America: The Godfather of Game Development

The materials have been obtained, but now a new problem has arisen.

What about the hardware?

Theme Hospital is not Bullfrog's first "Theme Series" game.

Even the first Theme Park series was released in 94.

In just a few short years, in an era where Moore's Law was still in effect, that was an insurmountable gap.

"If I remember correctly, the minimum requirement for Theme Park should be at least an Intel 80386dx..."

Lin Lixin tried hard to recall all its parameters.

Just as Intel did in later generations, even in this day and age, Intel's processor model naming is still very fancy.

Even though they are all 80386 chips, the performance difference between different models can be enormous.

This so-called 'dx' is actually the standard version, also known as the full-fledged version.

This version truly represents the pinnacle of Intel's manufacturing process, featuring a full 32-bit internal and external bus. It did not compromise on cost by using a 16-bit external bus, nor did it cut corners for power consumption.

The most outrageous thing is the 80386dx... it can also be paired with an 80387dx coprocessor, which is also a 32-bit processor. "This is going to be tricky..."

Lin Lixin rubbed his temples with a hint of melancholy.

Intel is not one of those outsiders in the gaming industry; their technological foundation is simply too impressive.

Frankly, it's impossible to achieve the same or even higher performance with this newborn ARM processor.

It is unlikely, at least with current technology.

"What's wrong? Is the performance insufficient?"

Vivian, standing nearby, immediately saw through what was troubling him.

Yesterday, Lin Lixin briefly explained the situation to her.

Although she was speechless, she was still very excited about entering the PC game market.

"ARM's performance can't keep up. If we want to run our games, we might really have to cooperate with Intel."

This is a real headache.

Even though they'll ultimately profit no matter which path they choose, it's still... so frustrating!

"Just add a graphics card, shall we?"

"It's theoretically feasible, but we're building a laptop, and the graphics card's power consumption definitely can't handle it..."

If it were possible to do that, Lin Lixin would have done it long ago.

Leaving their own graphics card factory unused is a complete waste of resources.

The problem is, how high is the power consumption of Radeon?

Even if you put this thing in your computer and replace it with a nickel-metal hydride battery, don't expect it to last much longer.

Even if battery life is a pseudo-need in this day and age, no one would want to spend a lot of money to buy a laptop that has to be connected to a gaming console.

"Hiss... Huh? I have to connect to video games?"

Lin Lixin's eyes suddenly lit up.

This might actually be feasible.

Modern gaming laptops or all-around laptops typically come with this feature: when connected to a power source and running in bypass power mode, the computer will unleash its full performance without reservation and activate the high-power dedicated graphics card.

However, if the power supply is disconnected and battery power is switched on, the integrated graphics will be used for display in order to extend battery life.

Of course, this system relies on a set of hardware and software barriers that were only gradually addressed in the late 2010s.

To get it working again now, Lin Lixin needs to immediately start developing the operating system, redesigning the graphics card, completely overhauling the software ecosystem, rewriting the OpenGL graphics library, redesigning the WDDM driver model, redesigning the BIOS, and developing the PCIe bus in advance...

If Lin Lixin could actually develop a complete NVIDIA Optimus system in this era, he could be honorably promoted to the title of "Strict Father" in the entire computer field.

But...

As a second-best option, adopting earlier hardware-level graphics card management technology might not be entirely unfeasible.

"Vivian, call He Guoyuan and Huang Renxun over. I have some things to arrange."

……

"We need a new graphics card."

Lin Lixin began to speak.

In fact, even without him saying it, the two of them had probably already guessed when they heard that Lin Lixin had called them to a meeting. After all, out of so many people at Micronova, the team truly responsible for the R&D of graphics cards was the one led by the two of them.

"32-bit? A next-generation model?"

Huang Renxun is a typical tech geek, an engineer who is always full of passion and dares to fight.

When it comes to new graphics cards, his first thought is naturally to quickly advance into the next era and seize the lead.

Unlike Huang Renxun, He Guoyuan is a pragmatic businessman and a typical prudent person.

"I'm guessing it's a low-power, inexpensive consumer graphics card?"

He has been keeping an eye on Lin Lixin's actions, including the internal developments at Micronova.

According to his guess, gathering the graphics card team at this time is unlikely to be for technological innovation.

The timing is inappropriate.

"Well... you're both right, we have to do both."

Lin Lixin paused, then looked at He Guoyuan.

"Gamenova plans to develop a laptop, roughly the kind of portable computer Toshiba makes." "Battery life is a big issue; we need a graphics card that can at least display the necessary content."

"As long as it meets the office needs, that's enough, like typing forms and organizing documents."

This is the most important requirement for laptops.

Even if the product they're making is actually a game console packaged as an office laptop, it still has to meet that requirement.

Gamenova doesn't need to develop a new, expensive game console.

After saying that, Lin Lixin looked at Huang Renxun.

"As for why I say you're right, it's because I plan to also equip this laptop with one of our next-generation desktop-grade display chips."

"ha?"

The three people present were all puzzled by what they heard.

Because this sounds like a battle between the left and right brains.

If the goal is to improve battery life by making low-power graphics cards, then why cram in a full-power card?

Faced with their questions, Lin Lixin patiently explained, slowly uttering three letters: "mux".

A mux, or multiplexer, is a component used to select between multiple channels.

Those present are all leading figures in the field of electrical engineering. If you still don't understand after all this, then you've really been living in the dark.

Vivian's eyes lit up as she recalled what Lin Lixin had told her about the game, and she immediately understood.

"Lin, do you mean you want users to manually choose whether to enable the professional graphics card? That is, when playing games or performing other high-performance tasks, the system switches to the professional graphics card mode after connecting the power supply?"

"Yes, that's the idea. We can divide graphics cards into 'stamina cards' and 'speed cards'."

Users can select the graphics card to use via an external toggle switch.

At any given time, the screen will only establish a physical connection with one of the display chips.

However, in that era, this technology was not as smooth and fluid as it is today.

After toggling the switch, users need to wait a long time for the computer to restart and readjust to the new graphics card's parameters.

The first company to use this technology was Sony, which was gearing up to test the waters of the gaming market.

The VAIO-SZ series uses this technology to achieve multi-GPU switching. It wasn't until 10 years later, with the release of NVIDIA's NVIDIA Optimus, that seamless hot-switching truly emerged in the laptop industry.

……

Lin Lixin's estimate was correct; ARM, which had just left Acorn, did not have the massive financial reserves that other chip companies possessed.

Affordable, low-power, and low-performance – these "advantages" are now considered sins in this era.

Micronova spun off its arm division from Acorn, which was in serious financial trouble, for nearly £300 million.

At the same time, He Guoyuan and Huang Renxun each led two teams to start the research and development of new graphics card models.

As for the operating system, that's something that needs to be considered in the long term.

Even if we start research and development right now, it won't be something that can be done in a short time.

In order to expedite the development of this laptop project, Lin Lixin chose to use Steve Jobs' Next-Step system as a transitional measure.

This also avoids the need to rebuild the entire office software ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Lin Lixin had already driven all the way from the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern California.

To be precise, it's next door to Blizzard Entertainment... Bullfrog Productions, which just moved in.

The two sides are very close to each other, and many of the houses in this area are rented by people from the two studios.

Even Kanheim, his Infocom studio, and Howard Warshaw, the author of "et," were recently moved here.

In a sense, this place is already the campus of Gamenova's studios.

It's like Silicon Valley is to the semiconductor industry, only much smaller.

"Lin, we've been doing this outsourcing for several months now..."

When Mike Mohuaimi saw Lin Lixin coming over, he complained with a long face.

The last time we worked on "American Truck Simulator," they sent over a whole truckload of instant cereal, and they've almost finished it all.

But so far, we haven't gotten a single major project.

Although they keep getting mini-games and outsourcing jobs, this can't go on forever.

"What's the rush? Aren't I just making PCs for you guys? Even if it's outsourced, don't slack off. Work hard and hone your skills. I've already prepared projects for you."

Lin Lixin patted Mo Huaimi on the shoulder. Blizzard Studios has honed its skills over time, and its project experience has gradually increased.

Once this PC is fixed, we might actually be able to play some fun games with them.

Seeing that Mo Huaimi seemed to take his words as empty promises, Lin Lixin laughed and patiently said:

"Alright, stop doing any outsourcing for now. I'm giving you a task. Do it well until the end of the Christmas season. If it goes well, we can start the project."

"Really?! What kind of mission?"

Upon hearing this, Mo Huaimi immediately perked up and hurriedly asked.

"I'm going to work with your two buddies to create a world-building project. I'm planning to make a dark gothic RPG."

"Dark gothic style... I get it."

Lin Lixin patted him on the shoulder and pulled him aside.

"Keep it up! If the quality is up to par, we'll be firing the first shot in our charge into the 90s."

After saying that, he headed straight for the Bullfrog Studio.