The people in the development hall are mainly responsible for the software projects currently sold by Zheru America, especially the database EBase, which is the largest in the world.

The reason for this is that the database is too important for the commercial use of computers.

While building and improving the basic functional modules of finance, sales, warehouse, procurement, and human resources around EBase, Zheru began to develop horizontally, vigorously broadened the application field, and developed independent information processing systems for libraries, supermarkets, and hotels.

EBase consists of several logical components: a core database engine, a query system, a form system, and an easy-to-use version of the SQL scripting language, ZeroneSQL, also known as Z-SQL for short.

Many of the personnel in the EBase project team are specially recruited industry experts in non-computer professional fields such as hotel management, and it is they who use EBase's query system, form system, Z-SQL, and with the cooperation of programmers, to develop practical industry information processing systems.

Tang Huan pondered in his heart that as this business became bigger and bigger, it was completely possible to start preparing for an independent establishment and establishing an industry information solution provider similar to SAP, UFIDA, and Kingdee in his previous life, so as to make an ERP with broader prospects.

In this way, the foundation of Zheru has hatched the third golden egg after microcomputers and video game consoles.

After making a joke and livening up the atmosphere, Tang Huan walked through the development hall and inspected the other project teams, and happened to see Shen Wangfu and some Chinese engineers discussing something around Ni Guangnan.

At present, Ni Guangnan's work is still focused on topics such as Hanka, Chinese character coding, and associative input methods, although Zheru's products already support Chinese, but there is still a distance from Tang Huan's ideal.

And the mainland should start to study the "Chinese Character Encoding Character Set for Information Exchange", which is GB2312-80 in the previous life.

This program includes a total of 6,763 Chinese characters, including 3,755 first-level Chinese characters, 3,008 second-level Chinese characters, and 682 characters including Latin alphabet, Greek alphabet, Japanese hirakana card, and Russian Cyrillic alphabet, which can basically meet the computer processing needs of Chinese characters.

The Chinese characters it includes cover 99.75% of the frequency of use in the mainland, but when it comes to rare characters and traditional Chinese characters that appear in personal names and ancient Chinese, GB2312 cannot deal with it, but it is precisely this point that is very important for the exchange of Chinese culture.

Regarding the Chinese character encoding scheme, Tang Huan's standard is to at least reach the coverage of GBK in his previous life, and he also uses two bytes anyway, so why not do it better?

After the cost of computer memory is further reduced, Tang Huan also plans to upgrade to support simplified and traditional Chinese characters as well as Japanese and Korean characters, similar to the scheme that GB18030 in his previous life.

As a person of insight who has crossed over, he must lay a good foundation, which will bring great benefits to various industries in the future, and from the perspective of businessmen, the benefits obtained from turning their own product standards into industry standards and even national standards are self-evident.

In addition, according to the timeline that Tang Huan has set, after the beginning of spring this year, this plan will be sent back to the mainland and submitted to relevant institutions for discussion, striving to be fully adopted.

Under this goal, Ni Guangnan's workload can be imagined.

"Didn't the company arrange a vacation for you?" Tang Huan said hello.

"It's not interesting to be alone in the New Year, it's better to stay in the company and eat." Everyone's answers are the same, typical of the tech nerds who neglect to take care of their daily lives.

Tang Huan smiled and shook his head, "I seem to have heard you discuss the topic of text and speech just now, and what new ideas have you brainstormed?" ”

"We found that the current electronic synthesis speech technology in English has developed very well, so we asked Mr. Ni to discuss it." Shen Wangfu replied with great interest.

In terms of sound card research and development, Shen Wangfu has made quite good progress, and the 1980 version of the Xiaobawang game console has integrated this achievement and plans to go on the market in the middle of the year.

"Since you are here, don't go, a buffet is prepared at the restaurant in the evening, and the whole company celebrates the Chinese New Year together." Tang Huan specially advised.

After that, Tang Huan went to the 386 project team with the highest degree of secrecy to take a look, and the prototypes of Intel8086 and MC68000 were almost completed and were being adjusted, and then waited for Tang Huan's evaluation and approval.

At this time, Chambers and Simeone rushed over, and the public activities arranged by McKenna Public Relations for Tang Huan were basically given to these two to show off.

"I heard that you are going to celebrate the New Year for the company's employees, have a party, and have a lively time, what kind of activities?" Chambers asked curiously.

"You'll find out soon." Tang Huan pretended to smile mysteriously, "Let's go, let's go to EA with me." ”

"Recently, there has been a notable addition to the spreadsheet software market, called SuperCalc, which currently only runs on the CP/M platform, and has also formed a suite with WordStar to sell." Simeone took a look and reported.

"8-bit PCs are already very mature in terms of hardware, and if manufacturers want to sell this year, they will largely rely on our software development company." Tang Huan shook his head, "Look at it, from now on, there must be a lot of software on the market that comes and goes in a hurry, and ends up in a flash in the pan." ”

Hawkins had gotten the news and greeted the trio at the door and then showed them around.

EA has released more than 20 games so far, and there are a variety of them in the display area, the most prominent of which are Tetris and Pac-Man, and the packaging of the latter is extremely special, just like the record.

Tang Huan picked it up and looked at it, the game developers listed it according to the categories of producer, music, art, programming, etc., which is indeed similar to the form of a record.

"It's creative." Tang Huan praised it sincerely, "No wonder "Pac-Man" sold 600,000 copies in one go. ”

Hawkins had a smug look on his face, but said modestly, "This inspiration actually came from the way the boss developed the product management method before, and the pseudonym of each game developer will appear on the product packaging, which is really clever, and the incentive effect of this sense of honor sometimes exceeds the salary increase, I just expanded on this basis." ”

"Don't be modest, you're doing a good job." Tang Huan waved his hand, "How is the expansion of the game production team now?" ”

"There are already 16 sports teams, and we can play baseball leagues in groups." Hawkins made a joke and brought the trio into Shigeru Miyamoto's development team studio, where they were testing Donkey Kong and having a great time.

After seeing Tang Huan, Shigeru Miyamoto was extremely excited, "Boss, my first work is finished." ”

Tang Huan couldn't help but be overjoyed, and said that the talents he had worked so hard to dig up finally began to shine.

patted Shigeru Miyamoto on the shoulder, Tang Huan began to observe the effect of the game, the images of Mario, Orangutan Donkey Kong, etc. are very exquisite, and the characters are extremely smooth.

In that original time and space, Mario's appearance in the gaming industry can be traced back to the 1980 Nintendo arcade game "Donkey Kong", the idea of which came from Nintendo's smash hit handheld game console in the early 1980s, "Popeye".

However, due to the failure of Nintendo's negotiations with the comic book company for the copyright of "Popeye", Miyamoto Shigeru had to make temporary changes to replace the image of Bupai with a character wearing a red one-piece overalls and a funny big nose. At the same time, because the dot matrix image technology at the time could not represent the hair and mouth well, Miyamoto Shigeru simply added a hat and a mustache to the character.

Mario, synonymous with home video game consoles, was born.

Shigeru Miyamoto suffered from dismal sales in Japan, but it has been a huge success in the United States over the years, and it is unknown if it has anything to do with the Paramount movie "Popeye Live-Action", which began theaters on December 12, 1980.

In this time and space, Tang Huan naturally will not seek the copyright of "Popeye" like Nintendo, just make mistakes like the original.

It's just that I don't know if "Donkey Kong" can still be popular in the United States without all kinds of mistakes.

However, Tang Huan thought about it, there is no comparison at all, and now the "Donkey Kong" on the Xiaobawang game console platform is much better than the original arcade version of "Donkey Kong".

"Donkey Kong will operate as a fist product after Pac-Man." Tang Huan finished instructing Hawkins, and then patted Shigeru Miyamoto on the shoulder again, "Miyamoto, I hope that when Xiaobawang 1980 is launched, I can see your new work." ”

Shigeru Miyamoto nodded vigorously, looking like a soldier was dying for his confidant.

At this time, there was the sound of gongs and drums outside, and Tang Huan was in good spirits, "The New Year's activities I arranged have begun, and I quickly inform all employees that I have held a party for everyone out of my own pocket and will go to participate." ”

"By the way, don't forget to remind them that there are prizes to be won for the event, from small toys to large color TVs, it depends on personal luck." Tang Huan deliberately emphasized.

Chambers, Simeone, and Hawkins looked at each other for a moment, and immediately realized that this was an unexpected surprise in the form of a family fun made by the big boss, and hurriedly went to inform his subordinates happily.

And Tang Huan took Miyamoto Shigeru to the downstairs first, only to see a convoy parked on the side of the road, two teams of people and horses were dancing lions, very lively, and there were reporters from Fang's Newspaper taking pictures next to them.

"Red envelopes are ready, $10, $50, $100." Tang Wenmao walked over with a small cardboard box and explained deliberately.

"Miyamoto, you try your luck, from $10 to $100, see how big a red envelope you can draw." Tang Huan smiled and asked Shigeru Miyamoto to do it.

"$100." Lucky Shigeru Miyamoto shouted happily.

"Luck is indeed, it looks like the game you've made is going to sell well." Tang Huan casually stuffed the box into Miyamoto Shigeru's arms, and then asked Tang Wenmao, "How is the layout of the restaurant?" ”

"It's done." Tang Wenmao smiled and pointed, "Look, the prizes for the event have all been moved in." ”

At this time, Zheru and EA's hundreds of people came outside one after another, and seeing such a lively scene, many people giggled and jumped around the lion dance team.

Tang Huan took a megaphone and announced in public, "Everyone is working very hard, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Chinese New Year, I have prepared some programs for you to relax, there are all kinds of small games in the restaurant, and the prizes are rich, it depends on your ability." ”

As a result, it was only five or six minutes later, and there was a burst of cheers from the restaurant, and a cheerful guy jumped over to show off, "I hit the color TV the second time I played the ring, you guys come to compare." ”

Tang Huan looked at it, it turned out to be the Mike who asked everywhere what kidney deficiency meant, and he couldn't help but be a little speechless, this is really a short inch and a long inch.

Looking at the mess in front of him, Tang Wenmao said with a smile: "I don't know if these guys can have a New Year's flavor." ”

"It doesn't matter, after a few more times, it may become a scene in Silicon Valley." After Tang Huan said casually, he walked towards the restaurant, "I'm a master of rings, I can't let that Mike be predominant." ”