Even Sky-High Arcade Machines Had No Trouble Selling

Schwarzenegger knew perfectly well where things stood now.

The situation had completely reversed.

It was no longer Lin Lixin who needed him to endorse the game. He was the one who needed to fight for the endorsement opportunity.

He returned to the main menu, his gaze lingering on "Rambo," the character playing 2P.

Compared with Stallone, a top-tier global superstar, he was nothing more than an obscure bit player.

The Conan the Barbarian series had certainly let him establish his own style on-screen, but that was all.

Although he had played the important role of the T-800 in The Terminator, directed by fellow newcomer Cameron, whether the film would become a turning point in his acting career remained unknown.

If he wanted to become a superstar like his senior, Stallone, transitioning toward tough-guy action films was clearly a road he had to take.

"Whew-"

He let out a long breath and slowly took his hands off the control panel.

"This is just like a fantastic sci-fi action movie, except I can control everything."

"Thank you, Mr. Schwarzenegger."

Lin Lixin smiled. He had long since anticipated this reaction from them.

Even in 1987, Contra was a phenomenal next-generation game.

For players of this era, the shock of seeing Contra was no less than what he had felt upon first seeing Los Santos in his later life.

"Mr. Schwarzenegger, we hope this game can turn back the raging tide and save the gaming industry, now as precarious as a stack of eggs, just as its protagonists save the world."

"It absolutely can, Mr. Lin." Schwarzenegger had no doubts about that. "Dave, we need to have a proper talk with Mr. Lin."

His agent, Dave, nodded lightly. He understood what Arnold meant.

They already had a business meeting scheduled with 20th Century Fox later that day.

It looked as though Schwarzenegger intended to postpone that and discuss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity first.

"All right, I'll contact Fox..."

"Mr. Schwarzenegger," Lin Lixin stopped him, "we can exchange contact information. I wouldn't want your other business to suffer on my account."

Lin Lixin disconnected the board from the projector and began packing up.

"Our studio is right here in Los Angeles. There will be plenty of opportunities to meet. Besides... I also need a little time to get the endorsement fee together."

Lin Lixin showed weakness at just the right moment, placing himself in a lower position and leaving Schwarzenegger and his agent exchanging glances.

That day, an urban legend began circulating through the streets of Los Angeles.

According to the legend, a legendary game called Contra would be coming to everyone in the near future.

Its visuals were as beautiful as a movie, and its gameplay surpassed the recent smash hit 1942.

Even Hollywood newcomer Mr. Schwarzenegger had been full of praise for it.

Yet no matter how reporters chased him down and cornered him with questions, the young "tough guy" stubbornly insisted that he knew nothing.

It was as though this really were nothing more than a pointless urban anecdote.

"Mr. Lin, give me the inside story. Does this Contra everyone's going crazy over have anything to do with you?"

Meyer's voice sounded urgent on the other end of the phone.

It was not just him. Over the past two days, practically every arcade distributor in California had been running themselves ragged, asking everywhere about the legendary Contra.

"It's caused that much of a stir?"

Even Lin Lixin had not expected word to spread so far.

In this era, before the internet had taken off, information did not travel very quickly.

He had never expected that nothing more than the wagging tongues of the moviegoers who had witnessed the whole thing could spread the story all over the West Coast.

That saved him the trouble of handling publicity himself.

"So it really is your new game?"

Meyer immediately perked up.

Over this period, aside from Lin Lixin, the developer, the person who had made the most money from video games was Meyer, the distributor.

Machines he bought for $2,500 could be resold for $3,000 or even more, and demand still outstripped supply.

Looking back now, the price Lin Lixin had originally quoted him had been a bone-crushing discount.

Of course, part of that was down to his side uniformly installing coin mechanisms that charged one dollar per play.

The fourfold increase in price per game had not dampened players' enthusiasm in the slightest.

The once-declining arcades now had long lines all day, and their managers were asking everywhere for suppliers like madmen.

Yet after asking all across America, they found that only Silicon Oasis had stock-and even that required a reservation!

Lin Lixin yawned, continuing his optimization work on the computer as he answered casually, "It is. We're getting ready to start production in the next couple of days."

"Mr. Lin!" Meyer's voice suddenly shot up, sending a burst of crackling distortion through the already tinny receiver. "Please, you absolutely must sign an exclusive sales agreement with us!"

Meyer had figured it out: if he clung tightly to Brother Lin's thigh, he would be able to enjoy his retirement in just a few years.

Arcades all across America were watching him now. Each new batch of machines would be snapped up before it even reached his warehouse.

What did that mean?

It meant he could raise prices as freely as he pleased-even double them again-and there would still be plenty of people scrambling to buy.

Unfortunately, his agreement with Lin Lixin did not allow him to raise them any higher.

"Of course, Mr. Meyer. Here's to a successful partnership," Lin Lixin agreed, casually taking the quotation Sam handed him. "The current estimate is $4,000 per machine, with thirty percent paid in advance. No problem, right?"

Meyer was visibly choked up by that alarming quote.

A wholesale price of four thousand dollars per machine-what did that mean?

It meant that the price of one machine was enough to buy three or four Pac-Man machines.

The price of two was enough to equip a small arcade.

Unless this new game really was worth that price and really could earn back that hefty investment for an arcade.

Otherwise, setting that price was simply courting death.

"Mr. Lin, do you have a demo machine available now? I... I still think I need to take a look."

"Of course. Same place as before."

Lin Lixin hung up and turned his attention to the quotation in his hand.

It really was not that he wanted to charge such a high price. He simply could not get the costs down.

When Gerald Lawson developed the prototype board, he had chosen the best components for practically everything, regardless of cost.

Even now, after they had completed further optimization and downsized some unnecessary specifications, they had not saved very much.

The 256 KB storage alone already cost several hundred dollars.

Adding in all the miscellaneous one-time engineering expenses, they really could not cover the bill without charging several thousand dollars.

"Oh, Sam, any news on that company registration I asked you to handle?"

Lin Lixin set the bill aside, remembering another important matter.

Their arcade machines were now being sold across the country, with large amounts of money flowing between the contract manufacturer and Silicon Oasis every day.

Their little arcade clearly could no longer handle it.

Sam chuckled and took out a file.

These were the documents for GAMENOVA Entertainment (Nova Entertainment).