1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 45



Only Noblemtl

Episode 45 – Copy Bug

Cheonggye Shopping Mall, Jeminan Game Software Research Lab.

The developers from Gemini and the developers from Thumbsoft were having a meeting.

“No, wasn’t this supposed to be done in Gemini?”

“Us? No. If I remember correctly, we were supposed to create the animation source and add the transformation function to the thumb, right?”

“Oh, that’s not really it. You clearly said that you could add the function first.”

“You? You just said you were there?”

The meeting became longer and longer, and eventually voices gradually became louder.

Ha Ji-seok, the youngest of them all and a high school student who mostly came out after school and on weekends, felt that meeting time was a waste.

He got up from his seat in the corner, quietly went into the room, and started coding again.

The two companies were transforming Nintendo’s “Super Mario Bros. 3” into “Geminan Brothers Adventures 3.” Ha Ji-seok’s part was the part of Mario transformed into a raccoon. Ha Ji-seok’s job was to move the raccoon’s tail to make the movement of flying in the sky natural.

“This is really not fun.”

Ha Ji-seok muttered to himself without realizing it. The task was difficult, but not impossible.

But I wasn’t excited at all and progress was slow.

I couldn’t understand why the two companies would get together for a meeting and try to pass the buck every time. It would be better to spend that time coding one more line.

At first, I thought I would learn something new by working with Thumbsoft. But the code was a mess, and as the Gemini programmers started fixing it, it became even more of a mess.

Now, Ha Ji-seok didn’t even know why he was doing what he was doing.

“Jiseok, you’ve been here again? Sometimes you talk a lot in meetings and stuff. You’re the youngest, but you’re the most skilled, right?”

As soon as the meeting was over, Jeminan Game Research Lab Team Leader Jeong Byeong-cheol entered the room.

“What about the thumb people?”

“He left. A while ago. Oh my~, why are you talking so much when you haven’t done much? Ji-seok, what you fixed in a few days is better than what they did in a month, but you keep nagging. Let’s never work together again. It really sucks my energy. It sucks.”

“Brother. Are you having fun?”

“Huh? What?”

“I’m making a game.”

“What are we doing?”

“Yes. I’m just not having fun these days. I’m just copying what other people have done, making animations. I wonder what I’m doing.”

“Hey, that’s just how it is. Who makes games for fun? Games are fun, you know, Jiseok. It’s fun for the people who play them, but not for the people who make them. That’s just how it is.”

“It wasn’t like that originally. When I was making , I had a lot of fun making it with my friends.”

“Well, it’s fun when you make something with your friends without even knowing what it is. I think everyone will enjoy it. But you’ve sold it, right? Where is it like that?”

Jeong Byeong-cheol brought up the story of , which Ha Ji-seok developed with his friends when he was in middle school and sold about 300 copies. Then Ha Ji-seok also kept quiet for a moment.

But soon he asked again.

“Then, don’t you find making games fun too?”

“Me? Me? What···.”

“Then why do you do this, hyung? I go to school and earn some pocket money and gain experience, but you don’t have to do this when it’s not fun. To be honest, this place doesn’t pay much either.”

“Hey, you don’t know, but there’s no place that treats game developers this well. Other places are at the level of neighborhood clubs at best. You can tell by looking at the thumbs up, right? I’ve already made several games here. And I don’t even have to starve. I can use the computer as I please. Our boss is a bit strict, but there really is no place better than this.”

“But you said it wasn’t fun, hyung. Was making games boring from the start?”

“That wasn’t the case. There was a time when I wanted to make my own game. It was fun back then. But I don’t want to go back to that time.”

“why?”

“Because I was hungry. So hungry. At that time, Jeongsik, Beomsu, and another younger sibling who wasn’t here, we made a game while boiling two packages of ramen and eating them. We were sleeping in a single room in my boarding house. We were running a computer and writing codes.”

“One computer? Four people? Is that possible?”

“If there’s no other way, then that’s what happens. Where did we get the money? I had to save up like crazy to buy that computer, which was just an MSX clone. I had to be careful with my landlord’s behavior, so I couldn’t bring my shoes into the room or go to the bathroom as I pleased. Thinking back now, I really don’t know how I lived back then.”

“Aww~, when I went into the room back then, the smell was unbelievable. I still remember that smell, hyung.”

Jeongsik and Beomsu entered the room and joined the conversation.

“That’s right. We would work on a computer, write code, and argue about whether this was right or that was right. Then we would fight and get upset. When I bought a bottle of soju, we would drink it all without any side dishes, and then we would make up and cry. I can’t even describe what happened back then.”

Jeong Byeong-cheol shook his head as if he was getting goosebumps. But there was a faint smile on his face.

“I’m grateful to my brother. It was fortunate that he met the CEO and brought us here. Otherwise, how could we have lived in an apartment and made games so comfortably? And honestly, if we had sold the games we made back then, we would have sold at most a hundred copies. In the end, we would have failed. I don’t want to go back there again. I will never go back there.”

Beomsu shook his head firmly as he recalled old memories.

The original members of the Gemini Game Lab were talking about old memories after a long time. It was a story that Ha Ji-seok, who had no shared memories, could not join in on.

“But I still feel sorry when I think about the CEO of Modu Electronics. He bought me a lot of Jajangmyeon back then.”

“We couldn’t help it, hyung. Even if we had released that game, we wouldn’t have made any money and would have failed. And then we would have gone our separate ways.”

“Still, I’m sorry. I wish I had told you properly that I was going to work somewhere else. I still don’t know why I ran away when I ran into you at the store. My body just ran away on its own.”

Jeong Byeong-cheol sighed deeply.

“But what about Starbeat? I think they could make games there a lot more fun than here.”

Ha Ji-seok suddenly asked a question completely different from the story.

“Starbeat? Seo Namjoon?”

“yes.”

Ha Ji-seok took out from his bag. Jeong Byeong-cheol was startled.

“Hey, you put that back in your bag quickly. What are you going to do if the boss sees it?”

“Can’t I read magazines as I please? This isn’t some military dictatorship or anything.”

“Wow, this guy is real.”

Jeong Byeong-cheol looked around, knowing that President Kim Ho-seung was not there. Ha Ji-seok couldn’t understand that.

“If you look here, Namjoon hyung’s Starbeat seems like a completely different company from ours. And first of all, Namjoon hyung is good at making games. Unlike our CEO.”

“So? What are you trying to say? Starbeat is hiring a game programmer, so why don’t you apply?”

“Then it’s not possible?”

“No way. If we get caught doing that, our boss won’t let it go.”

“How does the boss know that?”

“If you find out. And back then, at the Bucheon Research Institute, you saw what Seo Nam-joon was like, right? You were telling the CEOs to keep their eyes open and not make games like that. Do you think someone like that would pick us? At least the people who were with us and Umji-ne couldn’t go to Starbeat.”

“Is that really true?”

“Look at this interview too. Seo Nam-joon probably doesn’t think of us as game makers.”

“That’s right, bro. I think they’ll think of me as a copycat who just copies other people’s games.”

“Oh~, copy bug. That sounds pretty plausible, doesn’t it?”

“Copy bug. Copy bug. It’s just like the song .”

Jeong Byeong-cheol sat with his back against the wall and began to sing with his eyes closed.

I’m a copycat~

I can’t help it

This copy company is my home~

Even if I make a game, it doesn’t sell

All the friends I used to eat ramen with are leaving

Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go

Just play a game for me once

“Nana nana nana~ I’ll fall asleep copying like that tonight too, with a heavy heart.”

“I’m going to fall asleep copying like that tonight too.”

Jeong Byeong-cheol made a song on the spot by parodying the lyrics of the song and sang it. Those who were with Jeong Byeong-cheol sang the chorus together.

Ha Ji-seok stared blankly at the sight. He couldn’t understand his brothers at all.

Seo Nam-joon has already proven that Jeminan is going down the wrong path.

As Seo Nam-joon said, games aren’t made by copying. It was such an obvious logic.

The reason failed was because it was immature in every way, including ideas, sense, and technology. It wasn’t that they didn’t know how to do it, or that the direction was wrong.

In Ha Ji-seok’s view, Jeong Byeong-cheol clearly loved games and still seemed to enjoy making games.

But Jeong Byeong-cheol couldn’t say a word in front of the president to deny it.

It was also very strange to see Thumbsoft and I working together while passing the buck. Lately, the boss has been nagging us harder and harder, so everyone is tired, but he hasn’t stepped up to stop us like he used to.

He sang a self-deprecating song comparing himself to a bug, and his expression looked like he was smiling or crying.

‘This is not the place anymore.’

Ha Ji-seok, who was debating whether or not to apply to Starbeat, made up his mind.

I already had Starbeat’s post office box number memorized.

***

is starting to look more and more like a baseball game.

I fixed the various issues I found through testing one by one. Among them, the bug that caused the game to go off the grid was fixed first.

But as I worked hard to make it, I started to suffer from a chronic illness again.

If this were a full 3D game, it would be possible to calculate the angle and speed of the ball coming in, the type of pitch, the swing trajectory and power of the batter hitting the ball, the hitting point, etc., and then calculate the launch angle and hitting speed when hitting the ball to create much more realistic plays.

This requires complex formulas and calculations using the laws of physics and mathematics.

Since there is currently no physics engine that is good enough, we will have to start by creating a physics engine that can create a simulation space where the laws of physics apply.

However, a physics engine is not something that can be made just by being good at programming. Obviously, you need to be good at math and physics.

Especially in the era of 3D games, I often see excellent game developers struggling with limitations as their math and physics skills fall short as they advance to higher levels.

If you look at the fundamentals of a computer, it is a computational machine. If you go back to the basics, it is inevitable, fate, and destiny that it will eventually meet mathematics again.

When faced with the limitations of the present, I stop coding like this and let my dreams and imagination run wild for the future.

Even the slow CPUs of the 8-bit era were struggling to handle graphics processing at low resolutions.

The CPU and graphics PPU are constantly running, but they don’t have time to calculate things like the launch angle of the ball.

Even if there was a sophisticated physics engine, it wouldn’t be able to handle it properly. This isn’t a full 3D game to begin with.

I should leave the regrets to my future self and be faithful to reality for now.

First of all, it is important to do well in what you can do now.

I increased the strike zone hitting points from 3×3 in a square to 6×6. The number of judgment points increased from 9 to 36, allowing for more precise hitting. On the other hand, it became harder to hit.

It will be more difficult for Manager Park to hit a home run. However, in order to give the feeling of hitting with real aim, it is best to implement the feeling in as much detail as possible.

had no choice but to delete many details of baseball, such as defense, base running, and strategy.

Moreover, since there are only two buttons, A and B, on the Jemix V, it is virtually impossible to create complex plays that bring out the excitement of baseball.

So, when you stand at the plate and go up on the mound, you have to make the most of your throwing and hitting sensations.

I have to make it feel like I’m throwing it myself and swinging the bat. That’s how you can make a really exciting play.

Within the limits of current technology, we will preserve what can be saved and boldly discard what must be discarded.

How can we make this game the most fun? We need to keep refining the game by focusing on what the essential concept of this game is.

So sometimes I feel like making games is like a path to cultivation.

If there is a god in the world of games, game developers would be priests who work hard to get one step closer to god. Then, would game companies be like temples?

While I was revising , Manager Park came to see me with a thick stack of documents.

“Sir, I’ve reviewed the developer applications that I’ve received so far. I clearly stated that I was hiring developers, but some people applied because they were good at drawing, and some people didn’t have any particular skills but said they really wanted to make games.”

“Did you exclude all those people?”

“No. If it were normal, I would have just cut them all off without even looking at the field of application, but just in case, I filtered out the ones that were really weird.”

“Good job. We need developers, but that doesn’t mean we have to hire only developers.”

First, I looked at the documents of those who applied for the programmer position.

Perhaps because it was a game, many of those who passed Manager Park’s first screening were college students. There were also people who currently work as software developers at other computer-related companies.

“And there was a high school student.”

“Are you a high school student?”

“Yes, I filtered out middle school and high school students. I heard that this guy has already developed a game and sold it, so I was wondering if he might be interested.”

“Is your name Jiseok?”

“Yes! I think that was the name. Do you know that student?”

“I know you. That guy applied too.”

When I met him at the Bucheon Research Institute, he seemed young. He really was a high school student. He also seemed to have the best skills among them.

I was curious at the time, but the atmosphere was like that, so I just came back.

This is how our relationship has developed again.

I looked through the documents to see if there were any other people from Geminian or Umjisoft. From Geminian, only Ha Ji-seok applied, and from Umjisoft, only the game development team leader applied.

“Who was this person? I don’t even remember.”

I dismissed the application for the position of Thumbsoft Development Team Leader as a failure.

I was a little worried, but I decided to give Ha Ji-seok a chance.

“I’ll go through the documents and narrow down the list of people to interview. Thank you for your hard work. And now I have to prepare for the interview.”

“Yes, sir.”

“First, we need a large space that can accommodate dozens of people.”

“Do you want to have a group interview?”

“It’s similar, but a little different. And you also need computers depending on the number of interviewees.”

“Even the computer?”

“Yes, I’m going to have a technical interview.”

It’s nothing more than bringing in a new priest to the Starbeat Temple.

We need to figure out who is truly talented.