America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 66 GAME&WATCH

Including Howard, GAMENOVA now boasts four major third-party developers, and in terms of lineup, it seems to be on par with Nintendo's many long-established giants.

However, we will have to wait a while before they produce any work.

Before that, Lin Lixin naturally had to return to the development work of GAMENOVA itself.

The flight landed in Los Angeles at noon.

Lin Lixin quickly arrived at Santa Clara's hardware department.

Sam and Gerald are studying a palm-sized machine.

Upon hearing that Lin Lixin had returned, Sam ended the discussion and eagerly came to greet him, his face beaming with excitement.

"Is everything taken care of?"

Sam has been very supportive of this effort to win over the RPG company from the very beginning.

Which gamer hasn't been moved by Ultima, the RPG that was their gateway into gaming?

Even though the scenes of Genesis seem so simple and unadorned to Sam now, they still hold a special place in his heart.

"Isn't that necessary?"

Lin Lixin chuckled, pulled out several signed and stamped contracts, and handed them to Sam to do the rest of the work.

"By the way, did you get what I needed?"

His gaze swept across the table, where Gerald had several small, square gadgets lying beside him.

"I asked a friend to get the goods all the way from Japan, so they're absolutely genuine."

Having received Sam's assurance, Lin Lixin approached Gerald and began to examine him closely.

This is the GAME & WATCH, the world's second handheld console and the first game console with a true LCD screen.

Released by Nintendo in 1980, it was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, the pillar of Nintendo's hardware division and the "God of Hardware".

Lin Lixin picked it up. It had a square shape with a small LCD screen in the middle with a resolution of only 40x35 pixels. There were two red round buttons on the left and right sides.

This was the initial version. Lin Lixin didn't know exactly where Sam had dug it out from, but it was undeniably a great help.

"This is an improved version released in 82."

Gerrard picked up another one and showed it to him.

Unlike the rudimentary version of the first edition, the 82 version showed a very significant improvement.

"D-pad..."

Lin Lixin murmured, tapping it lightly a few times.

The seesaw-like structure provided him with the perfect physical feedback between his fingers.

This design, called D-Pad, is Nintendo's, or rather, Gunpei Yokoi's, greatest innovation.

It has been a constant throughout gaming history, establishing the standard paradigm for gamepad input.

Gunpei Yokoi is an extremely formidable opponent.

Lin Lixin put down the GAME & WATCH and looked at Gerald, saying:

"Has its configuration been determined yet?"

"Pretty much, it's actually quite simple."

Gerrard nodded and took out a configuration list.

His words weren't meant to show off; in terms of configuration, GAME & WATCH is indeed a very simple device.

Its true greatness lies in its groundbreaking concept.

They took over MAR's short-lived portable concept and put it into practice.

It can be said to be a milestone product from 0.5 to 1.

As for the configuration...

That's really a bit too shabby.

"Wow, a 4-bit microcontroller?"

Lin Lixin almost lost his composure when he saw the first line.

SharpSM5xxFamily is a 4-bit processor from Sharp.

It's not even 8 digits.

As for the other components, they are more like ancient relics unearthed from the Primitive Era.

But that's understandable, considering it's a handheld device from 80.

"Lin, when Nintendo made this machine, its configuration was decent, but considering the quality of modern games, I really don't think there's anything to worry about."

"I'm not worried about this thing..." Lin Lixin tossed aside the configuration list and rubbed his temples.

GAME & WATCH doesn't pose much of a threat to them nowadays.

"What I'm worried about is Nintendo's next handheld console... Do you think Nintendo might abandon the handheld market?"

"The next generation..."

Gerrard felt a chill run down his spine.

The success of the FC was so dazzling that he momentarily forgot that Nintendo would certainly not stand still.

GAMENOVA isn't the only company that makes new games and new consoles.

However, no matter how much Gerrard imagined it, he could never have such a clear sense of reality as Lin Lixin.

Because the next generation of handheld consoles is called Game Boy.

A symbol of an entire era.

Even a former First Lady of the United States has been photographed playing Game Boy on a private jet.

Countless people throughout history have tried to challenge its dominant position.

Sega launched the Game Gear, Atari launched the Lynx, SNK launched the NeoGeoPocket...

However, all of these challenges failed.

The only thing that can defeat Game Boy is Game Boy itself.

It wasn't until the early 2000s, with the advent of the 32-bit GBA, that the GB's absolute dominance in the 8-bit handheld era came to an end.

Lin Lixin was very clear that this was not an opponent he could easily defeat simply because of the information gap brought about by time travel.

"Any news from Vivian?"

"Not yet, but I estimate it will be at the latest this month."

Gerrard shook his head.

Micro-Nova is currently developing a dual-purpose graphics card called "NovaWonder," commissioned by Lin Li-hsin, with the goal of being compatible with the current mainstream EGA standard.

According to Vivian, the performance has basically met the specifications and far surpasses IBM's display devices.

Gerald briefed on the progress of graphics chips, and then added,

"Zilog also replied yesterday, saying that they have already produced the first batch of tape-outs based on your architecture diagram, and named them Z80Y."

"Not bad." Lin Lixin nodded. "Then let's start developing NovaPocket as soon as possible."

"Lin..." Gerald hesitated before speaking, flipping through the configuration list Lin Lixin had left behind, "Regarding games..."

One of the biggest problems with handheld consoles compared to home consoles is that they don't come with a floppy disk drive like the NovaBox.

The game's size is a major issue.

The idea of ​​porting several major works is simply a pipe dream.

Lin Lixin understood what he meant, nodded, and remained silent for a while.

Storage media is indeed a very tricky problem.

The era of Game Boy marked the beginning of NAND technology's development, and the growth of storage media was about to accelerate.

This was also a significant turning point in Sony's failure with UMD technology on the PSP.

Without the help of NAND, game development would be severely hampered by the current 64KB storage capacity.

The reason why "Ultramar" can be compressed to less than 64KB is because of map tile technology, extreme reuse of materials, and the fact that the map size is not large.

Neither Story of Seasons nor The Legend of Zelda can be stored in 64KB.

In particular, without floppy disks, they would lose their key feature: the save function.

It seems like taking the risk of making a handheld game console now would be a losing proposition.

"Cartridge capacity is indeed a problem, but I do have a solution for saving the game."

Lin Lixin went to the whiteboard and wrote a message.

"Battery archiving technology".