1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 91



Only Noblemtl

Episode 91 – Arcade Network

The A1 arcade system board has achieved its first sales figures.

The owner of Gangnam Computer Arcade decided to purchase four A1 boards: two in cash and two on installment.

“This is amazing. We only sold 4 units, but already the sales are over 10 million won. You have to sell 1,000 ROM packs to get this kind of sales.”

Mr. Oh Sang-hyeok, who has been working in game marketing and sales by meeting with various companies, said in surprise that one board is almost as expensive as a car, so it is incomparable to home game ROM packs in terms of sales.

“I was more surprised that the owner said he would buy two of them with cash right away. This is one of the most famous arcades in Gangnam, but I didn’t know the owner was this rich. He really shouldn’t look down on coins.”

Ko Seong-beom, who followed the owner to say hello after a long time because he was close with him, seemed surprised by the arcade owner’s wealth and wittiness.

“There are still some neighborhoods where a game costs 50 won, but here it’s 100 won without fail. There are also games like Afterburner 2 that cost 500 won. Also, the owner has a good eye for games, so he picks out fun games, and you don’t see any adult games. He seems to manage the store very well.”

I too was very impressed by the Gangnam Computer Arcade.

Gangnam Computer Arcade was very different from the neighborhood arcades I had seen before. The atmosphere and feel of the store was bright and clean, reminiscent of the era when rhythm games were the norm.

When I signed my first contract, I had a lot of conversations with the arcade owner. He started the arcade to make money, but later on, he really fell in love with video games.

“It’s been exactly 10 years since I opened the first arcade in Gangnam in 1979. I first learned about it when I saw an ad for Space Invaders in the newspaper. I thought it could be done, so I emptied all my savings and started with that, a brick breaker, and exactly eight machines.”

“You’ve grown tremendously over the past 10 years.”

“I had a hard time. I used to go to Cheonggyecheon every day to buy boards cheaply. I met every dealer I met. At the time, I didn’t even know they were counterfeit copies. Later, when I installed them in the arcade, I saw that they were definitely the same game, but they were all slightly different. I put four copies of side by side, and they were all slightly different. That’s when I realized, ‘Ah, none of these are real.’”

The owner laughed heartily and told a long story about how he grew the arcade.

“After I found out about that, I started to feel a little uneasy. It felt like I was a fake. So from then on, we started looking into used Japanese circuit boards together. Sometimes, it’s so exciting to buy something in good condition for cheap. But you know what’s funny? There are fakes mixed in with used Japanese circuit boards. I’ve been scammed a lot, too.”

Gangnam Computer Arcade had more boards imported directly from Japan than the cloned boards sold at Seun. That may be why the owner bought the A1 without hesitation even though it cost over 3 million won.

“By the way, which arcade did you decide to go to?”

“It’s just the beginning. This is your first time as the boss.”

“Really? Then move quickly. If this is going to be really popular, it can’t just be installed in one or two arcades. It has to be installed in many places. Just wait. I’ll give you the contact information for our arcade meetup, so meet up there first. If I introduce you, you’ll be different from me, so you’ll listen carefully from the beginning. Hahahaha!”

The owner of Gangnam Computer Arcade laughed out loud, perhaps embarrassed by his initial lukewarm response to .

“We would appreciate it if you could introduce us. But it’s a bit unexpected. You even went out of your way to introduce us. Wouldn’t it be more profitable if popular games were only available here?”

“Ah, there are some fools who think like that. But those people will never make money properly in their entire lives. They don’t know how to make real money. Do you know what game created the current Gangnam Computer Arcade?”

“Well? ?”

“Oh! That’s smart. That’s smart! That’s right. It’s Galaga. Why Galaga? It’s not just because Galaga is fun. How can that be the only fun game? How many fun games are there in the world? But the important thing is that Galaga has become the trend.”

The boss came closer to me as if he was revealing an important trade secret and spoke in a slightly lower voice.

“I look closely at the faces of the customers when I install a new game. If it’s a fun game, the faces I’ve always seen come and play the game and leave. Like our taxi here. But once it becomes a trend, then new faces show up in the arcade every day.”

“Is that a rumor?”

“That’s right. The ones who always come here stop by once or twice? That’s just a coincidence. There’s nothing more to see. They do it every time they come? That’s proof that it’s a popular game. But then new ones show up?”

The boss hit his knee with a “slap!” sound.

“That’s what makes a real hit. That’s what we need to make games like that.”

“We pride ourselves on the fact that our games will always be featured wherever they are displayed.”

“Yeah, now that I’ve tried it, I understand why you’re so confident. It’s great. Just keep making it like this. But it’s not hard to introduce this, but I’m not sure if many people will buy it because there are so many cheapskates.”

“That’s why Myeongseong Capital also offers a rental service called lease in addition to installment payments.”

“Oh, really? You’re smart. Anyway, I heard that people who make money are really good at sucking other people’s money. If I had saved up all the interest I’ve paid to the bank so far, I could build a building. Then I could run an arcade without paying this damn rent.”

“Then, buy ten or twenty A1 boards. Then, you, sir, will become richer and you can comfortably run an arcade in your own building.”

“Where do you sell the drugs? First, become popular. Then I will buy ten or twenty units.”

As expected, the arcade owner was no pushover.

Still, we achieved more than we expected at Gangnam Computer Arcade.

Not only did he get his first sales, but he also got his hands on the network of Gangnam arcade owners. In some ways, it was more valuable than his first sales.

“Mr. Oh, please meet the people that Mr. Kim told you about. Rather than going out and looking for them one by one, we will gradually expand our territory by getting introduced to business owners like this.”

There’s something called Kevin Bacon’s Six Degree Rule.

Actor Kevin Bacon is famous for appearing in so many movies that even actors who haven’t filmed with him are said to be connected to him in just two or three steps.

In fact, research has proven that people who don’t know each other can connect with each other in an average of 6.6 steps.

As it turns out, the owner of Gangnam Computer Arcade is none other than the Kevin Bacon of Gangnam Arcade.

At first he seemed a bit picky, but once I opened my heart to the game, the boss gave me everything he had.

Who would have thought that I would have this kind of luck at the arcade I first visited upon the recommendation of Go Seong-beom, an Afterburner 2 fanatic?

After finishing my first sales, I returned to the office and put a red pin in Gangnam on the large map of Seoul attached to the partition.

“We’ve successfully completed our first start. Now let’s fill this map with pins.”

We hired additional salespeople to work with Mr. Oh at arcades, and began selling mainly at arcades in the Gangnam area.

As arcade owners introduced other arcade owners, A1 Board and gradually expanded their reach through their connections.

Since Starbeat was centered around home gaming consoles, there were some arcade owners who didn’t know our company. However, there was no one who didn’t know about .

Also, no one who tried disliked the game, even if there were people who hesitated because of the price.

was a game that had Korean visuals never seen before, intense impact and action, and gorgeous graphics and production.

Of course, we also had a powerful move that hit the arcade owners who were worried about prices straight away.

“The owner of the OO arcade that you introduced here has signed a contract for 4 times.”

“That cheapskate? He always asks me for food, saying he has no money.”

“That’s why we offer lease financing services to help you minimize your initial investment costs. Take a look at this pamphlet.”

“Rent? So you’re renting out the game board? I’ve never heard of anything like that. Isn’t this a scam?”

“No. You know Myeongseong Group, right? Myeongseong Capital, a subsidiary of Myeongseong Group, provides a special financial service for those who are struggling like you, CEO.”

“From Myeongseong Group?”

For many arcade owners who have been running arcades primarily with cheap replica boards, the price of the A1 board, which costs over 3 million won, was certainly a huge barrier.

Fortunately, we were able to overcome this to some extent through personal networks and competition among arcade owners, as well as Myeongseong Capital’s leasing program.

With Starbit’s recognition in the gaming industry and the recognition of a major company in financial services, it has become much easier to persuade arcade owners.

A1 Board sales, which started with a single pin in Gangnam, soon spread throughout Gangnam and then to university districts.

Across the Han River, red pins began to be planted in a concentrated manner, centered around Sinchon. The pins gradually moved higher, reaching Jongno and Daehakro.

When looking at the A1 sales map from a distance, it looked like three large points in Seoul forming a triangle.

“Wow, there are already so many pictures taken.”

“That’s right. Every time I look at it, it seems to grow a handful.”

“It feels like my hair is falling out in handfuls···.”

The programmers felt a sense of admiration as they looked at the constantly updated sales map, but at the same time, they felt a sense of burden.

The Ancient Dragon Captain, who had been given a huge responsibility from the first game, felt even greater pressure.

But it was a process that everyone had to go through and overcome.

had now completed the development of individual stages and was in the middle of final post-production work.

The developers repeatedly played the game to check the game balance and fix bugs. They especially focused on checking for any unintentional tricks that could make each stage easier to beat.

While developing and testing , many of the developers were quickly becoming experts in action games.

Whenever they took a break from developing the game, they would summon characters to Stage Zero of and have one-on-one battles with each other.

There aren’t as many techniques as in a full-fledged fighting game, and detailed attacks like upper/lower attacks aren’t possible, but even if you fight with only basic techniques, you can still feel a fair amount of excitement.

Well, it’s a game that was developed with the intention of evolving into a fighting game from the beginning.

The rock music style background music was also completed, and for the first time in our company’s games, we also inserted a digitalized human voice. There was a bit of noise mixed in, but the rough feeling added to the feeling of the times, so it wasn’t bad.

The four playable characters have their own unique shouts when performing their signature actions, and they also say short lines randomly. The game feels even more real with the voices of professional voice actors who deliver realistic performances.

This was possible because we broke away from Gemix and created our own arcade board.

The A1 board and were now in mass production at the factory, waiting for the day they would meet gamers.

I invited computer game magazine reporters to the company for a sort of ‘media day’. The reporters’ faces were filled with surprise as they played the finished game for the first time after hearing about it.

“This is…! If a game like this came out, wouldn’t the arcade just turn upside down?”

“It can’t even be compared to or . This is just on a whole other level. It’s even possible for this many characters to come out and fight in a 4-player mode···?!”

“The background graphics are a work of art. I guess that’s why they asked for Gyeongseong drawings during the graphic contest.”

“Wow… this impact is real. The New York roundhouse kick is really cool, isn’t it?”

“I thought Suzy would be a bit weak in fighting, but she has an umbrella with a sword attached to it. If there was a character popularity vote, I think Suzy would definitely get first place.”

Unlike before, I kept a secret from reporters until the results came out.

So, while reporters were struggling with information about the game, the shock felt by reporters who had played the game was even greater.

Their reaction was summed up in one word by the editor of Computer Learning:

“I can’t believe this kind of game is available in Korea….”

It was a shock and a thrill, a pride and awe at the same time.

“The reason we were able to create this game was because of the A1 board with two 16-bit CPUs. StarBeat has been secretly developing not only game software technology but also hardware technology. Now, it seems like it’s time to show the world the results.”

I focused my advertising on on major buses and subway lines in Seoul, especially those passing through Gangnam, Sinchon, and Jongno.

August 15, 1989, Liberation Day, a sweltering heat with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius.

was first introduced to the world in over 800 arcades in Seoul, including Gangnam Computer Arcade.

1988 Retro Game Tycoon Episode 92