"All right, this fast-paced, high-speed bullet hell shooter really is pretty interesting."
Sam tried playing the game, casually shooting down a few enemy planes.
He had to admit that, although it looked like a reskin with nothing new to offer, Lin Lixin had indeed found plenty of room for optimization.
The faster gameplay and smoother screen scrolling both gave him a satisfying rush.
It played like "Xevious Pro."
"But without any gameplay innovations, will the nostalgia crowd... oh, let me take care of this elite first."
Sam was about to offer his assessment when a new enemy appeared up ahead.
Unlike the grunts that were obviously small fry at a glance, it sported a red paint job and a distinctly different aircraft model.
Although this was Sam's first encounter with the minor elite, this was hardly his first day playing games.
In a flash of lightning, the fight was decided.
Amid a crude, pixelated explosion effect, something seemed to fly out of the center of the blast.
"A score pickup?"
Sam cautiously maneuvered his fighter into firing another volley. Only after confirming that it wasn't some deathrattle from the minor elite did he slowly fly closer to collect it.
The arcade cabinet's speakers played a new sound effect, telling Sam that he seemed to have received some kind of upgrade.
He no longer needed to ask Lin Lixin what had happened, because this upgrade really was a case of what you see is what you get.
An indistinct radio transmission came through the speakers, growing clearer and clearer.
Sam made it out. It seemed to be a transmission from the aircraft carrier he had started on. They had dispatched two new carrier-based aircraft, which were heading for the front.
Then two fighters, noticeably smaller than his own, suddenly flew in from the bottom of the screen, traced a beautiful arc through the air, and finally settled on either side of him, flying in formation.
These were wingmen!
The two wingmen followed the protagonist closely, responding to Sam's every input almost in sync, as though they truly were his closest comrades.
"Open fire!"
Stirred by that blood-pumping radio transmission, Sam slammed the fire button, and all three planes immediately unleashed a dense volley.
The two wingmen might have been a little small, but their firepower was no joke.
The rat-a-tat of aircraft machine guns rang out without pause, wiping out a newly spawned fighter formation in the blink of an eye.
Right on cue, another indistinct transmission came through the speakers: praise from his comrades.
Lin Lixin's "1942" featured numerous improvements over the original. It could be said that he had made it as good as he possibly could within his abilities.
Almost none of the processor's performance went to waste.
As for squeezing those "radio sound effects" into a game in this era, when storage capacity topped out at only a few dozen kilobytes, that was thanks to an audio compression algorithm he had written on the fly.
While he was lost in thought, Lin Lixin suddenly heard Sam let out a hoarse, desperate wail.
He looked over and saw that a heavy bomber had spawned.
Although Sam was highly skilled, his unfamiliarity still cost him, and he carelessly took a glancing hit.
The two wingmen suddenly shot forward, breaking free of Sam's control and flying without hesitation toward the heavy bomber that was about to destroy them.
"Boom!"
The sound effect rang out. The two wingmen became two balls of flame, bringing down the bomber, whose health was nearly depleted.
Sam's eyes nearly split with fury. The comrades who had just been fighting at his side had thrown their lives away for nothing, all because of his stupidity!
He plunged into the enormous fireball. In a daze, he spotted a new pickup and flew straight into it without hesitation.
The pickup was marked POW. Having played countless games, Sam immediately understood what it meant.
It was a firepower upgrade, a power-up.
"I'll fucking take you all on!"
The fighter's machine guns abruptly increased from two to four, making up for the firepower lost along with his wingmen.
Sam was completely blood-drunk now, adrenaline surging wildly and his heart rate soaring.
He had only ever felt this way the first time he played Xevious.
Watching Sam become so immersed, Lin Lixin suddenly felt a little sheepish.
To ensure that the vast majority of ordinary people couldn't play all afternoon on a single coin, he had played a little trick with the difficulty scaling.
Arcade machines were different from home consoles. The rate at which players inserted coins was an important factor in profitability.
Only an arcade machine that could keep making money for its operator was a good arcade machine.
Otherwise, if it ended up winning praise but no paying customers, he would truly have nowhere to go and cry.
Under Lin Lixin's design, the stronger the player, the more enemies the stage would throw in, ensuring that the player remained under pressure.
Besides making money, this design was also key to maintaining player interest.
To offset some of the frustration of "losing everything upon death," he had also added a feature that let players "sacrifice abilities to stay alive."
In the game, that became the sacrifice of his comrades that Sam had just witnessed.
There was no denying that Lin Lixin's difficulty-curve design was absolutely top-tier.
Even an old hand like Sam had been tricked to death by the system without ever realizing it.
Sam stared at the words "Game Over" before him, taking a long time to settle his emotions.
"I was wrong. Completely and utterly wrong."
"This isn't some reskinned game at all." Sam stared at Lin Lixin, his eyes blazing. "This is a genuine, next-generation shoot 'em up!"
He would stake his reputation on it: this kind of weapon upgrade system would definitely become a design paradigm for future shoot 'em ups!
Lin Lixin had created another miracle!
Lin Lixin smiled faintly and said nothing more.
In fact, this system still concealed a true trump card that Sam had yet to notice.
But he was in no hurry to point it out. These little touches were most interesting when players discovered them for themselves.
[Ding!] [Mission Investor's Recognition completed] [Reward received]: All attributes +5 (existing attributes only) [Additional on-time reward issued for completing the mission on schedule]: Skill gift pack x1
An increase of five to all attributes might not look like much, but for Lin Lixin, whose attributes were often still in the single digits, it more than doubled them.
In particular, computer graphics, which he had only recently unlocked, also received an increase in attribute points.
It seemed that the more abilities he mastered, the more he would gain from increases to all attributes.
"Understanding one thing opens the way to others. Looks like I'll need to spread my points more evenly from now on."
Lin Lixin opened his eyes again. His thoughts had never been so clear.
Everything he had ever mastered was, to a greater or lesser extent, helping him with other subjects.
Applicable experience was automatically extracted and extended by analogy to other matters.
Although Lin Lixin hadn't learned anything new, he felt that his coding fundamentals had made a qualitative leap.
This improvement was on another dimension entirely.
"Sam, stop playing. We've still got things to do."
After recovering, Lin Lixin caught hold of Sam, who was about to insert another coin for another round.