Game Development Giant

Jester really wanted Sega to compete head-on with Nintendo. He didn't want Sega to give up on its own generation of consoles so quickly, and then go all out to develop 16-bit machines. You know, Sega was in the arcade field. Years of accumulation, especially experience in some large arcade machines, in terms of hardware development, the technology accumulated is not comparable to that of myself or Nintendo.

If they were to be like in previous history, they knew it was impossible not long after the master-system was launched, and then started the development of 16-bit computers, and in just over two years they developed the world's first The first 16-bit game console MD was too passive for me.

After all, the life span that Jester gave his dreambox was not just two years.

With the evolution of game consoles, the barriers to entry are getting higher and higher. At the time of eight-bit consoles, because they were all OEM assembly with fully mature technologies, basically anyone with some basic hardware and circuit knowledge would have to go through a period of With time, especially when there are official product prototypes as reference, even mainland village-run enterprises in the mid-to-late 1980s can imitate without difficulty.

But starting from 16-bit machines, the technical content of game consoles will show a leap-forward improvement, which can be regarded as a barrier to entry, not to mention the 32-bit machines and 3D that started with the addition of Sony. Revolution, which is why Jester must enter the market in the eight-bit computer era, because only in the eight-bit computer era the entry conditions are basically zero, and the market is blank because of the collapse of Atari. The window period created is unprecedented. It is precisely because of this that in Jester's mind, he does not want Sega to lose confidence in its eight-bit machine so quickly. This is why he decided to make a high-quality game for Sega. Now his next generation The development of the 16-bit game console has begun on paper, and the progress is not ideal. Now that Jester has it, it is necessary to recruit a few people with experience in 16-bit substrate development to improve efficiency.

This reply from Sega was based on Jester's previous suggestion that they send their R\u0026D team to the United States to develop "Cooking No Ichiban". Sega was also very excited about this suggestion. In this reply letter, he said that their R\u0026D team would be able to set off within half a month at most. At the same time, he also wanted to ask how many people the entire team would need, including planners, artists, and programmers.

One thing that even surprised Jester was that Yu Suzuki, who had just finished the development of "Hang-on", also gave up his design work on another heavyweight game "Space Harry" within Sega. He decided to come to the United States with the group, and he also expressed very humbly that he wanted to learn from Jester how to make an excellent home console game, which also made Jester a little vain. After all, Suzuki Yuko is the soul of Sega in his memory, and he is truly a master of the generation. after. Jester contacted his team leader who had been sent to Japan's Sega headquarters to participate in the development of "Hang-on", the world's first motion-sensing arcade game, and asked them about their situation. Being away from the United States for more than half a year is extremely difficult for these people, and because of the crazy work spirit of the Japanese, in order to keep up with the progress of the Japanese, these employees dispatched to Japan are not like others. Just like dispatched employees, they have holidays back home and can only follow the progress of Sega's Japanese development team at any time.

To be honest, this level of work intensity is simply not worth mentioning in front of the teams sent by mainland China to study technology abroad in this era that Jester knows, such as the teams sent to Siemens to learn high-speed rail technology in the 1990s. However, The Americans have a lot of requirements, and it is not easy to find a team that is willing to participate in such a high-intensity process and does not give him any choices halfway through.

The leader of this team first complained to Jester. This is for sure. After all, the Japanese people’s work intensity and work enthusiasm are completely incomparable to them. But at the same time, they also said that they have learned a lot in these six months, and they also He expressed his admiration for Sega's technology in large-scale arcade machines, and finally said that after more than half a year of research, they are now able to develop an independent large-scale motion-sensing arcade project.

Jester is non-committal, and whether he can make it or not, he still has to bring him back to try, but now he still has to say praise and praise. It doesn't cost money anyway - of course, it is an unreal reward for the dispatched hardware team. It's impossible. If he dares not to reward him, this team will immediately dare to rebel. Besides, it is indeed extremely difficult to be away from his family for more than half a year. Fortunately, most of this team are young people who are not yet married.

Therefore, Jester immediately gave the team a month and a half of paid leave, and the company paid all the travel expenses - of course there is a limit, but the limit is very high, and the high bonus promised before will also be paid. Cash out after these employees are formally debriefed.

Jester's job is not only for Mars Entertainment, but also for Fengxing Publishing Company. Basically, Carly Terry and her team can handle it very well. Jester only needs to work on some very important documents. Just sign. In fact, even if Jester did it himself, he would not be able to handle it so well. There are too many trivial matters that need to be dealt with to manage a distribution company with business across North America.

Another example is that the comic version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" by Illusion Studio has been a hit, and the production of the animated version is nearing completion. It needs to be contacted by the TV station to broadcast it. Fortunately, the two founders of Illusion have some relationship. In this regard, Jester doesn't need to worry.

But not all of his companies are like Fengxing Company. Illusion Studio can also reassure him. For example, after seeing the popularity of the "World Storm" card game, Clement Company wanted to develop a new card game. game, but several projects were not satisfactory after discussion, so they all turned to Jester for advice in this regard.

But Jester is currently too busy with his own game development issues, so how can he have time to help them design a card game? Moreover, Magic: The Gathering requires very rigorous mathematical modeling to complete, and this is not a project that can be completed in a short time.

What worries Jester the most is the high-end computer he and He Guoyuan planned to launch, because at the CES show at the beginning of the year, Jester spent a lot of time bragging about his plan for this high-end gaming computer, but then he With signs of waning, many players or the media have expressed their dissatisfaction.

After all, the next-generation graphics shown on that prototype were so shocking that many rich players who were not short of money have made it clear that as long as Mars Entertainment dares to release it and can guarantee the number of games, they will buy it without hesitation.

But for Jester. When he thought of making his own computer brand, he thought of the future Apple, making a closed system that could be perfectly self-consistent, regardless of the external environment. I only play with my own, but the system is not about You can do it if you do it, even now.

As for whether Jester has ever thought about learning from Microsoft and the path that Microsoft has taken in later generations, Jester has really thought about it. He is just thinking about it. After all, no matter what, he is still a Chinese in the final analysis. It may not be enough for him to dominate the game industry, no matter how high-minded these industries are. In the final analysis, it is just an entertainment industry, but the system is not like that. It is absolutely impossible for the US government to allow a non-white person to grow into the overlord of PC systems like Microsoft.

Moreover, it is difficult to become the dominant player in the PC operating system. The technology tree to climb, the scale of investment required, and the interest alliances to be completed are definitely not comparable to those of a small game industry. Regarding this bottomless black hole, Jester did have greed, but more importantly, he was afraid of it.

After the CES show, regarding his plan for a high-end brand computer, Jester had only two options before him. One was to temporarily replace it with an IBM compatible system, and the other was to postpone the plan until it suited him. After the operating system is developed, it can be promoted.

ATI's CEO He Guoyuan actually doesn't quite agree with Jester's plan to develop his own system and make himself an independent ecosystem. In his eyes, in the PC field, the most important thing is openness, IBM-compatible machines The audience is the largest, and the number of application software developed for them is also the largest. If you want to make a computer, it is not a wise move not to actively join this party, but to take a closed road like Apple.

And He Guoyuan's reason is also very reasonable. In the final analysis, PC is just a tool. Although our main function is games, a person spends more than ten or even dozens of times the price to buy an expensive personal computer but it can only be used for playing games. The game, the pure experience gained in this way, will be very, very poor.

After all, a personal computer is not a game console in essence, but a tool, not a toy, even if many people like to use it to play games.

Unless we can do all the things that users can do on IBM-compatible machines, that is to say, we have to make a variety of software ourselves.

But this is obviously unrealistic.

When Jester cited Apple as an example, it showed that there are still many developers or developers who are happy to develop programs for Apple. However, He Guoyuan scoffed at Jester's statement. He said very bluntly: "Apple can have The reason for such a large software group is that they were launched early and relied on a low-price strategy to gain a large number of user support. However, if we set a high price from the beginning, it would be impossible to gain a large number of user support. Without it, What developer or developer would develop a program for a system that has no users.”

Therefore, due to the dispute between Jester and He Guoyuan in this regard, there has been basically no progress in the high-end PC project in the past few months.

After all, how this project will be carried out has not been determined yet.