Game Market 1983

< EP. 31: New Wind. (2) >

Five years have passed since the launch of the NEGA drive in late 1988 when the 16-bit gaming market opened.

And now, in the fall of 1992,

The leadership of the home console industry has been completely transformed into Japan.

The current generation of home consoles are the super family of mintenso and the NEGA drive of the NEGA because no foreign company has ever created a new gaming device at the risk of failure again.

And the Pentagon's Raon. It's holding its own for three rivers.

Of course, there was also a console device with an extrinsic component, which was a very expensive console created by SMK called "Gio Neo."

Launched in 1990, Gio Neo jumped into the console business with the aim of a business or home lease, but the battle between the brawl rights and the legendary Erie fight game was more than anticipated and demand for the home has been somewhat recent.

The 16-bit Motorola 6800 CPU and 8-bit Zylog CPU are also lacking in two CPUs, the video chipset is designed to display 380 sprites in 4096 colors at the same time.

In addition to that, the sound chips embedded in the device used Yahama products that support a total of 15 sound channels, including up to seven digital channels, which in short boasted about four to five times the performance of the super family.

However, the ‘Gio Neo', which is made of a system that plugs almost the entire entertainment room substrate itself, was priced beyond imagination per cartridge.

The price of the game cartridge was around 30,000 yen in the case of the recently issued and highly acclaimed dragon ticket.

Although it was originally developed for home and not for commercial use, Gio Neo was one of the hardest to find consoles at home except for a wealthy young master who could afford it.

Following the popularity of the widely opened 2D fighting game market since Street Fire2, SMK was highly loved by users for the prestigious price of fighting games, but the sale of home consoles was so expensive that only games created by SMK were remembered as unlucky gaming machines that were released.

The first company to discover that they were building a new console at this time was NEGA, just like before.

Ironically, the release of the new species is ahead of schedule, as we were planning to launch the NEGA CD a little bit more competitively in today's world, but because of the volume crashing below expectations?

“Again, the NEGA is on the move. ”

During a meal near the headquarters, the Kawaguchi representative spoke to me.

I swallowed a sip of warm leafy tea and opened my mouth.

“Did the new model's name sound like this NEGA Saturn? ”

“Yes, it is. The specs we just announced will create a monster machine with immense 2D sprite performance. ”

As Kawaguchi said, the first issue concept of the NEGA Saturn was aimed at the best 2D graphics.

And it was probably a natural choice.

When the development of NEGA Saturn began, 3D gaming was still very poor.

At the time, the NEGA wanted to create the best console that could be transplanted into a growing arcade of fighting games for home use.

The SMK's fighting game or Capco's game required quite high 2D graphics performance. But I never thought such a prudent choice would hold Saturn's ankle to the end...

“It's also said that Sensoni has been having frequent interactions with Minten recently. Mintendo admitted it, but Sensoni first announced that the next generation of the superfamily's gaming media was CD. ”

“Gear Station project...”

“Yes?”

“Oh, it's nothing. Soliloquy.”

Mintendo's silence in Sensoni's presentation is proof that a new project is shaking from the start.

I smiled slowly in the coming 32-bit era when I heard that Sensoni's Kurakagi Kentaro, who designs sound chips for the super family and has established friendliness with Minten, recently visited the Mintendo headquarters.

However, on the contrary, Kawaguchi appeared anxious.

“If this is the case, shouldn't our Pentagon be prepared? Any word from Rob or Ellis in the United States yet? ”

“Don't worry too much. Raon has only been a newborn for over a year now, but sales are increasing at almost the same rate compared to the launch of the Super Family in 1989. At the moment, it would be better to focus more on Laon's marketing and game releases. ”

“Well, the next generation of warfare is only the beginning, so you'd better not think about it too deeply. ”

Kawaguchi finally let out a small sigh with a sad expression.

&

Unlike Kawaguchi's concerns, the New Sword Legend 2, created by Nomura Director, was completed with a very low quality in August.

In particular, the cooperative play mode, where three people play games together, using Raon's data cable, was very popular, and his idea of being able to play RPG games with friends began to coincide with Raon's concept and became quite popular.

“Joon-Hyuk, I think this game is really fun. ”

With RPG games, Yuki, who can't use his clan, used to ask me to play New Sword Legend 2 together whenever I had time to finish it once a weekend.

Last year, when Dragon Warrior 5 and Final Frontier 5 launched in a row, it was quiet for months, and now it's a new sword legend...

In fact, the game of this period was not very impressive for me.

Even though he had already enjoyed the works of the past, he could not think that he was enjoying them more than stimulating the fragrance of the early days.

Besides, does that perfume seem lighter than the '80s games these days?

Sometimes we used to go out on weekends together to explore game shops and Tokyo's food scene in Akiba, but Yuki always smiled as she looked around the store to see what was so amazing.

“Ah!! The price of the figure Uchimura made has gone up again!! ”

“Really? How much this time? ”

“190,000 yen.”

“ · · · · · ·. ”

They already know each other in the industry.

It's so amazing to see an expensive figure being sold, even though the scalpel is a constant recession every year...

While buying a drink from the convenience store, Miyuki rushed to me and asked me.

“How much would the Miyuki Kimono version in my living room sell here? ”

“It almost cost me 800,000 yen at one time. ”

“Will it still cost that much? ”

“Well, it was a little bit of a subtle competition back then, but wouldn't you take more than 300,000 yen if you gave it to me now? Recently, there have been a lot of spectacles, so I feel like the popularity of the streets without me is fading...”

“Well, it's been three years since the street without me was published. Does that mean you're not planning on making a follow-up to a street that I don't have? Director Kang Jun-hyuk.”

She glanced at me with a fist like an interview.

“I can't do that. To be honest, I'm not sure I can be more inspiring than I was before, and now the trend in the mind-blowing game is a little bit strange…”

“Ahhh!! I know. Rumor has it!! Urgh!! Urgh!! ”

“Hey, there are people around...”

After a while, we moved to the workshop where Chendra used to work, and we were amazed at the tall building because of the bright sunshine.

“There's a building in here. It used to be an alley where Chendra made copy packs for the family...”

“Oh, did Mr. Chendra do something like that? ”

“Huh? Didn't I tell you? ”

“Yes, I've never heard of it. ”

I stood on the side of the road for a while and told Yuki about the day I met Chendra.

“Wow, that's where we ended up, and that's where we are now. ”

“Well, to Chendra, to me, at the time, we were win-win. ”

“That's how the dragon emblem was created, so I met Joon-Hyuk. ”

“Oh, is that how it goes again? ”

I glanced at the tall building above Chendra's workshop and smiled.

"I never thought there would be a softmap building here that specializes in game software…"

The software map, representing the Japanese gaming distribution industry, was the store that sold the contents of the game in a single building from the first floor to the fifth floor.

Normally, the first floor of the new open softmap was occupied by the Mintendo superfamily because it specialized in selling the most popular type in the current generation.

“Wow, this store is huge. Other than the Pentagon, I never thought I'd find a store like this...”

“Yeah, it's been open recently. Shall we go in? ”

Yuki nodded as if he was waiting. I took a stroll inside the store and looked around inside, and it looked very neat and neat like a newly created store.

Usually when we think of a game store as a cramped store, we come up with an image of a whole bunch of game cartridges, but this place was like a department store with all sorts of categories.

I also had a professional feeling that I was accepting bookings with my own ranking and expectations.

The image in the store, along with the sign, gave a unified sense of blue. It seems to be a big store, and there were a lot of people in the store.

“The first floor is only minten. Where's Raon? ”

Then the temple passing by kindly replied to Yuki's solitude.

“Sir, Raon products from the Pentagon are ready on the second floor. You can use the escalator or the elevator you see over there.

“Oh, yes. Thank you."

“Have fun shopping. ”

“It's like a department store that specializes in gaming here. There's an escalator, and the staff is nice...”

Yuki seemed very fond of the first softmap she visited.

After a while, when Yuki and I arrived on the second floor, there were so many Raon devices everywhere that it felt like a dedicated floor for Raon.

Among them are many users who are enjoying the most popular new sword legend 2.

It seems like an RPG game that can be played together. Among the Raon users, New Sword Legend 2 felt like it was becoming a must-have item for Raon users like Spa 2.

"Sure, it's fun, but bitter on the one hand..."

Yuki and I went on a tour of the Laon floor on the second floor and looked around the games with bitter taste again.

"The launch of Raon must have changed the past I knew..."

Changes in the game market as a result of the response are subtle.

Every game was released almost exactly the same as I knew it would be, and the content of the game did not change much.

In fact, I had asked Nomura to produce the Legendary Sword 2, hoping that it would make a difference in the game I used to know using the platform called Raon, but the results were a little more convenient and not much different.

Usually a great game is created, and the synergy of it leads to a new game being derived, but I have never released a different game that will make my heart beat.

Did I lack my stimuli? Or is it that we don't have enough talent to bring out the content of today's games? ’

While looking at the ground, Yuki's footsteps, which were walking with arms crossed next to me, stopped in front of a large TV.

“Huh? What's wrong with you? ”

“Joon-Hyuk... What kind of game is that? ”

Turning to Yuki's voice, the world of dark fantasies unfolded on the TV screen. And it caught my eye at once.

The Devil of Foxsoft? No... what is it? ’

- When the red moonlight seeps through the broken tube. A corrupt king who sacrificed his people...

“ · · · · · ·. ”

I feel like I'm grabbing her heart from the opening.