Video Game Empire

"Hey, Brother Shen, business is booming! Have the items I ordered have arrived? I'm waiting for them!" Li Xuan approached a shop called Shenji Electronics Store on Yaliao Street.

This is a small shop specializing in all kinds of electronic components and electronic instruments. The owner is a man in his early thirties with a stern face, his name is Liu Heshen.

"Well, it's Ah Xuan!" Liu Heshen nodded to him, "I'll get it for you when the thing arrives!"

Liu Heshen bent down and took out a plastic bag from a storage compartment under the counter: "No, this is the Z80 processor you ordered, a box of exactly ten pieces. The rest are the instruments you want, the list is here, you yourself Check it out!"

Li Xuan took the catalog list handed over by Brother Shen and compared them one by one. These are all tools for programming chips, testers, editors, programming sockets, connectors, and adapters.

These things are very hard to find. Li Xuan went around Hong Kong and Kowloon and found no place that sold these electronic instruments. Later, I had no choice but to come to Liu Heshen for help. After reading his catalogue list, the other party agreed to help him purchase from abroad.

Li Xuan met Brother Shen when he upgraded the Apple II in the company. His original computer was the standard configuration of Apple's first Apple II model, with only a pitiful 4KB of memory, while the standard memory of later laptops has reached 4G. There is a million times difference between the two. You read that right, not a hundred times, but a million times.

Fortunately, Apple has reserved upgrade space for customers. In order to make his machine run faster, Li Xuan spent his own money to increase the memory to 32KB as soon as he was paid. He found the accessories here at Liu Heshen at that time. At that time, he also bought a second-hand Z80 conversion card and installed it on the computer under the recommendation of Liu Heshen.

Anyone who has used Apple computers knows that Apple's operating system will always be different. Later generations will confront iOS against Android and OSX against Windows. In fact, this tradition has existed since Apple II, the first commercial computer originally produced by Apple. It was not compatible with the CP/M operating system, which had almost 90% market share at the time.

At that time, most of the software on the market was developed for the CP/M system, but Apple's computer could not run the CP/M system, but it just sold very well. Software vendors are naturally reluctant to give up this part of the market, so they began to think about how to move CP/M-based software to run on Apple II.

So someone designed a SoftCard AppleII software conversion card, which is the Z80 card. This card has a Z80 processor, which can take over the bus control, memory address conversion and interface allocation of the Apple II, so as to run the CP/M operating system on the Apple II computer smoothly.

The person who designed this Z80 card is no stranger to everyone. His name is Paul Allen, the owner of the NBA Portland Trail Blazers, a super rich with assets of more than 20 billion US dollars. It was Microsoft that he founded with Bill Gates that deeply influenced an era. Do you sometimes feel that this world is too small, it turns out that Apple and Microsoft have had a relationship so early, maybe this is the so-called fate.

Back to the topic, Li Xuan's boss, Huo Junming, called back earlier, and the negotiation between him and Epson went very smoothly. There is an unexpected situation that Epson's technicians appreciate the Hanka drawing designed by Li Xuan and intend to buy it from Li Xuan and produce it by himself.

Huo Junming completely agrees with this, all he cares about is the sales agency. Since the Japanese side is willing to directly produce printers with Chinese Hanka to supply the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets, this is the best result for him. This saves him the extra cost of hiring someone to manufacture the Hanka, and then putting it into the printer handle.

In this regard, Li Xuan also said that it doesn't matter who he sells to is not selling, anyway, he is not ready to rip off. It is not very difficult for Epson to re-develop a suitable Chinese Hanka by itself. Li Xuan's design is just to save some time and cost for the other party.

Huo Junming said that Epson would send a technician to interview Li Xuan about related matters, and the other party hoped to see the actual Hanka. It just so happened that before the boss went to Japan, Li Xuan had already approved a check of 5,000 yuan for research and development funds. A PCB (printed circuit board) factory in Kwun Tong Industrial Zone, Kowloon, which he contacted, has also completed several sample circuit boards that it had previously requested for trial production.

Li Xuan's next job is to solder the Z80 chip to the circuit board, and then burn the Chinese character library data into the chip, and then install it on the printer for testing.

"Well, everything is right, thank you, Brother Shen!" Li Xuan checked it again and everything was right.

"A total of 2,000 yuan will be charged to you minus the fraction, thank you for your patronage!" Brother Shen finally squeezed a smile out of his expressionless face when he received the money.

Li Xuan didn't even bargain, so he took out his wallet, pointed out 20 hundred-yuan bills and handed them over to the other party, and then asked him to open a receipt, which was to be reimbursed to the boss.

Apliu Street is a small street in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong. It was originally famous for selling second-hand goods. Since the 1970s, it has gradually become a distribution center for electronic parts in Hong Kong. There are many shops selling second-hand electrical appliances and old products on the street. It is bustling every day, there are many Southeast Asian merchants who come to buy goods, and many tourists and citizens who come to Taobao.

Li Xuan walked in the crowd of people, looking at the slightly messy storefront signs and promotional billboards on both sides of the street. He suddenly thought of buying a tape recorder for his little sister Li Ying. She said last time that she wanted to buy an English tape for listening to it, but the thrifty mother refused without hesitation.

"Boss, do you have a tape recorder?" Li Xuan approached a video store.

"Yes, why not! Which type do you want! I just bought a batch of Japan's Sanyo brand dual-card dual-seat radios. The sound quality is good, the number of receivers is high, and it looks beautiful at home!" The boss pointed to the window In the most conspicuous position, a black dual-purpose recorder was introduced enthusiastically.

"Sorry, I didn't make it clear. What I want is not this kind of big tape recorder, but that kind of single cassette tape player. I bought it for my sister to learn English and listen to songs." Li Xuan waved his hand.

"You're a really good guy. You're talking about this kind of thing, and it's all in this row. Some are made in the United States, some are made in Japan, and some are made in Hong Kong, you choose!"

"Which brand sells better, and the quality is more reliable!"

"Then this one is a Japanese brand from Sanyo. The quality is very good. As long as you don't break it on purpose, you can't use you to come back and find me for a replacement within a year!" The boss immediately became enthusiastic when he saw that Li Xuan really wanted to buy it. stand up.

After some bargaining, Li Xuan spent 200 Hong Kong dollars to buy this Sanyo tape recorder. Men buy things neatly, and they pay the bill when they choose. If a girl is with you, they will inevitably visit a few more stores, shop around and so on.

Li Xuan was about to leave, when he inadvertently looked up, he saw a beautiful figure in front of a booth not far to the left, with long fluffy long wavy hair and a white dress. However, a man in a denim jacket next to her deliberately approached slowly, and a hand quietly reached out to the small satchel that the woman was carrying on her shoulders.