Lin Lixin sat in front of the computer, rummaging through a pile of floppy disks.
Throughout the history of sports games in the 8-bit era, basketball games have always seemed to be EA's comfort zone.
Defeating them in their area of expertise is no easy task.
The signing of star players simply provides them with a channel to attract basketball fans.
Ultimately, the quality of the game itself is what determines its final outcome.
As he flipped through the pages, a game floppy disk that he had casually bought at RadioShack earlier came into view.
One on One- one
The full title is "OneonOne: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird".
As its name suggests, this is a street basketball game that focuses on One on One offense and defense.
Although it runs on DOS, it already includes mechanics such as dunking, blocking, and rebounding.
Lin Lixin put it into the drive.
After a long loading process, the game's lineup finally appeared before him.
Admittedly, by today's standards, this work is so crude that it's almost unbearable to look at.
But keep in mind that this was a work released on PC in 1983.
Before this, the only basketball-themed video game available to everyone was an arcade title released in the 1980s with even worse graphics.
In this era, this is the best work for basketball fans.
Not to mention it also signed Julius Erving and Larry Bird.
Playing one of the two players against each other on the court has fulfilled the basketball dreams of countless people.
In 1988, EA released a sequel that further improved the graphics and added new gameplay features such as the Slam Dunk Contest.
Of course, there was also the addition of Michael Jordan, who had already become an NBA superstar at the time.
To be fair, this work is definitely excellent.
However, it has one major drawback.
This is a single-player game.
Even the 1988 game " Jordan vs. Bird: One on One " only added a mechanism that allowed players to choose their own computer-controlled level.
"That's a good starting point."
Lin Lixin maneuvered Bird to shake off Erving's block, leaped high, and threw a shot that went in perfectly.
"I have to say, EA at this time was quite something."
Watching the basketball's trajectory, though slow, was already quite beautiful, Lin Lixin pondered to himself.
This game is not as outdated as it appears.
What truly hampered " One on One " was the poor performance of its target platform.
In this era, PC games were already far behind arcade and console games from the very beginning.
A general-purpose computer cannot dedicate all its performance to the game itself like NovaBo could.
Simply implementing a scrolling motion is enough to squeeze every last drop of graphics performance out of a C64.
"If we're talking about NovaBo's performance, that should be sufficient."
Lin Lixin quickly calculated NovaBo's functions in his mind.
He suddenly remembered a basketball game that was also released in the 1980s.
Double Dribble
Konami developed a fast-paced, arcade-style basketball game, which was released on both the NES and arcade platforms.
Unlike " One on One," this is a legitimate console game, with performance far exceeding that of a PC, allowing it to achieve many visually impressive effects that would be considered excellent even on the NovaBo.
However, aside from the smoother and faster graphics, what's truly frightening about this game is its gameplay and positioning.
This is the first true basketball game in the strictest sense.
It allows up to 10 players in 5v5 mode to run, pass, and dribble simultaneously on screen, and also supports 2v2 matches.
That's outrageous.
Perhaps it was this game's amazing performance that made EA determined to enter the home console market by any means necessary, and crack the Sega MD.
Now that we have a direction, there's nothing left to delay.
Lin Lixin immediately set off for Micro-Nova.
Since SGI and a host of graphics chip geniuses joined the company, Micro-Nova has transformed itself from a garage-style workshop into a proper office, a complete overhaul.
"Under the EGA specification, each RGBI line is a digital signal, which can only represent two states: 1 or 0. Under these conditions, EGA can only produce a maximum of 2^4, or 16 colors."
Vivian stood in front of the whiteboard, passionately explaining her ideas to the group of technical experts, "So I designed this VGA standard, converting the digital signals of the RGB primary colors into analog signals." Seeing Lin Lixin appear at the door, she stopped, smiled, and waved, "Lin, you're just in time! We've got the new standard sorted out!"
"So fast?!"
Lin Lixin was taken aback for a moment, then his face lit up with joy.
He originally just wanted to see if he could develop a separate graphics enhancement chip for the " Double Dribble " cartridge to accommodate its high-speed graphics.
But the changes that the new display specifications can bring are far too many.
"Yes, we have to thank Jensen for his great idea."
We've added a DAC (digital-to-analog converter) to the VGA graphics card.
She led Lin Lixin to a CRT television. Next to the television was a simple circuit board covered with flying wires and had three knobs on it.
A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) essentially converts binary digital signals into infinitely subdividable analog signals represented by voltage.
Before Vivian could even introduce him, the expression on Lin Lixin's face told Vivian that he was very satisfied.
"This is it!"
Compared to the previous EGA and CGA standards, VGA's biggest breakthrough was that it converted color signals into analog signals.
In the original EGA specification, to represent a color, you could only use the RGB(1,0,1) format.
The displayed color can be changed by individually controlling the brightness of a single color on a pixel.
This system is naturally compatible with CRT televisions.
In a CRT television, each pixel is controlled by three electron guns.
When a powerful electron beam bombards red phosphor, it emits red light.
Vivian turned on the TV and tried rotating the three knobs.
As she operated the device, the colors on the screen began to gradually change.
Gradient!
Instead of abruptly switching from red to blue, the color changes smoothly and instantly as the red knob decreases and the blue knob increases.
"We changed the tri-color signals to analog signals, which allows for flexible, individual control of the intensity of a single electron gun, thus smoothly controlling the color of a single pixel."
She pointed to a Z80 chip on the circuit board, "Each color is controlled with 6-bit precision voltage, allowing for up to 64 sub-levels."
Although it's still two levels below the 8-bit, 256-level technology commonly seen in later generations, this kind of technology is still quite advanced even today.
That's definitely cutting-edge technology!
"64.6464------" Lin Lixin murmured, "Over 260,000 units of usable color!"