Chapter 4: Gluttonous Snake

  The next day, Yang Yun joined the Huamo Electronics Factory's asset restructuring team, which was what Zhao Yongping and his Soviet expert friend, Alexei Pajitnov, privately called it. The three of them conducted a systematic analysis of the equipment and technology within the factory in order to produce a report on the transformation of the factory as quickly as possible.

  After another week, the three of them, led by a local driver, thoroughly investigated all the large and small electronics factories in Rongshan City. They also went to Dongguan and Shenzhen, visiting many peers without hesitation.

  Returning to Hua Mao, everyone's hearts were heavy with thought.

  In the factory director's office, Zhao Yongping said with a gloomy face: "Aleksey, Xiao Yang, time is not waiting for me! The small genius card company has started to build sales channels, and the sales of Jinyizhi learning machines are also good. Nintendo's red and white machines have firmly grasped the high-end market in Shenzhen, and we have fallen behind by a big step!"

  Alex rubbed his big nose, spread out his hands: "Since you two are optimistic about the cassette market, don't hesitate, set up the production workshop, and I'll work with Little Yang to build a 6502 CPU development platform first!"

  Zhao Yongping nodded and looked at Yang Yun, asking: "Xiao Yang, what's your idea?"

  Yang Yun smiled: "Director Zhao, Alexei, why do we need to build a platform ourselves? Why don't we take a shortcut and directly purchase a set of existing cassette tape duplication equipment?"

  The two were momentarily stunned, and Zhao Yongping asked: "Are you saying that we should learn from those small, unknown factories and secretly record cassette tapes?"

  Yang Yun nodded, that's what he meant.

  Each game console has a corresponding development machine and independent development software. The development machine is a complete set of equipment produced by the host manufacturer, and the cartridge motherboard is the most important product on the development platform, using an independent pseudo-solidified operating system, with different ROM sizes and prices.

  While developing software, clever Chinese people are best at cracking, so those small and unknown factories are not lacking in these technologies, which is how to make games, or how to crack the games made by others, and then how to convert computer languages into data instructions sent to the CPU, and then through development machine platforms, burned onto their own cartridge motherboards.

  When making cartridges, the cartridge motherboard has various sizes of memory ROM on it, and also integrates a fixed operating system. This is the separation of the machine and card. The game console must be inserted with a card to start up. And several M of ROM contain dozens of games. According to the size of each game and the capacity of the cartridge, they are divided into four-in-one, sixty-four-in-one, and so on.

  Designing an original game is such a hassle, it's easier to just crack someone else's game and make money quickly!

  This is the amazing shanzhai spirit that stunned the whole world! In the future, a smartphone will contain 7 operating systems, and you can switch between them at any time through options. This is not something we haven't done before!

  The Chinese are best at these things, buying genuine Nintendo game cartridges, cracking the software inside, and then directly burning it onto their own cartridges. A 256K game is no problem, I take a 1M cartridge and fill it up, instantly turning it into a four-in-one. A 32K game, get a 2M cartridge, and in an instant it becomes sixty-four-in-one.

  Everyone understands this principle, and it's clear at a glance.

  "Aleksey hastily shook his head: 'This is no good! Without authorization, this will lead to legal consequences.'"

  He is a Soviet person. Even if there was indeed some chaos in the socialist country of the Soviet Union, to say the least, he was much stronger than the vast majority of Chinese people in terms of patent rights and legal awareness.

  Zhao Yongping was silent, he is a graduate student at People's University, has been in Beijing for many years, of course knows the word patent, the country set up a patent office several years ago, but most people in society have too little legal awareness, so most people don't take it seriously, Yang Yun said those small factories, I estimate they don't even know what a patent is!

  Yang Yun smiled slightly: "Who says we want to infringe on their rights? We're just using this existing platform and software to make our own games. Director Zhao, going from rags to riches with empty hands is too risky, and time doesn't permit it. Nintendo and Little Genius have already run 100 meters ahead, but we haven't even reached the starting line yet! In extraordinary times, we need to use extraordinary measures!"

  After some deliberation, Zhao Yongping gritted his teeth and said: "It's settled then! We'll go buy a set of equipment back!"

  ……

  ……

  "Huamao Electronics Factory has gone crazy!"

  "They sold off all the machinery in the factory! And brought back several sets of equipment that nobody will use!"

  "What a family ruin! We must report it to the factory department and trade union!"

  The workers of Huamao Electronics Factory have been on strike for a long time, but they are aware of all the big and small events that take place in the factory.

  Zhao Yongping is a factory director who was hired from outside. Although he is in charge of production and operation, he can't make decisions to sell the factory's equipment, can he?

  Fortunately, Zhao Yongping withstood the pressure from the group and let Aleksey and Yang Yun build the platform. His future is tied to this unknown project, and now he can only take a gamble.

  Yang Yun and Alexei's relationship became increasingly close, both being tech-savvy men. Although Yang Yun was not as proficient in assembly language and VB as the Soviet expert, he had many ideas and made significant contributions to data structures, leaving Alexei deeply impressed by his words.

  No choice, after all he is from 2013!

  In the first year of university, computer majors must learn basic courses in assembly and data structures. At that time, he was timid, obedient, and didn't dare to skip class. Computers were not allowed in the dormitory either, so he studied hard for a year, which made his foundation in assembly language and data structures relatively solid...

  Yang Yun also learned a lot of techniques from Alexei, especially the platform software they bought back. After seeing visual programming, Yang Yun's heart itched and he had many ideas now. The first game born from his hands was about to be born!

  Finally, on the fifth day after the platform was built, May 4th, 1989, a memorable day, three people gathered in the R&D workshop of Huamao Electronics Factory.

  "Xiao Yang, why did you hastily call us over?" Zhao Yongping was busy to the point of being overwhelmed, writing reports, handling assets, and integrating sales and R&D teams, he wished he could turn one minute into two.

  Yang Yun skillfully opened a program and handed over a controller, gesturing: "Give it a try!"

  A square area is displayed on the screen, surrounded by a frame, with a stick in the middle and a small bright spot near the stick.

  Zhao Yongping pressed the START key and muttered: "What the hell! How do you play this?"

  "Use up, down, left and right to control the snake's route of advancement. Eat that single light point, and the snake's body will grow a bit longer. Note: do not touch the wall, nor eat your own body."

  Gluttonous snake!

  It looks very crude, where does it look like a snake? It's just a square stick!

  Moreover, the interface is too simple, a circle of black light points is just the wall, and the pure black and white snake body moves around, with the greedy snake's food light points looking like black stains on the screen.

  But soon everyone became interested.

  "Oh no! A dot has appeared on the right side!"

  "We're going to crash! Turn right quickly!"

  "We've all eaten 20 dumplings already!"

  "It's too long! Turn quickly! Look, it's too late!"

  "Director Zhao, you're too awesome! Are you in a bun? Look at how your snake head is coming out!"

  Zhao Yongping's palms were all sweaty, the first gluttonous snake, he ate 22 bright spots, and when the result refreshed, the 23rd spot refreshed inside, momentarily careless, he didn't leave a way out, as a result, the snake's head was tightly attached to its tail, circling smaller and smaller, really like a big flower roll!

  Aleksey couldn't help it, grabbed the handle and shouted: "I'll do it!"

  Yang Yun wanted to tease him, so he modified the source code and opened the game. To his surprise, Aleksey's snake body moved at twice the speed of Zhao Yongping's!

  "Oh my god! Son of a bitch! @#￥%……" Aleksey couldn't help but curse, causing Zhao Yongping, who was watching from the side, to look away in embarrassment.

  Has Gluttonous Snake successfully sparked everyone's interest? So does it have market prospects?

  Zhao Yongping narrowed his eyes, watching Aleksey and Yang Yun shouting loudly, fell silent, quickly calculated in his heart, and came to a conclusion: this game can be sold!

  But he still had an important question to confirm, and he looked at Yang Yun.