game trailblazer

Chapter 178 The Eastern Video Game City
Junpei Yokoi left Nintendo, where he had worked for more than 30 years, and brought more than a dozen of his subordinates, the main backbone of the original first development department, to Hong Kong to start their new journey.And when the news of Yokoi Junpei's departure appeared in the newspapers, Nintendo's stock price plummeted the next day, falling 10% in less than half a day, and was eventually forced to suspend trading.

The angry President Yamauchi couldn't find Junpei Yokoi's whereabouts for a while, but he needed to vent his anger, so the first development department became the target of liquidation, all ongoing projects were terminated, and all personnel were transferred. There are even rumors that the first development department will be cancelled.The liquidation also affected IS (Intelligent Systems), known as the "first development department of the shadow", the budget of an SRPG game under development was cut in half, and the most popular SFC game "Mario Kart" The development rights were also withdrawn by Shigeru Miyamoto with excuses. This made the president Kaga Shozo feel very angry, but he was helpless, because the funds of IS were basically controlled by Nintendo.

One day not long after, Kaga Shozo had just returned home when he received a call from Yokoi Gunpei.It turned out that the current predicament of the IS agency had reached the ears of Yokoi Gunpei. He felt that this matter had nothing to do with him, so he gave Kaga Shozo an idea on the phone: "Kaga-kun, why don't you come to Hong Kong, so that you can come to Hong Kong for a while. I believe that your technical level will definitely be appreciated by the boss, so that you can also get rid of Nintendo's control..."

Kaga Shozo thinks this is also a solution, whether it can be done or not, at least there is another hope, after all, the current attitude of Nintendo towards IS is really beyond expectation.

So as soon as he got the ticket, Kaga Shozo hurried to Hong Kong.As soon as he got off the plane, he was warmly received by Xu Yeming and Yokoi Junping. After some secret talks, the two sides negotiated the conditions, and IS agency quietly changed their doors, and even moved the entire company to Hong Kong.When Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to transfer some personnel from the IS agency, he suddenly found that the original office was empty, and he disappeared again.

The arrival of the IS club has further enhanced the game development strength of Dongfang Electronic Entertainment Co., Ltd. At the same time, Yokoi Gunpei welcomed a group of members of the original first development department. The strength of the research and development team has also been greatly enhanced, and the process of improvement research has been accelerated a lot.

At this time when Nintendo was in turmoil, Dongfang Holdings also seized the opportunity to start negotiations with Nintendo. Of course, the banner now is to acquire VRBoy-related technologies. Regarding this tasteless product, Nintendo has long wanted to give up. If someone wants it, they are naturally very happy.However, the real target of Orient Holdings is actually the GameBoy, so although Nintendo did not set up obstacles to the transfer of VRBoy, the team in charge of the negotiations deliberately found some excuses to delay, hoping to achieve the ultimate goal without knowing it.

……

At the end of August, after more than three months of hard work, the Oriental Video Game City finally completed the decoration and equipment installation, and the relevant licenses were successfully obtained with the help of Zhao Haiguang and others, and the trial operation began.

On the first day of the trial operation, Zhang Lexing arranged a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony, and invited Zhao Haiguang and others from the China Game Industry Association, as well as some of its subsidiaries and some friendly units also sent flower baskets, as well as some reporters from the game media, Even some mainstream media reporters that Zhao Haiguang tried to find also appeared on the scene, and some nearby game hall owners were also looking around to observe.

After picking up the scissors and cutting the red ribbon, Zhang Lexing led the crowd into the Oriental Video Game City. As soon as they entered the lobby on the first floor, everyone was shocked.I didn't feel it from the outside, but when I walked in, I realized that it was really big inside.

The podium building where the Oriental video game city is located has a total of six floors, the entire building is 36 meters high, and the height of each floor exceeds 5 meters.In order to buy this podium building, Zhang Lexing spent a total of 1.32 million yuan, but even if the place is no longer used in the future, judging from the rising speed of real estate, there is absolutely no loss.

The first floor is the entrance of the Oriental Video Game City. Except for the hall of about 300 square meters facing the gate, the rest of the area is divided into two areas, the 1200 square meter Le Beibei restaurant and the 2500 square meter video game hall.

"On the left side of the hall is Le Beibei Restaurant, which is a 'food and entertainment' family entertainment center, specially serving children and their families. We will provide guests with the double happiness of food and games in a strong family atmosphere." Zhang Lexing pointed The Le Beibei restaurant next to it introduced.

Seeing that everyone looked confused, Zhang Lexing pushed open the door of Le Beibei Restaurant and walked in, and everyone followed behind him.

"Look, everyone." Zhang Lexing greeted, and then introduced: "Le Beibei restaurant is mainly composed of a dining area and a game area. In the dining area, we hired professional chefs to provide Chinese-style nutritious fast food for guests, such as steamed vegetables and soups. The game area has 100 different types of game machines, including puzzle games, music jukeboxes, riding cars, racing games, shooting games, shooting machines, etc. The game machines are all clean And it is absolutely safe, each game is also very cheap, only one token is needed, and there is an exchange coupon for each game played, which can be exchanged for prizes, and the prizes are novelty, cute, fashionable toys and small gifts provided by Jiamei Toys Wait.

Le Beibei Restaurant will also hold various interesting activities, such as kneading clay and making pottery, making handicrafts, baking biscuits, playing in water, playing musical instruments, playing house and drinking, etc. It is definitely the first choice for children to celebrate birthdays .There are only two rules here, the first young child must be accompanied by an adult, and the second adult must also be accompanied by a child. "

After Zhang Lexing finished speaking, he noticed that many people showed expressions of interest, at least when they saw those game consoles.After waiting for a while, Zhang Lexing led the crowd to the video game hall on the right side of the hall.

Walking into the electronic game hall, the decoration inside made everyone's eyes shine.The Le Beibei restaurant just now is mainly warm and joyful, while the electronic game hall here uses a spacious space, luxurious decoration, bright colors and lighting to create a unified and cheerful artistic style. The room is distinguished from the dimly lit arcade halls that are common on the street.

"This is the video game hall. The area on the right is the classic nostalgia area. It is mainly old games that were popular in the 80s. There are also a few games from the early 90s. There are almost 60 machines. The price here is the lowest, as long as one Token.

The rest of the area is filled with the latest game consoles, many of which have just been launched abroad, so it can be said that there are all kinds of somatosensory game consoles, battle game consoles, and amusement machines..."

"~Wow, there are so many game consoles here!" Yan Xiaowei sighed involuntarily, looking at the neatly arranged game consoles, with excitement in his eyes.

The burly Wang Bo also showed an excited expression on his face. Although he didn't speak, he was obviously eager to try.The game media reporters are relatively young, and most of them are staring at the latest game consoles released this year, such as "The King of Fighters 95", "VR Warrior 2", "Tekken 2", "Bing Feng 3", "King of Points" 3" and so on have attracted their attention.Perhaps because of being close to Zhu Zhechi, even those traditional media reporters became interested in old games such as "Elevator War", "Tank War", "Middle East War" in the nostalgic area.

Zhang Lexing snapped his fingers, and several waiters came over with trays.Zhang Lexing waved his hand and said, "Everyone, here are some game coins, let's try them out for ourselves. By the way, there is also a video game hall upstairs, everyone, don't forget to check it out."
Everyone glanced at each other, and it was Yan Xiaowei who made the move first, took a paper cup from the tray, weighed it, and estimated that there were about twenty or thirty cups.Someone took the lead, and the others followed suit and took away their own paper cups, and then they all dispersed, looking for the game consoles they were interested in and playing. Soon Zhang Lexing was only left with Zhao Haiguang and a few who were not interested in the game of traditional media reporters.

"Well, brother Zhao, you don't want to play." Zhang Lexing asked.

The rest of the people shook their heads, Zhao Haiguang also said: "No, I actually liked playing games before, and I even thought about getting a few video game consoles to play at home. Maybe now There are too many things to think about, and I suddenly lose interest."

"I used to think that way too." Zhao Haiguang's previous sentence made Zhang Lexing seem to have found a bosom friend: "At that time, I thought about buying a big house in the future, and then getting a few video game consoles in it, so that I could play whatever I wanted. Just how to play. However, now I have a bigger ideal."

"Oh, what ideal?" Zhao Haiguang asked curiously.

"I want to build a video game museum." Zhang Lexing explained: "It will display all kinds of video games and game consoles from the birth of video games to the present, with corresponding text and picture explanations. Coupled with the display of the latest game technology, I believe there must be many people who want to visit."

"I'm very interested in what you said. Lexing, when will you build this museum?"

"You know I'm developing a piece of land near the Shangdi Information Industrial Park. When it's repaired there, there will be a place for it. It will probably take about two years." Zhang Lexing glanced at the group who were playing game consoles People, said to Zhao Haiguang: "Well, it seems that they have to play for a while, why don't I show you to continue to visit."

"Okay." Zhao Haiguang immediately agreed, and several reporters beside him also nodded in agreement.

Zhang Lexing led the rest of the people, and introduced as they walked: "On the first floor, in addition to the place where video game consoles are placed, there is also a place where free drinking water is provided by the aisle, and there is a 300-square-meter rest room on the side of the stairs." Area."

Pushing open the door of the rest area, Zhang Lexing walked in with Zhao Haiguang and others, then closed the door, and said, "The sound insulation here is very good. After closing the door, you can't hear the sound from the game console at all. These sofas and There are chairs for everyone to rest, and there are newspapers and magazines to read on the bookshelf over there. In addition, there is a fast food restaurant and bakery next to the rest area, providing catering services for everyone.”

Coming out of the rest area, Zhang Lexing followed the stairs inside the game hall to the second floor, and continued to introduce to Zhao Haiguang and others: "There is a 3000-square-meter game machine area on the second floor. There are regular video game consoles on the internet.”

Seeing such a large game hall, even Zhao Haiguang couldn't help exclaiming this time: "It's so big, Lexing, how much is it for you?"

"The money is not too much. I mainly want to create an image store to set an example for our association and let everyone see what a regular video game hall looks like."

"Then you have to invite a lot of people for such a big place." A reporter asked beside.

"That's right, there are about two to three hundred people in the restaurant plus the game hall. We hired some laid-off workers and veterans and arranged some jobs for them..."

Zhao Haiguang was very clever, and before Zhang Lexing finished speaking, he interjected, "Yes, Mr. Zhang is a very socially responsible person. He saw that many laid-off workers were diverted due to the restructuring of the enterprise, so this time the new store was opened, we put it in Laid-off workers are the priority candidates for admission. The same is true for veterans. As far as I know, more than half of the two 300 people are laid-off workers and veterans.”

After hearing the words, several reporters praised: "Mr. Zhang, you really have a sense of social responsibility!"

What Zhao Haiguang said was of course discussed in advance. Although it was his first time here, in order to improve the status of video games in society in many ways, he had to establish a positive image of Zhang Lexing as an oriental video game city. Let the public understand that not all people in the video game industry are mercenary.

Several people including Zhang Lexing and Zhao Haiguang wandered around the second floor for a while, and the people playing games downstairs came up one after another. When they saw the larger game hall upstairs, they took the remaining There are not many game coins, and I am very annoyed.Seeing that everyone was almost there, Zhang Lexing led them to the side and continued to visit.

The rest of the second floor, the aisle of the stairs, is the site of Fengyun Game Club, including an office area of ​​more than 200 square meters and a play area of ​​nearly 700 square meters.The office area is mainly for club managers to work. In addition, the editorial department of the member magazine that Lin Musen is preparing is also located here.The player activity area is mainly a place for the club to hold various activities, such as player gatherings. In addition, the player activity area has reserved an area of ​​more than 100 square meters, and plans to add a batch of computers in the future to hold online battle activities.

The upper floors are temporarily vacant, and Zhang Lexing plans to leave them for future development.Among them, the third layer plans to open Internet cafes when the conditions are ripe, and it can also be used as a venue for new online game product launches and e-sports competitions in the future.The fourth floor is planned as dining, leisure, and fitness areas, while the fifth and sixth floors are planned to be built into cinemas in the future.After all the construction is completed, it will become a comprehensive leisure and entertainment place.

(End of this chapter)