Chapter 4 Legendary Figures

  Although the game was completed, it was only a semi-finished product based on IBM 5150, and according to later development processes, it was only an alpha version.

  So Jester still has a long way to go.

  He rummaged through the electronic components scattered all over his room, hoping to cobble together a motherboard that could run the American Block game.

  At this moment, he heard a voice coming from the living room outside the door.

  Jester subconsciously raised his head and glanced at the clock on the wall, which showed 12:30.

  "It's already mid-morning..."

  In the morning, Jester was looking in the mirror in the bathroom to confirm who he was when he checked the time. It was just past 7:00. He had no idea that time had passed while making games. To him, it was like smoking a cigarette or drinking a cup of tea.

  According to the body's memory, at this time, Jester's mother should still be taking care of the supermarket, and his father rarely comes home at noon.

  Out of curiosity, Jester pushed open the bedroom door and walked into the living room.

  Jester's father was sitting on the sofa, talking to a young man with blond hair and glasses who looked about his own age, seeming somewhat reserved and shy.

  As Jester emerged from the room, his father also stood up, a smile on his face.

  "Hey, Jess, let me introduce you to my colleague, Mark Cerny, a fantastic game designer who's only one year older than you. He's already created Marble Madness, that incredibly popular Atari arcade game! Aren't you a big fan?"

  Jester's father enthusiastically introduced the young man beside him to Jester, and the young man also enthusiastically greeted Jester.

  "Hey Jess, can I call you that? I heard you're a student at UC Berkeley? So we have some connection! I'm from USC!" Mark Seni looked shy but was actually very talkative, sunny and liked to joke around.

  As soon as he saw Jester for the first time, he made a harmless joke.

  As is well known, USC and UCLA are arch-rivals, having played each other 90 times. The two schools have the highest number of NCAA championships of any pair of Division I cross-town rivals with 107 combined championships.

  The winner is University of Southern California.

  From then on, both sides were locked in a fierce stalemate.

  But Jester didn't have any feeling about it because he wasn't essentially a student of UCLA.

  But he was still surprised to hear the name, and stood frozen on the spot, looking at the exceptionally young face in front of him. In his memory, the 30-year-old photo he had seen before was similar to this one, with the same eyes that seemed to be full of passion, confidence and wisdom.

  Is this Mark Sennett? It's actually Mark Sennett!

  Jester was the overlord of all machines before his rebirth, but in essence, he is still a genuine and authentic Sony dog, believing that the Sony way is good, and retiring to keep the peace.

  Not bad, Jester was indeed a die-hard fan of Nintendo in the past, just like many others, after all, he grew up playing Nintendo games. However, later on, when he saw other manufacturers releasing high-definition games, but Nintendo still used mosaic graphics to make money from their loyal fans, he couldn't take it anymore.

  The full-screen gaming experience of grass mud horse.

  Occupying the toilet without taking a dump, it's simply unforgivable, an enemy of the industry. Can't any fan of Ren Diyu think that if PM was in Sony's hands, wouldn't they be able to play PM with graphics that blow the sky?

  Any player with a conscience would not refuse the high-definition version of PM. In other words, any player who refuses the high-definition version of PM is a player without a conscience.

  If you want to play mosaic, you deserve to be a stupid pig.

  How could a qualified sled dog like you not know Mark Sennett!

  Idol!

  Any large game company has its soul figures, such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo, Yu Suzuki and Sega, and in Sony's case, it is Mark Cerny.

  A true soul who led Sony's game rise.

  This is truly a great god, and it's not an exaggeration to call him legendary.

  Jester fell into reminiscence, recalling information about Mark Cerny. At that time, he had just left college and was indeed designing arcade games at Atari, but possibly due to the downturn of the American game industry after the Atari shock, he would join Sega in Japan next year.

  Yes, now he is just a small Atari arcade game designer, but in the future, he will become the head of Sega's Sonic project, and it was him who designed that classic pink hedgehog, Sonic's girlfriend Amy. Later, he also served as Global Vice President of Universal Entertainment, and finally joined Sony Games to become the soul figure of Sony Games.

  Moreover, he is very good at promoting newcomers.

  The two founders of the later famous Naughty Dog would refer to him as their spiritual mentor, and it can be said without exaggeration that there wouldn't have been a Naughty Dog without Mark Cerny.

  Even ICETEAM, which he founded and served as the general manager and consultant, has made countless outstanding contributions to Sony.

  Just take a look at these household names!

  Uncharted series, God of War series, Crash Bandicoot series, Ratchet & Clank series, and The Last of Us...

  It can be said that without Mark Cerny and his ICE Team's technical support, Sony's North American top three studios and Insomniac Games would not have the world's best game graphics for Sony's first-party games.

  Of course, he is most famous not for these, nor for his Sennett theory on game design which has been quoted by countless designers as gospel, nor for the Lifetime Achievement Award he received from the International Game Developers Association (GDC), the Oscar and Nobel of the gaming world.

  Rather, he was the Sony hero who took responsibility for the mistakes made during PS3 development and resigned. At that time, Sony's game business was on the verge of loss and failure. As a software engineer with no experience in hardware development, he accepted a new job as the chief architect of the PS4.

  This has a somewhat melancholic and desolate feel to it, like the heroic warrior who went away and never returned.

  For the SEC and for Sony as a whole, the PS4 cannot afford to fail as the last remaining flagship, or it could be a fatal blow to this behemoth.

  But just after appointing Mark Cerny, at a time when almost everyone thought Sony was crazy for letting a software guy do hardware, wasn't that crazy?

  Even if this software writer has already gained great reputation.

  But it was Mark Sweeney who made everyone understand what it means to be appointed in a crisis, a national hero without equal!

  PS4 sales exceed 10 million in ten months!

  This is still an achievement without any first-party AAA titles being released.

  And their opponent Microsoft's XBO has just sold over five million units.

  Winning a complete victory!

  It was just such a figure that appeared right before his eyes.

  How did you make a Saarloos Wolfdog so unenthusiastic?

  What? You're not excited? Because you're not a Sodog.

  "I... I..."

  For a moment, Jester was so excited that he couldn't speak.

  Seeing Jester like this, Jester's father smiled at Mark Senna and said: "Mark, I told you, my son is your fan, his favorite thing to play is your game!"

  "Yes, I extremely like your game, extremely, extremely like it!" Jest said with an almost uncontrolled and somewhat fervent tone.

  What he said is not nonsense, but what he likes is not the arcade games he's making now, but those masterpieces he will make later.

  "Thank you."

  Obviously, as a young man who is only twenty years old and has not even celebrated his twentieth birthday yet, Mark Senni is still far from the calm and composed demeanor he will exhibit later in his career when faced with praise from others.

  He was also a young man yearning for recognition, just a small designer with dreams at Atari designing games.

  So he was also very happy, with a brighter smile on his face and constantly saying thank you.

  At this time, Jester's father's voice rang out again.

  "By the way, Jess, what were you doing in your room just now? I didn't see you come out all morning."

  Hearing his father's words, although he had never really been in contact with this father, but through the memories of the owner of this body, Jester also knew that his father loved him very much.

  Moreover, what I am going to do next also needs my father's help in order to succeed.

  Although I also understand a bit of hardware knowledge, assembling one or two usable arcade machines may not be a big problem, but making truly commercial arcade machines is far from that simple.

  His own father was an excellent arcade engineer, and many of Atari's best-selling arcades were designed by his father.

  "Nothing much, just suddenly had an inspiration and wrote a new game by myself, a completely unprecedented game!"

  Jester spoke in a flat tone, despite being excited to death, after all this was the beginning of that grand dream in his mind.

  "What game are you playing?"

  Jester's father looked skeptical, although he knew his son was excellent at programming, but he also knew that his son lacked the imagination required of a game designer.

  He believed his son had the technical ability to write a game, but did not believe he had this kind of creative ability.

  "Maybe it's just something that imitates some game." Jest's father thought to himself, not taking it seriously. He knew very well that designing a brand new game wasn't as simple as it looked, having dealt with games every day.

  "I wrote it," Jester said with a definite tone, his face intentionally showing dissatisfaction, as if annoyed at his father's suspicious tone.

  At this time, Mark Sennett made a timely remark.

  "Can I take a look at this game you've made?"

  "Of course!"

  Jester smiled and replied, he had been waiting for this sentence. Although he hadn't applied for a patent yet, he wasn't afraid that Mark Sennett would plagiarize his game idea. Firstly, he had his own father as a witness, secondly, the Mark Sennett he knew wasn't that kind of person.

  "What's the name of the game? What kind?"

  As Jester led the two people towards his own room, his father casually asked a question.

  Jester didn't turn back but replied with a slightly excited tone, "American Square, I call him American Square! What type? I think it should be a puzzle type."