In an instant, Lin Lixin felt a tightness in his chest, vaguely sensing that something was wrong.
Unlike usual, Gerald wasn't wearing a simple t-shirt today, nor did he always have sunglasses hanging on his head.
He was dressed very formally, in a well-tailored suit, and clutched an envelope tightly in his hand.
Gerald spotted Lin Lixin chatting with Kojima.
Lin Lixin, of course, saw him too.
The two exchanged a silent glance.
After a long pause, Lin Lixin didn't say much, but gently patted Kojima's shoulder before walking into the office without a word.
Gerald followed quietly behind him.
Sam was frantically organizing reports, heard the sound at the door and glanced over casually, sensing that something was wrong.
After Lin Lixin was seated, Gerald gently placed the envelope on the table and turned it so that it was facing Lin Lixin.
The envelope was clean, with only a name written in pen on it.
Gerald Lawson, his full name.
"I've decided that by the end of this month..."
"Stop."
Lin Lixin interrupted him, as if doing so would prevent certain predetermined events from continuing.
He gently rubbed his furrowed brows, remained silent for a long while, and then spoke:
"If anything happens, I can help you solve it. Just ask for leave."
"No, I'm not facing any difficulties, nor do I have any health problems, and I certainly don't have any complaints about the company."
Gerald shook his head, his eyes serious, and pushed the envelope forward, gesturing for Lin Lixin to accept it.
"I have decided to formally resign from all positions at Gamenova at the end of this month. This is my resignation letter."
Lin Lixin didn't speak, but his Adam's apple bobbed.
After a long pause, he finally picked up the envelope and opened it.
Given the current situation, anything he does will only be self-deception. Gerald decided to resign.
only...
"Why?"
The coming 1990s will be more Frenzy than ever before.
Sony, the consumer electronics giant, has boldly entered the market, bringing with it their most prized cutting-edge industrial design.
The Panasonic 3DO and Atari Jaguar Americas Leopard, among other groundbreaking models, continued to resonate with gamers.
3dfx's Voodoo graphics cards officially sparked a 3D revolution in PC gaming, leading to the release of a host of IPs such as Tomb Raider, the Legend of Sword and Fairy, and StarCraft.
VCD, DVD, Motorola flip phones, Siemens slider phones, Windows 95, Pentium processors, Google, Amazon... and a rapidly rising new red giant.
For thousands of years, no decade has ever seen such a gathering of heroes, or such vigorous development as the 1990s.
This is the most important golden age in the consumer electronics industry.
It was also the roaring 1990s.
To prepare for the next era, all the players have already started preparing. Gamenova, of course, also began its strategic planning early on.
However, at the very last juncture before the 1990s, Gamenova's chief architect, chief technology officer, and one of the core members of the founding four placed a resignation letter on Lin Lixin's desk.
"I just suddenly realized that I'm no longer the person who can give the best answer."
"Faced with a new era and new challenges, gamenova needs faster, younger people who can keep up with your thinking."
"I've found that I'm gradually losing the ability to understand what people are discussing freely during brainstorming sessions."
"And I'm finding it increasingly difficult to understand your thoughts."
"In my mind, Gamenova is a company that will never lose to anyone, is constantly improving, and will always stand at the top of the world."
"But I lack the ability to do that, and I don't want Gamenova to lose its position in the next era because of my personal sluggishness."
"If nothing unexpected happens, this should be the last project I handle here."
"I just hope it meets your expectations; that would be enough for me to submit a passing grade."
"To be honest... submitting this resignation was much harder than I imagined."
Sam had stopped working at some point. His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the middle-aged man who seemed to have aged ten years overnight, and for a moment, he even felt that the man looked somewhat unfamiliar.
Sam wanted to say something, but after glancing at Lin Lixin out of the corner of his eye, he ultimately suppressed the turmoil in his heart and said nothing.
Lin Lixin listened quietly to Gerald's final report, without interrupting him, and instead turned his gaze to the wall.
There were many portraits hanging there, many of which were snapshots of interesting moments in the company taken by Kojima, which Lin Lixin had bound and hung up.
Among these photos, the ones on the far left show obvious differences in texture, clearly indicating they were taken at different times.
The first photo was poorly exposed; all the settings were off, and it was almost completely blurry.
But you can still vaguely make out that the main characters are two young people standing on a newly hung sign.
Gamenova, a small arcade.
This photo was taken by Lin and Sam after they had just cleaned up the arcade they had taken over.
The next photo is much clearer; it seems they learned their lesson from the last photo and hired a professional this time.
The number of people in the photo has increased from two to four.
Standing in the center, Lin Lixin grinned, his left arm around Sam and his right around Vivian, while Gerald looked utterly helpless in front of him. This photo shows the group of four together.
At that time, everything slowly began to get back on track.
It got better and better as it went on.
They moved to a new office building, Micronova was built, and He Yuhuang joined, along with Carmack, Will, Sid...
Until it became the behemoth it is today, capable of stirring up storms with a mere breath.
To be honest, although Lin Lixin was reluctant to admit it, Gerald has indeed fallen behind the times.
Attributes are not absolute indicators; they should only be used as reference figures.
Just like Carmack.
When I first recruited this troubled teenager from the juvenile detention center, his attributes weren't particularly high.
However, his writing skills surpass those of many people with higher attributes.
This is naturally due to his quick thinking and ingenuity, which always allows him to cleverly create many incredible things.
Gerald is indeed not very good at this. "These have been the happiest five years of my life. Thank you for letting me see video games rise from the ashes and soar to new heights."
"After Videosoft's failure, I thought I might never have anything to do with video games again in my life."
"I will never forget the kindness shown to me."
Gerald smiled.
Lin Lixin then noticed that the signs of aging on his face were already visible to the naked eye.
He is already a 50-year-old middle-aged man.
"I will have all the work handed over by the end of the month. Mark Cerny has done a good job, and if I had to choose a successor, I would recommend him as my first choice."
"Um."
Lin Lixin nodded slightly, finally understanding why Gerald had been giving him extra help these past few days.
"What are your plans after that? Go back to Mountain View in Santa Clara?"
"Who knows? Maybe I'll find a nice place to retire and enjoy my old age? Denver would be good; we'd have more opportunities to see each other often in the future."
Gerald shrugged, his expression suddenly becoming much lighter. Relinquishing this position also meant shedding a heavy burden of pressure.
Being the chief architect at gamenova isn't an easy job.
Of course, this job did bring him both honor and money.
After five years of working, Gerald has accumulated more money than he could ever spend in several lifetimes, enough for him to retire and enjoy a comfortable life.
"That's good. Mrs. Handler knows the area well, and Trevor's business is thriving under her Umbrella, so it's good to have someone to look after her."
As he spoke, Lin Lixin stood up, walked to the cabinet filled with various awards, and reached out to take down a small game console.
This is the NovaBox, NB Console.
The first game console released by Gamenova, and also the first project Gerald handled.
The one Lin Lixin is holding is the very first prototype.
He took a pen from his breast pocket and wrote a line on the machine.
[To my eternal comrade-in-arms: Navigator Gerald, you can dock now. --Lin Lixin, July 6, 1989]
There was no grand farewell ceremony. On such an ordinary, sunny afternoon, Gerald left the place where he had fought side by side for five years. After the office fell silent again, Sam still stared blankly at the now-closed door, unsure of what to say.
Sometimes that's just how it is; separation always comes so suddenly, leaving no time to prepare or even to get the emotions in the right place.
" Sam, get Cerny here."
When the old people leave, new people always have to take their place.
Well... that's fine too. Mark Cerny is definitely suited for this position no matter what.
A game producer turned architect who was later persuaded to become an architect—this all-rounder certainly has a deeper understanding of game console architecture.
"From a producer background..."
Lin Lixin pondered for a moment, overwhelmed with emotion.
Gerald also worked in the gaming industry before joining Gamenova.
Unfortunately, they were unlucky enough to encounter the Atari Shock. If it weren't for the rise of Gamenova, they would probably have already failed.
"Um?"
Gerald walked out of the company building, then looked back one last time.
Under the scorching California sun, he arrived at the parking lot and prepared to get in his car and leave.
"Oi, Gerald."
Lin Lixin's voice came from afar.
Gerald stopped in his tracks and looked in the direction of the sound, puzzled.
"How about making games? Let's make games!"
Lin Lixin stood at the door, not going any further out.
"Why don't you give Videosoft a try, or whatever new name you want? Make games on the platform you developed yourself!"
Gerald's eyes widened for a moment.
Yeah, how long has it been since I made a game?
"I will."
Goodbye, Gerald. Goodbye.