PC Engine CD-ROM Expansion Kit
On December 4th, posters announcing the release of the PC Engine CD-ROM expansion kit were displayed in Akihabara, Tokyo's Electric Town. Some hardcore gamers lined up expectantly, ready to welcome a new era in gaming.
However, this enthusiasm began to cool down rapidly within just a few hours.
The first players to receive the machines and games excitedly returned home, connected their devices, and inserted the gleaming silver game disc. The first game was <Noriko Ogawa>.
After the machine was turned on, a clear live video appeared on the TV screen, showing idol Noriko Ogawa smiling sweetly at the camera and singing a beautiful song.
For the first few minutes, players were indeed amazed by the audio-visual effects of the CD-ROM. But after the initial novelty wore off, they quickly realized something was wrong.
This thing seems to only play videos and songs, and occasionally it pops up a few options, letting the player choose what to watch next.
"That's it? I spent a fortune buying this, and it's just an interactive DVD player?" One player stared at the screen, feeling insulted.
"Absolutely no gameplay!"
Why don't I just buy her videotapes?
If * Noriko Ogawa* only left players confused and disappointed, then Capcom's * Street Fighter * completely ignited their anger.
As frequent arcade players, their expectations for this port were extremely high. However, upon entering the game, the graphics immediately dampened their enthusiasm, showing only a slight improvement over the cartridge version, let alone rivaling the arcade version.
Even more critically, noticeable lag occurs when players are controlling the game.
"There's a delay! The response speed is even worse than the NES version!"
How are we supposed to play like this?
With each disc loading, the players' rage gauges were quickly filled with the noise of the CD drive.
What should have been a flagship product showcasing the advantages of CD-ROMs turned into a negative example, condemned by angry gamers as a prime example of "negative optimization."
These players' terrible experiences quickly spread throughout the gaming community and soon reached Akihabara.
Poor sales and lackluster game performance, along with some players requesting refunds from Akihabara, were causing Hudson and NEC executives a major headache.
They couldn't understand why the CD-ROM kit, which represented the future, had flopped right from the start.
Other third-party game developers were overjoyed. In various private settings, NEC's failure became the subject of their ridicule.
At Sony Headquarters, Ken Kutaragi was reviewing two reports in his office, one of which was a report on PC Engine CD-ROM.
One document contains technical specifications, while the other contains detailed market feedback and player reviews, including some sharp and sarcastic remarks.
He carefully flipped through the pages, his fingertips lightly tapping the words "operational lag" and "lack of gameplay".
In his view, the failures of NEC and Hudson were a terrible example to follow.
No matter how fast the hardware runs, without software to control it, it's just a pile of expensive scrap metal.
It would be extremely foolish to entrust the fate of software entirely to a third party.
Ken Kutaragi picked up his pen and added some more content to his report.
Sony cannot repeat the same mistakes.
Future game consoles must have a lineup of first-party games that are closely related to them. From the very beginning of the project, hardware and software must be closely integrated and complement each other.
Only in this way can the charm of next-generation consoles be truly shown to players.
In the Sega Arcade Development Department, Yu Suzuki's brows furrowed into a knot.
He stared at the screen at Ryu, who was sluggishly throwing a punch, and shook his head.
The commands for character actions seem to travel through the air for half a second before reaching the game.
We can't make this kind of thing.
Yu Suzuki's voice betrayed an undisguised disgust. "This lag is infuriating, and the loading noise completely disrupts the game's rhythm. This isn't a port, it's a waste."
The programmer beside him looked troubled. "Suzuki- san, this is a technical bottleneck of CD-ROMs. Their seek speed is too slow, unlike cartridges which can be read instantly. Game data isn't music; it needs to frequently jump between different positions on the disc, and each jump involves a long wait."
This problem was quickly placed on Takuya's desk.
He looked at the technical challenges summarized in the report, but his face showed no surprise.
"For the problem of finding the source, go to Sony." Takuya thought for a moment and instructed his assistant, "They are experts in optical disc drive technology. The PCEngine CD-ROM expansion kit was licensed from them, although NEC was responsible for the subsequent development."
"While this situation won't leave them utterly humiliated, it will prompt them to carefully study and improve their strategies. They desperately need an opportunity to prove themselves."
"We collaborated with them to develop a high-speed reading mechanism that combines hardware and software, and established an industry standard."
Once this tool is developed, all third-party developers who create games for us will be grateful to us.
The assistant listened to his explanation and carefully took notes in his notebook.
"As for loading speed, well— Toshiba's 1M DRAM has been on the market for almost three years; the price should come down by now."
"We can let Suzuki give it a try. If it works well, we can talk to Director Terauchi and Director Hatano and ask them to talk to Toshiba and ask for a good price."
The assistant's pen flew across the paper, while Takuya's fingers tapped lightly on the table, waiting for him to finish recording the information.
Solving the disc reading bottleneck only prevented Sega's CD-ROM kits from becoming another anxiety generator like the PCE-CD, but that's far from enough.
"Speed alone isn't enough," Takuya continued. "The audio-visual presentation of Street Fighter demonstrates that for such a high-priced product, if it can't deliver a revolutionary improvement in experience, even hardcore gamers with strong purchasing power won't be willing to accept it."
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, as if recalling something. "Let Suzuki- san bring out that shelved project. It's the coprocessor we developed for MD cartridges."
The assistant was taken aback. After a moment's thought, he remembered.
In order to achieve more powerful image effects on the MD, the R&D department designed a powerful coprocessor that could be embedded in the cartridge, but it was ultimately rejected and shelved by senior management due to cost issues.
Each chip adds more than thirty US dollar to the cost; if that were added to a cartridge that sells for fifty or sixty US dollar, nobody would buy it.
"We thought it was expensive before because the cost of the cartridges was too low," Takuya's thinking was crystal clear. "But it's different now. CD-ROM kits are expensive to begin with, and players are prepared to spend a lot of money."
Adding another chip on top of that, the cost might not be noticeable to the player, but the difference in the gaming experience is enormous. It's a worthwhile investment.
He held up two fingers. "Graphics and sound, walk on two legs. The same goes for audio, add a dedicated sound chip. Don't let developers rely entirely on the MD's own sound components like they do now. CD-ROMs offer such a large capacity, how can we justify the investment of players without using some high-quality music and sound effects?"
The assistant, halfway through taking notes, suddenly thought of a question, "Executive, what about the music CD playback function? NEC is promoting this as a major selling point."
Upon hearing this, Takuya smirked as if he'd heard a joke.
"That's superfluous," he commented bluntly. "Who would buy a US dollar 300 gaming accessory with a power cord just to listen to music?"
"Anyone who wants to listen to CDs can just buy a Sony D-2 Discman CD player; it's less than two hundred US dollar and you can take it with you in your pocket."
"Get this straight, who are our users? They are gamers sitting in front of their TVs, wanting to play the world's top games, not music enthusiasts who occasionally join in the gaming fun."
He paused, then emphasized, "Adding this feature will require an additional decoding chip, which will increase the cost."
"What's even more troublesome is the third-party developers. They have to build a whole new audio pipeline for this high-standard audio track, which is time-consuming and expensive. Isn't that just adding to their troubles?"
The assistant stopped writing and repeated the outline he had just written in his notebook to Takuya for confirmation.
After Takuya nodded, he turned and headed to the Arcade Development Department.