Several staff members assembled several small but very distinctive arcade machines.
One of the men, who was in charge, approached the shopkeeper, Henry, with a list.
"Mr. Henry, your order of 8 Hamsterball has arrived. Please sign here."
"So fast? Okay... and this is it too? Okay, all signed."
Henry signed his name quickly and swiftly on several forms.
He looked up and sized up the young man in front of him, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
"Are you from the Gamenova family?"
In the past, even if he ordered a Gamenova arcade machine, the delivery would have been handled by local logistics companies or distributors.
This time, however, the people who came were wearing uniforms with a prominent Gamenova logo on their backs.
While this has happened occasionally before, it's only for flagship titles like " Ace Combat " or " Rocksmith " that receive such high-level treatment.
"Ah, we're the field operations team for novaarcade, the Nova Arcade... Hey, in a way, it's also true that we're Gamenova."
The foreman smiled and gave a slight bow, glanced around, and took a few steps closer to Henry. "Let me tell you, I was lucky last time. When I went back to the company to report for duty, I happened to run into Mr. Lin. Yes, the one you're thinking of."
The foreman had clearly been busy all morning and was feeling quite frustrated. Seeing Henry strike up a conversation with him, he could no longer suppress his urge to share.
Will a pie fall from the sky?
The supervisor didn't know.
But he knew very well that he was an incredibly lucky person.
Not long ago, he was working odd jobs at Atari Games, his life seemingly hopeless.
Atari Games are dying, and so is his life.
However, at this very moment, Atari Games were suddenly acquired by Gamenova.
Although they used to be under Namco, Namco is now too busy taking care of itself to deal with these outsiders.
Now it's great, she's been officially promoted to a full-fledged position.
"Ahem, we still have a few more places to visit this afternoon, let's talk again another time."
Seeing that everyone else was already eager to leave, the foreman reluctantly stopped. "Alright, everyone, grab a bottle of water and go."
Henry walked up to the machines.
Because of the installation of new equipment today, the opening hours have been changed to the afternoon.
It's lunch break time right now, so I've arrived just in time.
" Hamsterball..."
According to the official description, this game supports up to four players online, so the eight computers here can be divided into two groups.
They were placed near the entrance of the hall, with the main passageway between the two groups.
This is a common tactic; Henry often does this.
Whenever he gets a new machine, he tries to place it near the door or the glass curtain wall.
This way, anyone passing by can always spot it at a glance.
Judging from the choice of theme and the arcade-style paint job, it's easy to see that this new game is a family-friendly party game for all ages. Besides several mice of different colors, you can also see a few Pokémon mixed in.
Henry, being a die-hard Gamenova fan, spotted them immediately.
"This is... Pikachu, right? An Electric-type mouse Pokémon, wow, its artwork is so cute! This is the first time I've ever seen one like this."
This is what Henry looked like when he first saw Pikachu's official artwork.
In the past, he always played Pokémon Red and Green on the NP handheld console, and in his memory, Pokémon were made up of pixelated blocks.
If it weren't for the tail features, he would have thought it was Sandshrew at first glance.
"Hey, I have to say, this guy has the potential to be a mascot."
Shaking his head, Henry shifted his attention away from the flashy paint jobs and back to the arcade machine itself.
It's noticeably larger than traditional arcade machines, but not as exaggerated as the cockpits of racing games; it's more of a medium-sized arcade machine.
The most eye-catching feature is that what should have been a joystick and buttons has been replaced by a sphere made of some kind of rubber material, about the size of a beach volleyball.
As an arcade manager, Henry recognized what it was at a glance.
Trackballs, an old friend. Ever since " Marble Madness " became a hit with its trackballs, a whole bunch of games with similar interaction modes have sprung up on the market.
Later on, even games that had nothing to do with rolling balls had to force themselves to include trackball just to follow the trend.
Shooting games, racing games, action games...
During that period, it seemed as if anyone who didn't use a trackball would fall behind the times.
Many well-known manufacturers have jumped into this trap.
The entry of major arcade manufacturers such as Konami, Sega, Capcom, and Taito has quickly overused this model in just a few years.
To the point that by the later stages of the trackball craze, many players had developed PTSD from the thing, feeling nauseous just looking at it.
There's even a sense of helplessness, like I might as well go back to using a joystick.
In fact, this was simply a matter of encountering a good era, a fact that Lin Lixin, as a time traveler, has a deeper memory of.
Just how influential is " Marble Madness "?
It may not feel real to players, but it has truly penetrated into all aspects of the video game industry.
Even Sega released a trackball version of Sonic the Hedgehog arcade game.