"I just saw that you were so engrossed in playing American Cubes that you were hungry and forgot about it, and I clearly felt that you were happy in it, isn't that the nature of video games? Simply offer joy to people! ”

"I was thinking, a middle-aged man in his forties and a designer who has played an unknown number of games can still get joy and laughter from games, let alone others. If that's the case, how can the game die? ”

Jester was sincere, and his rhetorical question, like the previous one, made his father and Mark Seni ponder.

yes, how can the game die!

It was a long time before Jester's father broke the silence when the first dish of grunt meat was served.

"Actually, when I was at home just now, Mark and I were discussing the future...... I'm afraid it's hard for Atari to have another chance, I've been working there for seven or four years, and I've been ......working there for ten years," Jester's father's tone was a little lonely and gloomy, but Jester heard a different meaning from his father's words, and he made up his mind to leave Atari.

"Jace, how about we go to Japan?" Jester's father looked at Jester seriously and asked a question, "Sega's U.S. branch has sent an invitation to me, Mark, and many software and hardware engineers in the company, hoping that we will go to Sega's parent company in Japan to continue to engage in the development of game software and hardware, you know, I love this industry, if I can, I don't want to give up." ”

Jester's throat moved, and he didn't directly dissuade him, because he knew that as far as the current situation was concerned, as long as he wanted to continue to develop in the video game industry, then going to Japan was the only way.

But how could he possibly let his father go to Japan? So he frowned and thought seriously for a moment, organized his words, and then spoke.

"Dad, grandpa is almost eighty years old, and his health has not been very good recently, he has called several times, and he wants you to go back and see, he misses you very much."

Hearing Jester's words, the expression on Jester's father's face changed fiercely, and even a hazy moisture gathered in his eyes in an instant, and he took a deep breath, and forced himself to ease his tears.

Jester knew that what he had just said had worked.

His grandfather's age is one aspect, and the other aspect is that his grandfather hates the Japanese the most in his life, if his father really goes to Japan and works for Japanese companies, then there may be some relaxation between the two of them, and there is no possibility of recovery.

But it doesn't mean that he doesn't love his father, only Jester knows that every time he goes to San Francisco, he always pretends not to care about preparing gifts, and when he comes back, he will also pretend not to care and ask for some news, just to know that his grandfather's health is good recently.

Jester's father ran away from home in his twenties, and he hasn't been back for almost twenty years now, except for the death of Jester's grandmother when she died.

Speaking of which, the conflict between his father and his grandfather is just because of the difference in philosophy between the two.

Jester's father was Chinese, but he was completely different from Jester's grandfather or Jester's uncle.

Jester's grandfather was born in China, grew up in China, and even made meritorious contributions to expel the invasion, so his feelings for his homeland naturally do not need to be detailed, and his uncle was already more than ten years old when he left China, and he already had his own world view, he had seen the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, and he had also seen the deep hardships of the motherland, and he knew where his motherland was, and they recognized Chinese culture and China from the bones.

Just like the song "My Chinese Heart" written by Huang Zhan, a master of Chinese music, "Although I wear a foreign dress, my heart is still a Chinese heart, and my ancestors have already branded my qiē with a Chinese seal", "The blood flowing in my heart, surging with the voice of China, even if I am in another country, cannot change my Chinese heart".

This song is a true portrayal of Huang Zhan's heart at that time, so he was able to create it in one go, because it was all in his heart.

But this is not only a portrayal of Huang Zhan's heart, but also a portrayal of the heart of a person similar to Jester's grandfather, his uncle, who left the motherland in his early years for various reasons and crossed the ocean, knowing where the motherland is, what it looks like, what it is there, and what it represents.

But his father is different, he is a typical second-generation immigrant, born in the United States, studied in the United States, grew up in the United States, saw the United States, loved American culture, and even liked American girls, you let this kind of person still love a country that has nothing to do with him except blood like his elders, this is impossible.

His father and his grandfather had a relationship that was not very harmonious because of this difference in three views, especially when his father was dating a white girl, and proposed to marry and was mercilessly rejected by his grandfather, the conflict between him and his grandfather broke out completely.

Mark Seni also noticed the strangeness between the two, he didn't understand why Jester's father's love had suddenly become so gloomy, and he had the impression that this colleague of his was very optimistic, and nothing seemed to make him feel like this.

Jester also noticed Mark Seny, who could use family affection to persuade his father not to go to Japan, but this did little to Mark Seny, and he had to have some other excuse to persuade him.

For aspiring young people in the United States, what is the most powerful?

Undoubtedly, a dream.

"The Japanese market is too small, Mark, dozens of times smaller than the United States!" Jester's speech suddenly became fast, his tone contemptuous, and a series of words erupted from his mouth like machine-gun bullets.

And the target is Mark Seni, who is still sitting there for unknown reasons.

"Mark, think about it, how many home consoles are sold in Japan at most? One million or two million? How many arcade machines can be sold in Japan? A thousand? Three thousand? What is the maximum number of game cartridges that can be sold in Japan? 100,000? 200,000? Look at these numbers, it's not worth mentioning! ”

"In Japan, this market is too small! So small that it's almost impossible to be an industry! Mark, what are you trying to do in such an industry! ”

Jester's face suddenly became stern, and he unceremoniously said something that Mark Seni was very unwilling to hear.

He was bluntly questioning Mark Saini's dreams, which is a very strict thing in the United States.

This made the young Mark Seni a little angry, and Jester's two questions earlier made him think that the other party was his fellow traders, and they were all people who firmly believed that the video game industry they loved must have a great future in the future, but he did not expect the other party to say such ugly things in an instant.

"Jester!" Mark Seni interrupted Jester angrily, not even calling out Jester's nickname, as if the friendship he had built up with Guò "American Cubes" had been lost with Jester's contemptuous words.

"The Atari 2600 sold more than 20 million units, the arcade shipment of the rollerball table I designed has reached 30,000 units, and one of Atari's best-selling game cartridges can sell one or two million copies, and Atari made a profit of two billion dollars a year at its peak, which is more than any Hollywood company. It's funny! Mark Seni argued with Jester mercilessly, but he didn't notice that after hearing his words, Jester's face did not show the slightest anger, but a smile.

"You also know that you are talking about the United States, not Japan, and the American market is large enough to independently contribute to the emergence and development of an industry, and the rise of an industry, while Japan cannot." Jester interrupted Mark Seni with a laugh.

Hearing Jester's words, Mark Saini's neck instantly felt like someone was choking, and his throat kept surging up and down, but he didn't continue.

His face suddenly turned a little gray, and he seemed to be speaking to himself and to someone else, and he whispered, "Yes, Japan is too small." ”

"So, now back to the question I asked at the beginning, do you really think video games are dead?" Jester asked the question again.

Without the slightest hesitation, Mark Saini said to Jester bluntly: "Although the market is collapsing now, I firmly believe that an industry that can constantly bring joy to people, bring people laughter, make people forget their sorrows, and make people inadvertently indulge in it, will not die no matter what!" ”

Jester nodded, clenched his fists hard in front of him, and said to Mark Seni in his most unwavering tone: "Since you think so, and I think this industry has a lot to offer, why not continue in the United States?" You know, even if you go to Japan and continue to make video games, if the industry does improve, at the end of the day, you have to go back to the United States, because Japan is too small to support such a big market! ”

"Trust me, if you really believe that video games have a future, stay in the U.S., because no matter where you go, as long as you're still in the industry, you're going to come back!" If you will be back in the future, why not leave now? ”

Mark Seni was excited by Jester's words, and he kept reminding himself that Jester was right, and since he would definitely come back in the future, why didn't he leave now?

But when you think about the current state of the American game industry, the market that has almost collapsed, the hundreds of thousands of game cartridges buried in the sand, the home game consoles that are cleared in one or two folds, and the arcade machines that can't be sold in the warehouse...... The hot blood that had just been ignited seemed to cool down in an instant.

The look of disgrace on Mark's face intensified.

He wanted to say something he wouldn't leave the United States, but he couldn't.

He didn't want to leave the United States, but reality is hard for personal will.

In fact, Trammell's plan to completely transform Atari into a computer company has begun, and just last month, the headquarters laid off thousands of designers who developed games in one fell swoop, and in the arcade area, the layoff plan has also begun, and at the most by the end of the month, there may be results.

"Nolan Bushnell wasn't a few years older than you and me when he founded Atari, and there were no more than a thousand people in the United States who knew what video games were, but they all managed to sell hundreds of thousands of PONGs! Sold 20 million Atari 2600 units! Make the concept of video games known to every American! So why can't we? We are in a much better position now than they were then! At least we don't need to let our children's parents know what a video game is when they're shopping for Christmas presents! ”

Jester said loudly, and even stood up and waved his fists in a voice that was almost roaring.

The diners around him all looked at Jester as if they were looking at a neuropath.

But Jester didn't care.

Seeing that Mark Saini was still silent, Jester simply continued.

"It's not a job! Mark, it's not! What we need to do is stand up and tell everyone with our actions that we can bring video games back to life, make video games popular again, make video games popular in America, and put video games back on track where they should be, instead of being thrown into a corner like garbage like we are now, and in a few decades our descendants will only know from the encyclopedia what their parents were doing when they were younger. ”

"They're going to say, oh, video games? Something that doesn't make sense! ”

"It's not a job, Mark."

"It's a mission!"

"Your, mine, mission for everyone who loves video games!"

"It's calling to us, people who really love it."

"Someone has to step up and do something! Do you want to step forward and be a hero, even if it's just for a few minutes, or be a coward for the rest of your life? ”

"The choice is yours!"

Speaking loudly, almost roaringly, Jester gasped and sat down.

His father and Mark Seni looked at him in disbelief.