What is the most popular video game in the world in 1980~1981, and now many people can easily break out the answer - "Chinese Cube" handheld. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

At the beginning of January 1981, the total sales of "China Cube" handheld consoles had just exceeded 1 million units. But by the end of February, the total sales of "Chinese Cubes" had exceeded 3 million units.

In February, its monthly sales exceeded 2 million units.

As of March, China Square has signed distribution agreements with more than 1,000 distributors around the world. As for the distribution channels of this handheld, it has spread to most parts of the world, and at least 65% of the population can buy this handheld in their local cities.

The Chinese Cube handheld has become a phenomenal commodity, and at least the entire video game industry cannot ignore the trend it represents.

At the very least, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and other well-known video game manufacturers in the industry are said to be trying to develop a handheld similar to "Chinese Cube".

Among them, Atari has announced that it will develop a handheld that includes two games, "Snake" and "Pong", which will be released in the near future.

Atari advertised in the media: "We're not the Hong Kong company that was lucky enough to develop a cube and pretentious." We're going to make a steady stream of handheld consoles for all kinds of games, and tell the company in Hong Kong that it's not a good idea to be able to develop one or two games. Compared to the real leaders in the gaming industry, they are far behind!"

In this regard, Lin Qi couldn't help but feel a little regretful, and "Pong" was just that, this was Atari's entrepreneurial debut.

Snake is a game developed by Gremlin and has been on the market since '76. New Startup Electronics also tried to buy the rights to the game, bidding up to $3 million and 20% of the game's sales profits.

But Gremlin did not hesitate to refuse, and it chose to sell the rights to the "Snake" handheld to Atari for a whopping $5 million, plus a $1 share for each handheld sold.

Compared with Atari, the gap between the new start-up electronics company is not only in terms of capital, but also in terms of industry influence, and the gap is too far away.

……

New startups don't just have to deal with the Atari empire in the United States.

In fact, Nintendo, another emerging company in the game industry that is easily overlooked, is also eyeing the handheld market.

Japan. Tokyo, Nintendo headquarters.

Pu Yamauchi holds the handheld of "Chinese Cube" in one hand, and Game & Watch, said to his subordinate general Yokoi Gunpei: "Such a simple game, why didn't you think of it?"

Originally, Game & Watch is a handheld machine, and the hardware is very close to "Chinese Cube". Black ** crystal screen, 6502 chip ...... Moreover, in addition to the gaming function, it also includes a calendar and a spreadsheet function.

Historically, it can be very successful, priced at 12,500 yen, it can still sell more than 60 million units, laying a solid foundation for Nintendo's follow-up masterpiece GameBoy.

But now this handheld is no longer selling!

Game & Watch, Nintendo advertised a lot at the beginning of its launch, and sold more than 1 million units in total last year.

Originally, this year, with the rollout of sales channels, there should be better performance. But...... At the beginning of 1981, the dealer had stopped continuing to stock Game & Watch！

Because, consumers said that this kind of nondescript product is purely a money fraud!

Take Game & If you compare Watch with "Chinese Cube", players will only think that Game & Watch is so boring.

At the same time, Game& The price of the Watch is 12,500 yen, and the function of its electronic watch is considered by consumers to be superfluous.

After all, an ordinary electronic watch is only a few hundred yen, so why should they spend a few thousand extra yen for the function of the electronic watch?

The price is certainly not Game & The most fatal flaw of Watch, the real fatal flaw, is that its gameplay is terrible and can't be compared to Chinese Cubes.

Yokoi Junhei said with a wry smile: "It's not a technical problem, it's completely inspiration! The success of irreproducibility is so simple that it seems so simple, but it can't be surpassed at all except for plagiarism and infringement!"

"It is said that Lin Qi, the owner of the new start-up electronics company, took inspiration from the Great Wall of China, Yokoi, do you want to apply for a tour of China?" asked Yamauchi.

Yokoi Junhei looked blank and said: "What's the point of this? Even if you realize a similar idea, it is difficult to get rid of the traces of imitation!"

"Imitation! If you can make a game that does not infringe copyright, but is similar to the gameplay of "Chinese Cubes"...... Even if it's not as popular, it's definitely worth the risk. For the sake of Nintendo's long-term development, he does not directly do piracy and plagiarism, but he advocates imitation and reference.

There were dozens of developers at the venue, including Shigeru Miyamoto, an artist who developed the Donkey Kong game. Since the "Donkey Kong" arcade has been developed, although it has not been listed, the ability of his team has been recognized internally, so he is qualified to attend.

Pu in Yamauchi ordered them to imitate "Chinese Cube", of course, but they could not plagiarize. This makes these game developers very distressed, can they really borrow ideas and extract similar gameplay, but it does not constitute plagiarism?

If the game idea was really that simple, then the imitation works of "Chinese Cube" would have been flooded a long time ago!

Shigeru Miyamoto was also pondering, can "Chinese Cube" really be imitated? Then, he unconsciously took out a piece of paper, and then drew some patterns randomly......

"What are you doing?" said Yamauchi, looking at Shigeru Miyamoto a little angrily.

"Inspiration......" Miyamoto muttered to himself.

For a moment, the entire office fell silent, for fear of interrupting his inspiration......

After a while, Shigeru Miyamoto threw away a ball of manuscript paper and finally ...... He showed a childlike smile: "Although, it's not as good as "Chinese Cube", but ...... It's at least a little god-like!"

Everyone gathered around, only to see that on the drawings drawn by Shigeru Miyamoto, there were only two very simple shapes - equilateral triangles and parallelograms!

"Fill a row with triangles and parallelogram bricks, and it will be eliminated automatically!" said Shigeru Miyamoto, a little embarrassed, "When these triangular bricks fall, the player can control the bricks to change direction and position......"

"Very good!" Yokoi Junhei understood after a little thought, "Although it has obvious traces of imitation, it will not infringe the patent! No, we will immediately register it for a patent!"

Pu Yamauchi also said with satisfaction: "The name of the game, let's call it "Nintendo Triangle"! Watch, I won't treat the meritorious people badly!"

Perhaps because of the butterfly effect caused by Lin Qi, Nintendo was unable to make the most profit on "Tetris", but instead came up with a parody of the elimination game "Nintendo Triangle".

Although the sales of this "Triangle" are not a heavyweight with "Chinese Cube", it has indeed become a salvation Game & Heroes of the Watch and Nintendo handheld projects......