Chapter Summaries

Sakurai Seizo accepted a police recommendation after helping uncover a suspicious lead, and the Metropolitan Police Department began covert surveillance of a house in Matsumoto. Nakayama Takuya left thinking the case involved little more than illegal dumping or chemical resale.

• Iwata praised Sega’s cooperation, and Sakurai Seizo accepted a handwritten recommendation to join the police.
• Iwata ordered Toyama Tetsuo to coordinate with Nagano police and begin surveillance once the search warrant was approved.
• Toyama’s team escorted Sakurai to Matsumoto, where he directed them to the suspect’s house before they sent him home.
• Detectives disguised as utility workers installed a hidden camera, while another team set up a telephoto lens and directional microphone.
• Nakayama Takuya dismissed the case as likely involving illegal dumping or chemical resale and focused on Sega’s business concerns.

Nakayama Takuya learned that a classified police operation tied to a student’s lead may have saved half of Matsumoto City, then turned back to Sega’s business negotiations. Silicon Valley Online secured a major Series B investment and began preparing for an IPO, while Cartoon Network faced a flood of calls from parents whose children wanted more airtime.

• Nakayama Takuya received an urgent report that the Metropolitan Police Department was conducting a major classified operation and that Superintendent Iwata credited a student’s lead with possibly saving half of Matsumoto City.
• Nakayama Takuya set aside the classified matter and focused on Silicon Valley Online’s Series B negotiations.
• Donald Valentine demanded additional shares for Sequoia Capital, and Frank proposed a $300 million valuation.
• Donald agreed to invest $30 million for another 10% of Silicon Valley Online on the condition that the IPO process begin immediately, and KPCB matched the offer.
• Tom Kalinske accepted the combined $60 million investment and told Frank to negotiate lower underwriting fees with Goldman Sachs.
• Betty told Cartoon Network’s content director that parents were calling because their children were upset they had not watched enough television.

Mashin Hero Wataru and Mado King Granzort drew strong interest from American children, triggering Cartoon Network to rebroadcast them and pay Sunrise Animation a larger share of Game Gear revenue. Ted Turner realized Sunrise had used the broadcasts to promote Bandai’s toys and chose to continue airing the shows while demanding more money in the next negotiation.

• Mashin Hero Wataru and Mado King Granzort’s 4:30 p.m. broadcasts attracted complaints from children who missed episodes and reached an average rating of 1.6%, activating higher fees and a fifteen-percent Game Gear share in the contract.
• The content director ordered Cartoon Network to rebroadcast the week’s five episodes on weekend mornings to appease parents and improve ratings.
• The weekend rebroadcasts quieted the calls, and the ratings reached 1.4%, requiring Cartoon Network to pay Sunrise fifteen percent of Game Gear revenue but no share of peripheral sales.
• Ted Turner reviewed Bandai America’s report showing the toy robot had sold more than ten million dollars’ worth in three months and concluded Sunrise had used Cartoon Network as a promotional outlet.
• Turner decided to keep broadcasting the shows but instructed Betty to demand more money from Sunrise in the next negotiation.

Nakayama Takuya shared Sunrise’s strategy for earning money from Japanese animation in America, prompting other studios to consider exporting their shows. A month later, Director Yoshikawa rushed in with breaking news from NHK showing a police raid near Mount Fuji.

• Miyagawa Yasuo admired Sunrise’s royalty check, while Nakayama Takuya explained how the company profited from merchandise despite modest licensing fees.
• Nakayama Takuya hosted an overseas expansion session for animation studios and revealed Sunrise’s $500-per-episode licensing strategy alongside Bandai’s strong American sales.
• Nakayama Takuya urged studios to edit shows into simple, tightly timed episodes and focus on selling related products to American children.
• After a month passed, Director Yoshikawa interrupted Nakayama Takuya’s rest and turned on NHK, which showed riot police raiding a building near Mount Fuji.

Nakayama Takuya learned that the police had arrested Shoko Asahara and uncovered Aum Shinrikyo’s sarin plot after a lead connected to Sega’s Ace Attorney team helped the investigation. He ordered security precautions for Sega and then tested the newly completed Virtua Fighter 2.

• Nakayama Takuya watched the news report that police had raided Aum Shinrikyo’s headquarters and arrested Shoko Asahara after tracing a crucial lead to a player’s environmental sample.
• Nakayama Takuya realized the investigation had prevented the Tokyo subway sarin attack he remembered from his previous life.
• Nakayama Takuya told Yoshikawa to avoid publicity, give the Ace Attorney letter-screening staff paid leave, and protect Sakurai’s identity.
• Nakayama Takuya visited Yu Suzuki’s lab and played Virtua Fighter 2, admiring its improved character models and 3D visuals.

Nakayama Takuya launched Virtua Fighter 2 in Sega’s company-owned arcades and opened orders for the Model 2 machine, relying on its unprecedented graphics to drive demand. As orders flooded in and production ramped up for Japan, America, and Europe, players and gaming magazines confirmed the game’s impact.

• Nakayama Takuya sent the first tested Model 2 units to busy Sega stores and told the Sales Department to accept orders by fax without holding an ordering conference.
• Players crowded around Virtua Fighter 2, and reports of packed stores prompted arcade operators and distributors to transfer money for the first ten thousand units.
• Contract factory workers in Deep City assembled Model 2 boards for shipment to Japan while ten thousand cabinets waited in Yokohama for installation.
• Sega prepared separate prototype units for Sega of America Headquarters and Ubisoft in France as Nakayama Takuya pursued a synchronized international rollout.
• Tokyo players and gaming magazines rushed to see the game, and Famitsu’s reviewers awarded it a score of 33 and entry into the Golden Hall of Fame.

Virtua Fighter 2 drew overwhelming crowds, and Sega rushed new machines to arcades in Japan while shipping thousands more to the United States and Europe. Its expensive Model 2 hardware left Capcom and SNK questioning whether they could afford to compete in 3D.

• Arcade owners struggled as players flocked to Sega stores to play Virtua Fighter 2, leaving rival machines nearly deserted.
• Sega assembled and delivered a first batch of one thousand Virtua Fighter 2 machines to major arcades in Tokyo and Osaka.
• Workers in Deep City prepared five thousand machines for the United States and two thousand for Europe.
• Capcom engineers examined a disassembled Virtua Fighter 2 cabinet, and Tsujimoto Kenzo decided to focus on the CPS Series Board rather than pursue costly 3D hardware.
• Takado Yoshihiko rejected SNK's proposal to develop 3D games because the company could not afford Sega's research and development costs.

Namco compared its Tekken prototype with Sega’s Virtua Fighter 2 and realized its character visuals fell far behind. Katsuhiro Harada pushed to overhaul Tekken and delay its release, leaving Sony’s PlayStation launch at risk of losing the game.

• Namco engineers examined Virtua Fighter 2 and found that Sega used 2D backgrounds to devote more processing power to detailed character visuals.
• Katsuhiro Harada ordered the Tekken team to redo its textures and rendering pipeline, cancel weekend leave, and delay the game until its visuals approached Virtua Fighter 2.
• Katsuhiro Harada showed Nakamura Masaya photographs of Tekken and Virtua Fighter 2 and warned that matching Sega would raise the budget by at least 30% and delay release by more than three months.
• Nakamura Masaya asked what would happen if Namco did not revise Tekken, and Katsuhiro Harada warned that arcade orders could fall below a thousand units and the PlayStation port would suffer.

Nakamura Masaya showed Sony how Sega’s Virtua Fighter 2 achieved strikingly detailed visuals on hardware comparable to Namco’s System 11, prompting Namco to delay Tekken rather than release it looking inferior. Sony’s executives acknowledged that Sega’s software optimization and development tools had exposed weaknesses in their own approach, and they faced the need to learn from Sega before PlayStation launched.

• Nakamura Masaya told Katsuhiro Harada to delay Tekken if its visuals could not match Sega’s, then summoned Ken Kutaragi and Nobuyuki Idei to Namco headquarters.
• Nakamura Masaya and Katsuhiro Harada showed Ken Kutaragi and Nobuyuki Idei Virtua Fighter 2 running beside Tekken on System 11, and Kutaragi recognized Sega’s superior visual results.
• Katsuhiro Harada explained how Sega used 2D backgrounds, sprites, and compression to reserve resources for detailed character graphics.
• Nakamura Masaya said Tekken needed more development time, and Ken Kutaragi agreed to allow four months for Namco to catch up.
• At Sony headquarters, Ken Kutaragi, Nobuyuki Idei, Norio Ohga, and Ryoji Chubachi discussed Sega’s optimization techniques and admitted Sony needed to improve its support for developers.

Sony mobilized engineers to improve PlayStation’s development tools and performance after Sega’s Virtua Fighter 2 exposed its weaknesses. At Nintendo, Yokoi Gunpei, Masayuki Uemura, and Shigeru Miyamoto examined Sega’s mixed 2D-and-3D rendering and considered how it could inform their upcoming 64-bit console.

• Norio Ohga authorized Ken Kutaragi to recruit staff and spend whatever was needed to strengthen PlayStation.
• Sony sent thirty architecture engineers to Namco to optimize PlayStation development with the System 11 board and began rebuilding its SDK.
• Yokoi Gunpei, Masayuki Uemura, and Shigeru Miyamoto inspected the disassembled Virtua Fighter 2 cabinet at Nintendo headquarters.
• Shigeru Miyamoto noticed the game used a static 2D background texture behind its 3D characters, and Yokoi praised the resource-saving approach.
• Masayuki Uemura proposed that Nintendo consider Sega’s mixed-rendering approach for its SGI-based 64-bit console, while Miyamoto imagined a three-dimensional Mario.

Shigeru Miyamoto saw how Sega’s Model 2 technology could support Nintendo’s next console, while Sega launched a major campaign for its new arcade racer, Fast & Furious. Tetsuya Mizuguchi pursued real-car data and industry partnerships to make the game a cultural phenomenon.

• Shigeru Miyamoto asked Masayuki Uemura to lend him the machine and investigate whether SGI’s texture-compression technology could be used in Nintendo’s new architecture.
• Sega promoted Fast & Furious with giant-screen footage that shifted between real cars and Model 2 game graphics, drawing crowds to its Akihabara arcade.
• Tetsuya Mizuguchi told Nakayama Takuya he wanted Fast & Furious to become a cultural symbol and attract carmakers and Hollywood.
• Nakayama Takuya renamed the project Fast & Furious and encouraged Mizuguchi to think beyond calling it a game.
• Mizuguchi asked to borrow Nakayama Takuya’s RX-7 and sought access to other sports cars so the team could gather real-world physics data, offering to feature their license plates in the game.

Sega’s realistic driving game Fast & Furious drew crowds with its powerful graphics and force-feedback controls, while arcade owners rushed to order cabinets. At Yokohama Port, Boss Sato tried a machine and encountered its strong steering resistance on his first turn.

• Sega engineers used data and recordings from luxury cars to refine Fast & Furious’s driving feel on the Model 2 board.
• A live-action-to-game demonstration in Akihabara amazed players, who rushed toward the racing cabinets.
• Arcade owners flooded Sega’s Sales Department with calls and traveled to the warehouse to place orders.
• Boss Sato tested a Fast & Furious cabinet at Sega Third Warehouse and felt the steering wheel push back as he took a turn.

Sato and other distributors rushed to preorder Sega’s Fast & Furious arcade machines, and the game’s launch spread the racing craze across Japan and the United States. The chapter ended with Brian choosing a black Dodge Charger at a Los Angeles arcade.

• Sato crashed during his first trial run, then signed for ten units after learning the initial stock was limited.
• Nakayama Takuya learned that distributors had bought out all 3,000 units in two hours and ordered production and the United States rollout to expand.
• Sega shipped Fast & Furious machines to Los Angeles, London, and Paris, drawing players away from Virtua Fighter 2 in arcades.
• Japanese teenagers crowded around linked cabinets to race on the Shuto Expressway Wangan Line.
• Brian ignored Dom's teasing, took his turn at the Los Angeles arcade, and chose a black Dodge Charger.

Sega’s new racing game became a runaway hit in North America, drawing teenagers into arcades with its destructive pursuit mode and competitive two-player battles. Nakayama Takuya’s efforts to flood the market still failed to prevent the game from selling out.

• Brian played the pursuit mode, crashed into police cars, and thrilled the arcade crowd with the game’s force feedback and realistic wrecks.
• Teenagers filled Santa Monica Arcade to play two-player races, where Nakayama Takuya’s ban-and-pick system forced competitors to master different cars and tracks.
• Brian finally got a machine to himself and used a modified Dodge to send police cars tumbling in pursuit mode.
• The game’s replay rate soared, and Sega of America sent Nakayama Takuya urgent reports that North American stock had sold out despite shipments twice Japan’s supply.

Nakayama Takuya redirected Sega’s production toward North America to meet the booming demand for Fast & Furious, then proposed turning the game into a film. He left Bernard with a concept built around outlaw racers, loyalty, family, and a conflicted undercover cop, along with instructions for casting and contracts.

• Nakayama Takuya ordered Hisao Oguchi to run the Chinese assembly plants in three shifts and raise North American supply to five times Japan’s, prioritizing shipments to Los Angeles.
• Tom Kalinske thanked Nakayama Takuya for the increased supply, and Nakayama proposed making a Fast & Furious movie.
• Nakayama Takuya told Bernard to pitch street racers as modern urban cowboys who followed a code, valued family, and avoided harming innocents.
• Nakayama Takuya proposed an undercover cop torn between the law and the racers’ loyalty, plus capable female characters who could attract more viewers.
• Nakayama Takuya instructed Bernard to seek tough, relatively unknown actors and require the main cast to sign contracts for at least three films with their pay kept low.

Takuya arranged for Fast & Furious films to promote Sega’s arcade racing games as Namco rushed Ridge Racer to market. Ridge Racer attracted players in Japan, but Namco struggled to compete with Sega’s stronger North American distribution, while Takuya noted a 6.8% rating for a robot animation.

• Takuya told Bernard to make supporting Fast & Furious actors replaceable by writing their characters out, and to preserve each film’s chase track for a matching game map.
• Bernard left to pitch the film project to Universal Pictures, while Takuya and Tom joked about future crossovers.
• Nakamura Masaya approved Ridge Racer’s release after Namco’s delayed System 11 development left Sega dominating Japanese arcades with Fast & Furious.
• A player tried Ridge Racer while waiting for Sega’s crowded machine, enjoyed its easy drifting, and drew other players to Namco’s cabinet.
• Ridge Racer gained a foothold in Japan, but Nakamura was dismayed by Namco’s weak North American channels and limited supply.
• Takuya smiled at a 6.8% rating for a robot animation.

Nakayama Takuya’s intervention gave Yoshiyuki Tomino time to turn Gundam F91 into a yearlong political and military epic, while Hajime Katoki’s production-friendly designs helped make its models a huge success. The chapter left Bandai’s factory struggling to keep up with demand and its executives recognizing how much Sega and Nakayama had shaped the franchise’s success.

• Nakayama Takuya had earlier persuaded Sunrise to pause Yoshiyuki Tomino’s work and produce Mobile Fighter G, giving Tomino time to recover and develop Gundam F91 as a 52-episode series.
• Yoshiyuki Tomino incorporated the Old Osmobi Army and the rise and fall of Cosmo Babylonia into Gundam F91, creating a tightly plotted war drama with fewer character deaths.
• Hajime Katoki joined the production team early and refined the F91 and Crossbone Vanguard mobile suits into detailed designs suited to model manufacturing.
• Bandai’s Shizuoka factory increased HG F91 production for a third time as demand from adult buyers overwhelmed its capacity.
• Mitsui Chuta and the factory manager discussed how Nakayama Takuya’s multicolor molding and marketing strategy had driven model sales, leaving the manager feeling Bandai was working for Sega.

Sega and Bandai promoted Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation with an immersive arcade cabinet and collectible dog-tag memory cards, drawing Gundam fans into arcades. Players struggled with the demanding controls but eagerly logged in to show off their pilot ranks and customized machines.

• Mitsui Chuta told the factory manager that Sega had funded Sunrise's OVA completion project, 08th MS Team, and the manager accepted that the factory would keep making money regardless of who owned it.
• Gundam fans watched a cinematic Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation advertisement featuring a Zaku I cockpit and a dog-tag login, then rushed to discuss the game and its collectible tag.
• Bandai announced that arcade players who reached a certain rank could earn exclusive water-slide decals when buying HG Models with their dog tags.
• Sega distributed only five thousand cabinets among major commercial districts, and a novice at Akihabara's Sega First Hall lost to a Jim while struggling with the twin-stick controls.
• Tanaka Ichiro inserted his dog tag to display his Zeon rank and favorite Zaku, inspiring other fans to queue, log in, and show off their pilot identities and machine data.

Bandai president Yamashina Makoto confronted the success of Sega’s Gundam Battle Operation and the weakness of Bandai’s game division. He proposed spinning off the division and folding it into Sega, but the meeting ended with the risk that Sega would value it as worthless baggage.

• Arcades struggled to meet demand for Gundam Battle Operation, while its model-code promotion drove customers to buy Gundam kits.
• Yamashina Makoto reviewed Bandai’s record profits and learned from Mitsui Chuta how Sega’s game was boosting model sales.
• Yamashina Makoto hesitated to accept Nakayama Takuya’s merger proposal because he feared Bandai would lose its independence.
• At a senior management meeting, Yamashina Makoto described how far Sega had outpaced Bandai and proposed transferring Bandai’s game division to Sega.
• Yamashina Makoto warned that handing over the division in its current state could let Sega dismiss it as worthless and force its price down.

Yamashina Makoto secured one final budget for the game department, while TBS launched a high-stakes quiz show that captivated American viewers. The chapter ended with contestant John choosing A for the million-dollar question, just before the answer was revealed.

• Yamashina Makoto persuaded executives to approve one last budget for the game department, and the proposal passed unanimously.
• Bobby Batista presented truck driver John with his final question and warned that a wrong answer would cost him most of his winnings.
• Bobby promised tax-planning support to help John keep more of a million-dollar prize, and he chose to continue.
• TBS aired a ten-second commercial before the final question, prompting viewers across the country to anxiously debate John's answer.
• Betty told Ted Turner that TBS's phone lines were overwhelmed by advertisers and people hoping to join the show.
• John chose A, and Bobby asked whether it was his final answer.