Nintendo's brothers in arms
"But—what should we do?"
Hayao Nakayama understood what Lin Lixin wanted to do, but he didn't know where to start.
While Gamenova is undoubtedly a strong player, in a xenophobic region like Japan, it's not necessarily true that it has the same appeal as Nintendo.
It seems the only way to truly challenge Nintendo is to wait for them to make a mistake on their own.
Lin Lixin pondered for a few moments, calculating the distribution of power in the Japan region.
Before long, the name of an old acquaintance came to mind.
Namco.
Namco?!
Hayao Nakayama was taken aback, never expecting that Lin Lixin would choose them as his target.
This company is definitely not a good partner to work with.
This "arcade emperor," who started with the Pac-Man arcade game, is definitely one of the most troublesome opponents Sega has ever encountered.
The arcade market is only so big, and everyone wants a piece of the pie.
Namco is probably the one that takes the biggest cut.
Pac-Man, a world-class arcade IP, created an entire era of gaming.
Xevious is the ancestor of all modern flight shooting games.
Soon, two more excellent arcade racing games Ace Combat and Ridge Racer, will be released.
It's fair to say that Namco and Sega are sworn enemies.
Even setting aside these past grievances, Namco has absolutely no chance of winning them over.
because----
They are a top-tier player in Nintendo's arsenal, on par with the "King of Kings".
Since the introduction of the royalty system in 1984, Namco has been on Nintendo's list of privileged companies.
Namco can be considered a close ally who fought alongside Nintendo since the third generation.
"Hmm... that's fine for now."
Lin Lixin did not deny his statement.
Namco is currently still a closely integrated business entity with Nintendo.
But just like that seemingly unbreakable alliance that was about to disintegrate two years later.
Namco and Nintendo's honeymoon period will end this year.
"President Nakayama, do you know what day it is next year?"
Lin Lixin's lips curled into a smile. "The royalty agreements for the first batch of partners are about to expire."
What choice will the ever-arrogant President Hiroshi Yamauchi make at this juncture?
The answer is self-evident.
"Let's arrange it like this for now. We'll wrap things up in January. I've also prepared another game for Sega that might be enough to sustain them for most of their lives."
Lin Lixin stood up, indicating that today's meeting would end here.
The true value of GenesisNEO still needs time to be fully realized.
Lin Lixin's true trump card has yet to be revealed.
By next year, some of Japan's third-party developers might even voluntarily switch to Sega.
"As for now, President Nakayama, GAMENOVA is busy preparing Christmas gifts for its fans this year."
It's already December, but due to Metal Slug, GAMENOVA hasn't prepared a suitable launch title yet this year.
This is really not acceptable.
"President Nakayama, hurry back to Japan! Leading your Sega team is exhausting Satoshi!"
Those in management positions should return to management roles as soon as possible.
After all, Hayao Nakayama isn't a software developer or a hardware developer, so there's really not much point in talking to him about games and game consoles anymore.
It would be better to let him go back as soon as possible and stabilize Sega.
A stable Sega is the most useful thing for Gamenova.
This also forms the foundation for their full-scale entry into the Japan market.
In this era of underdeveloped communication technology, it is indeed not easy to reach out to such distant places.
GAMENOVA, Development Department.
"Carmack, you don't need to participate in this project."
Lin Lixin's words struck Carmack like a bolt from the blue, leaving him stunned.
The Christmas season has always been a crucial period for major releases, and this year is no exception.
But at such a crucial time, how could he have been excluded from the project by Lin Lixin?
Was he about to be exiled to a subsidiary to work on cutting-edge development again?
"Lin! I still want it—"
"I know, but there's another equally important thing I need you to do."
Lin Lixin offered him a reassuring remark, then turned his gaze toward the office door.
The door was pushed open at that very moment.
The visitor was Christopher, the head of Bethesda and the chief technical officer for the physics engine development in NovaEngine.
"In your place, Christopher will take over and complete the core part of this new project."
Carmack abruptly turned his head and looked at Christopher, who was standing dumbfounded in the doorway, his eyes seeming to spit fire.
"Well----"
Feeling his murderous gaze, Christopher awkwardly scratched his head.
This feels like a scene of someone stealing your lover; it's kind of embarrassing.
However, since I was there to hand over the work, I couldn't let Carmack do as he pleased.
After composing himself, Christopher spoke up, "The equipment is ready. With the data from the previous two projects, it's pretty much complete. A little debugging and it can be put into production immediately."
"Okay, sure."
Lin Lixin nodded, looking at Carmack was almost breathing out hot air, "Don't worry, Carmack, your mission is equally important."
As he spoke, his gaze swept past the two men toward the direction of their workstations.
Kojima is already packing up his equipment.
"Your first task is to go out and explore the Kojima with the crew who are doing field filming, and get some rest."
"Ah?
As for the second task—you need to think about it carefully on the way back, and when we get back, we'll get the scripting language we discussed earlier sorted out.
Carmack's breathing suddenly stopped abruptly.
Lin Lixin had indeed mentioned scripting languages to him a long time ago.
That was the roadmap they set when they were developing HTML at NeXT.
However, due to several major projects recently, this matter has not had the opportunity to be implemented.
When they had just built the world's first World Wide Web, Lin Lixin mentioned this idea to them.
"Static web pages can only display static content; interactivity is the future."
"Therefore, we need to further improve this system after the World Wide Web becomes widespread."
"This choice won't be N Language, nor C Language, Scheme, BASIC, or any existing language."
"We need a new, minimalist, lightweight, easy-to-learn, and fast-loading language that can be embedded in a browser."
From that day on, this incident became a source of inner demons for Carmack.
He even thinks about it in his dreams.
Unfortunately, whenever he brought it up, Lin Lixin would brush him off with the excuse that the World Wide Web was not yet widely accessible.
And now, he finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
"Remember, Carmack, what we need is not an all-encompassing language, but a language best suited for browsers."
JIT, Just In Time.
After saying that, Lin Lixin waved his hand, indicating that he could set off.
"Receive!"
Having received such an important task, Carmack had no more complaints. He turned around and ran out of the office with a smug look on his face, leaving Christopher and Lin Lixin staring at each other.
To be honest, even Christopher, who had worked with GAMENOVA headquarters for a long time, still felt a little out of place with the atmosphere and scale of the headquarters.
It's so unconventional, it's practically like his own Bethesda.
"Ahem... In short, we need to speed things up here too."
Lin Lixin nodded, got up, and led him out of the office.
The reason we brought this guy over is, of course, because this project is again closely related to the physics engine.
The final installment of NovaSwift's Physics Trilogy —time to experiment with slingshots!
He walked up to the whiteboard, erased a section of the writing, and wrote a title.
Angry Birds
Another Legend IP on mobile devices.
As early as the initial planning stages of the fourth generation, Lin Lixin consistently insisted that Gerald must ensure the input of analog signals no matter what.
This factor also plays a role here.
How can we achieve a satisfactory user experience in the era before touchscreens?
Analog signal joysticks are an indispensable part of this process.
For example, Nintendo's fourth-generation console, the Super Nintendo (SFC), did not natively support analog input.
For SFC, it has absolutely no understanding of what degree is.
It accepts a binary signal containing only "yes" and "no".
Discrete digital signals are output using microswitches.
Pressing the left side of the D-pad will activate the microswitch on the left, informing the SFC player that the left button has been pressed.
This isn't to say that Nintendo lacks the technical capability, but rather it's a compromise made to reduce costs.
Analog signals will increase performance overhead and hardware costs.
Both NovaXeno and NovaSwift, thanks to Lin Lixin's insistence, feature native analog signal support.
The number of degrees the joystick is pushed is the exact number of degrees.
It can output accurate signals in real time, indicating to what extent it is pushed and whether it has been pushed all the way.
This gives it a unique advantage.
In any situation involving linear signal inputs such as force, it can be simulated by a joystick.
For example, billiards, or... a slingshot.
Okay, strictly speaking, it should be a simulation of projectiles.
In fact, the gameplay of "adjusting the angle and force to launch objects to destroy targets" predates most video games.
Lin Lixin took a floppy disk from the shelf.
Its name is listed above: Super Artillery.
Although its name is from a super-generational family, this thing has absolutely no blood relation to that future Super Earth.
Its existence belongs to another game genre that may sound unfamiliar, but is one that almost every player has played.
ArtilleryGame, an artillery game.
This is the earliest floppy disk they could buy without using special means.
If we really want to trace back to the earliest artillery game, it should be a title that was released in 1972:
"War3".
A game modified from a ballistics simulation computer program.