The father of the Video Compact Disc

Time passed day by day.

The construction plan for the new GAMENOVA ranch in Marin County is finally making steady progress.

Road construction, house building, water, electricity, and internet access----

Of course, there are also some garden art pieces that are purely for aesthetic purposes.

Even today's Umbrella Corporation would find it difficult to handle such a large-scale operation.

A large portion of the work has been outsourced to other specialized companies in the industry.

With multiple measures taken simultaneously, the construction progress is quite encouraging.

However, it will still be some time before we can actually move in.

But after such a long time, the construction work on the Delta side has been going very smoothly.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lin Lixin simply moved the core office of the new Jackie Chan Stunt Team to the island.

Of course, the contracted stunt experts don't need to stay here; this is just a residence for their clerical work.

For the developers at GAMENOVA headquarters, this period still meant staying at the old headquarters in the Bay Area.

Lin Lixin and Sam were famous for gesturing and pointing in the lobby on the first floor.

"Once we move to the new headquarters, this building will be ready to be used as a museum."

From the very beginning of their establishment here, they have been committed to designing the entire first floor in the style of a game museum.

You can find a wide variety of arcade machines and game consoles here.

"To be honest, take a look at the size of this piece, do you have any ideas?"

The two went to a corner of the hall.

Looking at the perfectly sized space, the two exchanged a smile.

"You want to replicate our rental apartment? That's a huge project."

"That's not all. If we clear out the north end, we can even fit our little arcade there."

That arcade was originally just a small shop on a street corner.

In terms of size, it's not even as big as some laundromats.

However, if we're talking about building a museum for Gamenova, these two places are definitely unavoidable.

That was truly the birthplace of a dragon, the beginning of GAMENOVA's rise to prominence.

"Sometimes I even think—this theme would be great for a simulation management game."

Lin Lixin was contemplating the arcade he remembered, when a game suddenly flashed through his mind. "If there's a chance, I can let Bullfrog and the others try it, or Activision."

He said.

"It's almost time. Let's pack our things and get going."

Days passed by.

April arrived as scheduled.

This year is a little different from previous years because GAMENOVA received a unique invitation.

The organizer is NAB, the United States Broadcasting Technology Show.

As the name suggests, this is a large-scale exhibition focusing on television and broadcasting technologies.

It is foreseeable that this year will be another major battle over television standards and specifications, as well as a dazzling display of technology.

As for why GAMENOVA, the game developer, received an invitation this time----

Well, actually, GAMENOVA receives them every year, since video games are a key part of television technology.

However, this year's situation is very different.

The reason for inviting them this time was—a CD.

GAMEN0VA's custom-made 650nm laser high-density optical disc.

According to the officially disclosed parameters, under ideal conditions and extreme circumstances, the capacity can reach as high as 1GB!

This number completely surpasses Sony's prized CD specification.

In any case, the organizers hope that GAMENOVA can take this opportunity to showcase this technology at the exhibition.

According to intelligence, Sony, which makes televisions and video recording equipment, will definitely be present.

Of course, many of Gamenova's old friends are also present, such as Motorola, which makes satellite communication technology.

Lin Lixin's willingness to participate in this exhibition was entirely for ulterior motives.

If there was anything about the 1992 television technology exhibition that he was interested in, there was only one thing.

VCD!

The white paper standard was jointly developed by manufacturers such as Sony, Philips, JVC, and Panasonic.

Based on the CD specification, video information is stored on optical discs using MPEG technology for compression encoding.

In other words, this was a crucial step in the transition of images from videotape to optical disc.

Here's what happened.

But behind this story lies a deeply tragic tale.

The true father of VCD was not Sony or his associates, but an unassuming little engineer.

Jiang Wanmeng.

"The timeline has changed so much, I wonder if it will have any impact----"

Lin Lixin looked at the invitation in his hand and remained silent for a moment.

Jiang Wanmeng is a highly skilled technical talent.

He completed a crucial step in bringing VCDs from nothing to something.

However, after achieving success, they fail to protect their work through means such as patent registration.

Sony seized upon this fatal flaw and easily snatched the victory.

More importantly, Jiang Wanmeng's capital accumulation was far too weak.

VCD is not inherently a complex technology.

Anyone can quickly produce their own VCD player if they can procure MPEG decoding chips.

Jiang Wanmeng simply cannot compete with those technologically advanced manufacturers in this area, and he certainly cannot afford the marketing and promotion costs.

In a short period of time, his market share plummeted from 100% complete control to less than 2%.

Frankly speaking, Lin Lixin doesn't want to be a philanthropist.

His interest in this event stemmed not only from the fact that VCDs could indeed generate a significant amount of foreign exchange, but also from its close connection to Sony.

Since they've already broken ties with Sony, they might as well dig a hole for themselves if they can.

They can also sell their new-format optical disc drives to grab market share.

Las Vegas.

Don't be fooled by the fact that NAB may not sound as exciting as CES or E3, which are well-known gaming expos.

But this is a legitimate international-level exhibition.

More than 700 exhibitors and tens of thousands of visitors gathered at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

According to BroadcastEngineering magazine, visiting all the booths would be equivalent to walking 10 Eri!

Compared to CES, this place sounds more like the place for consumer electronics.

However, the items exhibited at NAB actually had a very strong engineering feel.

Oversized professional photography equipment, lenses, studio equipment, monitors, broadcast transmitters----

These news and broadcasting-related items naturally all converge here.

Speaking of which, GAMENOVA has a certain connection with these kinds of things.

After all, they had previously developed a military-grade live broadcasting device for CNN.

That thing helped CNN a lot during the Gulf War.

However, in other areas, GAMENOVA was a complete newbie.

They truly have absolutely no experience or expertise in television-related technologies.

After all, Lin Lixin had staked all his resources on LCD screens.

In comparison, Panasonic and Sony, two long-time partners, have a much larger presence.

Panasonic's widescreen NTSC video recorders have begun to explore wider aspect ratios than the 4:3 aspect ratio.

VHS recorders were the dominant technology of their time.

Across the United States, in any commercial center, there is at least one VHS video rental store.

Sony, on the other hand, naturally brought out its signature product: the Trinitron television.

For consumers in the 1990s, Trinitron was basically synonymous with the concept of "high-end television".

If anyone wants a TV with great picture quality, Bro, buy Trinitron!

Sony's self-developed ApertureGrille technology made Trinitron the undisputed king of televisions in the 1990s.

Even GAMENOVA uses Trinitron monitors in certain color-sensitive applications.

Take, for example, the color palette I set up for the Kojima.

It must be admitted that Sony does have some merit in the television industry.

"Sir, I'd like to ask you a question—"

Just then, a voice suddenly called out from not far away.

His voice had a slight accent.

The other person was clearly asking the staff about some things at the GAMENOVA booth.

Lin Lixin looked in the direction of the sound and instantly identified the person.

[Jiang Wanmeng]

[Overall Rating]: A+ (A discerning eye for talent)

[Hardware Technology]: 98 (Growth Value: S-)

[Graphics Technology]: 91 (Growth Value: S-)

[Programming Development]: 32 (Growth Value: D)

[Business Management]: 27 (Growth Value: D-)

Jiang Wanmeng was not someone whose technology was particularly advanced for his time.

But he is absolutely a master in terms of foresight and technological exploration.

MPEG technology is there for all to see, and CDs are nothing new either.

But with VHS already dominating the market, he was the only one who suddenly noticed the discord.

"This can be seen as driving another nail into the East Asia market."

Lin Lixin thought of it.

She got up and walked a few steps to him.

Is there a problem?

"Yes, sir, I've noticed that your company has designed a dedicated compression chip for many devices—well, how should I put it??"

His English wasn't fluent, but he had a complete grasp of technical terminology, so communication was not a problem.

Gamenova has always maintained a relatively "black box" status in terms of encoding and decoding technology.

How did they manage to compress such a massive amount of audio and video resources onto a single CD?

This part of the implementation has always been a closely guarded secret.

After disassembling and analyzing the device, he was able to pinpoint what were likely some specially designed codec chips.

"Hey, they've arrived at the same destination by different means."

Lin Lixin thought to himself.

According to the original timeline, he should have been inspired by the MPEG chip developed by Sun Yansheng and his C-Cube.

But Sun Yansheng is now practically one of their own; he even helped them get Vorbis compression chips back then.

He didn't even come to this exhibition.

"That's true, but games can save some video resources by using real-time animation."

Having received an affirmative answer, Jiang Wanmeng fell silent.

He lowered his head in deep thought.

The amount of data in the video is staggering.

It produces images at 24 frames per second, each image containing a large number of pixels, and on top of that, it also contains complete audio information.

It's really too difficult to cram all these things onto a single disc.

"Gentlemen."

He looked up, about to say something, when he suddenly noticed that the person in front of him looked somewhat familiar. "Mr. Lin?!"

"It's me, so what?"

"Uh—I mean, I've noticed a lot of Command & Conquer episodes. Mr. Lin, have you ever considered that perhaps—we could put movies or TV shows onto a single disc?"

"We've already been doing that; FMV has always been GAMENOVA's specialty."

"I know, I know—I mean—"

"Expand rapidly with cheaper storage media and playback devices to eliminate VHS."

Lin Lixin finished speaking for him, then pulled a business card from his pocket. "I'm very interested in your ideas. If needed, call my assistant."

"Oh, by the way, I don't know if you've seen our newly developed 650nm laser head high-density optical disc?"

"The cost is almost the same as a CD, but the storage space can be increased to nearly 1GB."

"What if we integrated the decoding chip into the optical drive?"