An E3 unlike any before

"What was President Nakayama's stance?" Frank pressed.

The president tossed the report back to the Planning Department, saying only one sentence. Hisao Oguchi held up one finger. "Just focus on your work; I'll handle the mainframe's pace."

Frank paused for half a second, then leaned back in his leather chair and laughed.

"That's definitely President Nakayama's temperament." He shook his head and finished the rest of his black coffee. "Since the president knows what he's doing, we don't need to worry about it for him. As long as we can hold out in Tokyo, Tom will definitely be able to handle things in North America."

Hisao Oguchi folded the two documents neatly and put them into his briefcase.

"For the GP2's distribution in North America, you need to keep Silicon Valley Online providing traffic support. Especially the pop-ups on Battle.net and ICQ; don't give Sony any breathing room."

"Don't worry." Frank grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair and stood up. "Battle.net's North America server cluster just finished an upgrade last night. As long as Sega's machines can be shipped from Port of Long Beach on time, there will be no shortage of buyers."

The Atlanta World Congress Center officially opened on May 28.

The corridors were so crowded that it was hard to move, and exhibitors wearing various name tags moved between the different exhibition halls.

At this time of year, the George-ia Dome would be filled with discussions about which exclusive titles Sony, Sega, or Nintendo had released. But this year, less than two hours after the dome opened, the noise from the West Hall and the central corridor drew many old-school journalists over.

The hardware manufacturers' booths were packed with people.

In the very center of the Microsoft booth, four force feedback steering wheels arranged side by side became the peripheral experience point with the longest queue in the entire venue.

The user gripped the leather-wrapped steering wheel tightly with both hands. As soon as the race car on the screen hit the curb, the motor inside the steering wheel vibrated violently and pulled in the opposite direction.

A reporter from PC Gamer squeezed outside the fence, pointing a recorder at a user who had just taken off their headphones. "How's the grip? Is the recoil realistic?"

"That was awesome!" The young man, who had just finished a lap, swung his aching forearms and exclaimed in a loud voice, "Those old-fashioned spring-loaded steering wheels were like kids' plastic toys. Just now, when the car spun out into a corner, the steering wheel was practically fighting me, and you could feel the resistance from the tires slipping right through your hands. If it's under US dollar 150, I'll definitely buy one for home racing simulators."

Separated by a passageway, Intel's booth was also surrounded by crowds.

Instead of displaying its usual monotonous microprocessor architecture diagrams, Intel brought three large arcade game cabinets. The large lettering on the back panel of the booth clearly stated: Pentium II processor, 512KB L2 cache, equipped with a dedicated 3D Accelerator Card, running Windows.

Windows 95/NT system.

The screen is rendering three software programs in real time: baseball simulation, Formula One racing, and flight simulation.

"A large-scale arcade machine directly using a PC architecture?" The hardware columnist of Computer GamingWorld was scribbling furiously in his notebook. "What's the clock speed? Has the system's resilience to crashes been tested under long-term load?"

The technical engineer at the booth handed over a white paper. "The reference frequency on display is 333MHz. The general-purpose components based on the PC architecture can reduce the cost of the substrate by more than one-third, and the debugging tools can run directly on Windows, eliminating the need to buy a dedicated development machine costing tens of thousands of US dollar."

The flashbulbs of the tech media were flashing everywhere.

It wasn't just processors; several semiconductor booths along the corridor launched a massive audio offensive. Aureal, Diamond Multimedia, and Creative all showcased their new generation of PCI interface 3D audio chips.

Several listening rooms were filled with headphones hanging outside. The roar of a helicopter circling in the demo smoothly transitioned between the left and right ear canals. The sound positioning was no longer limited to the two-channel stereo of the old ISA sound card, and the sense of sound space was directly expanded.

"Finally, we've gotten rid of that bandwidth bottleneck from ISA." The two bespectacled techies exchanged opinions while listening to the demo. "Looking at the real-time data panel, the PCI bus utilization is extremely low. When playing 3D games, the CPU no longer needs to allocate computing power to audio decoding; the depth of gunshots and footsteps is entirely handled by hardware decoding."

An even bigger bomb was detonated at 11:00 AM.

At a joint press conference held by Microsoft and SGI, the two tech giants officially announced a strategic partnership, launching project codenamed "Fahrenheit" to integrate DirectX and OpenGL, aiming to establish a unified graphics API for future personal computers.

According to the published roadmap, the project will be rolled out in phases, including a low-level core, high-level scenario maps, and expanded functional modules.

Furthermore, both companies also showcased their Direct3D and OpenGL dual-specification 3D graphics hardware driver development tools (DDK).

This means that software companies can use the same underlying logic to develop industrial-grade CAD or large-scale 3D games on the Windows platform, without having to worry about driver compatibility issues.

As soon as the press conference ended, a large number of industry professionals who had just received the press releases flooded into the graphics chip manufacturers' booths in the corridor.

At the Trident booth, a technical representative was demonstrating a newly packaged 3Dimage975 chip. "This is the industry's first..."

One chip integrates the Setup engine directly, natively supporting the AGP interface and eliminating the need for an external bridge chip. Next to it is a 64-bit multimedia LCD graphics acceleration chip developed for laptops, enabling thin and light laptops to run 3D animations smoothly.

In the media rest area at noon, many veteran reporters who cover exhibitions were holding paper cups of coffee and flipping through thick stacks of hardware specifications.

"I've covered E3 four times, and this is the first time I've received so many chip architecture diagrams in one morning." A Famitsu correspondent rubbed his temples, slamming press releases about Intel and Calculus on the table. "In the past, these chip and API-based companies would all be holed up at the Comde trade show in the fall, entertaining themselves. This year, they've all flocked to E3, and even peripheral manufacturers have set up booths that are more impressive than those of traditional second-tier software companies."

The veteran editor of GamePro North America sitting next to me took a sip of water and pulled out a special edition from last year's convention from his backpack. "Last year, Carmack revealed the code for the Universal Engine, and with the Voodoo card for 3Df selling like hotcakes, everyone saw the trend. Previously, games were only for consoles, but now PC hardware is iterating much faster than consoles, and these Silicon Valley companies are breaking down the boundaries between commercial software and home entertainment."

"And all the capital has poured in." Another reporter pointed to the huge banner outside the window, "It's not just graphics cards and sound cards manufacturers; even companies that make computer cases, power supplies, and professional game controllers are throwing money at booths. If gamers want to see more realistic polygons on their computer screens, they have to upgrade their CPUs, add memory, and install 3D Accelerator Card. The profits from this entire hardware ecosystem are much greater than simply selling game cartridges."

"Are console manufacturers going to have a tough time?"

"It's hard to say." The old editor smiled and pointed towards the east hall. "Sega just swallowed up a million handheld consoles with the GP2, Jupiter's market share in the living room can still hold up the overall situation, and Sony has set up more than a hundred demo units in the adjacent exhibition hall, ready for a direct confrontation. But one thing is certain, this year Atlanta is no longer just a salon for game developers. Those who make chips and other computer technology people have already reached into the skeleton of the entire industry."

The reporters exchanged glances, tossed their unfinished coffees into the trash can, packed up their cameras and recorders, and squeezed back into the crowded West Hall technology exhibition area.

Hardware manufacturers dominated the west hall, while the central and east halls, where software publishers gathered, were equally competitive.

Over the past two years, Sega's Jupiter established the benchmark for 32-bit consoles with Square's Final Fantasy VII, while Sony has been continuously piling up 3D games on the PlayStation platform.

The maturity of underlying polygon technology, coupled with the widespread availability of development tools, especially UE engines and related peripheral development kits and plugins, has pushed the R&D pace of major third-party vendors to a breaking point.

This year, almost all the best works from various companies were submitted at the same time.

Long queues had formed early in the passageway on the south side of the George-ia Dome in front of the Namco area.

Twenty arcade test machines were arranged in a semicircle, with the character selection screen of Tekken 3 displayed on the screen.

The addition of a 3D axial movement system makes the character's side-stepping and dodging movements extremely smooth.

The Namco engineer in charge of technical support at the booth wiped the sweat from his brow, looked down to check the controller Wired, and a colleague next to him handed him a bottle of soda.

"The button panel is getting a bit hot. Can these joysticks withstand a whole day of intense combo input?"

"Don't worry, the baseboards use arcade-grade anti-wear parts." His colleague took a big gulp of water and pointed to the queue. "Those two guys in the red hoodies in front of us have been sitting there for four hours straight since the exhibition opened. If the coin slots accepted coins, Namco could make back its booth fee just from the demo machines today."

Not far away, EA's booth was separated by two real Ford Interceptor patrol cars painted with police badges.

That was a special experience zone built for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Six high-resolution monitors were lined up in a row, displaying flashing police lights as helicopters dropped roadblocks above the racetrack.

Players were pressing the accelerator pedal so hard it was making a clicking sound, and the clanging of the paddle shifters was amplified by the booth's speakers.

"The immersion in the chase mode is completely different." EA's on-site PR manager stood behind the control panel, holding a walkie-talkie. "Turn the volume up two notches for the second half of the demonstration. The sound from the Eidos booth next door is almost drowning us out."

The Eidos exhibit, which he specifically mentioned, features a life-size statue of Lara Crawford that is taller than a person.

The demo screen for Tomb Raider III was surrounded by action-adventure enthusiasts.

On screen, Lara is diving in the streams of the India jungle. Her triangular chest model is more rounded than in the previous work, and the dynamic lighting and shadows reflecting off the muddy ground make onlookers point and whisper.

Major Japanese manufacturers are vying for dominance in the heart of the central exhibition hall.

At the very center of Square's booth, three large screens were continuously playing the opening gameplay demo of Parasite Eve.

After the CG animation of spontaneous human combustion at the Carnegie Hall in New York finished playing, the scene seamlessly transitioned to an actual operational perspective of the streets of Manhattan.

The cinematic camera transitions and the pop-up semi-real-time combat command box elicited a murmur from the surrounding players.

Just a few steps away, the Nintendo booth was cordoned off with four layers of police tape.

That was the only booth this year that managed to block the flow of people into the fire escape.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time offers a playable demo with three separate levels.

On the screen, the green-clad youth drew his longsword, and as the joystick moved, the camera lock system marked a bright yellow arrow above the target monster's head.

A staff member from Nintendo North America Division stood by the railing to maintain order, checking his watch and shouting, "Eight minutes per person. Those who are done, please leave through the right-hand exit. There are still two hundred people in line behind you!"

Those in line craned their necks, staring at the vast Hyrule Plains on the screen, refusing to move an inch forward.

This year, major PC manufacturers have mobilized their entire forces, setting up a presence on the other side of the central exhibition hall.

The most prominent booth in the Sierra area had a rusty metal sign with a bright red "λ" logo printed on it.

Valve's Half-Life has twelve top-of-the-line computers set up here.

The protagonist on the monitor is riding a tram deep into the Black Mesa. There are no abrupt cutscenes like in traditional shooting games; the entire plot unfolds through environmental interaction from a first-person perspective.

The guards' casual conversations and the scientist's operational malfunctions all occur in real time right before the player's eyes.

Gabe Newell, wearing an ill-fitting dark T-shirt, stood in the corner of the booth, holding a notepad and noting down the lag points experienced by players during gameplay.

An employee in charge of technical coordination quickly approached. "Gabe, the external 3D graphics card is overheating. The third machine experienced frame drops during the elevator explosion scene."

"Export the background logs and switch to the backup card immediately." Gabe tapped the board, glancing up at the protagonist fleeing on the screen. "We absolutely cannot allow a blue screen today. Once they get the hang of it and leave the carriage, they'll never think of shooting games as just about finding keys to open doors again."

On the other side of the Sierra booth, Relic Entertainment ' Homeworld demo area was much quieter.

Without the harsh roar of gunfire, against the deep, dark backdrop of space, the mothership, operating in full three-dimensional coordinates, is loading and unloading mining ships.

Players can freely zoom in and out using the mouse wheel, from the macro-level battle situation to the details of the cockpit of a single-person reconnaissance boat.

The free movement mechanism in full three-dimensional space completely breaks the planar framework of traditional top-down real-time strategy games.

Interplay's Black Isle Studios has brought a medieval tavern and a nuclear radiation shelter to the exhibition hall.

Baldur's Gate six-player squad encounter demo in Sword Coast Forest is showcasing an instant pause tactical mechanism based on AD&D rules; next to it, in front of Fallout 2 demo machine, several veteran players are intently allocating SPECIAL attribute points, searching for different branching methods to solve quests in the wasteland town.

In front of LucasArts section, there was a paper skeleton in the style of the Mexico Day of the Dead.

The dark humor 3D puzzle demonstration of "Grim Fandango" introduced the lighting techniques of film to a real-time rendered background. The protagonist Manny's skeletal face exhaled smoke rings on the screen, eliciting frequent nods from the European and American geeks watching in the audience.