Chapter 63: The American Gamers
As I made my way back to New York from MIT, I gazed out the window at the setting sun, a smile playing on my lips. My own proposal had been accepted, and the amount they had offered was a mere $500.
They may have thought of it as a simple accessory to assist CPU operations, but in the gaming industry, this little device was destined to achieve a feat as monumental as humanity's first step on the moon.
Of course, the same held true in the field of architecture. The utility of 3D technology was astounding, allowing for easy manipulation of the interior structure from various angles, far more convenient than meticulously drafting every section of a building.
So, I knew that this item would truly bring in the most money for me. My current capital in hand amounted to around 2.2 billion yen. Not much different from when I slipped back to 1983.
However, I had invested in more than half of the six Mintendo Premium Shops in New York, and every month, that money would pass through Ellis before coming back to me.
Dragon Emblem, though it had been a great hit, didn't bring in much money due to high cartridge production costs for the sake of gameplay.
The only thing currently raking in some money for me was the special chip Chandra had developed to enhance the performance of our family's devices.
Although the capital in hand remained similar, I had established valuable connections and businesses that were vastly different from 1983. As the money started circulating, I was about to get my hands on the MIT students' technology for a pittance.
Did it make me feel uneasy? You bet.
"Boss, you seem to be really excited about this," Chandra said.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Very much so."
"Ah, I guess I need to work on my poker face when I'm back in the office. Ellis, please keep today's dealings a secret between Yamashita and Gunpei."
"Of course, Director."
"Your Japanese sounds incredibly natural. How's that?"
"I practiced a lot by myself when you went to Japan."
"Do you still want to work at the head office?"
"Of course. I've even learned Japanese for about one or two years. I'd like to work there. If it's not with Yamashita and James, that is."
"James?"
"Oh, he's my boyfriend. By the way, I have dinner plans with James later. Would you like to join us?"
"Me? Ah, I'm okay. I don't want to be the third wheel."
"I feel the same way, but James doesn't care about that kind of thing. Is it okay with you?"
No, it's not okay with me.
I forced an awkward smile and declined Ellis's offer, and she didn't push any further.
"Alright then, see you tomorrow, Director."
"Take care, Ellis. Have a great date."
Vroooom! After dropping me off in front of Wilson's shop, Ellis immediately merged into the bustling traffic on the way home.
I watched for a moment as her car disappeared, then turned to look at Wilson's shop. Maybe it was because of the holiday season, but the place was swarming with customers.
Fortunately, the response to the Psych Battle I set up in the morning didn't seem bad. Across the showroom, many people were playing the game, some waving the illustrations given as rewards for clearing stages and cheering.
Mori's illustrations seemed to be popular regardless of East or West. He'd probably be pleased when he returns to Japan.
The next morning, I borrowed a car from Yamashita and paid a visit to MIT. The distance between New York and Boston, about 350 kilometers, wasn't exactly close, but it was comparable to the distance from Seoul to Busan. I figured having a look at the progress of the project would be useful for explaining to Chandra later.
Luckily, MIT wasn't a university that strictly restricted outsiders from entering, so I could easily visit the "hack" club room I had been to yesterday.
Though it was early in the morning, seven students, including the five from yesterday, were seated around a table, engaged in a discussion. Creating a new computer component was no simple task, so the first step was brainstorming ideas for its technical implementation.
"Oh, you're here?"
When I entered the club room, eight pairs of eyes were fixed on me. Some of them craned their necks to check behind me. Were they wondering if Ellis had come along? Unfortunately, Ellis was working with Manager Yamashita today.
"Is he the client? He looks about our age, doesn't he? Can he speak English?" John reassured them.
"Yeah, don't worry. He's pretty good."
John introduced me to his friends once again. The students were mostly in their early twenties, so I was a bit older, but after a few words of conversation, we quickly became friendly.
Returning to the main discussion, I took a seat on the side and started taking notes on their conversation.
"As John mentioned earlier, I agree that if we want to reduce the burden on the CPU, we need independent memory for the new accelerator. If we continue to have one memory shared between the CPU and VGA, it will lead to overloading."
"The cost will increase, but there's no other way to reduce the CPU's burden. So, before we start drawing up the plans, let's first look at the operating principles."
I asked, furrowing my brows, "Already? We don't have any equipment, though."
"What are you talking about? Equipment is all over the place."
Rob grinned while looking at the pile of computer components in one corner.
Surprisingly, their approach was simple. I had expected something far more unconventional from a gathering of geniuses at MIT, but Rob's suggestion was to use two computers.
It might seem a bit primitive, but it was the most effective method. By connecting two mainboards together, one could run the CPU, and the other could run memory exclusively for graphics tasks.
This way, both sides could independently use 1MB of memory. However, could things in the real world ever be that easy?
Even if we connected two pieces of hardware, we needed a "driver" to configure the additional memory for the graphics card.
Their first challenge was setting up the BIOS so that two PCs could be used with independent memory.
"This won't be an easy task. We should first grasp the operating principle in the current BIOS setup and then design it from there," Rob suggested.
The other geeks nodded in agreement and began dividing their tasks. It would have been great if Chandra had been here; we could have learned a lot from each other.
About ten days passed like this.
"Hey... it works."
Jack's words abruptly pulled me and the other geeks, who had been tossing and turning in our sleeping bags, out of our slumber. After spending the past ten days eating and sleeping together while creating the graphics driver, I found myself living a similar life to theirs.
"It works!!! Damn it!"
"What? What's going on? What works?"
Startled by Jack's sudden outburst, I jumped out of bed and looked at the monitor. There, though a bit shaky, two pyramid-shaped polygons were rotating clockwise.
"Wow! Damn it! Jesus Christ!"
Exclamations burst forth from all around, and we rushed out of our beds.
The two interconnected PCs were operating perfectly, each with its independent memory. We celebrated like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, hugging each other and going wild.
To others, it might look like a paltry piece of graphics, but for us, it was a giant leap forward. However, our joy was short-lived. With a serious expression, Rob gazed at the PC being used for graphics and spoke up.
"But now, how do we consolidate this into a single chipset?"
And no one said a word. Is this where they break the geeks' spirits?
Was it finally time for the dedicated word of geeks, "microtransactions," to make an appearance?
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