1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 39



Only Noblemtl

Episode 39 – New Game Title

Starbeat is now moving steadily towards the next stage.

I looked around several places with Mr. Park, the HR manager, to find an office. Of them, I liked the Samil Building the most.

“Is it nice here?”

“Right? It’s not far from Seun Shopping Mall, and it’s spacious enough to accommodate more than 30 people. It’s not the most modern, but the facilities are still good.”

First of all, the location was good. Jongno is to the north, Euljiro is to the south, Gwanghwamun and City Hall are a little further west, and Seun Shopping Mall is a 10-minute walk to the east. It was also close to Myeongseong Electronics and Myeongseong Group headquarters.

“It also has the symbolism of being Korea’s first skyscraper. Before the 63 Building was built, this was a must-see attraction when visiting Seoul. People used to stand in front of this building and count how many floors it had.”

“That makes sense too. We will become the first and best game development company in Korea.”

Outside the window, I could see Cheonggyecheon Overpass and downtown Seoul at a glance.

The deposit and monthly rent were high, but not so high that it was a big burden. When I said that Samil Building was a strong candidate for the company office, Manager Song made a thoughtful expression for a moment and then raised his hand.

“Excuse me, sir.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“I’m telling you this because I told you to feel free to express your opinion. I think the rent for the Samil Building is too high for our company. Also, the amount of money tied up in the deposit is too much.”

I nodded. It was a reasonable opinion for an accountant to raise.

“Even if we hire game developers soon, we’ll have to pay rent for a few months while leaving that large space unused, which is a waste. I think it’s right to gradually expand the office as the number of people increases. We’re not a large company like Myungsung Electronics.”

“That’s definitely the norm. If it weren’t for me, I would definitely think it was a waste of money.”

If it were me in the past, who had visited countless VCs to get investments and stayed in a small, cheap office for months, I would have definitely thought it was crazy.

But now I have the financial resources to handle that, and above all, I have the vision to see beyond it.

“But I don’t plan to grow step by step like that. I plan to jump a few steps at a time. But every time I have to look for a new office, pack, unpack, and find a new place, I won’t be able to focus on my work. I think that’s more of a waste. The loss would be much greater than a few months’ rent.”

“but···.”

“You mean when things go my way? Of course, that’s true. Business doesn’t always go as planned. Don’t worry. If money is tight, I’ll invest more in the company. If necessary, I’ll pour in all my assets to make it the best game company.”

Manager Song no longer objected to my firm answer.

“I understand that you are worried since you are a newly launched company, but you don’t have to worry too much. You saw the power of video games at this Saetbyeol store, right?”

Everyone nodded their heads to what I said, saying, ‘That’s true.’

According to the accounting manager Song’s financial results, the Myeongdong Saetbyeol store, which had entered with the expectation of a deficit, actually turned a profit after being broadcast. There wasn’t even a single pencil left in stock, and most of the G-Mix Vs that had been purchased in bulk were also sold out.

It was not just an achievement beyond my expectations, it was an achievement that far surpassed even my imagination.

“This is just a taste. The explosion of video games is much more powerful. This year, you will experience the possibilities.”

Manager Song also looks a little convinced.

I decided on Samil Building as Starbeat’s first office and stopped by Modu Electronics.

After Saetbyeoljeom finished operating, the remaining small amount of Jemix V stock was acquired by Modu Electronics. Modu Electronics was also in a situation where Jemix V was selling well due to the popularity of .

“At this point, shouldn’t Jewoo Electronics give an award to our CEO Seo?”

“I don’t know about the prize, but Jewoo Electronics, which used to be hesitant when I told them I would open a store at their dealership, is now demanding that I hurry up and get the items. Myungsung Electronics and Jewoo Electronics are negotiating the terms at the same time, and the situation has suddenly become favorable for us.”

“I guess TV really is powerful. Just because it was on the 9 o’clock news, people lined up in Myeongdong in the middle of winter. Hehe. Isn’t CEO Seo getting too busy? How are you going to develop the next game like this?”

“Mr. Sang-hyeok Oh, who came with me before, is working hard with Myeongseong and Je-woo. Thanks to him, I have some free time now. Now that I have a breather, I should create a new game.”

“ was such a huge hit, so the next game will be a hit as soon as it comes out.”

“We need to make another game that goes beyond .”

If is released to all of Myeongseong and Jewoo Electronics’ nationwide dealerships, it may be the first Korean game to sell 100,000 copies.

At a time when game sales figures were not yet properly tallied, I asked Manager Song of the Electronics and Accounting Department to carefully check the sales figures.

If becomes the first Korean game to sell 100,000 copies as a single game, it will be a historic record.

Then, this will be a signal that Korean games have moved beyond the underground economy where pirated copies are rampant in small retail stores and have reached a level where full-scale industrialization is possible.

Then 200,000, 300,000, 500,000.

Will there ever come a day when I can create a game with my own hands that sells over a million copies in Korea with a single title?

It’s still a dream. But it’s also a dream I definitely want to achieve.

Even for that day, we should not be complacent about this achievement now. We should not forget the Atari shock that caused the video game industry in the United States to collapse.

The entire industry almost disappeared because games that were made carelessly were rampant, thinking that they would sell as soon as they were made. I, too, am afraid that if I were to make my second and third games carelessly, feeling relieved by the success of , I could end up in the same situation.

The essence of a game is always a game. I reaffirmed this statement once again.

Instead of writing down my notes, I turned on my computer in the temporary office. I wanted to organize the vague plans I had while taking a break during the Lunar New Year holiday into a document.

The computer is a ‘state-of-the-art’ 286 AT computer that was recently purchased. Soon, the Ministry of Education will designate IBM compatible PCs as educational PCs, and Korea’s computer culture will quickly be reorganized around 16-bit IBM compatibles.

So, I decided to standardize the computers I use at my company for office work, not development, to IBM compatible PCs.

But IBM compatible PCs are still a bit boring. The Apple II and even the MSX computers are color by default. My AT computer, even though it was a state-of-the-art PC, was black and white with a Hercules graphics card.

For now, I plan to use it only for work purposes, so I’ll just use it in black and white until a decent VGA card comes out. I also have a fondness for the green monitor.

But this computer has one very powerful advantage over other computers: it has a hard disk drive.

And its capacity is a whopping 20MB!!!

The price of the hard disk alone is over 200,000 won. 10,000 won per megabyte. It’s really fortunate that I opened my eyes in a wealthy family.

“It boots up without having to plug in DOS?”

“It’s not that DOS is unnecessary, but it’s on the hard disk and you boot from that. In the future, floppy disks will only be used to transfer data, and the era will soon come when it’s impossible to imagine a computer without a hard disk.”

“Ah~!”

Manager Park Chung-sik, who is very interested in electronic devices, was impressed by my ‘state-of-the-art’ 286 AT computer.

“Don’t be so jealous. When we move to the new office, I’m going to buy each employee a computer.”

“Yes? Really?”

“Yes. We are a game company, so everyone needs to adapt to the digital environment quickly. In the future, we will not write reports by hand, but will use word processors, and we will manage accounting using accounting software.”

I started organizing the game plan by running the Korean word processor, Jewel, which I created on Ilbo Computer. Jewel was one of the few commercial word processors that could use Korean.

There are so many things that are really frustrating by my standards, but for now, I should be thankful just for the fact that I can write in Hangul using a word processor.

– Star Beat 2nd Title: Belt Scrolling Action Game

– Star Beat 3rd Title: High School Baseball Sports Game

First, I decided on the direction of the two game titles.

First of all, it is a belt-scrolling action game where the stage moves left and right like a belt and the camera angle is looking down.

Since was a kind of platform action game, it was a natural progression for me to create a belt-scrolling style action game next.

The 16-bit era that would soon follow would produce many masterpieces of belt-scrolling action games. This year in particular, Capcom’s , which established the genre, will be released.

Belt scrolling games are also a choice made with the arcade market in mind. Although fighting action games gained immense popularity in the early 90s with the release of , belt scrolling style action games are games that arcades should naturally have as a basic feature.

It’s a bit like kimchi games in an arcade. It’s a genre that can never be left out of an arcade, and if made well, it can last for several years.

And baseball sports games.

The reason I chose a sports game, specifically a baseball game, as my third title is because it is a game that can be made quickly without spending a lot of time on planning.

Sports games have many advantages in terms of planning. First of all, since the basic rules are set, you can save a lot of time by following them when organizing the game play.

And that’s not all. Since so many players wear the same uniform, it’s also possible to produce it efficiently in terms of visual art. The backgrounds are also standardized, so you can save time.

The best thing would be to have a license with a professional baseball team and feature real teams and players, but that wouldn’t be easy to do.

For now, let’s create a few virtual high school teams with Dongdaemun Stadium as the background and have a baseball tournament. It’s meaningful to leave behind Dongdaemun Stadium, a historical site that will be demolished in 2007, as a game.

After setting up the baseball game to this extent, I returned to the belt-scrolling action game.

We will be developing two games simultaneously, but for now, the main plan is the second title, a belt-scrolling action game. The baseball game will be made as efficiently and concisely as possible, with some gaps in between.

After returning to this era, my first step was to take over Seo Nam-joon’s unfulfilled dream. In the process, I unexpectedly received a lot of help from my family, which made the game even more meaningful.

Thanks to my skills and experience, the game has become a huge hit. Now, the next step is to make a more business-oriented choice.

I decided on the belt scroll action genre and started thinking about the material.

As the genre is called ‘belt’, characters fight while moving left and right, mainly to the right.

However, the limitations of the MSX1 platform hold it back. Since the graphics do not provide hardware scrolling functions, there are many limitations in creating a belt scrolling game.

However, it is not impossible. Just like in , you can move the screen left and right, but instead of fighting while moving, you can move the space and fight against a still background.

In that case, the material should also be suitable for this method.

I’ve always thought it would be cool to make a game where you fight while transforming cool mechanics, but I don’t think that’s the case now.

When mechs come out, the sense of speed is important, but if you can’t fight while scrolling the screen, you can’t fully capture that feeling. So the subject matter and planning of mechs that fit the 90s are on hold for now.

It would be okay if people appeared, or if animals or even fantasy characters appeared.

Now that I think about it, not only but also came out in 1989. It seems like 1989 really was the first year of belt-scrolling action games.

We also need to make a fun belt scrolling game before it’s too late. I wrote down various materials as they came to mind and found the right one.

– A sci-fi game where future warriors fight in spaceships.

– A martial arts action game where a martial arts master invades the Sapa’s stronghold to find his father’s enemy.

– An apocalypse game where you fight zombies to get food and water.

– A nature action game where a gorilla fights poachers in the African jungle.

– An insect action game where anthropomorphic soldier ants fight to protect the queen ant.

– A game where Roman soldiers fight against barbarians.

– A game where, on the other hand, overwhelming barbarians fight and defeat Roman soldiers.

– Independence fighters defeat the Japanese army in Gyeongseong and throw lunchbox bombs…

Oh, the lunchbox bomb went a little too far.

As I wrote, I realized that there were a lot of materials that could be tried within the belt scroll genre.

It seemed like no matter which one I chose, I could make a game that was better than basic.

But somehow I’m drawn to the last project. I think it’s because it’s the most familiar material to Koreans among the various materials.

is set in New York, USA. One of Starbeat’s strengths is that it is a Korean game made by Koreans, so wouldn’t it be good to make a second game with more Korean material?

Hmm, but if you make an independence fighter the main character, it might be a bit difficult in the Japanese market.

Of course, Japan had a huge hit when Capcom made an airplane action game called set in the Pacific War, where the Allied forces beat up the Japanese army.

I think it’s because they were a war criminal nation that they couldn’t make a game about World War II from their own perspective.

Besides, if you’re a freedom fighter, you should fight with guns rather than fists. Of course, there’s no rule that says you can’t fight with guns in a belt-scrolling game, but since it’s a game that pursues the refreshing feeling of hitting and kicking, martial arts are more suitable than guns.

Hit and kick?

Although he is not an independence fighter, a cool action scene came to mind in the familiar setting of Jongno.

I wrote the name ‘Kim Du-han’ in the proposal.