Chapter 040 Autumn Trade Fair

  In the next three days, Yang Yun took Jiang Shaoyun to Xishan Niangzi Pass with Liu Cixin, met his family, and met the leaders of the Niangzi Pass Hydropower Station. After much hardship and persuasion, they finally settled the transfer procedures for Liu Cixin.

  Due to family factors and social pressure, Yang Yun had no choice but to ask Duan Haisheng, the director of Chiyang Electronics Factory, to take over Liu Cixin's file, becoming his nominal employer.

  He works in Longteng Company, but his salary is paid by the name of Chi Yang Electronics Factory, and the dividend funds to be paid to Longteng are directly deducted from the account.

  Too many formalities, going around in circles, purely a waste of time, but it can't be helped. This is the procedure for state-owned enterprises to follow, private and individually owned businesses are restricted too much in society.

  At the banquet to entertain guests, Long Teng's mid-level cadres, the main person in charge of Chi Yang Electronics Factory, and Jiang Yang and his group of distributors all gathered together, completely getting Liu Cixin, this honest fellow, drunk.

  Just as Yang Yun was feeling sentimental, Jiang Yang pulled over with Duan Haisheng holding a wine glass and asked mysteriously: "Director Yang, I'm asking you something. Your new flight game, when can it be completed?"

  Yang Yun suddenly felt strange: "After testing for another week, making some minor adjustments, the final version can be finalized. What? What are you two thinking of again?"

  Jiang Yang smiled and said, "If it can be finalized within a week, that would be great! Director Yang, how about we three companies jointly participate in the Autumn Trade Fair this year? We'll sell our Red Sun game cards and learning cards to the whole world, what do you think?"

  "Autumn Trade Fair?"

  Yang Yun had no impression of this at all, and his previous life never paid attention to such things.

  Jiang Yang's eyebrows danced with excitement: "In previous years, the Autumn Trade Fair was always held at the end of October, but this year is the 40th anniversary of the founding of the country, and didn't the Fourth Plenary Session just close with the election of a new General Secretary? I heard that the trade fair was brought forward by a month on his orders, to prepare a big gift for the motherland's birthday."

  "Is that so? Old Jiang, you even know about this national secret?" Yang Yun was startled, "This kind of thing can't be spread around casually! Spreading rumors is a serious crime! Didn't someone famous say: 'Spreading rumors may bring temporary satisfaction, but the whole family will end up in a crematorium...'"

  Jiang Yang cried and laughed: "Who spread the rumor? Which celebrity said this again? Too much! Anyway, the Guangzhou Fair was indeed advanced, really advanced by a month. Old Duan has already received the notice. President Yang, are you willing to go or not, give me an exact answer!"

  "This Guangzhou Fair, Yang Yun felt a bit uneasy: "But I don't know much about the Guangzhou Fair at all. Manager Jiang, would you please introduce it to me? What's the scale of the fair? How many companies usually participate in the exhibition? And roughly how much can be traded each year?"

  Jiang Yang pushed Duan Haisheng: "Old Duan, you say it."

  "In the spring of '88, $4.6 billion was traded, in the autumn $4.9 billion, and for the whole year $9.5 billion. In '87, the spring saw $4 billion, the autumn $4.5 billion, and the whole year $8.5 billion. Going back a few more years, it's slightly less, but every year is increasing, with an overall upward trend. And this spring we had $4.8 billion, so if we launch another big satellite this autumn, hey, the Canton Fair will exceed $10 billion for the first time, and that would be a gift to our motherland on her birthday, absolutely something to show off!"

  "$10 billion? That must be after conversion! Do domestic procurement and transactions also need to use US dollars?"

  "Of course, it's 10 billion after conversion! Last year, the country's foreign exchange reserves were only $3.3 billion, General Yang, do you think US dollars are easy to earn? However, if this year's Canton Fair can reach a turnover of $10 billion, that would be sensational! I'm afraid it could even double the central bank's foreign exchange reserves of $3.3 billion! At this historic moment, Old Duan, we must not miss it!"

  Jiang Yang was so excited that he rubbed his hands together, picked up the wine glass on the table, and was about to toast with Duan Haisheng. But when he looked at Yang Yun, he didn't react at all, and couldn't help but feel a little annoyed: "Director Yang, the country is prospering, foreign exchange reserves are increasing year by year, isn't that a good thing? The Canton Fair is a multi-billion dollar event, how can you look like this? Don't you want to participate at all?"

  $33 billion in foreign exchange reserves is enough to get you so excited? In the era before Yang Yun's rebirth, the country's foreign exchange reserves reached $300 billion. If that were said, it would surely scare Jiang Yang and Duan Haisheng to death!

  Yang Yun, who had seen bigger scenes, could only pretend to be excited: "Good, good, I want to participate. But what form are you preparing to exhibit? Chi Yang Four-in-One Game Card? Chi Yang Learning Card?"

  At this point, Jiang Yang and Duan Haisheng immediately became embarrassed, they were very clear in their hearts.

  At home, secretly copying and pasting is one thing, but Chuyang Electronics Factory copied the Kote learning card, slapped a Chuyang label on it, and still sold it like hotcakes. The headquarters of China Industrial Corporation in Beijing didn't even intervene, not because they didn't want to manage, but because they simply couldn't.

  If you really want to participate in the Guangzhou Fair, you'll be facing buyers from all over the world. If you really take out Super Mario and Donkey Kong to sell, I'm afraid you won't get a single order. And the first ones to come after you will definitely be Nintendo's team of lawyer experts.

  The only two authentic ones are probably the Dragon Dance Troupe and the Saloman Snake, which is a bit bleak, not even enough to fill a four-in-one.

  Duan Haisheng could only smile wryly: "Let's try, we'll prepare two sets of plans. For domestic clients who make a purchase, we'll give them the 4-in-1 deal. As for export earnings, let's hope Yang Zong's new game will bring us some luck. It would be best if we can also sell our Red Sun learning machine console together with it. We must work hard to contribute to the country's foreign exchange earnings."

  Yang Yun spread his hands helplessly: "Alright, go if you must. As for the game, I'll just do my best!"

  ……

  ……

  There is only one week of preparation time left, and at least half a day needs to be reserved for testing and burning game cartridges, leaving very little time.

  The two-in-one game card is not competitive in the market, so Yang Yun plans to work overtime and make two more, making it a four-in-one, just to meet the Guangzhou Fair first.

  Racking her brains, Yang Yun made a great effort to recall the FC games she had played, writing them down one by one and then crossing them off the paper one after another.

  Horizontal scrolling games are definitely the trend of game development. It's best not to have single-screen games in Four-in-One. Unfortunately, Tank War and Tetris, two classic games, were sacrificed. Yang Yun is still under unfair competition constraints, so he can only reluctantly give up on them to avoid unnecessary trouble.

  Yang Yun finally settled on two games, both simple and fun, and not complicated to program, which could be made within a week.

  Rocket Car, a vertical scrolling racing game where the player controls an orange car accelerating on a high-speed track. The screen features yellow obstacle cars with fixed routes, red obstacle cars that actively approach, green obstacle cars that swing left and right, extremely long special transport vehicles, road craters and large rocks, manhole covers, and colorful time cars that refresh at any time.

  This game does not have a bullet firing system, and the design is relatively simple. As long as any obstacle collides, the racing car will spin out of control for a short distance, allowing players to slow down and control the direction. Once it hits either side of the track, it will crash directly.

  Adventure Island, a side-scrolling platform game similar to Super Mario, also known as Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima, features an old-fashioned brave warrior who rescues the princess. Players must clear each stage by throwing axes and fireballs, fighting small monsters and big bosses. The scenes include land, sea surface, caves, rocks, glaciers, etc., and the monsters include snails, frogs, octopuses, sharks, bats, bees, skulls, etc.

  To ensure originality, Yang Yun turned over and contacted Alexei, who was far away in the United States, and they started chatting.

  The company KTT initially handled the sales of Tetris, with Nintendo purchasing the first 1 million copies and a second contract for another 1 million directly operated by Alexey.

  Tetris was a huge success in North America and Japan, and given the rate at which it was selling, both men would be millionaires within a few years.

  Nintendo is about to sign the third contract with KTT for Tetris, but Nintendo is ready to exercise its first renegotiation right. This requires both parties to sit down face-to-face again, at which point Yang Yun will have to step in.

  After inquiring about Nintendo's negotiation time, Yang Yun calculated that he would have to wait until after National Day, so he made an appointment to contact him again after National Day. Aleksey had to go and confirm the international patent rights for Adventure Island and Rocket Car first.

  Hang up the phone, Yang Yun convened a mobilization meeting and set the design tasks for these two games.

  Zhang Guoqiang led two people to mainly develop the Rocket Car game, Xiang Tian and Matsumoto Yoshino respectively drew six scenes of Adventure Island, Inoue Osamu led others to integrate the game, directly transplanted the weapon shooting system of Salamander into the Adventure Island game, with a little improvement.

  Yang Yun made a promise, if they work overtime and complete it within a week, each person will be rewarded with a 2,000 yuan red envelope.

  As soon as this was said, the whole company's morale soared! Zhang Guoqiang even brought over a few younger brothers from Tsinghua University's computer science department to do some part-time work, and the development progress accelerated significantly.

  The next day, Aleksey contacted Yang Yun with a mix of good and bad news.

  The bad news is that Rocket Knight is a Konami game from Japan, and this is direct competition.

  Good news is that the original copyright owner of High Bridge's Celebrity Island Adventure is Westone, an American game developer, and Alexei has already contacted them and can purchase the expansion development rights for their games with US dollars at a price of $0.1 per copy.

  At this price, Yang Yun did not hesitate and let Aleksey agree with the other party's quotation.

  After making an appointment, Yang Yun and Jiang Shaoyun ran around the city to find a fax machine that could accept American calls. They finally found one after much difficulty and received the contract sent by Alexei. Then they went to the US Embassy in China and mailed out the authorization documents with the Longteng Company's seal and their signatures, reminding Alexei to bring the effective patent authorization documents to the Canton Fair as soon as possible.

  Troublesome person!

  But in order not to be outdone by others, it's still not enough to just not stir up trouble!

  To attend the Canton Fair and sell products globally, it is essential to ensure the legitimacy of patents.

  The Hudson version of Adventure Island, a Japanese indie game manufacturer, has 8 big levels and 32 small levels, which are almost identical in repetition, with the only difference being the number of small monsters in the game, making it very dull. Even for the most skilled players, it takes about an hour to clear the game, causing severe visual fatigue.

  Yang Yun had Xiang Tian and Matsumoto Yoshino redesign, the final Longteng version of Adventure Island's graphics were more refined, content was richer, and added more small monster models, playability became higher.

  Xiang Tian is a professional painter graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts, who worked as an illustrator for children's animation in Beijing Film Studio. He added many Chinese elements to the game and cancelled the 8x4 mode levels, carefully selecting 16 different map backgrounds, which can be called luxurious!

  In addition, Konami must have been an unrelenting competitor, as it was impossible for them to obtain the authorization from Rocket Car, so Yang Yun could only make large-scale changes. Together with Zhang Guoqiang's PR team, they worked continuously for several days and finally created a racing game that looked more like a vertical version of Space Harrier.

  Finally, on September 8th, a group of R&D personnel from Longteng Company, with dark circles under their eyes and red eyes, finally fixed the two games. Then, without stopping, they sent 100 game cartridges to Chiyang Electronics Factory for overnight burning, and pasted the label of Chiyang's four-in-one game card on them. The four games were "Salamander", "Longteng Adventure Island", "Circus" and "Rocket Car".

  Watching the game card go down the production line and pass the test perfectly on the testing machine, Yang Yun let out a sigh of relief.

  Duan Haisheng grasped Yang Yun's hand, shaking it desperately: "Boss Yang, you've arrived just in time! I had to swallow my pride and run around the Industrial Hall for two weeks before finally getting a spot at the Guangzhou Trade Fair. If you can't come up with the game card, I'll lose face big time this time!"

  Yang Yun smiled and said: "Old Duan, it's up to you next. I can only guarantee that the game is fine, as for sales..."

  Duan Haisheng patted his chest and promised: "Brother, I'll dismantle this old bone of mine this year, and we must make a comeback! Mr. Yang, rest assured, as long as we can earn foreign exchange for the country, when the time comes for Ruiyang and Longteng to settle accounts, I will not treat you unfairly. According to our previous profit-sharing agreement, I'll give you an additional 10 points, I mean what I say!"

  Yang Yun saw that Duan Haisheng actually brought a supplementary contract and seal with him, and couldn't help but laugh in surprise, knowing that this time Duan Haisheng was really going all out. He smiled and signed his name on the contract.

  The next day, Yang Yun joined the Beijing delegation team and boarded a train bound for Yangcheng.

  The 1989 Autumn Canton Fair is about to begin!