Rebirth of America, this is my time

Although Ethan had played a lot of video games in his previous life, as long as he twisted his head, all he could squeeze out were inspirations, but there were only a few related to the minimalist pixel style, because in the era when he played games, The performance of arcade machines has improved, and the most popular ones on the market are Street Fighter, King of Fighters, and Mortal Kombat.

However, even if the original black screen romance was gone when Ethan was playing games, the pixel games that survived to that time are all true classics, such as Northland Cube and Space Invaders that he wrote on paper. , Pac-Man, these are all super IPs that have leveraged a market worth hundreds of billions! If you make just one, it can cover all the development funds needed by Silicon Valley companies in this era!

Make two?

That would make countless people worship!

And what if all three were copied?

In the words of the book, this is the God of Games!

There is no way, who allowed someone in Ethan's previous life to achieve the achievement of creating three epic blockbuster hits in his lifetime?

Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda made Miyamoto Shigeru aspire to the top of video games.

The most terrifying thing is that Pokémon was also made under his influence. Xiaozhi represents the game producer himself, Satoshi Tajiri. Xiaomao, in Tajiri Satoshi's words, is a tribute to his mentor. Shigeru Miyamoto did it.

Of course, this explosion of games on home consoles has nothing to do with Ethan for the time being, because the cost of hardware in this era remains high, and when he sets his sights on the most basic charm of pixels, as a layman, what he wants to do most That is - I want them all!

He has given up financial speculation and started his own business. If he doesn't make a name for himself, then his hard work will be in vain!

So, when he rolled up his sleeves and started doing it, he directly brought out all the kings in his mind.

But he had trouble deciding which one to blow up first.

Do Northland Cube first?

Ethan circled the name of the game.

After much thought, he blacked it out.

Although Ethan is not technical, he knows that Northland Cube is the most difficult to make among the three games.

First, there are many types of blocks controlled by players, and the design of their display methods and pseudo-random formulas require a lot of effort to write.

This amount of work cannot be completed in a short time.

Second, the elimination setting of this game is very difficult to write. When artificially eliminating blocks, the game must be able to identify the height of the highest filled grid block, and must always calculate the maximum number of placed blocks on the screen, leaving a glimmer of hope for the player. , to ensure that subsequent pseudo-random calculations cannot affect the player's gaming experience.

This point is completely out of the realm of circuit board arcade machines. No matter how awesome simple physics is, it cannot be done.

In addition to these two points, there are also a series of issues such as the game speed increase under the score detection mechanism.

When these demands emerged, Ethan felt that it was better not to cause trouble for Evelin.

He didn't know if Evelin could write Northland Cube, but he knew that he couldn't waste time on it.

In this era of arcade machines, what is important is speed, accuracy and ruthlessness. If the technology is not enough, if you develop one more second, you are committing suicide.

Moreover, the game Northland Cube is actually not suitable for sale in arcades, because——

This game is only suitable for players to buy by themselves. If it is put on an arcade, the boss will go crazy.

Ethan chuckled and shook his head, because the scene of the arcade boss being made to smash the machine by a master player had already appeared in his mind.

After strategically placing Northland Cube, Ethan turned his attention to Space Invaders.

To be honest, Ethan has not actually played the real Space Invaders. What he played is actually a plagiarized version of Space Invaders. If I remember correctly, it seems to be Little Bee produced by Namco.

But that doesn't matter, right?

Because the content of the games are all the same!

Little Bee and Space Invaders are both fixed-type shooting games. Players can only move the aircraft or turret at the bottom of the screen horizontally, press the launch button to shoot bullets, and clear out the alien enemies coming down from above. The only difference is that the enemies in Space Invaders move together as a group, while the enemies in Bees can attack individually and swoop into the player.

Although this game is also separated from the content of simple physical feedback, from a technical perspective, it should be simpler than Northland Cube?

Ethan was not sure and circled the name of the game.

What made him even more hesitant was actually another memory in his mind.

Because that memory told him——

This game seems to have really become popular because of Star Wars? Ethan muttered to himself while scratching his head.

Yes, in Ethan's memory, the release of Space Invaders was actually a bit of a coincidence, riding on the popularity of Star Wars.

After Star Wars captured the hearts of countless viewers with its breathtaking visual feast, the game Space Invaders was officially released, and then it became popular all over the world overnight, and then swept across North America with a devastating force. .

It was precisely because this legend impressed Ethan that when Steven Spielberg said that his friend wanted to make a big news, he would take the initiative to ask if it was George Lucas. , is it Star Wars.

If so……

Ethan actually wanted to spend some time outside.

Why don't you go in?

As for the reason?

The inertia of history is the best successful experience!

However, he was not sure whether his memory was correct, so he was a little worried now.

Skip it for now and read on. The game Pac-Man immediately made him feel extremely at ease.

Pac-Man is a maze chasing game. The player plays a yellow ball in a closed maze and eats up all the beans in the maze while avoiding the pursuit of four ghosts on the map. Then he can enter the next level. .

If you are caught by a ghost, you will lose one life. After three lives are gone, the game will be over.

Ethan felt that this game was actually the most suitable for him to make, because he had already made Snake before this.

When the two elements of claustrophobic environment and eating everything appear at the same time, Pac-Man is simply the spiritual sequel to Snake.

Or...

It is a creative upgraded version.

With this kind of gimmick, why are you worried that the merchants are not crazy enough to buy it?

It seems that Pac-Man is the best game for now.

Ethan thought for a while and finally put a check mark behind the name Pac-Man.

Then I wrote a two at the end of Space Invaders.

The blackened Northland Cube is the third one in his mind.

When this sorting appeared, Ethan immediately felt at ease.

First use Pac-Man to open up the real situation, then use Space Invaders to sweep the world, and finally release Northland Cube to let these stupid people see what a real pixel game is!

At this point, Ethan's mouth curved in an inexplicable way.

Because in his mind, the scene after three games were released in succession has emerged.

That scene like a roaring mountain and a tsunami...

Shouted in anticipation...

He raised his right hand slightly, gesturing towards the crowd...

Just thinking about it makes people excited!

Hey hey hey hey...

Ethan couldn't hold it in any longer.

Hahahahaha...

He smiled happily.

And just when he erased all the content, opened another piece of paper, and was about to draw the idea of ​​Pac-Man in his mind...

The sound of dong dong dong penetrated into his ears, disturbing his clear dream.

Please come in. Although he was unhappy, Ethan did not show it.

The door opened, and the company's administrative clerk, the blonde girl Julis Noble, walked in.

Mr. Jones, a man who claims to be the CEO of Sega is visiting the company and wants to see you.

‘? ’

Such words surprised Ethan.

‘Sega? ’

‘Why did it come to me? ’

Ethan was a little confused and asked directly: Did he say something?

I told you, the other party said they want to discuss cooperation with us. Julis Noble replied.

‘Discuss cooperation? ’

These words made Ethan even more surprised.

Because there are no projects in his hands that he can cooperate with Sega!

Patent licensing for video games?

This is completely impossible!

Not to mention that Ethan didn't have the authorization at all, and relied entirely on the banner of Ralph Bell to bypass the patent. Even if he had it, Sega wouldn't need it!

Because in April this year, after Milova reached a settlement with Atari over the Pong issue, he immediately sued Sega.

After that, both parties reached a consensus in a short period of time.

If nothing else happens, Sega should have obtained the patent authorization from Milohua, but the price may be relatively expensive.

After thinking briefly for a while, Ethan didn't figure it out, so he stopped thinking about it.

She put on the pen and asked, Can the reception room on the second floor be used?

Can.

Then invite him over.

Ethan threw the blackened paper into the shredder.

Since you don't know why the other person is here, it's better to meet him.

Note: ① Although Northland Cube is a game on Game Boy, it is indeed the most difficult of the three in terms of production difficulty. The algorithm for detecting cube capacity to match pseudo-randomness has been published in a paper. And it is precisely because the design concept of this game is to prevent pseudo-randomness from destroying the gameplay, so when we play, we will find that every failure is because the reaction cannot keep up, not because the game itself has made a miscalculation. ② Space Invaders was indeed made based on the popularity of Star Wars. This is what the producer Tomohiro Nisikado himself said. He said that Space Invaders borrowed from many games and film and television series, including Star Wars. In order to make the game more successful, the first version of the promotional poster of Space Invaders in this book was made according to the title of Star Wars. The word Space Invaders is a close-up of the Star Wars logo from a reverse angle ( There is this picture on the English version of the Wiki). Not only that, this game was only officially released in batches in August after Star Wars was officially released in the book (June 30, 1978). When it was sold in North America, it was directly promoted with Star Wars.