game trailblazer

Chapter 274 Cloud Computing Startup

After cutting off the video connection, Zhang Lexing returned to the beach again, continued his unfinished work, rubbed and patted Chen Zishan hard.After basking in the sun for a while, and having a simple lunch on the beach chair, the two returned to the white mansion in the center of Neverland because the sun was too strong. I will write down some game ideas that come to mind after trying out the color-screen handheld that was a wedding gift.

In fact, Zhang Lexing didn’t think much of it, and some of them were not suitable due to copyright or other reasons, so what he wrote in the Word document was only a limited part, including some such as the “Pokemon” series that needs to be carried forward. , some such as "Dragon Quest" and "Fire Emblem" can be continued, some such as "Dragon Ball" can continue to be adapted, some such as "GB Square" and "Gold Digging" can be Refurbished old games (commonly known as fried rice), some small games such as "Diamond Love".

However, the first thing Zhang Lexing thought of when he played the color-screen handheld was not these games, but another "Made in Wario" that was more suitable for handheld entertainment, commonly known as "Five Seconds King". "Wario Manufacturing" was originally supposed to be a collection of mini-games created by Nintendo with a wretched uncle Wario (Wario) as the protagonist.In the game, the direction keys of the handheld and a limited number of buttons are used to cope with some strange and weird gameplays, including eating bananas, cutting meat, skipping rope, skateboarding and so on.At the beginning of each mini-game, players must understand and find the key points of how to complete the goal as quickly as possible, and successfully complete the tasks specified in the mini-game before the 5-second countdown ends.After passing all the mini-games in each level, there will be a BOSS level game waiting for the player.Although they are all mini-games that can be completed within 5 seconds, they should not be underestimated when actually played, because some games still test the player's brain reaction speed and imagination.

If Zhang Lexing wants to make a handheld, the first thing he wants to do is this "Made in Wario", because he thinks this simple, easy and fast game style may be more suitable for the portable handheld game environment. Portable handhelds are played when commuting, studying, or on the way out. Obviously, it is not suitable for playing some games that require time to ponder the system and research the direction of upgrading.Of course, because of the copyright, it is impossible for Zhang Lexing to directly use the name "Made in Wario". Even if Hiroshi Yamauchi nodded in agreement, he is not interested in making wedding dresses for others, and he also has a good choice now. "Weekly Shonen Jump", a subsidiary of Time Group's Shueisha, started a new manga serialization at the same time as "Rurouni Kenshin" ushered in the finale, telling a story about a world called Naruto, where ninjas are The dream in the heart of a young man, such as Naruto with the nine-tailed demon fox sealed in his body, he has always dreamed of becoming Hokage, the title of one of the five strongest ninjas in the world, and the leader of Konoha Ninja Village.

The name of this manga is "Naruto". Although it has just started serialization, it is not yet possible to see any achievements, but Zhang Lexing still remembers the future performance of "Naruto". Not only is it very popular in RB, China and other Asian regions, Moreover, it has conquered comic fans in Europe and the United States across the ocean. It can be said that it is a set of comics with global influence.If the framework of "Naruto" is used, and the mini-game mode of "Made in Wario" is applied, and some of the mini-games are changed into ninja training, Zhang Lexing believes that he will be able to achieve quite good results, which will definitely surpass that of "Wario Manufacture". 70 sets of the first generation of "Made in Rio" were launched. Even if there is a limited edition handheld and a bundled sale, it may also drive the sales of portable handhelds.What's even more perfect is that "Naruto" has just started serialization, and Zhang Lexing's portable handheld is still under research. When "Naruto" starts to exert its influence, it happens that the portable handheld will also be available on the market. They can completely promote each other and make progress together.

Of course, "Made in Wario" is famous for its numerous mini-games, claiming that the number exceeds 200. Now Zhang Lexing wants to replace it with "Made in Naruto". After thinking about it for several days, I only came up with twelve or three types. The rest seems to be left to the future game creators to worry about. Anyway, he has already written down the concise and clear design points of the game.

Speaking of "Made of Wario", Zhang Lexing also thought of another similar work "Rhythm Heaven", which is also a large collection of mini games, but the test is no longer the player's judgment and reaction to the screen, but the test of the game. Grasp the rhythm of the music.In the game, the player needs to do very simple, that is, follow the rhythm of the music, press and hold the key to play the game, and choose the appropriate key timing according to many changes such as variable speed beat, uneven beat, syncopation, and rest.

"Rhythm Paradise" pays attention to mastering the rhythm of the music, so after proficiency, you can even play the game with your eyes closed. For example, on the way home from get off work by bus, you can rest with your eyes closed while experiencing the charm of rhythm. If you stand.It is said that when the game was very popular, people often saw such a weird person on the bus, holding a portable handheld device in his hand, wearing earphones with a silly smile on his face, his head was lighting like a chicken pecking at rice, his hands and feet were like Twitching like a convulsion, [-]% of people like this are playing "Rhythm Heaven".

If Zhang Lexing wants to make such a game, he has some unique conditions. He has a large-scale Universal Music Company under his control, and also has a lot of masters who write music for TV, movies and games. He wants to come up with something original or a variation. I believe that there will be no big problems with the music. If you add some small games that follow the rhythm, you can also make a similar "Rhythm Heaven".

In particular, Zhang Lexing thought about the classic RPG game "Golden Sun", but this is not comparable to "Made in Wario". The complexity of the game script and system is completely different. He could recall too many details, and it would be impossible to restore a classic with only a game name and a game plot that he could hardly remember, so he had no choice but to give up.Anyway, when the time comes to develop the game market for portable handhelds, naturally someone will do the work in this area.

It took a few days to complete the Word document on the idea of ​​portable handheld games, and then transcribed all of it into the "game development management system" that was launched at the beginning of the year. Zhang Lexing wrote down the feeling of using the color-screen handheld during this period of time, and put forward some of his own ideas on the button layout and the shape of the handheld, and sent them to the relevant departments of the Game Research Institute for their reference. .Hopefully, after a while, they can make a more perfect portable handheld, so that they can take a certain advantage when competing with Nintendo and Sony in the handheld market.

……

Time came to April, Zhang Lexing and Chen Zishan finally returned to Hong Kong after their honeymoon.Unexpectedly, as soon as I got off the plane, I received good news that the preparations for the cloud computing platform are all ready, and the construction work has started in Hong Kong and the United States at the same time.

One of the core parts of the cloud computing platform is a high-performance computer cluster. In the past, because the performance of a single server was insufficient, and the cost of a single server could not be ignored for the pursuit of performance, a large number of servers could only be used to form a computing cluster, such as Oriental Shen Yun used as many as 500 servers to work together to render the scene of James Cameron's "Titanic" sinking in the ice sea. In order to speed up the research work, the scale of the underground computing clusters in the research park is also quite large. Huge, the annual electricity bill for this is quite a huge sum, and the space occupied by the computing cluster is also a large sum of money, which has led to restrictions on the expansion of the computing cluster, but these problems are all with the blade. The research on the server was successfully solved.

The official research on blade servers started about five years ago, and Zhang Lexing spent no less than 1 million US dollars on this every year, almost catching up with the consumption of supercomputers for research, but unfortunately, there was not even a sound in the past few years Heard, thankfully some of the work done on blade servers has borne fruit on other projects.However, the investment will eventually pay off. Nearly five years later, the research team led by Chen Shiqing finally produced the finished product, which can be put into commercial blade servers.

The successfully developed blade server adopts dual 64-bit central processors based on MIPS technology architecture, and a memory system that can process data on the rising and falling edges of the clock signal, which can make the system data transmission rate reach 2 times that of traditional memory. More than twice as many times, plus a special multi-layer PCB, all necessary components including processor, main control chip, display card, network card, memory stick, etc. are integrated on one motherboard.With the support of the high-performance processor and the high-performance architecture system, a blade-type board can achieve more than ten times the performance of a single server in the past, which means that only one blade server in a cabinet can replace Oriental Shen Yun. The 500-scale rendering matrix has a perfect solution to the problems of electricity cost and occupied area, and building a higher-performance computing cluster is no longer elusive.

It is not enough for a cloud computing platform to only have high-performance servers, just like a person with a body but no soul, so another core part, the "cloud operating system", is also essential. The "cloud operating system" actually started earlier. After the stock market crash in 87, Zhang Lexing, who spent a lot of money, spent money everywhere to start projects. Among them was a parallel operating system research project that Michael Mahon participated in, which is now "cloud operating system". "The embryonic form.After more than ten years of development, the project research and development team also moved from San Jose, California to Hong Kong. It was not until 95 that the research had preliminary results-an experimental "cloud operating system" running on ordinary networked computers. After years of testing and continuous improvement, especially after the actual combat test in 97, the "cloud operating system" is finally close to perfection, so there is the official version of the "cloud operating system" now code-named "Warthog".

High-performance blade servers plus the near-perfect "Warthog" operating system, the enterprise communication network under construction, and everything needed for cloud computing has begun to take shape. Therefore, Dongfang Industrial Group in Hong Kong and VisualSystem Group in the United States, The construction of the cloud computing platform has started successively, starting from Internet services and enterprise computing, and gradually relocating the business of the group to the cloud computing platform. Computing power will be greatly improved again, and a pair of faster wings will be plugged in for research work.

The actions of the Oriental Industrial Group first started from the research park in Dapu and the film rendering cluster of Oriental Shen Yun. As for the old computers that have been eliminated, most of them have tried their best to digest them internally. The actions of VisualSystem Group first started from the Internet business. For example, EBay, a subsidiary of the group that has been developing for many years and was listed on the stock market last year, will soon become a beneficiary of the cloud computing platform under construction because of the rapidly expanding transaction volume.

In addition, VisualSystem Group intends to integrate companies that provide online game services, including Blizzard's Battle.net, Blue Dragon Network, which operates online games, and Xueleshan's online game platform, and use the powerful support capabilities of the cloud computing platform to And integrate the convenient communication of ICQ platform to create a super network platform integrating game publishing, online battle, player interaction, game content organization and update, and online game operation, providing players with a variety of online games including free and paid Service, currently within the group, the tentative name for this platform is "Steam", and even a series of domain names including Steam have been prepared in advance, only to wait for the cloud computing platform to be officially launched and the Steam platform to be officially launched day.

The birth of the Steam platform is based on the original suggestions from Xueleshan Network. Of course, Zhang Lexing’s corrections and improvements based on his own experience are also indispensable. Moreover, he still has high expectations for the future of the Steam platform. Not only does he hope that with the continuous improvement of the network infrastructure, I can transfer the distribution of computer games to the Steam platform, and I also hope that after the DreamBox128 console is officially launched, I can also have my own channel on the Steam platform to provide a more convenient distribution platform for the games of the DreamBox128 console, especially those It is a creative little game, and he even hopes to have a supporting fast payment system, so that players can easily buy the full version at a lower price after trying out a game, which may be able to serve some domestic players. Creative game studios offer a new path of development.

Of course, the most important thing to use the cloud computing platform is to use it in research work. Whether it is Chen Zishan's biological research institute, PCB simulation in the microelectronics research institute, or database visualization and virtual retrieval, etc., they can all play a big role.More importantly, with the assistance of a high-performance cloud computing platform, it can continue to maintain a leading position in research work, and can even use its research on a more advanced high-performance computing platform to speed up development.Taking R&D and analysis as the guide and patented technology as the barrier, this is the future development path of the company envisioned by Zhang Lexing.

(End of this chapter)