Chapter Summaries

Lin Lixin brought SGI into a partnership with GAMENOVA and began recruiting graphics talent while preparing Fire Emblem's story. The chapter left the game’s large cast and character development in the hands of gameplay as its development moved forward.

• Lin Lixin told Vivian that he had bought a controlling stake in SGI, which would remain an independent subsidiary with Jim Clark as CEO and CTO.
• Lin Lixin assigned Carmack to help Vivian’s team develop OpenGL and finalize the VGA display specification.
• Lin Lixin recruited talent for SGI and visited Stanford with Jim Clark, where he spotted Jensen Huang and ordered a recommendation letter and a leather jacket for him.
• Lin Lixin outlined Fire Emblem as a revenge story centered on Marth and a growing roster of playable companions, then sent the draft to Satoshi and his team.
• Lin Lixin told Sam that the game would use its gameplay to shape its many characters.

Lin Lixin and Sam tested a tactical RPG concept on a board while discussing reusable code and a game engine. Sam surrendered after losing key units, then began revising Pokémon’s Japanese text as they considered adding multilingual support.

• Sam and Lin Lixin simulated combat on a board, demonstrating weapon advantages and turn-based mechanics for Lin Lixin’s proposed tactical RPG.
• Lin Lixin explained his plan to build a game engine from reusable gameplay modules, but said they would begin after Carmack and the others finished OpenGL.
• Lin Lixin used a Pegasus Knight to attack Sam’s exposed nun Elen, then defeated Roy and broke apart Sam’s formation.
• Sam surrendered and urged Lin Lixin to begin developing the game, eager to experience its terrain and strategy systems.
• Sam suggested separating game text to support multiple languages, and Lin Lixin agreed as GAMENOVA considered future expansion overseas.

Twelve-year-old Hidetaka Miyazaki won a NovaBo console and a copy of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, then began playing and learning its tactical combat system. He left off preparing to fight the bandits attacking Roy’s city.

• Miyazaki’s bookstore shopkeeper gave him a raffle ticket and sent him to the shopping street.
• Miyazaki entered the raffle and won the grand prize: a NovaBo console, Pokémon, and a mystery blockbuster.
• Though Miyazaki planned to sell the prizes, he kept the console and Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
• Miyazaki began the game and learned that Roy’s city was under attack by bandits.
• Miyazaki selected Lance, compared his weapons, and memorized the weapon triangle.

Miyazaki played through the battle and discovered that Marcus could overpower the enemies, while Lin Lixin explained to Sam that the veteran paladin was designed as a beginner’s safety net with poor growth rates. Sam pulled Marcus back and began relying on the younger cavaliers instead.

• Miyazaki used Bors to absorb attacks, placed Wolt behind Lance, and found Roy struggling against the bandits.
• Miyazaki sent Marcus through the enemy ranks, where Marcus killed an archer with his silver lance.
• Sam questioned whether Marcus made strategy less important, and Lin Lixin told him not to rely on the paladin too much.
• Lin Lixin showed Sam Marcus’s low growth rates and explained that his strong starting stats came with limited potential.
• Sam withdrew Marcus and sent Lance and Alan into battle instead.

Miyazaki completed the first stage, then discovered that Wolt had died permanently after he failed to protect him, prompting him to take the game’s consequences seriously. He soon lost Shanna as well, but noticed the terrain’s avoidance bonus and realized he could reload a save.

• Miyazaki led Marcus and the others through the first stage, where Wolt missed a shot and was left isolated; the party defeated the boss and completed the map.
• Miyazaki overwrote the autosave, then watched Elen join Roy’s party as a healer.
• Miyazaki checked the Units menu and discovered that Wolt had died and vanished from the roster, so he resolved not to lose anyone else.
• Miyazaki moved Shanna toward the main force, but two bandits surrounded and killed her.
• Miyazaki noticed the mountain’s 40-point avoidance bonus and realized the purpose of the two save slots.

Hidetaka Miyazaki became captivated by Fire Emblem’s punishing battles and character-driven stories, while Lin Lixin hinted to Steve that he had missed several recruitable characters. The chapter ended with Steve realizing Cath was not merely a map NPC.

• Hidetaka Miyazaki told his father that Fire Emblem was extremely difficult but satisfying, and described how investing heavily in Marcus had made later battles harder.
• Miyazaki recounted his adventures with Marcus, Alan, and Elen, then said the characters’ relationships and scattered stories inspired him to become a game developer.
• Lin Lixin discussed Fire Emblem’s success with Steve, who admitted he had stayed up all night pursuing an everyone-survives save.
• Lin Lixin asked Steve whether he had recruited Lugh, Sue, and Cath, and Steve questioned whether Cath was only a map NPC.
• Lin Lixin told Steve that he would not waste precious storage space making a useless unit model.

Steve discussed Fire Emblem’s hidden characters and its Support system with Lin Lixin, while Hidetaka Miyazaki discovered that his approach to training Marcus had held back his playthrough. After Roy spoke with Marcus in battle, a notification revealed that their Support level had increased.

• Steve recalled ignoring Cath and described how his attempts to keep every character alive had made his progress through the game difficult.
• Lin Lixin explained that the game included many hints about hidden characters and introduced the Support system as a mechanic players might have noticed.
• Hidetaka Miyazaki restarted his game after realizing Marcus leveled slowly and gained few stats, then kept him in the back while Alan, Lance, and Wolt fought.
• Miyazaki found a new Talk command for Roy and had him speak with Marcus, who insisted on proving himself despite his age.
• A blue notification appeared after their conversation, announcing that Roy and Marcus’s Support level had increased.

Miyazaki discovered that support relationships granted powerful, affinity-dependent stat bonuses and transformed how players should position and manage their teams. After Lin Lixin explained the system’s limits to Steve, he introduced the Link Arena as the interview’s next topic.

• Miyazaki found a C-rank support relationship between Roy and Marcus and discovered that support partners within three tiles gained stat bonuses.
• Miyazaki tested the starting team and found that most characters could form support relationships, while Bors could not support Roy.
• Miyazaki discovered that different character affinities produced different support bonuses and asked for paper to record them.
• Lin Lixin explained that each character had five support conversations and a hidden per-chapter friendship cap, leaving Steve stunned by the system’s strategic and irreversible choices.
• Lin Lixin stopped Steve from ending the interview and introduced The Binding Blade’s Link Arena mode.

Lin Lixin showed Steve Fire Emblem’s hidden Link Arena mode, which used two floppy disks to pit teams built from players’ story saves against each other on a randomly generated map. The match began with Steve assessing the balanced terrain and planning his tactics.

• Lin Lixin connected an expansion floppy drive, inserted two Fire Emblem disks, and revealed the hidden Link Arena option on the title screen.
• Lin Lixin explained that players could select units using their own saves, retaining their levels, stats, equipment, items, and support relationships, while arena battles caused no permanent deaths or weapon wear.
• Steve brought his own save disk and prepared to challenge Lin Lixin with a team he had trained in the main story.
• The game generated a small battle map at random, placed the two teams at opposite ends, and set victory as defeating every enemy unit.
• Steve studied the map’s U-shaped terrain and chokepoints, then recognized how its forests, forts, and routes appeared carefully balanced.

After Lin Lixin defeated Steve in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, the game’s new arena mode impressed Steve. Inspired by the game and encouraged by a programming comic, Hidetaka Miyazaki went to see an arcade battle machine and encountered its large-scale fog-of-war mode.

• Lin Lixin lost to Steve, who praised the game’s link arena as a way to keep battles challenging through competition against other players.
• The bookstore owner teased Miyazaki about winning a NovaBo and noticed him studying an assembly programming book; Miyazaki admitted he wanted to make games because he liked Fire Emblem.
• The owner gave Miyazaki Nova Language: From Beginner to Expert, a programming tutorial presented through comics and GAMENOVA characters.
• Miyazaki went to a game shop and watched the owner battle a challenger on the new machine, where fog of war concealed most of the battlefield and made ambushes hard to anticipate.

Miyazaki used fog of war to gain an advantage over the store manager in a Fire Emblem match, while Lin Lixin discussed the mechanic and upcoming plans for the game. Lin Lixin then revealed an expansion featuring a map editor and received an NBA invitation.

• Miyazaki sent Shanna ahead to scout, drawing the store manager’s units into an ambush by his supported main force.
• Steve praised fog of war’s tactical depth, and Lin Lixin said Fire Emblem would appear at the next EVO Evolution Championship.
• Lin Lixin showed Steve the Trials of wisdom expansion, which added save slots and a map editor with shareable maps and passwords.
• Sam entered a password printed in ElectronicGames and generated a custom map for the magazine’s challenge.
• Lin Lixin explained how the map passwords compressed consecutive tiles, then invited Sam to a Lakers game with tickets from the NBA.

Lin Lixin brought Sam to a Lakers game to meet Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and promote GAMENOVA by publicly backing the aging player. As the Lakers fell behind, Lin Lixin kept cheering for Jabbar and presented him with GAMENOVA-branded wristbands during a televised interview.

• Lin Lixin told Sam that he had come to the game to see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then approached Jabbar and discussed GAMENOVA's games.
• Lin Lixin told Sam to place a conspicuous $100,000 bet on Jabbar winning MVP and continued cheering for him as the Lakers fell behind.
• A reporter asked Lin Lixin about the bet and Jabbar's performance, and Lin Lixin claimed he did not understand basketball but thought Jabbar was playing well.
• Lin Lixin waved to Jabbar and announced that he had prepared a gift, then showed him GAMENOVA-branded basketball wristbands.

Lin Lixin turned Jabbar’s wristband into a marketing stunt, helping GAMENOVA attract major basketball stars and announce its NovaSports brand. EA founder Trip Hawkins saw the move as a direct challenge and learned his engineers were struggling to reverse-engineer GAMENOVA’s consoles and games.

• Lin Lixin and Sam offered to cover Jabbar’s fines and pay him an additional appearance fee if he wore GAMENOVA wristbands during the game.
• Jabbar wore a wristband while making a late-game scoring surge, though the Lakers still lost by twelve points, and Lin Lixin received a warning letter from Russ Granik.
• Jabbar’s agent announced his partnership with GAMENOVA, his appearance in an upcoming game, and his endorsement of The King of Fighters, the United States Sports Team, and Rocky.
• David Falk announced that injured Chicago Bulls rookie Michael Jordan would join GAMENOVA, which also established NovaSports to develop sports games.
• Trip Hawkins watched the news and regarded GAMENOVA’s entry into sports games as a direct threat to EA.
• Trip asked EA’s engineers about reverse-engineering GAMENOVA’s consoles, but the chief engineer said the security chips and game file structures were difficult to crack.

Lin Lixin drew inspiration from classic basketball games and decided to pursue a NovaBo version of Double Dribble. At Micro-Nova, Vivian revealed a VGA specification using analog color signals, leaving Lin Lixin astonished by its potential palette of more than 260,000 colors.

• Lin Lixin played One on One and recognized that its single-player design limited it despite its quality and licensed basketball stars.
• Lin Lixin recalled Double Dribble, whose fast gameplay, ten on-screen players, and two-player matches made it a model for the NovaBo basketball game.
• Lin Lixin went to Micro-Nova, where Vivian presented the team's new VGA specification to the technical staff.
• Vivian demonstrated a DAC-based circuit that used analog signals to adjust each pixel's red, green, and blue intensity.
• Vivian explained that six-bit precision per color allowed 64 levels for each primary color, and Lin Lixin calculated that VGA could display over 260,000 colors.

Lin Lixin approved a 16-color VGA standard and ordered Nova Radeon graphics cards into production, then studied Pinball to understand how it produced convincing physics on limited hardware. He discovered the game relied on carefully designed lookup tables and tricks rather than real physics simulation, leaving him with a new approach to game development.

• Vivian explained that memory capacity and ISA bandwidth prevented Lin Lixin from making a general-purpose graphics card with high-resolution, 256-color support.
• Lin Lixin decided to adopt a standard supporting 16 colors at 640 × 480 and 256 colors at 320 × 240, and ordered the first Nova Radeon cards into production.
• Lin Lixin played Pinball and wondered how the NES could run its smooth physics effects on limited hardware.
• Lin Lixin gained the skill The Cleverest Trick, which improved his understanding of game physics and increased the growth multiplier for hardware-related attributes.
• Lin Lixin realized Pinball used predefined movement states and scripted collision behavior instead of physics formulas, and concluded that a game's implementation mattered less than the result players experienced.

Lin Lixin chose an office site near Vermont Avenue and reviewed GAMENOVA’s strong Japanese sales before recognizing Nintendo of America’s new partnership with EA. The chapter ended with Trip Hawkins announcing an NES sequel to One on One, backed by a new Konami-developed graphics enhancement chip.

• Lin Lixin selected a property along Vermont Avenue and told Sam to find a nearby house as well.
• Sam reported that Fire Emblem had sold over five million copies in Japan, NovaBo sales had passed ten million, and Pokémon sales had exceeded twelve million.
• Lin Lixin told Sam to step up promotion in Roppongi and prepare for the Japanese NovaPocket port.
• Lin Lixin and Sam watched a broadcast showing Minoru Arakawa meeting with Trip Hawkins, founder of EA.
• Trip Hawkins announced an NES sequel to One on One featuring Magic Johnson against Larry Bird, and said Konami would develop a new MMC graphics enhancement chip for it.

Lin Lixin explained how GAMENOVA would counter EA's star-studded basketball game by turning its five-on-five title into a fast, accessible sports game built around iconic signature moves. He introduced the Close-Up system, which played prepared character sequences when players met certain conditions.

• Sam worried that EA's press conference and signing of Magic Johnson had put pressure on GAMENOVA's upcoming game.
• Lin Lixin said GAMENOVA had already won on the strength of its game's title and pointed out that its five-on-five format differed from EA's one-on-one game.
• Sam asked why Lin Lixin had chosen Jabbar instead of Magic Johnson, and Lin Lixin explained that Jabbar's skyhook was an iconic move suited to a video game.
• Lin Lixin showed Sam the Close-Up system, which played a prepared sequence of Jabbar performing a skyhook when the player met the required conditions.
• Sam realized the game could emphasize quick, simple controls and spectacular signature moves, and imagined its title as "Double Dribble: Skyhook vs. Fadeaway Jump Shot".

Lin Lixin developed a physics-based basketball game while discussing basketball and game design with Michael Jordan. Two months later, Jordan returned to the court with a record-setting playoff performance as GAMENOVA and EA released competing basketball games, leaving Harvey eager to take his friends to a game store.

• Lin Lixin studied basketball physics at a Los Angeles gym while Jabbar practiced and Jordan recovered from his injury.
• Jordan asked Lin Lixin about his success, and Lin joked about working at four in the morning before saying that his real motivation was enjoying games.
• Lin Lixin wished Jordan a quick recovery and predicted he would score sixty-three points in a game.
• Two months later, Jordan returned for the playoffs and scored sixty-three points against the Boston Celtics, though the Chicago Bulls lost.
• EA released One on One: Earvin Johnson vs. Larry Bird for $49.99, while GAMENOVA released Double Dribble for $69.99.
• Harvey invited his skeptical teammates to visit a game store, and they agreed on the condition that he buy them a meal.

Harvey brought Ethan and Miles to try EA’s new NES game, One on One, and the two skeptics became engrossed in playing it. Harvey decided to buy an NES, but the friends spotted someone carrying a NovaBo and a floppy disk called Double Dribble.

• Harvey pointed out the crowded GG store and praised EA’s One on One to Ethan and Miles.
• Harvey found an open NES demo station and showed them the game’s modes, including two-player versus.
• Ethan played Bird against Harvey’s Johnson, blocked a shot, then fooled Harvey with a feint and scored a three-pointer.
• Miles watched the game intently and eventually joined in, and the three played until the store began closing.
• Harvey decided to buy an NES, and Ethan and Miles noticed someone walking by with a NovaBo and a Double Dribble floppy disk.

Ethan and Miles discovered Double Dribble at GAMENOVA and were stunned by its fast, detailed five-on-five basketball gameplay. They decided to stop Harvey before he bought an NES and spend their money on the game instead.

• Ethan and Miles followed Harvey toward the NES shelves, then turned to inspect GAMENOVA's crowded display.
• They watched players choose among four teams and saw Double Dribble begin a smooth five-on-five match with fouls, free throws, and spectacular dunk animations.
• Ethan and Miles compared the game with One on One and judged Double Dribble far superior.
• After witnessing a reverse dunk, Ethan and Miles decided to find Harvey and stop him from buying an NES so they could buy Double Dribble.