Game Market 1983

< EP. 28: Grave of the Valiant. (1) >

“Hah! I should meet Joon-Hyuk's parents later. When are you going to Korea? Too busy right now? ”

“Huh…? I don't know…”

“I thought you'd stop by Joon-Hyuk's house when you were in Korea before, but you wouldn't look so awkward at that time...”

Yuki said, I forgot what to say for a moment and looked at her.

“What's the matter? Joon-Hyuk?”

“I'll talk slowly about my parents later. So why don't you tell your parents about it? ”

“Oh, Joon-Hyuk. No way...?"

Yuki tries to say something with a small pout, but soon she shakes her head and shuts up.

“Joon-Hyuk will tell me when it's time. I'll be waiting.”

“Thank you...”

Thanks to her understanding of me, I got into the car that was parked in the parking lot once stroked her head.

“Drive safely. ”

“Yes, thank you. ”

&

February 19, 1992. Wednesday.

The day before the launch of the Dragon Emblem.

It was the launch of Dragon Emblem 2 and the opening of a new store.

Despite the distance from the Pentagon's iconic Tamago Shop, the interior was very comfortable because the entire first and second floors of the new building in Akiba were to be decorated exclusively for Dragon Emblem.

In just one month, the dedicated Dragon Emblem store was built on the efforts and passions of all Pentagon employees, including the Kawaguchi delegation.

“If Dragon Emblem 2 is released this time, it will be time for a sigh. ”

“Now that all the games that were released last year have been released, I guess, right? ”

In Kawaguchi's question, I nodded and looked around the store.

In the center of the store was the white stone statue of King Croel, the Holy Lady Katrina and the flamethrower Mirea displayed in a glass tube.

At that time, Sayuri, Kawaguchi's assistant, who was visiting the store together, said.

“What kind of museum does it feel like? ”

“The first half is decorated as a store selling dragon emblems game titles and related goods. ”

Looking at dragon emblem-related merchandise everywhere, she asked with a satisfactory smile.

“You said the second floor is still under construction. ”

“The schedule was so tight that we only kept the first floor open for now. The second floor, which will be opened at a later date, will be a theme cafe where Dragon Emblem users will meet. ”

“I'm looking forward to that. ”

When the Kawaguchi representative heard my initiative, he nodded with a satisfied expression. Then, Sayuri asked me with a finger in his mouth.

“But how do you plan to use the other half of the floor? ”

“Oh, that's going to be operated later, depending on how quickly users clear the dragon emblem. ”

“Hmm! Looks like you're up to something again, like the second development team said. Still, I can't believe you tied him up in front of Jules. Is it too much?”

The Kawaguchi representative was embarrassed by Sayuri's words and hurriedly cut her off.

“Hmph!! Ahem! I'm a little thirsty here.Could you get me a glass of Sayuri water? ”

“Yes, I understand. Jules.”

In the words of the Kawaguchi representative, she jumped into a firepit, so she quickly nodded and headed toward the counter where the staff gathered.

As she drifts away, the Kawaguchi representative sighs a long time.

“Joon-Hyuk, now that the Pentagon Soft is stable, can you please stop being the true representative of the Pentagon? I also sometimes get upset when employees talk to Joon-Hyuk carelessly...”

“I don't want to. What do you have to worry about? If you think about it, Jules, you're the one who led the Pentagon from the start. So be a little bit more confident. ”

“Ha, but I'm still young...”

“Jules is doing well enough. Please bear with me if you feel uncomfortable.

Actually, I don't have much time left in the Pentagon. ”

“Yes!? No, what do you mean? Joon-Hyuk, are you leaving Pentagon Soft? ”

In Kawaguchi's question, I just smiled a little.

“I'll talk slowly later. ”

&

The next day.

The dragon emblem 2 started as an accomplice based on the reputation and trial of the masterpiece.

On the first day of the event, Miyazaki's surprise idea was to host a professional military costume event featuring all employees in Dragon Emblem 2.

Even me and Kawaguchi, who visited the venue early in the morning, were surprised at the event she prepared, and we were able to smile a lot before opening a new store.

“Miyazaki, Mage and Braille, So please take good care of the Dragon Emblem Store, the Pentagon's second road shop. ”

“Yes, I'll work hard. ”

As the front gate shutter slowly climbed at the designated opening time, Miyazaki's cheeks rose red to see if he was palpitating.

“Good day to you all!! ”

The manager bowed his head to the employees who would work with him first, and panicked as they greeted her.

“I'll work hard!! ”

“Fight!”

Heave-ho. As the front gate shutters all went up and opened the locked door, guests started pouring in like waterfalls.

“Wow!! Awesome. There's a statue of Croel. ”

“Looks like there's a new figure in the market. ”

“Cough, look at the people's clothes. A cosplay employee standing there is very cute. ”

Fortunately, Miyazaki's ideas worked, and the guests' reactions were not bad.

To set an official record of the amount sold on the first day of Dragon Emblem 2, employees quickly started responding to the crowds.

Not all the contents of Dragon Emblem 2 were ready yet, so the store was using them as calculations for the sale of titles, except for Goods and ornaments, and they began to decline rapidly.

Every time a title was sold next to each of the stalls, the counting staff's thumbs moved relentlessly, and I cheered them on as I watched the queues of constantly gathering guests.

That's how much the 6,800 yen game cartridge sold through gaming shops across the country for about 100,000 in the first week alone.

And this was the shortest game title ever released by any machine in the world.

And the device traction effect of the Dragon Emblem was truly enormous because of the Raid System that we enjoyed with our friends in the trial.

In the first week alone, more than 60,000 units of soft sales were sold.

This was almost the same rate of sale as Mintendo's family during its heyday.

Due to the compulsory four-man party raid system that may be a little uncomfortable, Raon was being sold among consumers in a web of spiders.

And so we entered April of 1992. The console industry in Japan has split rankings.

Laon, who started as the next generation of cars, broke the NEGA drive and took second place in the penetration rate.

Of course, the gap between Mintendo and the industry leader was still enormous, but it was amazing to be ranked second in the industry within a year of issuing.

Thanks to this, Sonic-armed NEGA has begun to be completely pushed out of Japan's domestic market. Even the second-in-command seat was taken by a newly born portable console, which remained a very humiliating thing for them.

I mean, I'm just gonna take the drive, you know, the NEGA drive, and I don't know why he strangled himself with a NEGA CD.

Last Christmas, the new NEGA CD hit the worst volume of consoles ever released in Japan.

The NEGA CD sold for approximately 4 months has only recently been distributed to over 1,000 units.

But in some ways, it was a natural order.

Who's going to open their wallet at a regular price of 49,800 yen in this tough economic recession?

Of course, if the game were great, it would stimulate consumers to purchase, but the graphics of Sonic released at the same time with the device did not feel much different than traditional NEGA drives.

Moreover, every time I played a game, I had to suffer from extreme loading, so all of the users who had played once put down the pad with a dark reaction.

The player who played the experience in Akiba told me that he thought the machine had stopped, and he repeatedly turned it off and on...

But there was good news for that country.

The NEGA drive, which bundled Sonic, is highly responsive in North America and Europe, and has recently started ahead of Mintendo's super family sales.

Even though I blew up all the money I made there at the crash of the NEGA CD...

In 1992, there was a shift in perception in the console industry.

The rapid pursuit of Raon has led to a massive increase in device supply rates, and several third-parties loyal to Mintendo have overtaken us.

Among them, there was a soft company that we welcomed with two hands, Fox Soft, famous for 'Real Full Power Pro Baseball’ and ‘Demonic Series’.

There was a funny anecdote in the real-world full-power professional baseball that they created, and among the Japanese pro baseball players was a player called Yi and Sankei.

Since high school, he has dreamed of putting his name on real-life full-power professional baseball, and as a result of his hard work, he was able to join Hansen Tigers.

Hansen's struggling pitcher lineup always pushed Eywa out the week before, but he was impressed with his name on the full power pro baseball launch the following year.

But the joy of that...

Despite the fact that his name is clearly on the board, his brother did not even write about him in the game.

The question is, why don't you use yourself?

“You have too low a stat. ”

“ · · · · · ·. ”

In this sentence, he repeatedly learned a special lesson and won the ‘Sawamura’ award for the best pitcher, and laughed at the Japanese archipelago in response to his awareness that he worked hard to raise his game stats in the journalists. (Of course, this is the story of the future in 1999…)

Like this, Fox Soft played a lot of sports based games among Japanese gaming companies. Especially since they started the '88 Olympic Games for Arcade, there was no company to follow about sports genres.

-The combination of the format of our sporting games and mobile device Raon will bring out the best synergy. -

I swallowed a picnic smile in an article about Fox Post, handing over the best signals from Fame.

"Football and baseball games are a peculiar genre that can never be broken, even by fanatics, if the basics are true."

Like Fox Soft said, it's a good match for Raon...

As I nodded and looked at the newspaper, I turned over the next chapter, and my face slightly crumpled.

- Berserker Guild!! Ultimate Member. Second Castle Tower Challenge!! -

They were the best players to break through the dragon emblem's hard core mode in the shortest time possible, at least three to four months.

“You've already challenged the second tower? ”

It might be because of the Berserker's Guild that the 2nd part will go faster than I thought.

After the release of the Dragon Emblem. Ranked on the top of the Hall of Fame and has become incredibly popular with users recently.

I don't want to blame them for their uplifting, but this party leader. Can't you do something about the character's name...?

But the second floor of the shop dedicated to Dragon Emblem has passed since the full moon.

Black Dragon, the master of the second tower of Mars, kneels before the Sword of the Warrior Oshiri.

"Damn the legendary warrior's name, Oshiri... That's it." ’