Recaps

Lin Lixin attended the Grammy Awards, where he unexpectedly won Classical Producer of the Year for Dream of Flight and promised a new arcade game for music lovers. After the ceremony, he returned to GAMENOVA headquarters and found Carmack talking in his sleep.

• Lin Lixin received Grammy invitations for Civilization and Castlevania, while the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra also earned a nomination.
• Lin Lixin, Yuzo Koshiro, and Michiru Yamane traveled to Los Angeles for the ceremony, where Lin Lixin asked about promising newcomers at N.M.B.
• Michiru Yamane and Yuzo Koshiro told Lin Lixin about composers Kinuyo Yamashita and Koji Kondō.
• Lin Lixin won the Grammy for Classical Producer of the Year and announced that GAMENOVA would develop a new arcade game for music lovers.
• Lin Lixin returned to GAMENOVA headquarters and found Carmack asleep on a sofa, muttering about graphics programming.

Lin Lixin decided to develop a rhythm game played with real guitars or basses, drawing on the successes and shortcomings of Guitar Hero and Rocksmith. He built a prototype interface to connect a bass to a PC and asked Gerald to help prepare cables, including one compatible with NX consoles.

• Lin Lixin went to the hardware laboratory and considered making a falling-note rhythm game with a real instrument.
• He recalled Guitar Hero’s popularity and its dedicated controller’s limitations, then considered Rocksmith’s use of real guitars and dynamic difficulty.
• Lin Lixin tested an electric bass and began working out how to connect it to a computer.
• The next day, Gerald found Lin Lixin using a bass wired to a circuit board and PC, with the screen displaying string and fret information.
• Lin Lixin told Gerald he was developing a music game and asked him to make the cable more compact and create an NX-compatible version.

Lin Lixin planned a powerful PCM audio processor for GAMENOVA’s rhythm-game arcade machine, but its specifications exceeded what Yamaha’s FM chips could provide. Gerald suggested Motorola as a partner, and the two companies quickly agreed to pursue the project together.

• Gerald warned Lin Lixin that GAMENOVA’s current FM chips and compressed PCM audio could not deliver the sound quality the rhythm game required.
• Lin Lixin described an SPU with CD-quality decoding, 24 channels, 16-bit processing, 512 KB of memory, and a MIDI converter, and Gerald realized the specifications applied to a single chip.
• Gerald argued that Yamaha focused on FM synthesis and suggested Motorola as a better partner for PCM sampling.
• Lin Lixin recognized that Motorola’s American base could bring pricing and policy advantages, and that GAMENOVA’s Micron production lines could manufacture the chips.
• Lin Lixin presented his design to Motorola, and the companies quickly agreed to work together on the high-performance audio processor.

Lin Lixin decided to attract music copyright holders by proving his rhythm game’s commercial potential, then offered the Replacements $50,000 for the rights to their album “Let It Be.” Paul reacted with stunned disbelief and smashed a liquor bottle, leaving the deal’s outcome unresolved.

• Sam warned Lin Lixin that unclear video-game licensing rules could expose GAMENOVA to costly royalty demands and legal disputes.
• Lin Lixin proposed waiting for copyright holders to approach after the game demonstrated its commercial potential, and decided to recruit a suitable band first.
• Lin Lixin visited the Replacements’ grimy Minneapolis basement and found guitarist Slim passed out among empty liquor bottles.
• Lin Lixin offered bandleader Paul $50,000 in cash for the rights to “Let It Be,” and Paul sprang up in shock.
• Paul smashed a liquor bottle against the wall, waking bassist Tommy and the others.

Lin Lixin arranged to buy the Replacements’ music for a new music-themed game, then prepared its marketing and custom arcade hardware. When Rocksmith launched, Flea heard its bass from an arcade and stopped to investigate.

• Lin Lixin offered the Replacements a $50,000 buyout for video game rights, but Paul offered the album for free in exchange for better placement in the game’s song selection.
• Lin Lixin had Sam prepare a contract and told Steve to spread rumors about the game, including a claim that players could beat Temple Run by reaching five hundred million points.
• Lin Lixin, Koshiro, and others settled on a $500 sound system, a $300 guitar, and a $300 bass for the arcade machine.
• Paul sent GAMENOVA the Replacements’ sheet music and recordings, and Paul Westerberg signed the materials.
• GAMENOVA launched Rocksmith at the end of March, and Flea heard its bass while walking back to his hotel after a Red Hot Chili Peppers tour.
• Flea recognized the bass sound as coming from an arcade and headed toward the Arcade Area.

Flea visited ArcadeArea and discovered that the rock performance he heard came from Rocksmith, an arcade game that challenged players to use real instruments. He stepped forward to take on the expert guitarist, carrying his own bass.

• Flea heard rock music outside ArcadeArea and entered, curious about the arcade and its resident band.
• Henry welcomed Flea and pointed out a crowd gathered around Rocksmith, where players used guitars and basses to clear notes on a screen.
• Flea realized the music came from the game, bought a bass-themed all-in-one card, and watched a guitarist dominate the challenge matches.
• The defeated bassist invited the next challenger, but the crowd hesitated because the guitarist was highly skilled and the game demanded real instrument ability.
• Flea offered to try Rocksmith with his own bass, and the crowd parted to let him through.

Flea challenged Slash to a Rocksmith match and the two delivered a flawless performance that electrified the arcade. Impressed by the game’s engaging approach to practice, Flea recognized its potential to keep players motivated to learn instruments.

• Flea unplugged the arcade bass and connected his own instrument before challenging Slash to play “I Will Dare.”
• After studying Rocksmith’s colored, numbered notes, Flea caught up with Slash and played the song at full speed.
• Flea and Slash earned 100% scores, prompting the arcade crowd to erupt in cheers.
• Slash introduced himself as a member of Guns N' Roses, and Flea entered his stage name and band on the machine.
• Flea realized Rocksmith made instrument practice enjoyable and could encourage beginners to keep learning.

Rocksmith became a hit in 1987, boosting The Replacements’ album sales and prompting record companies to compete for spots in its expansion packs. The chapter ended with arcades becoming popular gathering places for rock fans.

• The crowd demanded an encore after Flea and Slash tied with perfect scores, so Slash started an improvised song and challenged Flea to keep up.
• Rocksmith became a smash hit, and Flea searched for the game in every city on tour and introduced it to his band’s guitarist.
• The Replacements’ album Let It Be soared to the top of the monthly sales chart after Rocksmith featured their music.
• Paul credited Lin Lixin and GAMENOVA for the band’s renewed success during a television interview.
• Record companies flooded GAMENOVA with offers for Rocksmith expansion packs, competing for limited spots and the exposure the game provided.
• Rocksmith helped turn arcades into popular hangouts for rock enthusiasts in the spring of 1987.

GAMENOVA's success with Rocksmith inspired other companies to pursue rhythm games, while Lin Lixin reviewed the Workshop contest and noticed the eliminated Orcs and Humans mod by the Blizzard trio. He went to seek out its creators, just as Mike learned that someone had arrived at their school.

• Lin Lixin noted that rival companies were announcing rhythm game projects after Rocksmith's success and warned that making a polished rhythm game required substantial work.
• Sam showed Lin Lixin the Workshop contest's remaining entries, and Lin noticed that Orcs and Humans by Blizzard had been eliminated in the third round.
• Sam explained that Blizzard was a three-student team from UCLA whose mod simplified Civilization and sped up its gameplay.
• Lin Lixin decided to visit the Blizzard team despite their elimination and told Sam to get the car ready.
• At UCLA, Mike and his two friends lamented losing the contest before another student rushed in and told them someone important had come to their school.

Lin Lixin offered Mike Morhaime, Alan, and Frank the chance to establish an official GAMENOVA subsidiary and develop a standalone arcade game. The team proposed a combat-focused, rock-and-roll racing game, and Lin Lixin approved the concept.

• Lin Lixin offered the three developers a GAMENOVA subsidiary and encouraged them to turn their Civilization content into a standalone game.
• Lin Lixin bought the small team a studio near Los Angeles and suggested they begin with an arcade project while developing Orcs and Humans for later.
• Mike Morhaime proposed a racing game, and Alan and Frank agreed with the idea.
• Mike explained that the team wanted combat to drive racing, with upgrades and progression inspired by Temple Run and a heavy-metal style inspired by Rocksmith.
• Mike described plans for rock music, commentary, and weapons such as laser cannons, cluster bombs, and land mines, and Lin Lixin recognized the concept as an unconventional racing game.

Lin Lixin pushed the Blizzard trio to make an ambitious arcade racer and secured motion-simulation hardware, music, commentary, and graphics support for the project. The developers were left to build the game around an already integrated hydraulic-cabinet API.

• Lin Lixin urged the Blizzard trio to expand their racing game's design and said he would obtain top-tier equipment.
• Lin Lixin asked Hayao Nakayama to arrange a custom motion-simulation cabinet using Sega's patents, and Hayao said Sega could not manufacture it.
• Metallica learned they would lead GAMENOVA's next Rocksmith expansion pack and provide album music for Rock N' Roll Racing.
• Hoffman accepted an invitation to provide commentary voice-over for a video game.
• Lin Lixin presented the Blizzard trio with a motion-simulation cockpit, Metallica music, Hoffman's commentary, and Micro-Nova graphics chips, then left them to develop the game.
• GAMENOVA's development team packaged the hydraulic cabinet controls into an API that Blizzard's developers could operate with a simple function call.

Lin Lixin tested Rock N' Roll Racing's rendering system and explained to Mike why high frame rates alone did not guarantee smooth gameplay. He proposed simulating motion blur by blending consecutive frames and using CRT phosphor afterglow, leaving the team with a new way to improve the game's visual feel.

• Lin Lixin showed Mike a hand-built board that ran Rock N' Roll Racing at 60 frames per second, with potential for even higher rates.
• Lin Lixin explained that stable low frame rates mattered more than average frame rates when judging performance.
• Lin Lixin pointed out that games rendered discrete images while movies captured continuous motion, and Mike realized that motion blur helped movies appear smoother.
• Lin Lixin used paused videotape footage to demonstrate motion blur and proposed blending the current frame with the previous one to simulate it in the game.
• Lin Lixin suggested using CRT phosphor afterglow to add to the motion trail.

Ayrton Senna discovered GAMENOVA’s new Rock N' Roll Racing arcade machine in Detroit and agreed to try it in front of a crowd. He chose a young boy named Jimmy as his opponent, who surprised him by expertly adjusting the cockpit.

• Senna spotted arcade workers setting up GAMENOVA racing machines and asked the manager if he could try one.
• The manager recognized Senna, invited him to be the first player, and gave him a racing-themed membership card.
• A large crowd gathered as Senna adjusted the cockpit and registered his account.
• Senna agreed to play a two-player match and chose Jimmy, a boy perched on his father’s shoulders, as his opponent.
• Jimmy took his place and expertly adjusted his cockpit, surprising Senna.

Senna and Little Jimmy tested a motion-cockpit racing game with customizable vehicles, weapons, and combat hazards. Senna drove brilliantly but finished second after Little Jimmy blasted his car and won.

• Senna chose an F1 car and discovered that its parts could include a VK Plasma Rifle, while Little Jimmy picked an off-roader.
• Senna and Little Jimmy started a race through a hellish, bumpy 3D track as the cockpits simulated their vehicles’ different suspensions.
• Senna used his champion driving skills to lead, while Little Jimmy closed the gap through the corners.
• Little Jimmy fired a laser at Senna’s car on the final straight, shaking his cockpit and letting Little Jimmy take the lead and win.
• Senna realized the race also involved combat, and Little Jimmy praised his driving as Senna complimented Little Jimmy’s shooting.

Rock N' Roll Racing’s motion cockpit and smooth visuals drew enthusiastic players, racing teams, and perfect graphics reviews, while Quake’s demanding frame rate left some players suffering severe motion sickness. Lin Lixin saw that racing legend Senna had set a commanding leaderboard record and hoped the game could change a few things.

• Sam told Lin Lixin that Team Lotus had ordered fifty machines, joining four other racing teams that had placed orders in the previous two days.
• Reviewers praised Rock N' Roll Racing’s first-person 3D graphics and fluid visuals, while Quake’s low frame rates contributed to motion sickness among some players.
• Lin Lixin returned from Activision exhausted after taking on much of the expanding 3D engine workload.
• Sam showed Lin Lixin the leaderboard, where Senna had broken the record and led the second-place player by several seconds.
• Lin Lixin reflected on the game’s simulated racing accidents and hoped it could change a few things.

Lin Lixin took Vivian to the park for a day off, but a mahjong set she bought inspired him to create a tile-matching game for the NovaPocket. After two hours of writing code, he finished the game and left Vivian wondering what he had been doing.

• Lin Lixin invited Vivian to a park picnic but spent the outing playing his NovaPocket.
• Vivian bought food and a mahjong set, then discovered that Lin Lixin said mahjong was usually played with three or four people.
• Lin Lixin examined a green dragon tile and realized a tile-matching puzzle game could fill out the NovaPocket’s lineup.
• Lin Lixin recalled the history of tile-matching games and decided to make his own version for the NovaPocket.
• Lin Lixin spent two hours writing the game’s code on paper and told Vivian he had made a little game on the side.

Robert bought his daughter Yuli a NovaPocket and games for her birthday, and she was thrilled with the Pokémon gift. After she went to bed, Robert tried the new Shanghai cartridge and accidentally played through the night, leaving him eager to buy another handheld.

• Robert visited an electronics store and bought Yuli a pink NovaPocket, Pokémon, a second handheld for trading, and the newly released Shanghai cartridge.
• Robert gave Yuli the gifts for her birthday, and she was delighted with the NovaPocket and Pokémon, though she chose the white handheld for herself and gave him the Mew-themed one.
• After Yuli went to bed, Robert tried Shanghai and found its tile-matching rules simple and easy to follow.
• Robert played Shanghai through the night, only realizing how much time had passed when Good Morning United States came on.
• Robert decided to give Sean a handheld as a reward and buy another one for himself so he could keep playing Shanghai.

After "Shanghai" became a surprise hit, Lin Lixin explained why its success did not diminish the importance of technological progress and prepared to launch GAMENOVA’s game engine. He set tiered licensing fees for the Quake Engine, leaving its rollout and future impact ahead.

• "Shanghai" sales surged within three days, and Sam was stunned that Lin Lixin had made it so quickly and sold a million copies in less than a week.
• Lin Lixin told Sam that "Shanghai" benefited from GAMENOVA’s reach and the NovaPocket’s huge installed base, while technological breakthroughs determined a game’s potential.
• Lin Lixin said preparations for the game engine were nearly complete and told Sam to start arranging publicity.
• Lin Lixin proposed three licensing tiers: independent developers would pay $5,000 once, mid-sized studios $55,000 plus 3% of sales, and major developers $200,000 annually plus 8% of sales.
• Lin Lixin said developers would be classified by game revenue and automatically move up a tier after reaching the threshold, while independent developers would receive a less complete toolchain.

After EA learned that GAMENOVA had released true 3D technology through NovaEngine for a low price, Trip realized his costly Bethesda renderer could not compete and sent payment for a license. Meanwhile, Lin Lixin considered assigning a mahjong game to a subsidiary, and he and Vivian played while discussing a more complex Japanese arcade genre.

• Trip ordered publicity preparations for One on One: Platinum Edition after EA remade it with Bethesda's BSP pseudo-3D renderer.
• Trip learned that GAMENOVA had made Quake-level true 3D technology available through NovaEngine for five thousand dollars.
• Fergus brought Trip Geek Weekly and the NovaEngine disc, and EA developers confirmed that the engine could render true 3D scenes using OpenGL.
• Trip recognized that NovaEngine undercut EA's expensive development efforts and sent GAMENOVA a licensing fee payment voucher, despite the queue for licenses.
• Lin Lixin beat Vivian at mahjong and considered giving a mahjong-themed game to a subsidiary.
• Lin Lixin recalled a complex, adult-oriented Japanese arcade game genre as a possible source of foreign-currency earnings.

Lin Lixin proposed that Blizzard develop an arcade mahjong game inspired by Capcom’s Mahjong Academy, giving the studio a way to earn more revenue. He recruited Will to help with the AI and asked Satoshi Tajiri to sign adult-film actresses, prompting a proposal to partner with director Toru Muranishi and Crystal-Eizou.

• Lin Lixin explained how Mahjong Academy’s interactive H button and strong opponent AI had helped make it a hit and save Capcom.
• Lin Lixin assigned Mike and the other two to design the new game’s core mechanics and arcade board, then called Will to join the project.
• Mike and the others worried about creating the character designs, but Lin Lixin said he had experts who could handle them.
• Lin Lixin asked Satoshi Tajiri to sign actresses including Kaoru Kuroki and Hitomi Kobayashi, and Satoshi realized the project could give Roppongi Agency a major opportunity.
• Satoshi Tajiri suggested working with director Toru Muranishi and Crystal-Eizou, and Lin Lixin proposed forming a joint production company and discussing a possible Lucasfilm partnership.

Satoshi Tajiri bailed Toru Muranishi out of jail and recruited him to launch Illusion, a company making video games, with “Mahjong Academy” as its first project. The game drew devoted players to arcades, where Yamazaki pursued a winning streak against the headmistress.

• Toru Muranishi learned that a foreign-funded talent agency had posted his bail and went to meet Satoshi Tajiri.
• Satoshi Tajiri offered to fund Muranishi's departure from Crystal-Eizou and help him start a video-game company called Illusion.
• After seeing the “Mahjong Academy” design, Muranishi agreed to become a game director and began working with Satoshi Tajiri.
• Players flocked to arcades to play “Mahjong Academy,” whose headmistress was portrayed by Kaoru Kuroki.
• Yamazaki bought tokens and vowed to defeat the headmistress, while the arcade owner promised him a secret trick after closing.

Mike proposed that Blizzard develop a real-time strategy game for NovaXeno, and Lin Lixin approved the idea and brought in Westwood Associates to help. Lin Lixin then secured the Star Wars IP from Lucas, leaving the new RTS concept poised to move into development.

• Mike asked Lin Lixin to support Blizzard in making a major NovaXeno exclusive, and proposed a game combining real-time building with combat.
• Lin Lixin recognized the idea as an early form of RTS and offered to introduce Blizzard to a small, technically capable team.
• Brett and Louis rejected an offer to do contract work for EA, then accepted Lin Lixin's invitation to join Blizzard, bringing Westwood Associates into the studio.
• Lin Lixin met with Lucas and proposed a Star Wars RTS built around gathering resources, building bases, and fighting over Kyber crystals.
• Lucas understood the proposed gameplay and agreed to let GAMENOVA develop a game using the Star Wars IP.

Lin Lixin proposed using live-action cutscenes for Command & Conquer: Dawn of the Kyber Crystal, then searched for a way to support real-time multiplayer despite modem limitations. After considering local networks and spotting a MIDI adapter, he realized GAMENOVA could use its Rocksmith sound card as a modem.

• Lin Lixin proposed replacing text and pixel-animation cutscenes with live-action footage for Command & Conquer: Dawn of the Kyber Crystal.
• Blizzard began developing the game from scratch in N Language after integrating with Westwood Studios.
• Gerald explained that current modems lacked the bandwidth and low latency needed for real-time RTS multiplayer.
• Lin Lixin suggested local-network play, but Gerald said RTS matches required transmitting too much data for their existing cable options.
• Lin Lixin spotted a 6.35 mm-to-MIDI adapter and recalled that MIDI Maze used MIDI cables to transmit multiplayer data.
• Lin Lixin proposed using the sound card as a modem.

Lin Lixin rejected Alan’s A* implementation for Command & Conquer and introduced a shared Flow Field Pathfinding Algorithm designed to handle large numbers of units efficiently. Alan realized the approach could improve pathfinding performance by thousands or even tens of thousands of times.

• Gerald lamented that age and convention made it harder to pursue Lin Lixin’s ambitious ideas, but Lin Lixin urged him to finish the NX sound card and handed him the Swift Project document.
• Mike showed Lin Lixin the Blizzard team’s new 2D map grid implementation, and Alan presented his pathfinding code.
• Lin Lixin told Alan to scrap the implementation after seeing it could not handle pathfinding for many units at once.
• Lin Lixin explained that Command & Conquer needed a method better suited to RTS games and proposed Flow Field Pathfinding, which calculated a route once for thousands of units to share.

Lin Lixin explained a flow field pathfinding algorithm that led Alan and Blizzard Studio to scrap and rebuild their game’s pathfinding, controls, and map systems. Meanwhile, Rocksmith launched on consoles with a sound card, letting players practice at home and helping its sales soar.

• Lin Lixin explained how precomputed flow fields let thousands of units find routes with a single calculation, and Alan realized his existing pathfinding approach needed to be abandoned.
• Lin Lixin told Blizzard Studio to redesign its units for troop-scale battles and rebuild its controller scheme around box selection, radial menus, and D-pad control groups.
• Lin Lixin also identified shortcomings in the grid-based map system, prompting Blizzard Studio to scrap that work and start over.
• GAMENOVA launched the console version of Rocksmith alongside a standalone 16-bit sound card that enabled CD-quality audio and connections for guitars and basses.
• Rocksmith’s console release let beginners practice at home without an arcade audience, while sales passed 500,000 copies and continued rising.