Kyoto, Nintendo headquarters.

Hiroshi Yamauchi fiddled with the handheld in his hand, and his expression couldn't see any fluctuations.

And Yokoi Junhei, who was sitting under him, had a serious face.

"This is the latest widescreen portable game console that Shirakawa Electric has launched to give us trouble?"

Finally, after not knowing how long he was silent, Hiroshi Yamauchi raised his gaze and slowly spoke.

"Hai" Yokoi's originally wide cheeks now look even thinner because of his tight complexion.

Shirakawa's recent widescreen handheld has not only caused trouble for Nintendo.

It can be called a management crisis, which is why Hiroshi Yamauchi and Gunpei Yokoi are now together.

What they are holding in their hands now is the widescreen handheld of Shirakawa Electric, and first of all, the appearance is much larger than before.

The most obvious sign is that the original LCD screen has almost doubled in size.

In addition, when the handheld is turned off, the screen still shows colorful patterns.

When he first got this new product, Junhei Yokoi was taken aback.

How far has Shirakawa Electric's technology progressed? You should know that there is no color LCD screen on the market at the moment.

Surprised, Yokoi Junhei took it over and carefully identified it, only to find that the color pattern was not presented on the display screen.

Instead, a special film was pasted on the LCD screen, and the well-informed Gunpei Yokoi immediately thought of a similar film on the Atari home machine.

It's a very simple technique, and even the cost is quite low, but the results presented are not to be underestimated.

For example, the handheld in front of you comes with a game called "The Prince of Tennis".

There is even a green lawn as a background pattern on both sides of the screen, and the fence in the middle is exactly the same as in reality.

All this is the visual effect provided by that layer of color film, and the display screen is still the same, it is still the original TN-LCD screen.

The reaction is sluggish and the staggered beating of the sphere is obvious, but the effect of the combination of the two is immediately a step up.

It's really a genius idea, and while Yokoi Jun's face is serious, he can't help but secretly admire.

This approach of using low costs to develop new ideas is very much in line with the principle of "thinking horizontally about withered technology" that he himself adheres to.

At the lowest possible cost, turn decay into magic.

Now this handheld with a layer of ordinary color film has brought big trouble to Nintendo.

Shirakawa Electric's new widescreen handheld comes with only one game and costs 4,800 yen.

The screen is larger, the sense of experience and fun are increasing, and the price is cheaper than before.

In terms of game content, there are not too many gaps between each other.

Nintendo and Shirakawa Electric launched handheld sales during the same period, and the former was about 30% lower than the latter.

As a long-established video game manufacturer, Nintendo has fallen into a comprehensive disadvantage, which makes it impossible for them not to be nervous.

"It's really a strong enemy," Yamauchi put down the handheld in his hand and let out a soft sigh.

Even he, who has always regarded game content as king, has to admit that some small hardware improvements can bring unexpected increases to the charm of the product.

"Yamauchi-san, how should we deal with it?" Yokoi Junhei asked Hiroshi Yamauchi for instructions in a low voice.

Of course, Nintendo must make a move, otherwise the handheld market will be swallowed up more and more by the other party.

This is Nintendo's most profitable pillar industry at this time, and there is no room for mistakes.

"We'll follow up too," Yamauchi ordered without hesitation.

"But." Yokoi wanted to do the same in his heart, but to be honest, he was also a little scared of Shirakawa.

Why? The end of plagiarizing Shirakawa Electric doesn't seem to be too second.

Needless to say, the earliest Aihua was sued by Shirakawa Electric once. posted a large amount of compensation, and it is still a bit sluggish.

Later, the Gaode cross key infringement case is even more vivid, this family is good, and now the surname is directly Bai Chuan.

Even for this reason, the handheld market, which was chaotic at the time, suddenly became quiet.

The shadow of the famous tree of people, even Nintendo, which is used to hooligans, is a little scared.

And until now, the D-pad button is still the royal design of Shirakawa Electric.

The huge legal department behind it, even Hiroshi Yamauchi is unwilling to provoke.

But this time, Hiroshi Yamauchi waved his hand to signal his peace of mind, "Don't worry, Yokoi-san, this technology Shirakawa Electric has no patents." ”

"Huh?" Yokoi was a little surprised.

Has Shirakawa Electric changed? If such a patent is not registered in a hurry, is it forgotten?

As if to understand what he was thinking, Hiroshi Yamauchi explained, "Atari applied for a similar patent a few years ago, and Shirakawa Electric couldn't apply for it even if he wanted to. ”

It turned out that this was the case, and Yokoi Junhei subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, President, should we?"

Yokoi Junhei's meaning is obvious, whether to take advantage of Shirakawa Electric's lack of reaction.

preemptively got the authorization from Atari first, and then went back to Shirakawa Electric to ask for infringement fees.

"Do you think that Shirakawa-san will leave such a big loophole?" Hiroshi Yamauchi will not underestimate Shirakawa Kaede.

"Uh" Yokoi Junhei thought about it too, everyone is a human spirit, and it is impossible to ignore this problem.

"But Yamauchi-san, will we infringe on Atari by doing this?"

Nintendo's direct follow, isn't it also possible to cause infringement?

"Don't worry, first of all, Atari can't find Neon. In addition, even if the other party comes to us, we have a solution. ”

Hiroshi Yamauchi already has a plan in his heart, and I may have to weigh Shirakawa Electric, but you have too many ways to deal with you as a foreign company.

"The design of the widescreen was directly discussed with Sharp, and I believe there is no technical difficulty in this point."

"Hail"

Nintendo's LCD screens have always been supplied by Sharp, and even Gunhei Yokoi himself worked at Sharp for a period of time before joining Nintendo.

The relationship between the two companies has a long history of cooperation and they get along quite well.

So when it comes to widescreen or color films, it's hard to beat them at all.

"By the way, which company supplies Shirakawa Electric's display screen?" Suddenly, Hiroshi Yamauchi had another question in mind.

"It seems to be Suwa Seiko." This information is understood by Yokoi Junhei.

As a competitor, Shirakawa Electric's hardware was studied by him.

"It turned out to be Suwa Seiko, this is Sharp's old friend." Hiroshi Yamauchi let out an inexplicable sigh.

The world's first commercial LCD screen was born in 1973 neon, and the manufacturer of this LCD screen is Suyu Seiko.

This was followed by Sharp as the other manufacturer of LCD screens, and they are considered the pioneers of Neon's local LCD industry.

However, although the first commercial product was made by neon manufacturers, LCD technology was invented by RCA (Radio Company) in the United States.

It announced the invention in 1968, which can be said to have shocked the industry at the time.

Motorola, AT&T, and HP have all personally invested heavily in the research and development of LCD displays.

However, they are all going in the wrong direction, and LCD technology is not yet mature.

was in a hurry to run all the way on the road to the big screen, and finally invested a huge amount of money but never got a return.

As a result, a few years later, RCA itself withdrew from the commercial development of LCDs.

However, in 1972, Suwa Seiko and Sharp Toutetsu took a fancy to this technology, so they respectively got authorization from RCA and began their own research and development.

In just the following year, Suwa Seiko successfully applied the LCD screen to his own watch.

That's right, Suwa Seiko is a watch company. LCD has made no achievements in the commercial field of large screens, but it has shined on small screens.

From the perspective of their respective origins, Suwa Seiko and Sharp are both competitors and have a hint of incense.

However, it is not necessarily a competitor, after all, Sharp does not make watches, and the back of Yamauchi's brown glasses is flickering.

"The improved handheld performance is quite good, and it seems to be the same sentence.

When the content is not very different, hardware becomes a key competitive condition. “

At the Akihabara HAL Research Institute, Kaede Shirakawa is discussing the market performance of the new handheld with Satoshi Iwata and Akagi.

"Overall, it's really good, but the cost is also a lot higher than before."

Akagi is in charge of the hardware design of the handheld and knows the cost of the parts.

"Especially for LCD displays, as the size increases, the purchase price also rises sharply."

The price of widescreen handheld consoles has decreased because of games, so in terms of selling price, Shirakawa Electric has discounted it a little.

Although the sales volume has increased significantly compared with before, the cost of the display screen has increased, and the overall profit improvement is not very obvious.

There is nothing good to do about this Shirakawa Kaede, "Discuss the display screen with Suwa Seiko to see if you can get a discount."

It's really not good, and then talk to other suppliers, such as Sharp, they are also LCD screen manufacturers. ”

In fact, the reason why Shirakawa Kaede chose to cooperate with Suwa Seiko first was also because Nintendo had reached an agreement with Sharp.

He didn't want to go to Sharp until he had to.

Who knows if its own order volume will be inexplicably mastered by Nintendo, this is information about the expected sales of the market, and it must not be easily leaked.

"Shirakawa-kun, in addition to the screen, the processor is also an important factor affecting the design."

Iwata Satoshi looked at Shirakawa Kaede with blank eyes, he still remembered the self-developed chip that Shirakawa Kaede told him a few months ago.

Shirakawa Kaede smiled and pulled out a blue shielding bag from his bag.

"I knew Iwata-kun would mention this, well, that's it."

"Eh" Satoshi Iwata couldn't wait to take it, "Shirakawa-kun, this is.?"

"SIC8089, an enhanced version of the 8-bit processor. The performance has been improved by nearly 2 times compared to the Z80, and it has just been successfully taped out and sent to you. “

"Really?!" Satoshi Iwata rubbed his hands excitedly.

You must know that the chip used by Shirakawa Electric is still a 4-bit processor.

Now I have an 8-bit enhanced version in my hand, a proper shotgun for a cannon.

And with the new guy, Satoshi Iwata can't wait to immediately devote himself to the research and development of the new handheld.

"The chip has just been successfully taped out and has not yet been put into commercial use. There may be some minor defects, or hidden bugs.

So about the development of the new handheld, Iwata-kun don't worry, this tuning process may not be completed in a short time. ”

At the beginning of August, the newly developed SIC8089 at SIC was already in action.

After preliminary testing, it can be put into the actual development and use process for the time being.

So the handheld machine has become the best application site.

However, the chip is also similar to the machine, and it needs to run in with the user for a long time before it can perform at its best.

And for such a job, there is no doubt that Satoshi Iwata in front of him is the most suitable.

(End of chapter)