REAL-3DO, EA's desperate last stand
REAL
It is indeed a wonderful thing to be standing at the crossroads of times.
However, what really resonated with Lin Lixin was not today's Black Friday.
Rather, his stocks went up.
To be precise, the entire sector surrounding Lockheed rose in value.
With the premium brought by GAMENOVA largely absorbed by the capital market, Lockheed has once again ushered in its second spring.
The entire military industry sector was rapidly activated in the atmosphere of the Gulf War.
However, Lin Lixin didn't have any particular thoughts on this.
What he was really interested in was this opportunity.
The Gulf War undoubtedly had a huge impact on the entertainment market.
It is foreseeable that war-themed works will remain a popular genre for a long time to come.
With the downfall of the Big Brother, war, anti-war, military, and strategic themes will be a cash cow throughout the 1990s.
Looking at the current game market, there are quite a few games with military themes.
Even setting aside GAMENOVA's works, there are a large number of works on the themes of World War II and the Cold War.
The latter, in particular, is even more popular than Cold War II in this era when the shadow of the Cold War has gradually dissipated and the golden age has begun to show its dawn.
Hotline Miami is actually a typical work set against the backdrop of the Cold War.
If we were to say what impact the Gulf War had on the entertainment industry, or rather, on trends...
It did not revitalize the already popular theme of war.
Instead, it popularized the concept of "modern warfare".
Night vision goggles, laser targeting, GPS positioning, fighter jets, bombers, Tomahawk cruise missiles----
A variety of flashy military equipment are appearing one after another, constantly refreshing the public's understanding of war.
At this critical juncture, Lin Lixin actually has many targets to choose from.
RTS, or FPS.
If there's one RTS game that best represents the concept of "Cold War theme and modern warfare," then...
The answer would definitely be * Red Alert *.
Multi-service joint operations, tactical battles between the two sides, and rigorous unit counters.
This design was naturally suited to the subsequent Gulf War.
However, it also has a problem.
Difficult to learn.
In a PC market where penetration is already low, this funnel effect will only exacerbate the filtering process.
There are so many options in FPS games.
The ultimate classic is naturally United States mainstream works like "Call of Duty".
However, it also has a problem.
That is GAMENOVA's newly released FPS title, Quake 2, which was just released today.
In the FPS genre, the market is actually somewhat saturated.
It might be better to wait until this flexibility is restored before considering COD.
"The positioning is a bit awkward----"
Shaking his head, Lin Lixin decided to put the matter aside for now.
Right now, we still need to focus on doing our job well during the Christmas season.
Redwood City, California, EA.
It is also the location of 3D0 Company.
This Christmas shopping season is equally important for EA.
After all, there are only a few periods throughout the year when players tend to buy more games.
Taking advantage of this time to rehash old ideas and sell some New Year's goods is EA's main business.
However, at this moment, Trip wasn't paying much attention to EA at all.
His entire attention was focused on the strangely shaped machine in front of him.
It's bulky, black, and heavy, with a thick body that looks like a large box.
The controller does not use Nintendo's preferred AB button scheme, nor does it use Gamenova's ABXY four-button scheme.
Instead, it cleverly chose an ABC three-key layout, arranged in an arc shape.
The D-pad is a classic example of a clever design that circumvents Nintendo's patented D-pad while ensuring input functionality.
Looking at it this way, the controller of this machine is surprisingly a nice-looking piece among the many products currently on the market.
The front of the device features a typical optical disc drive port.
After ejecting it, you can insert it into a CD for reading.
The letters [Panasonic] are written above it.
This is the Panasonic Electric logo, indicating that Panasonic is responsible for manufacturing this machine.
The machine itself is named REAL-3D0-FZ1.
This was the first prototype of Project 3D0, on which Trip had placed high hopes.
Unlike game developers like Nintendo, Sega, and Gamenova, who develop and produce their own consoles, Trip chose an extremely radical and daring path.
Instead of making the main unit, we focus on specifications.
3D0 is a specification.
Any machine manufactured according to this standard can be called a 3D0.
It's somewhat similar to DVD, VCD, and VHS.
It is also Trip's wild imagination about the future.
He plans to use this little gem to completely dominate the current chaotic game console market and achieve total unification.
GAMEN0VA, Sega, Nintendo, Atari —none of them can put up a fight against this machine.
because----
Because it's more than just a game console!
It's a comprehensive multimedia platform that can play music, movies, and games—it can do it all!
This is a super killer that will eliminate record players, VHS players, and game consoles!
I've already secured my ticket to this new era!
Trip stared intently at the rather inelegant-looking machine before him.
No wonder he was so confident; its specifications were truly astonishing. Even if Lin Lixin himself came here and saw the specs, he would probably exclaim, "Holy crap, awesome!"
Trip has that kind of confidence.
Because this REAL-3DO, regardless of any of its specifications, is something that no other device on the market can claim to be comparable to.
Just look at its processor!
A 64-bit MIPS processor with a clock speed of up to 40MHz.
That's right, 64-bit!
Fucking64-BIT!
Do these lunatics who are still messing around with 16-bit machines even have the guts to run 64-bit systems?
Even a giant like Gamenova is still relying on its 16-bit NX console.
Even Sega, with its most extravagant hardware specifications, only had a near-32-bit game console.
And their 3D0, right off the bat, is 64-bit!
The MIPS-R4000 is the world's first truly commercial-grade 64-bit RISC processor.
This is a technology that even Intel, the leading processor manufacturer, doesn't yet possess.
An 8-stage pipeline with a level 1 cache and a dedicated floating-point processor unit.
Compared to Intel's i486, this processor is undoubtedly far superior!
But that's not all.
Having witnessed the horrors of Gamenova, Trip now suffers from severe performance deficiency phobia.
Especially since the Nova Radeon 9000 was only recently released, this anxiety about performance has been further amplified.
A processor—it's far from enough to heal this psychological trauma.
To solve this problem, Trip added an extra coprocessor to REAL-3D0.
Just like what was often done in the 8-bit era, a second processor was used to help solve the shortcomings in computation.
The selected coprocessor is the SPARC-V8 processor from Sun Microsystems.
The reason for choosing them is very simple.
Unlike other options on the market, the SPARC processor, though born from the RISC paradigm, is deeply influenced by the idea of simplification.
However, SPARC, which grew up during a period of rapid development, realized that CISC also had its value.
Just as Intel leverages microcode translation to combine the advantages of both CISC and RISC, SPARC also has its own strategy.
The V8 instruction set combines the functionality of CISC with the performance of RISC, making it a very good 32-bit processor.
More importantly, Sun did not choose Intel's closed-source strategy.
They chose to publish the SPARC instruction set directly as a definition of "existence".
Each manufacturer can develop its own SPARC-compatible processor based on it.
This idea coincides with Trip's 3D0 plan.
In addition, although he was reluctant to admit it, there was another reason why he sought cooperation with Sun Microsystems.
Sun has a grudge against Gamenova.
Looking back at the life of Sun Microsystems, it was practically the semiconductor industry's version of EA (Expert Advisor).
Every step he took was a minefield, and he was drained dry by Gamenova, on the verge of collapse.
Sun Silicon Graphics ' once proud workstation market was decimated by SGI, a newcomer that appeared out of nowhere.
The loss of the entire Hollywood market, in particular, was a devastating blow to Sun.
Then, another company called NeXT suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began to encroach on the market for conventional workstations.
I thought I could at least struggle a bit more with SPARC.
As a result, GAMENOVA once again made a bold move, merging the dying ARM directly into Mordekaiser and frantically injecting life support to forcibly revive it.
A powerful processor manufacturer.
The 32-bit ARM processor I have on hand, while not top-tier in performance, is still one of the best low-power processors.
Not to mention, in the gaming industry, there's the unreasonable presence of ATHENA, which has snatched almost all the market share.
Sun Siping saw through every step perfectly, and they almost never made a mistake in choosing their route.
A careful review reveals that Sun's route selection was absolutely correct.
If there were no Gamenova.
However, the appearance of Gamenova ruined all of this.
Every choice I made was correct, but the results were always bad.
This is a complete and utter defeat stemming from superior research and development capabilities.
In this respect, Sun and Gamenova actually have a personal grudge.
I heard that 3D0 was determined to make a big splash in the gaming industry, and Sun's board of directors approved it almost without much discussion.
They even deployed an engineering team to follow up throughout the process, assisting them in better integrating SPARC-V8 into the 3D0 architecture.
In addition, Bell Telephone and Telegraph, which was severely damaged by ADSL and the Internet, inexplicably lost Warner's Time Group.
And United States Universal Pictures, feeling seriously threatened by Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures, began seeking a way out.
Of course, there's also Panasonic Electric, which is eyeing the revenue from game consoles and plans to expand its own consumer electronics market.
This "Justice League" has quietly shifted gears and floored the accelerator.
"GAMENOVA----I'd like to see how you defend against this move!"
A gleam of triumphant satisfaction flashed in Trip's eyes.
After all these years, it's finally my turn to hold my head high.
"Let's arrange a press conference. We need to let everyone know this good news before the Christmas season ends."