1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 78



Only Noblemtl

Episode 78 – Fame Family Day

June, before the real heat arrives.

From the morning, numerous charter buses began to gather at Yongin Natural Park. They were charter buses carrying employees and their families from Myungsung Group affiliates spread across the country.

The children, who had woken up very early in the morning for fear of missing the charter bus, were sleeping inside the bus with their heads tilted at an absurd angle, oblivious to the world.

The children were so excited about going to the amusement park a few days before that they couldn’t even sleep at night.

The personnel and general affairs department employees dispatched from each affiliate entered Yongin Natural Park the day before and prepared for the Myeongseong Yayuhoe event.

I also decided to attend the Myungsung Group outing. Although Starbeat is not an affiliate of Myungsung Group, I attended as a special affiliate.

We are not a special case. Among the subcontractors of Myeongseong Group, the big ones can attend the company outing.

The celebrity outing is said to be an event that group employees consider very important.

My whole family, except for Soobin, a third-year high school student, headed to Yongin Natural Park.

“When did you start doing events like this?”

“It’s been a few years since I took office as chairman. Originally, we didn’t even take a break on our founding anniversary. Your grandfather, that is. He never saw anyone taking a break. When I took a break from work, he would somehow find out and show up and yell at me. It was to the point where people said he had eyes in the back of his head.”

I heard a story about the Myeongseong Yayuhoe while I was in the car going to Yongin Natural Park with my father.

“When the company grew a bit, I rebelled against my father a bit. I told him to take it easy. I told him not to push his employees too hard. At the time, I wondered why my father only looked forward and lived each day so hard. Now, I think I understand his feelings a little.”

“Still, I think it’s a really good thing to hold an event like this. It’s not easy. It costs a lot of money and there’s a lot to prepare.”

“Well then. If your grandfather had known about the daily rent here, he would have come after you with a club right away. He would have said, ‘Why are you spending money on such useless things?’ But times have changed, so what needs to change must change.”

– Myungsung Family! Welcome to Yongin Natural Park!

A large welcome placard was hung at the entrance to the parking lot.

I never went to Yongin Natural Park when I was young. I only went after it was changed to Everyland.

The reason I went to Everyland was not because I wanted to go to an amusement park. At the time, I was really into Roller Coaster Tycoon, so I went there because I wanted to know more about what roller coasters felt like and what an amusement park was like.

After riding a few rides in a row, I could understand why people vomit so much while playing the games.

The ground shook and my stomach rumbled as if the cochlea or the semicircular canal, the ones that were supposed to be in charge of my sense of balance, were on strike.

Still, I held on tight and wandered around Everyland all day. And I fell in love with the game even more.

In the real world, creating Everyland is not something that just anyone can do. First, you need to be able to buy a large piece of land, and when you think about designing, installing rides, and even operating and managing them, it costs money, but there are so many things to worry about and manage.

A large-scale amusement park or theme park business like this is something that only the very wealthy can undertake.

However, allows anyone with a computer to create their own amusement park. Instead of spending money, you can lay roller coaster tracks with clicks and create a beautiful amusement park with your own imagination.

Simulation games, which are mainly played on computers, offer a completely different kind of fun than action or platform games. Masterpiece simulation games like , , and are genres that I would like to try at least once.

It won’t be easy, but there’s no game in the world that’s easy to make. They’re all difficult in their own way, and equally enjoyable in their own way.

“Wow~, the weather is nice!”

The youngest, who got out of the car, stretched and said, It was a nice day to play outside, not too hot and sunny.

A number of charter buses continued to arrive in the parking lot.

“Oh, it’s the chairman. The chairman~!”

“hello~!”

“Have fun~!”

People who recognized our family shouted out hello. When my father greeted us with a smile and waved, everyone was happy like children.

Everyone greeted the chairman by shouting out, and a slightly extremist person ran over, grabbed my father and mother’s hands, and said thank you before leaving.

“My dad is a total celebrity here?”

“Of course. What kind of president is your father?”

“Hahaha, am I popular? That’s what happens if I just stay here.”

Even though my father said that, he couldn’t hide the joy on his face. Maybe this was his way of relieving the stress that comes from running a company.

“I’ll go check out the event booth. See you at lunch.”

As soon as I entered Yongin Natural Park, I headed straight to our company’s booth. Starbeat’s booth #1 was not far from the entrance.

Booth No. 1 was renting out game pockets to people near the entrance. Even though Myeongseong Group rented an entire amusement park, there were still lines for the rides as thousands of families from all over the country flocked there.

I set up a booth to rent out game pockets so that people waiting wouldn’t get bored. Of course, I also prepared for people to buy them at the booth.

[ Myeongseong Family Day Sale – 10% discount sale only for Myeongseong Group employees and their families ]

They also put up a large discount sign and stacked up the game pocket boxes that Yimiyoung appeared in so that they could be seen clearly.

“Game Pocket is available for free rental. It’s also on sale~!”

Kim Han-sol, who was assigned to booth number 1, was actively soliciting customers from people passing by.

“Oh, it’s the Yimiyoung game console!”

“Wow! I’ve always wanted to try this.”

People going to the zoo, to ride the rides, or to see the flowers stopped and stopped by a booth to borrow a game pocket.

Those who attended the celebrity outing were mostly families, but there were also quite a few young people in their 20s.

“Should we try pocketing here today?”

“Are you finally leaving your old bachelor life, Manager?”

“There will also be a pocketing event in front of the rose garden at 2pm today. Come join us.”

“Huh? Do you do that too?”

There were quite a few couples in the Myeongseong Group who fell in love at a celebrity party, became lovers, and even got married.

So we created a pocketing event right inside the company outing.

Yongin Natural Park was large enough to easily accommodate thousands of people, but there weren’t many things to do yet. There were only about 10 rides. Most of the remaining space was an arboretum, flower garden, or zoo.

So each affiliated company organizes its own events. There are sports events such as children’s sports days and foot volleyball competitions, and there are also traditional games such as jegichagi (trading), kite flying, top spinning, yutnori (playing Yut), and gonggi (playing Gonggi).

Suddenly, a scary thought crossed my mind that Starbeat might play a squid game with 456 million won at stake, but I quickly came to my senses.

A survival game with a happy outing at stake? No way. No way.

Apart from this 21st century battle royale, Starbeat has prepared another event that is more suitable for an outing event.

1. Pocketing of young single employees in front of the rose garden

2. Children’s Animal Drawing Contest in Front of the Zoo

3. High Score Competition at the Central Booth

At all Starbeat event venues, , , and Game Pocket were available for purchase at a discounted price.

Since it was a celebrity night out, everyone had a clear identity, so you could buy it even if you didn’t have money. If you wrote down your company, name, and employee number, it would automatically be deducted from your salary.

It was a credit purchase that was only possible for large corporations with organized management systems.

“Brother, let’s go ride the rides together. Mom and Dad aren’t riding.”

The youngest came to our booth and called me over. The afternoon was an event, so I only had the morning to go on the rides with my younger brother.

“What do you want to ride?”

“I want that! That’s the one I want to ride the most!”

“You know a thing or two.”

I nodded. I thought it was something girly like a carousel, but what the youngest was pointing out was a Viking.

There was a bit of a waiting line, but it moved quickly. When it was our turn, the youngest ran to the back.

“Brother, come here!”

Ah… I wanted to ride in the middle. The back is the scariest because it goes up almost 90 degrees.

But I couldn’t say no because I was his brother, so I ended up sitting in the back seat. As soon as the safety bar went down, I started to get nervous.

“Oh yeah~! Ohhhhhh~, it’s moving. Oppa, it’s moving~!”

“Euaaa …

The Viking started to move slowly, then soon began to swing violently. I felt as if my body was flying up, as if I had fallen into a state of weightlessness, and I held on to the pole tightly and screamed without realizing it.

Next to him, the youngest was raising both hands, smiling broadly, and shouting with joy.

“Whoa! This is so much fun! I feel so good! Oppa, let’s ride this again.”

“also···?”

Unable to resist the youngest’s enthusiasm, I rode the Viking three times in a row. After riding two roller coasters and a couple of other rides, it was already time for lunch.

“Ugh, time flies. But it was still fun. Let’s go eat lunch now. I made kimbap with mom~!”

We went to the place we had promised to meet our parents and ate the lunch we had packed in advance. The kimbap my brother made was actually bulgogi kimbap.

“Oh, Seo Ji-hye. What’s going on? This is delicious.”

“Hahaha! Of course. Who made that?”

Jihye, who skipped school to come home, was the most excited in our family. No, was she excited because she skipped school to come home?

“I have to go see the afternoon event now. Have fun. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yeah, let’s go take a quick look around later.”

After dinner, at two o’clock there was pocketing. At three o’clock there was animal drawing. At four o’clock there was the game competition.

Because the event venues were far apart, we had to take a cart to get around.

I arrived at the pocketing event venue first. As expected from the largest rose garden in Korea, the rose garden was filled with red roses.

What a romantic flower garden. It was the perfect place for pocketing.

It was an event where 30 men and 30 women in their 20s applied, and without any information, they chose their opponents through a lottery and played a game together.

“Ah, it’s spring. It’s spring.”

The participants greeted each other with their numbered tags without knowing anything about each other and glanced at each other. Park Chung-shin, the manager who came to support the event, sang a spring song while looking at the 30 pairs of innocent game couples.

In my time, these people hadn’t even graduated from college yet. Here, they had already built up several years of experience at a company, and by the time they were in their late 20s, they were considered old bachelors or spinsters.

As I watched them spread out all over the flower field, asking each other names, ages, and companies, and playing games, my heart started to flutter for no reason.

“Look over there, look over there. They’re almost face to face. Are they going to kiss or something? Huh?”

Manager Park, who seemed to be obsessed with reality dating shows, was looking around at people and trying to guess which couples seemed like they had potential.

Kim Han-sol was holding a camera and diligently taking pictures of pocketing scenes. Today, she volunteered to go around all the event venues and take pictures. She said she bought the camera with the prize money from a graphic contest.

After pocketing, draw animals.

It was an event where sketchbooks and crayons were given to the child applicants and each person looked at a picture of the zoo and drew on it. Our company also happened to have a children’s art expert.

“Just because you draw something exactly like it looks doesn’t mean you’re good at it. Try drawing the pretty animals you see with your eyes and imagine with your heart~.”

“yes~!”

Oh Hyun-ji, who used to draw grotesque pictures but taught children at an art school, revived her old specialty and took charge of the art competition. Hyun Woo-seok and Ko Seong-beom assisted her.

The three of them walked around while the children were drawing and gave them advice.

Since the event gave sketchbooks, crayons, and school supplies to all participants, the awards didn’t have much meaning.

“Oh, it’s pretty. Should I draw a beard here?”

“Eeeeek! Mom~~! The teacher ruined my drawing~!!!!”

But not all the teachings reached the children. I quickly found some cotton candy nearby and used it to comfort the crying child.

“You’re a bad teacher. I’ll scold you later.”

Ko Seong-beom made a face that said he was being treated unfairly, but what can he do? The kids are kings here.

It wasn’t as hard as I thought to hold an art contest with preschool children for an hour. Suddenly, I had a little idea why Oh Hyun-ji draws such grotesque pictures.

And the final event, the high-score competition, was much more intense than I had imagined.

The youngest applicant was five years old, the oldest twenty-seven, and most of the applicants were already quite skilled.

“Huh? You’re trying to avoid that here? It’s designed so that if you jump, you fail?”

Even I, the creator of the game, was amazed at the variety of ways to avoid obstacles, eat all the coins, and clear the stage in the shortest time possible. I was amazed.

Of course, just because you made a game doesn’t necessarily mean you know the game better.

No matter how much testing the developers of did while making the game, it would be difficult for even an average middle school student to win if they came to a Korean PC room in the 2000s.

It’s already been half a year since the release of .

Kids who play games have dug and dug and dug again into the and have now become grand masters who can play with their eyes closed.

“This won’t work. I need to come to my senses.”

Having enjoyed participating in the Myungsung Group event, I felt a sense of urgency and crisis as a game developer. As expected, people’s ability to adapt to games is far beyond my imagination.

The final winner was a 4th grade elementary school student. While handing out the winning prize and taking a commemorative photo, I made a promise to myself that I would add more fun patterns and gimmicks to the games I develop in the future.

Once the A1 board currently in development is completed, we will be able to significantly break free from the constraints of Gemix. This will allow for a wider range of expressions.

Game development can be seen as a battle with gamers.

Can you really do this? Can you really beat this boss? I don’t think so. You’re not ready yet?

When developers make provocations like this, gamers flock to the game like moths to a flame and try out new games.

While many gamers get frustrated and give up, there are those who survive to the end and stand above the heads of developers.

Maybe among these people there are future pro-gamers, or future game streamers. Or maybe there are future game developers who will surpass me.

Fortunately, Starbeat successfully completed all of the events it had prepared.

I now headed to the central square. There was a makeshift stage set up and people were gathered there.

The fame singing competition started at 5:30.

After fierce competition among each affiliated company, the people chosen as representatives emerged, and their singing and dancing skills were so great that I thought it was some kind of audition show.

Plus, there were people who came out on purpose to make people laugh, so there was no time to get bored.

I watched the singing competition stage from the front row with my family, and before I knew it, all the contestants had finished their turns. My father and mother went up on stage to receive their awards.

“Now, finally, we will have a song by the chairman and his wife of Myeongseong Group.”

“Wow~!”

After the awards ceremony was over, the host said something unexpected.

“Huh? You sing too?”

“Yeah, Mom and Dad, you sing a song at the end of every year? What song are you going to sing this year?”

I was surprised because I didn’t know anything. But something even more surprising happened. All the other accompanists left, and my second son, Subin, went up on stage and took the keyboard seat.

“Huh? Sister, I thought you were going to be rejected this year because you’re a senior in high school. You came this year too?”

“What? Even Soobin?”

While I was at a loss, my father spoke.

“This year’s Myeongseong Festival is especially meaningful. It’s the first festival where not only our beloved Myeongseong family, but also all of our family members have gathered together without exception. I will sing this song for everyone here in this place filled with people I love.”

The applause from the people died down, and Soobin started playing the accompaniment. It was a song that sounded so familiar to my ears.

– There is one thing I must do while I live. Even if I stand in a windy field, I am not lonely.

The father and mother held each other’s hands tightly and sang “With Love” while giving and receiving.

Everyone raised their hands and slowly swayed to the song. I also held the youngest’s hand and joined in.

“Ah~, with our love that will never change~ I will reach out and light up the dark places.”

As the chorus began, the winners standing behind them all sang along, and soon everyone gathered in the square was singing along as one.

“I will extend my hand to the dark places and give them light~.”

On a cool summer evening, thousands of people joined hands and sang the chorus of “With Love” over and over again, along with the cool breeze.

I too felt something hot rising up in my chest as I sang along.

I see

Being a conglomerate means working with so many people.

After I woke up again, I had been borrowing the power of the Myungsung Group and the family, but I didn’t realize that there were so many people behind it.

But I really didn’t know where all that money and power came from.

Seeing so many people come together with one voice to sing for our family and Myeongseong Group was a moving experience I had never felt before.

The thumping in my heart wouldn’t stop.

“Thank you to all of our Myeongseong family. I love you always!”

“i love you!”

When the song ended and my father said his final goodbye, people also shouted that they loved me. The voices of those who loved me echoed throughout Yongin Natural Park.

“…Thank you!”

“Huh? What did you say, Jihye?”

The youngest said something to me, but I couldn’t hear it well because of the noise of the crowd. When I lowered my head, the youngest spoke in my ear.

“Thank you for coming out of that room! I’m sure you’d want to say the same thing! I know!”

“Wisdom···.”

I hugged Jihye tightly, who was acting awkwardly, which was unusual for her.

And now, my parents, who had come down from the stage, hugged my second child, Subin, who was standing next to me and trembling for no reason.

Do I deserve to receive this much love when I just like games?

Do I really deserve this?

Is there any way to repay this love?

I don’t know.

I have no idea.

I could talk about games for 24 hours a day, but I couldn’t answer these questions.

All I could do was wipe away my mother’s endless tears.