Game Development Giant

"It's really grand..."

Looking at the long queue of people in front of him, Harrison, who participated in last year's Mars Entertainment Festival, couldn't help but sigh.

The only difference between him and last year is that he only participated as an ordinary player or spectator last year. He was also lucky at that time, because the Mars Entertainment Carnival was held for the first time. At the beginning, the tickets were still available. It's not particularly difficult to buy, so I bought one specifically for myself.

If it were later that a ticket cost 5,000 US dollars, I might just give up.

Speaking of which, I was determined at that time. It was five thousand dollars. Just when I was queuing up, someone offered me this price to buy the ticket in my hand. I don’t know what fascinated me at that time. He actually refused directly. Now that I think about it, if I was given another chance, I might just trade the tickets in my hand.

It's a pity that I originally wanted to buy it as soon as possible this year, but because last year's Mars Entertainment Carnival was so successful, by the time I wanted to buy tickets, the tickets had long been sold out.

However, this year I am different from last year.

As an employee who has some relatives with the boss of the magazine, Harrison naturally got the opportunity to represent their magazine at the Mars Entertainment Carnival, and he didn't need to wait in line for a day or two like last year. Instead of waiting in a long line for hours to enter, enter directly through a special passage behind the Anaheim Convention Center.

Harrison looked outside for a few minutes and heard someone calling him.

He turned around and saw that it was a staff member of Mars Entertainment. He immediately smiled and walked over quickly. He knew that this was to pick him up from the special passage of the convention and exhibition center and enter the venue in advance. This time The time left for these game media in advance is a little shorter than last year. It’s only half an hour, and last year it was close to an hour.

However, it is said that the Mars Entertainment Carnival is being reformed every year. It seems that starting from the third session next year, there will be no preferential treatment for media to enter in advance.

The documents were checked very carefully. Harrison saw that the staff member in front of him carefully checked the special admission document in his hand several times, and also called to confirm before facing him. Release - When passing through the special passage, the staff member gave himself a map of the site.

Opening the map, Harrison, who attended last year's carnival, glanced at it. I knew the layout was similar to last year’s.

Area A, the largest main venue of the Anaheim Convention and Exhibition Center, is the top priority of this carnival. The map specifically indicates that at nine-thirty, Jester Lee will be at A lecture was given here, and the demo venue for "Age of Empires", which was previously praised by the most influential gaming magazines such as "Game", was also there.

as expected.

Harrison saw that it was the same as himself. The media members who entered the venue through the special passage at the back immediately set their first location in Area A after getting the map and looking through it.

And Harrison was not to be outdone.

"Last year, "Quake" was announced in Zone A, which caused a huge sensation. I don't know if "Age of Empires" this time can achieve the same effect as last year."

"Yes, I remember that after the carnival, almost all the media and players called "Quake" the greatest game on the PC platform. Even if you include the home console platform, there are not many previews that can compete with it!"

"But in recent years, have you noticed that Jester Lee seems to have transferred his interest in game development from home consoles to PC. For example, last year's "Quake", and now "Fantasy" "Simulated War" and "Age of Empires"..."

"Yeah, although we haven't played it yet, you can see from the reviews of "Game" that their evaluation of "Dream Simulator" is just a game that is just qualified for Jester Lee's level. The game did not bring any surprises to them, although this game is the best of its kind."

"This is not the case with Age of Empires. They rated this game as an incredible game!"

"Not only that, you can see it if you look at the layout of this Mars Entertainment Carnival. The main venue is for "Age of Empires", and "Fantasy Simulated War" is also a work of Jester, and it is just We were arranged in venue No. 3, and the machine we were trying out was only half the size of Age of Empires.”

As Harrison walked quickly towards Area A, he heard similar discussions coming to his ears from time to time, and he also thought so. As members of an ordinary game magazine, they were not like "Game". "That way, you can get the test game of "Age of Empires" in advance for testing before the carnival.

But they all work in the same industry, so who doesn’t have some friends?

Now that magazines like "Game" have had the opportunity to test, some smaller ones can also get some news about these games from their friends, although these news about the games must be kept confidential before the carnival. , as long as they don't spread it to others, then there won't be any problem.

Naturally, Harrison had heard his colleague talk about "Age of Empires" before. His colleague's friend was a member of "Game", and he heard it from his friend who worked in "Game".

Recalling the content of the game "Age of Empires" described by his colleagues, Harrison was naturally enthusiastic. He himself was a fan of the game "Civilization", but for him, "Civilization" "It's fun, but the pace of this game is a bit too slow.

Therefore, when he heard the gameplay of "Age of Empires", a voice immediately appeared in his heart.

This is the game he wants.

The main venue of the Anaheim Convention and Exhibition Center is very large and is now divided into two parts. One part is for the opening. The place where Jester Lee will give a speech has a podium and hundreds of seats. Although There are not many seats, but there is room for about a thousand people to stand in the available space.

And it doesn’t matter even if you are not there. There are large-size screens everywhere in the venue. The main insiders will broadcast live broadcasts to the players in the venue through these screens in real time, so that people in the venue will not miss the carnival. Great content.

This is also an improvement over last year. Last year, some content was missed, which made many people feel regretful.

The other part of the main venue is all the trial area of ​​"Age of Empires". This is also based on the experience of last year's "Quake". Last year, "Quake" arranged more than 150 trial units. Machines, I originally thought this was a lot, but Mars Entertainment still greatly misjudged the players' enthusiasm for this game.

And the appeal that this game has.

This year Mars Entertainment not only doubled the number of trial machines to 300, but also exchanged the tickets in their hands for a special card when every carnival participant entered. There is an account name and a password on the card.

The test opportunity for "Age of Empires" is on this special card.

Harrison came to the test area of ​​"Age of Empires", found an empty computer, and sat on the seat in front. It was only the early entry time for the media, so the place seemed extremely empty, but wait After a while, the players began to enter the field. As someone who had participated in last year's carnival, he naturally knew what a bustling and heated scene it was.

You know, last year he spent an hour and a half queuing to enter, and then queued for another hour and a half in the "Quake" demo area before playing for 20 minutes.

It's like now, you can enter in advance and play in advance.

That feeling is simply incomparable.

When he turned on the computer, the first thing that caught Harrison's eyes was a graphics operating system. He was no stranger to this system. This was a system just launched by Microsoft. It was no worse than Apple's Macintosh computer in terms of usability. Moreover, this operating system The biggest advantage is that it is not limited to computers, that is to say, it can be used on all compatible machines.

Apple's graphics operating system can only be used on their backward Macintosh computers, and cannot be used on other compatible machines. Macintosh computers have long since failed to keep up with the times.

It is said that Jester was involved in the development of the operating system, and at least he provided part of the development funds. Bill Gates himself has acknowledged this, and most importantly, in previous interviews, Mars Entertainment This is also specifically stated.

That is the game "Age of Empires", which can only be run on systems of and above.

If Jester had no special relationship with Microsoft's win system before, they would not have made this setting specifically, but this is nothing to Harrison, because it is indeed very easy to use, but there are many Apple users are quite complaining about Jester's announcement because their Apple computers cannot play Jester's games.

Thinking of this, Harrison seemed to think of something again. It seemed that Jester was discriminating against Apple. For so many games of Mars Entertainment, there has never been an official Apple version. Even the simplest minesweeper, Mars Entertainment has not released it. Apple's version. (To be continued...)