Game Development Giant

Jester was sleeping when the New York trial meeting and the launch of the electronic pet machine in the United States were held. It was already the next day when he received the news about the trial meeting and the launch.

At this time, he had just arrived in Shanghai. After all, the investment location he announced this time was Shanghai or Shenzhen. The content of his meeting with the head of the Ministry of Electronics Industry has not yet been disclosed to the public.

Originally, Shenzhen Town wanted Jester to visit their place first. When they wanted to come, as long as Jester saw their conditions, they would definitely not have any thoughts about Shanghai. But Jester declined on the pretext that he wanted to visit the mountains and rivers of his motherland.

The determined route is to Shanghai, Fuzhou, and finally Shenzhen, and then take a flight back to the United States from Hong Kong.

When Jester arrived in Shanghai, he was greeted by the mayor and secretary of the municipal party committee of Shanghai. After all, they all knew that Jester was the biggest tycoon in the Chinese investment group, and their status was also unusual, especially Wang. , naturally also learned about Jester’s meeting with Minister Jiang from other channels.

So they are also very enthusiastic.

Jester also learned about Wang's deeds in later generations. Although not much, he knew a little bit. His father was the late veteran of the Tongmenghui, and the time he broke the ice between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and met Gu Zhenfu in 1992 This Wang was responsible for the negotiations that became known as the 1992 Consensus in history.

Today's Shanghai is naturally far inferior to that of later generations. It does not have the appearance of the most prosperous city in the Far East thirty years from now.

In later generations, there were not many cars to be found on the busy Jingnan Road. Today, Shanghai is still the center of the domestic textile industry and the domestic commercial center. Even Jester, who is not familiar with this era, can tell the familiar companies. There are a few, such as Shanghujiahua, which produces Liushen toilet water.

The largest investment in Shanghai in recent years has been Baosteel. The total investment value this time is tens of billions of yuan, which is far beyond what Jester can match. Moreover, this is also the country's first steel plant with an annual output of one million tons. The Nidaime used precious oil in exchange for it from Japan.

The project was established in 1977, groundbreaking in 1978, and the first phase of the project was completed in 1985. The total investment is close to 12.8 billion yuan. The current official exchange rate of RMB to US dollars is 1:1.5, which means that this The amount of sub-total investment is as high as more than eight billion US dollars. This number may not seem large in future generations. In thirty years, a more developed prefecture-level city will be able to get it, but you have to know that in the current mainland , the annual fiscal revenue is only tens of billions.

It can be said that this steel plant was built by the people of the country under the condition of frugality and food, and it also carries the expectations of the people of the country for a modern steel plant. Every knowledgeable person knows what steel means to a country. Just as the American steel king Andrew Carnegie said back then, every piece of steel contains the secret of a country's strength.

Jester was invited to visit Baosteel, where the first phase of the project was about to be completed. When he looked down at this huge building complex made entirely of steel from a high place, Jester felt as if he was watching a building made entirely of steel. The shocking feeling of a city made of steel.

It's really, really, really spectacular.

The accompanying person on the side also introduced the steel output that Baosteel will have after the first phase of the project is completed, and how important it will be for the mainland that is currently undergoing reform. Still saying it with regret, Jester came a step late, If he had come a month earlier, he would have had the opportunity to have a meeting with Mr. Yoshihiro Inayama, the head of Nippon Steel.

Nippon Steel is New Japan Steel. The predecessor of this company is the famous Yawata Steel during World War II. It is also the Japanese representative of Baosteel's oil-for-equipment plan. It is the largest steel company in Asia and one of the few in the entire world. The huge steel empire is the core of the Mitsui Futuki Club. Jester listened to the escort with a proud look on his face when he talked about Baosteel. He really couldn't bear to tell what would happen next.

Because this will completely shatter the escort's dream.

In his view, Baosteel's plan has been unstoppable so far. Moreover, although the Japanese have set traps in Baosteel's construction, they are actually irrelevant. If they want to build a world-class steel enterprise, the high price is It has to be paid for.

However, this price is too heavy.

The reason is that the smelting equipment provided by Japan is too advanced. Although this is only something they plan to eliminate, it is still too advanced for domestic equipment whose technological level is only that of Europe and the United States in the 1940s and 1950s.

This batch of equipment was originally used by Nippon Steel to smelt rich ores in Brazil and Australia. However, the domestic iron ores are all poor iron ores. The smelting of steel is a very delicate industrial project. What kind of equipment is used to smelt what kind of ore? To be sure, the equipment used to smelt Brazil's rich iron ore cannot be used to smelt poor iron ore.

But importing rich minerals requires huge amounts of foreign exchange.

Nowadays, the most important means of earning foreign exchange in mainland China is to export oil. Almost all the oil sources for this oil replacement equipment come from Daqing. The problem is that after the great discoveries of domestic oil in the past ten years, new oil exploration has emerged. It was originally planned that Daqing could produce 100 million tons of oil per year, or 750 million barrels, in the 1980s, but now Daqing's annual output is only 50 million tons.

In addition, the current global economy is experiencing economic stagflation due to excessively high oil prices, and oil prices are also booming and declining. The world economy is like a roller coaster, with global economic development stagnating and oil demand plummeting. At this time, Japan no longer needed oil as urgently as it did in 1978 and sought domestic help. However, due to falling prices, production could not increase. At that time, Japan, which relied heavily on resource exports in exchange for foreign exchange, experienced a serious shortage of foreign exchange.

The most critical reason is this. In the case of insufficient domestic foreign exchange, and without wanting to suspend production of the world-class steel plant that was built with so much effort, the scarce and precious foreign exchange must be used to purchase high-quality iron ore in Australia and Brazil. .

It is because Baosteel swallowed up countless precious foreign exchange that countless urgently needed projects were cancelled, the technological transformation of many enterprises had to be stopped, and the number of people who needed to study abroad for important technical positions had to be stopped. Jester did not know these. , but he knew it must be a very large amount.

Is it all worth it? As the second generation said, it is true that Baosteel has improved the level of the domestic steel industry for twenty years. But here’s the problem. In the 1950s, mainland China launched 156 major projects. In the 1970s, it introduced the “43 Plan” with a total cost of more than 4 billion U.S. dollars. Thirteen large-scale projects solved the hunger problem of 800 million Chinese people. Fertilizer plants don’t need to spend money to buy lessons, but why do they start spending money to buy lessons as soon as the market changes technology?

This also made Jester sigh, this is a problem.

After visiting Baosteel, Jester was not in a good mood. The Shanghai side thought it was because of his poor hospitality, but only Jester knew that was not the case. He wanted to explain to Shanghai Baosteel. There might be a trap here, but he knew that he was doing both sides.

Baosteel's general situation has become established, and it is simply not something that a small Chinese American like me can change.

In other words, the amount of my investment this time will not exceed 100 million U.S. dollars at most. Why should I criticize a heavy industrial project that has placed the expectations of the entire country and invested more than 8 billion U.S. dollars?

Moreover, the Baosteel Project was personally directed by the Second Generation Prime Minister. I don’t know how many people want to gain political achievements from it.

I can't do it myself, and I can't be this evil person.

As for those who later said that the Baogang project was not deceived by the Japanese, Jester scoffed. If it hadn't been severely manipulated by the Japanese, would the mainland have unilaterally torn up Baosteel's second phase agreement? You must know that the equipment in the first phase of the agreement was basically built out of Nippon Steel's Oita Steel Works. Even the paint and welding rods must be made in Japan. In this situation where Japanese technology and equipment are all used, no matter how much the mainland has Will you exchange for German products in the second installment if your balls hurt? And most importantly, if you tear up the Baosteel Phase II Agreement, you will need to lose money.

After hastily ending his trip to Shanghai, Jester headed south all the way to Fuzhou.

When he arrived in Fuzhou, Jester began to inquire about Yanshan Software again. After a few rounds, he found out that the current Yanshan Software had not yet been established. However, Jester saw the all-in-one Atari made by Fu Zan on the market. He saw the cassette on a vcs2600 game console in Fuzhou Children's Palace.

Taking this as an introduction, Jester made a request to meet the author of this all-in-one cassette.

Naturally, the accompanying party in Fuzhou had no problem at all. That afternoon, Jester met the 24-year-old Fu Zan at the Fuzhou Guest House where he was staying.

"Did you do this?" The conversation between the two parties was very simple, and Jester started with a very direct question.

Hearing Jester's words, Fu Zan nodded sheepishly and admitted, "It's me. I did it very roughly."

After listening to his answer, Jester smiled, shook his head and said: "No, you did a good job, especially the idea of ​​combining cards. By the way, when did you come into contact with the Atari 2600? Game console?"

After chatting for a while, Fu Zan saw that the American tycoon in front of him, who was much younger than himself, had no airs and was easy to talk to. In addition, he was a talkative person, so he spoke much more smoothly: "I came across it when I was helping an electronics laboratory test Atari's game console. I thought it was quite interesting, so I took it apart and took a look. I found that it was quite simple, so I modified it myself. The game actually only produced a few cartridges.”

Then Jester asked tentatively: "Then do you have the idea of ​​​​making a game yourself? It is not a game that has been made by others, but a game where all the content is made by yourself."

"Yes!" Unexpectedly, Fu Zan slapped his thigh as soon as he heard Jester's words, and his tone became excited, "I recently planned to propose to the school to set up a computer service department, and I stayed up late to write it. A music software instruction manual, which is a set of computer music arranging and performance software developed for the 'Fuju' (fo) Apple compatible machine of Fuzhou Microcomputer Factory, but what I am really interested in is making something like Atari's A game like Canal Wars."

As he spoke, he also smiled, "But it is definitely impossible for the school to agree to the suggestion of making games. Nowadays, schools are engaged in these school-run enterprises to make money. Only a few people have Atari game consoles now." , you may not be able to find a hundred units in Fuzhou, so who can we make games for?"

ps: Please vote for recommendation! !