1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 81



Only Noblemtl

Episode 81 – Stage Zero

Korea is currently experiencing an unprecedented gaming boom.

When I turned on the TV, commercials for Hyunmyeong Comboy and Oseong Gyeomboy were constantly on, and not to be outdone, Jewoo Electronics also doubled its Jamix commercials.

Combo, which began to attract the wealthy class centered around department stores, was growing steadily with the power of Super Mario shining. Oseong was popular, leading the way with the upgraded and and expanding sales in the largest number of stores nationwide.

Now, the one who was in a hurry was Jewoo Electronics, which had been maintaining the number one position in the video game market in Korea. Jewoo Electronics was struggling to maintain its precarious number one position while working hard to develop the next generation of Gemix.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard from Jewoo Electronics.

“It seems like the next model after Gemix V will be the ‘Gemix Mega V.’ Originally, we were planning to release it based on MSX2, but we changed our mind midway and decided to go with the latest version, so we ended up going with MSX2+.”

“That’s good news. The trend is now moving towards 16-bit, and MSX2 is so far behind. MSX2+ isn’t that far ahead, but the graphics are a lot better.”

The MSX2 standard came out in 1985, a whole 4 years ago.

In my previous life, Zeu Electronics released the Gemix Super V in the MSX2 format. However, the Super V failed to follow in the footsteps of the Gemix. It already had strong competitors like Nintendo and Sega, and it would have been difficult to compete with outdated specs.

But this time, things were different. Hyunmyeong and Oseong were more active in the gaming market, and with the popularity of Game Pocket added to the mix, the Korean gaming market was on fire like never before.

From Zeu Electronics’ perspective, this was both an opportunity and a crisis. Zeu Electronics must have sensed that the situation was not normal, so they skipped MSX2 and adopted the MSX 2+ standard. The name was also Zemix Super V at the time, but this time it became Mega V. It seemed like they had mega capacity games in mind.

“Actually, there is a lot of talk within the company right now about the MSX platform. Even in Japan, companies are starting to give up one by one. In addition, the Ministry of Education recently designated 16-bit computers as educational PCs, so there is even talk that MSX computers are virtually finished. That is why we are putting more effort into the game console side, where the atmosphere is good.”

Jewoo Electronics was the company that most actively participated in the MSX standard in Korea. Therefore, it was a huge shock to the business when the Ministry of Education designated the 16-bit XT computer as an IBM compatible model for educational PCs.

Considering the future, it was the right move for the Ministry of Education to designate 16-bit XT as the educational computer. It may have been a somewhat burdensome decision for the Ministry of Education.

The computers that were previously distributed to schools in small quantities were 8-bit computers, and 8-bit computers were still the mainstream personal computers in Korea.

However, the Ministry of Education chose the future over the present, and thanks to this, the Korean computer industry has entered a new turning point. However, the government’s policy of looking to the future and the position of companies seeking maximum profits cannot be the same.

For some companies, this policy was tantamount to a business death sentence.

From Jewoo Electronics’ perspective, the decline of MSX, the 16-bit computer becoming the standard, and the pressure from Hyunmyung and Ohseong were three factors that were driving the MSX business to the brink.

If the business being promoted is at risk because it is out of sync with the global trend, it must quickly change course. However, for a company that has already invested heavily in facilities and built up considerable know-how, this is by no means an easy task.

In the current situation, Zeu Electronics had to place their last hope on their next-generation game console, the Zemix Mega V, to minimize damage.

I said.

“It’s good news for us that we’re heading towards MSX 2+. The next game we’re developing is going to be a game with really fancy graphics and presentation.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Honestly, we had to give up a lot of things because of the low performance of the Gemix V. Hardware should be the wings of game development, but it was actually a constraint. I look forward to the Gemix Mega V coming out as a much more powerful game console than before.”

“I’ll send you the prototype first. From now on, you should release games for Gemix, not Oseong.”

“It all depends on the console. We will prioritize whichever is better for game development.”

I understand why Zeujeonga contacted me. They were surprised to see that we offered a bundle game to Oseong.

There is no way that Jewoo Electronics doesn’t know that the reason why Jemix is ​​so popular today and why Oseong Gyeomboy became so popular right after its release, unlike Hyunmyeong Comboy, is all thanks to our company’s games.

Previously, there was no other choice but to make games in Korea, but now there is a strong competitor in Oseong Gemboy.

There is no reason for me to be tied to one platform or another. The short-lived exclusivity of the G-Mix is ​​over. Now it has to prove itself as a worthy console.

Seeing how things have changed in less than half a year, I could feel how dynamic the video game market is in this era.

Of course, I am at the center of that change.

The Korean video game market wasn’t yet big enough for me to surf the waves, so I jumped into the ocean and made waves myself.

The movement I was struggling to survive created new waves I never imagined and came back to me.

And while others were struggling to survive by swimming in the current, I was preparing to ride a whole new wave.

I visited Myeongseong Electronics with Lee Ki-cheol and examined the A1 system board prototype with the engineers.

Lee Ki-cheol’s words that he had dealt with many big businessmen were not a lie. He quickly took control of the engineers at Myeongseong Electronics.

“Isn’t logic circuitry really beautiful, brothers? They’re different from people, so if you organize them well, they won’t fight over who’s better. I think that even the smallest PCB contains a universe. When I see all these chips, all born in different factories and with different purposes, come together on this single board and operate logically, it really touches my heart.”

Was this person this eloquent?

The person who talked nonsense in front of me was a completely different person when he gave an impressive speech in front of engineers.

Contrary to concerns, the meeting ended very smoothly thanks to Lee Ki-cheol.

“I feel like my brother changes every time I see him.”

“Gamdol, you shouldn’t give the impression that you’re being undervalued in front of the big business guys. If you do, you’ll get eaten up. They ask you to do this, do that, and even pass on their work to you. That’s why you have to build a good relationship from the start. If you act as if you’re close to them as much as possible and call them hyung or dongsaeng, then they’ll try to take good care of you because they think you’re their older brother.”

“You said earlier that logic circuits are different from those of humans, which is nice. But aren’t you the one who operates in the exact opposite way of that logic circuit?”

“What are you talking about? This is the most reasonable result of numerous tests so far, so we’re doing it this way. On top of that, I’ll have to ask you to do a lot of annoying things like durability tests in the future, so if I act weak and beg you, bowing and begging, will things work out properly?”

“That’s true. But hyung, you really don’t know even when you know.”

“You can’t help but not know. If the input and output are obvious, then it’s a machine, not a person? I don’t understand you. Why are you struggling to make a game when you were born into such a wealthy family? Why don’t you just go overseas, buy a decent game company, and tell them to make this or that?”

“You’re the one who doesn’t know anything. A company isn’t a machine that just outputs the results you want when you input what you want. A company is much more complicated than that.”

“That’s true. That’s why I didn’t go to your company either. Sorry. I forgot too.”

Lee Ki-cheol smiled with his characteristic “挽sem?” expression.

Suddenly, I realized that I would never be able to manage this person. On the surface, we were just employees who did research for me, but in reality, we were more like friends.

We’re just together because we happen to have similar interests and I can provide material support.

The more I worked, the more I felt that Lee Ki-cheol was amazing, but I knew that he was the kind of person who would run away the more I tried to keep him by my side, so I stopped being greedy.

The best I could do was to make sure he didn’t lose interest in the project.

And Lee Ki-cheol was a much more responsible person than I thought. Well, that’s why many companies brought expensive equipment one after another and asked him to fix it.

While the A1 prototype board was being developed steadily with Myeongseong Electronics, the development of also began to gain momentum at our company.

Development proceeded in two directions.

One was Team A, led by Captain Ancient Dragon, who programmed the game mainly using assembler, and the other was me developing the firmware to control the hardware of the A1 board.

I focused on processing and role sharing between the two CPUs on the A1 board.

Increasing the number of processors to N does not proportionally increase performance by N times.

This is like working alone at a company and then hiring one more person doesn’t double your productivity. If you don’t organize tasks properly, your productivity may actually decrease compared to when you were working alone.

The same goes for the A1 board. When a program requests something from the A1 board, if traffic is not properly managed between CPU 1 and CPU 2 to handle what, one of them will end up sitting idle.

This is a CPU that costs so much that it can’t be idle. It has to be a perfect fit between all the components of the system so that data flow is always uninterrupted.

Game Pocket sales have now stabilized, and I’ve cut back on other things and gotten into coding mode for the first time in a while.

Team A, which had been doing only preparation work, also began actual development while becoming familiar with the A1 system.

“Even if you’re quite prepared, it’s probably too much to jump right in. First, create a test stage. After roughly putting up the background, it’s a good idea to first experiment with the characters and ideas you’ve come up with. In particular, it’s important to make sure the actions of the protagonist and villains work together well.”

“So you’re saying we should create something like Stage Zero for action experiments?”

“I like that expression. Stage Zero. Think of it as skipping the prototype. This is an action game, so naturally the characters and action are the most important. The background, direction, and story can be modified later. But if the action is bad, no matter how much seasoning you put on it, it’s useless.”

I said while directing the development of the test stage, stage zero.

“And while you’re making it, think ahead. What would it look like if you made this into a game pocket? What would be left at the end? You have to keep thinking about this as you make it. Once that’s complete, you can just keep adding flesh to it later.”

1989 was a very memorable year for belt-scrolling games. Sega created Golden Axe and Capcom created Final Fight, which made the belt-scrolling genre extremely popular.

had to have action and perfection that could not be inferior to these masterpiece belt-scrolling games.

The programmers began creating the test stage for by analyzing existing belt-scrolling action games such as .

The most important thing is, of course, action and operability.

Gamers ‘feel’ how cool the character’s actions and impacts are as they press levers and buttons. The finished game can be operated with hands, seen with eyes, and heard with ears.

But game developers have a completely different sensibility. They have to make predictions based solely on data, without any implementation.

Action takes shape and can be felt by gamers only when various components such as the speed of the fist, the distance the fist lands, the shout when hitting, the impact sound when getting hit, the scream of the person being hit, the recoil and feedback after getting hit, the hit judgment and production, etc. are intertwined. Until then, everything is just data.

As the form of action changes, such as punching, kicking, jumping, hitting, throwing, pushing, cutting, or flying kicking, the conditions above will all change accordingly.

If the reaction to being hit with a light jab is the same as the reaction to being hit with a powerful flying kick, the gamer will immediately feel something is wrong. The moment the gamer senses something is wrong, the gamer’s immersion is broken, and the gamer is no longer a player but an observer.

Action is never created by the person doing the hitting or the main character being strong. The sum of the hitter and the hitter is what is most important.

The protagonist can also change from being the one who hits to being the one who gets hit at any time. How realistically the protagonist gets hit is also an important point in .

The scenes where you input a set command to use a special move, where actions between characters interact, and even provide feedback are all things that did not exist in or .

This meant that the game became much more sophisticated and complex.

Team A created a test stage with the streets of Jongno as the background. In the test stage, you could freely summon characters and have them fight.

It felt like loading a virtual battle space for training in the movie The Matrix.

“First, I’ll loosen up my body.”

I summoned Kim Do-kwon alone to the test stage. When the bar thugs rushed at me, I lightly jabbed them repeatedly.

Hook-! Hook-! Hook-!

The punch came out quickly with a sound of cutting through the wind. Thanks to the accumulation of visual assets, the striking movement was very smooth.

The main character, Kim Do-kwon, is a character who mainly uses his fists. The combination of jabs and straights he uses is random.

Various patterns were composed differently each time the button was pressed repeatedly. In addition to the punch, there were also several motions for the kick.

Kim Do-kwon’s signature move, the body blow punch aimed at the stomach, had the power of a one-hit kill just by looking at it.

The basic movements looked pretty good. I thought that with a little more direction later on, the graphics would be much more intense.

“Then shall we have a proper fight now?”

For the next step, I summoned five of the weakest and most basic mobs, the bar thugs, into the test stage.

The thugs were running towards me, shaking their necks noisily.

“Roughly around this level.”

I measured the distance and input Kim Do-kwon’s signature action, the body blow command.

“Oh, it’s a bit far···.”

The body blow went well, but I was still not good at distance sensing, so there was about a span of distance between my fist and the bully.

puck!

However, the thug fell down with a loud noise before the fist even touched him. The thug’s stamina dropped to the limit, and his body blinked and disappeared from the screen.

There was a brief silence. I looked back at the developers and asked.

“I don’t know much about it, but… Was it by any chance that the setting for Kim Do-kwon’s punch was to produce a strong wind?”

It might take longer than you think to get the action sequence right.