1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 135
Only Noblemtl
Episode 135 – Money Party
On the last day of CES, our booth was crowded with visitors until the end of the event.
The line was so long that many people turned away.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have made the booth a little bigger. I feel so sorry for the people.”
“It can’t be helped. Who would have thought that Mike Jackson would suddenly appear here?”
We all nodded.
I knew Mike Jackson was putting out games for Sega, but I never thought it would lead to this connection between us.
We did our best to operate the booth until the end, and fortunately we were able to finish CES without any accidents.
“Whoa···!”
“It’s finished~!!!”
As the last guest left and the announcement to end the event was made, we all sat down in our seats.
Everyone was exhausted from dealing with the sudden influx of visitors of various nationalities and races.
“But even if I’m tired and worn out, it’s much better to have lots of customers than to guard a quiet booth when there’s no one around.”
“That’s true. Ah… I’ll have to start studying English again when I get back. Every time someone asks me something, I break out in a cold sweat.”
“Me too. I kept begging you to please don’t ask, please don’t ask.”
“Some people seem to be speaking English, but others don’t seem to be speaking English. I wonder if there’s a dialect here too. It was really hard…”
“But the world is really so big. When I saw it on TV, I thought it was just big. But when I came here and experienced it, it was just like, wow···!”
“Do you know what’s even more amazing? Las Vegas is just a tiny part of the United States. It’s different from the East Coast, West Coast, North Coast, Central Coast, and South Coast. It’s a continent in one country. The scale is just crazy.”
Although we had some experience with Japan in advance, it was only a practice game.
The United States, the world’s greatest market, is a country where you can truly feel what ‘international’ means.
“I was surprised that so many of our Korean residents came.”
“Really. Junyoung, Wonjun, and Myeongcheol were there too. They even gave me drinks and snacks. I only worked for a few days, but I was so happy to meet a Korean person.”
“Really. When I saw people being surprised and happy that it was a Korean game, I felt a little sad for no reason. My heart ached.”
“We really have to work hard on the game. Our game will now relieve their homesickness and become a source of pride for them.”
We sat on the floor of the booth and chatted about our thoughts on CES.
In fact, we could have made the booth bigger, hired a design company to make the interior much more luxurious, and hired a lot of part-time workers to make it bigger.
It would cost some money, but it would only be a few hundred million won. It’s not like we don’t have money. If we had tried to work with local communication and borrowed some of the power of Myungsung Electronics or Myungsung Materials, there would have been nothing we couldn’t do.
However, I intentionally kept the booth simple for two reasons.
One is content.
Even if you pay a lot of money and are assigned a large booth, if there are not enough games to exhibit, you have to fill the booth with something so that it doesn’t look empty.
Because you can’t put in multiple identical game cabinets.
That doesn’t mean we can’t release games like or . They are very meaningful games to us, but CES is a trade show that showcases the latest electronic devices and technologies.
While all the masters of martial arts are coming out with the latest martial arts and newly developed herbal medicine, if you are the only one bringing out old techniques, you will only give the impression that you are behind the times.
The reason Nintendo still sells in 8-bit is because they’re Nintendo, and their games are Super Mario.
It’s not something that just anyone can do.
The second reason is that we thought it would be a good idea to start from scratch with our own hands for our first CES.
And, I think it was a good thing.
It was hard to create and run, and we were nervous about making mistakes along the way, but thanks to that, we were able to meet our future customers in person.
I think it was more fun because it felt cozy when I played and hung out with Mike Jackson.
I hope today’s experience will be deeply engraved in the hearts of our development team and will remain for a long time.
Same goes for me.
I still remember Patrick, who I lured into playing with on Genesis, mumbling, “There are no black people” when choosing a character.
When I return to Korea, I need to quickly add black characters to Modern Fighters.
If more people treat game characters as themselves and have affection for them, the game will become a big hit and have a long run.
Although I had some regrets, I learned a lot from this year’s CES.
One variable is the Japanese Sega headquarters, but I doubt they would dislike that. Besides, Vronsky has a lot of power in North America.
The game was also said to be released by February at the latest. The new music video being shown on MTV will be a huge boost, so now it seems like all we have to do is wait for the release.
took longer than expected because of the design, but fortunately the response to the design was good.
If we continued to polish it up before release and put more effort into the game’s level design and ending, it seemed like we could end up with a really cool shooter.
As I prepare the game and plan/develop the action RPG for the arcade, I also need to start the game engine.
Although our company is currently making games quickly with a small number of people, it is not efficient because we always have to make new games from scratch.
If I could just create a basic game engine that would fit the A1 board, experienced game developers would be able to create games much more easily and quickly.
And we need to fix that and make it work for the 16-bit consoles we’re going to make.
Game engines are a key element for third-party acquisition, especially on 16-bit consoles.
The current game development environment is quite harsh for programmers.
Every time you change platforms, you have to learn the appropriate assembler, and there is no online site where you can share code with other developers and look at it together.
Relying on a limited number of programming books and magazines, you have no choice but to learn by doing every time.
It would be great if you could meet a good shooter at work and learn through intense code reviews, but that’s only a lucky few.
Even Sega, which struggled to adapt to the console it developed itself, shows that these are times when developers have to do things well on their own.
What if, in these dark times, I showed up with a game engine and console that would make game development much easier?
That alone would be enough to attract the attention of numerous game developers.
Until then, we need to create as many hits as possible and grow bigger.
As the CES event came to a close, the convention center was busy dismantling each booth.
We signed a commemorative game cabinet made specifically for CES and took a commemorative photo together.
And then they started to dismantle the booth that they had been attached to for three days.
I carefully packed the poster and sign signed by Mike Jackson and placed them in a wooden box to prevent damage to the game cabinet.
This game cabinet now holds historical value as the first Korean game to participate in CES.
I brought Lee Ki-cheol along just in case there was a problem with the device, but fortunately, the game cabinet didn’t cause any problems for three days.
“See, I told you I’d be okay? I told you I could handle that much. Thanks to you, I’m having a great time.”
Even though everyone was busy, Lee Ki-cheol leisurely walked around the neighborhood booths during CES and looked at new technologies.
In the evening, Lee Ki-cheol would run to the casino and enjoy the Las Vegas life to the fullest, playing slot machines, roulette, baccarat, and blackjack.
“Gamdol, I didn’t know this until now, but I guess it’s the American constitution. I’ve never lost money at a casino.”
“There’s such a thing as beginner’s luck. If you try too hard, your first attempt will be a total failure. But, hyung, are you good at English?”
“No, but you know the basic vocabulary. You don’t have to talk in such a complicated way like you do. Just say a few words, use your facial expressions, and make gestures, and everyone will understand.”
Lee Ki-cheol, who is considered an eccentric even in Seun, showed extraordinary survival skills in the United States as well.
The hotel staff we were staying with also smiled brightly and approached us first to greet us whenever they saw Lee Ki-cheol. Of course, it is natural for hoteliers to be kind to guests, but the kind of smiles they gave us were different.
“What the heck~, why are you all spread out like this? The event is over now? Everyone, stand up! Follow me. At least tonight, we’re going to have fun!”
After finishing cleaning up the booth and returning to the hotel to rest for a while, Lee Ki-cheol shouted while waving dollars in both hands like fans.
Didn’t I give you that much pocket money? You won it all at the casino?
“Hey, what’s all that money for? Were you a gambler?”
“Shh! Don’t ask for more details. You’ll get hurt if you do.”
Lee Ki-cheol put his finger to his lips and spoke with a serious expression.
He put on sunglasses that he didn’t know he had gotten anywhere with and shouted while throwing money at people.
“Ah, you ready~~?”
“Yes, yes···?”
“The sound is low! Ah~, Yu~~~, ready~~~~?”
“Yes~~!!!”
“Let’s party~!!!!!! Money party~!!!!! I can’t go back to Korea until I spend all of this money~!!!!!”
“Wowwowwowwoww~!!!!!”
As Lee Ki-cheol took the lead, throwing out wads of money, people followed him in droves.
I’m not some piper or anything.
People who were dying from exhaustion suddenly regained their energy and ran out.
I was about to follow him, but I picked up a bill that had fallen in the hotel room and snickered.
I thought I could get a ten dollar bill though. All the bills were one dollar bills.
But where is it that isn’t fake money?
Lee Ki-cheol will probably never starve to death, whether in Korea or the United States, even if he doesn’t have the skills to handle electronic devices.
He was never a money-savvy person, but he had his own way of surviving.
“I’ll go too~!”
I just left the bills behind and joined the Lee Ki-cheol group.
We had fun playing games and drinking under Lee Ki-cheol’s guidance until dawn.
No one said anything, but it seems like everyone was very stressed out from developing the game and preparing and running CES. Of course, I was too.
Lee Ki-cheol blew all the money he had earned at the casino in one night with us. But far from showing any regret, he looked very relieved.
“Wow, I’m so hungry and out of my mind. If only I could just have a bowl of haejangguk, I’d have nothing left to wish for.”
“Really. Or there’s Yujin Baekban in the alley behind the company.”
“Ah···, Yujin Baekban kimchi stew with a glass of soju is really great···.”
After a commotion at the hotel casino, we left the casino completely stripped of our pennies.
We went outside to clear our minds and the cold desert wind greeted us. We played games while drinking alcohol despite our tired bodies, and we all looked like beggars.
Las Vegas was a place where there was nothing to see, eat, or enjoy, including entertainment, gambling, and shows, but right now, we were desperate for a bowl of hangover soup to fill our hungry stomachs.
No matter what, I guess we can’t help but be Seoul country bumpkins.
“I’ll go first~.”
After successfully completing the CES schedule, including the final after-party, the group returned to Seoul first.
I still had work to do in America.
We need to meet with companies that have shown interest in distributing the A1 board and find a vendor that will be responsible for distribution in the United States.
First, I plan to call them and ask them about their basic conditions, and then rule out conditions that are too good or too bad.
It is best to avoid companies that offer overly one-sided and fantastic terms and conditions.
There is a possibility that they are scammers, and while they pretend to give in front, there is a high possibility that they are doing something else behind the scenes to cover their own losses.
CES is over, but I still have people who haven’t left Las Vegas like me, so I met them in person and chatted with them.
Among those people, the Davis couple caught my attention.
The couple, who appeared together wearing cowboy hats, were running a business together.
“Are you from Texas? No. I’m a native New Yorker. I just happen to be into this stuff these days, so I’m using it all the time.”
The Davises, who entered the video game industry by accident while driving a truck, stopped by our booth the first day to play games, before the Mike Jackson incident.
“After that happened, I was so anxious. I was so worried that someone might get it first. But I’m glad we still have a chance.”
Mrs. Davis, who looked to be only half her husband’s size, smiled brightly and said, “We talked while eating hamburgers, French fries, and milkshakes.
I was able to get a lot of information from them.
“Let’s get this straight first. In the US, there is no concept of distributing only ‘arcade boards’. You have to sell the entire cabinet. If you just take the board, people will say, ‘What do you want me to do with this?’”
“Then, when you want to change a game, do you unconditionally change every single cabinet?”
“Of course. In Korea and Japan, they only change the board? They are very frugal. Even the most stingy people here wouldn’t do that. The standards are all different anyway.”
If you want to swap out games by swapping out boards in a game cabinet, there is one prerequisite: not only the board, but also the input/output connectors of the cabinet must all follow a unified standard.
It’s not enough to just standardize the terminals. The monitor specs, which are the most important in a game cabinet, may not all be the same, but they should be within a certain range.
In Korean arcades, the monitor resolution often does not match the board, so the game screen is often cut off on the left and right or top and bottom. Most people play the game without even knowing this.
That being said, Japan is now moving beyond replacing the board to keeping the board and only replacing the game software inside it. The A1 board was also designed that way.
The United States is a great power, so it would be difficult to standardize standards since the land is so vast.
Even in Japan, Korea and Japan have similar sentiments, valuing efficiency and liking unification, but the US, being a free country, seemed to have a completely different approach.
“So, to sell it in the US, you have to make the cabinet and ship it all assembled. Okay, that’s not hard. We can do it.”
“That’s good. Then we won’t have any problems either.”
The arcade game business was growing, so we thought it would be a good idea to make our own standard cabinet.
We can get monitors from Myeongseong Electronics, and there are many companies in Seun Shopping Mall that are good at making game sticks, so it is a very good environment for making game cabinets.
If , , and were all distributed in the US, the volume would not be negligible. is even a game that will be promoted on MTV.
With Korea’s cheap labor and fast-growing technology, if you can sell high-quality game cabinets at reasonable prices, you can penetrate every corner of the United States.
“Arcades are mostly found in big cities, and many arcades are just in big stores, shopping malls, bars, bowling alleys, billiard halls, etc. We’ve confirmed the game, so if the price is right, it will definitely create a sensation. And Mike Jackson has already done all the advertising for it.”
I was impressed by the Davis couple. They were unpretentious and honest people.
The conditions weren’t particularly good, but what was more important was whether he was someone I could trust.
I’ve met with other companies, but none of them impressed me as much as the couple did.
I flew from Las Vegas to Brooklyn, New York, to visit Davis in his office and hear about his plans for the future.
Myungsung Trading will also verify once more whether the Davis couple’s company is trustworthy. If it is determined that there are no problems, I have decided to sign a contract with them.
Now all we have to do is return to Korea and work with Myungsung Electronics to build Starbeat’s own gaming cabinet.
Having achieved more than my goal of attending CES, I can now board my flight back to Korea with peace of mind.
Right now, I have a whole bunch of dollar bills in my wallet that Lee Ki-cheol threw around the hotel room.
For some reason, this note felt like a good luck charm to me.
A talisman that will help us throw a real money party in America, not just a one-night stand.
1988 Retro Game Tycoon Episode 136
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