Chapter 596 Arcade: "Table Pong"
In fact, although the electronic game console was born in the 1970s, the electronic game strictly was born in 1958, which was the year when Yang Wendong traveled;
However, it is just an experiment, simulating the possibility of implementing games on computers. At that time, the pixels were less than 100, and the game was just a bunch of blocks, which had no meaning to play; and the computers at that time were all large companies. Or it is owned by a test institution, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it is impossible to popularize it;
In the 1970s, with the iterative development of the electronics industry and the ability of chips to operate, the civilian game industry was also able to begin. This is the foundation of the development of the electronic game industry;
Whether there is or not Yang Wendong, or even the original Atari does not exist in history, as long as the technology arrives, the corresponding industry will appear.
Gordon Moore thought for a while and said, "Electronic games? This idea has been considered by some people in our industry. But no one knows what kind of games to do. It is too complicated to do it. The chip computing power is not enough now. Too simple and has no playability;
The development of this kind of game is also very cost-effective and time-consuming, and is even more difficult than making and designing chips. It is not just a technical issue, but also a lot of market issues need to be considered. ”
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "I will consider the market issues, just be responsible for the implementation of technology."
Games are an industry that combines creativity and technology, and even the creative part is much more important than technology;
Because you have creativity, no matter how rich you are, you can hire technicians to achieve it, but it cannot be the other way around. No matter how strong the technology is but without creativity, it won’t work in this industry;
As a time traveler, Yang Wendong naturally knows the creative part, and technology is very lacking. It is very difficult to experiment with some simple technologies in previous lives in this era because the chip level is very poor and the cost is very high. I want to create a market. To be able to accept low-priced games, you must find a team with good technology to develop, and Intel is naturally its best partner.
One is creative and the other is technical, perfect combination.
Gordonmore didn't think much about it and agreed, "Okay, Eric, what is your game like? Let's listen to it, let me see if it can be realized."
Although he is a technical otaku, he also knows some of his company's shareholders. As the top entrepreneur in Hong Kong, Eric Yang is very good at all kinds of creativity, and even some news in the United States are here. Some of his inventions have changed many human lives;
Even he is the same, post-it notes, trolley cases, calculators, etc., have more or less functions for anyone, and even if they cannot use them directly, they will benefit indirectly, because after the cost of many companies has dropped. , it will benefit everyone in the end.
Yang Wendong did not answer directly, and asked back: "Gordon, do you know table tennis?"
"Table tennis? I've heard of it, but I haven't played it." Gordonmore replied, "Is this game table tennis? Are you going to put it in the video game?"
"Yes, I have this idea." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
Table tennis is still very popular in some parts of Asia, but it is not very good in Europe and the United States. It is just because it is one of the Olympic events, so it is a little hot.
Relatively speaking, Europe and the United States still like large-scale sports competitions such as football/rugby. In small sports, it is not what Europe and the United States are good at. After participating in the Olympics in the mainland in the past, it almost monopolized table tennis, which also illustrates some problems.
However, table tennis will soon attract a sense of popularity, that is, the improvement of Sino-US relations is achieved through "Table Tennis Diplomacy". Although these are just a name, no matter what, the popularity of table tennis has risen.
Gordonmore thought for a while and said, "The exercise of table tennis is indeed relatively simple, with fewer rules, similar to badminton. You can try it, Eric, are you prepared for the specific image?"
"There are some simple things, you can take a look first." After Yang Wendong finished speaking, he immediately took out a document from his bag.
Before coming to the United States, he was preparing to entrust Intel to make this game, so he was naturally prepared;
As a post-80s generation in his previous life, he naturally had never seen a game from the early 1970s. However, there are so many small bully family games from the 1980s, and you can see how to design it after reference.
Before he took it out, many appearances and gameplay structures had been registered and patented by him. In the future, the patents and copyrights were all their own. The other party just collected money to develop and achieve technical needs.
Gordon Moore is also a smart person. After seeing Yang Wendong's hand-drawn image, he quickly understood: "Is this screen a two-player battle mode? This will be much more complicated."
"The game is naturally better for two-player battles, but can't it be technically implemented?" Yang Wendong asked back.
Although the game of table tennis looks simple, the current chip capabilities may not be very good, and it is hard to say whether it can be realized;
In history, Atari launched the table tennis game at the end of 1972, which is very likely that the technology is still one or two years away, and the past two years may lead to the inability to realize a game or a technical product.
Gordon Moore thought for a moment and said, "I'm not sure about this now. I have to conduct some research before there will be results." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Okay, this is not a problem. Intel still has human resources now. Are you invested in doing this? ”
Gordon Moore replied: "There is no problem with manpower. Although Intel's business is very busy now, it mainly focuses on production and quality assurance business. R&D has become idle recently;
However, Eric, we have never done research on your project. If you try it, it will cost a lot of money in the early stage. ”
"This is okay, just spend as long as you should, as long as you don't waste it." Yang Wendong said without caring: "Besides, no other company in the world has ever done such a project, and everyone is a newcomer."
If he has the ability, he naturally hopes that people from Hong Kong will be responsible for this kind of thing, but at present, it is still impossible;
Whether it is the personnel he sent to study in the United States, or the talents trained by the University of Hong Kong and Honor Electronics themselves, it may be possible to make simple control logic in home appliances, but such complex games also involve chips, circuit boards, screen matching, etc. Technical problems are really difficult to succeed;
Time waits for no one, and he dares not bet on whether Atari or other companies will create electronic games first. The time window is only one or two years, so the most suitable method at the moment is to outsource it to American companies;
After a few years, Hong Kong's electronics industry will become more developed and have the right to speak in the industry. Then, you can appropriately let Hong Kong try to develop games by yourself, but the golden window that has just appeared in this industry must pursue stability. .
It is the most convenient to let Intel take responsibility. As for the funds, as a shareholder, he also has monitoring. As long as he does not waste money and then makes the product, he will not care about some waste. After all, this kind of thing is considered to be himself. Even if the company comes, it may not be possible to ensure that there will be no problems.
"Okay." Gordonmore nodded, looked at another piece of paper, and asked, "Is this the terminal of the product? This size is almost taller than that of a human. Who would buy such a thing? ”
"How much does this electronic game console cost?" Yang Wendong did not answer directly, but asked back.
Gordon Moore thought for a while and said, "I'm not sure, but if you want to complete such a design, even if you choose our own chips at present, you will have to at least dozens of them. Even if I give the cost price, it will cost more than $2,000."
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Yes, the price is $2,000. Do you think that no matter how small I make, how many people will buy it home?"
No mistakes, one song, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one reading!
The biggest benefit of investing in Intel is that it can promote the early birth of the chip industry. When Intel has money, their chip R&D capabilities will also be rapidly improved, which is also of great help to develop the game industry itself;
And as a shareholder, even if it is impossible to get a cost price, it may be much cheaper. In this era, the cost ratio of chips is very high. If you can get a little cheaper, it will be a big profit. If you have too many orders in the future, even if you do it, The cost of chips can also exceed the $300,000 you invested in early stages.
Gordon Moore asked, "So this is commercial? If it is commercial, who will be sold to? Large companies will buy computers at high prices because computers can actually bring huge benefits. Is this gaming machine not good?"
Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "You don't have to worry about this, just make the things before talking about them."
Arcade customers are naturally bar owners or other similar bars where a large number of guests can gather;
No one knows this matter yet. Although it will not be said to be top secret in the future, there is no need to say it everywhere now, and it is not beneficial to say it.
"Okay, I'll just ask." Gordonmore continued to look at a lot of paper, gradually checking every sentence, and then when there was a problem, he asked;
Yang Wendong also responded patiently one by one. For him, it would be more conducive to his research and development by making Gordon Moore more familiar with his future games;
After all, I will go to Hong Kong in the future, and now there is no video chat. If Gordon Moore makes a mistake later, I don’t know. I will find out that it may be a few months later, which will be a waste of time.
After a long time, Gordon Moore agreed, "Eric, I will call everyone to study this project tomorrow. No matter whether it can be successful or not, I will tell you as soon as possible."
"Okay, I'm also in Los Angeles these days. If you have the preliminary results, let me know." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(This chapter ends)