Video games are a new thing.

In the early days of transistor computers, simple video games were already available. When Alex was working on the "first" generation of improved computers, he made a few games in his spare time, but the impact of those games was limited to the laboratory at the time.

When the speed of computers developed faster and faster, and finally the personal computer appeared, this kind of game also entered the life of ordinary people. The games written by Alex at the beginning have become small games that come with the system in the personal computer launched by the Ark Company. This kind of game is very popular with regular users, who can relax with a handful or two after work.

In this world, the speed of computer technology is so fast that when people are just getting used to the current speed of personal computers, it doesn't take a few months for a new computer to be launched faster and better. This speed of replacement has long exceeded the laws of computer development that Moore said.

In fact, the so-called Moore's Law is nothing more than a trick for capitalists to pursue profits. Those companies that have mastered the core technology of computers, completely control the replacement of personal computers in the market, and they simply choose a speed frequency that is more in line with their own interests to execute.

In this world, Alex doesn't look down on this interest at all, what he needs is to push the technology up as soon as possible, as for the computer market or something, if it can be occupied, it is naturally good, and it doesn't matter if it can't be occupied.

Because of this attitude, computers in this era are updated much faster than Moore's law says, and the performance of personal computers can be doubled in almost six months. The price is cut in half.

Correspondingly, software development has not kept pace with hardware development.

Even if Alex deliberately guided, it was not able to make the IT software field as half as it would be in the future, and there were as many software engineers as dog software companies everywhere. This involves the human factor, and it is not something that can be changed when the technical hardware conditions are reached.

The most prominent point is the game, at first the popular games on the market are basically some small games, such as shooting games, card games, minesweeper games and so on. Because software engineers are working hard to develop more practical tool software, they don't have time to get this kind of entertaining software, on the one hand, because there are too few software engineers, and on the other hand, tool software can make money. You can sell a set of tools for money.

As for the gaming software? Who will pay to buy it to play?

It's not that no one sees the potential of this market. Instead, when there is an uneaten piece of cake in front of them, everyone usually chooses the larger and easier to eat piece.

Before Blizzard, Alex had invested in a game company called "Ataya". Instead of computer games, the game company develops arcade games. When the Ark company manufactured the single-chip microcomputer chip. Alex had someone make a game console.

At that time, he was purely there to relieve boredom. Only then did people use a single-chip microcomputer to make such a rudimentary game console. As a result, the arcade game console was made out in advance. After its launch, it became very popular in some public places, and even a video game arcade was created later.

It's just that this game market is compared to the software market. It's still too small. Alex himself didn't pay much attention to it, but just played some simple and fun games to entertain himself. For example, Tetris, Bubble Dragon, Magic Bubble, Jerk off, Gem Elimination, etc.

This kind of game is quite popular, and there are many people who play it. It's just that the computer game market has been neglected, but that's probably going to change today.

It's all because a game called Red Alert came out on the market, and it attracted a lot of attention during its development, and everyone knew about its existence and how it worked. All of this content appeared on the game's official website, and people were deeply enthralled.

There are two forms of sales for Red Alert, one is online sales, and buyers can get a CDKEY. When the user uses this CDKEY, his personal Internet ID has the right to log in to the game platform. At this time, users can download the game on the official website, and after installing it, they can play the game.

The other is physical sales, where the buyer can get several floppy disks, through which the game can be installed on a personal computer, and along with the floppy disks is a CDKEY, which also allows the user's personal ID to enter the game platform to start the battle.

Of course, if you don't want to play against others, you can also play the game locally. However, this kind of real-time strategy game still has to be fought between people to be fun.

Anyone who comes into contact with Red Alert for the first time will be blown away by its setting and gameplay, and they never imagined that the game could be played like this. Whether it's gameplay or confrontation, there's no game that comes close to it.

The background of the "Red Alert" game, like the movie of the same name, still uses the former Soviet Union as an imaginary enemy of the war.

On the boot screen, the player can see the Statue of Liberty standing in the center, giving a high angle of looking up. The overall color background is positive red, as a symbol of socialism. Floating in the sky are battle airships with flags of sickle axes.

As soon as the game starts, the player is drawn into the tension of war.

And this tension is so "real" compared to games like "StarCraft".

The Cold War confrontation, which is a real historical one, will end in just a few years. The content of the game, unfolded in such a familiar historical situation, its appeal to the people of this era with a "real" illusion is undoubtedly very powerful.

It was the authenticity of Red Alert that Alex chose to develop it in the first place, rather than developing games like StarCraft first.

In this narrative background, the player enters the game, and through the control of the characters and war materials on the screen, destroys the opponent's war base, annihilates the opponent's vitality, and finally achieves the victory of the game.

The ending of the game is open-ended, and if you choose the Soviet Union as your side, there is a 30% chance that the world will be controlled by redism, and a 30% probability that the United States will be besieged in a small area and will not move. There is also a 40% chance that the Wasteland Age has been entered, and the Earth civilization will be destroyed by a nuclear bomb attack.

If the United States is chosen, there is a 30% probability that the outcome will show the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, and China will replace the Soviet Union as the world's largest GC country and rise, and a 30% probability that the whole world will be controlled by capitalism, even China. There is also a 40% probability that the global humanity will unite as a single and the concept of the state will disappear.

The story of the game is very deep in the deep consciousness of Americans, and the interpretation of some game symbols is meaningful, the two sides of the original game battle, on one side are the United States, France, the United Kingdom and other Western countries and South Korea in Asia; On the other side, there are countries such as the Soviet Union, Libya, and Iraq.

There is undoubtedly a hidden contradiction in this: "If, as the boot screen suggests, the two sides of the confrontation are the social capital Cold War camp, Iraq should not exist in this logical sequence." ”

In addition to the Soviet Union, the other side of the game is the "axis of evil" that has always existed in the imagination.

As soon as the game was released, it immediately became a favorite of many netizens, and piracy was very rare due to Alex's real-name system on the Internet. Anyone who was able to connect to the Internet bought a CDKEY to activate their game account, and soon sold hundreds of thousands of CDKEYS in just one month.

At just $10 per CDKEY, it's not very expensive, but Blizzard's marketing department has adopted a monthly subscription approach. After the first activation, you can use it for 3 months, and when the 3 months are up, you need to continue to recharge before you can use it.

In other words, Blizzard made millions of dollars in the first month, and after three months, it could continue to collect money. Such a huge market value makes people look very red, so that many people also devote themselves to game software development, and Wang An Software Company is also a little ready to move, wanting to test the water.

Blizzard's success has also attracted many media outlets to the game, and one critic was fascinated by the game after playing it, writing in the newspaper: "In this Red Alert game, people can clearly feel the problem of Red Alert culture and mainstream American ideology. The United States is deeply afraid of the deep crisis of the red civilization and the Cold War. ”

After playing the game, a celebrity told reporters about the game: "What shocked me the most was that in the opening animation of the game, the scene of the red civilization suddenly landing from the air and the sea clearly felt the deep fear of the United States towards the Soviet Union." ”

Anyway, the Red Alert game became popular, Blizzard became famous, and Anderson developed.

It was indeed developed, and Blizzard was pleasantly surprised to find that in the second month, game sales had a blowout. The number of CDKEYS sold is as high as more than a million, which is almost a tenth of the entire Internet users! The number of sales in the third and fourth months still does not see a slowdown trend, and is still climbing.

There are many people who don't surf the Internet, and after seeing their friends, colleagues, and neighbors playing "Red Alert", they are also attracted to it, and ask their friends for an ID to try the game, and as a result, they become addicted to it. In the end, they all bought a CDKEY, pulled a broadband Internet to play, and everyone's ID has a battle record and score, which makes many people keep fighting in order to refresh their own records.

The popularity of the game is due to the role of the Internet, which allows many strangers to connect together, play against each other, and compete against each other. And because the game has attracted more people to enter the life of the Internet and experience the unique entertainment on the Internet. If this cycle continues, more and more people will be exposed to the Internet and play the "Red Alert" game, and not only Blizzard will make a lot of money, but Ark will also benefit a lot. (To be continued......)