game trailblazer

Chapter 25 Minesweeper and "Peanuts"

The power of classics is endless. Even though limited by the poor hardware environment of PCs, "Cube" quickly stood out among the eight games released by EA, and achieved a sales volume of more than 15 sets in less than a month.Zhang Lexing has never doubted the attractiveness of the game "Cube", but it is not a good way to always repeat other people's ideas. Zhang Lexing feels that it is necessary to make some innovative games, which can also pave the way for himself in the future. Plan to accumulate.

"What should I do?" Zhang Lexing sat at his desk, staring at a PC and thinking hard.

"Action game? No, the performance of the machine is too mediocre, and it is probably similar to slow motion. Shooting game? Don't think about it, the ending is similar to an action game. Role-playing game (RPG)? It can be done, but the picture is probably terrible. .Simulated management? The requirements for the picture are relatively low, but according to the speed of the current machine, it is estimated that it will be slow and scary. Sigh..."

Zhang Lexing lowered his head in distress, and the mouse on the desktop came into view.Speaking of the mouse, it is rarely used after buying it. Although the latest version of the Kylin operating system has begun to support the mouse, there is no application software that considers the mouse. Experience the long-lost feeling of moving and clicking in the program.

"Since there is no software that supports the mouse, why don't I make a game that supports the mouse, and I can also consider talking to the mouse manufacturer about bundling sales." An idea flashed in Zhang Lexing's mind, and Zhang Lexing suddenly thought of a good idea.

Of course, games that are too complicated must not be considered. Even with the poor resolution of the CGA graphics card, it is impossible to make too fine game screens.Going through the games he remembered in his mind, Zhang Lexing remembered a game in his previous life that claimed to be the most installed and played game in the world - "Minesweeper". At that time, it was a very small game, but if It is estimated that it can fill the scene now, and more importantly, the game is relatively simple to make.

Zhang Lexing took out a few blank sheets of paper and began to design "Mine Sweeping" on them.Zhang Lexing divided the difficulty of "Minesweeper" into three levels: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. In fact, there should have been a custom level, but considering the resolution of the CGA graphics card, he had to give up.The primary setting is a 9×9 area with 10 mines, the intermediate setting is a 16×16 area with 40 mines, and the advanced setting is a 16×30 area with 99 mines.Landmines are randomly arranged for each opening. Players click on the mouse to eliminate or mark the mines. If they find all the mines, they will pass the level.As for the most attractive part of "Minesweeper" - the leaderboard, Zhang Lexing did not forget to add it.Zhang Lexing even drew the interface of the game casually, it is too familiar and simple after all.

Holding the written game settings, Zhang Lexing came to his PC game development team, and the interesting settings immediately made the developers interested.After wrestling with the mouse for a few days, the development team finished the game with ease, and the idle artist also beautified the monotonous game interface. A boring programmer is probably a "Dungeon and Dragon" There are too many, and a similar game background has been created.When Zhang Lexing saw the final product, he found that it was no longer the simple game he remembered. After a group of people tossed and tossed, it now started to look like a serious game.

The game has been made. If Zhang Lexing wants to sell it in the retail market, Zhang Lexing will definitely end up going to the street. After all, the mouse is not too popular now.Fortunately, VisualSystem has also accumulated some contacts in the past few years. With the help of Yang Xinxin, "Mine Sweeper" successfully negotiated a bundled sale with several mouse manufacturers. It is easy to be accepted by users, and Zhang Lexing doesn't have to worry about the sales of "Minesweeper".

Soon, the mouse bundled with "Minesweeper" appeared on the market. The interesting and challenging game mode began to drive the sales of the mouse. Many users also started a new operating experience. This trend also caused many software The attention of the company, some companies have even begun to try to introduce mouse operations into their own products, of course, VisualSystem is naturally at the forefront.

……

The "Time" magazine published in early 1983 broke the previous practice and chose a machine instead of a human being as the "Person of the Year" for the first time. Time magazine wrote: "Sometimes the most influential person in a year is not one person but a process, and the general consensus of the whole society is that this process will change all other processes.  … Therefore, " Time magazine selected PC as "Person of the Year" in 1982, and the scenery of PC was unparalleled.

There is often unknown bitterness behind the scenery. The PC has brought huge influence to IBM, but it has also brought many compatible machine manufacturers to follow suit, constantly vying for IBM's market share.Estridge was not worried about all this, because he had already prepared. At the beginning of March, IBM's long-planned counterattack began. The long-planned IBM-PC/XT (named after eXtended Technology) was launched, with a standard memory of 3kB, 128 expansion slots and a 8MB hard disk. kylin10 system.As soon as the new machine was launched, it was deeply loved by business users. With the PC/XT, IBM's market share exceeded 1.2%, and Apple was squeezed out of the throne of microcomputer hegemony in one fell swoop.

After the success of the PC/XT machine, Estridge was very proud. Not only was Apple's throne lost, but those annoying compatible machine fleas were no longer as happy as before.But what he didn't expect was that due to the prosperity of PCs, the bureaucrats at IBM headquarters began to eye his site.

So under the banner of emphasizing the PC business, the PC branch was established, and Estrich was promoted to the president, but instead of being as free as before, any major decision needs to be approved by the IBM headquarters before it can be implemented. It has just begun. Estrich, who was a little excited, was speechless. After the establishment of the PC branch, the bureaucrats at the headquarters began to perform. First, they issued the first order that they thought they were clever - to develop a simplified model of PC. The reason was that these bureaucrats were looking at the report analysis in the office. The conclusion: "As a simplified version of a large computer, PCs are popular in the market for commercial users, so the corresponding home market, which does not have as high a requirement for computers as the commercial market, should also be able to accept a simplified version of a PC, as long as it is sold With the right strategy, we will open up a huge new market..."

Based on this logic, following the PC/XT, IBM began to develop a new model - PCjr, nicknamed "Peanut", specifically aimed at the emerging home market.In order to allow price-sensitive home users to accept the new machine, IBM designed the PCjr with a low-cost concept, thus creating a hardware platform that is completely incompatible with PCs.As a low-cost computer, the PCjr comes with a 62-key infrared wireless/wired keypad made of hard plastic keys.This keyboard can not only communicate with the host through the infrared port, but also can be connected like a normal keyboard in a wired mode.

Estridge didn't like this kind of wild fantasy, but after all, he was in charge of the PC branch in name, and if PCjr's final results were not good, he would lose face.No way, although he was still a little reluctant, Estridge could only force himself to find more support for PCjr. The operating system of PCjr has been developed by VisualSystem by default. However, it is obvious that a home computer cannot have only one operating system, and it also needs a lot of application software suitable for the family to support it. In addition, the most interesting thing should be the game software, so he put the target on Zhang Lexing's PC game development team. Although PCjr and PC are not completely compatible, there are at least some similarities. After all, these days There are too few companies engaged in PC game development.

Under such circumstances, Estrich brought his staff, and of course a PCjr engineering prototype, to visit Zhang Lexing's PC game development team.

"Mr. Zhang, I didn't expect you to be so versatile. Not only can you play the operating system well, but you can also do a good job in game development. The PC version of "Cube" that you released a while ago is very fun, and many people in our company have become Cube fan." Estridge threw his hat over as soon as they met.

"Thank you for the compliment. I don't know if there is anything for Mr. Estridge to come here in person?" Zhang Lexing knew that his company had a good relationship with IBM's PC branch, but it was not so good that he would come to the door without incident.

"Hehe, it's not for PCjr." Estridge laughed a few times, with a slightly embarrassed expression.

"Isn't the operating system development agreement already signed? The development team has also gone to work at your IBM. I haven't seen them for two months. If you want to follow the progress, you may be in the wrong place." Zhang Lexing I wonder if this Estridge is too busy.

"It's not an operating system," Estridge quickly explained, "I'm here to hope that Mr. Zhang can develop a game for our PCjr, which can fully display its 16-color display effect, and three-channel and The advantages of 128K large memory."

"It's not a big problem, but you should at least let me know what PCjr is like. Although the operating system is developed by us, who kept you too secret." Zhang Lexing thinks that developing a game should not be difficult Now, after the success of "Cube", the PC game development team under him has attracted many experienced developers to vote, and its technical strength has increased a lot.

"No problem, I brought one specially this time, as well as some development materials, you can study it carefully." Estridge asked his subordinates to send over the PCjr engineering prototype that he brought over. On an empty desk in the studio, the development materials are piled up next to PCjr.

(End of this chapter)