Siheyuan starts from the stationmaster

Chapter 237 Repairing the Arcade Machine
From 1978 to 1990, it can be said that the era of arcade video games flourished. Bai Zirui bought an arcade factory and entered the profitable game industry. He competed with the world's famous game companies on the same stage.

In 1978, Taito Corporation released an arcade game called "Space Invaders", which caused a huge sensation all over the world.

"Space Invaders" is a shooting game. The player controls the plane to move left and right to shoot bullets, and eliminate rows of alien monsters that move slowly downward on the top of the screen. Compared with classic arcade games such as , King of Fighters, and Street Fighter, the difference is ten thousand miles away.

But it is such a game that is extremely simple in the eyes of gamers of later generations. In the 80s and [-]s, it attracted the attention of countless teenagers from all over the world. From Europe to North America to Asia, there are always a bunch of people gathered in the grocery department and at the door of convenience stores. people.

Xiangjiang was the first batch of visionary people who dared to eat crabs. It was at that time that this large-scale electronic game machine was introduced from the country of Japan, and there were the first few game halls.

Compared with the American arcade market, which mainly comes from crowded places such as community convenience stores, grocery stores, gas stations, and movie theaters, Xiangjiang is concentrated in dedicated game halls.

The main reason for this is that arcade machines are too expensive. It costs 1 U.S. dollars to import a "Space Invaders" game machine from Namco, which is equivalent to more than [-] Hong Kong dollars. The boss is not willing to spend such a big price to introduce it.

On the contrary, a small group of discerning bosses who are willing to take risks buy a dozen or twenty units at a time to open a special game room, which is full of customers every day and makes a lot of money.

Yang Dezhi is one of these crab eaters. His sons and daughters are studying in Canada. When he went to visit his children, he came into contact with arcade video games by accident. He saw the development prospects of the game industry with a long-term vision, so he returned to Xiangjiang to establish Yang Kee Electronics Factory engaged in arcade assembly.

Bai Zirui first went to the arcade machine assembly workshop to check the production status of the received orders, and then went to the warehouse to check the inventory status. Zhou Kunpeng, who was in charge of machine maintenance, followed him to the warehouse.

Zhou Kunpeng told him along the way that all the arcade machines assembled in the factory were taken away by customers, and there were only machines returned for repair in the warehouse. They only repaired one machine. With their level, they could only repair some relatively simple wiring problems. A machine with a bad computer board can't do anything about it.

Bai Zirui walked into the warehouse. The warehouse area was about 180 square meters. There was a game console in the corner, and even the screen on the frame was removed.Under the light is a large rectangular workbench, on which there are some switches, hand cranks, resistors and other parts in a mess.

Next to the workbench is a game console with its lower cover removed.This is probably the game console that Zhou Kunpeng said they couldn't fix.Bai Zirui went to the machine and unplugged the main board from the socket, then took out various instruments from the toolbox and began to test slowly.

The biggest difference between an arcade motherboard and an ordinary computer motherboard is that there are neat rows of chips on it. Except for a few processor chips, which is what we call cpu, most of them are DRAM memory chips. The more refined the game, the more content. More memory chips are needed.

Bai Zirui looked at the label of the chip. These memories are Intel's 8088 chip. The Intel 8088 chip is an Intel 8086-based microprocessor with a 16-bit register and an 8-bit external data bus.Contains 29000 transistors, the clock frequency is 4.77MHz, the address bus is 20 bits, and 1MB of memory can be used. The 8088 internal data bus is 16 bits, the external data bus is 8 bits, and its brother 8086 is 16 bits.

This is the processor used on the IBM PC this year. The 8088 processor PC launched by IBM opened the frenzy of the personal computer era.Intel Corporation seized this golden opportunity and took advantage of the opportunity to transform and focus on the cpu market after 1983, so it has a series of familiar cpus such as 286, 386, Pentium, Celeron, and Core.

Bai Zirui quickly found out the problem of the game machine's damage. Among the neat rows of 8088 chips, two of them were probably burnt due to insufficient heat dissipation.These memory chips all store game data, and if one piece cannot be used, it will affect the work of the entire game machine.

In order to prevent the game from being pirated, the game company controls the components more strictly.If it is in a market with well-established channels like Japan and the United States, these tasks will naturally be handled by agents.However, arcade machines have only appeared in Xiangjiang for two years, and most of the game hall owners directly import them from the Japanese country, and they have to go to the Japanese country for maintenance. It is not only troublesome but also a waste of time to come and go.

Zhou Kunpeng watched Bai Zirui's every move. He didn't expect the new boss to know how to repair arcade game machines. He asked curiously, "Bai Sheng, can you repair these game machines?"

Bai Zirui smiled and said, "I understand."

He put down the instrument in his hand and picked up the computer board that he removed from the game console on the workbench, and patiently said to Zhou Kunpeng: "Director Zhou, look at these rows of small black boards embedded in the computer board. The cubes are all chips. These rows are all memory chips, and the pictures and sound data of the game consoles outside are stored in these chips.

This is the 8080 cpu produced by Intel Corporation of the United States.The data in those memory chips needs to be processed by it before it is output to the display screen and becomes the picture we see.

This small piece is the boss chip. You can understand it as the master controller. All other chips operate according to its commands. If you modify the data in this chip, you can change the original game with only three lives into There are countless lives to play and pass the level! "

Listening to Bai Zirui's words, Zhou Kunpeng had a half-knowledge of these technical terms, and thought to himself that the new boss was actually an expert in electronic technology.If Bai Zirui knew what was going on in his heart, he would definitely laugh and laugh. These are just the superficial things he learned from others in an arcade in his previous life.

What he said to Du Yunpo of Heshengtang about making arcade machines refers to cracking games that have been released on the market, and making pirated versions is an illegal and infringing act, although the patent protection of Xiangjiang in the 80s is not as strict as that of later generations.

Bai Zirui will not leave a stain on himself, this is an expedient measure for him to subdue Du Yunpo, he has countless classic games in his mind, and he must be making original games that have not yet been released.Compared with the small market of Xiangjiang, Wa country and North America are the vast oceans he wants to sail in the future.

In Bai Zirui's grand plan, arcade games are just the beginning of his career. With the continuous development of computer technology, arcade games have already been replaced by computer games in the United States after 30 years, except that the Japanese market is still lingering.

In his plan, he not only wants to be a hamburger tycoon, but also a computer tycoon and a semiconductor tycoon.International giants such as Apple, IBM, and Intel are his future competitors.

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(End of this chapter)