At the Activision division, Will, who was discussing decision trees with David, noticed Lin Lixin rummaging through a bunch of games with great interest and was somewhat puzzled.
He knew that Lin Lixin had previously made a trip to Bethesda alone, intending to invite them to become his subsidiary.
However, things don't seem to be going very smoothly.
But Lin Lixin didn't seem to be in a hurry. In the past few days, apart from continuing to work with Carmack and his project team, he spent all his remaining time working on Activision's old games.
This is a treasure trove!
Lin Lixin pulled out a cassette tape called "PitfalI!" and placed it into the Atari 2600 on the table.
This was the champion of Atari Games in 1982, and even now, it remains one of the best-selling video games in history.
David's name and the Activision logo flashed across the title screen, indicating that this work was entirely David's responsibility.
Such situations were not uncommon in the 8-bit era.
The game screen then appeared before Lin Lixin.
The number of color palettes is limited, but the overall image doesn't have the same eye-straining feel as the DOS version.
Its color choices are very clever. Although the blue sky makes it difficult for the entire forest to express the "tropical rainforest" feeling that David wanted, it has done its best to depict the environment.
At least for the Atari 2600, this is already a rare gem.
No wonder David and his companions became half of Atari's influence.
The gameplay is very simple: players take on the role of an explorer who must collect treasures as quickly as possible to complete missions while avoiding crocodiles, venomous snakes, and other dangers.
This typical story pattern reminded Lin Lixin of a film that Sam particularly liked back then.
Indiana Jones, also known as Raiders of the Lost Ark, is the progenitor of tomb raiding films.
An official game adaptation of this movie IP does exist, and its creator is Howard Warshaw, GAMENOVA's first third-party developer.
This was truly a moment when humanity's Stellaris shone brightly.
This group of outstanding producers, whose ideas and skills are at the forefront, could only earn an annual salary of $30,000 at Atari.
Even after founding Activision, they were quickly marginalized after going public, and their treatment plummeted after CEO Jim left.
"Hmm----"
After playing two quick rounds, Lin Lixin tossed the controller aside.
It's definitely fun, but it's undeniably outdated, and the limited hardware makes the graphics and controls somewhat clunky.
To be honest, it's hard to get hooked on it.
At this stage, there are simply too many replacements.
"But there's actually something special about this way of playing—"
Lin Lixin suddenly thought of a game IP from the post-millennium era, a work with nearly 200 million downloads worldwide.
Temple Run
"Mr. David, would you be interested in rebooting this IP? On a 3D engine?"
"A 3D version of Pitfall!"?
David, who was still discussing the details of LCP with Will, was slightly taken aback, not expecting Lin Lixin to suddenly bring this up.
"Yes, GAMENOVA hasn't released a new arcade game in a long time, so I think this is a good opportunity."
The success of Temple Run was inseparable from the golden age of rapid smartphone adoption at the time. Its simple and fun gameplay perfectly catered to the most basic needs of mobile gamers at that time.
Including Subway Surfers released the following year, this can be seen as a microcosm of an era for parkour games.
As for something even further, like a true 3D action parkour game such as Mirror's Edge, it's simply impossible to achieve with the current conditions.
David's eyes flickered, and his gaze towards Lin Lixin suddenly changed.
This new boss, who appeared out of nowhere, always brings new surprises every time he comes to Activision.
A boss who genuinely plays games and loves games—awesome!
"It can be done! Of course we can do it!"
"Okay, let's discuss the system requirements and gameplay design later. I'm going to play something else for a bit—"
Lin Lixin chuckled.
Arcade games have one major advantage over console and PC games: their system requirements are less demanding.
Because this part of the money actually came from the arcade manager.
Even if Lin Lixin chooses to cram two 16-bit graphics chips into the arcade machine, the price will not fluctuate significantly.
But on a mainframe computer, it's a completely different story.
Adding another card costs two hundred US dollars more, which is unaffordable for anyone.
This distinction allows Lin Lixin to explore more radical products based on OpenGL and 16-bit graphics cards without being limited by the cost of the host.
This actually brought GAMENOVA back to its original state.
Don't worry about costs; you can focus wholeheartedly on realizing the game content.
Temple Run happens to be a fast-paced, casual game that doesn't require saving, making it a natural fit for arcade games.
Lin Lixin, returning to the pile of cassette tapes to search for treasures, casually flipped through them and found new gems.
Kaboom!, an action game developed by Larry, another member of the Legend quartet, is also a super hit that sold over a million copies.
But before he could insert the cassette into his Atari 2600, Lin Lixin's phone suddenly rang.
"Pfft"
Lin Lixin took out his mobile phone and answered the call.
" Sam, they've arrived? Okay, I'll be right back."
A panel that only he could see lit up in front of his eyes.
A skill pack, still unopened, lay quietly in the item list.
This is clearly a reward for Christopher's incident.
It seems that Quake really impressed him; after only one day of mental preparation, he rushed straight to GAM.
ENOVA headquarters.
When Lin Lixin returned to headquarters, Christopher and Julian were sitting in the reception room, with Sid exchanging a brief conversation with them.
Upon seeing Lin Lixin appear at the door, Christopher immediately pulled Julian to his feet.
For a genius, nothing can reshape their worldview more than having their confidence completely shattered.
If Wolfenstein 3D was a novel and ingenious idea that gave him a unique experience, then D00M was a clever means to learn from.
Then Quake is simply beyond comprehension.
Christopher racked his brains but couldn't figure out how D00M had evolved into the Quake it is today in such a short time.
Even if he finds a solution right now, it will still take a lot of research and development time to bring it to fruition.
This gave him an emotion he had never felt from anyone else.
fear!
"Mr. Lin, please let us join you."
Christopher could no longer find any excuse to convince himself not to agree to Lin Lixin's acquisition proposal.
He thought he was standing at the top, looking down on everyone, but when he dragged the mouse to raise his view, Christopher suddenly realized—
There's still the sky above us.