Chapter 381: A Phased Victory
To be honest, more than one person has the idea of using Nintendo's Famicom with Shirakawa Electric's game cartridges.
After all, I have already bought a game console to play certain specific games. Buying another game console with a similar positioning will not be cost-effective no matter how you look at it.
So some smart people started trying to exchange game cards and perform grafting operations.
However, after trying it, I found that the game cartridges of the two companies even had different numbers of gold finger pins.
As for adaptation, that is even more of a fantasy and there is no way to argue with it.
If you try to use great force to make a miracle happen, the golden finger will break with a snap.
Helplessly, he watched "Tank War" and "Double Dragon" become popular in the streets.
Those who bought the Famicom could only go and exchange consoles with their friends who had the Blue and White consoles.
However, because Nintendo only released three games at the first launch, not many people were willing to make such an exchange.
Another week has passed, and neither Nintendo nor Shirakawa Electric has announced the specific sales figures of their respective game consoles.
However, from the starkly different hot and cold phenomena in the game cartridge market, we can already get a glimpse of the difference in popularity between the two.
The media, unwilling to be left out, could not wait for the official data from the two companies and had already analyzed the reasons why Shirakawa Electric gained the advantage from all aspects.
The first thing to note is that Shirakawa Electric has an extremely rich game lineup.
In addition to the four official games released first, there are also games such as "Bee", "Door Door", and "Tennis Tournament" provided by third-party game developers.
If you count these games carefully, you will find that they range from the casual and cute "Pac-Man" to the shooting and fighting types "Raiden" and "Tank Battle".
They have rich themes, including various game types such as casual, shooting, fighting, puzzle, sports, etc.
What’s even more rare is that the quality of the games is generally very good, especially "Tank War" and "Double Dragon", which are a real surprise to many people.
Putting aside the gameplay, "Tank War" was the first to allow players to edit their own game maps.
Designing your own levels is a cool thing to think about.
As they have always passively accepted the gameplay , when will they be able to participate in the game design themselves?
Players are very enthusiastic about this open creation and highly free gameplay.
Many people even draw the maps they designed with a pen and then exchange their ideas with other friends.
As for Double Dragon, as the first scrolling banner-style game, its debut received unanimous praise from players.
Shirakawa Electric's game designs are so thoughtful, what about Nintendo on the red side?
There are only three games not to mention, two of which are twin brothers, both of which are derivative IP sequels of "Donkey Kong".
Although the "Donkey Kong" game is very popular and sells well, everything is afraid of comparison.
In terms of game lineup, Nintendo was generally recognized by the media as having lost by more than one level, and was even criticized for lacking sincerity.
In fact, Nintendo also has its own difficulties. In order to meet the release date, the progress has been greatly advanced.
But because of the rush to meet deadlines, all manpower was invested in debugging the game consoles.
As for being able to release three games, it is already very good. After all, Nintendo has not yet reached cooperation with other third parties.
Compared to the Sega SG-1000, which only had one game at its launch, Nintendo felt very aggrieved.
However, the media did not pay attention to the reasons behind this. They continued to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the hardware of the two game consoles.
After experiencing both parties' game consoles, the previous doubts about Shirakawa Electric's SIC8089A chip completely disappeared.
Facts speak louder than words. The blue and white machine's smooth operating feel ranks first among the three game consoles.
"Monthly Microcomputer" wrote: In fact, we all underestimated the SIC8089A chip, which was widely used in Japan last year.
There are many electric power and energy companies among them. I think their recognition is enough to prove the reliability of SIC8089A.
And its performance at FES did not disappoint.
5MHz main frequency and 1M addressing capability are the core weapons that enable FES to quickly load games and support players to edit maps by themselves.
Compared with Nintendo and Sega's game consoles, it is far ahead in terms of performance.
In addition, we learned from the chip designer SIC that the chip for FES also integrates an image auxiliary chip and a coprocessor chip.
These two special auxiliary chips are designed specifically for game consoles.
I think this is why Shirakawa Electric's game cartridges are generally superior to other games in terms of graphics and detail.
Obviously, as the official studio of Shirakawa Electric, HAL's designers are very clear about the limits of their own chips.
Compared with the other two game consoles, it is said that some customers have complained about system crashes on Nintendo's FC, but of course this remains to be verified.
In terms of hardware, in addition to the performance of the chip and the design of the game console itself, there are also some subtle differences between the two.
For example, the FES handle uses the classic cross-key design found on its handheld game consoles, and the buttons also use relatively sensitive hard round keys.
It is easy, comfortable and has low latency to use.
The directional pad on Nintendo's controller is made of four round buttons, also made of soft silicone.
I have to say that compared with the cross key , this design is still a little bit difficult to adapt to.
In addition, if you perform a quick combo, the soft silicone button will likely be flattened and no longer bounce back.
In short, from hardware to game lineup, Nintendo, as the red side, is slightly inferior.
…
Putting down the magazine in his hand, Yamauchi Hiroshi looked very unhappy.
He recalled the big words he had said in front of the reporters.
Judging from the current situation, it seems not optimistic.
"We need to find more third-party game designers to join us as soon as possible. Compared with Shirakawa Electric, we are one step behind."
"Hai" Masayuki Uemura, who was in charge of the development of the Famicom, nodded immediately.
Nintendo also has its own third-party partners, such as Bandai, and Konami, which is currently in negotiations.
However, at the beginning, Hiroshi Yamauchi did not pay much attention to third-party game developers.
Because within Nintendo, there are four development teams responsible for game design and coming up with new ideas.
In his original idea, this was enough for the FC platform to digest these games.
However, the popularity of Shirakawa Electric's game cartridges gave him a different idea.
Only when there are enough and rich game categories can more users be attracted to buy FC.
"By the way, have any users of our FC complained about downtime?"
Yamauchi Hiroshi glanced at the magazine at hand and thought of some of the descriptions in it.
“Uh,” Uemura Masayuki looked a little hesitant, “There are a few complaint calls.
But with more than 100,000 units sold, it’s within normal probability that one or two of them have some defects.”
Yamauchi nodded and said, "Pay close attention to user feedback. Nintendo's brand is more important than anything else."
"Hai!"
…
"The sales volume of 210,000 units in half a month is still very good. Everyone's efforts in this period have not been in vain."
In the conference room, Baichuan Feng put down the data sheet in his hand and nodded with satisfaction.
After receiving his approval, the people below applauded excitedly.
Although this red-blue showdown is far from over, a good start is a good sign.
"Can the specific sales volume of Nintendo be calculated?" While celebrating, Shirakawa Feng did not forget to care about the situation of his old rival.
"The specific sales volume is unknown, but it should not exceed 150,000 units." Akagi, who was sitting below, quickly expressed his judgment.
As the head of the game console business unit, he also always pays attention to the performance of his competitors.
Although it is not very accurate, this number has made Baichuan Feng feel relieved.
"What about Sega? Have you ever heard of it?"
"Well, probably no more than 30,000 units." To be honest, Akagi didn't really take Sega seriously.
It took him a long time to recall the information about Sega from his memory.
Less than 30,000 units. Baichuan Feng smiled and shook his head.
In this game console war, Sega has no presence at all.
"Regarding the game cartridges to be released next month, a decision will also be made as soon as possible and announced to the public in a timely manner."
This time, "Hayi" responded to Satoru Iwata.
He makes the final decision on what games to launch on the FES platform.
In order to maintain the popularity, HAL launches one or two new games every month.
For example, games such as "Gold Digger" and "Circus" planned to be launched in May will try to cover different subject areas.
The prices of different types of game cartridges are also different.
For example, mid-level game cartridges such as "Men Men" and "Girl Bee" generally cost around 3,800 or 4,500 yen.
However, popular games such as "Tank Battle" and "Pac-Man" are sold at a price of 5,500 yen.
Within Shirakawa Electric, games are already being divided into different levels.
For example, there are five levels: S, A, B, C, and D, but most of the current games are classified below A.
After all, a pixel-style game shouldn’t be given an S-grade title.
Of course, if more revolutionary games appear in the future, SR and SSR are not impossible.
After going over the current sales situation of the game consoles with them, Baichuan Feng felt that it would not be a bad idea to speed up the pace appropriately.
“We can add a few more production lines for game cartridges, and our peripheral products can be launched .
For example, you can connect a keyboard to the host and its matching learning cassette.
There are also customized controllers related to game themes. These will be launched based on market research if they are suitable.”
The profit of Shirakawa Electric's FES is actually not very high, less than 3,000 yen.
The real money-maker is the game cartridges and the rich array of peripheral products that follow.
When running a small business, how can you miss various limited edition and customized peripherals?
As long as he can make money, Baichuan Feng doesn't care whose wallet he is harvesting.
After finishing the meeting at Shirakawa Electric, he prepared to fly to North America.
A larger meeting will also be held there in May regarding the standardization and promotion of optical drives.
In addition, Baichuan Feng also plans to talk to Microsoft about issues related to the Windows system.
He had heard that the other party was developing the first generation of Windows system.
If we can convince the other party to add the CD playback function, then there will surely be greater progress in optical drives and CD-ROMs.
Alas, I just spent a week with my little tiger in Okinawa. Not long after returning to Tokyo, I have to fly to North America again. I am so busy.
As for the result of the red-blue showdown that the outside world is looking forward to, it will not be announced until early May.
