8-bit was more than enough

Among Gamenova's large team of developers, who is the most suitable for the Tamagotchi, or rather, the virtual pet project?

The answer may surprise many people.

Although Vivian, being a woman, is naturally more sensitive to this type of subject matter, she lacks design experience in the game industry.

The most capable individuals, such as Carmack, are typical STEM guys, geeks, and straight men, and are not good at this type of subject matter.

And David...

Don't let his ordinary appearance and typical engineering geek persona fool you.

But he is precisely the developer best suited to take over this project.

Because the world's first truly meaningful simulation game was created by David.

Little Computer People

In the past, in order to create the unique game "The Sims: The Sims: Urbz", Lin Lixin and Will even went to David for advice.

Throughout the 1980s, "Little Computer People" was a very distinctive work.

Unlike the mainstream action and Adventure games of the time, David chose a seemingly counterintuitive path: players could not directly control the game character.

The game also lacks the flashy, massive map Adventure world of Pitfall!

The only scene is the 2D cross-section of that three-story house.

Little people will live here.

Cooking, eating, sleeping, entertainment, watching TV, playing the piano, reading the newspaper...

He will live in the game like a real little person.

Depending on the seed code, the character will behave very differently in the hands of different players.

They have different names, different personalities, and even different behavioral habits.

This ingenious design, where each player has a unique character, remains stunning even today.

Especially in the early 1980s, the golden age of video games, it was like a cutting-edge technology.

Just as Will advocated in SimCity.

"Little Computer People" doesn't have a real game objective. There's no concept of completing levels, no score, and no time limit.

All the player has to do is check on their computer every day.

In a sense, "Little Computer People" is the ancestor of many modern electronic pets and desktop pets.

That's why they say Activision is the West Point of video games!

"A... electronic pet?"

The car was traveling on its way to San Francisco.

Lin Lixin had already given David a general overview of the project.

"Yes, you can think of it as porting ' Little Computer People ' to... a separate hardware platform. Of course, it needs to be more female-oriented, and some simple mini-games will be added. I think Activision is very good at this."

The underlying design of "Little Computer People" is absolutely impeccable, brimming with the "craftsman spirit" unique to the Golden Age.

Both in terms of concept and mechanism design, it can be said to be at the highest level.

Given its native 8-bit architecture, there shouldn't be any problems even if we started porting it directly. But that's definitely not an option.

It's great in every way, except it's too hardcore.

The graphics are hardcore, and the gameplay is hardcore too.

It needs to be packaged properly.

"Oh... I see, this is probably a product targeting young women and children?"

"That's exactly right."

Lin Lixin nodded, recalling the hardware details he had discussed with Vivian.

"We plan to use a 16-bit 0.8-micron process processor and some simple ASICs to design a SoC. Ideally, we can compress the size to less than the size of a palm, so that even a child can easily hold it in their hand."

"Of course, of course."

David, who was driving, nodded repeatedly.

Carrying a hope for the video game industry made him a little nervous while driving, his palms covered in beads of sweat.

However, he heard every word Lin Lixin uttered. After a moment's thought, he asked Lin Lixin in the passenger seat:

A new processor? You mean a new model based on the Athena architecture?

"Of course, using our own architecture would be much more reliable."

"Hmm... then why not use the one on the NPC? It would save the time of designing a new model."

"The NPC's one..."

Lin Lixin pondered for a moment and said,

"That's an 8-bit chip, definitely not as good as a 16-bit one. The address space is also too small, only 64kb, which will restrict development."

He still hoped to come up with some fancy ways to play with this Tamagotchi.

The biggest problem with 8-bit is not the frequency, but the drastic reduction in address space.

Whether it's RAM or flash memory, the maximum support is only 64kb, which is simply not enough to support a large amount of data.

It's 1991 now, not 1984. They have no need to turn back the clock like this.

"Right, right... What about bank switching? I mean... what if it's 256kb? For a game console of this size, the screen won't have a very high resolution, and the texture size won't be that exaggerated." Bank switching was a technique Lin Lixin used when he first started out.

Even now, it wouldn't be considered a secret technology of Gamenova.

Simply put, it uses a dedicated control chip to allow the circuitry to switch between multiple memory blocks.

The CPU only needs to access a fixed 64kb address to read more data.

This can be considered a clever solution devised by developers in the 8-bit era to overcome the problem of limited bit width.

It has many problems, such as increased memory usage due to frequent resource switching and increased development difficulty.

But the benefits are also obvious.

Using an 8-bit processor, it achieves capabilities far exceeding those of an 8-bit processor.

"Athena's native heterogeneous computing architecture, even if reduced to 8 bits, shouldn't affect our functionality as long as the frequency can keep up."

David continued.

Whether it's Nintendo, Sega, or Gamenova, their game consoles all share a common secret.

The CPU is important, but it's not everything. Nintendo understood this as early as the Famicom era and designed the PPU, a dedicated graphics processor, for it.

Thanks to this PPU, the Famicom (FC) was able to achieve many effects that were extremely impressive in the 1980s.

"... You know what? You're right, absolutely right!"

Lin Lixin slapped his forehead.

My thoughts suddenly became much clearer.

Gamenova had so many good things at his disposal that he started piling them up without restraint.

On the contrary, Activision, with its long history of making games on NP and NX, is particularly adept at these meticulously planned projects.

"I didn't expect you to be so capable in hardware as well."

"I guess I switched jobs in a rather unconventional way."

David laughed heartily when he heard Lin Lixin praising him.

"When I went to work on games for Atari, my colleagues all said I was crazy. And they were right; Atari went out of business much faster than I imagined."

If it weren't for Lin Lixin's miraculous rescue of Activision from its dire straits, Activision would probably have disbanded by now, with everyone scattered. Even if it were still barely surviving, it would have been ruined by that idiot chairman.

Whether it was the excessive exploitation of Infocom or the forced merger that disregarded compatibility, Activision back then was almost a daily ordeal.

"Hmm? I always thought you were a game producer. What were you doing before Activision?"

Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow, showing some interest in this anecdote.

"National semiconductor."

David, true to his reputation, casually dropped this name.

National Semiconductor of the United States!

One of the seven major United States semiconductor companies in the 1970s and 80s.

If we were to use a modern analogy from the post-millennium era, it would be comparable to the level of companies like Texas Instruments and AMD—absolutely top-tier, or even T0.

From any perspective, it was one of the top semiconductor companies in the United States in the 1970s.

Its headquarters... are in Santa Clara, California.

In modern terms, its headquarters are located in the heart of Silicon Valley. National Semiconductor of the United States was one of the earliest creators of Silicon Valley.

He jumped ship from that company to Activision to work on video games...

If Lin Lixin had been his colleague at the time, he would probably have had the same opinion.

This guy is absolutely insane!

This was a martyr who harbored the most sincere love for video games, a love that transcended all fame and fortune.

With his programming experience with the Legend 6502 processor, David became one of Atari's earliest developers with almost no obstacles.

Without Atari, he would probably be an executive at National Semiconductor of the United States, an excellent hardware engineer.

"Atari, they've really trained quite a few experts."

Lin Lixin sighed.

From the time Gamenova arrived here in 1984 until now, its love-hate relationship with Atari has never ended.

The relationship between Gamenova and Atari is completely different from that of EA.

It's a very complex and multifaceted emotion. Rather than a hostile business rivalry, Gamenova is more like a successor, having fully absorbed the legacy and foundation left by Atari.

A large talent pool and a mature player market are valuable Fortune created by Atari.

Even a portion of Atari's former Atari Games, the arcade division, has now been acquired by Gamenova.

"Like you, developers who succeeded in that era were proficient in both hardware and software."

"Looks like I've come to the right person."

Lin Lixin rested his chin on his hand and looked out the window.

The car has entered the San Francisco Bay Area and is about to reach its destination.

He even felt a little reluctant to part with it.

Such an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences face-to-face with Legend developers from the golden age is truly rare.

Only in this way can Lin Lixin learn things that the system cannot provide.

Experience, and ideas.

"Go to headquarters first and pick up Will. There are a few important projects waiting for him to take charge of in the next generation." "Okay."

David and Will were old acquaintances.

Having worked together so many times, the two have formed an A-level bond.

"They said science and engineering guys weren't suited for this project, but in the end, it was you guys who were chosen."

Looking at this development team, brimming with engineering spirit and geeky temperament, Lin Lixin rubbed his temples in frustration.

Different paths, same destination!

A bunch of rough-and-tumble guys are about to start building adorable electronic pets!