Chapter Fifteen The Next Plan

  Jester took Cramer to a hotel where he was staying, checked him into a newly opened room and had already booked his ticket back to Kansas for the next day.

  Although Kama is a bear child who doesn't care about others' feelings, the more this kind of person knows the truth that a drop of kindness should be repaid with a fountain of gratitude.

  After experiencing two years of loneliness due to his parents' divorce, Karmak felt touched seeing someone being so good to him, especially since it was someone he had only met once.

  Just as Jester had made Kamak a comfortable bed and was about to leave his room.

  Kamark suddenly called out and stopped him.

  "When I grow up, can I work at your company?"

  Jester was secretly delighted, but he still said with a serious face: "You should rest well, the employees recruited by my game company are all elites, and they must be outstanding in any aspect. If you have confidence, when you grow up, you can come to Costa Mesa to find a company called Mars Entertainment. If your level is high enough, you can naturally enter my company."

  Jester was swindling under the guise of his non-existent company, anyway he planned to register it as soon as he got back.

  Karmak just snorted in disdain, muttering under his breath: "I can tell the level of your company from that 'American Block' of yours..."

  Back in his own room, Jester couldn't sleep. He first called home to report that everything was going smoothly on his Los Angeles trip and also heard from his father that Mark Sweeney was doing well in San Francisco. His father told him that the remaining ten salespeople had been selected, including a few who were already well-known in other companies in Costa Mesa.

  After seeing the salary offered on the recruitment notice, they came to attend the interview without saying a word.

  And Atari's street machine factory, one of the production lines has been overhauled and will start production tomorrow. That afternoon, these ten people can take the street machine loaded with "American Block" to set off for the remaining ten cities.

  Upon hearing this, Jester also felt at ease. As long as these ten people could create a sensation with "American Blocks" in these ten cities in California, he guaranteed that those distributors would come crawling back to him.

  Merchants are born for profit, and face is worth nothing to them.

  Two thousand years ago, Taishi Gong had already seen it clearly: the world is full of people rushing about, all for the sake of gain; the world is full of people scrambling about, all for the sake of profit.

  He is not afraid of those distributors not being obedient.

  He hung up the phone and Jester began thinking of his next move.

  Going back to register a company is certain, recruiting enough staff is also certain, but this has to wait until those distributors come to find themselves and get a large amount of funds before starting.

  Atari is currently undergoing massive layoffs, and it's not hard to find R&D personnel. Software development is still okay, after all, there are people who have their own strengths, but hardware development is a weak point for them.

  It can even be said that one's subsequent plans are all centered around hardware, and if the development of hardware cannot keep up, then there will be no place to put the games one has made.

  Jester walked up to the desk, pulled out a stack of letter paper from beside it, picked up a pen and began scribbling on the paper.

  He is using Chinese.

  Firstly written is hardware, then handheld consoles, arcade machines and home consoles were written afterwards.

  He's not too afraid of arcade machines, if it's just an 8-bit machine, his father can handle that responsibility, but developing a 16-bit universal motherboard for arcade machines is not that easy.

  He didn't know much about arcade hardware, only knowing that arcades would soon enter the 16-bit era.

  Two Japanese companies will rely on two powerful 16-bit consoles to defeat Sega and become the dominant force in the arcade market.

  Of course, Sega simply abandoned the market for small arcade games; for those huge mainframe machines, Sega would still reign supreme.

  Jester didn't want to compete with Sega in the high-end arcade market, he wanted a share of the low-end market, which was where the real money was.

  But thinking of those two ultra-powerful motherboards made Jester a bit of a headache.

  Capcom's CPS1 (CP System 1), which took two years and one billion yen to develop, stunned countless players with its powerful graphics processing capabilities and vibrant colors of up to 4096 colors. It solidified Capcom's position as the king of side-scrolling action games in the 1990s. Hmm, basically, almost all classic side-scrolling games you can think of ran on this board.

  Demon's Crest, Destiny of an Emperor, Romance of the Three Kingdoms II, Final Fight, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Dragon Warrior, Knights of the Round, The Punisher

  Moreover, this motherboard is not only good at handling action games that require quick passes, but also handles fighting games well enough, although it's not as excellent as another legendary motherboard.

  The best-selling and highest-grossing fighting game in the history of the world, Street Fighter II was just carried on CPS1.

  And another one is even more frightening, this is a legendary baseboard known as the 'Board Emperor', with an unimaginable strong vitality, and its ability to handle graphics processing is even more powerful. In around 2000, arcade machines had already evolved to 32-bit or even 64-bit era, but this baseboard's handling of fighting games was not inferior to its contemporaries' 32-bit arcade machines.

  This motherboard is the famous MVS (Multi-Video System), also known as Neo Geo, developed by SNK, the undisputed king of fighting games in the 1990s.

  Of course, at that time they were still a small company called Shin Nihon Kikaku, until '86 when they would change to the SNK known by the world today and start their legendary journey.

  SNK are also the initials of Shin Nihon Kikaku in Romaji.

  As for the games on this motherboard, they are all too familiar.

  Timeless classic "Metal Slug", also known as "Vietnam War" in our country; Another timeless classic "Ninja Combat", which is also the prequel to the epic masterpiece that follows; Still, another timeless classic "Dragon Tiger Fist", which also laid the foundation for the next epic masterpiece, worth mentioning is that this is also the first game in gaming history to introduce Super Special Moves (Super Desperation Move); Next, still a timeless classic "Samurai Spirits" and "The Last Blade"; Finally, the epic masterpiece "King of Fighters" makes its dazzling debut.

  This is a fighting game that doesn't need language to describe its status. If Street Fighter created the trend of fighting games, then The King of Fighters is the pinnacle of this type of game.

  The "King of Fighters" series, which dominated the entire 90s arcade market, is not exaggerated by any praise.

  Jester looked at the names of the two baseboards he had written on paper, his eyebrows furrowed tightly.

  He may still be able to handle game-related matters, but he doesn't know if he can develop a good enough arcade motherboard.

  My opponent is too strong.

  Behind the two words "arcade", he added a big question mark, then shifted his gaze to the handheld console.

  "Alas!"

  Jester looked at the two words on his PDA and let out a sigh, feeling a wave of annoyance wash over him.

  Because his opponent is Yokoi Gunpei!

  Known by players as the "God of Hardware", and called "The Hand of God" by his peers, Yokoi Gunpei!

  If Shigeru Miyamoto is the core of Nintendo's software development, then Gunpei Yokoi is the soul of Nintendo's hardware development.

  The designer of the world's first handheld game console, Game & Watch. The legendary designer of the Famicom (FC) and its successor, Super Famicom (SFC). The designer of the Game Boy. The inventor of the D-pad. And the designer of WonderSwan.

  Regarding Yokoi Gumpei's historical status, I have a story here that may express one or two aspects.

  On February 20, 2003, in San Francisco, at the annual awards ceremony held by the International Developers Conference, the organizers announced that this year's Lifetime Achievement Award for Special Contributions to the Game Industry would be posthumously awarded to Gunpei Yokoi, the late inventor of the Game Boy and D-pad.

  When Yokoi's eldest son walked onto the stage to receive the shield-shaped award and gave a speech of thanks, the huge screen behind him immediately showed the great man's humble and innocent smile. The venue, which accommodated thousands of industry elites, suddenly erupted in prolonged thunderous applause, with heartfelt praise that completely transcended commercial competition and differences in interests.

  The vast majority of people in the entire venue were moved to tears, and these people are not limited to Japanese people, but also many Europeans and Americans who spent their beautiful childhood with Game Boy.

  A young journalist was also infected by the strong atmosphere in the scene, and after returning to his country, he mentioned it in an article in a media outlet.

  "At that moment, I truly felt the lofty status of Mr. Yokoi Gunpei in this industry field, and his creation's contribution to global consumers is absolutely indelible!"

  Facing such a strong opponent, Jester can't help but feel pressure.

  Indeed, he knew that any host platform was not relying on the host's capabilities to differentiate market share, but rather on games!

  The 3DS is far superior to the PSV, and it's indeed because of the games rather than the hardware.

  But look at the games on 3DS, not to mention first-party titles, but take MH4 for example, an action-hunting masterpiece, although it's not exclusive to 3DS, the problem is that until Gyakuten Saiban was released, there were no PSV versions.

  And on PSV, apart from a few niche games, the so-called masterpieces are all weird and mediocre, Sony is lucky to still be alive.

  This treacherous and despicable traitor, Capcom has already decided to absolutely not let it go, making players play mosaic MH4, this is a crime against every MH player, which cannot be forgiven or tolerated.

  This is an unshirkable responsibility for every MH player.

  Although it is indeed possible to make those classic games in advance to attract players, how can the manufacturers who were originally able to produce classic games not be able to produce classic games in this world?

  If they think they've done it ahead of time and can't make a good game, that's truly a great absurdity!

  They have technology, ideas, capabilities, platforms and markets, why can't they succeed?

  There is no one in this world who knows more about Nintendo's EAD and the six major game development teams under its umbrella, and how powerful their research and development capabilities are. There is no one who understands better than him that there are many talented designers hidden there, who are currently unknown but will surely shake the world in the future.

  If you say arcade game development, Jester still has a bit of confidence, but for handheld game console development, he has no confidence at all.

  Jester furrowed his brow in concentration, thinking of a countermeasure.

  Since hardware may be inferior in terms of performance, it must make up for this weakness in the game.

  Then Jester let out a breath, several handheld masterpieces, he still knew them.

  For example, pm.

  He added a question mark after the two words on the letterhead, and as soon as he finished writing the question mark, his eyebrows suddenly relaxed, and the corners of his mouth cracked open, revealing a smile.

  His pen didn't stop, quickly adding a big exclamation mark after the question mark on his palm computer, and still feeling dissatisfied, he continued to write seven or eight consecutive exclamation marks, each one bigger than the last.

  "How could I have forgotten about this divine artifact?"

  Then he wrote four words on the letter paper.

  Takamako.