"Lack of pleasure!"

After playing Bejeweled in the development hall on the second floor, Jester frowned, and then could only sigh helplessly - the pleasure of using the joystick was much worse than that of using the touch screen or mouse before.

"Boss, what's wrong?" Dabilee, who had just been selected as the leader of the development team of "Bejeweled", saw Jester's appearance and thought that there was a problem with his own production of Zuò, so he couldn't help but ask with some worry.

"It's not."

Jester shook his head and said, "It's none of your business, I made a mistake at the beginning of the design, and I didn't notice that this game is not very suitable for using a joystick. ”

"No!" Dabilee looked at his boss with some incomprehension, this game just came out and instantly swept the entire company, basically everyone who played it praised it, and there was another point that made Dabilee very strange, listening to the boss's tone, he seemed to have played this game before? This can't be, after all, they have just finished the alpha version of this thing, could it be that their own boss has done it himself before?

"Using a joystick to operate can only be said to be okay, this game is mainly a test of eyesight, make a judgment at the moment you see it, and then select it instantly, and then eliminate it, which can reflect the greatest pleasure of this game, and with a joystick, unless it is those who have very fast hand speed, the speed of the vast majority of people who control the joystick can't catch up with their eyesight." Jester said as he muttered to himself, "Can you replace Bejeweled with a mouse?" ”

Although the mouse was first invented in 1964 by Dr. Douglas Engelbart, the Turing Award winner of '97 at the Stanford Institute at Stanford University, which is now known for the International Counseling Center, it was only in the last year or two that it was really known. Thanks to Xerox, Steve Jobs was given a tour of their new system, which shocked the century's best copycat, who saw the graphics operating system and mouse that Xerox demonstrated to him was the future of computers, and what they Apple was doing was a worthless piece of shit.

Then after Jobs returned to Apple, Apple, a company that had been unwavering in its tradition of copycats for 30 years, immediately poached more than a dozen engineers from Xerox, and three years later, they produced their first computer with a mouse, LISA.

Previously, Xerox launched their first computer with a graphical operating system and a mouseStar8010, which was also the first time ordinary people came into contact with the mouse, but because the price was too expensive, the sales were not very good, despite this, the mouse because of the convenient operation, still caused a certain sensation.

It was in this situation that Apple's LISA came out, with its low price, quickly seized the market, and when LISA's upgraded Macintosh computer came out, it shocked the world, and finally Yixue was ashamed of APPLEII, which failed miserably in the 64 against Komodor.

Macintosh's success is due to the combination of graphics and mouse, because the combination of the two is so easy to use, you don't need to learn those complicated languages, you just need to be able to click with the mouse.

Basically, Apple was synonymous with fools back then, and really skilled programmers didn't bother to use Apple at all.

Of course, the times are evolving, bad money drives out good money, and in the era before Jester's rebirth, Apple has occupied the mainstream of fashion and has become a high-end product that everyone is looking for.

It's putting the cart before the horse.

"Mouse?" Darbilee also heard his boss talking to himself just now, his mind was simulating the scene of playing this game with a mouse, Apple's Macintosh computer he also used, the mouse is indeed very easy and fast to use, this simple brain simulation made Darbili extremely surprised, he seemed to find that his boss's mention yì is very good.

"Seems good!" He said.

But Jester shook his head, the shape of an arcade machine and a computer in his mind was so strange that as an aesthetic controller, he subconsciously rejected this unaesthetic design solution, unless there was no other way.

So...... How about using a pseudo-touch screen?

The meaning of the pseudo-touch screen is not the touch screen of the touch screen, and the specific technology Jester is not very clear, but he remembers that Nintendo has launched a similar toy on the FC, and the player can operate the game through the guò touch on a special operator, which is actually the same effect as the controller, using the keys to generate electrical signals to complete the control.

To put it simply, it is possible to design a 10X10, or 8X8 control board, each small grid will generate an independent electrical signal after being touched, so that the game program can identify it, so as to eliminate the control of the board.

Jester briefly explained his idea to Dabilee.

Dabilee is also just a college graduate who joined Mars Entertainment with a strong love for video games, and is extremely good at programming, but like Jester, hardware is not his specialty, and he can't say the advantages and disadvantages of this idea.

But he still said with reservations: "This idea is good, but I personally still think that the mouse that you are the first to mention is the most suitable for the operation of this game, unless we can press these colored pixel blocks directly on the screen, otherwise this will not be more convenient than the mouse!" ”

"Okay, I'll go to the hardware department and ask later, and if it's feasible, I'll make an experiment to see the effect."

Jester couldn't make up his mind, the reason he didn't want to choose was not because of the problem of mouse operation, but because of his appearance, for him, a person from later generations, he really didn't want to make an arcade machine with a mouse, and give those Internet trolls an excuse to spray himself in the future.

However, Jester is not very optimistic about his idea.

Whether it's a hundred or sixty-four grids, it's too cumbersome for the player, and it's really contrary to what he designed the game to be simple and happy.

Subsequently, Jester tried to play the same alpha version of "Bubble Bobble" and "Zuma", these two games that are not big in nature are not much different from the watch with a joystick on the arcade machine is no worse than the one he played on the computer in his previous life, it is very convenient to operate, and it is also full of pleasure when it is eliminated, but these two games are different from "Bejeweled", "Bejeweled" only needs a fixed checkerboard grid diagram, but these two require different levels.

And the levels made by these new designers, Jester's feeling after playing can only be said to be average, not very good, but judging from the changes in several levels, it can be seen that their progress in design can be regarded as meritorious.

But it doesn't matter, Jester's mind still remembers a lot of levels about this kind of elimination game, and it is not difficult to pick out a dozen of the most representative ones, and this kind of level has many common ideas in design, I believe that as long as you have seen your new design, these highly talented designers will naturally be able to find a shortcut to design similar levels.

All in all, Jester is satisfied with the development process of these three games, as well as the abilities of these newly recruited designers.

As for the development of the hardware, it is also very smooth, especially the arcade machine.

Samples of the initial eight-bit arcade board have also been taken out, which are currently being used in the game development department to develop the three match-solving games.

But this is not the final product.,It can only be said that it's a castrated version of the general substrate they're doing.,The final product will take about two months to complete according to Jester's father.,It's actually very fast.,8-bit arcade machines are basically very mature in design.,And Jester's father recruited the elites of Atari and other arcade manufacturers before.,It's naturally not difficult to do.。

However, the debugging of a new substrate is very cumbersome, and there are many design compatibility issues that need to be solved, and it is very fast to be able to complete it in two months.

However, there is a little difficulty in the research and development of home machines, and there is no problem with the rest, that is, Jester said that it must have a picture processing ability that is stronger than Ren Hell's FC, which makes it extremely difficult for these hardware elites from Atari to come out, not that they can't solve it.

They can solve the hardware compatibility problem, they can solve the circuit architecture problem, even if the processing power is twice as strong as the FC picture, the problem is, this price is too high.

"Intel's offer is such a bastard?"

Jester was also furious when he heard the reply from Matthew Marcus, the former chief designer of the VCS7200 project, whom he had poached from Atari.

The Lion of Inter opened his mouth, and Jester asked for such a PPU for processing graphics, that is, an image processor, which cost five million dollars in research and development expenses, and also asked for twenty dollars per chip, at least two million pieces to purchase, and the most intolerable thing for Jester was that the copyright of this chip had to belong to Interer.

"Really, I can't make a PPU without your Intel?" Jester furiously cursed Intel before he turned to Matthew Marcus and asked, "What about the other chip manufacturers?" Texas Instruments? What about Motorola? What about Qualcomm? ”

"Texas Instruments: They are not very interested in our project, and they are currently gathering elites to explore some special projects, there is no time to help us develop in the near future, if we insist, they said that it will be possible at the end of the year at the earliest, but this is in conflict with your request to be released at the end of the year, Motorola is not directly interested in this, but they promised that if we have a design plan, they can OEM, the price is not high...... As for the Qualcomm ...... you said," Matthew Marcus frowned, thought for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "I haven't heard of it." ”

At this time, Jester woke up to the fact that Qualcomm, which is known as the world's three major semiconductors along with Intel and Texas Instruments, has not yet been established, and it will not be until July next year that Owen Jacobs and his seven friends will establish this influential company in the future, especially in the mobile field, and now, they are not even liquids.

Time is ticking!

Jester knows how cheap the PPU in Renhell's FC is.

In order to get such a cheap PPU, Yamauchi signed a contract at the beginning of Ricoh's development for it, at least three million, you know, there were only three million home game consoles in Japan at that time!

In the United States, the labor is several times higher than that of Japan, and it is definitely impossible to get a lower price than Ren Hell in terms of price, so he must surpass it in terms of performance, so the one that was originally used VCS7200 did not meet his expectations.

Jester left the hardware development department and returned to his office, thinking all the way, not even the initial project of the "Yeti Brothers" that he was going to do.

Now his mind is full of how to solve the problem of the PPU he wants.

A game console, image processing ability is the most important thing, without one, this problem is not solved, then the other qiē are all in vain.

"If only there was any Nvidia now, ATI would have it, and I wouldn't have to worry about the graphics processor......"

While thinking, Jester suddenly patted his head and stood up from his chair suddenly, he suddenly remembered, he remembered that Nvidia was founded in 1992, and now his founder, "Father of the Two Bombs" and "Munitions Expert" Jensen Huang, should still be studying for a degree in electrical engineering at the University of Oregon and graduating this year, and the founder of ATI, He Guoyuan......

Now I am an immigrant who can't find a suitable job in Canada!

Jester remembered the series of books he had read about the world's top Chinese entrepreneurs, which detailed many stories of Chinese entrepreneurs, among which He Guoyuan's story gave the deepest impression, because he was born poor, because he started from scratch, almost from scratch to create ATI, and finally built ATI into the world's best graphics display chip company.

In 2006, Ho sold ATI, which he had created, to AMD for $5.4 billion.

Jester remembers that Ho Guoyuan was founded ATI in 85, and now he is just a Hong Kong immigrant who can't find a job that satisfies him, until he couldn't bear it when he was faced with the problem of marriage in 85, so he established ATI with his friend in a fit of anger.

Then why don't you go find him?

He should still be looking for a job in Toronto, I have the impression that He Guoyuan's annual salary was $500,000 when he was the general manager of Wang's Computer Company in Hong Kong in 80, but because his salary was too high, he couldn't find any satisfactory job in Canada at all.

It was in this context that He Guoyuan took out one-third of his savings, a total of 300,000 Canadian dollars, to start his business.

Now that we know that the other party is in Canada, and we know his name and his identity as an immigrant in Hong Kong, it will be much easier to find him - if you find him, then the problem of your own image processor will be solved, and you can also have a company that will rule the world graphics display chip industry for at least 20 years, why not?

The rest of the thing is to call the headhunter, professional things, let the professional do, no one can do the decathlon, it has always been Jester's point of view.

Putting aside the PPU of his home console for the time being, Jester pulled out a stack of paper from the table, on which there was a lot of handwriting and sketches, this is the design draft of "Snowman Brothers" that Jester has been working on these days, including the image, gameplay, story background and levels.

There are still only two snowmen, red and blue, and no more optional characters have been added like in "Snowman Brothers 2", after all, Jester also needs to leave something new for the sequel, and he can't use up all his ideas on the first game, and if they are all used up, how can they cheat fans out of money in the future?

After reading the entire design draft from beginning to end, and there were generally no omissions, Jester picked up the phone and hung up with Dabilee in the design team, asking them to find the best ten and set up a design team to work with him on a new game, a big game.

Dabilee excitedly agreed, he had heard rumors of those who followed Mark Saini, and he had heard some news from their mouths, according to those people, Mark Saini was working on an unprecedented, great, landmark game, but they were very tight-mouthed, and no matter what they asked, they could not get exact news from their mouths.

But every time I see their triumphant application, it is enough to make people like Darbilee who didn't have the opportunity to participate gnash their teeth.

This makes Darbilee very envious, although his boss Jester Lee improvised three matching games with the idea of "American Cubes" during his speech are also very creative and very fun to make, but this is only a small game, you can get it from the size of the game, and the one that Mark Saini is designing, and the news that I inadvertently heard from the mouths of those colleagues is at least 200 KB!

Dabilee has never seen a game with 200 KB, and even the epoch-making "Defender" is not that big.

And this time, his own boss also said that he wanted to start a big game plan, and in the eyes of his boss, the big game will definitely not be worse than the big game of the development director, right?

What a rare opportunity! Dabilee thought so.

"It's really one thing after another to start a company, and there's simply no time to do something else." Jester hung up, complaining that he was still facing the most important thing for his company, which was that he didn't have a distribution network of his own.

Jester, who came from later generations, knew that a game company without its own publishing network could only be a game studio, and far from being a game giant.

I can still rely on the quality of the game to push the publisher now, but what about the future?

The revival of video games is inevitable, and even if you don't have it, you will have hell, and at that time, publishers and players will have countless options, and there will be no more of the situation that appeared in the marketing of American Cubes - the game development company relied on the enthusiasm of players to buy, and took advantage of the sales companies to support the difficulties in the tide of the collapse of Atari, and staged this almost empty glove white wolf operation in such a blank period of video games.

In essence, his operation is a reversal of the right time and place and the right people, and it will not appear at all in the future.

Therefore, it is necessary to form your own publishing company, so that you can firmly hold your own destiny in your own hands and earn the biggest profit in the game industry.

Thinking of this, Jester's eyes became more and more determined, and his fists were clenched tightly.

You have to build your own distribution network.

Let the right people do the right things, this has always been Jester's principle of action, in terms of marketing, he may have seen some cases in later generations, but he is not good at this in nature, he does not know how to do the market, does not know how to analyze the general psychology of users, etc., etc., etc., but he knows that there are many people who are good at doing these things in this world, and all he has to do is to find them out, let them work for themselves.

Of course, in the United States, where business competition is extremely fierce, there are special agencies to do this kind of thing, and there is no need to worry about it at all, which is a headhunting company.

Jester had called a well-known West Coast executive search firm and asked them to help him find He Guoyuan in Toronto, Canada, and Jensen Huang, who had just finished college, in Oregon.

The person who answered the phone was a middle-aged man with a patient voice.

Jester didn't talk nonsense, he said his requirements directly: "The best is young, passionate, brave to challenge difficulties, good at marketing, and willing to come to a company that is not too big, but very promising to create the future, marketing experts, if it is really very good, I can give him partner treatment."

"Is there a requirement for academic qualifications and gender?" The middle-aged man asked questions that weren't in Jester's previous long list.

"Nope." Jester said bluntly, he knows that marketing does not have high requirements for education and gender, and he knows that there are many female marketing strongmen, and CEOs of famous companies with only a secondary school education, they are very good at doing marketing, and talent is more important than anything else in this industry.

"Well, we'll fax you the list you need as quickly as possible." After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he asked Jester again if he had any other requirements, and after getting a reply of no, he said goodbye and hung up the phone.

Jester, who had just finished doing this, didn't have any free time, and he still had a lot to do.

For example, the two main games to be released on his home console - "Super Mario" and "Contra".

Now his home machine is not finished, let alone a development machine based on the home mechanic zuò, in essence, he simply cannot make these two games.

But he can still do the detailed pre-design of these two games as he did when he did "Snowman Brothers", and judging from the parameters of the home machine he gave to the home machine development team, there is no problem at all to complete the effect of these two games.

Moreover, if the PPU you want can be completed, then your own picture will reach the level of Sega MS, and this kind of picture is completely crushing FC.

What you want to do is to be more fun, more interesting, and better than the original world's Super Horse and Contra!

However, Jester had just finished sketching the level design for the first level of Super Mario on a papyrus when the fax machine in his office started beeping.

Jester walked over and took the fax to see that it was the headhunter he had called earlier, and they had sent over the preliminary shortlisted list.

There are dozens of names on the list, and each one is simply followed by a description of the individual's age, education, and experience.

Jester gave a rough glance from top to bottom, and to be honest, he didn't know who would be the best choice among so many people. Looking at the introductions of these people, they are all very good, all of them are marketing geniuses, but he knows that he can't just look at the evaluations given by these headhunters to make his own decisions, he doesn't know how much water and half-truths are in it.

Suddenly, Jester stopped his gaze at the two names, which seemed familiar to him somewhere, as if he had heard them somewhere.

Both are women, not very old, one is only thirty years old, has a master's degree in marketing from the University of Maryland, and is now working as a project director at ATT, and the other is only twenty-six years old, but has a master's degree in economics from Harvard University, and is now working as a management consultant at Bain & Company, both of which are middle-level managers of large corporations.

"Margaret Whitman, this is ...... Carly Terry......"

Jester whispered the two names, and then his eyes suddenly lit up, and he remembered who these two men were.

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