Chapter 414: Eve
Akihabara, HAL office building.
"Is this the prototype of our ODS?" Baichuan Feng fiddled with the huge off-white machine in his hand with curiosity on his face.
"Hai, it can only be this big to meet the original design function." Iwata looked at him nervously.
Today's handheld ODS is much smaller than the brick it was when Tanimura took over.
But it's still much larger than the previous generation pocket-sized Game Boy.
With the current size, a child would probably need to hold it with both hands, but it is very suitable for adults.
Hearing the lack of confidence in Iwata's tone, Shirakawa Kaede waved his hand.
"It's not a problem that it's this big. Compared to the previous generation of handheld game consoles, it's already a different product in terms of size."
The previous disposable game consoles had a TN printed screen display and a 4-bit CPU.
As for the included games, the total capacity is only 4KB, so you can imagine how poor the performance is.
But the current ODS can be said to be far superior to the previous generation of handheld game consoles in terms of both hardware and software.
The most intuitive one is the yellow-green STN LCD screen, which costs more than twice as much as TN.
But the display effect is also a leap forward. Baichuan Feng turned on the machine.
The opening animation of the handheld console plays very smoothly, and it no longer switches the screen frame by frame like GB.
Tsk, this effect is almost the same as watching a cartoon.
Baichuan Feng tried it and the effect was so good that for a moment he thought he was playing a mobile game.
The 7MHz main frequency of SIC8089A can handle all complex games, and its memory also enables the luxurious 64KB RAM.
These two core parameters can support ODS to use a maximum of 32MB of game cartridge capacity. Yes, this generation of handheld game console supports the replacement of game cartridges just like FES.
But to be honest, the 32MB expansion game cartridge is not needed now.
Even large and complex games like Tank Wars and Double Dragon require less than 1MB of memory.
32MB, which won’t be used in a few years.
In addition to these, ODS also has a stereo headphone jack output. Shirakawa Electric's earbud headphones are the best match for it.
In terms of battery life, this generation of handheld game console also uses a chewing gum battery compartment design.
Four chewing gum batteries can keep it running continuously for 36 hours!
For a gaming machine this powerful, 36 hours of continuous operation is a very impressive battery life.
Of course, if you are at home, ODS also supports external AC power, so you can play without batteries.
The reason why it can achieve such a long battery life is largely due to the training of Satoru Iwata.
As the person who is most familiar with the SIC8089A chip in the world, he made full use of every feature of the chip and reduced the power consumption of the game console to the lowest level.
Baichuan Feng played with the ODS in his hand and felt very satisfied.
Look at this iconic cross key design, it’s obviously from Shirakawa Electric.
Similar to the FES controller, the ODS also has a cross key plus A and B buttons.
In addition, there are selection and start keys and two auxiliary buttons below.
As for the side of the body, there is a roller-type volume adjustment key and a backlight button.
Initially, Satoru Iwata did not plan to add a backlight button to the ODS in order to save energy.
But after Baichuan Feng experienced it once, he still convinced him to add this function.
The yellow-green background screen is very harmful to the eyes if you look at it for a long time.
After adding the backlight, it immediately became much more comfortable.
However, the backlight is controlled by a switch. It can last for 36 hours without turning on the light, and 24 hours with the light on is good.
Of course, when promoting it, they definitely touted its 36-hour ultra-long battery life.
This is not advertising fraud, but it is indeed possible to achieve this data under certain conditions.
However, the ODS handheld game console has more than just hardware. The most important thing is the software, that is, the first lineup of games is the key.
Without any nonsense, Baichuan Feng directly took a game cartridge and stuffed it into the ODS.
The handheld's cartridges are much smaller than FES's, and the colorful square game stickers on them are also much smaller.
That’s right, ODS’s first bundled game, which is also its flagship game, is the well-known “Tetris”.
Of course, at this time, the historical "Tetris" had not yet been born.
It may be brewing in the mind of a certain comrade Su Lin, or it may be being made.
But as long as it hasn't come out yet, Baichuan Feng will not be polite .
In fact, the story about the patent of "Tetris" in history is very exciting, but because of this freeloader, all this may never cause any waves again.
"Tetris" is its name, and Shirakawa Kaede still retained the original English name of Tetris.
After much thought, the original name sounds the best. As for the neon cube... to be honest, he is not that thick-skinned.
The word Tetris evolved from the Greek word tetra and the English word tennis.
It is a coined word, and it is quite suitable to be used to represent the name of a trendy game.
After Shirakawa Feng turned on the game console, he began to code the blocks skillfully.
biu~boom~! biu~boom~!
Listening to the familiar sound effects and rows of disappearing blocks, Baichuan Feng almost felt like crying.
Yes, this is the taste~
Playing the familiar game Tetris, he even felt as if he was in another world.
The scene brings back memories. Some things are engraved in the memory, just like engraved in DNA, unforgettable.
"Very good." Baichuan Feng put down the game console and nodded with satisfaction. This was the smoothest handheld game console he had ever experienced.
No matter how good the hardware is, at least make sure it runs smoothly, otherwise everything will be in vain.
Next, he went online with Satoru Iwata to experience a racing game.
Yes, ODS also supports multiplayer, with a maximum of 4 players.
Two devices can be connected to each other via a data cable, but if four people are connected, a small transfer line is needed.
It can be said that Satoru Iwata tried his best to cram in all the usable functions on ODS.
The online function is a very cool advantage. The power of games plus social interaction can be seen from the online games of later generations.
"Let's sell it at the original price of 12,000 yen. As for the North American version..." Shirakawa Kaede paused, "Try to put it on the market before August."
"I understand, but can FES also consider North America?" Iwata asked the question that had been in his mind for a long time.
FES is selling like hot cakes in Japan. By April this year, it had been exactly one year, and a total of 3 million units had been sold.
But what's strange is that there is no sign of it being sold in North America, not only here at Shirakawa Electric, but also at Nintendo and Sega.
Iwata probably knew the reason, which was what the newspapers mentioned last year: the "Atari shock."
But a year has passed, maybe we can consider North America?
After all, compared to Japan, the market in North America is much larger than the former.
After thinking for two seconds, Baichuan Feng nodded, "You can try, but don't ship too much at a time.
Moreover, we accept returns in sales, and tell the distributors in the United States that if they cannot sell the products, Shirakawa Electric can recycle them.”
In fact, although there was "Atari Shock", Shirakawa Electric did not do nothing.
In North America, Shirakawa Electric also established a gaming division.
In order to separate its own FES from home game consoles, Shirakawa Electric even changed FES to NES (New Entertenment Systerm).
There have also been major changes in the appearance. The North American version of the game console looks more sci-fi, and most people would not associate it with a game console when they see it.
The reason for doing this is that Atari has committed too many sins.
Nowadays, people in North America are terrified when they hear about home game consoles. They were scared by Atari's "ET".
So it is conceivable that promoting FES at the height of the North American people's anti-home game console wave last year was not a wise thing to do.
However, Shirakawa Electric did not do nothing. The special edition of NES was the product of the "Atari shock".
Moreover, Shirakawa Electric did not start selling the game right away . Instead, it chose to place a TV and plug in the NES in game halls, bars and other places, and then let people play the game for free.
Only after confirming that it has gained good reputation will Shirakawa Electric consider launching NES on a large scale.
Now, according to feedback from North America, people seem to have accepted the NES game console and have given it constant praise.
In this case, there is no harm in giving the channel a try online.
Nowadays, all commodities are purchased from manufacturers by distributors and then sold by themselves.
Once something leaves the factory, it has nothing to do with the manufacturer. The transaction is completed and no returns are accepted.
However, in order to allay their concerns as much as possible, Shirakawa Feng decided to accept the recycling of unsold goods.
Only in this way will the merchants feel at ease to purchase goods, otherwise no one would want to repeat the mistakes of the "Atari Shock".
Moreover, Shirakawa Kaede is confident in his own FE S. At worst, sales will be lower, but there shouldn't be any boycott or disgust.
But unlike home game consoles, handheld game consoles were not affected by the "Atari shock".
Therefore, ODS Shirakawa Kaede plans to sell it in North America within three months of its launch in Japan.
After deciding on the launch strategy for the handheld game console, Baichuan Feng thought of another thing.
"Any news from Nintendo and Sega?"
Tanimura sold all the early data on the development of handheld game consoles by Shirakawa Electric. Shirakawa Kaede didn't believe that Nintendo and Sega would remain indifferent to this.
"According to our information, both companies have announced their plans for handheld consoles.
However, due to progress issues, it may be two or three months later than us.”
To be honest, the information that Tanimura brought was not a very confidential technology to Shirakawa Electric.
After all, handheld game consoles had not yet taken shape at that time, so not many people were involved.
What's more, ODS has almost been scrapped and rebuilt, and there is no trace of Tanimura when he was in charge of the handheld console.
But for Nintendo and Sega, the information from Shirakawa Electric's handheld game console pointed out the direction of development for them.
There are not many core secrets in this document, but the development requirements for the next generation of handheld game consoles are clearly written.
With them, Nintendo and Sega will certainly know what Shirakawa Electric's next-generation handheld game console will look like.
Then it would be natural to design your own handheld game console based on it.
"Two or three months?" Bai Chuanfeng paused, then said firmly, "It's enough. As long as ODS takes the lead, it will be ahead step by step later."
With Shirakawa Electric's reputation, one step ahead is enough.
The handheld game console is Shirakawa Electric's key project this year, and Shirakawa Feng feels at ease only after he has personally gone through it.
It's already May, and the handheld game console will be launched in June. The next period of time will be spent on advertising.
But he didn't have to worry about these things anymore, but there was a piece of news that attracted his attention.
"In May, Japan and the United States signed the 'Yen and Dollar Committee Report', and the Ministry of Finance published the 'Current Situation and Prospects of Financial Liberalization and Internationalization of the Yen'."
The pace of financial liberalization in Japan further accelerated, and 1984 was given the title of "the first year of financial freedom".
