

With this core development strategy finalized, the rest is simply a matter of putting it into practice.

However, this development work is somewhat different from the past.

The N language is no longer working!

Hmm—it won't work, at least not in the short term.

Because of the completely different hardware architecture and processor instructions, the N language, which was already capable of bootstrapping, needed to be completely overhauled and started from scratch on the new platform.

This involves a lot of work.

If it's going to be done, it can indeed be completed in a while.

But in order not to delay the construction period, Lin Lixin and his team simply went back to their old ways and did compilation!

Is there any custom associated with hand-stitched compilation?

"Character controllers, weapons, ammunition—and the indispensable MetaISlug itself."

The MetalSlug is actually a double entendre.

Besides representing the game's title, Metal Slug, there is actually a vehicle in the game called MetaISlug (Steel).

Tank vehicles.

The vehicle system is also a distinctive feature of Metal Slug.

Thinking of this, Lin Lixin glanced at the small island beside him.

"By the way, Kojima, didn't you really like Metal Gear? So, you'll be in charge of the vehicle system and boss design for Metal Slug?"

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