1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 132



Only Noblemtl

132nd – 1990 Winter CES

The International Consumer Electronics Show.

International Consumer Electronics Show.

CES for short.

In January 1990, the first CES of the 90s was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Nevada, USA.

Before separate gaming shows like E3 emerged, every major video game company would attend CES to promote their consoles and games.

Of course, Starbeat is the first Korean ‘game’ company to participate.

“This place used to be a desert? That’s ridiculous.”

When people arrived in Las Vegas, a city covered with splendid casinos and hotels on a vast expanse of land without a single hill, they kept turning their heads in admiration.

It was shocking to see Japan achieve high growth, but Japan is also part of the East and although it has developed more than us, it feels similar.

But America, especially Las Vegas, a planned city and tourist city built in the desert, felt completely different.

Even in the middle of the city, tall palm trees and the wide open blue sky were visible without obstruction.

After unpacking at our accommodation, we headed to the convention center first without any time to explore the city.

All the video game booths were concentrated in the west wing of the convention center.

As soon as we received our passes to set up the booth and entered the west wing, we stopped.

A large booth that overwhelmed our eyes spread out before us like a castle.

“This is Nintendo···”

Needless to say, it was the booth of the king of video games, Nintendo.

The Nintendo booth was so large that it took up roughly one-third of the West Wing.

Although there was still a curtain installed because construction was underway, the word ‘Nintendo’ was clearly written on the wall.

The next largest booth, though not quite as big as Nintendo’s, was Sega’s.

But even the second largest, Sega, had a booth that seemed about half the size of Nintendo’s.

As I walked around the West Hall, I saw that many other famous Japanese game companies, such as Konami, Taito, and Capcom, had also participated.

Atari, which had nearly gone under in the video game crash and was now being pushed out by Nintendo and other Japanese game companies, also had a booth.

By the way, Atari ambitiously made a portable game console, the Lynx, last year. Of course, it was overtaken by the Nintendo Game Boy as soon as it came out.

We walked around the booths of familiar PC game companies like EA and Sierra Online to get a feel for the place and then returned to our booth.

Our booth was a tiny two-seat venue, right across from Sega.

Inside the booth, which was separated by an iron frame, there was a pile of what looked like messy materials.

AD Choi Han-il, the two captains, and a few crew members who came with them all had blank expressions. Lee Ki-cheol seemed to be just blank because he hadn’t adjusted to the time difference yet.

“I didn’t know, but now I see that our booth is in a really good spot.”

I stood in the middle of our booth and looked outward and said:

“Look, you see the two giants of video games. One is the enemy, the other is the ally, but ultimately they are both competitors that we must overcome.”

I stood in the center of the booth and looked at the Nintendo and Sega booths on either side.

Nintendo and Sega’s booths were not only large, but also appeared to be at least twice as tall as ours.

“That Sega booth also has our games. The games are not as different as the booths look. We just started a little later than them. The fact that we’re here already is even more surprising.”

I spoke to people who seemed intimidated by the overwhelming difference.

The excitement of attending CES was short-lived; people were surprised once by the size of Las Vegas and the convention center, and then again by the grandeur of Nintendo, Sega, and Japanese game companies that filled the convention center.

Perhaps it is natural. We came to CES thinking that we had achieved great success in Korea, but this place was actually a paradise for giants that dominate the global gaming market.

“And don’t forget, we’re here to represent Korean games. Most people still don’t even know that games are made in Korea. So we have to make the best impression possible on people here.”

Gradually, people began to come to their senses, one by one.

“Our company also started with just one computer in my room. Don’t be afraid that our booth is smaller than others. We can come back much bigger next year or the year after.”

“Uh… Then should we start by cleaning the booth?”

“I’ll check to see where the game cabinets we sent are.”

After coming to our senses again, we set about building the booth.

After clearing away the messy materials that we couldn’t figure out why they were there, we moved the custom-made game cabinet that had been shipped in on a cargo plane into the booth.

We moved steadily under the guidance of AD Choi Han-il.

The top was covered with panels to make it dark, and then neon lights that weren’t too strong were installed. The company logo and game title were hung in neon signs on the walls, and posters of movies and famous musicians were also placed along with game concept art.

The concept of the Starbeat booth is to create a cozy, yet small, gaming hideout of your own.

Our concept was to decorate the space so that it felt like the game room of their dreams for game nerds, rather than an exhibition hall.

The goal was to create an atmosphere that would allow maximum focus on the games in a flashy, but equally noisy, raucous and busy trade show.

While we were busy building the booth, a customer suddenly showed up.

“Hey~, Namjoon! You’re finally here. Why didn’t you come to us first? You were waiting for us.”

Tom Bronsky, president of Sega of America, popped into our booth and greeted me warmly.

“Tom! You’re here. Our booth isn’t ready yet. I was planning on leaving after things were sorted out.”

“Is this the Starbeat Arcade Center? Hmm, this cozy feeling. It’s a completely different feeling from the large booths.”

“It’s still under construction. It’ll be much better when it’s finished. We can’t build a booth as big as others, so we went with a completely opposite concept. We thought that if we decorated it the same way as others, no one would remember.”

“Great! I like that about Namjoon. He’s honest and says exactly what he thinks. To be honest, it’s so hard to talk to Asians. I don’t really understand the concept of ‘humility.’ They all say it’s no big deal in front of me, but then turn around and get angry.”

“Please understand that we are not used to bragging.”

“I wish everyone would just be honest. Anyway, I guess I can finally play the game we were talking about back then.”

Bronsky rubbed his hands together as if he was looking forward to it, and made a playful expression. It’s really a mystery how this character was chosen by Sega’s executives.

Nevertheless, he is an outstanding businessman who has proven his existence solely through his skills and achievements.

“Oh, by the way. This is Jessica, our marketing manager. If you need any publicity or anything else, please contact Jessica.”

I greeted Jessica and introduced myself to the people at our company.

“I can’t believe they made such an amazing game on such a small scale. Koreans are really amazing. They are all great!”

Bronsky gave a thumbs up and shook hands with each of our employees, praising them.

“By the way, have you seen the Sega booth?”

“No, not me yet.”

“Oh, well. If you have time, how about checking it out now?”

“Would you like that? Since you’re here, I’ll go to the Sega booth for a bit.”

I stopped by the Sega booth for a moment while I was working. The large Sega booth, which seemed to be made up of dozens of our booths, was still in the middle of work.

“This is the first CES since the launch of Genesis, so everyone is very excited. Many American game companies are also participating as third parties, and we have prepared over 30 games. Of course, the main event is !”

Vronsky gave me a thumbs up and tapped me on the shoulder.

As I entered the entrance, it was as if I was watching Nam June Paik’s video art, with dozens of monitors installed and different Sega games constantly moving on the screens.

Of course, was one of them.

On the right side of the center screen was , and right next to it was .

“I heard that this belt-scrolling action genre is really popular in Japan right now? But not yet in the US. isn’t that famous either. But it’ll probably become famous after this CES. And wait a minute. Come here.”

Bronsky took me to the left of the central screen and asked.

“Do you know Mike Jackson by any chance?”

“Mike Jackson? Of course. He’s the most famous pop star in the world.”

“This is the game Mike Jackson is in. And, this is a real secret….”

Vronsky looked around warily, then leaned over to me and whispered.

“Mike Jackson himself will be at CES. Here, at our Sega booth. He’ll be promoting Moon Dance.”

“Oh, really?”

I pretended to be half-surprised. Mike Jackson was a legendary pop star who dominated the 80s and 90s, and his signature backward-walking moon dance was so famous that even people who didn’t know how to dance knew it.

Mike Jackson made a movie called “Moondance,” and Mike Jackson, who loved Sega, also made “Moondance” into a game with Sega.

I already knew about the game, but I didn’t know that Mike Jackson himself would be attending CES.

“We haven’t decided yet when he’ll come. He’s such a great guy. They’ll probably let us know soon. I don’t need to tell you when he’ll be here. If you suddenly hear people cheering wildly at our booth, then you know that Mike has arrived.”

Vronsky winked and told me a secret.

Before Sonic, Tom Bronsky’s strategy was to use celebrities, including legendary pop stars and sports stars, as much as possible.

Although our approach was somewhat different from mine, which was to pursue the fun of the game itself, it was virtually impossible for Bronsky, who was not from the industry, to take the lead in developing a game that would surpass Nintendo at the time.

Even Sega struggled for years to create Sonic, the antithesis of Mario.

His strategy worked well, providing a foundation for the Genesis (Mega Drive) to grow until Sonic came out.

This time, he showed his talent by personally inviting a big name like Mike Jackson to CES.

If the video of Mike Jackson enjoying Moon Dance at the Sega booth was shown on TV news and in newspapers, the promotional effect would be so great that it would be difficult to measure in monetary terms.

After looking around the Sega booth, I came back to build our booth.

Even though it was a small booth, we painstakingly made each one by hand, and before we knew it, it was well past midnight.

The convention center is adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip, which is lined with some of the city’s most glamorous casino hotels.

We walked back to the hotel along a street with flashy neon signs that we had never seen before.

“When I look at this place at night, it’s completely different from when I look at it during the day.”

“Yeah. Wow, look over there. It’s a neon cowboy sign. It’s really big.”

“How can the streets be more colorful than a video game?”

As soon as I arrived, I quickly set up a booth at the convention center, but when I came out, the world had completely changed and become a whole new world.

During the day, the weather was chilly like autumn, but it got really cold at night.

“Will a lot of people come?”

“Of course. It’s the world’s largest electronics fair, after all.”

“No, not at CES. At our booth.”

“We have to make them come. Even if it means grabbing hold of the people coming out of the Sega booth.”

We packed our coats and prepared for an unknown tomorrow as we walked down the world’s most glamorous nightlife street back to the hotel.

After arriving in the US, we spent two days painstakingly building our booth.

And finally, the 1990 Winter CES has opened.

The three-day CES attracted a large crowd from the first day.

As it was an exhibition that promoted ‘consumers’, many business people visited, but there were also many ordinary tourists. Most of them were men, but there were also families who came.

People holding camcorders were seen lining up to enter the Nintendo booth.

The Nintendo booth, decorated with Super Mario characters including Mario and Luigi, was the first booth that people visiting the CES West Hall visited.

Nintendo hasn’t released Super Mario Bros. 3 in the U.S. yet. They showed it off at CES this year to get people’s attention.

In Japan, the game was already released two years ago, but here it is the latest game.

Nintendo, which had yet to release the Super Famicom, was stalling for time with the Famicom and Game Boy.

“This is a controller from the future! The future of gaming! Power Glove!”

From morning, a man in a shiny silver suit and sunglasses was standing on stage at the Nintendo booth promoting Nintendo’s masterpiece, the Power Glove.

The Power Glove was literally a glove-shaped controller. It was worn on the hand and used motion recognition, but it had too many malfunctions and eventually failed.

Even though Nintendo is the best in the world, not everything they do is successful.

It may seem a bit ridiculous to my eyes, having lived through this era, but in the 90s, everyone was crazy about new technologies and very tolerant of somewhat bizarre attempts.

By the way, I’m not in a position to worry about Nintendo.

We opened our booth with pounding hearts, but no one came in for an hour.

On the large monitor at the entrance of the booth, videos of , , and were playing hard, but people just glanced at them and passed by.

“Um… I don’t think it’ll work like this?”

“Everyone just glances around at the entrance. Is it because we don’t have enough recognition?”

“Could it be because there are only Koreans in the booth?”

“Oh, I see. What should I do? We can’t hire an American employee here right now.”

Since opening, less than 10 people have stopped by our booth all morning.

Our booth had more staff than visitors coming to play games.

“This can’t go on. We need to do something about it.”

I thought for a moment, then quickly wrote a few words on a piece of paper with a magic marker and made a sign.

– Are you confident in your game? Then, compete with me now. If you beat me, I’ll give you a Sega Genesis!

“Sir, we don’t have any prizes prepared, right?”

“If you win, that’s fine. If you lose, just ask Sega. I’ll bring you some customers.”

I stood in front of the booth, holding a sign. I couldn’t come all this way and just sit there and wait for people to come in.

I should find someone who seems like they like games and at least talk to them. But I can’t just ask them to compete with me out of the blue. While I was thinking about what to say, someone stopped me.

Suddenly a huge shadow appeared in front of me.

“Hey, is this true? If I beat you, you give me Genesis?”

A black man who looked to be over 190 cm tall, big and scary-looking enough to be a basketball player, looked at me and asked.

“Oh… Of course! Follow me. What’s your name?”

“Patrick. What game are you playing?”

“You’ll know when you see it. It’s right here.”

For a moment I was scared and almost said no, but I quickly came to my senses and took Patrick into our booth.

“Hello···Lou~!”

The staff greeted the incoming guests warmly, but then stopped for a moment when they saw their scary faces.

“Is this the game? ? I’ve never seen it before. Well, what’s the big deal? If I beat you with this, you’ll get the real Genesis, right?”

“Of course. Come on, come on.”

I sat down at the game cabinet and gently held the stick.

Patrick wrinkled his nose and looked at the character select screen with a sour look on his face.

“But you, do you play games? You look like you’d be solving math problems at the library.”

“Gaming is my life.”

As I answered with a smile, Patrick glanced at me.

After he finished choosing his character, we started playing the game right away.

If we actually fight, I probably wouldn’t last a minute.

But what I’m doing now is a game that I made.

“What the···!”

In just a few seconds, vivid curses were streaming from Patrick’s mouth.