Chapter 596 Arcade: Ping Pong

Chapter 596 Arcade: Ping Pong

Chapter 596 Arcade: Ping Pong

In fact, although video game consoles were invented in the 70s, strictly speaking, video games were invented in 1958, the year when Yang Wendong traveled through time;
However, it was just an experiment to simulate the possibility of realizing games on computers. The pixels at that time were less than 100, and the game was just a bunch of blocks. There was no point in playing. Moreover, computers at that time were owned by large companies or experimental institutions, and they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, so it was impossible to popularize them.
By the 70s, with the iterative development of the electronics industry, the operating capabilities of chips were able to begin the civilian gaming industry, which laid the foundation for the development of the electronic gaming industry.
Regardless of whether Yang Wendong exists or not, or even if the Atari in history did not exist, as long as the technology is there, the corresponding industry will emerge.

Gordon Moore thought for a moment and said, "Video games? This idea has been considered by some people in our industry, but no one knows what kind of games to make. Too complex games cannot be made because the current chips do not have enough computing power, and too simple games are not playable.
The development of this kind of game is also very costly and time-consuming, and is even more difficult than designing chips. It is not just a technical issue, but also requires consideration of many market issues.”

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "I will consider the market issues, and you just need to be responsible for the technical implementation."

Gaming is an industry that combines creativity and technology, and the creativity is even more important than technology.
Because if you have an idea, no matter how rich you are, you can hire technicians to realize it, but the reverse is not true. No matter how strong your skills are, if you don’t have an idea, it won’t work in this industry.

As a time traveler, Yang Wendong naturally knows the creative part, but he is very lacking in technology. Some simple technologies from his previous life are very difficult to experiment with in this era because the chip level is very poor and the cost is also very high. If he wants to make a low-priced game that the market can accept, he must find a team with good technology to develop it. Intel is naturally his best partner.

One is creative, the other is technical, a perfect combination.

Gordon Moore didn't think much about it and agreed: "Okay, Eric, tell me what your game is like, and I'll see if I can make it happen."

Although he is a technology geek, he also knows something about the shareholders of his company. As one of the top entrepreneurs in Hong Kong, Eric Yang is very good at various creative ideas. Even some news in the United States praised his inventions for changing the lives of many people.
Even for him, sticky notes, suitcases, calculators, etc. are more or less useful to everyone. Even if they are not used directly, they will benefit indirectly because the cost reduction of many companies will eventually benefit everyone.

Yang Wendong did not answer directly, but asked: "Gordon, do you know table tennis?"

"Ping Pong? I've heard of it, but I've never played it." Gordon Moore replied, "This game is Ping Pong? Are you going to put Ping Pong in a video game?"

"Yes, I have this idea." Yang Wendong nodded.

Table tennis is still very popular in parts of Asia, but not so much in Europe and the United States. It only has a little bit of popularity because it is one of the Olympic events.

Relatively speaking, Europe and the United States still prefer large-scale competitive sports such as football/rugby. They are not good at small-scale sports. In the past, after the mainland participated in the Olympics, it almost monopolized table tennis, which also explains some problems.

However, table tennis will soon become a hot topic, that is, the improvement of Sino-US relations is achieved through "Ping-Pong Diplomacy". Although these are just names, the popularity of table tennis has increased anyway.

Gordon Moore thought for a moment and said, "Table tennis is indeed a simple sport with fewer rules, similar to badminton. You can give it a try. Eric, do you have the specific images ready?"

"There are some simple ones, take a look first." Yang Wendong said, and immediately took out a document that had been prepared long ago from his bag;
Before coming to the United States, he was planning to commission 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 70s. However, there were so many Overlord family games from the 80s that he could refer to them and know how to design it.

Before releasing the product, he had already registered patents for many of its appearances and gameplay structures. Even in the future R&D agreement with Intel, the patents and copyrights will all belong to him, and the other party will only take money to develop and meet technical needs.

Gordon Moore was also a smart man. After seeing Yang Wendong's hand-drawn image, he quickly understood: "Is this screen a two-player battle mode? If so, it would be much more complicated."

"It is naturally better for two-player games. Is it technically impossible to achieve this?" Yang Wendong asked in return.

Although the game of table tennis looks simple, the current chip capabilities are not necessarily that good, so it is hard to say whether it can be realized;

Historically, Atari launched the table tennis game at the end of 1972. It is very likely that the technology was still one or two years behind, and this one or two years might have resulted in the failure to realize a game or a technological product.

Gordon Moore thought for a moment and said, "I'm not sure about this now. We need to do some research before we can get any results." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Okay, that's not a problem. Does Intel still have the human resources to invest in this?"

Gordon Moore replied: "There is no problem with manpower. Although Intel is very busy now, it is mainly engaged in production and quality assurance. R&D has been idle recently.

But Eric, we haven't done research on your project, and if we try it, it will cost a lot of money in the early stages."

"It's okay. Just spend as long as it's not wasted." Yang Wendong said nonchalantly, "Besides, no other company in the world has done a project like this. Everyone is a newcomer."

If he had the ability, he would naturally hope that people in Hong Kong would be responsible for this matter, but for now, it is still impossible;

Whether it is the personnel he sent to the United States to study, or the talents trained by the University of Hong Kong and Honor Electronics, they may be able to make simple control logic in home appliances, but such a complex game, which also involves technical difficulties such as chips, circuit boards, and screen matching, is really difficult to succeed;
Time waits for no one, and he dare not bet on whether Atari or other companies will come up with video games first. The time window is only one or two years, so the most appropriate method at the moment is to outsource to American companies;
In a few years, when Hong Kong's electronics industry is more developed and has its own say in the industry, we can allow Hong Kong to try to develop its own games. However, at present, this industry is in a golden window and we must pursue stability.

It is most convenient to let Intel be responsible. As for the funds, he, as a shareholder, also has supervision. As long as they don't waste money and make the product, he won't care about some waste. After all, even if people from his own company come to handle this kind of thing, there is no guarantee that there will be no problems.

"That's fine." Gordon Moore nodded, then looked at another piece of paper and asked, "Is this the terminal of the product? This size is almost taller than a person. Who would buy something like this for fun?"

"How much do you estimate this video game console will cost?" Yang Wendong did not answer directly, but asked instead.

Gordon Moore thought for a moment and said, "I'm not sure, but to complete such a design, even if we choose our own chips, we will need at least dozens of them. Even if I give you the cost price, it will be more than $2000."

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Yes, at a price of $2000, how many people do you think will buy it even if I make it smaller?"

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 research and development capabilities will also increase rapidly, which is also of great help to the development of the game industry.
And as a shareholder, even if it is impossible to get the cost price, it may be much cheaper. In this era, the cost ratio of chips is very high. If it can be cheaper, it will also be a big profit. When I have more orders in the future, even the cost savings of chips can exceed the $30 of my early investment.

Gordon Moore asked: "So this is for commercial use? But if it is for commercial use, who will it be sold to? Big companies will pay high prices for computers because computers can actually bring huge benefits. This game console can't do that, right?"

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "Don't worry about this, just make the product first."

The customers of the arcade are naturally bar owners or other places like bars where a large number of customers can gather;

No one knows about this matter yet. Although it won't be top secret in the future, there is no need to tell everyone about it now, and there is no benefit in telling it.

"Okay, I won't ask any more questions." Gordon Moore continued to look at many papers, checking each sentence step by step, and then when he encountered a question, he asked;
Yang Wendong also patiently answered them one by one. For him, making Gordon Moore more familiar with his future games would be more beneficial to his research and development.

After all, I will be going to Hong Kong in the future, and there is no video chat now. If Gordon Moore makes a mistake later, I won’t know about it, and it may be several months before I find out, which will waste a lot of time.

After a while, Gordon Moore agreed: "Eric, I will gather everyone to study this project tomorrow. Whether it can be done or not, I will tell you as soon as possible."

"Okay, I'll be in Los Angeles these days too. Tell me when you have preliminary results." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

PS: Ask for monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)