Playing the pig to eat the tiger-what a damn setup!

For a game company, intellectual property (IP) is perhaps one of the most important assets.

Just like Game Freak's Pokémon, Nintendo's Mario, Capcom Bitch's Biohazard, and EA's several sports games, Sega, surprisingly, hasn't been able to produce a single decent flagship IP throughout its history.

Indeed, there are many masterpieces that have gone down in history.

Like the arcade racing game "OutRun", it was a dominant force until GAMENOVA's "Rock N' Roll Racing" came out.

Space Harrier and Altered Beast are both considered blockbuster titles from Sega.

However, in terms of influence, they are probably far inferior to those top-tier IPs.

This is also Sega's biggest problem.

It lacks a soul.

Without resolving this issue, even with GAMENOVA's continuous financial support, Sega will ultimately remain just another GAMENOVA branch office in Japan, rather than a true pillar of support.

Fortunately, Sega found a solution to this problem in 1991.

What Lin Lixin needs to do now is to get that fast-running hedgehog out of the way as soon as possible.

Sega, AM8.

Although AM10, the newly established development department, is very powerful, it is actually directly under Game Freak, only it is registered under Sega.

If you want to create your own intellectual property, it would be best to develop it under the name of Sega's own team.

Therefore, Hayao Nakayama naturally recommended his own family's rising star, the Eighth Development Team, to Lin Lixin.

"President Nakayama!"

The person in charge of AM8 is a young man in his early twenties, whose attire clearly exudes the air of a programmer.

Lin Lixin didn't even need to pull out the panel; he recognized who this person was.

The future president of SONICTEAM, a game producer with a background in programming.

[Yuji Naka]

[Overall Rating]: A+ (Unconventional Approach)

[Programming Development]: 106 (Growth Value: S)

[Game Design]: 89 (Growth Value: A)

[Graphic Design]: 61 (Growth Value: B)

[Hardware Design]: 70 (Growth Value: A)

[Series Composition]: 98 (Growth Value: S)

[Social Skills]: 41 (Growth Value: C+)

The father of Sonic the Hedgehog, the father of Phantasy Star, and the top figure in Sega's console gaming line.

In the future, AM8 was completely reorganized into the formal SONICTEAM Corporation.

Unlike Yu Suzuki, a veteran of the arcade game genre, Yuji Naka may indeed be somewhat lacking in overall ability compared to Yu Suzuki.

But in terms of programming, even Yu Suzuki had to admit that he was indeed a genius, one in a million.

Almost all of Sega's masterpieces from the 80s and 90s involved the work of this genius programmer.

In a sense, he is actually quite similar to Carmack.

Arrogant, aloof, and with a somewhat unpleasant personality.

But precisely because of this, Lin Lixin knew all too well how to tame him.

Please, you think you're a genius with such low stats?

His company has plenty of companies that are even better than this.

The simplest way to conquer a genius is, of course, to defeat them in the most thorough way possible in their area of expertise.

"Zhongjun, this is Chairman Lin Lixin."

"President Lin."

Yuji Naka nods and extends his hand to shake hands with Lin Lixin.

Yuji Naka naturally had no aversion to Lin Lixin, the savior who revitalized Sega's console division.

But to say how much reverence there is, it's really just that.

Based on my skill level, it just means I entered the industry a few years late.

If I had been able to ride the wave of the 1980s, I might have been able to climb that high.

Yuji Naka has this confidence.

"Mr. Yuji Naka, I'm planning to develop a game for Sega using the AM8. I wonder if you'd be interested?"

Lin Lixin's lips curled up, and he leaned slightly closer to Yuji Naka, intentionally or unintentionally releasing a bit of the aura of a big boss.

Yuji Naka's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

AM8 has its own projects to complete.

"Zhongjun!"

A sharp glint suddenly appeared in Hayao Nakayama's eyes, his voice carrying obvious displeasure, and his face darkened.

To reject Lin Lixin's invitation so simply and bluntly right in front of him—this wasn't just slapping Chairman Lin's butt, it was practically slapping himself in the face!

"Oh, I see. That's a real shame."

Lin Lixin stopped Hayao Nakayama, who was having an outburst, and nodded with a slightly disappointed expression. "Then it's alright if I borrow your office for a bit, right? I came to Japan in a hurry, Satoshi didn't prepare a place for me."

"This----"

Yuji Naka opened his mouth, but noticing President Hayao Nakayama's eyes that seemed to want to tear him apart right now, he finally nodded.

He's not so crazy as to take advantage of others.

As long as AM8's independence can be guaranteed and they can focus on their own projects, he doesn't care what these people are planning to do.

"Oh well."

Yuji Naka reluctantly nodded.

"Click"

Faintly, Yuji Naka seemed to hear a few cracking sounds coming from President Nakayama's body beside him.

Hmm, I must have misheard.

After some Kung-Fu Master, I finally managed to set up the N Language development environment on the AM8 computer and connect it to the GenesisNEO development machine.

There are just too many things you can tinker with on this high-speed host.

"President Nakayama, do you remember what I told you when the Metal Slug project was first launched?"

"Um?

Hayao Nakayama slightly taken aback.

There are too many to count. Lin Lixin is a chatterbox in front of acquaintances, so how could he possibly remember a single sentence or two?

"----Ahem, I mean, the scrolling is almost over, but the speed is just getting started."

"Speed?"

Hayao Nakayama then revealed a look of understanding.

That's true.

The path taken by Metal Slug completely exceeded everyone's expectations.

Prior to this, almost everyone in the gaming industry, whether developers or players, firmly believed in one thing.

3D is the only way out!

However, GAMENOVA shattered this mindset with just one game.

The exploration of 2D technology is far from over.

With its ultra-fast arcade pace and stunningly gorgeous graphics, Metal Slug has become the strongest 2D game this year, and possibly for years to come.

"Nintendo holds absolute authority in platforming; its accumulated experience and large fan base make it difficult to challenge them."

Level design is a field that cannot be quickly mastered through theory alone.

This is why Lin Lixin was so pleasantly surprised by Sam's talent in this area.

Regardless of what kind of gaming industry tycoon Nintendo was Hiroshi Yamauchi era, they were Nintendo with in Super Mario.

The incredible level design and development techniques used are all worth learning.

In this respect, GAMENOVA is not necessarily guaranteed to win.

Platforming is not a game genre where simply scrolling through graphics and sound effects is enough to win.

This is also why Lin Lixin has always intentionally avoided this product category.

Now that I have the ATHENA chip and a machine that can house her, it seems I finally have the opportunity to challenge this category.

"Even so, we can still find another way. Sega's strength lies in its arcade-style, fast-paced gameplay! We need to capitalize on that."

"What?!"

Before Hayao Nakayama could react, Yuji Naka, who had been secretly watching the two of them, let out a high-pitched exclamation.

Arcade-style? Wouldn't that just give Yu Suzuki ammunition against him?

If Yu Suzuki uses this as an opportunity to strengthen his authority over the game department, wouldn't my newly acquired position be severely damaged?

"Click"

A loud bang came from Hayao Nakayama's fist.

No matter how much he tries to appear refined and easygoing, he can't help but show some bulging veins now.

Damn it, is it really okay to let someone like this be the managing director of AM8?

"Uh... in short, what we need is a side-scrolling action game with high-speed gameplay as its core selling point."

As he spoke, Lin Lixin began typing code on the keyboard.

This scene slightly surprised both Hayao Nakayama and Yuji Naka.

What happened?

Why did Lin Lixin personally intervene?

Hayao Nakayama originally thought that Lin Lixin would leave them a complete plan and let them figure out how to implement it themselves.

Before I could even react, he had already grabbed the keyboard and started working.

Such drive, such respect for technology and the work—!!!

No wonder they're so awesome.

Looking back at myself, I'm basically a traditional company president who knows nothing about management.

Although Hayao Nakayama is the president of Sega, he actually graduated from the Department of Literature and Science.

He is neither a programmer nor an electrical engineer.

Aside from having a keen eye and an indomitable spirit, Hayao Nakayama didn't really possess any technical skills.

"So, for this high-speed platform jump, the old scroll technology is obviously no longer usable, right?"

Ignoring the changing emotions of the two, Lin Lixin continued writing the program, "For this, I designed a technology called ' High-Speed Scrolling,' which, in addition to multi-layered background parallax scrolling, has another crucial function."

"Match the character's high-speed movement to fully utilize GenesisNEO's capabilities."

High-Speed Scrolling technology, the core of Sonic, was used by Yuji Naka to achieve Sonic- level high-speed visuals on the Motorola 68000 16-bit processor.

Only with this technology could Sonic truly have the prerequisites to be realized.

"Slap"

Lin Lixin typed the last character and burned the data into the GensisNEO development machine right in front of the two of them.

There are no textures; the entire game consists only of blue squares and green lines.

However, as a test demo, its recognizability is more than sufficient.

The blue cube is naturally Sonic, the main character of the game.

The green lines represent the level's ground.

Unlike the map design of Super Mario, Sonic's map is filled with numerous ramps and 360-degree loops.

Lin Lixin picked up the handle and gently pressed the directional keys.

The blue block responded immediately, and the entire image shrunk or distorted slightly.

Then----

"Whoosh!" The blue cube hurtled toward the slope at an exaggerated speed, and it kept getting faster and faster.

It was so fast that speed lines appeared on the screen.

"This----"

Hayao Nakayama didn't understand the technology and only found it fascinating.

But Yuji Naka is the managing director of AM8.

Faced with the demo that Lin Lixin had casually created while chatting with the president, Yuji Naka suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

A chill ran straight to my head.

Is this guy even human?

Dude, if you're so great, why didn't you just say so from the beginning? This whole "consulting with yourself" thing is just a scam.

Pretending to be weak to fool the strong?

At that moment, Yuji Naka could hear the cracking sound of President Hayao Nakayama's bones grinding together.

Oh no! I'm in big trouble!