Hong Kong variety show: The mastermind behind the scenes is emerging.

Wednesday, November 1982, 12.

With Christmas less than a month away, although the city has not yet fully recovered from the shadow of the recent "Cointreau Hotel robbery," the festive atmosphere has already begun to quietly spread in shopping malls and streets.

At seven o'clock in the morning, countless families, as usual, ate breakfast while watching ATV's morning news or flipping through the newly delivered Oriental Daily and Sing Tao Daily.

However, during the news broadcast, a one-minute-long blooper suddenly bombarded everyone's senses.

There was no lengthy setup, and no celebrity endorsements.

On the screen, the first thing that appears is a bold, futuristic-looking line of text: "[Jiahe Entertainment, redefining your living room]".

Immediately afterwards, fast-paced electronic synthesized music (8-bit background music) suddenly blared out, sending adrenaline soaring.

The scene shifts to two elementary school students in school uniforms sitting in front of a red and white machine they've never seen before. They hold a handle with a crosshair and two red buttons, their eyes wide with excitement and disbelief.

The television screen displayed images that were completely ahead of their time:

Two muscular men (Bill and Lance) wield shotguns, leaping and tumbling through a hail of bullets, with explosions filling the entire screen.

The scene shifts instantly, showing a rugged tank speeding across a desolate wasteland, its main gun roaring as it blasts mechanical monsters blocking its path into pieces.

Next up are vibrant, energetic arcade port masterpieces, along with a few simple yet addictive mini-game clips.

Fast cuts, electronic music, unprecedentedly smooth visuals, and exhilarating gameplay...

This one-minute GG was a devastating blow to the 1982 era, which was still stuck in the rudimentary pixelated world of Atari (Atari 2600).

At the end of GG, the screen freezes on the red and white console, with its name and price displayed next to it:

Jiahe JF Home Game Console (Jiahe Family Computer)

[Relevant Inaugural Price: HK$666]

[Give your child the best New Year's gift! In seven days, amazing demo sessions will be available at Golden Harvest counters in major department stores across Hong Kong!]

"Holy crap! What kind of amazing machine is this?! The picture quality is incredible!"

"This is a home video game console? It's even more exciting than the ones I've seen in arcades!"

"Six hundred and sixty-six yuan? It's a bit pricey, but the graphics are really good, and it's much cheaper than buying an arcade machine!"

At school, in tea restaurants, and in office building break rooms, everyone was talking about this suddenly appearing "JF machine".

What shocked and made Hong Kong Island residents even more proud was that this thing, which looked more advanced than those from Japan and the United States, was actually made by Golden Harvest, a local Hong Kong company!

An unprecedented sense of local pride arose spontaneously.

"Jiahe is awesome! Boss Lu is awesome!"

"Who says Hong Kong Island can only do real estate and film? We can do high technology too!"

Similarly, countless parents began to have headaches. From the moment GG aired, their children seemed to be bewitched, refusing to eat or do their homework, and pestering them to buy this "best New Year's gift."

Six hundred yuan is not a small amount for an ordinary working-class family, but it's not out of reach either. Especially as the end of the year approaches, it's something they can manage if they grit their teeth and make the effort.

So, for the next seven days, all the children in Hong Kong were caught in a state of anxious anticipation. They counted the days on their calendars and went to the Golden Harvest toy counter in the mall every day after school, even though there was only a large poster there at the moment.

……

Wednesday, November 1982, 12.

The long-awaited demo and release date has finally arrived.

On this day, long queues had already formed outside major department stores on Hong Kong Island before they even opened. The queues included not only eagerly waiting children, but also many parents who had been dragged there, and even quite a few secondary and university students who had skipped school to come.

At 10 a.m., the mall doors opened.

The crowd surged toward the Jiahe Toys counter like a floodgate being opened.

The counter, which originally only sold dolls and model toys related to "Chinese Paladin" and "Armor Hero," has now been completely renovated. Ten brand-new color television sets are lined up in a row, connected to ten red and white JF TVs.

"Don't push! Everyone line up and get a number! Each person has twenty minutes to try it out!"

Wearing a uniform, the sales assistants at Jiahe were holding megaphones and shouting at the top of their lungs to maintain order.

The first lucky little boy sat down at the demo station, his hands trembling as he picked up the D-pad he had never touched before.

"Press this directional pad to control direction, and the A button is for jumping..." the sales assistant patiently explained.

When the classic opening music of Contra played and the first bullet was fired, the smooth controls and stunning visuals stunned everyone.

"I want to play too! Let me try!"

The crowd of onlookers was packed three or four deep, making the counter impossible to move.

The most interesting scene happened to the fathers who accompanied their children.

At first, these fathers were impatient, thinking it was just a toy, what was so special about it?

As a result, when his own mischievous child played too poorly and kept dying to the first boss, the father couldn't take it anymore.

"Get out of the way! Look at you, so clumsy! Let Dad show you what it means to do it!"

A middle-aged father in a suit and carrying a briefcase snatched the controller from his son, rolled up his sleeves, and went into battle.

then……

Ten minutes have passed.

Twenty minutes have passed.

"Dad...is it not my turn yet? I want to play too..." His son tugged at his clothes, looking aggrieved.

"Shut up! Can't you see Dad's almost done?! Give me another life! Oops! How did I die?!"

The middle-aged father was sweating profusely, his eyes wide open, completely immersed in that pixelated world. He didn't look like he was out with his child at all.

Finally, the child's mother couldn't stand it anymore and grabbed her husband by the ear, pulling him away from the game console.

"You rascal! Did you come here to buy a gift for your son, or for yourself?!"

"Honey... let's buy one! It's really fun! It can even help improve the kids' reaction time! Six hundred and sixty-six, so auspicious! Consider it an early New Year's gift for me—oh no, for the kids, okay?"

Just moments ago, the dignified father was now shamelessly begging and pleading with his wife for a game console.

This scene is playing out repeatedly in major shopping malls across Hong Kong.

Many middle school and college students who initially just came to check it out were completely won over after trying it out a couple of times. Looking at their pocket money and living expenses, they gritted their teeth and stamped their feet in admiration.

"I bought it! I can just eat instant noodles for the rest of the semester!"

"If I bring this back to my dorm, I'll be the coolest guy on the whole floor!"

The line at the checkout was longer than the line at the demo area.

The first batch of goods prepared by Jiahe was like water thrown into the desert, instantly absorbed.

What's even more frightening is the spread of word-of-mouth.

Those who managed to snag one of the first machines immediately became the coolest kids in the entire estate and neighborhood. Neighbors' children, classmates, and colleagues flocked to their homes to play with them.

Everyone who tried it became a free salesperson for the JF machine.

"This is so much fun! It's even more exciting than arcade games!"

"We must support Hong Kong Island's own game console!"

"I heard there are fighting games later on, that'll be even more exciting!"

A virus called "gaming fever" is spreading in Hong Kong at an alarming rate.

……

That evening, at Jiahe International Building.

"Boss! It's blown up! It's completely blown up!"

The general manager in charge of the toy and electronics business rushed into Lu Chen's office, panting, waving a sales report that had just been compiled.

"By the time the mall closed, the total sales volume of JF machines across all twenty sales points in Hong Kong on the first day was 6853 units!"

"All inventory is sold out! Major shopping malls are calling to urge us to restock, saying pre-orders are already booked until next month!"

6,853 units!

At a price of 666 yuan per unit, sales exceeded 4.5 million Hong Kong dollars in just one day!

This only covers the hardware revenue. Each machine comes with only one copy of Donkey Kong; other game cartridges such as Battle City and Contra have to be purchased separately, each costing over a hundred yuan. This is where Golden Harvest Entertainment makes its biggest profits.

"very good."

Lu Chen looked at the report, his face showing little surprise. In this era of entertainment scarcity, releasing a product more advanced than the Famicom would be nothing short of a miracle if it didn't become a hit.

"Notify the contract manufacturers to operate in three shifts, 24 hours a day without stopping," Lu Chen ordered. "Also, tell the logistics department to prioritize distributing the goods to shopping malls near middle-class communities."

"Now that the fire has been started on Hong Kong Island, it's time to spread it outwards."

Lu Chen stood up and walked to the huge world map.

His gaze crossed the Pacific Ocean and locked onto two larger battlefields—Japan and Europe and America.

"The first batch of machines has been shipped to Japan. Nintendo is responsible for the distribution in Japan, and we expect to complete the distribution before Christmas."

"As for the European and American markets..." Lu Chen looked at the other side of the ocean on the map, "The High Table Group has already made arrangements. The first batch of 20,000 machines has been loaded onto ships and is on its way to Los Angeles and London."

"This Christmas, I want all the children in the world to go crazy for 'Golden Harvest'."