1988 Retro Game Tycoon - Chapter 97



Only Noblemtl

Episode 97 – The Guardian of Cheonggyecheon

While the A1 board was rapidly spreading throughout the provinces, we were preparing a new game for the arcade.

Team A was simultaneously developing and , which were already proven to be hit games for our company, for arcade use.

For Team A, who had already created the much more complex , and were not difficult.

Rather, the art team was busier re-adjusting the artwork, such as enlarging it to a resolution suitable for arcades.

At first, the characters were the size of a baby’s fingernail and had little detail.

With the transition to 16-bit, characters and objects grew several times larger, movements became more sophisticated, cute kids became cuter, and cool guys became cooler.

When developing for Jemix, our youngest, an amateur, did the dotting.

It’s been upgraded like this in less than a year.

The transition and change of technology is so fast. This is not a transplant, but rather a closer look at a 16-bit remake.

On the development side, Ha Ji-seok was rebuilding the physics engine that he had failed to properly create when making from scratch for 16-bit use.

During summer vacation, Ji-seok created a physics engine for the A1 board in the morning, and went to school in the afternoon to prepare for the college entrance exam.

“Jiseok is… well, he’s a bit of a strange student. He has great concentration. To be honest, he’s really good at it. When you tell him something, he understands it right away and applies it. But sometimes, he seems to have no interest in studying at all and just thinks about other things. I can’t say anything because his grades are good. I can’t figure it out.”

I was worried that Ji-seok might be skipping school and coding at home, so I went to the academy to check. Fortunately, he was attending school diligently.

I guess I just sit there and think about physics engines often, but I guess I’m taking classes and my grades are going up, so there’s nothing to say.

To be honest, he’s brave just by going to school without complaining. If you push him any further, he’ll go astray.

Team B was busy planning .

is a shooting game that takes place in 1) space, 2) the lunar surface, and 3) a space base. It will be a new shooting game with different viewpoints and gameplay depending on the stage.

That much thorough planning was important. While focused more on action, is a shooting game, so game level design is also more important.

Since the art team still has a hard time focusing on , we decided to take care of it thoroughly from the pre-planning stage.

While the development team was busy, I was also busy in my own way.

I was developing a game engine for an action/fighting game based on Stage Zero, which I used when developing .

If you add the physics engine that Jiseok is developing here and the shooting game mechanism of , you can create a game engine that can handle almost any 2D shooting/action/platform game.

If we work on it a little more, it seems like it could even cover action RPGs.

Up until the arcade game stage, the overwhelming majority are shooting/action/platform genres. Additionally, there are puzzle games.

If we consider home consoles later on, we will need more diverse genres such as RPGs, simulations, racing, and strategy simulations, so we need to think about the expandability of the game engine in advance.

Our own console requires us to recruit not only third parties but also ourselves. If we are to recruit many third parties with low international recognition, a powerful game engine that programmers can develop more easily is essential.

Therefore, we need to create a game engine that looks at least five years ahead.

I’m laying the foundation for that now.

2D-based game engines are destined to become time-limited game engines, as they become useless in the era of 3D games.

But that doesn’t mean we can make it carelessly. If we lay the foundation well now, we can make good use of this structure and reuse it as a specialized 2D mobile game engine when the smartphone era comes later.

Our Iron Age brother Gicheol was···.

I told him to do moderately and think about upgrading the A1 board, but I don’t know.

I’ve been working hard for the past few months, so I think it’s right to let it go for a while.

But this guy likes games more than you might think, and if there’s a game he likes, he’s the type to delve deep into it, so if you leave him alone for too long, he might become a game addict.

I stopped by Iron Age on my way home from work to talk about a development kit that has a game engine built on the A1 board.

“Brother Ki-cheol~.”

But there was no answer when I called. I looked all over the house, wondering if he had collapsed again, but there was no one home.

“That’s strange. Where did it go?”

Did you stop by the arcade because you were bored playing games alone?

I guess we’ll have to talk about the board later.

Anyway, he is the type that gets a lot of attention.

***

Jinseong Electronics near Seun Shopping Mall in Cheonggyecheon.

This small company, with only four employees including the CEO, is one of the leading arcade board manufacturers in Cheonggyecheon.

Of course, all the boards were pirated copies of Japanese products.

A guest came to Jinseong Electronics in the morning.

“Is the boss here?”

“Hey, Mr. Noh. Are you here?”

“Yeah, how’s the work going? Is it all done?”

“No, not yet. I’ve been looking at it day and night and trying to make something similar, but it’s not easy.”

“Not yet? Today is the week since we promised. I have to return the original board today. I also told you that I borrowed it with difficulty from President Oh of Cheongnyangni. If I were to delay any longer, I would have to pay you back with interest.”

“I know. I know. It’s not as easy as it sounds. What about the ultra-precision film? Have you gotten it?”

Mr. Noh shook his head heavily.

He was a sort of broker who provided Jinseong Electronics CEO Yoon with what he needed to produce boards and connected him with various arcades.

“Not yet. This is manufactured by Myeongseong Electronics, but there is no one in the factory who can contact them. I am looking into it now.”

“No, does that make sense? It only takes a week to get the ultra-precision film developed in Japan, but you can’t get the one made in Korea?”

“Japan has all the routes, but this is a completely new product from Korea. And who said it can’t be done? I said I’m looking into it right now. It’ll take some time.”

“Ugh… This is frustrating. It’s already complicated because we’re using two 16-bit CPUs.”

“How long has the work been going on?”

“I’ve figured out all the parts and am trying to make it with the most similar ones possible. But I don’t know what they did, but the ROM data isn’t being extracted cleanly. I tried forcing it in and running it, but the screen is just black. The game won’t launch.”

“Really? Has our CEO Yoon lost his skills?”

“It’s a one-off. It’s because it’s brand new, as you said. I also said it would take some time. If I had ultra-precision film, I could quickly make new parts. But this has to be done in the dark. But actually, extracting the ROM data is a bigger problem than that. Our employee did it, but there are too many errors.”

“Then what should I do? I was supposed to return the A1 board today. I got a call this morning. They asked if I could still receive it in that condition. How much longer do you need? Can you give me three more days?”

“Three days? Well, it’s better than nothing. But I wonder if that’ll do the trick. And honestly, even if you replicate this, I don’t know if it’ll make any money. No matter how you look at it, it’ll probably cost at least twice as much as the others. At least 150. Maybe even over 200. So do you think it’ll sell well?”

“Really? If it’s 150 or 200, I think the arcade owners are just living off of fame. They also sell the boards on installment. They also do something similar to a lease. How could it be difficult to get it under 100?”

“It’s hard. It’s really hard. If we do that, we’ll have to reduce the number of CPUs to one, but then the game won’t run at all.”

“Huh···, that’s true.”

The two people sighed in frustration.

At that moment, the store door opened roughly with a creaking sound and another customer came in.

The president of Jinseong Electronics was startled, but then smiled and greeted the customer when he saw his face.

“No? Who is this? Isn’t that Ki-cheol? I haven’t seen his face lately.”

“Yes, well, that’s what happened. How’s the boss? Is business still going well?”

“It’s going well. I’m always having trouble. What are you doing these days? I heard you quit repairs too?”

“I’ve been having a lot of fun these days. The new arcade game called is really killing it. Wow, is this a car game? The steering wheel looks real.”

Lee Ki-cheol was looking around Jinseong Electronics when he saw an arcade game cabinet with a car steering wheel attached to it and sat down in front of it to start playing the game.

When the president of Jinseong Electronics motioned for President Noh to wait a moment, he nodded his head in agreement.

“Kill me? This is a real car steering wheel. I ripped one out of a junkyard.”

“Oh, somehow. But there are no pedals? It’s a bit awkward to turn the steering wheel with one hand and use the accelerator and brake buttons with the other.”

“Should I have taken the pedals apart? Hmm… It’s not impossible since I just have to send a signal anyway….”

“Okay. This is enough to have fun. The boss’s skills are still the same.”

Lee Ki-chul was speeding while playing a game based on F-1 and crashed into a wall. He hit the steering wheel once and got up.

“Hey, I’m screwed. This isn’t fun.”

Lee Ki-cheol leisurely looked around the store, whistling. He didn’t care if there were other customers.

“But what’s going on? I’m talking right now.”

“Huh? What is this? Are you making something new?”

Lee Ki-cheol buried his face in the large electronic circuit board on the desk, talking nonsense.

“Ah~, this? You said you enjoyed too, right? Are you still waiting for it?”

“Well, the arcade is still like that.”

“Just wait a minute. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Hey, President Yoon.”

President Noh frowned and tried to stop him, but the president of Jinseong Electronics reassured him.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. This is the kid I used to have.”

“That’s right. That’s what happened. I worked here for a year, eating and sleeping, and didn’t even get paid a single penny.”

“All I had to do was feed and provide lodging for a homeless person, right?”

“So, is that the game board you’re making now? I heard this guy’s not that easy.”

“So you heard the rumors, Ki-cheol? Okay, I’ll show you something special just for you. This is the original board.”

The president of Jinseong Electronics went inside and took out the A1 board and showed it to me.

Lee Ki-cheol snorted but tried to make a joke.

“Wow~~, it looks like this~! It uses two CPUs? Whoever it is, they must be very smart.”

“Right? It was made by Myungsung Electronics, so it seems that there are quite a few useful people in large companies. I looked at Myungsung Electronics again after seeing this. I thought they were all just idiots.”

“Is this guy a technician too?”

President Noh showed interest in Lee Ki-cheol.

“Well, back in the old days, Ki-cheol would fix all the broken boards. There were a lot of problems back then. But if you leave it to this guy, he’ll see what’s wrong at a glance and fix it right away. He’s a very quick-witted guy.”

“Ah, I learned a lot back then. They didn’t teach me anything and told me to fix it right away. If I couldn’t fix it, I wouldn’t be able to eat, so I racked my brain and did it. I think I figured out how the circuit worked with my body, not my head. It’s all thanks to the boss.”

“Then the same. If a person can’t pay for food, he has no reason to eat.”

“So, did you copy this board a lot?”

“I’m doing it, but it’s not easy. It’s hard to make it, and even if I do make it, I’m worried because it seems like it’ll be too expensive. Look here. It uses two CPUs so the signal moves in both directions…”

The president of Jinseong Electronics told everyone about the system he had figured out, hoping they might be able to help him in some way.

Lee Ki-cheol listened patiently to the president’s story, nodding and occasionally reacting.

“Bravo~! As expected from our CEO. His skills haven’t died yet. You even dissected it in great detail.”

“What do you mean by this? So I tried to make something similar, but I don’t know what’s wrong with it, but the game doesn’t work. What do you think, Ki-cheol?”

“Hmm, well. In my opinion···.”

“how is it?”

“It all seems like nonsense?”

“what?”

Lee Ki-cheol smiled and suddenly took something out of his pants pocket. He was holding a hammer in his hand.

Without anyone being able to stop him, he hit the replica board made by Jinsung Electronics with a hammer as hard as he could.

Boom! With a sound, the center of the clone board dented.

President Yoon and President Noh were so surprised that they couldn’t even react.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Lee Ki-cheol was hitting the copy board with a hammer like crazy. President Yoon, who came to his senses late, quickly ran to Lee Ki-cheol.

President Noh took advantage of the gap to pick up the duplicate board, but the board was already completely destroyed.

“Hey! What’s wrong with you? Are you crazy? I worked so hard to make that. Give me the hammer. Or not?”

“Let go of it! Let go of it! I’ll completely pulverize it!”

“You little brat! What the hell?! Are you crazy? What are you going to do with this? Do you know how much the parts cost to make that?”

“Oh, really? But compared to the cost of the parts I used while developing it, it’s less than 1/100th of that.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I made that. That A1 board that you copied.”

“What? Are you really crazy?”

“I’m perfectly fine. I made the A1 system board. It was requested by Starbeat CEO Seo Nam-joon, and I worked with the engineers at Myeongseong Electronics. Do you understand what I’m saying, sir?”

“what···?”

“I knew for sure that I would start cloning A1 in Cheonggyecheon. I was going to tell Namjoon to be careful, but I stopped. You know why? He’s a good guy, but he’s also a bit of a nerd. He thinks the law and stuff are really important. Don’t you know why a chaebol’s son would act like that? It seems like he can live without even breaking the law.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Speak so I can understand.”

“That’s what I’m saying. What you’re doing now, sir, is stealing, it’s breaking the law, and I’m just swinging a hammer here, but if you do it again, the police will show up and you’ll get a lawsuit filed against you, sir. You see what happens to Jeminan?”

President Yoon’s heart sank. There was no one in Cheonggyecheon and Seun Shopping Mall who didn’t know how Jeminan went bankrupt.

“Ki-cheol, you… are you really with Myeongseong Electronics?”

“That’s right. Otherwise, why would I be here doing this? Am I some kind of crazy person?”

Lee Ki-cheol laughed heartily, tapping his head with a hammer.

In the eyes of President Yoon and President Noh, Lee Ki-cheol looked like a complete lunatic.

“Oh, and this is being confiscated as evidence!”

Lee Ki-cheol picked up the A1 system board from between the two frozen men and placed it next to his side.

“I’ve been around here for years. I know what businesses are around here and what the bosses are doing. If anyone tries to copy my board again, I’ll show up with a hammer in one hand and a lawsuit in the other. So please be careful. Got it?”

Lee Ki-cheol looked straight into the eyes of Jinseong Electronics CEO Yoon and said.

There was fear in President Yoon’s eyes.

As Lee Ki-cheol was about to leave, President Noh spoke in an urgent voice.

“No, over there, that’s mine···.”

“to?”

Lee Ki-cheol turned around and slammed the hammer on the wall again!

“Then, please take it from our CEO Yoon. I worked like a dog here for a year and didn’t get paid, so I’ll just settle for that. Okay?”

President Noh had no answer.

Lee Ki-cheol leisurely whistled again and left Jinseong Electronics.

“The autumn sky is nice~.”

That day, the sky was unusually high and blue.

It was the season of the thousand-year-old paralysis.

1988 Retro Game Tycoon Episode 98