As the GAMENOVA booth officially opened, large numbers of fans streamed in, quickly filling the space to capacity.
If it weren't for the venue staff maintaining order, it would probably be so crowded that you couldn't even move.
The queue stretched far from the GAMENOVA booth, even winding its way to the Atari area.
The people gathered here were all there for that legendary 16-bit machine.
However, perhaps no one expected that the surprise awaiting them today would be far more than just a few hands-on demo units.
In the crowd, Emma held her son Vincent tightly, trying her best to keep them from being separated by the terrible flow of people.
When she heard that GAMENOVA was going to participate in this year's CES, she immediately ordered two tickets and took Vincent all the way from New Mexico to Nevada, Las Vegas.
"My God, Vincent, hold on tight!"
"Okay, Mom."
Drifting with the tide and following the flow of the crowd, the two finally arrived at the entrance of the booth after a long and agonizing ordeal.
Only when we got here did things begin to return to some order.
Since the number of machines available for trial at the booth was limited, GAMENOVA chose to only allow a limited number of visitors at a time, while the rest had to queue outside.
It's been turned into something like an amusement park attraction.
"Mom, look at that!"
Vincent stood on tiptoe and carefully examined the booth.
Their turn would be coming soon, so he needed to quickly decide what they wanted to play.
Mommy said she'd pre-ordered one of those Legend NovaXenos for him, but the earliest he could get one was probably February.
If we can have some fun playing the demo units right now, that would be good enough.
Vincent squinted and immediately spotted the central device that was completely different from the others.
It was a PC, no different from any other PC. A large rectangular metal box sat under the monitor; that was the PC's main unit.
Vincent doesn't have his own PC, nor does he really want one.
For him, NovaBo was the real dream; all those fancy features on a PC were really useless to a kid.
But this PC is a little different.
Because it has a themed paint scheme.
It's like the paint job on the frame of an arcade game.
The people at GAMENOVA drew many patterns on it.
Emma looked in the direction Vincent was pointing and immediately fixed her gaze on the PC.
The patterns drawn on it look exactly like those in Wolfenstein 3D.
A burly figure clad in military green armor, holding a horned demon's head, stood on the ground formed by demon corpses.
The entire background is composed of a distinct dark red, with what appears to be burning ruins of a city in the distance.
"Could it be a port of the PC version of Wolfenstein 3D?"
She glanced around and saw the player sitting in front of the computer gesturing excitedly, showing no restraint whatsoever.
Seeing his flustered appearance, Emma couldn't help but cover her mouth and chuckle a few times.
Once upon a time, when I first got into Wolfenstein 3D, I was just like that person, clueless.
However, things are very different now. Emma is now known as "Satan Mom " and is a master of Wolfenstein 3D.
Not only in New Mexico, but her grades were also among the top on GAMENOVA's online leaderboard.
This gave her, to some extent, the image and integrity that come with being a master.
The true mark of a master is to remain calm and composed even when faced with a collapsing mountain; no matter what, one must maintain a stable mindset.
Just like her performance in the game.
Even if the final boss corners her, don't give up; fight steadily and surely.
"Hmph, this guy is laughing like this even with the PC version, he definitely hasn't played the original NovaBo version."
She chuckled to herself, becoming even happier.
But when her gaze passed over the man's shoulder and fell on the screen, Emma suddenly froze.
He immediately squinted in disbelief, craning his neck to confirm what he was seeing.
"Huh? That's... a staircase? And a deep pit...?"
How is that possible?
Emma has lost count of how many times she's played Wolfenstein 3D, and she's well aware of the game's shortcomings in 3D space.
The design features only planar depth, with no height; each level is presented in a cramped, low-ceilinged, single-level space.
In particular, all the rooms are made up of right-angled walls, leaving no room for more angled corners.
All the rooms are rectangular in shape.
Whether it's rectangular or square, it always seems so monotonous in terms of spatial complexity.
This ultimately makes its gaming experience fall short of something.
Especially now that studios around the world have learned the rendering mechanism from Wolfenstein.
This kind of pseudo-3D technology is no longer a new technology.
The world desperately needs a new and intense stimulus.
And the thrill he had been waiting for seemed to have finally arrived.
"That's not Wolfenstein, is it?"
This was definitely not the Wolfenstein she knew.
Emma stared intently at the game screen, increasingly convinced that things were definitely not as simple as they seemed.
The game's visuals were completely different from what she remembered.
Within the space enclosed by several concrete pillars, there is a noticeably sunken area connected by a single step.
This is a scene that would never appear in Wolfenstein.
Let alone platforms with varying elevations, even those few independent concrete pillars would have been impossible to achieve in the original " Wolfenstein ".
Because it doesn't conform to the game's rendering logic.
This is not a right-angled plane, but a separate geometric solid.
But what truly terrified her was far more than that.
As the player rotated the camera, Emma suddenly noticed a significant change in the lighting on the screen.
One side of the screen was clearly lacking in light, and the entire screen was shrouded in dim shadow.
On the other side, although Emma couldn't see what was happening there, she could see light spreading in and illuminating the walls.
Lighting system----
Emma murmured in disbelief.
A lighting system with smooth gradations of brightness and darkness.
With its richer and more three-dimensional texture mapping, the game in front of me is completely different from the Wolfenstein I remember.
Emma's throat bobbed, and she subconsciously swallowed.
The forceful sound was audible even to Vincent below, penetrating the noisy scene.
"Mommy? What's wrong?"
Emma stood there, silent for a long time.
Then, a word flashed through her mind.
Or rather, it's a mystery deeply etched in her mind for a long time, one whose meaning she still hasn't figured out.
She parted her lips slightly and clearly uttered those two syllables.
"DOOM----"
Doom, the urban legend that forever circulates among gamers, is the official sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, which has been hailed as something almost mythical.
That's DOOM!
The legend is true! The Easter egg hidden in Wolfenstein!
DOOM! So that's what it was!
As if to prove her words, the player made a careless move and was hit in the face by a demon, resulting in a regrettable defeat.
At this moment, a large title appears on the screen, with sharply defined font, exactly the same as the hidden Easter egg in Wolfenstein.
DOOM