[The characters, places, organizations, events, and other elements appearing in this work have no relation to reality whatsoever and are fictional creations born of the author’s imagination.]
――――――――――
In the first planning meeting room, where the core personnel had gathered, Henry ostentatiously pulled away the black cloth. Beneath it, a mock-up device revealed itself, sleek and elegant in its curves, utterly unlike the clunky home appliances of 1979. For a moment, a cold silence settled over the room. Henry lightly grasped the device in one hand and spoke with composure.
“This is [Enjoy]’s first ambitious project.”
The device placed on the conference table had completely erased the massive joysticks and complicated button layouts that were popular at the time. It was even compact. The portable devices coming out now were only portable in name; in reality, they were as huge as bricks, a size that flew directly in the face of the very common sense of portability.
‘This still has a twentieth-century sensibility, but… in this era, this is what works! And since I paid attention to the details in my own way, I should give their eyes a little treat.’
“The features are clear. Instead of the cumbersome joystick used until now, I’ve placed a four-directional key I designed myself—the D-pad—on the front. To that, we’ll apply the low-power LCD technology for calculators that everyone from ARF knows better than anyone. The goal is one thing: a size that fits neatly into the breast pocket of an adult’s shirt.”
Marcus, formerly of [Yatari], furrowed his brow and asked sharply.
“If it doesn’t use replaceable cartridges, won’t consumers get bored of it quickly? That’s the exact opposite of [Yatari]’s formula for success.”
As if he had expected the question, Henry responded with a faint smile on his lips.
“We did consider a ROM replacement method like [Yatari]’s home consoles, but right now our goal is maximizing portability. At the current level of technology, forcing a slot structure into it would only make the device heavy and sluggish. For now, we’ll seize the market with a finished product that has one game built in. We’ll leave the cartridge method as a hidden card for our next project. Delicious things are meant to be eaten later, after all.”
Henry handed the mock-up to the developers beside him so they could touch it for themselves, then continued.
“We won’t simply call this a game console. Comprehensive Multi-Entertainment Machine will be its official name. Besides games, what else does it need? A clock and an alarm, of course. Look at the back of the mock-up. You see the built-in stand, don’t you? When it isn’t being used for games, it becomes a stylish desktop digital clock. With this one function alone, our target expands beyond children to businessmen all over the world. The pretext is a clock; the essence is a game. Isn’t that perfect?”
“If we’re going to fit a speaker and an alarm IC into something this size, battery life will be the key.”
“I’ve considered underclocking for battery efficiency as well, but that’s something you, the experts, will have to verify in an actual operating environment. We aren’t making a calculator, after all. We need a clever trick that cuts power consumption while maintaining responsiveness to controls. In other words, we need you to produce an extremely efficient power design.”
Henry moved his finger over the design blueprint lying on the table.
“Please pay attention to precise placement that minimizes the distance between components. With your skill in handling calculator chipsets, you should be able to find even an extra 0.1 millimeter of space on the board and secure internal room. Rather than a forced design, show me the absolute limit of efficiency that can be extracted within a flat plane. That is the value of the name ‘pocket.’”
The veterans from ARF listened closely to Henry’s instructions and nodded again and again. The air in the meeting room soon changed to one of awe at the fact that the young family head, whom they had thought was merely an investor, had a perfect grasp of the mechanics of hardware.
‘Whew, those documentaries are paying off here. Honestly, I’m all talk myself.’
Wiping away a cold sweat inwardly, Henry cross-checked in his head the contents of the game conglomerate novels he had read in his previous life with the documentary about [Nintendore] from actual history. The blueprint he had now presented was close to an upgraded version of the device [Nintendore] would unveil in the second half of next year. It was truly a perfect regressor-style free ride—getting the jump on the flow of history before anyone else could.
‘If I stake my claim first like this and even push it all the way to release, then now, how will [Nintendore] respond?’
.
.
.
Henry returned to the company after finishing lunch at a high-end Italian restaurant. The flavor of truffle oil still lingered in his mouth, but now it was time to show not the face of a hardware designer, but that of a “game planner.” When he entered the meeting room, Marcus and the programmers from ARF were waiting for him, leafing through stacks of papers filled with planning proposals.
Henry took a sip of the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee Jay had prepared in advance. It was a luxury item that would have been difficult even to glimpse in Korea in 1979, but as if this level of privilege were only natural, he set the cup down elegantly. Then he spread a blank sheet of paper on the table.
“If the hardware is the vessel, the game is the dish served inside it. No matter how elegant the vessel is, if the food tastes bad, no one will come back for more. We can’t even give our guests time to complain that it’s tasteless. We need an ‘addictive flavor’ that numbs the tips of their tongues before they can even open the restaurant door and leave, making them crave only our dishes.”
Marcus, formerly of [Yatari], spoke up as if he had been waiting for this.
“How about something in the style of [Yatari]’s Pong or Breakout? They’re already proven hits, and they wouldn’t be too technically demanding to implement on an LCD.”
Henry immediately shook his head.
“No, Marcus. That’s the fun you get when you sit at home in front of the TV and enjoy it on a big screen. For a portable device you pull out of your pocket and play for a few minutes while waiting for the bus, even the game itself can’t be too monotonous. It needs an appealing character and a clear narrative.”
‘As expected of someone from [Yatari], bringing up Pong right away. Is this why people start saying, “Back in my day…”?’
Henry drew a crude but striking gorilla in the center of the paper, along with a small man holding a hammer.
“The name will be King Kong… no, that could cause copyright issues, so let’s call it Mighty Ape or something. A giant gorilla throws barrels from the top of a building under construction, and Marino, the carpenter below, avoids the barrels and climbs up to rescue his girlfriend.”
The programmers’ eyes widened. In an era dominated by abstract objects made of dots and lines, Henry had thrown out a concrete drama.
“Due to the nature of a segment LCD, the dots can’t move freely, but if we make them move by blinking along fixed coordinates like stairs and ladders, we can create sufficiently dynamic action. Especially that satisfying feel of using the D-pad I designed to climb up and down ladders and jump over barrels! That will be the core of our game.”
“A carpenter… That’s quite specific. It’ll be far more immersive than simply dodging dots.”
A programmer from ARF muttered while examining Henry’s sketch closely. Henry smiled and drove the point home.
“And the most important point. Make the difficulty increase every time a stage is cleared. The human desire to win is infinite. We need to implement an addictiveness that makes them watch their rising score and keep holding onto the device until the battery runs dry.”
Henry pulled the mock-up device on the desk toward him, pointed to the three buttons placed along the bottom, and continued speaking.
“The Game A, Game B, and Time buttons attached to the bottom. This configuration is key. The game buttons control the difficulty, and the Time button instantly switches the screen to the clock when pressed. Whether they’re office workers or students, what if they’re secretly enjoying a game and their boss or teacher appears? With one press of a button, they can return to looking devoted to their proper duties. A kind of disguise, you could say.”
Henry did not stop there. On the blank paper, he began drawing characters so elaborate that they would be impossible to implement with the technology of the time. In an instant, a caricature was complete: Marino, a plumber-like man with a charming mustache, and a fierce-looking gorilla that somehow had a cute side to it.
‘My improved health stat is definitely paying off. I was good at drawing in my previous life too, but my hand never moved this freely.’
Henry set down the pen, inwardly surprised by his own speed. The air inside the meeting room had already frozen. More than the proposal itself, Marcus in particular seemed overwhelmed by the quality of the sketch Henry had just shown and by the star appeal of the cuteness contained within it.
“Now then, these are our Marino and gorilla characters that will be used in advertisements. Of course, I’m not making the unreasonable demand that you implement this level of quality on the crude LCD screen inside the game device. These are the faces that will later be drawn on billboards and product packaging. What I need from you is to preserve the feel of these images as much as possible when implementing their movements in the game.”
Marcus, formerly of [Yatari], pulled the paper toward himself as if entranced and examined the characters.
“My God… Boss, these aren’t just game characters. This could become an icon in its own right. Even people who don’t buy the game device will want a doll of this gorilla! What an appealing character! If we made it into a stuffed toy and sold it right away, it would fly off the shelves.”
At Marcus’s excited reaction, the programmers from ARF also adjusted their glasses and began analyzing Henry’s sketches.
“With the characters this clear, the game’s objective becomes clear as well. Jump to avoid the barrels, and rescue the woman caught by that gorilla… We can code that immersively enough with 8-bit logic.”
Henry smiled in satisfaction and drove the final nail in.
“Exactly. We aren’t just selling machines. We’re selling a story. We’re putting that short drama of Marino defeating the gorilla and rescuing his lover into people’s pockets. It’s only a single line of narrative, but that will provide a decisive distinction from other games.”
“But, Boss. As for the gorilla, as you said earlier, we can say its prototype is a giant monster, but why is this character’s name Marino of all things?”
“Marcus. Do you know who the chef was at the Italian restaurant we just ate at?”
“…No? Boss, since that was my first time there, all I know is that the pasta was excellent. Don’t tell me?”
“Exactly. His name is Marino.”
‘I went through some trouble finding that restaurant just so I could make the name Marino fit. In truth, the man’s name is Marinoni, but isn’t it only polite to take one part of a name and call him by that?’
Henry felt slightly awkward even after saying it himself, so he awkwardly shifted the topic to Jay, who was sitting in one corner of the meeting room.
“Jay, send the copyrights and trademarks for these characters to the Think Tank patent team immediately as well. The names are Marino and Gorilla. Especially this gorilla—it isn’t just a wild animal. Tell them to bind it up as a trademark together with the proper name ‘Mighty Ape,’ as well as this fellow’s distinctive pose of throwing a drum barrel. If later on, someone draws a similar hairy gorilla and has it throw even a drum barrel, whoever they are, they’ll be seeing the terrifying faces of our legal team in court.”