112 < EP. 25: Counter of the NEGA (2) >

‘The NEGA has finally drawn their swords to capture the North American market. ’

In 1991, if Mintendo had 'Kumamoto Shigeru’, there would have been genius programmers‘ Suzuki Ryu ’and' Taka Yuan ’in this period of time.

Both of them were teachers and students who created the famous‘ Real Fighter ’and' Sonic the Hedgehog ’that any gamer who wanted to play a little game in the 8-90' s knew.

Suzuki Ryu during this period made more of a sensational arcade game than a ‘real fighter,' and one of the sensational racing games he created was her motorcycle ride at the game center on his first date with Yuki.

But from now on, I'm talking about Taka Ju, his disciple, not Suzuki Ryu Suzuki, because Sonic, a speeding hedgehog that he created, has become enormously popular in the arcade market.

In fact, there was a funny anecdote in Sonic's birthplace, and last year, in 1990, the NEGA emerged as a superfamily, and was not getting far from the classics.

A year ahead of Mintendo, he jumped into the 16-bit console market, but without a hit like this, the NEGA wanted to create a mascot character to represent its company.

Mintendo reminded me of a mustached Italian named Maridge automatically, but the NEGA did not have a leading game character, even though they created numerous games, including arcades and consoles.

Meanwhile, in 1984, Sonic's developer Taka maintained his name as a fairly skillful programmer by successfully joining the NEGA, beating the competition rate of 20 to 1 at the time of high school graduation, at the age of 22 when he became the main director in 88.

Fantasy Star 2, created by this young director, was launched as a former generation of NEGA drives, the Mark 3 system, and was asked to change the platform.

There, despite the accelerated release of the NEGA drive and significantly shortened development time, it launched a great RPG game in just six months and grew into a highly acclaimed presence from management.

For Taka Retention, the NEGA will put the project team in charge called 'PM 8’ and will require the following:

-Actively leverage the CPU performance of the NEGA drive, which is much faster than the Super Family, to create characters several times faster than the Super Maridge. - Taka Retention immediately accepted the NEGA request and entered an idea meeting with her team members.

At the beginning, characters were made mainly of cute, fast-footed animals like puppies and rabbits, and when one of the designer rabbit characters started to get some sort of response from them, Taka Yu told designers.

- Using a rabbit or a puppy as a sprinter is a very simple idea.

C. -

He turned down the prospectus. It was a very young and beaten behavior.

Afterwards, a colleague named Oshima, who had been friends since making fantasy stars, brought a new character's agenda to Taka Retention, and that was Sonic.

A character famous for its slowness speeds up sound.

Taka Retention dressed the hedgehog character in blue, the color representing the NEGA, and wore red shoes with points.

And the character was born a blue hedgehog sonic speeding.

Once the character was chosen, Taka Retention renamed the team 'PM 8’ to ‘Sonic Team’ and formally started developing the game.

The method of killing an enemy or clearing a stage using jumps has carried the stones of Super Maridge, but the dash of the giant shooter across the map is far faster than that of Maridge.

The map configuration itself, like the Super Maridge, sometimes split into three prongs and gave users freedom of map clearance, which was enough to give them a completely different feeling even with the use of Maridge's system.

Unlike Marie, Sonic was a bit of a stickler, clutching his arms and prodding the player, and a map design that looked like a rollercoaster was enough to shock the gaming industry at the time.

Hence, Sonic was able to become a mascot character representing the NEGA at once.

‘It used to be so annoying when I used to do this in the arcade, when I would whip the machine and tell it to put more coins, I never thought I'd actually have a NEGA drive in the device at the time...’

Suddenly, I remembered a mouthful of laughter.

After Sonic was released, the game magazine started writing a pretty stimulating propaganda.

- Experience a world of super-speed that Maridge can never follow. -Negative marketing that denounced the performance of third parties at this time was also passable, so it was nothing special, but for Mintendo it seems that the second in 10,000 year provocation of the NEGA was quite disturbing.

"Sonic copied Super Maridge," Kamauchi said in the official meeting. I don't give a shit about the NEGA. The Pentagon's only target is Raon. ’There were anecdotes of him hanging his words in the development room of the NEGA sonic team and burning them to the ground.

Sonic's popularity spread quickly through the NEGA drive, and the NEGA immediately attempted aggressive marketing to North America and European markets.

When you buy a console, you get a bundle of Sonic the Hedgehog...

Minten also disparaged the marketing of such a country as crazy.

Free insertion of the best titles to drive console sales, because it was the same policy as inserting one Super Maridge per console purchase for a Super Family.

Due to Japan's economic recession, Minten and the NEGA were aiming for the North American market, with the idea that the NEGA had died well this Christmas.

And this crazy marketing has worked in the United States and Europe.

CF ads showed that NEGA drives were selling like crazy in North America and Europe when they even created a comparative ad that allowed Margaery and Sonic to run alongside each other, demonstrating the speed sensation that only NEGA drives had.

“Director... Manager Kang Jun-hyuk? ”

I looked up at Miyazaki as she was looking at me.

“Oh, Miyazaki, what's wrong? ”

“Well, I'm looking for you at the Pentagon headquarters. ”

“Me?”

“I think you should go to Staff's office and answer the phone.”

What's going on? I tilt my head toward the office.

“Yes, I changed my phone. ”

“Ah, sir. Hold on, let me connect you with Jules. ”

Did Mr. Kawaguchi find me?

As I waited with the phone for a moment, I heard Kawaguchi's voice.

“Joon-Hyuk, I've just received an invitation to present the production of a new console at the NEGA. ”

“New console? ”

“The NEGA has also completed the creation of a new portable console targeting Gammboy and Raon in Mintendo. ”

Oh, the NEGA GEAR is complete...

I opened my mouth thinking about the image of the approximate device.

“Oh, right. But is there a problem? ”

“It says in the invitation that it is very important for me and Joon-Hyuk to attend as Laon's representative. ”

“Me?”

With Mintendo out of the way, you're going to try to grab Raon's ankle this time with a mobile announcement?

I swallowed a smile and asked Kawaguchi.

“What do you think Jules would do? ”

“Though we didn't attend our Pentagon production presentation, we don't have to. I want to know how the gaming industry reacts to new mobile devices. ”

“Then I'll go with you. When is the event?”

“That's a little urgent. It's Friday.”

“December 20th. I know it's coming out on Christmas Eve, so it should be good enough. ”

“You must be busy preparing for the wedding these days, are you okay? Or I wouldn't mind going alone. ”

Kawaguchi said, for a moment, the faces of Yuki's family almost burst into laughter.

“No, thank you. I'll go with you. ”

“Then you know we're leaving the headquarters together on the 20th. ”

“Yes, I understand. ”

After finishing the call with President Kawaguchi, I left the office quietly, putting down the handguns so as not to interfere with other employees.

‘Looks like we got a good shot at Sonic, look forward to it. I'm going to make this presentation very public… "

You light a cigarette in your mouth on the streets of Akiba where the cold wind is blowing.

&

December 20, 1991.

When I arrived at the production announcement of the NEGA, I first admired the interior of the broad event hall, unlike at the last Pentagon production announcement.

I met some industry people at a dinner before the event, and I met a friend who put on a hat and took an elongated picture among them.

“Jun Pyo, are you here too? ”

“Oh, there you are. I thought no one at the Pentagon was going to attend. ”

“I got the invitation, but it's not polite of me not to come. ”

“No one came from Mintendo. It's because the Camouflage Representative said something insulting to the NEGA the other day. Both these days, neurological warfare is a joke. ”

At that time, the appearance of me and Kawaguchi began to become a bit of a mess at the event.

Isn't that Manager Kang Jun-hyuk and Kawaguchi? ”

“Really? What's the Pentagon doing at the production conference for the NEGA? ”

Jun Fei looked around at the sound of people talking and told me.

“I knew the Pentagon would show up and things would be different!”

Jun Fei's exaggerated expression was never too much. Released last summer, Raon, along with its launchers Final Frontier 4, Spa 2 and Slam Dunk, has been climbing at a terrifying pace with only five titles, including the Mighty Final Fight and Dragon Emblem remake editions.

Even if you say that you are chewing the market itself, it is never an exaggeration.

I tapped Jun Fei's shoulder and went to find the NEGA official who invited us.

And after a while. Suzuki Ryu and Taka Yu, who were greeting the Third Party personnel, noticed.

They didn't think we'd actually come. I looked embarrassed for a moment.

“Hello, Suzuki. ”

“It's an honor to have you at our Official Announcement of the NEGA GEAR at the Pentagon. ”

“Perhaps I should remain curious as to the overlap between my Raon and the lineup. ”

Let's say hello. Suzuki raised his mouth slightly and asked me to shake his hand.

“You can count on it. ”

Yeah, you'd better hope so...