38 EP. 10: Odd Games (3)

What exactly could this mean? Also, there was a message that popped up that said to never throw the game away. It was also displayed at the end. In other words, it's implying that there's more to come. In any case, the alphabet code seems like a type of password to use in the sequel. The clues made it so that if you were to throw it away, you'd still easily be able to sell it to second-hand stores. Although we don't know who it is, this developer gives off the feeling of an incredible marketing genius who is also well-versed in the game industry. ”

At that moment, Mr. Gunpei muttered the series of letters that Mr. Shige presented, and he opened his mouth.

“That… seems like an email address? ”

As expected of Mintendo's most elite. Having the knowledge of what the form of an Email address looked like in 1987... Just thinking about that was sending shivers down my spine. As of yet, the internet, which was still being referred to as a ‘communication network’ exclusive to the army, was something that nobody, who was a civilian in this time, should have the knowledge of… Or so I had thought. Was it possible that Mr. Gunpei had come from the future as well...?

“Email? Gunpei know what this alphabet code means? ”

“No… I don't understand it to that extent. All I know is that it's a form of communication, an identifier that works roughly the same as a house address. However, it would be difficult - in any case-to understand the underlying message by just knowing what it is, wouldn't you agree? ”

Kaah ~ Look at that comparison. I can't stop complimenting him... It was enough for me to spit out a compliment inside my mind, but no one in this meeting was able to understand Mr. Gunpei's words.

“Communication? Mr. Gunpei... I wouldn't understand it because I only make games. Can you please explain it in a way that will make sense...? ”

Mmm… Was it possible to explain it any simpler than that? With an impatient expression, I responded to Mr. Shige in place of Mr. Gunpei.

“Mr. Shige, you have a phone in your house, right? ”

“Of course. Is there anyone in this day and age that doesn't? ”

“A telephone is a communication device. One that allows you to have a conversation with a person over a long distance, right? ”

“That's … right? ”

“What Mr. Gunpei is trying to say is that the series of alphabet letters are similar to a phone number. We can send an electronic mail to a faraway person through the computer. ”

“That's right! Kang-kun! That's what I have been trying to say ~! As expected of Kang-kun, I had a feeling that he'd be able to explain ~”

In my perspective, you, who already had the knowledge of what an Email was, should be considered a far scarier ‘monster’ than me... At that moment, President Yamauchi closed his eyes and, after Mr. Shige's comment, asked:

“Grunt… Anyways, the conclusion is that a sequel could come out for this game, yes? It's terrifying to even think about that. Shigeru-kun, how much did you say that game cost? ”

“Um… the price began at 1000 Yen in the beginning, but now it has soared to almost 15,000 Yen, which makes sense given the quality of the game and the demand there is for it. Also, the fact that the game has yet to be cleared gives the users a sense of excitement. The reason for that seems to be the shocking rarity of the game. ”

“We don't know where this guy came from, but, if I meet him just a single time, I'm willing to spend a million dollars, if necessary. A producer who can utilise such psychological tactics on the masses...”

Even though this was only the beginning... President Yamauchi seemed to be sporting a strange emotion as Mr. Gunpei opened his mouth to speak again.

“I don't know as much about games compared to Mr. Shigeru or Kang-kun, but, upon hearing Mr. Shigeru speak, I couldn't help but notice a very strange point. ”

“Strange you say? ”

The cartridges we make are called ROM packs. Ah, President Yamauchi, a ROM pack is… ”

Wearing an impatient expression, President Yamauchi quickly interrupted Mr. Gunpei before he could go any further in his explanation.

“Hey, skip past that over-explaining habit of yours and just tell me the main point. ”

“I can't, even if I wanted to. This is one of those things where you need to hear the long explanation to understand properly. ROM stands for Read-Only-Memory — a type of memory that is only able to be read from. To my knowledge, the ROM makes it so that, if you were to ever use a different set of data, it would be unusable. ”

The second Mr. Gunpei said those words, the pencil I had been twirling about in my hand paused. Hm...?

By any chance, do you have that Dragon Emblem game on you right now? ”

“Yes, it's sitting at the development office. Actually, I had wanted to crack open the game, but there's an absurdly strong lock on the system...”

“Is that so. In that case, can you show it to me for a bit after the conference ends? It seems like I'll need to see the cartridge. ”

In the end, the conference meeting ended without any of us having found a solution to the problem. At the end, President Yamauchi imparted onto us one last sentence.

-Make a game similar to that of Dragon Emblem and formally circulate it-

This was basically an order telling us to create a charming, marketable SRPG genre game in the shortest term possible.

However, a game like Dragon Emblem, with the acclaim it got, would-in my opinion-only be rivaled by something Mr. Shige could produce. So, with President Yamauchi's development instructions, he set off to work. As for myself... Lately, I've been too busy with the production of a brand new console, so it has been hard for me to find any time to continue my company outsourcing tangents.

In the end, we at Mintendo had to partner up with one of our most loyal firms, Intelilic, and they took the helmet for the new Emblem series.

A game idea that I originally had not been used by my previous company... Now, the story is flowing in an... interesting way?

A moment later, Mr. Shige, Mr. Gunpei, and I were sitting at the office, and we were looking at the game cartridge of Dragon Emblem. Listening to Mr. Gunpei, it seemed like the secret of Dragon Emblem, that only I had known for a while, would be released to the public.

Taking out the ROM card from the game cartridge and revealing its appearance, Mr. Shige tilted his head in confusion, asking Mr. Gunpei.

“Is there something peculiar about it? ”

Going as far as to break into a cold sweat, Mr. Gunpei grumbled.

“Shigeru-kun. You said that this game cost 1000 Yen at the second hand shop? ”

“Mmm... the rumours are going around saying so. Although, a premium price tag is now put on it…”

“Now, which crazy bastard would hand over an item like this for a measly 1000 yen for the second-hand stores to sell? ”

Is there something special about it? ”

“With other games, you would make the game cartridge and insert a different chip. However, Dragon Emblem's cartridge is made entirely exclusive for it! ”

“Huh ~ So you're saying that there's a game inside the game? But according to Mr. Gunpei, isn't it impossible to delete data inside a ROM cartridge? ”

“It was changed to be able to cleverly read data. It's limited to not only the basic games, but the data on the custom chip as well. ”

“Custom chip? What's that? ”

“It's an apparatus that can read and write data… It can also freely manipulate up to 24 kb of storage at will. Yes, with this method, it's possible to delete data as a result of the game play. However, I can't comprehend what the intent was for implementing this setting to a perfected game…”

Mr. Gunpei was making a depressed expression while he stared at the internal chip.

Mmm… Actually, I didn't have any particular intentions? If he had to ask about the intent, then I guess it would be that I wanted to convey the realism of losing a character to the gamers. (This was confirmed by the reaction of Mr. Shigeru losing Katrina.) I also wanted to provide a competitive spirit for gamers attempting to clear a game with an extremely high difficulty?

With the current ROM technology, it was currently impossible to make this kind of game; a game that would delete characters or game data depending on the gameplay. After contemplating for a while, I suddenly thought of the ROM pack that I had seen once at Yongsan district. [1]

This oftenly dubbed 'UFO’ was a device that could make copies of game cartridges.

By plugging a custom game disk inside the UFO device and the game you would like to copy in the back, the data inside the game would be copied onto the custom game disk. This could be seen as the beginning of illegal ROM pack copies.

The interesting thing was, I wanted to know if it was currently possible to move multiple games onto the disk, so I met one man through the Game & Watch system. An Indian man called Chand...

In one alleyway, on the crowded streets of Akihabara, he was selling PC accessories in a computer store, but this was just a cover. In reality, inside the store, he was selling illegal copies of Family games.

I hovered around his surroundings for a few days while I waited for the perfect opportunity to step on his tail. Then, I finally caught him in the critical moment of an illegal sale. I successfully got a hold of his weakness by threatening him that I would report him to the police.

What happened next? Well that's obvious... I made the indian native, who was in charge of providing the initial custom chip cartridges, work for me.

Chand and his buddies were uncooperative in the beginning, but, after I showed them that more money could be made by helping me, instead of selling illegal copies, things worked out easily. Due to that, the initial start-up capital was quite high; the profits finally started trickling in after the price of the item rose even more, thanks to its rarity.

“I can finally understand why Dragon Emblem introduced itself through the cracks of the unofficial second-hand market. ”

Mr. Gunpei made a satisfied face, as if he was relieved of his curiosity. Now, Mr. Shigeru was wearing a strange expression, one that was different from when he was developing Super Marigee.

“I don't understand at all. Why is a game of this caliber not going through the official route, Mr. Gunpei?”

“Because Dragon Emblem would lose its uniqueness if it officially debuted like every other game. Think about it, wouldn't the official price be fixed if it were to be subsidized by us? Just the custom chip alone is worth 8,000 Yen.

Our Mintendo is setting the maximum price per game at 6,000 Yen per cartridge in order to protect our consumers. We would have experienced an enormous deficit if it was sold with this custom chip installed...

Also, it would've been difficult for it to experience the current rarity value. They must've aimed for the price-malleable black market for this reason. Dragon Emblem is a game that perfectly drilled through the holes of our Mintendo's cartridge production system… ”

─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─