It took Michael a while to recover from his surprise.
That's the downside of chatting with Lin Lixin; his emotions go up and down like a rollercoaster, which isn't good for your heart.
" Michael Jack's Moonwalk"
A game entirely named after him, or even directly after his signature moonwalk.
According to Lin Lixin, it can even use a processor that is considered top-of-the-line even in GAMENOVA.
Using the world's most powerful gaming performance, and with the god of gaming personally involved, a game featuring himself as the protagonist is being created.
Such honors truly overwhelmed him.
"As for the subject matter, I've already thought of it."
Lin Lixin winked at Sam, who immediately understood and went to the television, playing the music video for " Smooth Criminal ".
"What do you think about using this music video as a model?"
Michael Jack can be considered an idealist, sometimes even overly so.
However, this did indeed allow him to develop a unique style that is difficult to imitate.
"I noticed that the director included a scene at the end of the film where a little girl is kidnapped by an unknown enemy as a hook. I think this is a very suitable starting point, and it also happens to align with what you, Maikou, are looking for."
"You mean—the main storyline of the game is that I go to rescue this kidnapped child?"
That's roughly the idea.
Lin Lixin nodded, then added, "But we can exaggerate it a bit more, like setting up a major drug lord whose goal is to kidnap all the children in the world. That way, we'll have a clearer and more defined main storyline and a more compelling villainous boss."
"Interesting."
Michael's eyes lit up; he could already picture himself charging through the gang's encirclement to save those children from suffering.
It's a fairly simple, classic story, a typical short and fast-paced one, but it would be perfect for an arcade game.
Thinking of this, Michael licked his lips, hesitated for a long time, and then said, "If possible—I hope the protagonist can do as little harm as possible to others."
Sam, who had been listening quietly nearby, craned his neck in surprise, his eyes widening.
What kind of requirement is this?
The protagonist is about to charge into a hail of bullets from a gang of thugs, and they're telling him to use as little violence as possible?
Excessive idealism can appear overly saintly and cause discomfort.
However, to Ping's surprise, Lin Lixin did not react at all, but simply nodded in approval.
"Sigh, I get it, I get it, it's all about the power of music and dance, right?"
"That's right!! Using dance to purify their souls, that's roughly the idea."
Watching the two chatting happily, Sam suddenly felt a little out of sync with them.
That's too eccentric.
I even feel a bit superfluous here.
I had a rather unsettling feeling, as if I should be under the car.
In any case, after some discussion, the two of them confirmed a general direction.
"Let's leave it at that. Once we've rescued all the kidnapped children in this level, the Bubbles will appear, signaling..."
Tell us the location of the boss fight.
Lin Lixin sketched a rough picture on the paper, drawing a draft while gesturing to Michael to explain the name.
Bubbles is Michael Jack's pet chimpanzee, who is like family to him.
In Neverland Ranch, it has its own private bedroom, is occasionally sent by MJ to greet visitors, and often accompanies MJ to events around the world.
It can even mimic Michael's moonwalk.
Michael had introduced this chimpanzee to him during a previous visit to Neverland Ranch.
Keep in mind that Michael received a full $2 million estate after his death.
Adding it to the game is an element that fans will certainly appreciate.
"Genius! Let's do it! We have to get Bubbles on stage, give him a baseball cap, and have him sit on my shoulders."
"Alright, next up is level design—we'll handle that, but I do have some ideas about the levels."
Lin Lixin tapped the table rhythmically with the pen, as if he were keeping time.
As the King of Pop, Michael naturally clicked instantly.
In an instant, he understood Lin Lixin's meaning and immediately started shooting at 0 frames.
"AsHeCameIntoTheWindow--
This is the " Smooth Criminal " from the videotape we just watched.
The beat was distinct, the rhythm exceptionally strong, and to this extent, the three people's legs began to tap along uncontrollably.
Just as the song reached its climax, Lin Lixin seized a moment of silence and suddenly changed the rhythm.
Michael smiled slightly and changed his lines accordingly.
This is his own song "Beatit" from 1983.
Then came "Billie Jean" ----
"Not bad, that's the feeling we're looking for. We can try building a level around your different singles as the core."
Each piece of music represents one of the challenges.
In this way, the entire work is actually like a fusion of several of MJ's albums.
In addition to the enjoyable gameplay, the auditory experience will also be a great treat.
"Okay, let's settle on this topic for now. Feel free to contact me by phone or fax if you have any further ideas."
"Oh, by the way, this is our GAMENOVA premium membership card, consider it a small gift."
He reluctantly ended his day's schedule only after everyone else had gradually started packing up to leave.
Throughout the day, besides discussing the design of his dream project, the group also played through all of GAMENOVA's games.
After receiving Lin Lixin's promise that he would send his new works to Neverland Ranch first, Michael finally got into his luxury car and was driven back to Neverland Ranch by his driver, feeling satisfied.
With the text finished, the next step is to work on the logic.
The next morning, Lin Lixin immediately rushed to MicroNova.
Arcade games are not consoles; they don't have a fixed architecture design. Different games often have completely different baseboards to meet the needs of different titles.
Especially for companies like them that produce their own chips, they are even less likely to use generic substrates like smaller factories.
"What?! Two Athena chips?! You're going to build a missile?"
After hearing Lin Lixin's latest top-level instructions, Vivian suddenly felt a headache coming on.
"That sounds so familiar. No wonder you're from the same school."
Lin Lixin chuckled, pulled out his office chair, and sat down. "That's it. Although it's a coprocessor, its main job is—audio processing."
Based on GAMENOVA's current development direction, architectures like this one, which coordinate multiple processors, should be gradually reduced.
But there's no time to worry about that now.
To achieve the best results, he really had to cram in an extra processor this time.
"Hmm—that's no problem."
Vivian pondered for a moment, roughly reviewing Athena's situation.
Theoretically speaking, there's nothing wrong with doing it this way.
Although ATHENA is not a DSP designed for audio but a CPU, it is indeed capable of handling this task.
Although ATHENA doesn't have the extensive hardware optimizations for addition and multiplication like DSPs, it can still process audio data with low power consumption thanks to its excellent power efficiency.
This part of the work can be easily accomplished by simply adding an additional bus transpiler for the audio data interface.
"But wouldn't using 32-bit be a bit wasteful? Don't we have a 16-bit SPU that we're collaborating with Motorola on?"
Using such precious chip resources for sound processing is indeed not cost-effective.
At least for an arcade game machine, using its performance here is a case of putting good steel to good use.
According to data from the same period, the PC industry was still generally using Yamaha's FM synthesizer sound cards.
Even before Sega completely switched to GAMEN0VA chips, they used Yamaha's YM2612 on the Mega Drive.
The most luxurious one here must be Nintendo.
In order to make a name for themselves in audio, they directly commissioned Sony to produce a Sony SPC700 audio source.
In terms of performance alone, it's already comparable to the one that Gamenova and Motorola collaborated on.
However, whether it's Yamaha's FM chip or Motorola and Sony's SPC audio sources, they are more than sufficient for current gaming needs.
Rocksmith is a prime example.
That's CD-quality sound! How much better do you want it to be?
"16 bits isn't enough; I need 24 bits for high-fidelity Hi-Fi sound quality."
Lin Lixin quickly made a estimation.
Given the current performance of ATHENA, it is theoretically sufficient to meet this requirement by implementing the sound card function through simulation.
"The sampling rate must be increased, at least doubled; the signal-to-noise ratio must also be further improved; and the dynamic range must be increased—"
Good heavens----
Seeing his excited expression, Vivian knew that everything was completely settled.
Since that's the case, there's no need for her to dwell on it anymore; she should just follow the boss.
"In addition, both video memory and system memory need to be larger, around 2MB."
In fact, there are actually two versions of " Michael Jack's Moonwalk".
Arcade version and Mega Drive version.
However, unlike other games that are ported exactly the same, these two versions of the game are actually two completely different works.
The reason for this is naturally inseparable from the factional divisions within Sega.
These two works were developed independently by two separate teams, and were even carried out simultaneously.
Such a situation is extremely rare even in the entire gaming industry.
However, both works have their own highlights, aspects worth learning from, and flaws.
For example, the Mega Drive version cannot achieve the same 45-degree top-down view effect as the arcade version, nor can it achieve the same level of gorgeous and smooth gameplay.
However, the MD version is far superior in its control of artistic style.
What Lin Lixin needed to do was, of course, to try his best to grasp the essence of both sides and create the most perfect version.