1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 53



Only Noblemtl

Episode 53 – The tear-jerking game launches

“This is also a lot of watered down. Originally, we were going to say, ‘Get out, Japan!’ But we also had Hyunmyung Electronics’ position.”

“Hahaha, yes. But still, “Come on, Japan” is much better than “Get out, Japan.” Our game development is almost finished and we will be going into production soon.”

“That’s right! Then let’s get ready quickly. Let’s move quickly and crush Hyunmyeong Electronics, which brought in that foreign power, and protect Korea, sir!”

The voice of the marketing manager of Jewoo Electronics was filled with sincere emotion.

It seems that when Hyunmyeong Electronics brought in the Famicom, it had a bigger impact on Gemix than expected.

The crisis of Gemix does not end with the crisis of Gemix alone. If Gemix/MSX’s power is weakened by Hyunmyeong Electronics/Nintendo’s offensive, it will not be good for us who develop Gemix games.

Of course, we don’t go all-in on Gemix. Unfortunately, we also know that Gemix doesn’t have a long lifespan.

So we are also working on developing our own arcade system and console, but until then we need to build a solid foundation with Gemix and MSX. We plan to continue to support Gemix as much as possible in the future.

The baseball game has now entered its final QA phase.

From now on, all employees will be playing and looking for any bugs that may exist.

“Don’t play by the book now, but try to do something weird on purpose. You might run into unexpected problems.”

Up until now, the tests have been based on normal baseball standards. But wherever you go, there are bound to be people who play strangely.

As expected, because I played strangely on purpose, strange hidden bugs popped out.

“If you throw a pickoff ball more than 10 times in a row, the runner is definitely out?”

“If you slide in the middle of a run, you can slide all the way to the end, and that’s faster than just running.”

“I kept swinging recklessly, but when I swung and returned to the swing, the bat hit the ball. But it went forward and became a hit.”

“If a pitcher throws more than 200 pitches, they are all balls.”

“Sir! Something is wrong. No matter what I do, I can’t get an out-of-the-park home run!”

We gathered up the entire list of bugs and started the final debugging.

“Once it’s released, there’s no going back. This is your last chance. Everyone, keep up the good work until the end!”

There is no way to modify a ROM pack game once it is released to the public.

Computer games can be patched to some extent later, but console games cannot be fixed until the Internet age comes.

First of all, what is ‘ROM’? Read Only Memory. It is a memory that can only be read.

Since the information once entered cannot be modified, the games contained in the ROM pack cannot be modified either.

If an error occurs that makes it impossible to play the game, or if a cheat key is discovered that makes the game too easy, there is no other way than to fix it when producing the next ROM pack and exchange the ROM pack for the previous purchaser.

However, the initial production quantity of is 50,000 units. The initial production quantity is large, including 30,000 units to be provided in the limited package of Jewoo Electronics, the quantity to be supplied to game shops such as Seun/Yongsan, and the quantity to be provided to Myeongseong Electronics dealers.

Just a few months ago, I hand-printed the first 5,000 copies of in my garage.

To put it simply, our company grew tenfold in those few months.

Well, I was the only developer there at the time, but now there are 12 people, including me. That’s exactly a dozen.

As the company has grown, the second game must be as complete as . We put in a lot of effort and polished the game to perfection.

The last 1% is always the most difficult and tiring. Team B, who was in charge of , stayed with me at the company until late at night, making revisions and revisions.

Time passed midnight, and some people were nodding off in front of their computers.

Team B leader, Captain Park Geon-hyung, dug into the code more persistently and meticulously than I did, as befitting his personality. He seemed to be staring at the monitor without even blinking.

“Don’t your eyes hurt? Put some of this in. If you look at the monitor for too long, your eyes will quickly dry out and get tired.”

“Oh, thank you.”

I gave Park Geon-hyung some artificial tears, which are eye drops.

But he had never tried using eye drops before, so he just kept shedding tears, and the area around his eyes became completely covered in artificial tears.

“Huh? Captain, what’s wrong? Are you crying? I know you’re stressed because it’s your first game. Is it that hard?”

Hyunwoo Seok, who had just returned from the bathroom, asked in surprise.

“What? Are you really crying?”

“The bug isn’t fixed?”

“What’s wrong? Let’s find it together. Don’t cry.”

“Oh, no. I wasn’t crying···.”

The developers who had been sleeping while Woo-seok was causing a ruckus woke up one by one and gathered around Park Geon-hyeong.

As Park Geon-hyung looked at me with desperate eyes as if asking me to talk, the youngest, Ji-seok, handed Park Geon-hyung a tissue as if to drive a wedge in and said.

“Hyung, I also cried while making a game for a different reason. At times like that, I think it’s better to just cry freely. Here.”

“Hey, I’m telling you, that’s not true. Ji-seok, you too···”

“The captain is crying alone because he’s having a hard time! How inadequate must we have been···”

“Come on, come on! Get up and come to your senses! Let’s run together until the end!”

“Coffee! I’ll make you some coffee!”

Although Park Geon-hyeong was deprived of the opportunity to defend himself, he sacrificed himself to further fuel the developers’ passion and determination.

Thanks to Park Geon-hyung’s tears, Team B was able to make a final spurt and successfully fix various bugs.

“Thank you all for your hard work!”

After I finished the final review, I finally declared the game complete.

While everyone was cheering, one person was not.

“Captain Park, you cried yesterday? Tsk tsk, be a man.”

“A man cries only three times in his life. Captain, you’ve already cried once.”

“Geonhyeong-ah, looking at you, I can see how hard it is to make a game. I’ll probably start crying soon like you, too. But I’ll hold it in. Let’s do our best, Captain.”

Park Geon-hyung became the company’s official ‘crybaby captain’ because of this incident.

became a sublime game completed with the tears of one person.

“How does it look now that it’s finished?”

“It definitely feels different from making something in a club. At the time, I didn’t know if I could release it or not, and honestly, there were many times when I wasn’t sure if I was doing it right. But now that the leader has guided me in the right direction, I think I’ve been able to focus on the game with peace of mind. However···”

“but?”

“ was created by taking over a game that the CEO was working on. Next time, I want to properly plan from the beginning and learn game development thoroughly.”

“Don’t worry, your chance will come soon. For now, just enjoy the first release. It’s a moment that will never come again.”

“Yes, that’s right. Just as your first love doesn’t come twice, you can’t make your first game twice either.”

“Captain, now that I look at you, you’re secretly romantic. You’re also very sensitive. But don’t be so happy that you cry again.”

“No, that’s what the representative···!”

At my joke, Park Geon-hyung looked at me with a look of resentment as if to say, “How could you do that to me too?” I thought he was a serious person, but he was more fun to tease than I thought.

With the game data completed, preparations for release are also well underway.

We took a bunch of pictures of posters announcing the game’s release and put them out in Seun, Yongsan, and game shops all over the country.

– Play ball!

– A hot cheer is echoing through Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium right now!

– A fierce battle of sweat and passion between eight high school baseball teams across the country

– The second game from Starbeat, the creator of ,

A poster announcing the release of the game, which contained various scenes of baseball, such as a pitcher, a batter, a catcher guarding home base, and outfielders gathered to catch a fly ball, was plastered all over game shops, just like a cartoon.

sent the game in advance and asked them to write an article about it, and when introducing a new development team in , I naturally mentioned that they had developed.

I checked the pre-order status of game shops by talking to the CEO of All Electronics.

“How is the situation at game shops?”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Mr. Seo. Each shop is making a fuss to get more of their stock. 100 is the minimum, and some shops are asking for 300.”

“That much at once?”

“Well, that’s right. Some stores order less because they’re worried that they might not receive the quantity. There are also places that pull in all the quantity and line up. I heard they even get loans because of this. That’s why I stopped giving out more than 50 to each store. Mr. Seo, if I keep doing this, I might end up having to build a building because of you, Mr. Seo. Hehe!”

“If you’re going to build a building, please give us some space. We can use it as an office.”

“Oh, then~. I can give an entire floor to Representative Seo for free. He’s my nobleman after all.”

President Jeong smiled pleasantly.

If you order 300 copies of a game that costs 15,000 won, it will cost over 3 million won even if you calculate it based on the supply price that goes to the retail store. For most game shops, which are small business owners, pre-ordering 300 copies of a game that would otherwise remain in stock if it doesn’t sell is a significant investment.

The success of was strongly recognized not only by gamers and game developers, but also by game shop owners.

Actually, there were many game shop owners who were gritting their teeth watching people line up in front of their stores to buy games at Seun Shopping Mall.

Hyunmyeong Electronics has not yet released the Comboy in Seun and Yongsan.

Since we had already sold 30,000 copies of to Jewoo Electronics, we were able to watch the retail sales with a somewhat relaxed mind.

As the cold winter fades and warm winds begin to blow again in spring, has finally been released in game stores nationwide.

We threw a lunch party at our company to celebrate the release.

“Golden Sun Flag, fighting~!!!!”

We all celebrated the launch with a glass of beer and thanked everyone for their hard work.

The congratulatory cake specially prepared by Manager Song had the words, ‘Don’t cry, Captain!’ written on it.

Park Geon-hyung’s expression when he saw the cake was worth seeing.

***

“Wow! A new game comes from the creator of !”

Kang Cheol-su, an elementary school student, is also an avid reader of the magazine .

He watched the special feature of last month and was shocked to find out that there were many hidden stages that he didn’t know about.

So, after studying for a week with the magazine by his side, he has now reached the level of a master of .

“Now, look. Here, the cat is deliberately caught. Then the policeman comes up the stairs and turns around. Because this policeman hates cats. He likes dogs. But he hates cats. The other policemen don’t do that, but that beard.”

“Wow! Chulsoo, you’re such a game expert!”

Kang Cheol-su, who mastered the game, became known as a game genius and a game expert by helping his friends solve problems they encountered while playing . Of course, he kept the fact that the strategy guide was included in a secret from his friends.

– The latest work from Starbeat, the creator of ! Let’s preview !

“Journalists would love it. They can try it out before the game even comes out.”

At that moment, Kang Cheol-su decided that his dream was to become a computer magazine reporter. Although his future aspirations had changed about five times over the past year, he decided that from now on, he would never change them.

“Huh? A baseball game? You can play baseball in a game?”

Cheolsu showed his father a magazine and asked him to buy him a game, prepared to get scolded. But surprisingly, his father didn’t scold him for playing too many games, but instead looked intently at the magazine.

“Okay, let’s go to Seun Shopping Mall together this Saturday after Dad gets off work.”

Kang Cheol-su felt like a dream. Up until then, he had to get permission from his father to buy games, and his father never bought games for him all at once. But this time, he gave permission without even asking.

On a long-awaited Saturday afternoon, Kang Cheol-su headed to Seun Shopping Mall with his father. It was a new and exciting place he had never been to before.

Cars and people were zooming by, and every store was filled with all sorts of new and interesting things I had never seen before. The computer and game store on the 4th floor that I went up to with my dad was a heaven I had never seen before.

“Wow~! This is all a game! Wow~!”

Kang Cheol-su held his father’s hand tightly and looked around restlessly in this new world he was encountering for the first time. There were not many children his age. This was the exciting world of adults.

Cheolsu’s father took Cheolsu into a shop that looked rather large. He didn’t know much about computers or games. However, he had heard that he had to go to Seun Shopping Mall to buy games.

“What game did our children come to buy?”

“I’m Golden! Oh, what was it? Oh, that’s right. I came to buy the Golden Sun baseball game!”

“Cheolsu, you don’t have to raise your hand. This isn’t school.”

Kang Cheol-su raised his hand and spoke as if he were giving a presentation at school.

But a wrinkle appeared on the store clerk’s forehead.

“Ah, that game? Our customer Cheolsu came to buy that. But what should I do? The game has all been sold, so I don’t have any left.”

“no?”

“Yeah, how about this game instead? This is also the latest game, . Have you played ? That’s the third part. This is really fun. Come on, check it out.”

The store clerk handed Kang Cheol-su a copy of . The case had a character drawn on it that looked exactly like Super Mario.

“Huh? I saw this?”

“Right? You know that too.”

“Yes! I saw it on TV. This guy is a combo boy!”

“Huh? No, this isn’t that combo….”

“No, I saw it clearly! Wow! Comboy has appeared! A world of exciting and wonderful games! A world of fun and wonderful adventures! Let’s go together to the world of dreams and fantasy! A wise Comboy with an electronic gun!”

Kang Cheol-su would watch the Comboy commercial in front of the TV, completely absorbed in it, so he knew the commercial by heart.

“This guy looks exactly like Comboy. This is a Comboy game. My house is a Jemix. It doesn’t fit.”

“No, I said this isn’t for combos, it’s for Jemix!”

The clerk’s voice slightly rose when he couldn’t understand. This made Chulsoo’s father feel very upset.

“So you’re saying there’s no baseball game here? Cheolsu, let’s go. They’re not having it here. Let’s go somewhere else.”

Cheolsu’s father held Cheolsu’s hand and went around a few more stores.

“Oh, I just sold out of that one. Go to the store next door.”

“What should I do? We ordered a lot, but we only received half of it. It’s killing me.”

There was even a store that put up a sign on its door saying, ‘ is sold out!’

Cheolsu and his father were finally able to get the baseball game they wanted at a corner store.

“Cheolsu. Should I try this with Dad? I’ll try it first to see if Dad is okay with it.”

“Dad, too? Do you play games too?”

“Then, adults play games too.”

Cheolsu learned a lot of new things today.

Among the new things was my father’s face.

Chulsoo now discovered that his father’s face looked exactly like his friends’ faces when he went to their houses to play games.

It was the first time I saw my father’s face like that.

Chulsoo thought that during the next art class, he should draw the face of his dad, who had kindly bought him the game, with crayons.