1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 90



Only Noblemtl

Episode 90 – Gangnam Computer Arcade

The commercial ran and calls started coming into the company.

“Yes, it is our next project that we are preparing. However, I am sorry that I cannot tell you the details yet.”

“Yes, yes. It will probably come out this summer or fall. It will definitely come out before winter.”

“Are you saying it’s going to come out as a mix? I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t tell you anything because nothing has been decided yet. Yeah, sorry.”

The support staff was having a hard time doing their jobs because of the constant phone calls. They were also receiving a barrage of inquiry postcards.

“The response is very hot, isn’t it, sir?”

“No, I intentionally hid the information so that you would be curious. I didn’t know that so many people would call the company right away.”

If there was SNS, there would have been a lot of noise online with people spreading the photos. But since there isn’t, I just called the company right away.

Still, thanks to that, I could feel the effectiveness of the advertisement.

We weren’t the only ones who were busy. We were getting calls from magazines like and , as well as newspapers where we had advertised.

The editor of offered me a special feature spot in the next issue and said:

“I never thought I would see people buying magazines just to see the ads, sir. It’s summer vacation and I was worried that this issue’s special features would be a bit weak, but who would have thought that four ads would fill it all up and still have more than enough left over?”

“Is that it? The concept art was so well-made that we felt it would be a shame to keep it to ourselves, so we circulated the advertisement.”

“You did a great job. Just like with the Game Pocket, this ad is, well…. It completely redefines game advertising. Honestly, I feel a little embarrassed to watch other game ads now. Do you know what’s popular among our reporters these days?”

“What’s trendy?”

“I cut out the Suzy advertisement, laminate it, and stick it on my desk. I thought it was only our reporters who did this, but after receiving letters from readers, it seems like there are more than one or two readers who do this. How did you create this character? Will you reveal it in detail in the next special issue? All of our reporters are also waiting impatiently for the game to come out.”

“We are doing our best. We believe that it will be a great piece that will be worth the wait.”

“Now that you say that, it’s hard for us to wait any longer. We can only survive if the game does well. If necessary, we will extend the next special feature by 20 or 30 pages, so please take good care of it.”

The editor of earnestly asked me to please give him the information, saying that he would reserve the special feature in advance, even though I hadn’t asked for it.

There was a company that contacted me again after the advertisement was aired.

It was Jewoo Electronics.

“Sir! I saw the advertisement! Is this the next one? Oh… I have a feeling this one will be a huge hit. How about releasing this as an exclusive title for G-Mix Mega V?”

Jewoo Electronics asked if it would be okay to release the game exclusively before even playing it. However, after hearing more about it, it seemed like the development of Jemix Mega V was not progressing as fast as expected.

I told them to contact me again once the Mega V development was finished and hung up, and then I got a call from Osung Electronics a while later.

“Hello, CEO. I thought you were busy with Game Pocket, but when did you prepare this game? What kind of game is it this time? It seems to be an action game. Since you didn’t say anything, I guess it will be released for Gemix first this time too? Surely it’s not a combo, right?”

Certainly, Oseong Electronics seemed to be much more conscious of Hyunmyeong Electronics than Jewoo Electronics.

“This time, neither. I’m preparing an arcade game.”

“Is it an arcade game? If it’s popular, then it should be released on a game console soon. That’s how Sega does business. Oh, of course, the game itself would be popular.”

“We’ll have to wait and see how popular it is once it’s released, but I think it’s a pretty fun game.”

“Then, how about porting to Gemboy first this time rather than Gemmix? The bundle game response is also very good, and honestly, isn’t Gemboy’s performance much better than Gemmix?”

“Well, that’s the case for now, but I don’t know what the future holds. I haven’t made any specific plans for porting the game to consoles yet. For now, the release in arcades is important. Since games aren’t something that can be made in an instant, there are more and more things to worry about.”

“Of course you will. Please let us know when you release it. We will go and try it right away.”

Even before it comes out, Jewoo Electronics and Osung Electronics are already clamoring for it to be given to them first.

For now, I’ve decided to hold off on deciding where to transplant first until the Gemix Mega V comes out. It’s enough to leave room for both sides.

There were much more important things to do right now.

After the advertisement was released, the developers gained more strength and continued to create . The characters were completed and the production for each stage was refined.

The car chase scene in the middle is a stage that provides special fun, so we put more effort into it. Above all, the sense of speed is important, and the A1 board showed stable movement without any interruption even when the background moved at a fast speed.

“The bombs thrown from Japanese army trucks leave behind a semi-transparent smoke after they explode. And when the motorcycle the protagonist is riding passes through the smoke, the two sprites overlap like this…”

“This is why it feels like I’m really entering into the smoke?!”

Among the special effects, there is a function to adjust transparency, so we set the color and transparency of the smoke differently depending on the type of bomb.

A small grenade exploded in a small amount of smoke, but a large bomb emitted a thick cloud of black smoke.

“But if it passes through this kind of smoke, shouldn’t there be soot left behind?”

“Right. Let’s add some charcoal.”

The developers added a brief moment of soot-like effect immediately after passing through the black smoke.

These are details that are hard to notice when focusing on the game, but our developers had fun coming up with these ideas, creating them themselves, and implementing them into the game, like children.

Where on earth do they find such perfect perverts?

The music was introduced to a composer through Myeongseong Planning, and work began on it. With enough capacity and processing power, realistic sound effects were created, and although not many, a few voices were recorded.

Myungsung Capital has prepared installment and lease programs. It will be expanded further in the future when the game lineup increases significantly, but for now, when is released, the goal is to put at least 2 to 4 boards in each arcade.

“We will start by focusing on regional arcades. We plan to persuade arcade owners to install multiple machines and recommend using both installment and lease options.”

I explained our sales plan to President Shin Myeong-seop.

“I don’t have high expectations for Lees. I think people are still more used to installment payments, and people like things to be theirs.”

“Yes, so for now, we plan to focus on installment sales. For example, if you buy four units, you can buy three units on installment, and try leasing one unit. Then, later, when the lineup is expanded and you want to install more boards, you can choose to lease without any hesitation.”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

With the installment and lease programs sorted out, it was time to get down to business.

We decided to give priority to targeting major arcades in Seoul and across the country.

We put up a large map of Seoul and a map of the entire country on the partition and drew red circles on important areas.

Art team member Ko Seong-beom was a great help in selecting the arcade in Gangnam area.

“Here, here, and here, ‘Gangnam Computer Arcade’ is an arcade that has Afterburner 2. Compared to other places, it is definitely more spacious and cleaner, so there are a lot of people. I also went here the most.”

Even if they are the same arcade, each owner has different capital and mindset.

Some people may like games and quickly bring in the latest games, while others may not be interested in games and are just trying to make as many coins as possible.

It was impossible to run a business by following each and every arcade, which had different locations, capital, and tendencies.

We planned to secure central arcades in each region and install , and have the arcade owners in the surrounding areas contact us.

“If Mr. Seongbeom were to run a business himself, where would he go first?”

“If it were me, it would definitely be Gangnam Computer Arcade. This place is well managed and the latest games are available the fastest.”

“Then, shall we start from here? Maybe we can check out the atmosphere?”

I created a demo version of . And to get a feel for the situation, I headed to Gangnam with Oh Sang-hyeok, the marketing manager, carrying a prototype of the A1 system board.

Go Seong-beom also followed me, saying he wanted to go to the Gangnam computer arcade for the first time in a long time.

“There you are. Oh, it’s been a while. We used to go together almost every day.”

We went into Gangnam Computer Arcade under the guidance of Go Seong-beom. As I had heard, it was a fairly large arcade with dozens of arcade cabinets.

The atmosphere was bright for an arcade, and Sega’s Afterburner 2 was also on display.

Ko Sung-beom greeted the middle-aged man standing next to .

“Sir, it’s been a while.”

“Huh? Who are you?”

“Oh, that’s too bad. I’m leaving.”

When Go Seong-beom took out his sunglasses from his pocket and put them on, the old man finally recognized him.

“Huh? It was you, Taxi Driver? Hey, it’s been a while.”

“Yes, hello. How have you been?”

“Hey, why haven’t you been here lately? The kids are asking when the taxi driver will be home.”

“I moved to Gangnam so I can’t come here often.”

“Is that so? What kind of calculation is it?”

“I’m making games now. Say hello. This is the CEO of our company.”

“Hello. My name is Seo Nam-joon.”

I greeted the owner of Gangnam Computer Arcade. The owner didn’t accept my greeting and just looked at me with a suspicious look.

“The CEO? Really? You seem younger than Taxi.”

“Yes, I am older. And this is our CEO. Have you heard of Starbeat?”

“Starbeat? Oh, that one? Game Pocket? I know, I know! Oh, now that I think about it, I remember. The young man who pitched!”

The arcade owner’s face brightened and only then did he extend his hand to shake hands. It seems that you have to first see a famous person.

We chatted for a while and then got down to business. Then the arcade owner crossed his arms and his face hardened slightly.

“Well, I know that the young man in Shigu makes some pretty great games in Korea. But arcade games are on a whole other level than game consoles. To be honest, game consoles are just child’s play. Compared to arcade games, that is. I can’t help but feel bad about it. That’s what I think.”

“You can certainly think that way. It’s true that the arcade system is a much more advanced system than the home game system. The first video games also started with the arcade system.”

“You know me well. I’ve played all the famous game consoles, right? But, ugh… I just threw away my eyes. I gave them all to my neighbors. But this time, since it’s a Sega that I can see the five stars of, I bought one as a souvenir.”

“The two bundled games included there were also developed by us.”

“Oh, is that so? I bought it but haven’t opened it yet.”

The owner of Gangnam Computer Arcade was a man who had great pride in arcade games.

“But you’re making arcade games? Hmm… I’ve seen companies that make arcade games make consoles, but I’ve never seen the opposite.”

“I couldn’t make a satisfactory game with the game consoles on the market right now. So I ended up making an arcade system board.”

“But it’s still not possible for Japan~. Well, it seems like I’m praising Japan, so I feel a little bad about it, but the truth is the truth. Japan is the best in games. I guess they’ve had a few hits, but it wouldn’t be that easy for arcade games? They developed an arcade game in Korea, and even the board itself? Hey~, Korea still has a long way to go.”

“Why don’t you try it once and then decide for yourself, sir?”

“Huh? Did you bring it? Can I try it?”

“Of course. It’s not too late to make any judgments after you’ve tried them out.”

“Okay, then let’s just try it for three minutes. You can figure out what an arcade game is after just three minutes. But, Shigu, I’ll try it, but don’t expect too much. Do you know what our arcade rules are?”

“I don’t know.”

“I try everything out and decide. There isn’t a game here that I haven’t beaten to the end. I try everything out myself before putting it in our arcade. My rule is to only put in games that are really fun.”

“Okay, try it. If you don’t like it, we’ll get up and leave.”

“Oh~, you seem pretty confident? Okay. Don’t say anything else later.”

The arcade owner turned off the power to one of the cabinets in the corner and installed the A1 board. It was my first time doing a demonstration in someone else’s arcade, but luckily the power was on.

The company logo flashed and the game title appeared.

“. I can definitely tell that it’s a game made in Korea. Oh~, there are four characters? It’s quite authentic.”

The owner, who had been ignoring me, saying that Japanese games were the best, was slightly surprised when he saw the character selection screen.

Kim Do-kwon, New York, Hong Gong-woo, Suji.

The owner seemed to be slightly troubled as he looked at the four different characters.

“Shall I show you?”

“No, I’ll have to try it myself to know. Since number 1 is the most basic character, I’ll try number 1 first. Well, there’s no reason to try anything else.”

He chose Kim Do-kwon.

The demo game has started.

***

‘upstart.’

Mr. Kim Hyung-seok, the owner of Gangnam Computer Arcade, did not like Seo Nam-joon very much. It took him 10 years to establish this arcade in Gangnam.

Starting out as a small arcade in a back alley, they expanded by moving to a larger location every year or two. They even went as far as Japan to import boards.

In his view, it was the height of Japanese gaming. It was not something Korea could dare to compare to. He could not even imagine that day would come.

But that young, blue-eyed kid handed me the arcade board he had made himself.

I wasn’t afraid, but I was too scared.

‘How easy are you to take a game like that, you little brat. Let’s see how well you do. If you mess up, I’ll chew you up. Don’t blame me. Games are never that easy, kid.’

He started playing with his eyes tightly shut, trying to find all the flaws in the game.

But his resolve wavered from the very first scene.

In a shabby bar in Gyeongseong. In that noisy place, someone knocked on the door with a bang! bang! bang! Then the door opened with a creak. In the darkness, the silhouette of a man wearing a long coat appeared dimly.

Kim Do-kwon, who appeared with a jar in his arms, placed the jar on an empty table, took off his long coat, and hung it on the wall. Then he clenched his fist and faced the people.

Kim Hyung-seok got goosebumps at the realistic sound of bones cracking.

The scene production that seemed to be a mix of manga and animation was an intro that was in no way inferior to any Japanese game. No, it was already at a level that surpassed Japanese games.

‘Hmm… I guess the graphics are good. But the real action in this game is the controls. As expected… Huh?’

Kim Hyung-seok approached the drunkard who was running towards him as soon as he started and threw a light punch, startling him.

He never holds the stick when he plays. He just moves it by lightly touching it with his palm. But the character responds perfectly to the movement of the stick and the buttons he taps.

As I gently pressed the button repeatedly, short, concise punches came out. Each time a punch landed on the drunkard, a small flash of impact effect flashed along with a crisp impact sound at the precise timing.

The sensation of my hands, eyes, and ears working together gave me the feeling of a real hit.

It wasn’t just the hitting. There was no awkwardness in the movements of the drunkard who was getting hit.

‘How can this be?’

He turned his eyes on the game again and tried to find flaws in it. However, the more he played the game, the more he became absorbed in it.

“Try pushing the lever diagonally down to the right once, then to the right once, then hold down the punch.”

“One punch down the right diagonally, then one punch to the right?”

As he gave the command according to Seo Nam-joon’s words, Kim Do-kwon twisted his body and landed a body blow punch on the enemy’s side.

– Ugh!

With a heavy impact, the enemy fell, clutching his stomach.

“You had a finishing move? What else do you have?”

Kim Hyung-seok began to get more and more immersed in the game while asking Seo Nam-joon about various things. He could block, and he could also control the strength of the punch and kick depending on whether he pressed the buttons briefly or long.

“Even if you don’t know how to play, it’s fun and satisfying to play. However, if you input commands accurately and play the game the way you want, you can play much more cool and fun.”

“What? Is it over already? Is this it?”

Kim Hyung-seok, who said that it would only take 3 minutes, played the game for over 15 minutes and expressed regret when the game finally ended.

“There are still more stages in development, but this is all for the demo.”

“No, if you’re going to bring the game, make it and bring it. If you stop here, it’ll look like you just took a shit. Huh? What are you guys doing? How long have you been watching me here?”

When I looked back, I saw a bunch of kids playing in the arcade gathered around me.

“Hey, sir! What is this game? Is this my first time seeing it?”

“Did you come in today?”

“It’s totally cool?!”

“Can we try it too?”

Not only little children, but also middle and high school students who came to the arcade during the vacation were having a blast.

“Not today. I’m just testing today. Get out of here~. Hurry up!”

“Hey~.”

Kim Hyung-seok dismissed the children who were watching and tried out all four characters. As if that wasn’t enough, he also tried out a two-person game with Seo Nam-joon.

Kim Hyung-seok’s plan to find fault with the game completely failed.

But it was such a sweet failure.

He, who had been working in the arcade for a long time, smelled something for the first time in a long time. It was the smell of a jackpot that could scrape up all the coins on the floor of Gangnam.

1988 Retro Game Tycoon Episode 91