1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 88



Only Noblemtl

Episode 88 – The Milky Way of Dreams

After finishing the meeting and returning to the office, I reviewed the meeting contents and organized what I had said.

1. Enter the global market by exhibiting the A1 board at CES in January next year.

2. Development of a shooting game that brought to the level of a technology demo

3. Development of a Daejeon fighting game featuring the characters from

4. Study on ways to increase the initial sales of

Arcade games are a major breakthrough for me in opening up overseas markets and a cornerstone for realizing my long-held dream.

Of course, it was an issue for which no preparation could be made carelessly.

I looked for the floppy disk in the company cabinet, found , and tried running it again.

is a vertical scrolling shooting game in which the main goal is to destroy various types of shooting cannons on the moon’s surface.

The cannons were mostly attached to large and small lunar craters. There were occasional moving cannons, but their movements were rather monotonous.

At the time, the game had an outstanding concept and level of completion for a game made by college students, but it wasn’t fun. I played the game again for a while and called Captain Park to his seat.

“Captain? Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Yes, sir.”

Rather than thinking about this alone, I thought it would be better to talk to the person who created .

“Huh···? This is···.”

Park Geon-hyung stopped when he saw the monitor.

“Captain Park, it’s been a while since you’ve seen this game, right?”

“That’s right. . Wow···!”

Park Geon-hyung put his hand on his chest and looked up at the ceiling.

“Why are you like that?”

“No. I can’t believe this game was made just a few months ago. It feels like it was made about 10 years ago, but it hasn’t even been a year yet…”

“Does it feel like such a long time ago?”

“Yes, back then, I really worked hard, staying up all night with the members of Tobagi. I remember the day when we decided to release it or not through a vote. It’s funny when I think about it now. There wasn’t even a game store that would sell it.”

“Captain, which side did you vote for?”

“I thought about it a lot, but in the end, I decided that this wouldn’t be successful, so I voted not to sell it. I felt so bad because it was a game I had made while taking the kids for months…”

“Really? Are you sure? But it was a good thing that you ended up coming to our company.”

“Yes, it really is a phone call. I saw an interview with the CEO who said he was looking for developers when the team was broken up. At that time, I thought, ‘Ah, this is fate.’”

“But why did you vote against it?”

I was curious. Given Park Geon-hyung’s personality, it would have been difficult for him to vote against a game that everyone had worked so hard to create. That meant there was something on his mind.

“First of all, the biggest reason was because of the that the CEO had created at the time. seemed too boring.”

“Why did I think it wasn’t fun?”

“Well… Honestly, I couldn’t explain the reason clearly back then. If I had, I probably would have convinced the members better. It wouldn’t have taken a vote.”

“Can you explain it now?”

“To some extent. I realized a lot of things after joining Starbeat. I thought I was really intense when I was making games at Tobagi, but later I realized that just because you work hard doesn’t mean you’re intense.”

“But there’s no need to deny those times. Those experiences are all nutritious.”

“Is that really true? I wish I could. One of the things I really liked about coming to Starbeat was that I could play as many games as I wanted. To be honest, there were so many games that I didn’t even know existed before. I played a lot of games, not only Japanese but also American games, and I thought to myself, “Oh, I didn’t really know what games I found fun.”

I nodded while listening to Captain Park’s story.

Half a year has passed since the programmers joined the company. In the meantime, they have grown tremendously in a short period of time by releasing games and experiencing success.

But I don’t think that’s limited to programming skills.

“ is a truly regrettable work in many ways. It’s even more so because I made it when I knew nothing. In fact, the reason this game isn’t fun is because of my complacency.”

“Comfort? That doesn’t seem like something Captain Park would be comfortable with.”

Captain Park has a stronger sense of responsibility than anyone else and tries to take care of people until the end.

Complacency? That was unexpected.

“Is that so? Thank you for your kind words. But I wasn’t that good of a person then or now. If you look at , each crater on the moon has its own cannon that shoots various bullets and attacks, right?”

“That’s right. Didn’t you say that the fixed enemies were to break stereotypes? Instead, the scroll speed was increased to increase the game playability.”

starts out slow and then gets faster. You have to be on your toes because if you hit a barrier or cannon, you lose a life.

“Yes, the scroll speed was adjusted for the difficulty and tension, but the cannon was fixed not because of some fixed idea. With our technology at the time, it wasn’t easy to control the movement of bullets. The bullets coming from the Moon Force spaceship and cannons were already overwhelming, but it wasn’t easy to make the enemies move.”

“So you just anchored it to the lunar surface?”

“It’s embarrassing, but that’s true. There was no way to overcome the technical difficulties, so I just avoided them. Even sprite processing was immature.”

Captain Park lowered his head as if embarrassed.

I took out the application documents of the members of Tobagi from the box. Inside, there were detailed descriptions of the process of developing and the game settings.

“It seems to be written completely differently here.”

“Oh, sir. Please put that back. It’s all a shameful part of the past.”

So, in our company’s application form, it said that we created it with the idea of ​​creating a new type of vertical scrolling action game, but in reality, we developed it in a roundabout way due to technical issues.

I chuckled. It wasn’t because Captain Park was funny. It was because I understood his desire to create a game somehow.

It’s like Captain Park confessed that there was a lie mixed in the document he submitted, but that’s not that important of an issue.

“If my programming skills were lacking, I would have studied more to find a way to solve it. But I just insisted on making a game somehow, and that’s how came to be. In the end, it was all my fault. Woo-seok and the others suffered a lot because of me.”

I see. So that’s why you felt even more responsible towards the people of Tobagi.

I remembered Captain Park’s voice on the phone insisting that every single person must be hired without exception.

I looked at Captain Park and asked.

“Then, if you had the chance to make again now, how would you make it?”

“If I were to remake this game again? I would completely rebuild it from scratch. With the current A1 performance, I could make a much more colorful and fun game.”

“You think similarly to me. I’ve been thinking about something. What do you think about this approach?”

I told President Shin Myeong-seop about the scenario that divided the game into three stages: space, the lunar surface, and the alien base.

“It sounds really good. It’ll feel like you’re playing three games in one, with each level offering a different level of fun.”

“We need to make it so that it all feels seamless by tying it together as a single concept. And each stage needs to have flashy techniques and productions that maximize the performance of the A1 board. This is important for the game, but it also has to serve as a tech demo.”

“If I were to make it again, I would want to make it a truly outstanding game that would make people’s eyes pop out. That way, I wouldn’t feel bad about , which couldn’t be released to the world because of my inexperience, and the members of Tobagi who suffered because of me.”

“Do the other members of Tobagi think similarly?”

“Probably so. This game is like our first love.”

“Ah···, first love. You are truly romantic.”

I told Park Geon-hyung about my CES plans.

“Are you aware that our company is targeting the American and Japanese markets?”

“Of course. Everyone is waiting for that day.”

“There’s a huge electronics show in the US called CES. Many famous video game companies participate. I’m planning to bring my A1 board to the next CES. Can I bring my new Moon Force then?”

“America? When will that be?”

“The 1989 Winter CES will be held in January next year. CES is held once in the summer and once in the winter. There is about half a year left. But I want to do it within three months. I want to release within the summer and by early winter.”

Team B, which Captain Park was in charge of, was also helping Team A by learning 68k assembler. This was because the console to be developed based on the A1 board was likely to use the same chip as its CPU.

“If we only consider efficiency, it would be better for Team A to finish and then move on to , but when I think of the father of this game, I feel like that’s not right.”

“We’ll take care of it, sir. This time, I’ll take full responsibility and see it through to the end!”

Captain Park Geon-hyung looked at me with eyes that were so earnest that they seemed to burn brightly.

At this point, it wasn’t a question of whether or not to do it.

I can’t force this kind of enthusiasm.

The energy that shines on its own must be used properly. That is good for you and for the company.

“Then, while developing , try to master the 68k assembler. Let’s work together on a specific game plan.”

“Thank you, sir!”

A second game development project for the A1 board has just been approved.

I gathered the developers together and shared again what happened in the meeting with Myeongseong Capital and the roadmap for the future.

“CES?”

“Are we finally going out into the world?”

“Yes, that’s right. CES will be a battleground for the stars in the gaming industry. It’s not something you can just go to and be happy about. In fact, anyone can participate if they pay a lot of money. The important thing is whether our game can attract people’s attention there.”

I spoke to developers who were excited about declaring their participation in CES.

It’s good to be excited about your dreams. As a game developer, it’s only natural that your heart races just by attending an event where the world’s top game companies like Nintendo and Sega participate.

However, I had no intention of attaching any significance to the participation itself.

We are participating in order to sell our games to numerous game centers spread across the United States. We must achieve visible results.

I made my purpose clear.

“To do that, we will develop a second game, , armed with more splendid graphics and production, following . And we will also develop a new fighting action game based on . If we have the time, we are also thinking about an RPG game based on a growth system.”

I officially announced to the company that we will be attending CES and developing new games.

That meant they had to release a new work at least every two months for the remaining six months, which would be a huge grind.

“It will not be an easy schedule. But it will be worth the effort. I hope you all will trust me and follow me.”

“Yes, sir!”

The eyes of people filled with dreams twinkled before me.

With so many bright, shining eyes gathered together, it was like looking at the Milky Way of a dream.

It’s still a small galaxy, but as the company grows, this wave of dreams will grow bigger and bigger.

I too felt both intense hope and an enormous sense of responsibility.

Starbeat is no longer just my dream. It is a group of talented people who have come together around the dream of a game.

I have said repeatedly from the beginning that I will continue to advance into the global stage, namely the US and Japan. However, this is the first time that I have stated a specific goal of CES.

I too was filled with excitement and anticipation of the dream.

It felt like the dream I had vaguely been thinking about was finally coming true.

I was excited, but at the same time, I was also scared.

We didn’t know if the game we made would really work in the world. If it failed, it would be a huge disappointment to these people.

But now is not the time to have such weak thoughts. The more you dream big about the future, the more you need to focus on the present.

“What we need to do now is to complete first. The success or failure of will be linked to CES. After meeting with Myeongseong Capital, we found that we need to further increase the initial sales of .”

As Myeongseong Capital also entered the leasing business with a burden, I also needed to adjust the game so that I could achieve more results in the beginning.

“So, how do you plan to upgrade?”

The Ancient Dragon Captain asked.

The tension was palpable on his face. If the game had to be overhauled now, it would be like the gates of hell opening for Captain Ko.

“We plan to take the most certain means to increase board sales without making major changes to the game stage.”

I looked around at the Ancient Dragon Captain and the developers and revealed my update plans.

“We will add new characters to and make it available for up to four players. This will give gamers more choices, and arcade owners will be able to purchase two boards as a set.”

“Do you have a character in mind?”

“No, not yet. However, since we already have three male characters, if we were to add a new character, it would naturally have to be a female character, right?”

The developers all nodded as if there was no need to answer. My suggestion to add a female character to was immediately approved unanimously.

Now, will be a blockbuster action game that up to 4 people can play at the same time.