1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 139



Only Noblemtl

Episode 139 – MTV

It was mid-February 1990, and winter was slowly coming to an end.

A fax came in from Tom Bronsky in the United States.

– Bell Street is loaded. MTV is ready. Now pull the trigger! BANG!

Beneath it was a comical drawing of a Terminator firing a pistol. It looked like Vronsky had drawn it in as a joke.

When I turned to the back page, there was attached information about how much of the ROM pack was distributed to which region.

Hundreds of thousands of copies of The Legend of Bell Street will be sold across the United States.

I just got back from CES, but this is my first release in the US, so I should go check it out.

Our newly completed game cabinet SB1 (Starbeat 1) was also shipped to the United States in a container box for its first export.

Arcade SB1 will initially be deployed in the eastern region, centered around New York, where the Davises are based. By the time it gains recognition through MTV music videos and the Genesis (Mega Drive), it will likely be widespread across the United States.

“I haven’t been in Korea much since I started exporting. It hasn’t even been that long since I came in, and now I’m going out again?”

“It keeps happening. But after I go out this time, I’ll have to prepare for the next game for a while, so I’ll be in Korea for a long time. I’ll also eat dinner at home often.”

“Okay, even when you go out, never skip a meal. Even if it doesn’t suit your taste, you should always eat. Got it?”

“Don’t worry. I can eat anything.”

“When I was young, I was such a picky eater. I never ate kimchi or vegetables, and I only ate orange juice and fruit every day, so I got scolded by my grandfather. Now that I’ve grown up, I’m busier than my own father and I’m running around the world. I couldn’t even have a proper school life…”

My mother suddenly turned around and wiped her face with her hand as if she was reminded of the old days.

Sometimes, whenever something like this happens, I feel a little sad too.

“I’m fine. I’m living well right now, doing what I want to do. That’s enough for me. I don’t want anything more.”

“Yeah, Namjoon, you woke up like this after shaking everything off. That person named Amy was so reckless. I’m sorry.”

I gently patted my mother’s back for a moment.

This business trip to the US is a bit long.

Almost twice as much as I spent touring Japan during last Christmas season.

Although the US is much bigger than Japan, there is one more important thing to do on this business trip besides checking out the US release of .

When I think about the future, this is actually more important.

“Nintendo World Championship?”

“Yes, Nintendo is holding a national gaming competition in the United States. I’m planning on going there. I’ve already applied to participate.”

I showed my father a copy of Nintendo Power, a magazine published by Nintendo of America.

is a magazine that provides the latest Nintendo game news, various reviews, and game strategy information. The magazine included an advertisement for the 1990 Nintendo World Championship preliminary round.

“Are you participating in the competition instead of just observing?”

“Yes, I want to see how it is run. I’m also curious about what kind of people participate.”

Actually, I’m going to see someone I absolutely have to meet, but it’s not time to tell them yet.

“So you’re a kind of spy. To gather information about your competitors.”

“It’s nothing grand. Well, I’m just going to the US to see how my gaming skills are. By the way, is the entry into the Myungsung Electronics semiconductor business that I mentioned before still under consideration?”

“Oh, you mean Pebliss? Both I and Myungsung Electronics have the idea that we should start the semiconductor business right now, but we’re having trouble figuring out how to get into it. The fastest and best way is to acquire a company, and that’s how Osung Electronics started. But acquisitions are easier said than done. Finding the right company is hard, and it’s not something that can be done with just money.”

“It’s an important issue, so think about it slowly. I’ll look into it when I go to the US, too. The video game industry is sensitive to the latest technology.”

“Yes, you are brighter than me in this area. But don’t overdo it and have a nice trip.”

“Okay, I’ll be off.”

I said goodbye to my family, left the company in the hands of the captains, and went on a business trip to the United States.

Sega of America’s offices were located in Irvine, Orange County, California, United States.

It’s about an hour’s drive south of LA, but it’s a bit far from Silicon Valley.

“Namjoon! Welcome. It must have been hard to come a long way. Korea is close to Japan, right? Whenever I go on a business trip to Japan, I feel like my HP is completely empty. But it’s not necessarily because it’s far away. Hahahaha!”

Although he was the CEO, Bronsky, who enjoyed gossiping about the company, greeted me with a cheerful smile.

“This is your first time in our office. It’s a little bit awkward because it doesn’t look that good. After I came here, we expanded the space, cleaned it, bought some furniture, and made it somewhat more like an office. Before, it really felt like a warehouse.”

Even Sega’s headquarters in Japan didn’t really feel like a game company without the Sega logo, but Sega of America did.

At least Sega Japan had a nice building, but this was an old building with no special features. If you say that Genesis’s counterattack against Nintendo started here, no one would believe it.

All over the office, boxes of Master Systems and Genesis were stacked high along with various game titles.

“Until a few years ago, I worked in a high-rise building in New York overlooking the Hudson River, but now I wonder if there ever was a time like that.”

“Do you miss those days?”

“No. Not really. No, not at all. They always gossip and belittle people behind their backs. But Sega people are all good people. Really. At least they tell me in front of me that they don’t like my strategy.”

Bronsky was originally the CEO of a giant toy company, but he resigned, not because of poor performance, but because of internal political infighting.

“Compared to that time, the office is like a warehouse, but this is heaven. What if we can’t see the Hudson River? The important thing is to run together without thinking about anything else, just looking at Genesis. And now that we have a powerful weapon called Bell Street, we’ll be even stronger.”

Tom grinned wickedly and threw his fist at me.

“You should sell a lot of Bell Street so you can look out over the Hudson River again.”

I made the same face as him, and we bumped fists.

We started out by browsing through the nearest Best Buy store.

“Japan has a well-established culture of buying and playing console games, but the U.S. is very different. In Japan, you just rent games among friends, but here, if you go to a local game store, rentals are very well-established. Since you rent games like you rent videos at a video rental store, it’s not easy to sell even fun games. They have to be really fun or really famous. That’s why we focus more on big stores like Best Buy and Walmart than on game stores.”

Bronsky said, showing the game corner at Best Buy, a home appliance store.

As expected, more than half of the game corner was occupied by Nintendo’s Famicom series. , which was unveiled at this year’s CES, was on full display on the stand.

Sega, not to be outdone, also set up a large banner to attract people’s attention, and hundreds of copies of the Legend of Bell Street game title filled the stands.

“Oh, look at this. It’s a Mike Jackson game.”

“Oh~~!”

A group of teenagers were passing by the gaming corner when they saw the Bell Street banner and came over to watch.

One boy started an impromptu dance routine, following Mike’s lead. He was really good at it.

He even imitated the mic tilt dance, but when his friend who was holding him from behind let go on purpose, he fell forward.

Everyone burst into laughter at the sight. The child who had fallen quickly got up and started laughing and playing again.

“The original Mike Jackson game was supposed to be Moon Dance, but as soon as the music video came out, Bell Street became the Mike Jackson game. What the heck? Oh, man. Oh, the music video is coming out right over there.”

The MTV channel was on in the TV corner across from the game corner.

On dozens of TV screens, Mike Jackson was walking in Kim Do-kwon’s pinstripe suit.

Rickshaws ran busily past walls covered with old, broken tiles, and trams passed by, their bells ringing.

I was currently in Irvine, California, USA, watching Mike Jackson, a modern boy in a suit, walking around in a 30s Gyeongseong setting.

It felt like time and space were completely mixed up.

As the music started to play, Mike, wearing a white fedora, turned his head as he snapped his fingers.

The camera zoomed in on Mike’s face, while dozens of microphones stared straight ahead on the screen.

At that moment, I felt as if I had made eye contact with him.

When the microphone that had been eating and sleeping in our house for days started dancing, everyone passing by stopped in their tracks as if they were entranced.

As expected, he was a superstar who could not be compared to anyone.

***

Kyungjin Lee, who lives in LA, had a blast with her son this morning.

My son, who will be entering high school in a few months, keeps nagging me to buy him a game console, and I’m getting very annoyed.

“All the other kids have at least one Game Boy.”

“You can carry it around. There’s also Thompson working with you. And it’s not like you’re kids. No. Besides, it’s dangerous to carry it around and play games anywhere. What if some thugs on the street see it and rush at you to steal it?”

“Then I’ll just buy a Genesis to play at home. I’m not asking you to buy it for me. I’ll work to buy it. There’s a game that came out recently that looks really fun. It’s called Bell Street, and the setting is….”

“Well, if it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work! Why waste money on something like that? And, I told you not to use English at home? If you do, you’ll forget Korean forever. Language is something that you forget if you don’t use it.”

When the conversation didn’t work out, the son threw the plate down in the sink and went into his room.

Lee Kyung-jin took a deep breath.

Just a few years ago, he was a fairly successful businessman in Korea.

When things were going well, it was hard to even count how much money I was making. No matter who I met, he always bought me food and drinks.

But the business that was going well suddenly started to falter and then suddenly collapsed.

The cause of the problem was that I continued to expand without thinking because the business was going well. When one small domino piece fell, the business that I thought was built on a solid foundation came crashing down at the same time.

When money comes in, it comes like a huge wave, leaving you speechless, but when it goes out, it slips through your fingers like grains of sand.

My vision went dark, and all the confidence I had that I could do anything disappeared.

Even friends who contacted me with concerns, asking, “Are you okay?” felt like they were mocking me.

At that time, a boom in immigration to the United States was taking place in Korea.

Feeling that there was nothing more he could do in Korea, he decided to immigrate to the United States despite his family’s opposition.

After settling his remaining assets, all that remained was a plane ticket to the United States.

He moved to America with his family and did whatever he could find. It was the only way he could keep his sanity.

After a few years of doing that, he settled down in LA and made a living doing housekeeping. But now he was able to go out to eat sometimes without worrying about next month’s rent.

But Lee Kyung-jin could never relax. It felt like the money would slip away like that at any moment.

I couldn’t tolerate spending money carelessly.

“Are you healthy?”

Twice a year, on New Year’s Day and Chuseok, whenever he called his parents, his mother would always ask the same question. Every time he heard her voice, he felt like crying. But he held it in and said.

“In America, if you work hard, anyone can succeed. I’ll make a lot of money here and definitely come back to Korea next year, so see you then.”

“Yeah, yeah. But always be careful. Your phone bill is going to be high. Let’s hang up quickly.”

After just exchanging greetings and hanging up the phone, I desperately wanted a glass of soju.

However, it was difficult to even get a bottle of soju, and there was not a single friend here with whom I could openly share a glass of soju.

People around him simply saw him as a workaholic who worked so hard.

Lee Kyung-jin, who went to work after having a blast with her son, got ready for work by washing mops as usual.

But then, suddenly, the manager called him.

“Hey, Mr. Lee. Come here quickly. Quickly. To the break room.”

“Huh? What’s going on?”

Lee Kyung-jin’s heart sank as she worried that she might be fired.

I followed the manager into the employee break room, where there were a lot of people standing around in the cramped room, watching a TV screen the size of a palm.

On TV, someone was dancing. It was Mike Jackson.

Then, some yakuza-like guys wearing kimonos and carrying swords appeared and started fighting with Mike Jackson.

But then, suddenly, the screen changed to look like some game screen.

An on-screen character who looked just like Mike Jackson defeated his enemies with flashy punches, then began dancing more like Jackson than Jackson himself.

People enjoyed the music video by clapping and dancing to the rhythm.

Lee Kyung-jin had no idea what was going on or why he had been called.

As the music ended and the camera zoomed out, Mike Jackson was sitting in front of an arcade game machine.

Mike Jackson, still wearing a pinstripe suit as before, put on a fedora that was resting on a cabinet, smiled at the camera, and disappeared.

But what happened next was even stranger.

As soon as the music video ended, people suddenly started gathering around Lee Kyung-jin and started asking her questions.

“Mr. Lee, you said you came from Korea? Is that true?”

“Yes? Yes, I’m from Korea.”

“So, have you been to a place called Bell Street in Gyeongseong? What do you think?”

“Does everyone in Korea live in houses like that? What did you say? Gihwa, tile-roofed house?”

“Why do people carry other people? Weren’t there carriages in Korea?”

“You know how to do that thing called Taekwondo? Man, I’ll have to be careful from now on.”

People asked him questions with expressions of curiosity and teased him in a friendly manner.

Kyungjin Lee was so surprised that he looked around like a meerkat on alert.

It was the kind of attention I had never received in all the years I had lived in the US.

But then people started watching Mike Jackson’s music videos and started wondering about him and Korea.

Lee Kyung-jin was able to watch the music video again before leaving work.

Looking closely, I could see the streets of old Gyeongseong that I hadn’t seen before.

Mr. Smith, a die-hard Mike Jackson fan, revealed that the music video was filmed based on a game story and that the game was actually a Korean game.

“Sega Genesis?

?”

At that moment, he remembered the conversation he had had with his son that morning. I think he had mentioned Genesis and Bell Street or something…

“I didn’t know before, but Korea seems like a really cool country. Next time we have lunch together, can you tell me more about Korea?”

“Ah···, of course.”

Lee Kyung-jin nodded.

A video game made in Korea. People even ask about Korea when they see it.

He first became interested in video games in his life.

At least I, as a Korean, felt that I should try it before others.

As soon as he got home, he thought he would ask his son about Genesis.

……. (continue)