America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 26 Wet document archiving technology is said to be

Meyer arrived at the apartment building immediately.

Lin Lixin could understand his caution; a purchase price of four thousand US dollars was not a price that any arcade operator could easily agree to.

Especially since Meyer is an exceptionally cautious Jewish man, he would never risk ordering a product before seeing a prototype.

"Mr. Lin, is this the legendary Contra?"

As soon as he entered the door, he saw what he had been longing for.

The machine was clearly handcrafted by Lin Lixin and his team, with several drafts scattered haphazardly on a low table nearby.

"That's right, but time is tight, and we haven't finalized the design of the outer casing yet."

Lin Lixin nodded, casually picked up one of the drafts, and handed it to Meyer.

Meyer glanced at him and saw a muscular man wearing a tank top and a black headband. His sharp eyes made it clear that he was not someone to be trifled with.

Beneath that tough guy's body were the large letters 'CONTRA'.

The "C" was even depicted as a flame, making it exceptionally stylish.

Meyer stared at the burly man's face, finding it increasingly familiar. He then clapped his hands loudly, his eyes widening.

"Arnold Schwarzenegger! So that rumor is true?!"

Rumors are circulating that Arnold Schwarzenegger, who just starred in "Conan the Destroyer," is preparing to endorse a video game.

Originally, everyone just took this as a trivial rumor or gossip.

But as time went on, the story became more and more detailed and believable, even describing the events in detail.

This greatly worried his fans, who all knew the state of video games these days.

To put it bluntly, endorsing video games is just about making money without any regard for ethics, and it puts you on the opposite side of the general public.

Making this choice during a period of growth is tantamount to digging one's own grave.

"That's right," Lin Lixin readily admitted, seemingly unconcerned. "We've already signed an endorsement deal with Mr. Schwarzenegger."

He didn't say anything more, turned on the power to Contra, and indicated that Meyer could start playing.

……

Meyer considers himself a successful arcade game developer.

He chose to ride the wave during the golden age of video games and built one of California's largest arcade operators in just a few years.

He had seen many arcade games, almost all of them in the world.

But he had never seen anything like Contra before.

It's like a game from the future; from the visuals to the game design, every component is extremely mature, even perfect.

Meyer noticed that his hands were trembling slightly.

"Mr. Lin, I can pay a 50% deposit in advance, as long as we can formally sign an exclusive supply agreement!"

To put it bluntly, if this thing were actually put up for bidding, it would be a pipe dream to win it at this price.

Mayer is a savvy businessman; during the game just now, he had already deduced the hardware cost of this machine.

At the current price, Lin Lixin can earn a net profit of thousands of US dollars for every unit sold.

But Meyer didn't mind at all, because even so, the profit margin left for him was still incredibly large.

With the exaggerated quality of "Contra" as a guarantee, the collaboration encountered no obstacles whatsoever.

However, after settling the details, Meyer did not leave. Instead, he stared at the machine in front of him for a while before suddenly speaking:

"Mr. Lin, how many levels are there in Contra?"

Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow slightly, surprised by Meyer's keen insight.

Unlike home consoles, arcade revenue is strongly correlated with the coin insertion rate and the duration of a single game.

Unlike Tetris, Contra is a game with a complex storyline, consisting of multiple levels.

For an average player, it would take at least half an hour or even an hour to complete the game.

"There are eight levels in total, plus a final boss."

"It's too long."

Meyer frowned slightly.

He doesn't think that a long game is a bad thing, but it is definitely a drawback from a commercial perspective.

"Mr. Lin, arcade games are not home consoles. Most people can't spare such long periods of time to play them."

Unlike Tetris, where you can leave immediately if something urgent happens and simply start another game, Tetris doesn't allow you to leave immediately.

If you have to leave halfway through your visit, you'll have to start all over again the next time you go.

This could potentially undermine player morale.

"You mean... developing a save system for arcade games?"

Lin Lixin understood what Meyer meant and stroked his chin, lost in thought.

He quickly found a very suitable solution.

"I understand. Wait for my good news."

Hearing Lin Lixin's straightforward answer, Mayer was taken aback, but didn't say anything more.

Faced with an omnipotent money tree, there's only one thing he needs to do: Trust!

……

As night fell, Sam, who had returned from minding the shop, listened to Lin Lixin's account and scratched his head.

"Save your game? On the arcade machine? Are you kidding me??"

How many people visit a single arcade machine each day? Sam, who was in charge of the store, already had a clear understanding of this.

That beloved original Tetris machine of his, now... sigh.

"If you were to store data for everyone, how much storage capacity would you need?"

"You're right, Sam."

Lin Lixin did not deny this, but he also did not intend to use that kind of modern archiving technology.

He patted Sam on the shoulder and strode into Sam's bedroom, his eyes searching through Sam's collection of game cartridges.

To be honest, Sam's game collection is absolutely complete.

Even for games released after the Atari shock, he gritted his teeth and reluctantly bought a few sets.

Lin Lixin found a cassette tape on the shelf labeled "Survival Island".

This is a game that was released in 1983, which is last year.

"Huh? I have this thing?"

Sam was stunned for a few moments when he saw the cassette tape cover.

Since the Atari crash, he has played video games much less frequently.

For him, buying game cartridges has often become a purely collectible activity.

"What's wrong with this game? Could it be...?"

"That's right." Lin Lixin nodded and installed it into his Atari 2600. "This game has a save function."

"But... how is this possible? This machine doesn't have any write storage devices."

Sam, being a grassroots geek, immediately spotted the problem.

The Atari 2600 is not a computer; it does not have the function of writing content.

"Of course not, so they didn't store the archives on the host machine either."

Lin Lixin smiled and manipulated the game screen to enter the 'loading' function.

The screen displays the message "Enter Code," prompting the player to input their information.

Below it are two rows of 12-digit numeric input fields.

"They stored the save data in the players' minds."