Chapter 1: Nineteen Eighty-Four

  "Now, if a game designer were to say that he has never been influenced by Sid Meier, it would be laughable. It's like a film director saying they've never seen any Hitchcock movies, or an author saying they've never read Shakespeare. In the world of games, Sid Meier is Hitchcock, Spielberg, Shakespeare and Tolstoy all rolled into one. His design philosophy, rooted in human nature, will be more valuable than any current or future technology, and it will endure."

  This is the third time Time Magazine has selected gaming legend Jest Lee as Person of the Year, and the story of this legendary figure begins at that starting point, in the summer of 1984...

  "My name is Jester Lee, a Chinese American, 19 years old. I am currently studying in the Electrical Engineering Department of UCLA and have just finished my sophomore year."

  A young man with black hair, yellow skin and black pupils stood in front of the mirror on the wall, muttering to himself, his eyes filled with confusion and disbelief.

  Because only this young man knew that the person in front of him in the mirror was not himself.

  He was originally supposed to be called Li Ming, a 22-year-old university student who would graduate in 2014. He clearly remembered that just the night before, he had been playing an innovative small game on STEAM called "Game-Dev-Ty" in his dormitory all night, which translates to "Game Development Giant" in Chinese.

  Just as he was infinitely YYing with his own self-developed host, punching Sony and kicking Microsoft, a godly game selling tens of millions on a single platform, dominating the world's gaming scene, he fell asleep unintentionally. But when he woke up, he found that the world had already changed beyond recognition.

  He had somehow traveled back thirty years to the barbaric era of electronic games, 1984 America, reborn into the body of a young Chinese-American.

  And also inherited each other's memories.

  Doesn't this sound like it's gotten to an unbelievable point? It's just like the plot of some clichéd story on a certain website.

  Li Ming also thinks so.

  Even if they often see rebirths, when all this happens to themselves, Li Ming or Jester also finds it difficult to accept.

  He can't be bothered scolding this kind of retard anymore.

  Just as Li Ming, or rather Jester Li now, was recalling the memories of the original owner of this body in his mind.

  In his mind, a clear and crisp buzzing sound suddenly rang out without warning.

  Similar to the sound of a computer booting up, an alarm beeped with a "beep" sound, followed by a mechanical voice devoid of any emotion echoing in his ears.

  "Binding successful... Host qualified... System officially launched... Countdown... Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

  "What is this!"

  At the moment when the sound rang out, Jester Lee turned his head around in terror, wanting to find the source of the sound, but the bathroom was empty. When he listened carefully again to locate the source of the sound, he found that it was actually ringing directly in his brain.

  "......2, 1, 0...... Countdown ends, welcome to obtain the game development giant system."

  Then this strange voice disappeared without a trace.

  In front of Jester, a virtual screen like in science fiction movies appeared with rows and columns of patterns.

  This is an interface that can't be called fancy, and it's even a bit simple. There are only a few simple options on it, and at the top of the interface, there is a number zero. In front of this number, the balance is displayed.

  "Is the balance zero?"

  Jester had no idea what this meant, or what it represented.

  The other five options are R&D, Training, Store, Quests and View.

  Jester felt at a loss for what was happening before his eyes, but driven by intense curiosity, he still reached out to touch the virtual screen in front of him.

  As soon as his hand touched the first 'R&D' of the five options on that virtual screen, this option lit up for a moment and then returned to its previous dimness. Then a striking line of text appeared on the screen.

  "Your current permissions are insufficient, please unlock and view this option again."

  It wasn't until then that Jester discovered the five options didn't look exactly alike; except for the fourth task, the other four presented a dark grey hue, as if they were not activated, while only one of the tasks flashed with a faint light.

  As expected, Jester clicked on those gray options one by one and was prompted that his authority was insufficient, before finally clicking on the 'Task' column which was still glowing with a faint light.

  Whoosh!

  The virtual interface in front of him suddenly changed, and all the previous options disappeared, except for the balance of zero at the top of the screen.

  It seems to be replaced by a task interface similar to the online game he played before.

  There is a big golden question mark in front of the task.

  And in front of the question mark, there were also some unfinished words.

  "Mission: Create and successfully sell your first game to unlock the other four options, and the completion of this mission will give the system owner a certain number of purchase points."

  Behind this task, there is a note that by purchasing points, you can buy all released or unreleased games and their design concepts, source codes of various powerful game engines, advanced host architectures, and even improve your technical skills through training, etc., so that you can create better games.

  As he read this note, a thought suddenly flashed through Jester's mind.

  "This can't be that game development system from the game development giant, can it? The wish I made back then won't actually come true, will it...... But this game is completely different from the one in the game......"

  Jester suddenly remembered that when he was playing that simulation game, he had boasted that if he were to go back to the pioneering days of electronic games, he would be able to beat Final Fantasy with his fists and kick Sega Genesis with his feet. As for Sony and Microsoft, who are they?

  But I thought it was just a casual remark, and yet he really came to this unfamiliar era, isn't that too ridiculous...

  Although so, but for this game of gaming giant, Jest is still extremely familiar.

  He cleared the game over 50 or 60 times, unlocked all achievements, paired with almost every type of game, and evaluated countless games. The highest-selling single-player game sold over 60 million copies... but the system in front of him seemed to exist only in his mind, and it was very different from the game he played called "Game Development Giant".

  But Jester also understood after a moment's thought that many of the options in the game were not suitable for the real world.

  For example, the game initially only provides four game themes, and the other dozens or hundreds of other themes need to be unlocked by players using the research points obtained in the game.

  But in the real world, there is no such situation where a game producer can create whatever theme they want without needing to unlock it.

  For example, after making a game, there is an option to summarize the game and generate a report. This option allows players to conclude whether the combination of genre and theme in this completed game is suitable or not.

  What are the advantages and disadvantages?

  For example, war-themed games are very suitable for matching with simulation-type games, but not suitable for matching with casual-type games.

  For example, through summary, it can also be known whether the proportion of game functions carried out during the development of games before is suitable or not.

  For example, a casual game does not need brilliant tasks or complex artificial intelligence, but rather extremely high playability and strong level design. An adventure game needs a great task system, while an action game particularly requires powerful artificial intelligence.

  And so on, different games have different focuses.

  These conclusions can only be drawn after the player experiments with each game one by one, but in the real world, these things are already well-known, because he has long known them, and can recite them fluently.

  After all, you want to make an excellent game, but it's impossible to achieve without knowing these basics.

  Moreover, there are many places where games in reality and games themselves have very big differences, and they absolutely cannot be copied mechanically.

  So these options that are of no use in reality and even misleading were deleted, and several things that were not originally in the game were added.

  For example, buying and tasks.

  Oh, right, in real-world systems, there isn't an option for hiring, which makes sense because you can directly hire people in the real world.

  Is it directly hiring a black household that doesn't exist in this world?

  After sorting out all the information, Li Ming or Jester Li also resigned to his fate, after all, he had already arrived in this world.

  Even if he wants to go back, it's probably impossible for him to return.

  And in Li Ming's, or rather Jester Lee's mind, he really yearned for this era. As a die-hard fan of electronic games, how could he not envy this era? He wanted to rise and grow with this era together.

  This is the pioneering era of e-games! Being able to personally participate in the construction and development of a new industry, and after several decades, when this industry becomes perfect, that moment of being admired by later generations will be so fulfilling.

  Even in the midst of confusion, Jester had a vague impulse and excitement.

  As a die-hard fan of the game, he knew that the golden age that all gamers yearned for was about to arrive.

  Countless classic games will be born.

  Especially that masterpiece which will appear in the near future.

  It is widely regarded by people in and out of the industry as the only nuclear weapon in the game world.

  Witnessing its emergence and accompanying it in dominating the world seems like a kind of pilgrimage for Jester.

  Perhaps it's an inaccurate description, but for him, and almost all hardcore gamers, that's what it is.

  As of the moment Jester crossed over, this series has cumulative sales of 525 million sets, with a single work on a single platform selling 40 million sets, ranking first in the history of global electronic games, directly leading the second place by two times. The direct sales value is at least $300 billion, and the indirect additional value is at least three times this number.

  That is to say, in the thirty years since its birth, it has indirectly or directly produced benefits of more than $100 billion.

  Especially this game saved the world's gaming industry on the brink of collapse at its most difficult moment.

  It was this game that wore the legendary halo.

  The one and only game that cannot be described with any great, immortal, and beautiful words...

  Do you think I'm bragging?

  No, no, no, I didn't exaggerate even a single letter, every description of the phonetic transcription here is the most accurate.

  Because this game is just so cool.

  Wait!

  Jester's eyes widened suddenly, and it was only then that he realized it was now June 1984. The former ruler Atari had just been on the verge of collapse in the Atari shock event, and they had hidden billions of dollars worth of game cartridges in the desert of New Mexico. The future unshakeable overlord Nintendo had just released their home video game console Fami, also known as the FC, which would become a legendary gaming machine in less than a year, domestically known as the Red and White Machine.

  And this game console, despite selling like hotcakes in Japan, still hasn't sold a million units yet. As for the NES released in North America and Europe, it took a whole year and three months.

  And this legendary game that made Final Fantasy and their FC establish a dominant position has not been released yet!

  Just thinking about the influence and addictive power of that game, Jester's eyes instantly turned bright red.

  There is a voice in his mind that keeps shouting.

  Take him down!

  Jester Lee also clenched his fists tightly.

  His eyes also inadvertently filled with a light called yearning.

  Since he was allowed to reincarnate and obtained that mysterious and strange system, why couldn't he enter this magnificent era of the game world and call the wind and rain?

  Why not?

  We must take him down!

  Must be affirmative and must be certain!

  Because every gamer knows what that game represents in history!