game trailblazer

Chapter 70 The Decoy Plan
On October 10, a few weeks after resolving the dispute over the rights to adapt the game "Cube" on the portable handheld, Zhang Lexing was still urging the operating system project team to work hard and prepare to meet the challenge from IBM.News came from RB that Nintendo's new generation of 21-bit host SFC (Super Nintendo) officially landed on the RB market. The realistic mech action shooting game shown at the meeting) was also launched at the same time. The perfect combination of armored body and multi-layer background achieves a pseudo 16D effect, fully demonstrating the powerful functions of SFC.

Relying on the quality of the SFC console itself and the good performance of the first game, the Sega MD console, which has been heavily suppressed in the RB market, was hit hard again, and sales further slumped.But the U.S. market is very different. Under the leadership of Tom, the new president of Sega America, through overwhelming wild advertising campaigns, a unique game development model (developing faster and cooler works than Nintendo, which is very Loved by North American users), coupled with the host’s price cuts and bundled “Sonic” and other methods, the American version of the MD host Genesis began to aggressively conquer the city, and many users from the original Nintendo’s red and white (FC) era have invested in Sega. embrace.

Even after the launch of the SFC mainframe, this trend of changing families has not shown signs of constriction. In fact, this is mainly related to the characteristics of American players. Their favorites are shooting, action and sports, which require a high sense of speed. However, Genesis (MD US version host) is a host that emphasizes speed. Even if the SFC host is launched, it will not be able to shake its position in this respect.This directly led to many American game manufacturers trying to develop games for Sega's consoles, including ACCLAIM and other major software companies in the North American market, and even Hawkins' EA company began to try.

But these things have nothing to do with Zhang Lexing, so naturally he doesn't care too much about them. What really attracts Zhang Lexing's attention now is the team of hardware engineers who supported Nintendo, because they finally completed their mission and returned.

A week later, San Francisco International Airport...

Zhang Lexing brought a few people to pick up the plane, and waited for almost an hour outside the exit of the terminal building. After completing the research and development work, the engineers who took a vacation by the way finally appeared.After getting in the car, Zhang Lexing sat next to Chen Zhipeng (Chinese, English name Rick Chen) who led the team this time, and asked him about the process of developing the game console on the way.

According to Chen Zhipeng, for engineers who have designed computers, it is not too difficult to develop a game console.The real challenge is how to control the cost of the mainframe, how to balance each component with a limited cost, how to make the cost of each component as low as possible after mass production, and so on.

"This experience is also a very good opportunity for us to accumulate experience," Chen Zhipeng finally said with a little regret: "Unfortunately, there are not many opportunities to directly use it in the future."

"Whoever said there is no chance, there will be a new task for you soon, and you will be able to get what you want right away."

"Really, what is the mission?" Chen Zhipeng asked in surprise.

"But it's too late today, you go back to rest first, come to the company tomorrow, and you'll know when the time comes." Zhang Lexing pretended to be mysterious and didn't explain the matter clearly.

……

The next day, when Zhang Lexing arrived at the office, Chen Zhipeng had been waiting there for a long time, and it seemed that he was still in a very urgent mood.

"Since you are so eager to know, you can take a look at it first." Zhang Lexing took out a technical document from the safe and handed it over.

Chen Zhipeng picked it up, flipped through it, and got addicted to it. Zhang Lexing was not in a hurry, and slowly sipped the coffee sent by the secretary.After Zhang Lexing drank three cups of coffee, Chen Zhipeng woke up after reading the materials.

"I feel that this design drawing is very familiar, a bit like the MIPS R3000 CPU I have seen before."

"Yes, this is a new CPU based on MIPS R3000 with enhanced multimedia processing capabilities. We call it MIPS R3000A."

"No wonder I look familiar. Is this information related to our new mission?"

"Do you think it is possible to design a game console with this CPU?"

Chen Zhipeng pondered for a while, and said: "It should be no problem, but this CPU is much more powerful than the two current 16-bit game consoles, and the relevant supporting components must be selected properly to exert the processing power of the CPU. It can only be done after continuous experiments, and if we want to come up with a more reasonable solution, it may take a little longer."

"It doesn't matter, I will give you full support, here is another document, you can use it or not." Zhang Lexing took out a piece of paper from the drawer and handed it over.

This is actually a sketch of the game console design drawn by Zhang Lexing, and it is really a very sketchy drawing. Basically, it only has the appearance of a console, and some labels are densely written on the side.For example: the game reading device adopts an optical drive, the game storage adopts an optical disc, and there is a dedicated 3D graphics processing chip (GPU). CD quality and more.

In fact, Zhang Lexing also knows that the pile of things he wrote may not be of much help. It would be great if he could directly show the internal design drawings of the game console. Unfortunately, Zhang Lexing is not so good. Just a few pictures of the disassembly.So I can only draw a simple sketch, hoping to guide Chen Zhipeng's upcoming research and development team in the design and configuration selection of the game console, at least to avoid the detours of Nintendo sticking to the cassette.

Looking at the expression on Chen Zhipeng's hand, Zhang Lexing was very worried that he would turn his back and throw it into the trash can, so he had to explain a few words: "This drawing is a bit sloppy, but there are many opinions in it. I have consulted many industry experts. What we summarize later should be helpful to your design tasks, so don’t just throw them away.”

……

In this way, Zhang Lexing's first-generation host design journey began with the help of such a sketch.A few days later, a mysterious research team was added to the research institute under Dongfang Microelectronics. This team was based on Chen Zhipeng's team, supplemented with operating system developers from Sunrise Software, and graphics and audio processing engineers from the Audiovisual Research Institute. It was established by technical researchers and other forces, and their research goal is to design an epoch-making game console with MIPS R3000A as the core. For this reason, Zhang Lexing also allocated a special research fund of 8000 million US dollars to ensure the smooth research work conduct.

In fact, Zhang Lexing once imagined that after the development of the console was successful, he would promote the console by himself, but he had to give up this tempting idea when he thought of the poor game development capabilities in China and his own insufficient preparation.The idea of ​​self-promotion was given up, but the research funds of the game console could not be wasted, so Zhang Lexing specially formulated a "bait" plan for a certain future victim, and only waited for the right time to launch it.

After arranging the main engine development plan, the staff sent to the UK in the early stage brought good news that they have completed the investment in several enterprises that Zhang Lexing explained to be concerned about.In the name of Dongfang Holdings, it acquired Rare, a small British game development company, and plans to merge it into Tianzhiyuan's home console game development system in the future, further enhancing its development capabilities on console platforms.Through Dongfang Microelectronics Co., Ltd.'s shareholding in the newly established British ARM company, ARM's main business is the design of high-performance, cheap, low-power RISC processors, related technologies and software, and then makes profits through chip technology licensing. Zhang Lexing, the future name of ARM, knows that the vast majority of handheld devices (handheld computers, smart phones, portable handhelds, etc.) use various types of ARM processors. The operating system of the device and the development of your own portable handheld will be much more convenient.

……

Time continues to move forward. In mid-December, the newly established GB business unit of Tianzhiyuan launched "GB Cube", which can be regarded as fulfilling its commitment to Nintendo. After "GB Cube" was launched, the game's simplicity and ease of use, coupled with the portability of GB itself, quickly became popular.For a while, almost every player who owns a GB has a copy of "GB Cube". When walking on the road or sitting in a car, many people always have a GB in their hands, and the game screens that appear on the GB are almost constantly moving cubes.And those who haven't bought GB are attracted by "GB Cube", and soon buy this fashionable and popular gadget for themselves.In just one week, the sales of "GB Cube" exceeded 12 million sets, and the sales of GB also grew rapidly by virtue of this game craze.Shinji Hatano, director of Nintendo's sales department, was delighted to see Tiantian's upward sales curve, and Tianzhiyuan's status in Nintendo's eyes also increased accordingly, and the cooperative relationship between the two parties was also greatly enhanced.

On Christmas Eve, VisualSystem released the latest version of the operating system, Kylin Windows 3.1, and to the delight of the company, the sales of VisualSystem's operating system had risen to four times the sales of OS/2 developed by IBM, and the pressure began to gradually spread to IBM here.In this atmosphere, Zhang Lexing is also in a very good mood. What is even more gratifying is that the development team led by Zhan Jun has successfully completed the development of "The Age of Voyage", and the English version will be on sale during Christmas.With Zhang Lexing's care, "The Age of Voyage" has enjoyed EA's emphasis on distribution and successfully entered the Christmas sales list. Of course, the quality of the game itself plays a major role in this.

(End of this chapter)