"What I'm talking about is the technology of this project, and at the moment we are positioned to develop and sell cheap office computers, we need to strictly control its price, and try to let it occupy a large number of markets, and it is enough to achieve this. And if we really want to make a lot of profits, we have to rely on supporting software development to achieve it. ”

Just as Nintendo does not rely on the FC game console itself to make money, Wang Zhengguo also does not plan to rely on this 6502 computer positioned as cheap and high-volume to make much money, its purpose is just to occupy the market and occupy a large number of markets with a low-price strategy!

If you don't make money on hardware, you should instead consider making software in the republic and go through the paid model, how can this work?

First of all, it is very difficult to make a lot of money in simple software development, which Wang Zhengguo knows very well, the reason is that software is too easy to be cracked by those people in China who have a strong spirit of sharing.

What to do, since simple software is easy to crack, then solve it by using both software and hardware, plus there are not many programmers in the eighties, and there should not be many people who run to crack and pirate, relatively speaking, the cassette mode can work.

"We burn the software to the cartridge so that we only need to plug in the cartridge when using the program, and we can also reserve a certain amount of rewritable memory space on the cartridge for the user's own data storage. This is a complete office cartridge that is not expected to be more than a slap in size, and portability is completely acceptable. ”

Burning programs on the cartridge and providing memory space for program running is only the first step requirement, and storing user data is fundamental, and only by realizing user data storage and portability can this significantly improve the portability of office software.

And the above requirements are not impossible to do, for example, the cassette game has the function of storing game progress, which is actually storing the user's local data, since the game data can be stored, there is no reason for office data.

The young man obviously understood what Wang Zhengguo meant, and he responded positively: "That's right, burn the program to the cassette, which can effectively reduce the occupation of computer memory, and the cassette itself can also repeatedly erase and write a certain size of user data, which is equivalent to a cassette to achieve the portability of software and data, which is technically completely feasible." ”

It is a good sign that the plan can be recognized, but there is another issue that must be determined in advance, and this is the key to the future success or failure of Wang Zhengguo's computer plan.

Nintendo's FC console pushed the development of cartridge technology to an unprecedented era, and made a lot of money as a result, but Nintendo's success cannot be replicated in its entirety, and the competition in the computer industry is much greater than that of the console industry, and in this regard, the two are absolutely incomparable.

Nintendo can rely on the launch of FC consoles and quickly occupy more than two-thirds of the home console market, which is probably already a near-monopoly position, from this point of view, it can have the capital to control the developer access qualifications of FC console supporting games, and use it to suck blood and make profits.

But the current 6502 computer is different, and even if it can be launched quickly, it will definitely not be as brutal as the Nintendo FC game console, and as for the near-monopoly status, it is absolutely impossible.

At this time, if you are still going to strictly control the developers who are willing to develop software for the 6502 computer, it is almost a brain pump, and if you really do this, you will push the supporting software developers to other competitors.

Not only can not control the development and access of supporting software, but even have to vigorously support and win over supporting software developers, so that they can move closer to the 6502 computer periphery, only by gathering a large number of supporting software developers, this can be regarded as a complete software ecosystem, and let the benign development.

The 6502 computer is cheap enough, the operating system is not likely to be complicated, and even with the cartridge technology, it can also be plug-and-play, as simple as the FC game console, this alone can ensure that the computer is easy to operate, but this is not the point, the real focus is to pull the software development through this routine.

In order to be able to fight back in the face of Microsoft in the later stage, early sacrifice and ecological cultivation are indispensable, and it is inevitable to reduce profits and even lose money for this purpose.

"I probably think the same as this comrade, our computers are cheap, but the software is our profit point. However, this kind of good thing that can achieve a lot of profits, I think it should be made public, including cassette interfaces, programming language standards, so that all developers who are willing to give us supporting development can have the opportunity to stand on the same platform. ”

This is Wang Zhengguo's idea, and it is also a general norm in the computer industry, including Microsoft, which is popular at this time, does not dare to rashly say that the access qualification of control software developers, and naturally the developers of 6502 computers will not have any objections, after all, they are not developing game consoles.

"Open interface, that means I can also do software development for the 6502 computer, right?"

Everyone turned their heads to look at the young man who correctly answered the source of cassette technology just now, and it was he who proposed to do the software supporting work of the 6502 computer, which made Wang Zhengguo a little surprised, but it didn't seem to be wrong when he thought about it.

"Xuemin, you are now a school teacher, and I am afraid that it is not suitable to do software development. A middle-aged teacher frowned and persuaded that just listening to this, there was a sense of old-fashionedness, but the young man, who was called a scholar, ignored it.

For the software, he has his own thoughts: "Professor, I was originally teaching software development, there is no problem at all to do this, 6502 computer development operating system is also necessary, I will definitely follow up with specific references, when the time comes, no one can understand this system better than me, and then supporting the development of software why not?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone else was silent, some people couldn't be offended, and some people had a deep background and must not mess around.

"Not only that, but I also have to mobilize students to do development at that time, only real practical operation, this can learn things, as far as our school is concerned, the software development major has just been established for two years, and the only way to develop the major rapidly is to operate a lot, so as long as this computer can be developed successfully, I will teach according to my ideas." ”

As a high-level talent who has returned from studying abroad, staying in school as a teacher is the way he thinks can best help the rapid development of the domestic software industry, after all, after seeing the large amount of manpower required for software development abroad, he knows that talents in the software industry are the key.

The middle-aged man saw that his persuasion had no effect, and after thinking about it, he still sighed, shook his head and walked out of the development center directly, how can it be like this, how can it be .......

The atmosphere was a little awkward, but Wang Zhengguo was very excited: "This teacher is called.... I very much agree with what you said, and the development of software cannot be limited because of the work of developers. As a teacher, I think this is the right path to lead students to develop together and learn by doing. ”

Can you not be happy that some teachers are willing to deeply participate in the development of the operating system, and drive their students to participate in the follow-up supporting software development work, which will be a milestone for the ecological construction of the 6502 computer.

Programmers are scarce these days, and if they can get in touch with and develop 6502 computer software at the student level, there is no doubt that they are still very likely to choose 6502 computers due to various inertia after joining the work, and this alone is enough.