Rebirth of America, this is my time

Facts have proven that when a person concentrates on doing something, he cannot feel the passage of time.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the studio officially started working. Suddenly, Ethan felt hungry.

Turning around, he realized that it was already noon. He called the pizza shop near his home and asked them to deliver two pizzas. After a simple lunch, he devoted himself to work and continued to work until dark. .

Then he discovered...

I drew fifteen map sketches myself and then converted them into computer code for 0101!

If this kind of work attitude was placed in Ethan's previous life, it would be something that would be unthinkable!

After all, in an era when there is no room for promotion, no matter how much a migrant worker does, it is just to help the boss buy a house or change a car. When tomorrow's life can be seen at a glance, learning how to fish in the workplace can be regarded as mastering the secrets of life.

But now...

No matter how much you do, it's all yours!

Under such circumstances, if you can't muster up the energy to work harder, then you really deserve to be unable to make any money!

However, although this state of being deaf to things outside the window can improve a lot of work efficiency, it will also make people ignore many things. For example, when the time comes to November 30, Thomas and Linda When the cake appeared in front of him, he realized belatedly that today was his birthday.

"Happy birthday Ethan-"

Thomas gave Ethan a big hug and handed him a gift.

"Happy birthday Ethan-"

Linda was no exception. While lifting the cake, she smiled and said: "Oh Ethan, I know you don't like cream, so I specially made you a fruit cake with a chiffon base. , topped with kiwi, strawberry and mango, I hope you like it.”

"Oh thank you! Thank you!" The appearance of the two surprised Ethan.

The ones who were more surprised than him were Evelin and Woz.

"Today is your birthday?"

Woz, the little fat guy, widened his eyes.

"Oh my god! Brother! Why didn't you tell me earlier? I didn't even prepare a gift for you!"

Evelin looked embarrassed, spread her hands and said: "Ethan, I'm sorry, I forgot about this..."

Ethan smiled and waved his hands, "Oh, don't be like this. In fact, I even forgot about it."

What Ethan said was the truth. He had not celebrated his birthday for many years.

In my previous life, when I was away from home, all I received were telegraph blessings, but in this life...

Who will remember the birthday of the original owner of the body?

However, since the sound of celebration started, Ethan would not spoil people's interest. He invited Thomas and Linda to have dinner at home, and then took the initiative to go out to purchase ingredients. Not only that, in order to make it more lively, he also asked Woz to cook himself His girlfriend and Jobs called over and asked Evelin to see Barbara if they had time. Although the short notice was a bit inappropriate, unexpected surprises were actually more interesting.

Because the 30th was a weekend, everyone was very considerate. That night, a group of people gathered at Ethan's house to celebrate his birthday. Even though the dishes were not rich, many of them were cooked by Thomas and Linda, and they celebrated happily. The props were not in place, and apart from the old-fashioned steps of singing happy birthday and blowing out candles, there were no other arrangements at all, but the joyful atmosphere of the gathering made Ethan quite happy.

And with the end of November, the entire year of 1975 also came to an end.

When December came, Ethan did two things.

The first thing is that Professor Barbara Babcock's case collection is finally on the market.

Since he had previously promised to buy case books and donate them to the school, when Ethan got the news, he asked two administrators in the company to handle the matter. He asked Damio Dean to buy it for $29.99. Five thousand copies were then packaged together with some case reports previously written by the other party, and Julis Noble was asked to contact schools and libraries on the West Coast to donate fifty copies as a basis.

When he spent 300,000 yuan so that the West Coast school library could have Master Barbara's books, the Master who got the news immediately called to thank him. At the same time, she also brought Ethan Good news--

"Ethan, the discussion on the revision of the Copyright Protection Law has ended. Next year, the federal government will revise the content of the Copyright Protection Law to clearly distinguish the copyright protection provisions of companies and individuals. I have read the final draft. Registering copyright in the name of a company is the most important thing for you. It’s beneficial, so after the provisional patent application for “Snake Game” expires, you can directly register the copyright in the name of Destiny Game.”

"Oh thanks, Barbara, I like that news." Ethan thanked with a smile.

The second thing is Christmas.

Although "Pac-Man" is in a critical period of development, Ethan does not want to have any festivals, but as an annual celebration in North America, Ethan cannot go against the mainstream of society, so before the festival is approaching, Ethan On this occasion, he gave the company's employees a holiday in the usual way, and drove Woz, a guy with a father, mother and relatives back home. At the same time, he also asked him to come back to work after the New Year in January.

On the day of Christmas Eve, Ethan did not work overtime against humanity. Instead, he and Evelin returned to Thomas and Linda's home, had a big meal with the two old people, and then the family gathered together. In front of the TV, I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" re-released for many years.

This is an inspirational movie. It tells the story of a protagonist who has lost faith in life and is about to commit suicide as Christmas is approaching. After hearing the news, God sends angels to earth in an attempt to save his believers from fire and water.

After experiencing some setbacks, the protagonist regained his courage and faced all the difficulties in life with a smile.

Because of its religious theological overtones, this film has received very high ratings in North America.

Although Ethan was not very interested in this kind of story of the advent of the gospel, he still watched it with gusto. When the midnight bell rang, Ethan, who had entered Christmas, also looked at the list he had prepared in advance, and Friends wish each other happy holidays.

As for why Ethan complicates simple things?

Very simple!

Because people like Jobs, Woz, Barbara, and Chuck Paido can receive blessings at Christmas.

But people like Spielberg, Ralph Bell, they only celebrate Hanukkah.

When this kind of differentiation occurs, it can only be treated specially under special circumstances.

And when Ethan finished maintaining the relationships around him, he felt for the first time that email was really a great invention.

Because you can send a group message with just a click of the mouse, which is much more efficient than calling!

And just when he was sighing that he would have to carry out such tedious greetings for many years to come, the closed door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. He turned around and looked, what a guy! Evelin actually got in like a thief!

"What are you doing?" Ethan didn't understand.

Evelin actually jumped to his side and said, "Let's go back."

"What?" Ethan didn't understand.

"Let's go back and write code..." Evelin said: "Staying at home is so boring! We might as well go back and write code!"

"Now I feel that watching movies and watching TV is really a waste of time. How can it be as interesting as playing games?"

"And I've almost finished writing the code for the first ghost. I really want to see how it runs!"

Damn it!

Ethan was shocked!

Did he never expect that there are still workaholics in this world who take the initiative to work overtime on New Year's Day?

Think watching movies is a waste of time?

Do you feel uncomfortable if you don’t write code?

What the hell is this?

but……

Ethan was only surprised for a second, and then jumped up from the bed, "Okay, let's go."

Yes, he is feeling very uncomfortable now.

Because it’s free!

Maybe it's because of God's blessing.

On the second day after they returned home, that is, December 26, Evelin successfully finished the red ghost's chasing code.

When the monitor connected to APPLE 1 showed the yellow Pac-Man running wildly in the maze, followed by the ghost's red figure, the inseparable chase made Ethan and Evelin extremely happy.

Especially when they discovered that no matter how the yellow Pac-Man ran away, the red ghost would pursue him at the shortest distance instead of rigidly moving forward the same way. The two hugged each other and celebrated the victory of an AI. Birth.

"Oh Evelyn - we succeeded, right?" Ethan shouted.

"I think it is!"

Evelin laughed, "If nothing else, at least my algorithm has no problem in Map No. 1!"

Xiaohong's success in Map No. 1 made Ethan very excited.

Since he had completed all 255 maps, he then transformed into a Futukang No. 1 quality inspector, driving a yellow Pac-Man and traveling among the 255 maps to test Xiaohong's performance in different maps.

Although he also discovered many bugs in the process;

For example, when encountering a long maze passage, if Pac-Man is too far ahead and has already drilled out of the passage at the other end, while Xiaohong has just gotten in or only a quarter of the way in. , this guy may retreat from the channel due to the nearest principle of the algorithm, giving players a feeling of 'I just have a God's perspective';

But this kind of bug that can be modified cannot affect his excitement at all.

You know, what he is making now is one of the most awesome pixel games in his previous life!

If you can imitate an appearance, that is already a success!

The next tinkering is no big deal!

And when Woz came back after the holiday, the little fat man was immediately stunned by the progress of the two's work...

"Oh! Sxxt! You actually finished Xiaohong?"

"Oh! No! Have you finished the test?"

"Dxxn! Don't you guys rest?"

"Time is money, my friend!" Ethan was in a good mood and started cosplaying the goblins in World of Warcraft.

"If we don't speed up the process, how are we going to make money?"

Woz was stunned when he heard such words.

Evelin gave Ethan a fist, then smiled and said to Woz: "Oh Stephen, the main thing is that the development of "Pac-Man" is so interesting. It is different from those boring jobs. It can bring us Come to be happy, so... we are addicted..."

This explanation was acceptable to Woz.

After seeing the outstanding development progress of Ethan and Evelin, he became more motivated. He rolled up his sleeves and swore to God that he would complete the AI ​​code of Xiao Cheng, the wandering ghost, within a week. come out.

When the technology boss came up with the idea of ​​​​rather than being destroyed, the development of "Pac-Man" also entered a period of high-speed operation.

On January 15, 1976, the first version of the Little Orange Ghost chasing code written by Woz was officially completed.

On January 19, 1976, Ethan controlled Pac-Man and spent four days running the Little Orange Ghost's code on all 255 maps.

On January 24, 1976, the first version of the Little Pink Ghost ambush code written by Evelyn was completed.

The next day, the 25th, we had a collective break. Because it was Evelin’s birthday, Ethan accompanied her to Anaheim.

The next day, continue working.

On January 29, 1976, Ethan controlled Pac-Man and was blocked by the little red ghost and the little pink ghost on 255 maps for four days.

On February 11, 1976, the containment code written by Woz officially came to an end, and the most difficult Little Blue Ghost finally came out.

On February 24, 1976, Ethan controlled Pac-Man and was beaten and rolled all over the floor by Little Red, Little Pink, Little Blue, and Little Orange in 255 maps.

In the last centralized test, they also discovered endless bugs.

For example, because the behavior patterns of Little Pink and Little Blue are somewhat similar, the former ambush the player's route, while the latter cooperates with Little Red to contain them, so when they encounter some simple terrain, their paths will give feedback it's the same.

If it is a single channel, then there is no problem, but if there is a three-way intersection, the strange path feedback may turn the artificial intelligence into an artificial retard, forcibly giving a problem-free path to the player.

So here, it had to be changed. Evelin decided to add a judgment to Xiaofen, which was to give priority to the path where her companions were not present.

For another example, Xiaocheng's algorithm is unconscious roaming and garrisoning, and will only hunt down players when they appear in his area.

At this time, if the player is stuck in judgment, he can easily play Xiao Cheng.

When Ethan performed the operations of 'Hey I came in', 'Hey I came out', 'Hey I came in again', 'Hey I came out again' in the game, Xiao Cheng's feedback in the game was so It became a silly behavior of jumping left and right like 'forward to pursue', 'stop to stop', 'forward to pursue', and 'stop to stop'.

When Xiao Cheng was played by Ethan like Erha, Evelin's imagination towards Ethan was amazing, and Woz...

The little fat man can't sit still!

He couldn't stand that the AI ​​he wrote became mentally retarded!

He immediately decided to add an additional algorithm to Xiaocheng. If within a short period of time, such as within five seconds, Xiaocheng's range detection shows the player's figure multiple times, then it will enter a runaway state, and Xiaohong will Just the same crazy chase.

Only when the player escapes from its detection range and stays within ten seconds will the little orange return to nature.

When these deficiencies were picked out one by one, related modifications were put on the agenda.

Then came round after round of endless tests.

When the time came to March 20, 1976, after Ethan finished level 255 according to the normal game difficulty, the WIN that suddenly popped up told them a fact...

After five months...

The "Pac-Man" project was finally successfully developed!

And while they were waiting for five days to successfully build the circuit motherboard embedded with the game CPU, and put it into the arcade casing with a yellow Pac-Man and four ghosts...

The world's first "Pac-Man" arcade machine was born!

"It's done!"

Ethan put his hands on his hips and looked at the game interface that flashed with five colors of light with emotion.

"Next..."

"That's announcing your existence to the world..."

Ethan patted Pac-Man.

A look of joy on his face.