America: The Godfather of Game Development

What to do if the screen goes black during the demonstration of Chapter 403?

In the long hardware wars, Apple has come up with some amazing gadgets on many occasions.

And this legendary Newton series is one of the representative works of Apple's technological innovation.

Since it was created when Steve Jobs was still working diligently at NeXT, the Newton series can be said to be completely opposite to what Jobs was pursuing.

There is no minimalism, no "less is more" approach.

What was finally served in 93 was a luxury toy that cost nearly $1000.

It advocates handwriting recognition, but its accuracy is low due to the limited performance of ARM and its extremely slow speed.

The excessively large LCD screen also made its battery life a disaster.

Because it uses Apple's own closed system ecosystem, it cannot enjoy a mature software ecosystem like the Wintek alliance.

Ultimately, this thing was resolutely abandoned after Steve Jobs returned.

As it turns out, Steve Jobs made the right move.

Building upon Newton's legacy, Apple has presented its successor—the iPhone.

PDA is a concept that was born at the wrong time.

Before it truly matured, the advent of smartphones had already completely replaced it.

But whether handheld devices are the future trend is self-evident.

This was naturally one of the key reasons for acquiring ARM.

But at least for now, Lin Lixin has no intention of touching this investment trap.

Laptops are clearly a more viable path.

In fact, even Apple itself did not place all its bets on Newton.

Apple has its own Macintosh laptop production line, namely the Apple Macintosh Portable, which should be launched soon.

As for the attempts by companies like IBM and Compaq, they are countless.

After all, with Toshiba's dominant performance in Japan as a benchmark, everyone wants to see if they can replicate that miracle in North America.

"Nobody can predict the market, what do you think? GAMENOVA needs a computer or PDA that can play games."

We do not yet possess this capability.

Lin Lixin shook hands with Sculley. "Of course, if there is an opportunity in the future, we would be very willing to develop games for your company's Newton system."

To put it bluntly, if Newton had actually succeeded, it might not have been a bad thing for Gamenova.

Most of the parts used in Newton's body had to be sourced from GAMENOVA.

When the product line matures, it will become a new goldmine, just like when Sega approached them to buy memory chips.

The news that MicroNova, Neus, and Dell had formed a joint venture to create a new personal computer company quickly spread throughout the digital world after the press conference.

The endorsement from a number of professional technology magazines, especially PC Magazine and Byte, lends the matter a more official credibility, making it more than just a rumor.

Although GAMENOVA did not appear as the parent company this time, it's not hard to guess from the structure that Lin Lixin is probably thinking of some new trick.

Inside a digital store in Massachusetts.

Sean carefully studied the information in the magazine, making sure he didn't miss any crucial details.

As Robert's current head of IT reform at Robert's Healthcare, this information is crucial to him.

Although the various portals on the global information network are now quite mature, each of them has gradually developed its own differentiation by relying on the new technology of novascript.

However, Robert Medical's portal, thanks to its early start, has been able to maintain its foothold.

How much actual traffic can it actually generate for the company?

Sean wasn't quite sure, but judging from the Boss's recent appearance, which made him look more than ten years younger, the business must be doing well.

He even has some control over the money invested in equipment now.

All you need to do is fill out a form to report it afterwards.

"Brother Sean, I've made my choice."

Boss's daughter, Yuri, approached carrying two palm-sized boxes.

That's GAMENOVA's new NPC model this year, and the "Gravity of the Sun ~ Game Bundle".

It's actually a bundled combination of "Our Sun" and "Pippi's Gravitation".

Similar to the bundle that GAMENOVA did last time, which included SimCity and The Gods Must Be Crazy.

She especially liked this simple and easy game.

Although Sean had also brought her a copy of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" before, to be honest, it was a real headache to play.

"Huh? So fast?"

Sean snapped out of his reverie, closed the magazine, and picked out a few more from the bookshelf. "Let's go then."

"Aren't you going to buy Electronic Games?"

Yuri glanced at the magazine in his hand. In the past, Sean would always buy a lot of video game-related magazines.

Although this is a digital store, video game magazines are not uncommon here.

In this era, the geek and gamer communities largely overlap.

"Well, there's not much in this issue. I'll just buy a copy myself later. What I'm more interested in is what they say about 'laptops'."

"Huh? What's that thing?"

Yuri tilted her head and peered at the stack of magazines in his arms.

One of the books actually had a machine on its cover, but it was a Toshiba version.

"It's something like the one on this cover, a computer you can take anywhere."

"Isn't that just a handheld game console? So boring—"

Yuri pouted, immediately losing interest in the thing.

Sean gave a helpless, bitter laugh.

Computers aren't just devices for playing games!

"Never mind, I'll just talk to the Boss about this anyway; he might be interested in it."

Because of his work, Robert often commutes frequently.

Having a PC that you can open and use anytime in the car would be a great help.

Moreover, this way he no longer needs to rely on floppy disks or similar devices to transfer files between his home and the office.

Yuri reached out and took a copy of Electronic Games magazine from the shelf, placing it on top of the stack of documents in Sean's arms.

"I'll put it on my tab. I'll ask my dad to reimburse me when I get back."

Developing a completely new ecosystem of personal computers by bypassing the IBM-compatible ecosystem is no easy task.

Fortunately, Lin Lixin has a wide network of connections, so he doesn't have to start from scratch.

In order to get the product line up and running as soon as possible, they made a lot of compromises this time.

The system directly used Steve Jobs' NeXT-STEP, avoiding the need to build a software ecosystem from scratch.

The BIOS is also a functional specification of IBM that is implemented independently using the cleanroom policy.

The only thing that might require GAMENOVA to handle itself is the new hardware bus, independent of IBM.

But this is also an area that MicroNova has been researching.

After all, the traditional ISA bus speed is simply too slow. As graphics card performance becomes stronger and stronger, ISA can no longer keep up with the demand.

After going around in circles, what they actually needed to do in the end was just the final assembly.

This task was assigned to Mark Seni, who had just started his job.

Of course, there's also Dell's own team of engineers.

With Lin Lixin, a true all-rounder, in charge behind the scenes, the project progressed by leaps and bounds.

September, Labor Day.

After nearly two months of silence, GAMENOVA has finally released its rendered images.

What will the top computer industry leaders in the United States create by gathering together and using the most advanced semiconductor and hardware technologies?

GAMENOVA delivered a near-perfect answer.

NOVA—HERMES.

Laptops designed for mobility.

The machine weighs only 2.35 kg, which is still heavy compared to modern computers, but it is still an excellent specification.

It comes standard with 1MB of Micron memory, which can be expanded to a maximum of 4MB or reduced to 512KB as needed.

Thanks to the extreme power consumption performance brought by the ARM32 processor, even when using a nickel-metal hydride battery pack, it can easily run for more than two hours when the memory effect is not serious.

Such terrifying performance specifications naturally mean that its price cannot be as affordable as that of game consoles.

After all, a PC is not a game console; it's impossible to sell hardware at a loss like a game console.

Taking into account miscellaneous expenses such as labor, transportation, and Dell's direct sales channels, the final retail price is ————

$1899

WTF?

Is this price expensive? Of course it is.

But is it reasonable?

—That doesn't seem quite reasonable either.

Because it seems a bit too cheap.

This configuration is already a high-end laptop, but its price is almost the same as when the Toshiba T1100 was first released.

That IBM laptop was going to sell for a whopping $2500.

Considering the numerous hardware costs associated with its portability, this thing really can't be called expensive!

That's roughly the price of a fully equipped Amiga.

Frankly speaking, if a game console dared to sell for thousands of dollars, most people probably wouldn't even give it a second glance.

But the problem is—this thing is a real personal computer!

"Click, click"

The camera flashes kept shining on the beautiful black machine on the velvet-covered display stand.

Hermes, just as its name suggests, is incredibly fast!

You can carry it and run.

"GAMENOVA specially developed an interesting game for this machine."

Lin Lixin manipulated the trackball, bringing up the already installed game "Theme Hospital".

But instead of starting the program directly, he gave the camera a mysterious smile.

"However, before we start it, let's switch Hermes to performance mode first."

"As you all have probably noticed, Hermes is different from other PCs; it has two independent display chips."

"One is a low-power, energy-efficient core that sacrifices color display and smoothness in exchange for extreme battery life."

"And the other one—"

Lin Lixin slightly tilted the camera to ensure that the reporters' lenses could capture the scene.

He reached out and gave a slight push on a toggle switch.

"click"

Immediately, Hermes' screen flickered and then went dark.

For a moment, the exhibition hall fell into a brief silence.

Then came an even more frantic, almost continuous series of camera shutter clicks.

What is this? A broadcasting mishap?

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