Chapter 5: Do you really think video games are dead?

  "Is this the game?"

  Jester's father still had that suspicious tone.

  On the computer screen in front of him was a crude interface, with only a rectangular frame and a small square box next to it. Below the small square box was what appeared to be a scoring display, currently showing zero. Below this string of numbers was displayed "Level - 1".

  At this time, the game has not started yet, and there are no various blocks falling down, so it's impossible to see what kind of game this is.

  "The game is roughly complete, but there's still some additional work to be done in the later stages... it's a game like this..."

  Jester isn't good at explaining things, whether in this life or the previous one. He simply starts playing the game directly, operating it while explaining to his father and Mark Sina.

  The gameplay of Tetris may seem like nothing to people in later generations, and can only be considered a decent time-killing small game, but to the people in this world, this game is almost a creative masterpiece.

  Anyone who likes video games can't resist it.

  "That's it!"

  Jie Si Te was explaining the gameplay while demonstrating it, and inadvertently turned his head to glance at the two people beside him.

  What he didn't expect was that his own father looked at him with an unbelievable gaze, while Mark Senni's eyes were shining brightly, as if he had discovered something extraordinary.

  "Let me try!"

  Mark Cerny, the genius game designer, was getting impatient, his movements were quick, Jester had just stood up from his seat, he quickly sat down and started playing at almost lightning speed.

  At first, Mark Sennett's operations were not very skilled, even a bit clumsy, and the game often ended in just a few minutes.

  But after trying out a few rounds, he was able to find the trick of this game and play it more and more skillfully.

  When he accumulated two thousand points, the falling speed of the blocks in the game suddenly accelerated, and this sudden change made Markseni a bit unadapted again.

  But he still tried hard to control the falling blocks, fully focused and couldn't stop.

  Jester looked a bit bored on the side, after all, he had played this game countless times before. He glanced at his father who was fully focused and seemed to be enjoying it, even looking eager to try it out himself.

  His eyes flashed and he remembered that when he was writing this game, he had added a two-player versus mode, where two people could play at the same time and compete.

  This is also why he wanted to make Tetris an arcade game, it has a very strong competitive aspect.

  To be honest, Tetris is most suitable for handheld consoles, followed by arcade machines. As for home consoles and PCs, they are not very suitable for this game.

  "By the way, I also designed a two-player mode for this game."

  Upon hearing Jester's words, the two of them simultaneously turned their heads to look at him, with excited expressions on their faces. It was clear that they had both been deeply drawn in by this game.

  "Can still dual battle?!" Mark Senny's tone even had a hint of surprise.

  Jester shrugged and switched to two-player mode, telling his dad how to control 2P.

  Jester's father, who had been waiting impatiently on the side, hastily moved over a chair and sat down beside Mark Sennett, playing like a little kid.

  It wasn't until then that Jester discovered that although his father was much older than Mark Senna, he was far superior in terms of gaming talent. After several consecutive rounds, the ultimate winner was always his father.

  Mark Senni didn't show any impatience or reluctance, instead he was full of fighting spirit and challenged Jester's father again and again.

  The two of them played until they even forgot about time.

  Jester could only watch from the side, feeling bored and useless. He actually wanted to remind the two that he was hungry, having not eaten for half a day already, and they had been playing for over an hour!

  But seeing the two of them with expressions like children at play, and the pure smiles on their faces, he thought it was better to let them continue playing.

  That's the charm of video games.

  Perhaps it's not quite right to describe the smile of a middle-aged man and a young man as pure, but Jester couldn't think of any other adjectives that would be more suitable to describe their expressions at this moment.

  Until...

  Jester's father's stomach was the first to rumble with a loud growl, followed by Mark Sennett's stomach making the same sound.

  At this time, the two of them looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  "Amazing! Amazing! Jess! I can't even think of words to describe it! Masterpiece! In every sense! It's like I'm back in my childhood playing Space Invaders at the arcade and forgetting to go home, luckily now my mom won't spank me for that!"

  Who would have thought that the first thing Mark Senna did when he stood up was to give Jester a bear hug, his whole body trembling with excitement, holding Jester tightly together.

  At the same time, Mark Senyi was still speaking loudly in Jest's ear with his loudest voice, very quickly, and Jest could only hear a rough idea.

  "This game is awesome! It's the most fun I've ever had playing a game! Really! Really! A hundred times more fun than Space Invaders! I'm absolutely in love with it!"

  Jester struggled out of Mark Sennett's embrace to find his father looking at him with an expression he had never seen before.

  It was a gaze of shock mixed with incredulity.

  It's as if I'm looking at a stranger.

  "Jesse, this is unbelievable! How did you come up with this? This game... Oh my god..." By the end, Jesse's father's voice was even choked with emotion, to the point where he couldn't continue speaking.

  He was really too excited, he had never thought that his own son could make such an excellent game.

  As an arcade designer, he can say that he has played countless games, but he has never been so obsessed with a game, not even Pong back in the day!

  And yet this game is so simple, but it's also so wonderful. It's just a simple pattern made up of seven squares, and under random cutting, it can evolve into an incredibly attractive force that is hard to believe.

  It's simply unbelievable.

  "Dad, I just casually thought of this idea, it's nothing special, just a flash of inspiration... Everyone must be hungry, let's eat first, I have some thoughts to share with you."

  Jester smiled somewhat awkwardly, after all, the two people in front of him were the father of this body, a senior hardware engineer at Atari, and the other was a true genius game designer, while he himself was only able to show off his skills by relying on precognition and plagiarism.

  A person must first have self-awareness.

  Three people took a look at the time and it was almost two o'clock, there's no way to make it at home, although Jester knew through memory that his father had a skilled Sichuan dish.

  Although Jester and his father are Chinese, and Costa Mesa has a Chinatown with an 8.2% Chinese population, they live in a predominantly white neighborhood with better environment and security.

  However, their residence is close to the Chinese restaurant that Jester and his family often visit, so they don't need to drive. The three of them simply walked for over ten minutes before arriving at their destination.

  This is a Chinese restaurant called Ju Fu Lou, adjacent to an upscale Chinese community.

  Jester's father is very familiar with the boss here, so familiar that the two of them have been wearing the same pants since they were kids.

  Jie's father even called the boss of this wine shop "Shixiong".

  This is naturally due to certain reasons.

  Jester's family immigrated to the United States during his grandfather's time. His grandfather, also his paternal grandfather Li Yaoguang, was a general in the resistance war against Japan and participated in the Battle of Wuhan and the Battle of Changsha, with outstanding military achievements, and had received the Order of Precious Tripod.

  At the end of the Anti-Japanese War, his grandfather foresaw that a civil war was likely to break out and he, who did not want to fight in the civil war, brought his family across the ocean to the United States in 1945.

  Before joining the army, Jie's grandfather had already passed down his culinary skills in the family kitchen, which also housed a famous Sichuan restaurant.

  Li Yaoguang was good at cooking since he was a child. Later, after the September 18th Incident, Li Yaoguang was enraged when he heard the news and joined the army with passion, hoping to fight against Japan.

  Later in the United States, Jest's father had just been born, and Li Yaoguang's family also needed to eat. With his good cooking skills, he opened a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco.

  Relying on family tradition, Li Yaoguang changed the cooking methods of spicy Sichuan dishes to make them more suitable for Americans' preference for sweet and greasy flavors. Unexpectedly, business got better and better, and now he has opened over a dozen branches. He is now a well-known Chinese restaurant owner on the West Coast, with annual sales of nearly $10 million.

  The boss of this Jufu Building was an apprentice who followed Li Guangyao at that time, and later came to open this Chinese restaurant after completing his apprenticeship. Because of his excellent craftsmanship, he is good at the taste of Chinese people and can make authentic Sichuan dishes. He is also good at American tastes and can make improved Chinese food, so business is quite good.

  Three people came into the store, the interior decoration had a strong Chinese flavor, they found an empty table and sat down. Within two minutes, the restaurant owner was notified by the service staff and walked out of the kitchen with a warm smile on his face.

  Jie Si knew that this somewhat stout-looking man was called Li Guo Bin, and when he came over, after all, he was his elder, so he hastily stood up and called out "Uncle Li".

  Li Guobin smiled and nodded, then said with some complaint: "Little Jie, you haven't come to my place for dinner in a long time."

  Jester just smiled and didn't respond.

  Jester's Chinese name is Li Jie, so Lai Guobin would call him that.

  Only his grandfather and uncle would call him that, but not his father. His father was born in the United States and received an American education, while his mother is a white woman. This is also why he had a falling out with his own father and grandfather, and did not inherit the family business, so he left San Francisco and came here.

  Jester's father introduced a few dishes to Li Guobin, asking him to make some of his signature dishes. He had also wanted Li Guobin to join him for a few drinks, but the restaurant was too busy and he couldn't get away.

  Mark Sweeney's taste is not much different from that of ordinary Americans, and he loves to eat sweet and greasy food. In order to cater to his taste, Jester's father specially instructed his own master to make a few more sweet dishes.

  While waiting for the dishes, Mark Seni couldn't help but talk about the previous game again, full of praise.

  Even Jester's father was generous with his praise for the game and his son.

  "If it weren't for this impact, there wouldn't be many people playing the game now. Otherwise, this 'American Block' would definitely be worth tens of millions of dollars!"

  Mark Sennett's words of regret inadvertently made Jester's father fall silent.

  Yes! If it weren't for that damn Atari crash, this game would have conservatively sold 500,000 to 1,000,000 copies, which at $40 per cartridge is $20 million to $40 million in sales.

  According to Atari's distribution agreement, Jester could have made several million dollars.

  But now Atari doesn't even develop new games itself, and the new owner has no interest in home console games, so they can't help you release this game.

  And now, with such a cold market response, no one knows what will happen after the game is released.

  Sometimes, even excellent products can't be sold after a market collapse, because the market is gone.

  Only Mark Cerny knew that Atari, in an attempt to regain its lost reputation after the Christmas boycott, quickly released several well-made titles, but players who had already been disappointed were not buying it, and sales were extremely dismal.

  "Hehe."

  When he saw the reaction of the two people, Jester just chuckled softly, and his laughter was filled with indifference.

  Mark Sennett and Jester's father looked at Jester simultaneously, both of them somewhat puzzled as to why Jester could still laugh, didn't he realize that he had just narrowly missed out on several million dollars?

  "Dad, you're a arcade game designer, Mark, you're an excellent game designer..." Jester looked at the two of them, organizing his words and tone in his mind, speaking calmly and slowly.

  "Now I just want to ask you one question, do you really think that video games are completely dead?"

  This extremely simple yet piercing question struck Jester's father and Mark Senny like a bolt of lightning, leaving them both momentarily stunned.

  Is it? Has video games really died?

  Of course not!