Chapter 47: The Banquet

  "Syd Mead." Carly's tone was flat, which was also certain because she had no idea how great the name in her mouth would be in the future.

  After getting Carly's affirmative answer, Jester calmed down instead. He is now the controller of a not-so-small holding company with a game development company, a display chip R&D company, a comic book company, and one-third of the shares of a future computer giant. In other words, he is also a successful person with a net worth of 100 million, no longer a small character.

  A small game company that is not well-known, although they would very much like to be, and their future may be great, but for now, it's not suitable for them to go themselves.

  He then said to Carrie on the other end of the phone, "You send over the games from this company and I'll take a close look. If they're really good, I think I can have Mars Entertainment acquire them. We actually do need one or two companies that specialize in computer games to expand our diversification."

  He hung up the phone and thought carefully, it seemed that there was no department in his Mars Entertainment that specialized in acquisitions.

  Apart from some administrative staff handling miscellaneous tasks, there are only R&D personnel left.

  But that doesn't matter, his game company isn't like EA which relies solely on acquisitions to survive, unless it's those very heavyweight studios, he doesn't care about the others.

  He directly dialed Adam Edgar's phone and told him his idea of directly acquiring Microprose.

  Adam Edgar was still surprised by this, after all, he had played several games released by this company and they were not too outstanding, but their producers were very creative. However, he didn't think that just relying on these few unremarkable games would be enough to move his boss to acquire the other company, especially since he had seen what kind of games his current boss's company was developing.

  Compared with what our boss is doing now, the several games made by this company called Microprose are simply worlds apart.

  He didn't quite understand why his boss wanted to acquire such a small company.

  "Haha." Hearing Adam Edgar's puzzlement, Jester just smiled and didn't comment. He simply said calmly, "Just do as I say, there are some things you don't need to know."

  A game that can be passed down through the ages is not just about having an idea, nor is it just about having the technical ability to complete it. Every such masterpiece has the creator's spiritual connotation infused in it, their thoughts have merged with their work as one.

  Sid Meier's dream before becoming a game designer was to be a taxonomist, and he had thought about this idea for many years before making Civilization, then he showed his taxonomic ability beyond most taxonomists in this great game.

  Why is Sid Meier's Civilization the best in its class, with no peer to speak of? Because it embodies Sid Meier's unique understanding of games, his game philosophy: what he thinks a great game should be, or rather, this is the game he has always wanted to create.

  Some games may not make a big difference if they were made by someone else, but some games are filled with the strong personal style of their creator. If the creator changes, even though the materials are still there, the taste is completely different.

  You can't even imagine how this game would be if it had a different developer, can you imagine Civilization without Sid Meier's prefix?

  Anyway, I'm not capable of it, Jester thought so.

  Such games and creators are rare, but absolutely not few, each one can be called a legend.

  "Journey to the West" with Sid Meier, "Metal Gear Solid" with Hideo Kojima, "Deus Ex" with Warren Spector, and "Ninja Gaiden" with Tomonobu Itagaki, of course there are many more.

  "Alright then." Adam Edgar could only somewhat reluctantly agree.

  After finishing the conversation with Adam Edgar, Jester suddenly remembered that he had not sent the Apple computer to Carmack's kid and also needed his help in making a few computer games for his newly released company.

  The computer game is not that he can't do it himself, but he really doesn't have the time. His entire team is working intensively on development tasks, and even if a game is simple, from drawing, composing music, writing code to debugging, it takes at least two or three days. Plus the later beautification process, five or six days is also not enough.

  Time! Jester couldn't help but sigh again.

  The game for Kamak should not be too difficult but must be interesting, preferably like Minesweeper which gets more and more addictive as you play, once you get the hang of it, you can't stop.

  After some thought, Jester really did think of one.

  This is a game that was released in 2014, the gameplay is simple but very addictive.

  He pulled out a piece of paper from his desk and wrote down a single word at the top, also the name of this game, "Threes".

  The Chinese name of this game is "Little 3 Legend", which is basically a game from the same period as the classic "Pixel Bird". Although it's not as famous as "Pixel Bird", it's also a highly entertaining and addictive game that has attracted countless players.

  Jester is one of them.

  The most important thing is that this small-scale game has a very high level of sophistication, which is very suitable for a genius like Karamak.

  Its gameplay can be said to be both simple and complex, singular yet diverse, if you have excellent mathematical thinking, theoretically, you can play this game infinitely until you don't want to play anymore.

  It's really a great way to kill time.

  As he thought, Jester drew a 4x4 matrix on the paper and wrote down the simple rules of this game below.

  In this 4x4 matrix, five numbers will appear randomly at the beginning. These numbers can only be 1, 2, 3 or small multiples of 3. The player can move any one of these five numbers to an adjacent grid cell (up, down, left, or right). Note that when moving a number, the entire matrix's numbers will also move, not just the individual number being moved, provided there is an empty space for it to move into.

  And every time a player moves a number, a new number will appear in the opposite position of the number moved by the player. For example, if the player moves a number to the left, the new number will appear on the right side, and if they move a number up, the new number will appear below.

  Similarly, newly appearing numbers can only be one, two, three.

  The rule is to merge, but not arbitrary merging. It can only be one and two merged or three and multiples of three merged. In other words, it can only be one and two merged into three, then three and three merged into six, six and six merged into twelve, twelve and twelve merged into twenty-four...and so on. Three and six cannot be merged, of course, all merging methods except this are not allowed.

  Like "American Block", the top of this matrix will also prompt what the next number to appear is, and the scoring system will definitely not run away.

  When all sixteen squares of this 4x4 matrix are filled with numbers, the game is over.

  While writing down the rules, Jester also drew detailed matrix diagrams in case Karmark didn't understand what he meant.

  He wrote down all the rules, settings and gameplay of "Little 3 Legend", but Jester still had some unfinished ideas. He then thought of another game that was developed later based on "Little 3 Legend" with similar gameplay, but simpler rules, more fun and exciting.

  《1024》。

  Then, Jest wrote down the gameplay and rules of "1024" and its advanced versions "2048" and "4096", but with a difference from the original version. He merged the three games into one, but divided them into three difficulty levels: the primary version is "1024", the advanced version is "2048", and the master version is "4096".

  In fact, Jester liked 2048 more than the ancestor of this type of game, Little 3 Legend, simply because it was simpler.

  Jester wrote seven or eight pages of paper, and only then did he put down his pen, still feeling like there was more to say. He went back through the document from start to finish, revising some of the earlier parts that weren't very rigorous and could be misinterpreted, and adding more explanation in places where things were unclear. Only then did he write what he wanted to say to Carmack at the bottom of the game design document.

  Of course, I must first praise him for the good job he did on "Sweeping Mines", and then say that Apple's latest computer will be sent to you with this letter. Finally, I encouraged him a bit, and of course, there is also the small task above that needs your serious completion.

  The prize is the same as in "Sweep Mines", an item worth one Apple computer or cash.

  After finishing writing, Jester took out an envelope from the drawer on one side, wrote Carmack's address on it, put the letter in the envelope, sealed it, and then picked up the phone to call a janitorial staff member to come over to pick up a letter and buy a brand new Apple latest computer at the same time, and have it express mailed to the address on the envelope.

  After waiting for a few minutes, his staff took the letter away, and Jester continued to play "Raiden" in the system, which gave him a kind of masochistic pleasure. This time he persisted for more than an hour, in order to review the details of the game's level design multiple times, Jester deliberately died several times, and also recorded some reference points on paper, and drew a few rough sketches of the settings.

  After countless deaths, Jester also mastered the game and understood why it was called "dodging bullets is more important than shooting planes", at least much stronger than when he first started playing.

  It's about time, Jester is ready to go to Los Angeles.

  Nakayama Hayao had already extended an invitation to him a few days before his arrival, planning to hold a banquet on the evening of his arrival, mainly to entertain some business friends. Those invited were high-level executives from multinational corporations, either directors of companies like GE and MOTO, or heads of American subsidiaries like Matsushita and Sony. Originally, as Jest, he was not qualified to attend, but because this time he would be signing a contract with Sega, he was also included in the invitation.

  It was a kind intention expressed by Zhongshan Xunyong towards him.

  Sega is very sincere about our cooperation between us.

  Juster was not very interested in this, he hated this kind of social gathering the most, although the level of this gathering was very high.

  Although he didn't like it, Jester couldn't not go, or else it would be too rude.

  Jester had never participated in such a banquet in his past life or this one, and wasn't quite familiar with it. However, at the very least he knew from watching movies and TV shows that attending such a banquet required wearing formal attire. He couldn't help but feel envious of people like Zuckerberg who could wear slippers to formal events, but he couldn't do the same - after all, people were different.

  Jester's soul is a Chinese who has received more than a decade of traditional Chinese education. In his eyes, such behavior that doesn't care about others' opinions may be uninhibited, but it is also impolite and at least extremely disrespectful to the host.

  This is something Jester can't do.

  The dress is Armani, bought at the specialty store a few days ago. It's not handmade or anything, first of all there wasn't enough time, and secondly Jester didn't have much interest in it either, so I just picked something that fit and that was it.

  The dinner party is at 7:30 tonight and will be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

  Just as Jester was getting into his brand new tuxedo and preparing to drive his Mustang muscle car to Los Angeles, he suddenly thought that such a party might be more suitable with a female companion.

  At this time, he couldn't help but think of the girl he met in the bookstore again. More than a month had passed, and he wondered if she had finished reading "The Unbearable Lightness of Being".

  Of course, he just thought about it, although Jester knew the girl's name and information, and with his current resources, it was enough to find this girl. However, Jester felt that this was not good, inviting a girl who had only met once to attend a dinner party without any reason, which made him feel stupid no matter how he thought about it.

  Moreover, she is a traditional girl from mainland China, and it's unlikely that she would agree to such an excessive and unreasonable request.

  Jester thought so, then who should he look for?

  Then Jester thought about the person who could think, and unexpectedly found that the owner of this body was a thorough otaku. Usually, except for studying programming, he would go to the gym to work out. As a man who had experienced an entire American high school career, he was actually still a virgin.

  I've gotten to know many female classmates, and quite a few of them have even flirted with me in various ways, but I'm surprisingly uninterested. It seems that interacting with cold code is more enjoyable for me than interacting with passionate, charming beauties.

  What a waste of natural talent.

  Jester was indignant in his thoughts, but he seemed to have forgotten that before his rebirth, he was also just an otaku similar to this one.

  Everyone is Big Brother, no one laughs at Second Brother.

  It's not hard to find those female classmates for Jester now, but Jester is also not interested in being overly intimate with a woman he has never been in contact with.

  Essentially, Jester is still very introverted.

  At this time, Jester suddenly thought of a candidate, and after some deliberation, it seemed that she was the most suitable. Then Jester dialed Carly's phone without hesitation.

  "What? You want me to be your date and attend a dinner party with you?" After hearing Jester's words, Carly actually laughed exaggeratedly. She really couldn't think of it - such an outstanding young man in her eyes, a billionaire at a young age, would actually not be able to find a date.

  "Are you going to help or not?!" Jester said irritably.

  "Haha." Upon hearing Jester's words, Carly's laughter on the other end of the phone grew a little louder.