The prototype machine, which was called " Raiders of the Lost Ark: Temple Run," was eventually taken to Spielberg's place by a special car.
As for the licensing issue, it was already agreed upon with Lucas on the very day we met.
However, the matters left for Lin Lixin were not yet finished.
If they were to sell it under the current circumstances, they would certainly achieve remarkable results. However, since they had already started, Lin Lixin still planned to take this opportunity to test some new technologies that he had never used before.
GAMENOVA Headquarters.
After listening to Lin Lixin's account, Gerald frowned and fell into deep thought.
"Using IC cards to store player data allows for the addition of more gameplay elements, such as out-of-game progression, to extend the game's lifespan."
This is indeed an extremely bold idea.
Saving your game on arcade machines has always been a challenge.
In the past, they used a compromise technique called "cryptographic archiving".
However, given the current requirements, it's clear that password archiving is not an option.
Because it is not secure enough and its capacity is too small.
According to Lin Lixin, what he wanted was something like a phone card.
It can describe a player's identity information and other basic details.
"Hmm... I'm afraid it won't be that easy."
After briefly considering the feasibility in his mind, Gerald shook his head, expressing pessimism. "The production technology for IC cards is still immature; the estimated cost of a single IC card with a microprocessor is already close to $20."
This alone is enough to destroy the previously envisioned gaming environment.
This is just the cost price.
Including transportation and other costs, the price of an IC card is estimated to be close to $50.
It's practically comparable to a console game now.
Isn't this ridiculous?
It's worth noting that arcade games are still generally priced around 25 cents per game, and even the biggest titles are only around $1 per game.
And this is only the least problematic issue among them.
What truly renders IC cards useless in practical applications is their capacity.
"The cards currently in use in Europe are only about 16 bytes. Even if we customize a special version, the capacity will not exceed 1KB."
This capacity renders the idea of using IC cards for archiving completely useless in practice.
"If you really want to use a card, I have a better idea."
Gerald suddenly changed the subject.
While adopting IC cards is not very feasible at this stage, there is something that can serve as a perfect alternative.
After saying that, Gerald got up and went to the storage room to rummage through it.
A short while later, he took a card out of the box.
One side of the card is bisected by a wide black stripe.
Compared to expensive integrated circuit chip cards, these less reliable but cheaper and easier-to-use cards are more suitable for the current market environment.
"Magnetic stripe card?"
Lin Lixin was taken aback, then reached out and took the card, examining it in his hand.
Indeed, compared to IC cards, the cost of this thing is practically dirt cheap.
Both the reading/writing equipment and the card manufacturing cost are far lower than those of IC cards.
Moreover, the capacity of magnetic stripe cards is actually larger than you might imagine.
At least in this era where circuit miniaturization is still in its exploratory stage, the capacity of magnetic strips is already astonishing.
Each of the three magnetic tracks can store dozens of characters.
This amount of data is more than sufficient for storing data in a simple arcade game.
But Lin Lixin shook his head and stuffed the card back into Gerald's hand.
"No, Gerald, this set of cards requires IC cards, specifically IC cards with a microprocessor."
Although IC cards are significantly more expensive than magnetic stripe cards, they have one major advantage that magnetic stripe cards simply cannot match.
Safety!
The information is stored in the chip, making it less susceptible to damage and data loss like a magnetic strip can be caused by accidental scratches from objects such as keys.
Not only is data storage secure, but data retrieval is also highly secure.
The magnetic stripe on a magnetic stripe card is essentially just a stripe of plaintext storage.
If discovered by someone with malicious intent, the contents could be copied without any effort.
IC cards are different.
It can encrypt data using its built-in microprocessor.
To read the data on the card, it is necessary to pass the card reader's legitimate authentication and the card's asymmetric encryption verification.
Data decryption requires three steps.
These technologies give IC cards a significant edge in security.
Lin Lixin pondered for a few moments.
"We can only work on the cost issue gradually, but data storage has never been a problem from the beginning."
"Because Temple Run's save data size is not large?"
"No, its data volume far exceeds the capacity of the IC card, but we don't need to store the data on the card."
Lin Lixin tapped the table, a smile spreading across his face. "The cards only store the player's personal information; we'll store the data in the cloud!"
"Cloud? What does that mean?"
In an era before the widespread adoption of the internet, this term sounded quite puzzling to Gerald.
Lin Lixin chuckled and didn't explain further.
To get this part of the work done, he'll have to make several trips to different departments.
The first thing to do, naturally, is to resolve the production issues.
Lin Lixin directly approached Vivian was working overtime at Micron, about this.
"That's no problem— Micron has an existing COB packaging production line; we just need to find a place to buy a card manufacturing line and we can start production immediately."
This level of computing demand doesn't require high-end chips or the ultra-micro manufacturing processes used by Texas Instruments.
As for data encryption, this can be easily achieved using simple asymmetric encryption techniques such as RSA.
The next step is to work with Carmack and his team to optimize the server-side for high concurrency and add features such as message queues and partition scheduling. Then the system will be ready for deployment.
Lin Lixin had high hopes for this thing; otherwise, he wouldn't have invested so much in developing the server, regardless of cost.
When the topic of arcade games and IC cards came up, the first thing that came to his mind was Sega's Aime in later years.
Card 4 Social Communication".
A dedicated membership card for Sega arcade games such as maimai DX.
If it can actually run, then it has great potential.
ArcadeArea is a fairly large, mid-sized arcade.
Store manager Henry had his backside sticking out, with half of his body inside a Metal Gear box.
He reached out and grabbed the new roll of lottery tickets, then put it into the empty automatic ticket dispenser.
He then carefully inspected the substrate again before stepping out of the frame, dusting himself off, and standing up straight.
The new ticket machine modification offered by Silicon Oasis has recently become extremely popular, with many of their machines being equipped with this gadget to stimulate consumer spending.
"Alright, that should solve the ticket problem. Have fun playing the game."