Chapter Summaries

Kojima narrowly lost a three-hour game of Momotaro Dentetsu to Kondō, then reflected on the game’s design and went to work at Konami. Satoshi Tajiri called him with an invitation from Mr. Lin to meet in the United States.

• Kondō survived a dangerous turn, received help from the God of Fortune, and narrowly beat Kojima by ten million after three hours of play.
• Kojima wondered whether the game’s perfectly timed setbacks were more than coincidence and recognized the depth of its design.
• Kojima submitted a résumé and his Snatcher proposal to Satoshi Tajiri at Game Freak, and Tajiri agreed to pass them to President Lin.
• Kojima returned to his cramped office in Konami’s MSX game division and received a call from Tajiri, who said Mr. Lin wanted to meet him in the United States.

After leaving Konami, Kojima traveled to GAMENOVA expecting the company might want to buy his Snatcher proposal, but Lin Lixin offered him a job instead. Lin proposed that Kojima bring his directing and storytelling skills to a Gothic vampire game based on Castlevania.

• Kojima quit Konami after a colleague berated him and accepted an invitation to travel to GAMENOVA.
• Kojima arrived in Los Angeles, where Sam drove him to GAMENOVA's office.
• Lin Lixin paused his discussion with Will Wright about Tycoon Tycoon and invited Kojima to talk.
• Lin offered Kojima a position at GAMENOVA, praising his strengths in cinematic direction, music, and immersion.
• Lin showed Kojima a Castlevania document and asked whether he was interested in Gothic style and vampire legends.

Kojima began designing a 2D Castlevania game with creative freedom while Lin Lixin explored semiconductor research and optical discs for GAMENOVA’s next-generation console. Lin aimed to develop optical-disc technology and specifications before Sony and Philips, but Gerald warned that research time and drive costs could threaten their lead.

• Kojima studied Lin Lixin’s Castlevania design proposal and welcomed the freedom to develop the game as he wished.
• Sam delivered semiconductor textbooks, and Lin Lixin began sorting them as he took on the task of learning the technology.
• Lin Lixin told Gerald that memory development was essential for GAMENOVA’s 16-bit console and introduced a Sony optical disc he had obtained through Satoshi.
• Lin Lixin said the 12-centimeter disc could store 700MB, astonishing Gerald with its capacity.
• Lin Lixin insisted that GAMENOVA develop its own optical-disc specifications and patented technologies quickly, while Gerald warned that research delays and drive costs could put the console behind competitors.

After mastering semiconductor technology, Lin Lixin planned to use his knowledge to expand GAMENOVA’s hardware capabilities and acquire control of Micron. He also intervened in the search for a composer for Castlevania, recommending Michiru Yamane.

• Lin Lixin studied semiconductor technology, gained the Infinite NAND Gates skill, and declared that he could now lead GAMENOVA past its hardware bottlenecks.
• Lin Lixin told Sam to discreetly buy as much Micron stock as possible and asked him to find nearby IC design labs or small manufacturers.
• Lin Lixin found Hideo Kojima arguing with Satoshi about Castlevania’s soundtrack and offered to take over the call.
• Lin Lixin recommended Michiru Yamane, a graduating music student at Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts, as a suitable composer for Castlevania.

Lin Lixin established a dedicated music studio and began shaping Castlevania’s soundtrack and design. While reconsidering the game’s rigid platforming controls, he turned to Dead Cells for inspiration and recalled its designer’s idea of “control tricks.”

• Lin Lixin instructed Satoshi to form a formal game music composition team called N.M.B, with Koshiro leading it.
• Kojima suggested using gothic rock as the soundtrack’s main style, and Lin Lixin assigned him to oversee the music and related artistic adjustments.
• Lin Lixin invited Kojima to stay at his home after learning Kojima had nowhere to sleep, and promised Sam would arrange accommodation the next day.
• Lin Lixin planned Castlevania’s nonlinear labyrinth map around ability progression, using obstacles and enemy placements to teach players how to explore.
• Lin Lixin reconsidered Castlevania’s stiff jumping and limited midair control, then thought of Dead Cells and its designer Benard Sebastian’s concept of “control tricks.”

Lin Lixin explained how input compensation could make jumping feel precise in the action game Castlevania. The team agreed that forgiving controls would let players focus on combat rather than basic platforming.

• Lin Lixin introduced Coyote Time by showing Will and the others a Wile E. Coyote clip and explaining that players could still jump briefly after leaving a platform.
• Lin Lixin explained that players naturally try to jump at the last moment, and that a short reaction window prevents a missed jump from feeling like a game bug.
• Sid Meier suggested buffering inputs before landing, and Lin Lixin added reverse Coyote Time, or platform snapping, to help characters reach a platform they had nearly missed.
• Will worried that the control assists would remove too much difficulty from level design.
• Kojima argued that Castlevania was an action game rather than a platformer, and Lin Lixin agreed that precise jumping should let players focus on combat, equipment, and abilities.

Lin Lixin traveled to France and acquired Ubisoft to distribute GAMENOVA products across Europe while supporting the studio’s game development. A week later, GAMENOVA released Castlevania, and Miyazaki bought a copy in Japan.

• Lin Lixin arrived at Ubisoft’s castle headquarters in Brittany and offered to establish a European subsidiary through the acquisition of the company.
• Yves Guillemot and his brothers agreed to Lin Lixin’s proposal to keep Ubisoft’s name and staff while distributing GAMENOVA products throughout Europe.
• Lin Lixin left the remaining negotiations to Sam and planned to place Bill in a sales role at Ubisoft.
• GAMENOVA released Castlevania simultaneously in North America, Japan, and Europe.
• Miyazaki used money earned from submitting a Fire Emblem strategy guide to buy a new Castlevania cartridge.

Miyazaki was captivated by Castlevania’s music, vampire-fantasy setting, and RPG systems as he began playing. Exploring the castle, he discovered the game’s controls felt unusually precise and responsive.

• Miyazaki heard Castlevania’s grand, organ-like music and was enthralled before the title screen appeared.
• The game revealed its title during a solar eclipse, and Miyazaki recognized its theme as European vampire legends connected to Dracula.
• Miyazaki examined the RPG menu, including its stats, inventory, and soul slots, and guessed that enemies could provide souls.
• Miyazaki entered the castle and tested the controls, noticing that the character responded immediately to his inputs.
• After studying the character’s jumps and landings, Miyazaki concluded that Castlevania’s controls were exceptionally precise.

Miyazaki struggled through a brutal boss fight in a game by GAMENOVA, discovering that death erased his progress but finally defeating the giant skeleton on his fourth attempt. The victory thrilled him until he opened the map and saw that he had explored only 2.1% of the game.

• Miyazaki found a short sword and tried repeatedly, without success, to jump to a cloak at a fork in the path.
• Miyazaki entered a room with a giant skeleton, discovered its club and fireball attacks, and was killed after failing to dodge.
• Miyazaki learned that the game had permadeath when continuing sent him to the title screen with empty save slots.
• Miyazaki restarted four times and finally defeated the skeleton, leveling up and restoring his health and mana.
• Miyazaki opened the map and saw that his exploration percentage was only 2.1%.

Miyazaki explored Castlevania, realized how its interconnected map and ability gates encouraged puzzle-like exploration, and recorded the design ideas he had discovered. He concluded that Castlevania was the perfect game to learn from as he pursued video game programming.

• Miyazaki studied the map and realized that he had explored only a small part of Castlevania's enormous world.
• After obtaining the area map, Miyazaki wondered why unexplored branches remained inaccessible, while Hunter and Vincent recognized them as ability gates familiar from The Legend of Zelda.
• Hunter obtained the Flying Armor, which let him cross a previously impassable path and reach a new area.
• Miyazaki returned through areas he had cleared and realized that his own growing skill, rather than his character's level, had made the world less dangerous.
• Miyazaki concluded that ability gates turned exploration into puzzle-solving and wrote down Castlevania's interconnected-map, combat, boss, and storytelling techniques.

Castlevania’s soundtrack and European sales exceeded expectations, while Carmack returned to GAMENOVA. At Nintendo of America, Minoru Arakawa warned Hiroshi Yamauchi that Castlevania was nearing one million worldwide sales and had impressed him.

• Sam reported that Castlevania’s Japanese soundtrack sales had surpassed one hundred thousand copies.
• Lin Lixin credited Michiru Yamane and Kojima for the music and asked about Ubisoft’s European results.
• Sam reported that Castlevania had passed five hundred thousand copies in Europe, mostly in Ireland, Britain, and France.
• Carmack rushed into the office and joyfully reunited with Lin Lixin.
• Minoru Arakawa called Hiroshi Yamauchi and said Castlevania was nearing one million worldwide sales and was very impressive.

Nintendo’s leaders worried that GAMENOVA’s Castlevania had overshadowed Metroid, while Micro-Nova completed its NovaRadeon graphics card and OpenGL. Carmack demonstrated the new system by producing a rotating 3D cube.

• Hiroshi Yamauchi and Minoru Arakawa discussed how Castlevania’s success could make Metroid seem like an imitator, but Gunpei Yokoi argued that Metroid focused on exploration rather than combat.
• Carmack arrived at Micro-Nova and announced that he had finished OpenGL.
• Lin Lixin found Carmack directing the developers and asked why Vivian had not come with him.
• Vivian showed Lin Lixin the nearly finished NovaRadeon, a VGA card with 256 colors, 256 KB of video memory, and OpenGL support.
• Vivian used a few lines of code to draw an equilateral triangle, then Carmack wrote a short program that displayed a rotating 3D cube.

Carmack returned to GAMENOVA after finishing the OpenGL work, where Lin Lixin introduced him to Will and Sid, who were adapting SimCity into a civilization strategy game. Lin Lixin outlined the 4X concept and greenlit Civilization as a launch title for the next-generation console, then set about securing the name.

• Carmack returned to GAMENOVA headquarters and learned that Will, the developer behind SimCity, and Sid were working together on a civilization strategy game.
• Will and Sid showed Lin Lixin their SimCity modification, which included a branching technology tree for unlocking new projects and buildings.
• Lin Lixin explained the four 4X principles—exploration, expansion, management, and conquest—and connected them to the Civilization board game.
• Sid recognized that the board game captured the nation-leading strategy game he wanted to create, and Lin Lixin officially approved the project as a next-generation console launch title.
• Sid worried that the board game already owned the Civilization name, but Lin Lixin signaled Sam to prepare the acquisition paperwork.

Lin Lixin proposed replacing square tiles with a hexagonal grid for a strategy game, then demonstrated how district placement and adjacency bonuses could make city planning engaging. The others eagerly tested the system, leaving them absorbed in the new design idea.

• Lin Lixin explained how square grids distort movement distance and argued for using hexagons instead.
• Carmack noted that adjacency rules affect combat balance, while Lin Lixin identified movement distance as the key geometric issue.
• Lin Lixin introduced hexagonal magnetic tiles and a district system with terrain-based adjacency bonuses.
• Will, Sid, and the others experimented with district layouts and debated how to maximize bonuses.
• Lin Lixin described alternative victory paths, while the group remained engrossed in the planning game.

Lin Lixin solved the NovaXeno’s memory constraints by proposing expandable memory and introducing his SDRAM architecture to Vivian. He wanted Micro-Nova to secure the core patents and profit through partnerships with other semiconductor companies.

• Lin Lixin realized that the NovaXeno’s memory requirements made a large built-in memory capacity too expensive.
• Sam suggested leaving expansion slots so players could add memory themselves, and Lin Lixin told Gerald to revise the design.
• Lin Lixin explained his SDRAM architecture to Vivian, describing how synchronized memory could reduce processor waiting and queue data requests.
• Vivian understood the design’s potential, and Lin Lixin said Sam was building a patent pool to keep Micro-Nova’s core memory patents under its control.

Lin Lixin considered adding telephone-line online multiplayer to NovaXeno and realized the system needed compelling games to make it worthwhile. He demonstrated his vision for Civilization’s music and ended by introducing its theme, “Dream of Flight.”

• Lin Lixin proposed an optional modem peripheral for online multiplayer, and Gerald pointed out the telephone lines’ severe bandwidth limits.
• Lin Lixin decided that turn-based games could work over telephone lines and concluded that a strong game lineup could make online play appealing.
• Lin Lixin brought a piano to the development department and performed folk songs from around the world for Will, Sam, Kojima, Sid Meier, and the others.
• Lin Lixin explained that Civilization would use each civilization’s traditional music as its main melody, with richer variations as the game’s eras advanced.
• Lin Lixin introduced his Civilization theme, “Dream of Flight,” and began recalling the game’s opening narration.

Lin Lixin introduced a grand orchestral theme for Civilization and helped the team develop its world-wonder mechanics. When Gerald raised concerns about slow online play over telephone lines, Lin Lixin proposed delta synchronization to reduce the data sent between turns.

• Lin Lixin performed “Dream of Flight,” and Sid urged him to make it Civilization’s theme.
• Lin Lixin suggested using the European branch’s musicians to produce the orchestral piece.
• Sid and the development team researched historical wonders and discussed their effects and global uniqueness.
• Lin Lixin asked Sid to add representative quotations to wonders and technologies.
• Gerald brought Lin Lixin a modem and warned that telephone-line bandwidth could make later-game turns take too long.
• Lin Lixin proposed sending only changes in the game state through a method he called delta synchronization.

Lin Lixin, Gerald, and Carmack developed techniques to make online games work smoothly over phone lines. GAMENOVA stunned viewers with a cinematic trailer revealing Civilization, which was scheduled for release on Christmas 1986.

• Lin Lixin explained command-only synchronization and client-side prediction to Gerald, while Carmack said the prediction system was finished.
• Lin Lixin and Carmack continued work on reconnection, hot-loading, and switching to UDP.
• Nintendo released Metroid in August, while GAMENOVA partnered with MCA Records to release the Dream of Flight record.
• One week later, GAMENOVA aired a three-minute Civilization trailer on television, depicting humanity's progress from ancient civilizations to the space age.
• The trailer revealed Civilization's December 25, 1986 release date and opened preorders, prompting viewers to rush to order the game.

Frank preordered Civilization and learned that it required GAMENOVA’s expensive new NovaXeno console, while Lin Lixin reviewed the hardware’s strong early preorder numbers. The NovaXeno had sold 230,000 preorders in its first week, and Civilization had reached 253,000 copies before its release.

• Frank reached the counter after waiting in line and tried to preorder three copies of Civilization for himself and his roommates.
• The clerk told Frank that Civilization required GAMENOVA’s new NovaXeno, explaining its standard and deluxe editions and their different storage drives.
• Frank saw that the NovaXeno deluxe edition cost $339.99 and preordered one to play Civilization.
• Lin Lixin read Sam’s report showing 230,000 NovaXeno preorders in the first week and approved spending more on publicity.
• Lin Lixin saw that Civilization had 253,000 preorders, suspected scalpers had inflated the figure, and chose not to interfere with the market.

Lin Lixin took Micron private through GAMENOVA after acquiring nearly all its shares, then turned his attention to Samsung Electronics. Meanwhile, Frank showed Mike and Alan NovaXeno’s newly revealed specifications, leaving them amazed by its graphics capabilities.

• Sam told Lin Lixin that he had secured founding team member Joe’s agreement to sell his Micron shares for eight million dollars, and Lin insisted on pursuing absolute control.
• In mid-August, GAMENOVA became Micron’s largest shareholder, and Lin’s stake rose to ninety percent after a public tender offer and short-form merger.
• In September, the US-Japan Semiconductor Agreement was signed, and Sam began approaching loss-making Samsung Electronics on Lin’s instructions.
• Frank rushed into the dorm with ElectronicGames magazine and showed Mike and Alan the full NovaXeno specifications.
• Mike and Frank marveled at the console’s sixteen-bit processor and display, while Frank explained that its VGA standard could produce more than a thousand colors on-screen.