The " Rock N' Roll Racing " saga is now considered closed.
With the combined efforts of Lin Lixin, Carmack, and Christopher, who recently joined the team, the development of the game engine is nearing completion.
The work that followed consisted of tedious, repetitive tasks.
After thinking it over, Lin Lixin decided to take a day off.
In the park.
On such a sunny day with just the right temperature, Lin Lixin spread a picnic blanket on the grass.
"I said—is this what you call a picnic?"
Vivian felt an urge to punch someone.
Lin Lixin sat in front of her, holding a special edition NovaPocket, and was playing games non-stop.
When Lin Lixin told her he wanted to invite her out to relax and have some fun, she thought this workaholic had finally had a change of heart.
It turned out they just played video games in a different location.
When Vivian arrived at the location, she discovered that Lin Lixin had brought nothing but a handheld game console.
I even went out of my way to change into clothes that were more lethal.
"What's the harm in playing something? It's rare to have such a cool day, so lying here for a while isn't so bad."
"----Well, we can't just sit here doing nothing."
Vivian sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Okay, I'll go buy some food."
"Two Hamburg, two Cokes. Oh, and by the way—are there any toy stores around here that sell board games or anything like that?"
Vivian was counting the money for the bill when suddenly a brilliant idea struck her.
That's right, playing some board games or something is much better than Lin Lixin playing video games by himself.
When Vivian returned to the park, she had a leather suitcase in her hands in addition to the fast food she had just bought.
"Hey, look what I bought! I heard it's an ancient board game from your East."
With a somewhat bewildered look in Lin Lixin's eyes, Vivian slapped her suitcase onto the picnic mat and opened it.
Inside, several rows of smooth, warm-textured bone mahjong tiles were neatly arranged.
He looked at Vivian with a puzzled expression.
Where did this guy get a set of mahjong tiles??
"Sister—you can't play mahjong with just two people!"
"Huh? It doesn't work after all?"
Vivian had no idea about this and was completely stumped by Lin Lixin's question.
"Hmm... if you insist, you could fight, but most games are still played with four or three people."
Two-player mahjong games are usually not very healthy.
Lin Lixin tossed the NovaPocket aside; since someone else had bought it, he figured he might as well give it a try.
Looking back, I don't think I've played many of these physical card and board games since I came here.
Although there are quite a few Chinese people in the company, we've never really had the chance to play mahjong.
I never imagined my first time playing would be with Vivian.
"I used to use these as building blocks when I was a kid."
Lin Lixin casually picked up a fortune-telling card and examined it in his hand.
To be honest, the workmanship is really good.
In a sense, isn't playing mahjong by yourself a broad form of single-player mahjong?
"Um?"
Lin Lixin suddenly paused, blinked, and then sprang to his feet. "That's it!"
He was thinking about this issue while playing the handheld game.
GAMENOVA's game lineup is becoming increasingly comprehensive, but there haven't been any suitable new titles on NovaPocket.
Even with two trump cards like Pokémon Red /Green and Tetris, this thing will never have to worry about sales.
But isn't it a bit too pitiful for a console to only have two main titles?
Lin Lixin raised the fortune stick in his hand, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
"You did a great job! You did a great job!"
Throughout the long history of video games, puzzle games have never been an obscure genre.
Perhaps there aren't any masterpieces in this genre that could keep players talking about them for days and nights straight.
It also lacks the depth that allows players to ponder and slowly appreciate the game.
It seems that puzzle games have always been a marginalized genre, just like other niche game categories.
But this is absolutely a huge misconception!
No matter the era, puzzle games will always be a mainstay!
Even in the 1980s, when the video game industry was still in its infancy, it was the same!
In 1981, a Stanford University student created a video game called "Mah-Jong".
However, its gameplay has little to do with real mahjong.
The gameplay is simple: match up cards to eliminate two cards of the same suit.
That's right, this thing is the ancestor of many match-3 games, including the later, wildly influential Link-Link.
However, what truly made it resonate throughout the world was a work that should have been released by Activision in 1986.
Shanghai
A phenomenal PC game that has sold over 500,000 copies.
A small game that received perfect scores from media outlets such as IGN.
This game led the entire Western world to refer to all match-3 games as "Shanghai" for a long time.
The reason it's said to be "should have been" is because, in this timeline, GAMENOVA delivered a brutal elbow to the wheels of history, causing Atari Games division to be prematurely sealed.
A large number of Atari 2600 flowed into the secondary market, gathered dust, and were abandoned, causing Activision, which should have relied on Atari to survive, to decline prematurely.
The game "Shanghai" even has some connection to Blizzard, which was founded at the time.
Its sequel was developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Activision.
"What's wrong? Why are you suddenly acting crazy again?"
Seeing Lin Lixin's excited expression, Vivian suddenly had a bad feeling.
It looks like today's event is going to be canceled.
"Get me a PC—never mind, paper and pen will do too."
Lin Lixin reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen and a notepad that he always carried with him.
Ignoring Vivian's questioning gaze, he began to scribble furiously on the sticky note.
After such a long period of development, Lin Lixin's programming skills have long since reached a monstrous level.
For him now, whether or not there is a compiler makes no difference to the writing process.
His brain is like a human compiler; syntax errors and bugs are virtually impossible for him.
In other words, for Lin Lixin, any medium that can record content can be used as a carrier of code.
NovaPocket is not the fully mature NovaXeno; its substrate has limited compatibility with syntactic sugar.
Even so, Lin Lixin completed all the work in just two hours.
Aside from stopping to eat the Hamburg, I didn't stop for a single second.
"Done."
Lin Lixin clicked the cap off the pen and put it back in his pocket before finally smiling.
In theory, as long as you find a PC to compile and burn the contents of this document into a ROM, you can use NovaPocket without any problems.
Upon hearing the sound, Vivian put down her handheld game console.
"----Can I ask you what you're doing?"
Let's play a little game while we're at it.