game trailblazer

Chapter 28 Nintendo's first episode

Yuko is a very ordinary girl. Even if she is a graduate of Kyoto University, it is difficult to find an ideal job in this man's society.Fortunately, her luck is not bad. She was lucky enough to find a front desk job at Nintendo only half a year after graduation. Although it is completely out of line with her major, she can still maintain her life in Kyoto after all. Maybe he would have gone back to his hometown to get married and have children.

As usual, Yuko took out her makeup bag and prepared to touch up her makeup. For her, the front desk is a place full of opportunities, and she must always be prepared.While dusting her face with powder, Yuko suddenly noticed a hand reaching out and tapping on the countertop. She heard the sound and looked up, and a strong man with a cold expression appeared in front of her eyes.

Yuko shrank back instinctively, and asked in a slightly trembling voice, "Hello! What do you need?"

A sunny and handsome young man stepped forward and made a call, but Yuko couldn't understand at all, so he could only repeat the question just now in a daze.

Fortunately, the translator came over to help, and he said in Japanese: "There is a problem with the game console we purchased from your company. Now, President Yamauchi is here to visit your company."

This time, Yuko understood that it was the game console that broke down again, which was too common during this time.When the company's products went on the market a few months ago, Yuko was very happy for a while. Although this has nothing to do with the front desk, if the company makes money, maybe her salary will also increase.However, during the recent period, Yuko heard that many people called the company to complain about product failures. Section Manager Yokoi and Section Chief Uemura were extremely busy every day, and her heart was cold again.Yuko occasionally encounters one or two users who come to the door because of the malfunction of the game console he bought, but it is the first time that there is such a big battle like today.Yuko didn't dare to be negligent, picked up the internal phone and informed the president's secretary that it would be better for the senior management to deal with such a hot potato.

……

Zhang Lexing originally thought that the front desk of a company like Nintendo could at least say hello in English, but he didn't expect that he said a lot of words, but the receptionist muttered like an idiot, obviously not understanding a word.Fortunately, I brought a Japanese translation this time, otherwise the ugliness would be a big deal.

After waiting for about 10 minutes, someone finally came downstairs to lead Zhang Lexing and his party to the meeting room upstairs.Walking into the door of the conference room, Zhang Lexing found that there were already two people waiting in the conference room.

"I'm sorry that our company's game consoles have caused you trouble!" The gray-haired middle-aged man bowed sincerely, and the slightly younger middle-aged man next to him also bowed deeply.

"My name is Zhang Lexing. We are from the United States. Are you the president of Yamauchi?" Zhang Lexing asked the middle-aged man who looked older and had gray hair. Of course, this sentence was converted through translation.

"Exactly, Mr. Zhang, we will be responsible for the game console you bought." Hiroshi Yamauchi looked very sincere.

"President Yamauchi, to be honest, the FC game console you developed is really... terrible!" Zhang Lexing shook his head and said contemptuously: "The processor is still 6502, the same as Atari's, but the image processing The processor and sound processor are a bit more powerful... The worst thing is that it freezes while playing games, which is simply an unforgivable mistake."

No matter who it is, when someone criticizes his favorite work face to face, his mood may not be much better, and Yamauchi Hiroshi's complexion is getting worse and worse.Zhang Lexing also accidentally discovered that the middle-aged man next to Yamauchi seemed to have a worse complexion. Perhaps the FC game console was more important in that person's heart.

After talking for a while, Zhang Lexing felt that the heat was almost ready, and changed the subject, "However, President Yamauchi, although the configuration of the FC game console designed by your Nintendo is relatively low, according to the analysis of our company's experts, I think your choice can be very good. To control the cost, the mainframe will be very easy to popularize in the future. However, the failure of the current crash should be resolved immediately, otherwise..."

"We guess it's a hardware design problem, but we haven't found out the specific reason yet due to time constraints." The middle-aged man next to Yamauchi Hiroshi frowns.

"I haven't asked for advice yet, President Yamauchi, who's next to you?" Zhang Lexing asked.

"His name is Junpei Yokoi, and he is the head of the Design Section [-] of our company. He participated in the design of the FC game console." Hiroshi Yamauchi introduced.

Zhang Lexing has some impressions of Yokoi Junping, knowing that he has participated in the design of GameBoy and VR-Boy, and is also known as the father of GameBoy.But I’m ashamed to say that when Zhang Lexing was obsessed with Nintendo games, he didn’t even know that there was such a person as Yokoi Gunpei in the world. It wasn’t until 2003 that he saw Yokoi Gunpei being awarded a lifetime award for special meritorious service in the game industry at the awards ceremony of the Game Developers Annual Conference on the Internet. (LifeTimeAward), only to know that the classic cross keys on the GameBoy and FC game consoles I played back then were all made by this person, and it has been almost six years since Yokoi Gunpei passed away at this time.

Seeing Junping Yokoi this time, Zhang Lexing was still a little excited, but he kept his face under control and didn't show it, after all, he hadn't achieved the purpose of his visit this time.

"Our hardware engineers have perfectly solved this problem, President Yamauchi, you can ask someone to try it." Zhang Lexing took out a modified FC game console and put it on the conference table.

Apparently there was no more suitable candidate than Gunpei Yokoi. Hiroshi Yamauchi signaled to Gunpei Yokoi, and Gunpei Yokoi, who had been eager to try for a long time, walked over immediately, took the modified FC game console and connected it to the TV in the conference room to start testing. .

When Junhei Yokoi was busy testing, Zhang Lexing was not idle, chatting with Hiroshi Yamauchi about Nintendo's development.Listening to Hiroshi Yamauchi, Zhang Lexing realized that Nintendo has a long history, having been established as early as 1889, but at that time it was still a company specializing in the production and sales of handmade RB flower cards.It wasn't until 1977 that Nintendo started to get involved in the video game industry. Relying on the popularity of games on arcades, the company began to grow and grow. The success of Atari game consoles gave Hiroshi Yamauchi the idea of ​​developing home game consoles.A few months ago, the FC game console was successfully launched. The first batch of 47 FC game consoles were sold out in just two months. Hiroshi Yamauchi felt that he had seen the dawn of victory. Even though Nintendo failed to find the cause of the failure within a short period of time, the prospect of the FC game console suddenly became precarious.At the end, Hiroshi Yamauchi couldn't help but sighed.

"President, there is no problem!" Yokoi Gunpei shouted in surprise.

"Great!" Hiroshi Yamauchi also showed joy on his face.

"President Yamauchi, we have a detailed solution to this problem. Is your company interested?" Zhang Lexing said calmly.

Yamauchi Pu calmed down quickly, and said with a trace of majesty: "Tell me, what do you need in exchange?"

Zhang Lexing didn't intend to make any detours anymore: "Since President Yamauchi made it so clear, let's talk about it, but before that, I hope to find Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto."

A look of surprise flashed across Hiroshi Yamauchi's face, but he soon calmed down, and someone called Shigeru Miyamoto.

"Okay, Shigeru Miyamoto is here too, you can talk now." Hiroshi Yamauchi said calmly.

Zhang Lexing took out a game cassette from the purse of the entourage, and pushed it over the conference table, "President Yamauchi, Mr. Miyamoto, please read this before we talk."

Shigeru Miyamoto glanced at Hiroshi Yamauchi, and after getting a positive look, he immediately picked up the game cassette, inserted it into the FC game console in front of the TV, then turned on the FC switch, sat down and started to try it out.

Soon the game selection screen appeared on the TV screen, with the words "SuperPrince" on the upper part of the screen, and the selection of singles and doubles at the bottom.Shigeru Miyamoto skillfully chose the single player game, and soon a cartoon prince appeared on the TV screen.Under Shigeru Miyamoto's operation, he quickly ran to the right, and soon several question mark bricks and ordinary bricks appeared in the screen, and at the same time a chestnut boy (Goomba) also came quietly.As expected of a veteran of the game, Shigeru Miyamoto jumped a few times, crushed the chestnut boy, and ate the mushroom, but a new challenge appeared ahead again.

During Shigeru Miyamoto's trial play, Zhang Lexing introduced the background setting, game purpose, process distribution, operability, hidden elements, etc. of this game to Yamauchi Hiroshi. As a result, Yamauchi Hiroshi couldn't bear to hear it, and couldn't help it from Zhang Lexing's hands. Asked for a cassette to try it out for myself.

This game lasted for more than two hours, and it was almost noon, but Hiroshi Yamauchi and Shigeru Miyamoto still couldn't stop.Hiroshi Yamauchi is better, he thinks more about what are the characteristics of the game in front of him, what are the fun features that can attract players, and how many players can attract how much money.Shigeru Miyamoto was completely intoxicated in this game, as excited as an ordinary player encountering his favorite game, as if he experienced his happy childhood from the game.

It was Yamauchi Pu who stopped first and invited Zhang Lexing and others to have lunch together.At the dinner table, the host and guest chatted happily. Hiroshi Yamauchi talked about this game several times, but Zhang Lexing kept smiling and remained silent.After lunch, everyone came to the conference room again.

"Mr. Zhang, you can talk about your conditions now." Yamauchi Pu said calmly.

"President Yamauchi, take a look at this game again." Zhang Lexing took out another cassette and pushed it across the table.

It was Shigeru Miyamoto who took the game cassette and inserted it into the game console in front of the TV. Soon the new game screen appeared on the TV screen.Looking at the same game scene and familiar game characters, Shigeru Miyamoto was so stunned that he didn't even react when the controller in his hand fell to the ground.Even Hiroshi Yamauchi, who has always been calm, had a surprised expression on his face, and his eyes were staring straight at the TV screen, as if he saw the most incredible thing in the world.

After a while, Hiroshi Yamauchi who came back to his senses asked excitedly: "Mr. Zhang, what do you mean?"

"Don't you think this game is more attractive than the previous one?...Don't you think it is more beneficial for your company to use Mario as the protagonist of the game?" Zhang Lexing said several reasons in one breath, and Hiroshi Yamauchi also started Lost in thought.

The benefits of using Mario as the protagonist of the game are obvious, not only the benefits brought by a game in terms of sales, but more importantly, the expansion of Mario's influence. This is Zhang Lexing's confidence to impress Yamauchi Hiroshi.As expected of a generation of heroes, Yamauchi Hiroshi quickly made a decision.After the boss spoke, the next negotiations were completed by the younger brothers. After three full days of talking, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

The main contents of the final agreement signed by the two parties are as follows: "Super Mario" and "Gold Digging" brought by Zhang Lexing this time will be sold by Nintendo, and KF-Panda Studio will get 35% of the share, plus a down payment of 2 million yen ; The copyright of "Super Mario" belongs to Nintendo, and KF-Panda studio has the right to continue to use Mario's name and character image, but any game using Mario can only be launched on Nintendo's game console; KF-Panda studio owns The right to develop games on the Nintendo console does not require additional payment. The developed games can be launched by themselves or sold through Nintendo, but the developed games must be reviewed by Nintendo and can only be released after the review; if the game cartridge is entrusted to Nintendo to manufacture , you need to pay an additional cassette manufacturing fee, and the price will be negotiated separately; the number of games released each year is not limited, but the first batch of each game will not be less than 2 copies, if the retail store orders less than 2 copies, the sale will be suspended ; During the contract period, KF-Panda Studio and Nintendo will settle in Japanese Yen, and the contract period is six years.

And the "Super Prince", which was used to attract jade, also successfully withdrew from the stage of history and became Zhang Lexing's private collection.

(End of this chapter)