1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 61



Only Noblemtl

Episode 61 – Benchmark

“Let’s pretend this story never happened.”

I refused outright and stood up without listening any further.

The director of Oseong Electronics asked in confusion.

“No, why are you saying that? Are you short of 2 billion?”

“If that’s the case, I would refuse even if they offered me 20 billion, not 2 billion. The game source code is the second most important asset of our company. It is never for sale or trade.”

“Sir, please calm down. I think there has been some misunderstanding.”

“No. Don’t you already know what I mean when I say I want it back to its pre-compile state?”

“No, I just said that because I thought it would be much better for engineers to get it that way. What, you know? They have to put in anti-piracy code, and so on.”

“Anti-piracy is nothing to do with the source code, since you can just add a chip to the ROM pack, and our game doesn’t need to be localized. No matter what reason you give, it’s just an excuse.”

If I had to guess why they want the source code of our game, there’s probably one reason.

Osung Electronics is planning to either produce games while selling the G-Boy itself, or transfer the technology by subcontracting it to another company.

“I’m sorry. I just listened to the engineer and said what he said. I don’t even know what it means.”

“Since you keep denying the information, I will tell you. It is like a company ordering a large quantity of semiconductors from Osung Electronics and asking for the semiconductor design drawings and production facility drawings. No matter how much money you give them, they are not willing to give it to you.”

I left the conference room because I had nothing more to say or hear.

The director of Oseong Electronics quickly followed me and caught me, but I spoke again.

“No matter what you say, we will not negotiate or even meet until you withdraw your demand for the source code. Please make that clear. Then I will leave now.”

After making my intentions clear, I left Oseong Electronics.

It was a day when my heart felt heavy and stuffy, and I felt like smoking a cigarette even though I didn’t smoke.

“Excuse me, sir. Can I ask you something?”

On the way back to the office, Manager Oh kept looking at me and asked me.

“Yes, what is it?”

“You said earlier that source code is the second most important asset in a company. What’s the first? Sorry, I’m just curious.”

“The first?”

“yes.”

“Ask me the obvious. Of course, our people are our company’s greatest asset.”

“ah···.”

“Mr. Oh, you should go back to the office first. I’ll stop by Seun Shopping Mall.”

My mind became complicated for no reason because of Osung Electronics.

I should stop by the Iron Age and see how far the boards have come.

The reason so many companies, including Osung Electronics, keep making ridiculous offers to me is because we don’t have our own game console.

If we had a console like the Nintendo Famicom, we wouldn’t be hearing such ridiculous things.

We need to grow bigger as soon as possible and create our own 16-bit console.

“Brother Ki-cheol, are you there?”

I pressed the Iron Age doorbell, but there was still no response.

So I tried to open the door, but for some reason, the door was locked too.

I had an iron age key, so I opened the locked door and went in. The house was dark.

“Where did you go? Did you go to Seun Shopping Mall to meet the old men?”

I turned on the light in the living room and was startled. Lee Ki-cheol was curled up like a shrimp in front of the bathroom door.

“Brother? What’s wrong? Where does it hurt? Brother?”

I quickly ran over and shook Lee Ki-cheol’s body. Then Lee Ki-cheol slowly opened his eyes.

“Huh? Huh? Oh, the gamer is here? Whoaaaaah! Where am I?”

“Oh, really. Why are you lying down and sleeping in a place like this? Isn’t there a bed in the room?”

“Oh, there’s no bed. That’s for rich people like you. But I don’t envy you at all. I like sleeping on the floor a lot better.”

“That’s not what I meant. Why are you sleeping in front of the bathroom?”

“Oh, that’s right. I remember needing to pee last night. I guess I got tired after peeing and just slept. Hey, you gamer. Can I get some water? I’m thirsty because I peeed and slept.”

Lee Ki-cheol scratched his disheveled hair and asked for water with an innocent face, and I couldn’t help but laugh because it was so absurd.

I opened the fridge and found Del Monte orange juice and barley tea bottles filled with it.

There were no washed cups in the cupboard, and the sink was littered with dishes. There were torn packages of ramen, 3-minute curry, and 3-minute jjajang scattered about.

Suddenly it occurred to me that I didn’t care at all about how this person lived.

He went on and on about how his partner was this and that, and how the most important asset of a company was its people. I just gave Lee Ki-cheol work and teased him, but I had no interest in how he lived.

“Was I no different at all···.”

Suddenly my face felt hot.

“Hey, Gamdol. I’m thirsty.”

“Oh, wait a minute.”

I poured barley tea into a rice bowl in the cupboard that looked like it had been washed, but had dried rice stuck to one side.

Lee Ki-cheol drank water in gulps and even burped it down to feel refreshed.

“Oh, I can live now.”

Lee Ki-cheol’s eyes became lively as if the barley tea was some kind of elixir of life.

“You came to see the board? Just wait a minute. I just made a trial version of the complete game last night.”

“I’ll see you later. Aren’t you hungry? How about rice? Do you always fill up on 3-minute curry?”

“What are you talking about? Sometimes I even put frozen dumplings in my ramen and eat them. The world has really become a better place. Now I can live alone and cook without any problems.”

“What about food?”

“Food? There’s nothing to worry about when it comes to food. Our elephant brand lunch box cooks food for you and keeps you warm. It’s nonsense for someone living in Seun Sangga to worry about food.”

“It is brave to live without starving. Do you have any side dishes? Kimchi?”

I asked while rummaging through Lee Ki-cheol’s refrigerator. As expected, Lee Ki-cheol’s refrigerator was barely there.

“That’s the only regret. As for side dishes, sometimes the men at Seunsangga share the kimchi they make at home.”

“From now on, I’ll bring some side dishes from home. First, wash up. Let’s eat first.”

“I have to show you what I made first.”

“Wash up quickly!”

I kicked Lee Ki-cheol’s butt and pushed him back into the bathroom. Then I cleaned up the trash strewn about in the kitchen and quickly cleaned up the dishes piled up in the sink.

I also had a messy life for a while while working at a game company. I had to work overtime a lot, so I lived alone near the office. It wasn’t a time when anything I bought online would arrive the next day, and convenience store lunch boxes weren’t common, so what I ate was always bad.

Then, when I moved to a large game company, I was so thankful that the company had a cafeteria. The existence of a company cafeteria where I could eat lunch, dinner, sometimes breakfast, and even snacks was an important point when I changed jobs later.

However, after living alone for a long time, I have accumulated some wisdom about life, so I can do most cleaning, laundry, and dishwashing in no time.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a conglomerate’s house. Other people took care of all the conveniences here, so there was nothing for me to do.

“Huh? Why is the kitchen so clean? Are you actually my nerd, Gamdol? You came to help me under the pretense of a game board?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. From now on, whenever I come by once a week, I’ll bring you some food. You should also do your laundry, cleaning, and dishwashing, and other household chores. I’ll come by every week to check on you.”

“Huh?”

“You’re young now, so you can live carelessly. Just wait a few years and you’ll be fine. Your body will get damaged quickly. Do you think you’ll be young forever? The most important thing in this regard is to form a habit. It may be a bit bothersome at first, but once you get used to it, it’s actually easier to clean up and live.”

“Sometimes when I see you, Gamdol, you seem more like a grandpa than the old men at Seun Shopping Mall. You nagging grandpa.”

“You have to live first to work. I don’t tell you to clean your room while you work. That’s my brother’s way of working. There’s no right or wrong. My brother finds the most efficient and creative way. But making a living is a different matter. That’s right, right, and clean. That’s the right answer.”

“Right then, right then, cleanly. Oh~! This seems plausible. It’s like the New Community Movement.”

I dragged Lee Ki-cheol, who was laughing playfully, and fed him first.

“Oh, it’s delicious. It’s so delicious because it’s been two days since I’ve had it. But you should eat some too. It’d be embarrassing to eat it all by myself.”

Lee Ki-cheol said as he put a spoon in my hand.

He really is a very hands-on guy.

But that doesn’t bother me at all. Maybe it’s because the person is so undemanding.

After I finished Lee Ki-cheol’s work, all the complicated feelings I had before disappeared and I felt better.

Yeah, what does it matter if it’s a five-star thing or something? I just work hard at my company and make game consoles and games. That’s all I need to do.

If I say that 2 billion is not a waste, then honestly, that would be a lie.

If you had made a legitimate offer of a technology partnership and asked me to teach you how to develop games, I would have agreed.

I wrote most of the source code for our company’s games, and I created all of the programming structures, but that doesn’t mean I created all of that know-how on my own.

I, too, worked at a gaming company for a long time, learning from my seniors and juniors, reading books and magazines, and searching the Internet.

It is true that I systematized that know-how and made it my own, but I also owe it to many people for the technology I created.

My skills are not my own, but rather a product of the times I lived through. I just added a little bit of my effort to it.

But you can’t just turn a blind eye to it with money and pretend not to know about it.

I would rather give it my all in than let it be sold that way.

“Oh, I’m full. Can I go check now?”

Even more than me who came to check, Lee Ki-cheol, who created it, was more eager to show it off and was excited.

We go back to the Iron Age again and take a look at the A1 system board prototype.

Board 1: Uses two main CPU Motorola 68000 processors.

Board 2: One main CPU, two Z80A auxiliary processors.

Board 3: One main CPU, three Z80A auxiliary processors.

All other conditions are the same, and I’m ready to run the benchmark software I created.

“Then let’s start with runner number 1.”

With a pounding heart, I ran the benchmark software on board 1.

“Okay, horse number 1 starts running. Yes, the graph is wobbling? The graph design is really ugly and unreadable, but it seems to be fine for checking the performance.”

“We’re just checking performance, so why are you including this design here?”

“Yes, the moment I say that, number 1 starts to go out. 4,000, 5,000, 8,000, 10,000! Yes, number 1 is starting to loosen up! It keeps going out! It just passed 20,000. Should I go further? Should I go further? Should I go further? Aaaah… However, number 1 falls back down after passing 20,000. In the end, the average is close to 18,000. Still, it’s not a bad number, right?”

“What were your benchmark scores when using just the Motorola 68k?”

“10,000 came and went.”

“Hmm, so using two is slightly less than twice as fast as using one. This isn’t bad. I haven’t even properly reflected the parallel processing algorithm yet.”

“What is this? Is this something you made roughly, you gambler?”

“What are you talking about? After the hardware specs are set, we need to make it properly and optimize it. Let’s try the next one first.”

We turned the board over twice.

The bench score is just over 13 thousand.

Certainly, performance was significantly lower than that of a 16-bit CPU, even with two 8-bit coprocessors.

“Okay, so who’s the last runner, number 3? Yoi~, land!”

I ran a benchmark on board 3 following Lee Ki-cheol’s signal.

“To~?!”

“I feel like using three auxiliary processors does more harm than good. I can’t get my speed up at all.”

The benchmark score for board 3 was only 14.

Compared to number 2, it was practically the same.

– 1st benchmark score: 18k

– 2nd benchmark score: 13k

– 3rd Benchmark Score: 14k

We ran the benchmark software a few more times on each board to get more accurate measurements, but the results were the same.

“Okay, so here’s the choice. Let’s go with number 1, two 16-bit CPUs? Or number 2, a 16-bit CPU and two 8-bit CPUs?”

The performance difference between the two is about 30%. It is by no means small.

“Thanks to Sega, the price of the Motorola 68k has come down a lot. But the 2nd one is still cheaper.”

When Sega adopted the Motorola 68k as the main CPU for their arcade system and Mega Drive, they placed a large order with Motorola, which resulted in the price of the Motorola 68k dropping significantly compared to its early days.

“What would you do if you were my brother?”

“Me? If it were me, it would be number 2. Honestly, number 2 would be more than enough for me to use right now. I think it would last at least 3 years, and maybe even 5 years if I do it right.”

Five years from now.

At that time, Sony’s PlayStation came out, and game consoles moved from 16-bit to 32-bit, and from 2D dot graphics to 3D polygonal graphics.

Even if you choose number 2 as Lee Ki-chul said, it is a performance that can last until the mid-90s.

But that’s precisely the problem.

That I can endure it well enough.

Am I making this now just to hold out until the 3D era comes?

No, it’s to compete with Nintendo’s Super Famicom and Sega’s Mega Drive in the upcoming 16-bit console war.

In that case, it is not enough to just endure it.

Otherwise, a head-on confrontation with Nintendo would be impossible in the first place.

Right now, we are so far behind Nintendo or Sega that we can’t even compete in terms of financial resources, game IP, brand, skilled manpower, distribution network, or recognition.

It’s embarrassing to even call it a fight between David and Goliath.

The fact that and are doing well in Korea is a special case limited to Korea.

You should never try to compete with Nintendo or Sega on the world stage based on this.

If you try to hold on, you’ll just get hit with a giant hammer.

We have to break through like an awl.

In order to fully utilize our strengths in game development, we absolutely need the right hardware.

“Let’s go with number 1.”

“Really? Are you okay? Didn’t you say it can’t be expensive?”

“That’s right. Let’s save as much as possible by reducing other parts. I’ll also devote my life to optimization while making the game. You can also make it so that you can maximize the CPU performance.”

“Well, that’s obvious. Are you really okay with it? Even if this fails, I can just go back to doing repair work and living. But if this fails, you’ll be in a lot of pain, even if you’re the son of a conglomerate.”

“If I wanted to live an easy life, I wouldn’t have started this. You knew from the beginning that it was a reckless challenge, right?”

“Yeah, that’s why I started?”

Lee Ki-cheol said with a bright face.

“I’m just having fun researching and making things the way I want, using your money and spending a lot of expensive chips. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, isn’t it?”

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. So I don’t want to waste this precious opportunity by wasting it. I want to do my best. So please, hyung.”

I looked at Lee Ki-cheol and said seriously.

Lee Ki-cheol looked at me for a moment and then nodded.

“Well, then fine. Hold on tight. I’ll make you a really flying board.”

“Then it’s decided. If you need anything while you’re making it, just let me know. And make sure to wash the dishes right after you eat! I’ll check them when I bring the side dishes next time.”

“Okay, okay. Right then and there, right away, cleanly. Saenara’s Saemaul Movement Headquarters, nagging old man, Gamdol, now that you’ve finished nagging, go away. I have to study. I have a lot to do~!”

Lee Ki-cheol pushed my back and told me to go out quickly.

Now the path is set.

All that’s left is to get through it.