Los Angeles, May 1984.
"The impact of the Atari shock on the gaming market continues to grow. Experts predict that the domestic gaming market will need at least twenty years to recover..."
The bulky CRT television played today's programming in fits and starts, the sound from its low-fidelity speakers, unique to this era, thick with static.
Lin Lixin stared blankly at the flickering screen before him, his expression quite a sight.
A moment ago, he had been carrying the package containing his newly arrived NS2, happily preparing to head home for a proper gaming session.
How had he been dumped in this godforsaken place in the blink of an eye?
He turned his gaze out the window. The California sunshine was as generous as ever, already a little scorching despite the early hour.
Several apartment buildings of nearly identical design lined the street, with beige exterior walls and red-tiled roofs.
There were few pedestrians. A handful of young people who looked like students rode bicycles, while boxy sedans occasionally drove past.
Lin Lixin's gaze settled on the long-closed arcade at the street corner, its display windows smashed.
This was not his neighborhood, nor even anywhere he recognized.
This was Los Angeles in the previous century.
[Ding!] [Thank you for choosing this transmigration service. This service is entirely free.] [Binding...] [Please read and decide whether you agree to this system's terms of use.] [□ I have read and agree.]
A transparent screen abruptly unfolded before Lin Lixin.
"Hold on a second. What is all this? You're just handing me my cheat like that?"
Still, when a golden finger was delivered right to his mouth, there was no reason to turn it down.
Although Lin Lixin had yet to figure out his current circumstances, he went ahead and checked the box.
[Ding!] [Thank you for using the Game Godfather System!] [User]: Lin Lixin (Jesse) [Attributes]: [Programming]: 15 [Scriptwriting]: 2 [Graphic design]: 2 [Music composition]: 1 [Available attribute points]: 0 [Skills]: None [Items]: Beginner gift pack x1
"Game Godfather? You want me to develop games? In this prehistoric era, what games..."
The words caught in Lin Lixin's throat as he stared wide-eyed at the television.
The news report on the Atari crash had just ended.
Just one year ago, Atari, the undisputed overlord of North American gaming, had courted death on a truly heaven-defying scale.
Under its galaxy-brained strategy of "quantity over quality," nearly ten thousand games had appeared on the North American market in a single year.
The flood of cookie-cutter games had utterly destroyed North American players' confidence, and during the Christmas season of 1982, "ET," the most notorious piece of shit in gaming history, had set the whole thing off.
The gaming market, once worth as much as 3.2 billion, had shrunk by over 97%, completely burying the future of the domestic gaming industry.
Lin Lixin stared at the television and swallowed hard.
He seemed to be standing at what might have been the most important crossroads in all of gaming history.
That year, Nintendo was still sweeping all before it in its home market with the FC Famicom, while the other two members of the future big three were nowhere to be seen.
The old overlord had fallen, and the new king had yet to make landfall.
This was the only vacuum in the history of the North American gaming market.
"An opportunity that comes once in a thousand years!" Lin Lixin's heart rate shot up, and he could not help exclaiming aloud.
Bang, bang, bang.
He was just about to study his golden finger further when urgent knocking suddenly came from the door.
Lin Lixin jolted, put away the panel, and only then went over to the door.
He opened it to find a young white man with brown hair and green eyes, sleep still crusted in the corners of his eyes, yawning nonstop.
"Jesse, weren't you supposed to wake me up? We're going to be late for class!"
As the other man spoke in English with a slight French accent, a stream of unfamiliar memories surged up and flooded Lin Lixin's mind.
The man before him seemed to be his roommate, Sam, a university student majoring in computer science just like Lin Lixin.
The two shared an apartment in a residential neighborhood not far from the University of Southern California.
"Sorry, Sam. I was watching the news." Lin Lixin put on a slightly relaxed smile. "This Atari thing really blew up, huh?"
Hearing Lin Lixin bring up games, Sam forgot all about being late and spat angrily.
"F**K! Jesse, I heard those bastards hauled their unsold copies of 'E.T.' out to New Mexico and buried them. And to think I got up at the crack of dawn to grab a few copies."
The thought of all the money he had wasted made Sam's blood surge.
How the fuck had the gaming industry ended up like this?
Hadn't he gone into computer science in the first place to follow in the footsteps of that great industry, video games?
Who would have thought the gaming industry would be gone before he even graduated?
Amused, Lin Lixin patted his shoulder with a "stay strong" gesture.
"Let's go. I don't want to be late for today's class. Oh, right, you're not wearing pants."
Although class started early that day, it did not last long.
The morning passed in the blink of an eye. Although BASIC looked like some heavenly scripture compared with the elegant C# of the future, it was already easy to understand compared with the even more obscure 6502 assembly language.
They had no classes that afternoon. After grabbing a quick bite at the cafeteria, the two dragged their feet on their way home.
Their steps slowed in front of the shuttered arcade on the street corner.
"Jesse, do you think video games really are dead?"
"Of course not." Lin Lixin shook his head decisively. No one knew better than he did what a terrifying behemoth the video game industry would grow into.
Even now, at the lowest point of the North American gaming industry, Nintendo was still standing strong far away in East Asia. The FC Famicom and that plumber who would soon take the world by storm were ready to inherit the overlord's throne.
"Atari doesn't represent the gaming industry," Lin Lixin said, setting off toward the apartment again. "They treated games as products on an assembly line, thinking they could win through sheer volume like a factory, and lost their respect for players, technology, and developers."
Sam hurried after him, looking thoughtful as he listened to Lin Lixin's unusually philosophical remarks that day.
"Then when do you think the gaming industry will get better, Jesse?"
Lin Lixin glanced at him, a smile tugging at his lips.
"It'll get better this year."
He was already prepared to welcome this perfect stage.
"Sam, you've played Atari's late-period games, so I'm sure I don't need to say much. As long as a new work appears that can truly be called a game, the gaming industry will naturally recover."
Video games were not merely some novel, ingenious trick, but art-the world's ninth art.
"Sam," Lin Lixin stopped outside their door and looked at Sam, who was still bobbing his head as he pondered what Lin Lixin had just said. He spoke slowly. "I'm planning to develop a game."