"You mean... a Walkman that's entirely made of semiconductors?"
Cerny's eyes flickered.
He wasn't surprised because he thought Lin Lixin's idea was some kind of far-fetched fantasy.
On the contrary, it's too real.
It truly seems within reach; it's not some distant, unattainable future.
Completely replace traditional physical media with true digital storage.
"Well... it's just an idea for now; we can't yet achieve many of the technical details."
Lin Lixin waved his hand, putting the matter aside for the time being.
This technology sounds complicated, but it's actually nothing new.
Moreover, its feasibility does not require any verification at all.
Because in later generations, this system was called -- mp3.
This marked the true end of Sony's dominance and the beginning of a new generation. However, it was also a seemingly sweet trap.
If Lin Lixin were to impulsively bring Gamenova into the fray, it would only result in a waste of a lot of financial and human resources.
They will also be forced into a war of attrition with Sony, dragging themselves into a protracted conflict.
Although the MP3 market is expected to reach at least several hundred million units, or even tens or billions.
But its biggest problem is that it's unsuitable.
It's not suitable for this era.
The digital audio ecosystem is still immature, and users need to adapt from scratch to downloading music to their MP3 files using extremely limited bandwidth.
At the same time, it is also necessary to equip a PC, a luxury item, specifically for this purpose.
Oh right, USB hasn't even been invented yet. They still need to figure out a way to develop a special hot-swappable communication protocol and cables.
Not to mention the most pressing issue of lithium batteries that urgently needs to be addressed.
After all this turmoil, Gamenova can forget about having any time to make any new games this year.
Even if they managed to create one, the so-called MP3 player would most likely just be a toy for the wealthy. The biggest problem right now is the lack of market maturity.
"Actually, I've already assigned this task to Sun Yansheng, so there's no need to rush it."
Let Sony do its thing for now.
The deeper they get bogged down in the quagmire of hardware specifications, the greater the impact they will be when the full wave of the digital age arrives.
When that time comes, I can easily kick the severely weakened Sony to the ground.
"So we're just going to ignore them like this?"
Cerny nodded thoughtfully.
It seems that Lin Lixin had already foreseen the problems with Sony's current strategy.
"Yes, we don't need to worry about it, but... we can indeed test some of the technology in advance to lay the foundation for the future."
Lin Lixin smiled, his gaze falling on the cassette tape in his hand.
"It's been a while since I made a rhythm game. How about making a mobile one to practice?"
Thinking about it carefully, Gamenova hasn't actually released a single music game for handheld consoles all this time. But that's not surprising.
Achieving excellent sound quality on mobile devices is extremely difficult.
Without CDs, forget about hi-fi level sound quality; even reaching CD level is just wishful thinking.
Not to mention the quality of the power amplifier.
As a game console, they naturally allocated as much of their budget as possible to performance, rather than music.
Only specially customized music arcade machines like " Rocksmith " and " MJ's Moonwalker " have the capability to properly manipulate music.
Cerny was certainly aware of this as well.
In the past few days, he had already almost completely digested what Gerald had left him.
"Our handheld consoles aren't really designed to run music games, are they? They're made for games."
"In terms of sound quality, that's true, but music is more than just melody."
Lin Lixin didn't explain much, but instead pulled out a chair, sat down at the workbench, grabbed some things, and started rubbing them.
About half an hour later, a board with four buttons and a speaker was created. Then, he picked up a sticker and a pen and wrote a few strange letters on the four buttons.
"As you know, besides being a gamer, I'm also a bassist. As a member of the rhythm team, I care more about the rhythm of a piece of music."
"Bang!"
A sound, generated using synthesized waves, was emitted from the power amplifier.
Lin Lixin tested the operation of the four keys one by one before attempting to press them.
Actually, he just casually rubbed a beat pad.
However, this thing is very representative of a Legend rhythm game.
"Pon! pon! pata! pon!"
"Pata! pata! pata! pon!"
Lin Lixin casually played two verses of a tune whose meaning was unclear, then looked at Cerny, who seemed slightly hesitant beside him.
"So, can you hear anything? Or what kind of meaning is it expressing?"
If Hans Zimmer were here, he might have been able to launch into a long discussion with Lin Lixin for an entire afternoon. But Cerny wasn't an expert in this field, so he could only follow his intuition and offer a somewhat unconfident judgment.
"Hmm... it sounds like some kind of marching drum, some kind of marching chant."
Those "pat-pat" sounds, short and light, were like footsteps, carrying a sense of movement.
The "bang!" sound is full and resonant, with a strong sense of explosiveness, sounding like a strike and conveying a feeling of attack.
When the two are combined and rhythmically beat into a pleasant beat, a feeling of marching drums arises spontaneously.
"Hey, you're right, that's the core idea of this game."
Lin Lixin nodded.
"While handheld consoles can't match the sound quality of arcade and home consoles, we can choose another path: relying on rhythm, rather than the music itself."
A rhythm game?
"That's right, but it's not just a rhythm game; it's a hybrid of TRPG, Adventure, and rhythm game. Simply put... it's a Frankenstein's monster."
After saying that, Lin Lixin laughed and led Cerny directly downstairs to the development department. Without saying a word, he picked up a pen and wrote the name of the new project on the whiteboard.
"Patapon" - "Gentlemen, get ready to begin."
Thinking about it carefully, Patapon is actually a very complex game.
It is far from comprehensive to simply use the concept of "rhythm game" to summarize it.
It's not a traditional rhythm game like Fall 4K, nor is it as purely rhythm-based as Nintendo's Rhythm Heaven.
It has a very distinctive strategy mechanism.
Players need to configure their troops' lineup, equipment, and formations, as well as manage resources to build strongholds.
To put it dramatically, this is even a grind-heavy game.
Because it has a lot of crafting and collection elements, although not as exaggerated as Diablo, it is a handheld console.
A brush that can be played on a handheld console would be terrifying.
"Pata, pon, chaka, don... Genius! We have to do it! This project absolutely has to be done by me." Without Lin Lixin even needing to explain, Hans Zimmer immediately became interested after seeing the notes Lin Lixin produced with that hand-rubbed percussion pad.
Turning music into games is something that sounds exciting just to listen to.
In fact, he has always regretted not being able to participate in the development of Rocksmith.
As Gamenova's current in-house music director, he has surprisingly not been involved in any music games.
That's such a shame.
"These four notes must represent four different drum sounds, right? Used to represent different commands in the game?"
As a music master, he could easily deduce Lin Lixin's thoughts from the synthesized sound that Lin Lixin had personally composed.
This is clearly a set of war drums, or rather, the bass drum of a musical instrument.
This will likely become the main rhythm for all the music in the game.
If you're planning to start composing, you should focus on this set of drum beats.
"That's right, but this time I'm planning to try some new things, I bet you'll be interested."
Lin Lixin deliberately kept everyone in suspense. As a staunch supporter of synthesizers and digital music, Hans Zimmer would likely be very enthusiastic about this new proposal.
"Do you remember when we talked about 'real-time synthesis'? I think this is the perfect opportunity for us to test the feasibility of this technology."
"Of course I remember. You mean we only store short audio samples in the game and then dynamically combine and overlay them through the program?"
"That's right, because handheld consoles have limited storage capacity, the gameplay itself takes up a lot of storage, leaving not much for music."
Lin Lixin nodded.
This is also one of the important reasons why he is so passionate about advancing the mp3 algorithm.
"Hiss... I've never done this before, but... it's worth a try."
This work is more like arranging music than composing.
Establish a general tone, and then he will combine the various segments.
It sounds simple, but it's incredibly difficult to do.
He had to cleverly combine a large number of fragmented and unformed samples to "assemble" a complete piece of music, and it also had to be catchy and enjoyable for the players.
At the same time, it's essential to ensure synchronized rhythm and avoid disrupting the player's flow. "Use the dynamic music system from * Pirates! of the Caribbean!*?"
"Yes, but it needs to be more atomized. Its music transitions are much more frequent than ' Pirates!!', so we must ensure it's as seamless as possible."
Lin Lixin explained,
"Marching, combat, boss battles, celebrations... each different occasion will have a completely different melody, but they must be switched seamlessly."
He arrived at the music workstation.
"I've already written the API interface layer. The general format won't be different for you. As before, once you get the parameters, you decide how to manipulate the music."
This will truly test the composer's skill level.
Even with such clear communication access, what Hans Zimmer would ultimately receive would only be a set of obscure numerical values.
[Status]: [Marching]
Morale: [74%]
[Enemy]: [[xx, xxx, xxx]...]
To piece these things together with the musical fragments in one's possession... This would be something no one else could easily do.