Game Market 1983 Chapter 51

Currently, I had around 2.2 billion Yen in my bank account. My financial situation hadn’t changed much from when I first arrive at this era.

I had invested in over six premium shops in New York City, as well as sponsoring the cartridge production for Dragon Emblem with my money. Although the game was a huge success, it was hard for me to see any noticeable returns.

Thankfully, I was able to procure some profits for myself with the specialty chip which improved the Family’s capabilities that Chandra had invented.

I was in the same financial situation from back then, but I built up an excellent social presence as well as a vast business network that allowed me to recruit MIT engineering majors…

Would I be unhappy?

“Aren’t you the elated one, Director Kang!”

“Is it obvious?”

“Very much so.”

“Ah~ I should head back to the office and work on my facial expressions then. Miss Elise, you have to keep today’s events a secret from Mr. Yamas.h.i.+ta and Mr. Gunpei.”

“もちろん、カン監督” (Of course, Director.)

“Oh~ Your accent is great!”

“After you flew back to j.a.pan, I’ve been practicing j.a.panese by myself [relentlessly].”

“Do you still want to work at the Mintendo HQ?”

“Of course. I’m still learning j.a.panese so maybe in 1~2 years? I do want to be employed at the HQ as soon as possible, if it wasn’t for Mr. Yamas.h.i.+ta and James…”

“James?”

“Ah, he’s my boyfriend. Also, I have a dinner planned with him today, do you want to come with us?”

“Me? Eyy~ I’m good. I don’t want to be the third wheel b*stard intruding on your date.”

“He’s not the type to care about that, not to mention me. It’s fine!”

No, I’m not fine…

As I politely refused her offer with an awkward smile, Elise did not ask anymore.

&

“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Director Kang~.”

“Drive safely, Miss Elise. I hope your date goes well~.”

Vroom~

After dropping me off in front of Mr. Wilson’s store, Elise immediately steered her car to the departing lane and drove off.

I stared at the back of Elise’s car until it disappeared before turning my head around to look at Mr. Wilson’s store. As it was the holiday season, there were many bustling customers inside the store.

A crowd was gathered around the experimental trial station near the display window, trying out our various games. Amongst them, a few were able to clear the stages and were happily holding the corresponding prizes.

Morita’s ill.u.s.trations were especially popular as one of the prizes; He’d love to hear about this when I go back to j.a.pan.

&

Dawn. I borrowed a car from Mr. Yamas.h.i.+ta and visited MIT.

The distance from New York to Boston was around 350km. It wasn’t a short ride by any means, but I felt the necessity to oversee the development, so I could better explain it to Chandra.

Thankfully, MIT did not restrict outsiders from entering; I was able to find my way into the ‘Hack+’ club room without much trouble.

The 7 members from yesterday were gathered around a table holding a meeting.

After all, inventing a computer part from scratch wasn’t an easy task. The very first step was constructing a blueprint for the development goals.

“Ah, h.e.l.lo again.”

As I entered the room, 7 different pairs of eyes immediately focused onto me. A few s.h.i.+fted their gazes to my backside. Were they looking for Elise?  Unfortunately, Elise was currently working with Mr. Yamas.h.i.+ta.

“Is he our patron? He looks be around the same age as us. Does he know how to speak English?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. He’s really good.”

John reintroduced me to everyone again. The average age of the students was in their early 20s, so my physical body was a little older. However, I became friendly with them after a few conversations.

As the meeting resumed, I sat down in a corner and began to take notes.

“As John said earlier, I agree that we would need an independent memory for a device that would lessen the burden on the CPU. If both the CPU and our VGA were sharing a single memory, it’s bound to overload.”

“The price of production would increase, but we have no choice but to add a separate memory to decrease the load on the CPU. Before we draw the outline, let’s run through the logistics.”

In response to Rob’s statement, I tilted my head and asked.

“Already? You guys haven’t bought the necessary parts yet.”

“What are you talking about, the materials are already here.”

Rob pointed at the pile of computer parts in the corner of the room and flashed a grin. Contrary to my expectation, the method they came up with was simple. I thought these MIT geniuses would think up some extraordinary development method, but the first plan proposed by Rob was utilizing 2 computers.

It was the “brute force method” but was nonetheless effective. By linking two motherboards together, one would be used to handle the CPU while the other would render the graphics. With this, both motherboards would be able to utilize the 1 MB of memory independently. But would it be this easy?

Even if the two motherboards were connected, a ‘driver’ to configure the memory card to graphic rendering was needed.

This was their first hurdle; They needed to rewrite the Bios setting for the memory to be optimized for graphics rendering.

“This isn’t going to be easy. We should set up the Bios first before we draw out our next plan.”

The other team members nodded to Rob’s words before adding in their own comments. If Chandra were here, he would’ve been able to exchange ideas with the team. What a shame…

&

Like that, 10 days had pa.s.sed.

“Hey… it’s working!”

As Jack shouted out, the members and I who were inside our sleeping bags rubbed our eyes open. During the past 10 days of me working with them on the graphic driver, I had adopted their exact lifestyle.

“It is!! F*ck!!”

“Wh, What!? What’s working?”

I jumped down from my bed and took a look at the monitor. On display was 2 pyramid-shaped polygons which were spinning in a clockwise direction, albeit with a bit of static.

“Oh!! F*ck!! Jesus Christ!!”

Shouts of joy exploded from all around the room as various figures erupted from their sleeping bags and rushed towards the monitor. The connected PCs were operating as a single unit with two independent memories.

We huddled together and pranced around like the seven dwarves from Snow white. The graphic might’ve looked pathetic to the moderners, but this was a huge step forward for us. But our joy was short-lived… As we were whooping and hooting, Rob looked at the graphic rendering motherboard with a serious expression and opened his mouth.

“But how are we going to reduce an entire computer to the size of a chip?”

The room turned silent. Now… the joyful mood was gone. Was it time to bring up the “magical” bonus compensation talk?

&

Yet another 2 weeks had pa.s.sed…

After dinner, I was playing a 3:3 basketball match with the team. We had figured out a general outline for the 3D rendering chip, but there was still too much work. They had to consult their professors for some of the complex technicalities to draw a blue print.

“You said you were flying back to j.a.pan next week?”

Jack and Rob were wearing despondent expression as my departure date drew nearer; we had become close during the past few weeks exercising and drinking together. Especially Rob, who had been an avid fan of Psychic Battle, requested me to send him a signature from the developer of the game.

If I had only been thinking about using them for their skills, I would never have formed a friends.h.i.+p with them. Programmers had a certain pride in their unique method of coding, and they would never open up to others who didn’t understand their methods. As I had been working with them since the Bios setup, they must’ve acknowledged me to some extent.  

Bounce~

I bounce pa.s.sed the ball to Rob as I spoke.

“I will keep my promise. A signature from the developer of Psychic Battle~!!”

“Yeah~!! Thanks for remembering. But who exactly is the main programmer of Psychic Battle?”

“Me.”

“What!?”

“Just kidding~.”

“Of course you were joking. You can code efficiently, but it’s not to the extent of Psychic Battle~.”

“I really am the main developer. But my friend completely reorganized my code.”

“You really are the developer!? Aside from that, your friend was able to rewrite your entire code!?”

Each programmer had their unique method of coding; they would organize cla.s.s and loops in a certain way, so it was very difficult for someone else to be able to rewrite the entire code their way.

“You can’t believe it either, right? But it’s the truth. He’s a genius.”

“Is he j.a.panese?”

“No, Indian.”

“Oh. I hope I get a chance to meet him.”

“You should bring the entire crew to j.a.pan in the summer. I’ll book a hotel for you guys.”

“Really? You’re great!”

As soon as Rob pa.s.sed the ball, I bounced the ball once before bending my knees to shoot from the 3-point line.

Shhpp~!!

The ball dropped from the hoop along with the satisfying thump sound.

“Take things slowly. All you have to do is finish the blueprint by summer.”

“You said take it easy and want us to have the blueprint ready by summer. You have no soul~.”

Jack came over and pa.s.sed the ball on the ground back to me.

“You don’t think you can do it? Oh well~ I guess you won’t receive your bonus~”

“You miserable b*stard~ Keke.”

“If you think it’s unfair, go earn money yourself~ Haha~.”

We emptied the entire bottle of beer while we cursed each other into the night.

&

The next day.

After acquiring the license to sell the Gamboy, Mr. Wilson was installing the display model in front of a premium store.