Short, sweet popcorn gaming (3k)

Southern California Los Angeles.

The car slowly came to a stop in front of a not-so-wide store.

A row of large letter signs is neatly arranged above the shop entrance.

[GAMENOVA]

The sign was very clean, clearly indicating that someone had been maintaining it regularly.

Lin Lixin stopped in front of the store and looked at the signboard. For a moment, he really felt like he was in another world.

He and Sam put up that sign together back then.

Sam skipped his classes and went all the way downtown to retrieve those things, and then cleaned the dilapidated shop inside and out.

Sam was exhausted that day.

In the blink of an eye, GAMENOVA has grown from a run-down arcade on a street corner into a Silicon Valley giant spanning the semiconductor and entertainment industries.

It can be said that they did not disappoint the expectations they had when they first chose this name.

Born from the destruction of an old star, it suddenly shines brilliantly.

Lin Lixin glanced into the store a few times.

There weren't many people, but it was still quite lively.

While it can't compare to those professional large arcades, it still has the prestige of GAMENOVA to back it up.

Every day, there's no shortage of players coming here to check in and make a pilgrimage.

However, perhaps because Lin Lixin rarely appears here anymore, and even Sam rarely comes here now that the journey is longer, the lines here are indeed not as long as they used to be, stretching for thousands of meters every day.

jingle"

A welcome bell was installed on the door, which rang as he pushed the door open.

Welcome to GAMENOVA Arcade! For photo opportunities and the gift shop, please go this way!

The young female shop assistant greeted customers as usual.

Before she could finish speaking, she recognized who it was.

"Mr. Lin, Mr. Lin?!"

The legendary Lin Lixin actually appeared before me, looking so radiant and beautiful?

Don't underestimate me just because I'm a seemingly insignificant shop assistant; in a sense, I'm a member of the GAMENOVA team.

Regular army!

How many people in the world can earn a salary from GAMENOVA?

Which one isn't a leader in the industry!

I myself fought my way through millions to get this position.

Whenever she thinks of this, she can't help but puff out her chest with pride.

"Yeah, I was just on my way back to LA, so I thought I'd drop by and take a look."

Lin Lixin nodded and glanced at the store's furnishings.

The space is indeed not very wide; it would be difficult to fit medium to large arcade machines here.

However, they do have a full range of standard-sized universal frames.

Even old items from the previous era, such as "Space Invaders," can be found.

The sound effects from various machines mingled together, making the store unbearably noisy.

Even so, the clerk's exclamation had still drawn their attention.

For a moment, it was as if the entire store fell silent.

All eyes turned to Lin Lixin, their burning gazes as if they were staring at a heavy piece of gold.

If Lin Lixin hadn't had that imposing aura, he might have been completely surrounded.

After saying a few kind words to calm the frenzied crowd down, his gaze finally fell upon an arcade machine in the corner.

The sharp, synthesized sounds unique to 8-bit background music are exceptionally easy to distinguish.

A kid of about ten years old was sitting in front of the arcade machine, completely engrossed in playing.

Lin Lixin silently came up behind him and looked at the screen.

Contra

One of GAMENOVA's early works.

It looks like the little guy has only just reached the second level.

Schwarzenegger crawled on the ground and wiped out all the enemies in front of him.

"Low-resolution bullets, rudimentary collision detection----"

Lin Lixin stood to the side with his arms crossed, carefully observing every detail on the screen.

From their current perspective, this early work is indeed somewhat outdated.

The projectile handling is very crude, relying entirely on screen segmentation and lacking any real physical detection.

Simply put, it divides the screen into blocks, and checks every frame whether the bullet and the enemy's blocks overlap.

But when it was released, this game was as dominant as a AAA title.

"Ugh!"

It seems the child's skill level isn't very high; he struggled with the sudden change in perspective in the second level.

In a moment of carelessness, Schwarzenegger was hit by an enemy bullet and suffered a regrettable defeat.

A prompt appeared on the screen asking if you wanted to recharge.

The child reached out and touched the small basket used to hold game tokens, only to find it was empty.

He pouted in frustration and prepared to get up and leave.

A hand landed on his shoulder.

"Are you just giving up like this?!"

Lin Lixin pulled two 25-cent coins from his pocket. "Two-seater, buddy, I'll carry you!"

The other people in the shop were no longer interested in playing any games.

My goodness! Games can be played anytime, but if Lin Lixin misses this opportunity, he might not get to see it again.

A group of players stood around the corner, watching helplessly as two childish kids, one big and one small, fought tooth and nail over a single enhancement item.

"Give it to me, bro. How am I supposed to carry you if you don't give me an S-rank bullet?"

"You clearly took an M-level bullet----"

The group looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

So this is what Lin Lixin's character is like?

Perhaps this is what they call contrast.

Being able to play games with Lin Lixin is an experience that makes people green with envy.

Is this something you'll remember for a lifetime?

However, the child didn't seem to understand any of this nonsense; he simply thought he had met a kind person who invited him to play games together.

"Ugh!"

One of the children didn't dodge and was blasted away by the fortress's cannon.

"Continued!"

"Ugh!"

To be continued!

In my memory, Contra was such a massive and satisfying masterpiece.

But when you actually sit down and play a game seriously, you suddenly realize that the process only takes less than half an hour.

In a burst of fire, the alien heart was completely shattered by the two.

As the end credits rolled and the helicopter took off from the Kojima, Lin Lixin cheered and finally let out a long sigh of relief.

That's what makes a good game. Even with the rapid advancements in both hardware and software, Contra remains a game that he's willing to invest time in playing.

The fast-paced, exhilarating shooting game, which seems like a modern design strategy, actually originated in the golden age of video games.

The next project, Metal Slug, aims to take it to its fullest potential and bring it to its peak.

"Well played."

Lin Lixin patted the child next to him and laughed, "By the way, let me ask you a question, do you like Contra?"

The child thought about it seriously for a few seconds and nodded vigorously.

"Yes, I like it!"

"Tell me? Is it because of the graphics, music and sound effects, gameplay, story, mechanics design—or something else?"

Children's perspectives are different from others.

If I can get some different perspectives from him, it might be of great help to my future development work.

This problem was clearly too complicated for him.

His brows furrowed, and he chanted, shaking his head.

After a long pause, he suddenly grinned, revealing a missing tooth, and gave Lin Lixin a silly grin.

"I just like it! Contra is so fun!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Lixin suddenly paused in surprise.

"I'm a genius!"

Spending all his time in the lab has made his thinking a bit rigid.

I almost forgot the most fundamental thing about video games.

These types of games excel at creating this kind of simple, straightforward, and almost thoughtless enjoyment.

It's like a popcorn movie on an assembly line, a top-notch audiovisual feast.

Even though you might not remember much after watching it, the cheap yet plentiful dopamine it delivers during the process is undeniable.

"I think you're a promising talent with a bright future."

"Um----"

Lin Lixin patted his head with satisfaction and then opened a box for him.

[Marc Merrill]

A name I don't really remember.

But that's alright. With this mindset, this guy will succeed at anything.

After a brief tour and a study of several mainstream arcade side-scrolling beat 'em up games, Lin Lixin finally set off, satisfied.

Playing a full round of Contra with Marc gave him a completely different perspective on this type of game.

Metal Slug's success has many contributing factors; it can be considered a textbook example of a game.

It's even more standard than Contra, the pioneer of this type of game.

Unlike the tough-guy style unique to the early 1980s, such as Contra Metal Slug takes a completely different approach.

Lighthearted, enjoyable, and absurd.

There are no earth-shattering conspiracies or deeply tragic character backstories; it's like a hilarious war comedy from beginning to end.

Even the game characters were designed with a cartoonish, three-headed proportion.

From the very beginning, Metal Slug's goal was very clear and very simple.

Dude, I'm here to make you happy!

Therefore, we're going to go all out and give you the ultimate popcorn movie!

With this core development strategy finalized, the rest is simply a matter of putting it into practice.

However, this development work is somewhat different from the past.

The N Language is no longer working!

Well, it won't work, at least not in the short term.

Because of the completely different hardware architecture and processor instructions, the N Language, which was already capable of bootstrapping, needed to be completely overhauled and started from scratch on the new platform.

This involves a lot of work.

If it's going to be done, it can indeed be completed in a while.

But in order not to delay the project schedule, Lin Lixin and his team simply went back to their old profession and started working on computer assembly!

Is there any custom to manually assembling text?

"Character controllers, weapons, ammunition—and the indispensable MetaISlug itself."

The name MetalSlug is actually a double entendre.

Besides representing the game's title, Metal Slug, there is actually a vehicle in the game called MetaISlug (Steel).

Tank vehicles.

The vehicle system is also a distinctive feature of Metal Slug.

Thinking of this, Lin Lixin glanced at the Kojima beside him.

"By the way, Kojima, didn't you really like Metal Gear? How about you take charge of the vehicle system and boss design for Metal Slug?"