Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

To be honest, more than one person has this idea of ​​using Nintendo's red and white machine to use Shirakawa Electric's game cartridges.

After all, I have already bought a game console to play certain games. Going to buy a game console with a similar positioning, no matter how you look at it, you will feel that it is not worthwhile.

So some clever people began to try to exchange game cards and perform grafting operations.

After trying it, Naihe discovered that the game cartridges of the two companies even had different numbers of gold fingers.

As for the adaptation, that is even more a fantasy, and you can't even get into it.

If you try to make a miracle with all your strength, the golden finger will snap off with a snap.

In desperation, seeing "Tank War" and "Double Dragon" swept the streets and alleys.

Those who bought a red and white machine can only exchange game consoles with their friends who have a blue and white machine.

However, because there are only three games released by Nintendo, there are not many people who are willing to make this kind of exchange.

Another week has passed, although Nintendo and Shirakawa Electric have not yet announced the specific sales of their respective game consoles.

However, from the completely different hot and cold phenomena in the game cassette market, we can already get a glimpse of the difference in popularity between the two.

Unwilling to be lonely, the media can't wait for the official data of the two companies, and has already analyzed the reasons why Baichuan Electric has gained an advantage from various aspects in advance.

First of all, the first one is the game lineup of Shirakawa Electric, which is extremely rich.

In addition to the four officially launched games, there are also games such as "Little Bee", "Gate", and "Tennis Tournament" provided by third-party game developers.

If you count these games in detail, you will find that they range from the casual and cute "Pac-Man" to the shooting and fighting types of "Thunderbolt" and "Tank War".

They are rich in themes, including leisure, shooting, fighting, puzzle, sports and other game types.

What's even more rare is that the quality of games is generally excellent, especially "Tank War" and "Double Dragon", which are simply a surprise to many people.

Not to mention the gameplay, "Tank War" took the lead in opening the player's self-editing game map.

It's a cool thing to think about designing your own levels.

As they have been passively accepting the gameplay, when can they participate in the design of the game?

Under this kind of open creation and extremely free gameplay, players are enthusiastic.

Many people even draw the maps they designed with pens, and then exchange their ideas with other friends.

As for "Double Dragon", as the first scroll-type banner breakout game, its debut has received unanimous praise from players.

Shirakawa Electric's games are designed with such care, how about Hong Fang's Nintendo?

Not to mention only three games, two of them are twin brothers, both of which are derivative IP sequels of "Donkey Kong".

Although the game "Donkey Kong" is very popular and sells well, but everything is afraid of comparison.

In terms of the game lineup, Nintendo has been recognized by the media as having lost more than one chip, and even criticized for being insincere.

In fact, the old man also has a lot of hardships. In order to catch up with the release date, the progress has been greatly advanced.

But also because of the rush, manpower was devoted to the debugging of the game console.

As for being able to release three games, it is already very good, after all, Nintendo has not yet reached cooperation with other third parties.

Compared with Sega SG-1000, which only had one game at launch, Nintendo felt aggrieved.

However, the media did not pay attention to the reasons for this. They continued to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the hardware of the two game consoles.

After experiencing the game consoles of both parties, the doubts about Shirakawa Electric's SIC8089A chip disappeared completely.

Facts speak louder than words. The smooth operation of the blue and white machine ranks first among the three game machines.

"Monthly Microcomputer" wrote: In fact, we all underestimated the SIC8089A chip, which has been widely used in Neon last year.

There are many power and energy companies among them. I think getting their approval is enough to prove the reliability of SIC8089A.

And its performance at FES did not disappoint.

The main frequency of 5MHz and the addressing capability of 1M are the core weapons for FES to quickly load games and support players to edit maps by themselves.

Compared with Nintendo and Sega's game consoles, it is already a lot ahead in terms of performance.

In addition, we learned from SIC, the designer of the chip, that it is a chip for FES. It also integrates an image auxiliary chip and a coprocessor chip inside.

These two special auxiliary chips are specially designed for game consoles.

I think this is why Shirakawa Electric's game cassettes are generally superior to other games in terms of graphics and detail.

Obviously, as the official studio of Shirakawa Electric, the designers of HAL are very aware of the limits of their own chips.

Compared with the other two game consoles, it is said that Nintendo's FC has customers complaining about the downtime problem. Of course, this has yet to be verified.

In terms of hardware, in addition to the performance of the chip and the design of the game console body, there are also some subtle differences between the two.

For example, the handle of FES uses the classic cross key design on its handheld, and the buttons also use more sensitive hard round keys.

It is easy, comfortable and low latency to use.

The Nintendo handle arrow keys are four round buttons, and its material is also soft silicone.

I have to say that compared with the cross key, this design is still a little uncomfortable.

In addition, if you move quickly, there is a certain probability that the soft silicone button will be squashed and no longer bounce.

In short, from the hardware to the game lineup, Nintendo, as the red side, is slightly inferior.

Putting down the magazine in his hand, Hiroshi Yamauchi's face was very ugly.

He remembered the big words he had said in front of the reporters.

Judging from the current situation, it seems not optimistic.

"Find more third-party game designers to join us as soon as possible. Compared with Baichuan Electric, we are one step slower."

Masayuki Uemura, who was in charge of the development of the Famicom, nodded immediately.

Nintendo also has its own third-party partners, such as Bandai, and Konami, which is under negotiation.

But at the beginning, Hiroshi Yamauchi didn't pay much attention to third-party game developers.

Because within Nintendo, there are four development groups that are responsible for game design and new ideas.

In his original thinking, this is enough for the FC platform to digest these games.

But the popularity of Shirakawa Electric's game cassettes gave him a different idea.

Only with enough and rich game categories can more users be attracted to buy FC.

"By the way, have any users of our FC complained about downtime?"

Hiroshi Yamauchi glanced at the magazine at hand, and thought of some descriptions in it.

"Uh," Uemura Masayuki looked a little hesitant, "There are a few complaint calls.

However, more than 100,000 units have been sold, and it is within the normal probability range that one or two of them have some defects. "

Hiroshi Yamauchi nodded, "Pay close attention to user feedback, Nintendo's signature is more important than anything else."

"Hay!"

"The sales volume of 210,000 units in half a month is still very good. Everyone's efforts during this period have not been in vain."

In the conference room, Bai Chuanfeng put down the data sheet in his hand and nodded in satisfaction.

With his approval, the people below applauded excitedly.

Although this red-blue duel is far from over, a good start is a good sign.

"Can you calculate the specific sales at Nintendo?" While celebrating, Bai Chuanfeng didn't forget to care about the situation of his old rival.

"The specific sales volume is unknown, but it should not exceed 150,000 units." Akagi, who was sitting at the bottom, quickly expressed his judgment.

As the person in charge of the game console business unit, he also keeps an eye on the performance of his opponents.

Although not very accurate, this number has already made Bai Chuanfeng feel relieved.

"Where is Sega, did you know about it?"

"Uh, maybe not more than 30,000 units." To be honest, Akagi really didn't take Sega very seriously.

He also thought about it for a while before finding out the information about Sega from his memory.

Less than 30,000 units, Bai Chuanfeng smiled and shook his head.

In this game console war, Sega has no sense of presence at all.

"As for the game cartridges to be released next month, a decision will be made as soon as possible and announced to the outside world in a timely manner."

"Hay" responded this time to Iwata Satoru.

He makes the final decision on what games to launch on the FES platform.

In order to continue the popularity, HAL will launch one or two new games every month.

For example, games such as "Gold Digger" and "Circus", which are planned to be launched in May, try to cover different subject areas.

For different types of game cartridges, their prices are not the same.

For example, the price of medium-level game cassettes such as "Gate" and "Little Bee" is generally around 3,800 to 4,500 yen.

However, the popular "Tank War" and "Pac-Man" are released at a price of 5,500 yen.

Inside Baichuan Electric, they are already classifying games.

For example, there are five levels of S, A, B, C, and D, but most of the current games are classified below A.

After all, pixel-style games should not be crowned with S-level.

Of course, if more revolutionary games appear in the future, SR and SSR are not impossible.

After reviewing the current sales of game consoles with them, Bai Chuanfeng felt that it would be okay to increase the pace appropriately.

"The production line of game cassettes can be added a few more, and our peripheral products can also be launched in advance.

For example, you can connect the keyboard used by the host computer and its matching learning cassette.

There is also a customized version of the handle related to the game theme. These can be launched if appropriate based on market research. "

Shirakawa Electric's FES itself is actually not very profitable, even less than 3,000 yen.

What really makes money is the game cassette and the subsequent rich peripheral products.

Doing business on a small day, how can you get all kinds of limited edition and customized peripherals.

As long as he can make money, Bai Chuanfeng doesn't care whose wallet he reaps.

After the meeting here at Baichuan Electric, he was going to fly to Beimi again.

A larger conference will be held there in May regarding the standardization of optical drives.

In addition, Bai Chuanfeng is also going to talk to Microsoft about the Windows system.

He has heard that the other party is developing the first generation of Windows system.

If the other party can be persuaded to add a CD playback function, then presumably there will be greater progress in CD-ROM and CD-ROM.

Alas, I just spent a week with Huya in Okinawa. Not long after returning to Tokyo, I have to fly to Beimi again. I am really busy.

As for the results of the red-blue duel expected by the outside world, it will not be announced until the beginning of May.