game trailblazer

Chapter 271 Debut at TGS
The night was getting darker, and a gust of cold wind was blowing, Aoyama Minghong involuntarily tightened his coat, paced back and forth in the park restlessly, cursing in his heart.That damned Takashima, I haven't heard from him for a few months, suddenly called him today, saying that he got something, and I blame him for his soft ears, but he believed it so easily, and even made an appointment with Takashima to this park meet.However, an hour has passed since the agreed time, and Takashima has not even appeared, and the hope in Aoyama Akihiro's heart has gradually dissipated.

Aoyama Akihiro has completely given up on that Takashima now. He dared to let his pigeons go without saying anything for a few months. Otherwise, why would he be wasting away in the park in the cold weather and shivering in the cold wind? Trembling, even if my uncle could bear it, my aunt couldn't bear it.

"Damn it, I didn't expect Tokyo to be so cold in March." Akihiro Aoyama couldn't help cursing, tightened his coat again, turned and walked towards the parking lot of the park, he didn't want to wait any longer.Akihiro Aoyama decided to find a warm place to have a drink or two later, and as for that damned Takashima, "Let him go to hell!" he muttered as he walked.

……

At 3:19 am on March [-]th, the much-anticipated spring Tokyo Game Show kicked off. The first day is a professional visit day, which is only open to game industry insiders and media, so it is generally the day with the least number of visitors.Aoyama Akihiro walked out of Sony Computer Entertainment's booth refreshed, intending to find out what happened to other companies, especially Nintendo, the most dangerous rival. The ghost has been automatically ignored by him.In the words of his most respected President Ken Kutaragi, "Even if Sega is allowed to run for a year first, Sony is sure to defeat him, and only Nintendo is our strong enemy." He also firmly believes in this.

When Akihiro Aoyama left the Sony booth, many spectators had gathered around him. He knew that these people were all here to inquire about PS2 news, but these were destined to be disappointed. President Ken Kutaragi had decided not to participate in this Tokyo Game Show. The details of the PS2 will be announced further, and the demo machine will not be released.Akihiro Aoyama knows that the PS2 is actually still under development. Except for the main processing has been confirmed, other parts may be adjusted, so it is not easy to announce.

The only thing that makes Aoyama Akihiro a bit regretful is that somehow, Sony Computer Entertainment couldn’t come up with a few attractive masterpieces at the Tokyo Game Show this time, or else it’s already on the market like “Final Fantasy 8” , When contacting many game developers before the start of the exhibition, their attitudes were also very ambiguous. He felt that he seemed to smell some kind of dangerous signal, which was one of the reasons why he wanted to inquire about the news.

Of course, it’s not easy to inquire about Nintendo’s news. Who makes people too individual, who would rather stay at home with some “chuxinhui” than participate in the Tokyo Game Show, but Aoyama Akihiro wants to show the number of N64 games through other game development companies Let's estimate the potential of Nintendo's foreign aid. Although the current N64 is basically supported by Nintendo itself, he believes that Nintendo must not give up its plan to win over third-party game development companies.

The booth closest to Sony Computer Entertainment is Sega’s booth. Perhaps the “double shortage” of out-of-stock and games a while ago stimulated Sega too deeply. This time at the Tokyo Game Show, they released a large number of games in one go, including Namco. The sequel of "Soul Blade" "Soul Force", TECMO's fighting game "Dead or Alive 2", Iino Fatty's "D No Food Zhuo 2", etc., especially the "Shenmue" created by Sega's AM2 Research. "Almost attracted the attention of the whole audience. Many people in the game industry and media reporters lined up one after another, just to experience the unique QTE combat form of "Shenmue" (according to the screen prompts, press the corresponding handle button).

"Mr. Suzuki, I noticed that the full name of "Shenmue" is "Shenmue Act [-]: Yokosuka", does that mean there will be a second and third act?" Some media reporters stopped the creator of "Shenmue", Yu Suzuki, Seek proof.

"You are right, because the world view of "Shenmue" is too complex to be expressed in a single GD-ROM, so we plan to serialize "Shenmue", which will be divided into 16 chapters according to the preliminary idea (act )." Suzuki Yu replied with a smile.

"Wow, isn't that going to release 16 works in a row." A reporter exclaimed.

"It's not exactly like this. Maybe a certain work in the middle will consist of several chapters (acts), but all this has not been finalized yet. Let's enjoy the 'first act' first." Suzuki Yu smiled said with an invitation.

Akihiro Aoyama looked at Yu Suzuki with a smug face, and said with disdain in his heart: "Be proud, hum, wait for our PS2 to come out, and see how long you are still proud."

After seeing several booths in a row, Aoyama Minghong still had nothing to gain. Of course, this may be good news for him, because these booths are all demonstrating games developed for PS game consoles, although they are all second- and third-rate works. , but at last it wins in large quantity and cheap.

Akihiro Aoyama opened the brochure in his hand. This is a manual of "99' Spring Tokyo Game Show Guide", which comprehensively introduces all the manufacturers participating in this Tokyo Game Show. I still found a place that needs to be investigated, "Blue Bird Co., Ltd". His concern, although he believes that there will be no company that can shake the current position of Sony Computer Entertainment, especially the new companies that have just entered the industry, how can everyone be as lucky and wealthy as Sony, but be careful Wrong, it is still indispensable to have a look.

The booth of Blue Bird Co., Ltd. is not difficult to find. Aoyama Minghong walked through more than 20 booths of small and medium-sized exhibitors along the route he planned. mouth.According to his expectation, Blue Bird Co., Ltd. should be a small company that does not know how to live or die (compared to Sony), and its strength should not be much stronger. Naturally, the booth cannot be too big, but what appears in front of Aoyama Akihiro is a large-scale The huge booth is no less than Sony Computer Entertainment, and on the left side of this booth is Capcom, and on the right side is Konami, both of which are the main manufacturers of PS games. This can be seen from last year's game sales list .

The booths of Capcom, Konami and Blue Bird Co., Ltd. are neighbors, and Aoyama Akihiro is not in the mood to care. After all, Sony Computer Entertainment has always adhered to the loose management method, and did not force the game developers in its camp to only work on PS game consoles. Developing games, so it's normal for them to have something else on their minds.

What amazed Aoyama Akihiro was the crowd in front of the booth of Blue Bird Co., Ltd. The crowded scene was even more crowded than those who went to Sony Computer Entertainment. : "Hmph, what's so interesting about a broken company."

After all, the investigation is still continuing. Aoyama Akihiro deliberately turned over his badge, and then mixed into the crowd, wanting to get some information first.After queuing for about 10 minutes, he successfully received a brochure titled "Knowing DreamBox128 Host" from the staff of Blue Bird Co., Ltd.He opened the booklet and looked at it, and he couldn't help showing a surprised expression again.

"...a special 64-bit central processing unit R-4052A with a main frequency of 250MHz and a floating point capability of 6.2GFLOPS...configured with dual processors..."

"How is this possible? How can the 64-bit R-4052A catch up with our EE processor! And there are two at the same time!" Aoyama Akihiro shook his head, completely unable to believe the numbers he saw in front of him.

"...has powerful graphics processing capabilities, can process 4920 million polygons per second, and the peak value is as high as 7500 million polygons...Supports hardware-accelerated edge anti-aliasing, material mapping, bump mapping and other special effects..."

Aoyama Akihiro's pupils dilated suddenly, and he shook his head in disbelief: "It must be a typo. How could such an unknown small company develop such an advanced graphics processing chip? It's impossible!"

The more he looked back, the more frightened Aoyama Akihiro became. Each number seemed to be transformed into a sharp knife, cutting his fragile heart. In the end, he had no choice but to use "the most important thing about a game console is not its performance, but its usefulness." Enough games" to comfort himself, in his opinion, even if this little-known small company gets lucky and develops a game console with world-leading performance, it is absolutely impossible to own Sony Computer Entertainment Now such a strong game development camp.

After closing the booklet "Getting to Know the DreamBox128 Host", Akihiro Aoyama went to the booth of Blue Bird Co., Ltd. and walked around. He got another booklet called "DreamBox128 Expected Game List", and flipped through it a little. , there are not many games in it, but more than 10 game developers and more than 60 games under development.

"Capcom: "Resident Evil: Code Veronica", "Street Fighter ZERO3", "Rockman New Legend", "Onimusha"..."

"Konami: "Silent Hill 2", "Metal Gear Solid 2", "Heartbeat Memories 2", "Suicide Margin"..."

“史克威尔：《最终幻想9》、《前线任务3》、《异度装甲2》、《寄生前夜2》、《勇者斗恶龙7》……”

"SNK: "The King of Fighters: Ultimate Impact", "Metal Slug X", "Samurai Soul: Zero"..."

"CHUNSOFT: "The Wind Comes to Xilin 2: Ghost Attack! Xilin City", "Intersection of Street Destiny"..."

……

"Heaven Garden: "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask", "Pro Evolution Soccer 4", "Gran Turismo 2", "Mobile Suit Gundam X"..."

The names of heavyweight manufacturers and the titles of best-selling masterpieces are like hammers, hitting Aoyama Akihiro's heart again and again, making his breathing confused, but some people who can't figure it out At this moment, the matter seemed to be suddenly connected. He figured out why the game development companies were so ambiguous when Sony Computer Entertainment invited them this time, and why the booths of Capcom and Konami were not placed next to Sony. Next to the booth of Blue Bird Co., Ltd.

A feeling that something bad happened came to Aoyama Akihiro. He felt that this Blue Bird Co., Ltd. was not the kind of stunned young man he originally imagined. It was impossible for ordinary people to be able to persuade so many game developers to join. Yes, this shows that Blue Bird Co., Ltd. came prepared this time, and has keenly grasped the key to the development of game consoles.Thinking of this, Aoyama Akihiro didn't bother to go to the inside of the booth to inquire again. Of course, the main reason was that he didn't have time to continue queuing up. He picked up the few brochures he got just now and hurried out of the Makuhari Messe , intending to report this shocking news to President Ken Kutaragi.

……

Standing in front of the booth of Blue Bird Co., Ltd., Zhong Chuanli looked at Aoyama Akihiro who ran away in a hurry, and his heart was also full of panic.Just now he asked a friend to investigate the background of the Blue Bird Co., Ltd. Although the time was short, it was enough to dig out some information, and he also had a superficial understanding of the Blue Bird Co., Ltd. from it.Blue Bird Co., Ltd. is actually not a new company. It has existed as early as 20 years ago. At the beginning, it was a small company that designed flower cards. After game development, there was a short period of rapid development, and soon withdrew for unknown reasons. By the time of the economic recession in 1990, Blue Bird Co., Ltd. had gradually fallen to the brink of bankruptcy, and was later People bought it, and since then it seems to have disappeared halfway, and it didn't reappear until three months ago, but at this time it turned into a developer of home game consoles.

In fact, I don't care about the performance of the Blue Bird Co., Ltd. DreamBox128 host. Anyway, my own Dreamcast host has been launched, and it is impossible to take it back to the furnace. The key is whether there are enough games to support it.But the DreamBox128 host in front of me seems to have no shortage of heavyweight games, such as "Resident Evil", "Final Fantasy", "Dragon Quest", "The Legend of Zelda", "Grand Racing", "Silent Hill" and so on. , all of them are well-known names, to have a Dreamcast host is a great support for Sega, but the DreamBox128 host has all of them, so he doesn't know what to say.

One thing that is not enough is certain, that is why last year Capcom vowed to bring "Resident Evil" to the Dreamcast console. Although the final name was not confirmed at the beginning, Nakagawa Li knew that "Resident Evil: Codenamed Wei" "Nonica" was intended to be developed for the Dreamcast console, but who would have guessed that this time the game seems to be coming out soon, but it no longer belongs to the Dreamcast console, and Sega's hopes fell through again.

Nakagawa Riki sighed, holding the "DreamBox128 Expected List of Games to be Launched" brochure in his hand, and walked out of the exhibition hall in a daze, intending to report the new situation here to the president of Renko Shoichiro.

"I hope the president can find a way to deal with this new opponent..." Zhong Chuanli thought weakly in his heart.

(End of this chapter)