Chapter Summaries

Lin Lixin pitched Bullfrog Studio on an absurdist hospital management game, then addressed GAMENOVA’s laptop and ARM projects at a press conference. Afterward, he met Apple CEO John Sculley, who sought continued ARM support for Apple’s Newton PDA.

• Lin Lixin walked into Bullfrog Studio during a BB-gun fight and challenged the developers to hit him or clean the studio.
• Lin Lixin persuaded Magic Bull to develop a hospital management sim built around invented illnesses and British absurdist humor.
• Lin Lixin planned to bring Caneghem and Will onto the game project and arranged access to Cedars-Sinai for reference material.
• Lin Lixin held a press conference about GAMENOVA’s joint laptop project with Dell and its acquisition of ARM.
• Lin Lixin met John Sculley backstage and agreed that Micro-Nova would continue advancing ARM chips for Apple’s Newton PDA.

Lin Lixin’s new company prepared a portable computer called NOVA-HERMES, while Sean recognized that a laptop could help Robert Medical’s traveling boss. At Hermes’s unveiling, Lin switched the machine into performance mode, and its screen went black in front of the press.

• Lin Lixin shook hands with Sculley and offered to develop games for Newton if the opportunity arose.
• Sean read about the new computer company and told Yuli that a laptop could be useful to Robert Medical’s boss.
• Lin Lixin’s team used NeXT-STEP, a clean-room BIOS, and a new hardware bus, then assigned final integration to Mark Cerny and Dell’s engineers.
• GAMENOVA unveiled the NOVA-HERMES, a 2.35-kilogram laptop with expandable memory, over two hours of battery life, and a $1,899 price.
• Lin Lixin prepared to demonstrate Theme Hospital, then toggled Hermes into performance mode, causing its screen to go dark as reporters photographed the moment.

Lin Lixin revealed Hermes’s Hybrid graphics switching during a demonstration, helping GAMENOVA’s laptop sell 8,500 units in its first week. At Robert Medical, Robert tried the bundled Theme Hospital and was horrified by its opening cinematic, which ended with a chainsaw operation and the patient’s death.

• Lin Lixin switched Hermes from its low-power graphics chip to the Radeon 8960 without restarting, impressing the reporters with GAMENOVA’s Hybrid technology.
• Hermes sold 8,500 units in its first week, exhausting the assembly plant’s production capacity and establishing GAMENOVA as a new force in the PC market.
• Sean showed Robert the laptop he had bought with company money, and Robert agreed to inspect it himself.
• Robert tried Theme Hospital, whose opening cinematic featured familiar GAMENOVA characters as patients and a director who killed an emergency patient with a chainsaw.

Robert started Theme Hospital on Doctor difficulty and built a small clinic in Gas Town, expecting a realistic medical simulator. After treating ordinary illnesses, he discovered the game’s absurd fictional diseases and bizarre cures, leaving him amused by its deadpan humor.

• Robert rejected the game’s ridiculous opening and began a new game on Doctor difficulty.
• Robert followed the tutorial to build a reception desk, diagnosis room, pharmacy, toilets, benches, and ward, then treated the hospital’s first patient for a cold.
• Robert received a fax announcing that GAMENOVA producer Carmack wanted to visit and that staff had discovered Excessive Nose Hair, treated with a dose of hair remover.
• Robert watched a patient with Bloaty Head get pricked with a needle and reinflated through an air pump, then laughed at the game’s absurd medical humor.

Robert enjoyed Theme Hospital, cleared its first level, and discovered that his Hermes laptop could keep the game and its files available when unplugged. Meanwhile, Theme Hospital topped the United Kingdom’s PC game sales chart, excluding copies bundled with computers.

• Robert built a psychiatry department and treated patients with MJ Syndrome, who believed they were Michael Jackson.
• Robert finished Theme Hospital’s first level and received an offer to take over Sleepy Town Hospital, but saved his game and postponed continuing.
• Robert unplugged his Hermes laptop and found that it could run on battery power while preserving his game and files.
• Theme Hospital topped the United Kingdom PC game sales chart, not counting the ten thousand copies bundled with PC purchases.

GAMENOVA’s Theme Hospital sold 110,000 copies in its first week despite being limited to NeXT-STEP and Hermes systems, and ElectronicGames praised it as a standout management game. Lin Lixin explained how its accessible, comedic design helped it break beyond its niche, then anticipated new simulation projects as PC hardware advanced; Sid approached him to discuss something.

• Sam confirmed that Theme Hospital had sold 110,000 copies in its first week after cross-checking sales data from multiple sources.
• Sid, Will, Caneghem, and Magic Bull reacted to the unexpected sales, while Lin Lixin said the team was aiming for five million copies.
• Lin Lixin showed the group ElectronicGames’ 9.5/10 review, which praised Theme Hospital’s humor and accessibility while noting its repetition and rising difficulty.
• Lin Lixin explained to Will that Theme Hospital’s light management and entertaining failures made it fun to watch as well as play, helping it attract players beyond its niche.
• Lin Lixin told Will that next year would bring many simulation projects as the Hermes and other PCs gained more powerful hardware.
• Sid asked Lin Lixin to discuss something, and Lin Lixin replied that he had something to discuss with Sid too.

Sid showed Lin Lixin his unfinished Pirates! game, and Lin Lixin approved remaking it for the Hermes as a flagship title for GAMENOVA’s PC gaming push. They agreed to preserve its open-ended design while improving its pace and bringing its naval and boarding battles to life.

• Sid brought Lin Lixin a floppy disk containing Pirates!, a game he had made before joining GAMENOVA.
• Lin Lixin played the C64 demo, tested its boarding-action sword fight, and explored its open-ended pirate gameplay.
• Sid said he wanted to remake Pirates! for the Hermes with more capable naval battles and combat.
• Lin Lixin approved the project as a GAMENOVA flagship and told Sid that he and Will would be key to the company’s PC gaming push.
• Lin Lixin praised the game’s dynamic world and rapid feedback, and suggested that its already fast pace could be improved further.

Lin Lixin explained why the remake of Sid Meier’s Pirates! should focus on a carefully crafted Caribbean Sea rather than a sprawling global map. Sid and the team embraced the idea of a dense, event-filled world built around piracy and constant action.

• Lin Lixin told Hayao Nakayama to approach Koei and Hudson about working with GAMENOVA, while noting that their participation was not essential.
• Sid became excited about using up to 700 MB for the game and suggested expanding its map across the globe.
• Lin Lixin insisted that the game should cover only the Caribbean Sea and asked Sid why he had chosen it for the original.
• Sid recalled that he wanted to create a legendary tale of Caribbean pirates, not a game centered on global exploration and trade.
• Lin Lixin urged the team to build a compact, lively world filled with battles, nearby ports, missions, and treasure ships, emphasizing that world density mattered more than size.

Lin Lixin gathered pirate-themed research for Pirates! and arranged for Activision to contact Ozark Softscape, while seeking Hans Zimmer as the game's composer. Hans listened to Lin's demo and decided to investigate the project, while Lin chose Johnny Depp as the protagonist's face model.

• Sam brought Lin Lixin a collection of pirate novels, films, and games, including The Seven Cities of Gold, which Lin admired for its open-world design.
• Lin Lixin asked Sam to have Activision contact Ozark Softscape and let the studio operate freely under Caneghem.
• Lin Lixin had the development department watch pirate films and write down their ideas for Pirates!.
• Lin Lixin asked Tom Cruise to contact Hans Zimmer and gave him a demo that Lin had composed.
• Lin Lixin told Tom Cruise that Johnny Depp was his choice for the new game's protagonist face model.
• Hans Zimmer listened to Lin's demo, recognized its pirate-sailing feel, and decided to look into composing for a video game.

Hans Zimmer visited GAMENOVA and was astonished by the musical capabilities of its games, which changed his view of video games as a medium. After signing on to Lin Lixin’s project, he was shown a one-of-a-kind digital music workstation that left him speechless.

• Hans Zimmer tested the music in MJ's Moonwalker and praised its sound quality and responsive, immersive audio.
• Lin Lixin described the project’s musical needs, and Hans Zimmer correctly guessed from Lin’s MIDI demo that it was about pirates.
• Hans Zimmer agreed to join the project and signed collaboration and nondisclosure agreements.
• Lin Lixin took Hans Zimmer to the hardware department and revealed a custom digital music workstation built for N.M.B Music Studio.
• Lin Lixin explained the workstation’s advanced display, processors, sampling, effects, and interactive game-music support, while Hans Zimmer called it a holy relic in his mind.

Lin Lixin recruited Hans Zimmer to lead GAMENOVA’s American music production team and gave him access to an experimental digital music workstation. As production on "Pirates!" continued, Lin chose young Johnny Depp as the face model and called for a large cast of female characters to support the game’s romance system.

• Hans Zimmer struggled to accept Lin Lixin’s experimental music workstation, so Lin invited him to join GAMENOVA and lead its American music team.
• Hans Zimmer accepted the invitation and became music director for "Pirates!", freeing Kojima to focus on the cutscene storyboards.
• Lin Lixin and Lucas watched Johnny Depp act on a makeshift ship set, and Lin decided Depp should be the game’s face model.
• Lucas asked about the workstation, but Lin explained that the unique prototype could not yet be mass-produced.
• Lin ordered Depp’s face to be scanned and asked the team to recruit many female characters for the game’s romance system.

Lin Lixin explained how a unified, intuitive control scheme could tie the varied activities in “Sid Meier's Pirates!” together, then introduced the dual-loop model of game design. The team applied the theory to the game’s naval battles and longer-term goals, leaving the design approach clearer.

• Lin Lixin proposed adapting the nine-key grid into a unified control scheme using WASD and nearby keys.
• Lin Lixin explained that sword fights and dances could share direction-and-rhythm mechanics, and Sid Meier agreed the game should express one system in different ways.
• Lin Lixin introduced the dual-loop model, distinguishing short loops that provide immediate rewards from long loops that give players lasting goals.
• Lin Lixin used “Pokémon” to illustrate how short and long loops sustain engagement, while noting that the model did not suit every game.
• The team identified naval battles as “Pirates!”’ short loop and fame, social advancement, and story revelations as its long loop.

Rare Studio brothers Tim and Chris bought GAMENOVA’s new game, Pirates!, and began playing it on a Hermes laptop. Tim chose to sail with Britain as the game opened its pirate adventure.

• Tim went to buy Halloween decorations but found Pirates! on sale and bought two copies, receiving pirate costumes as a promotion.
• Tim returned to the studio without the jack-o'-lanterns, and Chris agreed to try the game with him.
• The brothers watched the opening story about a young man who escaped slavery and set out to rescue his family and recover his fortunes.
• Tim admired the game’s cinematic opening music while Chris followed the story and they created their character.
• The game presented France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Britain as factions, and Tim chose Britain.

Tim and Chris played Pirates!, where the protagonist led a mutiny and began a privateering career in the Caribbean. After Tim secured a British license to attack enemy ships, Chris wondered whether they could eventually capture ports.

• The protagonist defeated the captain’s loyalists, forced the captain and his confidants to leave, and took command of the ship.
• Tim and Chris watched the opening cinematic before Tim began exploring the Caribbean and docked at Nevis.
• Tim spoke with the governor and obtained a license to plunder and sink ships belonging to enemy nations.
• The governor pointed out the nearby French city of Montserrat, and Chris wondered if they could capture its port and replace its flag.

Tim and Chris discovered that ports had distinct trade opportunities and that the game let them choose a merchant’s life or privateering. They attacked a Spanish smuggling ship and began a boarding battle, where they found an unexpectedly sophisticated sword-fighting system.

• Tim gathered tavern rumors, marked new places on the map, and bought a fragment of Captain Jack's treasure map.
• Chris persuaded Tim to buy food at the port and test trade at nearby Saint Kitts, where they made a profit and found that spices sold for good prices.
• Tim chose privateering over trading, spotted a vulnerable Spanish smuggling ship, and attacked it with Revenge.
• Tim maneuvered alongside the enemy ship to trigger boarding, and he and Chris chose rapiers for the sword fight.
• The boarding battle revealed real-time sword combat with seven moves, which Lin Lixin had built using a pseudo-3D technique.

Tim defeated a Spanish smuggling ship, recruited a skilled cooper, and returned to port, where he fought a guard officer harassing a barmaid. After hearing that Spain had put a bounty on his head, Tim proposed attacking a French brig, and he set out to catch it.

• Tim won a rapier duel against the Spanish captain and chose to keep the captured ship while taking its cannons, spices, and a skilled cooper.
• Tim sailed back to port, sold the captured ship, and had his own vessel repaired.
• At the tavern, Tim challenged a guard officer harassing a barmaid and defeated him with her help.
• Tim learned that Spain had offered 3,000 gold coins for his head and spotted a French brig carrying valuable supplies.
• Tim steered his sloop along an S-shaped course to catch the slower brig.

Tim and Chris won a naval battle in Pirates! and marveled at its ships, music, and open-ended world. As pirate mania spread, Lin Lixin decided to let the game’s sales keep growing.

• Tim and Chris won the battle, claimed the enemy brig, and praised the game’s ships and seamless music.
• Tim and Chris noticed Hans Zimmer was credited for the music and examined a poster showing the protagonist as a mature pirate.
• Tim and Chris decided to dress as pirates for their studio’s Halloween party.
• Players and the media spread stories about Pirates!, sparking a pirate craze in America and Britain.
• Lin Lixin chose to let Pirates! sales continue to grow, expecting it to remain popular for years.

Lin Lixin recruited Hans Zimmer to lead GameNova’s new music production company and explained his plan to build a complete audio industry system around games. Hans accepted the offer, and the two prepared to develop GameNova’s own sound library and audio technology.

• Lin Lixin discussed how GameNova’s games could generate value through their IP, brand extensions, and hardware sales despite limited PC game revenue.
• Hans Zimmer praised the interactive music system he had created for Pirates!, using GameNova’s API and workstation to connect music dynamically to gameplay.
• Lin Lixin offered Hans Zimmer a position in a GameNova-funded music production company, and Hans accepted.
• Lin Lixin explained that the company would develop beyond game scores, establishing studios and experimenting with new music technologies.
• Hans Zimmer recognized that Lin Lixin wanted GameNova to build an independent audio ecosystem, including its own sound library, workstations, sound cards, and standards.

Lin Lixin revealed GameNova’s plans for Pokémon Gold/Silver and eased concerns about developing versions for multiple systems by unveiling a tool that let the team build the game once and package it for different platforms. The chapter left the development team ready to begin the project with the technical hurdles addressed.

• Lin Lixin told Hans Zimmer that Pokémon Gold/Silver was underway, with Junichi Masuda and GameNova’s Japan branch handling its music, and invited Zimmer to serve as music director.
• Lin Lixin gathered GameNova’s developers and asked Mark Cerny about the RTC chip, which Cerny said was complete and could run for an estimated ten years on its button cell.
• Lin Lixin announced that Pokémon Gold/Silver would be released for the NP, NB, NX, NS, and NPC, enabling connectivity across platforms and versions.
• Cerny warned that developing and polishing so many versions in time would overwhelm the team.
• Lin Lixin revealed that he had completed a development workflow that let the team make one version and compile and package it for different platforms.

Lin Lixin prepared to expand Pokémon’s gameplay with Gold and Silver’s Legendary Pokémon, day-night cycle, breeding, and friendship systems. He left the development team with key assignments and planned to promote Ho-Oh and Lugia through magazine silhouettes.

• Lin Lixin examined the sample cartridge cases featuring Ho-Oh and Lugia, noting that both Legendary Pokémon had already appeared secretly in earlier games.
• Lin Lixin arranged for Steve to publish the two Pokémon’s silhouettes as an exclusive scoop in Electronic Games.
• Lin Lixin assigned Hideo Kojima the day-night cycle, time-specific Pokémon appearances, and Legendary Pokémon entrance sequences.
• Lin Lixin tasked Will and Carmack with developing the breeding and friendship systems, which he considered foundations for Pokémon’s future gameplay.
• Lin Lixin reflected that breeding could deepen Pokémon raising and strategic play, while opening the way for egg breeders and a nightmare for Ditto.