To be honest, with Nintendo's red and white machine, to use Shirakawa Electric's game cartridge, more than one person has this idea.

After all, a console has been bought in order to play some specific games. If you buy a game console with similar positioning, you won't feel cost-effective no matter how you look at it.

So some smart people began to try to exchange game cards and graft operations.

However, after trying it, I found that the game cartridges of the two companies even have the same number of stitches in the gold finger.

As for the adaptation, it is even more fantastical, and you can't get in.

If you try to make a miracle vigorously, with a snap, the gold finger will be broken directly.

In desperation, I saw "Tank Wars" and "Double Dragon" all the rage on the streets.

Those who bought the red and white machine can only exchange game consoles with their friends who have blue and white machines with their faces on their faces.

However, because Nintendo only released three games, there are really not many people who are willing to make this kind of exchange.

Another week has passed, although neither Nintendo nor Shirakawa Electric has yet to announce the exact sales of their respective consoles.

However, from the very different hot and cold phenomena in the game cartridge market, we can already get a glimpse of the difference in popularity between the two.

And the media, who are not willing to be lonely, can't wait for the official data of the two companies, and have analyzed the reasons for Shirakawa Electric's advantage from all aspects in advance.

First of all, the first one is the game lineup of Shirakawa Electric, which is extremely rich.

In addition to the four officially debuted games, there are also games such as "Little Bee", "Menmen", and "Tennis Tournament" provided by third-party game developers.

If you count these games, you will find that they range from the casual and cute "Pac-Man" to the shooter combat genre "Thunderbolt" and "Tank Wars".

They have a wide range of genres, including casual, shooting, fighting, puzzle, sports, and more.

What's even more rare is that the quality of the games is generally excellent, especially "Tank Wars" and "Double Dragon", which are simply a surprise to many people.

Gameplay aside, Tank Wars is the first to pioneer the creation of self-edited game maps.

It's cool to design your own levels and think about it.

As they have been passively accepting the gameplay, when can they participate in the design of the game themselves?

Under this kind of open creation and great freedom of play, players are enthusiastic.

Many people even draw down the maps they have designed with a pen and then exchange their ideas with other friends.

As for "Double Dragon" as the first reel-type banner game, its debut was well received by players.

Shirakawa Electric's game design is so careful, what about the Nintendo of Red Square?

Not to mention only three games, two of them are still twin brothers, both of which are derivative IP sequels of "Donkey Kong".

Although the game "Donkey Kong" is very popular and sells well, everything is afraid of comparison.

In terms of game lineup, Nintendo was recognized by the media as losing more than one point, and even criticized for lack of sincerity.

In fact, Lao Ren also has a hard time, in order to catch up with the release date, the progress has been greatly advanced.

But because of the rush to catch up, manpower was invested in the debugging of the game console.

As for the release of three games, it is already very good, after all, Nintendo has not reached a cooperation with other third parties.

Compared to the Sega SG-1000, which only had one game for its debut, Nintendo felt aggrieved.

However, the media did not pay attention to the reason for this, and they continued to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the hardware of the two game consoles.

After experiencing the game consoles of both sides, the previous voices questioning the chips of Shirakawa Electric SIC8089A completely disappeared.

Facts speak louder than words, and the smooth operation feel of the blue and white machine ranks first among the three game consoles.

"Monthly Microcomputer" wrote: In fact, we all underestimate SIC8089A this chip, which has been used on a large scale in neon last year.

Among them, there are many power and energy companies, and I think that their recognition is enough to prove the reliability of SIC8089A.

And it didn't disappoint at FES.

With a 5MHz frequency and 1M addressing capability, FES is the core weapon that can quickly load games and allow players to edit maps by themselves.

Compared to Nintendo's and Sega's game consoles, it is already much ahead in terms of performance.

In addition, we learned from the chip designer SIC that the chip is aimed at FES. It also integrates an image assistant chip and a coprocessor chip.

These two special auxiliary chips are specially designed for gaming consoles.

I think that's why Shirakawa Electric's game cartridges are generally better than other games in terms of graphics and detail.

Obviously, as the official studio of Shirakawa Electric, the designers of HAL know very well where the limits of their chips are.

Compared with the other two game consoles, it is said that Nintendo's FC has already had customers complaining about the downtime problem, of course, this has yet to be verified.

In addition to the performance of the chip and the design of the game console body, there are also some subtle differences between the two.

For example, the handle of the FES uses the classic D-pad design of its handheld, and the buttons also use more sensitive hard round keys.

It's easy, comfortable and has low latency.

Nintendo's controller arrow keys are four round buttons, and their material is also soft silicone.

I have to say that compared with the D-pad, this design is still a little uncomfortable.

In addition, if you make a quick combo, there is a certain probability that the soft silicone button will be flattened and no longer bounce.

In short, from the hardware to the game lineup, Nintendo, as the red side, is slightly inferior.

Putting down the magazine in his hand, Yamauchi's face was very ugly.

He remembered again what he had said in front of reporters.

Judging from the current situation, it seems that it is not optimistic.

"Looking for more third-party game designers to join us as soon as possible, compared to Shirakawa Electric, we are one step slower."

Masayuki Uemura, who was in charge of the development of the red and white machine, immediately nodded.

Nintendo also has its own third-party partners, such as Bandai and Konami, which is in negotiations.

However, in the beginning, Yamauchi didn't pay much attention to third-party game developers.

Because within Nintendo, there are four development teams that are responsible for the design of the game and the introduction of new ideas.

In his original thoughts, this was enough for the FC platform to digest these games.

But the popularity of Shirakawa's game cassette gave him a different idea.

Only with enough and rich game categories can we attract more users to buy FC.

"By the way, do any of our FC users complain about downtime?"

Yamauchi glanced at the magazine at hand and thought of some of the descriptions in it.

"Uh," Masayuki Uemura's face was a little hesitant, "There are a few complaint calls."

However, more than 100,000 units were sold, and one or two of them were also within the normal probability range if they were flawed. ”

Yamauchi nodded, "Pay close attention to user feedback, Nintendo's signboard is more important than anything else." ”

"Hay!"

"The sales of 210,000 units in half a month are still very good, and everyone's efforts during this period of time have not been in vain."

In the conference room, Shirakawa Kaede put down the data sheet in his hand and nodded with satisfaction.

With his approval, the people below applauded excitedly.

Although this red-blue duel is far from over, a good start is a good sign.

"Can you calculate the specific sales volume of Nintendo?" While celebrating, Shirakawa Kaede did not forget to care about the situation of his old rival.

"The exact sales volume is unknown, but it should not exceed 150,000 units." Akagi, who sat at the bottom, quickly spoke his judgment.

As the head of the game console division, he also keeps an eye on the performance of his opponents.

Although it is not very accurate, this number has put Shirakawa Kaede at ease.

"What about Sega, have you heard about it?"

"Well, probably no more than 30,000 units." To be honest, Akagi really didn't take Sega very seriously.

He also thought about it for a while before he found out the information about Sega from his memory.

Less than 30,000 units, Shirakawa Kaede shook his head with a smile.

In this game console war, Sega has no presence at all.

"Regarding the game cartridge to be released next month, we will also make a decision as soon as possible and announce it to the outside world in a timely manner."

"Hai" responded this time with Satoshi Iwata.

It is up to him to make the final decision on what games to launch on the FES platform.

To keep the popularity going, HAL releases one or two new games every month.

For example, games such as "Gold Diggers" and "Circus" that are planned to be launched in May will try to cover different theme areas.

And for different types of game cartridges, they are sold at different prices.

For example, medium-level game cartridges such as "Menmen" and "Little Bee" are generally sold for around 3,800 or 4,500 yen.

However, the popular "Tank Wars" and "Pac-Man" are on sale for 5,500 yen.

Inside Shirakawa Electric, a hierarchy is already being made for the game.

For example, there are five levels of S, A, B, C, and D, but most of the current games are classified below A.

After all, pixel art games, don't be crowned with any S-class.

Of course, if there are more revolutionary games in the future, SR and SSR are not impossible.

After going through the current sales of game consoles with them, Shirakawa Kaede felt that it was not impossible to amplify the pace appropriately.

"There are a few more production lines for game cartridges, and our peripheral products can be launched in advance.

For example, it can be connected to the keyboard used by the host computer and its accompanying learning cartridge.

There are also custom controllers related to the theme of the game, which can be launched if appropriate. ”

Shirakawa Electric's FES is actually not very profitable, not even 3,000 yen.

What really makes money is the game cartridge, as well as the subsequent rich peripheral products.

Doing business on a small day, how can you miss a variety of limited editions and customized peripherals.

As long as he can make money, Shirakawa Kaede doesn't care whose wallet he reaps.

After the meeting here of Shirakawa Electric, he is ready to fly to Beimi again.

In May, a larger conference will be held there on the standardization of optical drives.

In addition, Shirakawa Kaede is also ready to talk to Microsoft about the Windows system.

He had already heard that the other party was working on the first generation of Windows.

If you can convince the other party to add a disc playback function, then presumably the optical drive and CD-ROM will make greater progress.

Alas, I just spent a week with Xiaohuya in Okinawa. It wasn't long before I returned to Tokyo, and I had to fly to Kitami again, so I was really busy.

As for the results of the red-blue duel that the outside world is looking forward to, it will not be announced until early May.

(End of chapter)