Rebirth 86: I use games to kick open the door to the world

At the end of April, a letter from China was delivered to the NGS headquarters building.

"Director Nakamura, there is a package for you. It comes from China."

"Okay, I know... from China?"

Akira Nakamura, who was working in the office, was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Please help me take the package to my office. I want to see it now."

"Okay Director Nakamura."

The internal call was hung up, and two minutes later an employee delivered a package to Akira Nakamura.

This is a box packaged with a thin wooden board, tightly wrapped from top to bottom, left and right, and there are slogans in Japanese and Chinese written to avoid magnetic fields and handle it with care.

Akira Nakamura glanced at the sender's column.

Zuo Zhen.

It's that young man.

Akira Nakamura called another subordinate to help him open the package, and then saw the contents inside.

It was a floppy disk, and it was written in Japanese on the floppy disk: The main body of the Squirrel Wars game.

Left Squirrel Battle?

Wait, this is a new game?

Akira Nakamura was stunned.

It's only been more than a month since Zuo Zhen last played a game for himself, right?

Contra has now entered the final stage of announcement, and the game will be officially launched in a few days.

It took more than a month to create another game?

He alone?

It's impossible.

He immediately asked Takemoto Kiyoshi to be called over.

Takemoto Kiyoshi was the game producer that he followed when he met Zuozhen last time. Nakamura Akira needed to ask him to confirm the authenticity of this game.

Could it be that this is just a test version of the game, and you want to test whether this game type is fun?

Well, this is the most likely, but even this is awesome.

"Director Nakamura, you are looking for me." Kiyoshi Takemoto quickly came to Akira Nakamura's office.

"Come and take a look at this game, run it and see how the quality is."

"This is..." Takemoto Kiyoshi took the floppy disk and saw the name on it.

Squirrel war?

What a strange name.

But in the video game industry, it's normal to have strange names.

Their NGS also has works with strange names such as Super Mario.

"It's a game that someone sent over. Let's see how the quality is."

"good."

Takemoto Kiyoshi took the floppy disk and started running it directly on an extra computer in Nakamura Akira's office.

Soon the game start screen appeared.

Two cute-looking cartoon squirrels stand back to back with smiling faces.

"The picture quality of this game is good. Is it a finished game sent by some big company? Huh? There is no logo of any game company."

"It was sent by Zuo Zhen from China." Akira Nakamura said in a deep voice.

"Who is Zuozhen?" Takemoto Kiyoshi had obviously forgotten Zuozhen.

"That's the young man who made Contra."

"Oh, it's him, wait a minute, Director Nakamura, did you say he made another game?"

Nakamura Akira nodded: "Yes, it's the one in front of you."

"This is a beta version of the game, isn't it the finished product?" Kiyoshi Takemoto blurted out.

"I think so too, but let's take a look first and then talk about it."

"good."

About half an hour passed, and both Akira Nakamura and Kiyoshi Takemoto fell silent.

Squirrel Wars is a fairly complete game.

Although he couldn't clear the level in half an hour, he could tell by looking at the game capacity and some program content that this was definitely a finished game.

And it has been clearly written on the floppy disk.

The main game of Squirrel Wars.

"Director Nakamura, this Chinese guy is simply a genius!"

Takemoto Kiyoshi screamed.

"I now suspect that he may have a team in China. Otherwise, how could he alone create another game in such a short period of time? And I also guess that the production of this game started several months in advance."

Takemoto Kiyoshi nodded: "Director, your guess is probably the closest, but even this is very impressive! It turns out that Chinese people are so good at making games. I really looked down on Chinese people before."

In Takemoto Kiyoshi's memory, China is a country that has just ushered in opening up.

He does not deny that there will be a vast market there, but video game developers probably don’t have it yet, or they won’t be very powerful.

But now the game created by Zuo Zhen breaks his inherent concept.

"Did the director send this?"

"right."

"Are there any letters or anything besides this?"

Nakamura Akira reacted, picked up the wooden box from the table, rummaged around and found a neatly folded piece of letter paper under the earthquake-proof newspaper.

"really have!"

Takemoto Kiyoshi also came over, wanting to see what the contents of the letter were.

The content of the letter is very simple. It first greets Akira Nakamura, and then uses a few hundred words to introduce the Squirrel War produced by Zuo Zhen.

Then there is a phone number above the final signature.

If Akira Nakamura wants to contact Zuozhen, he can contact him through this number, and he can only dial the number between 7:00 and 9:00 every morning in Japan. Zuozhen will wait in front of the phone during this time, and Zuozhen suggested Keep the conversation as brief as possible. International long-distance calls are quite expensive now, and Zuo Zhen doesn't have much money on hand.

Even answering the phone at this time was expensive. Zuo Zhen could only chat with Akira Nakamura for a few minutes before he couldn't hold it anymore.

The telephone number is a number in the telephone office building and is a landline specially used to answer international calls.

The fee for answering calls is ten yuan per minute, while making calls costs twenty yuan. It's a money grab, and Zuo Zhen can never afford it.

Akira Nakamura looked at the clock position. It was afternoon now. Obviously, it was impossible for Zuo Zhen to wait in front of the phone. He had to give up the urge to contact Zuo Zhen now.

Regarding Squirrel Wars, the letter also stated that he would come to Japan again when Contra is released and the first funding is obtained, and then he can discuss licensing cooperation for Squirrel Wars.

"Takemoto-san, take this Squirrel Battle game and find a few people to test it to see how complete the game is, and then give me a detailed report before seven o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Ok, I see."

Watching Takemoto Kiyoshi leave, Nakamura Akira hesitated whether to report the matter to the president.

It's just a game. Logically speaking, there is no need to report.

But this is a game made by a new person, and the quality seems to be so good, this may be a new partner.

Forget it, there is no final conclusion yet. Even the last game Contra has not been released yet. Let's wait and see how Contra's results are.

If he told the president too early, maybe his rival in the marketing department would cause trouble for him again. He hated that guy very much.