Chapter 44

At the Western Electronics Exhibition, the main players are always the big companies: IBM, Intel, Texas Instruments, and Japan's Toshiba, Seiko, and NEC. On the first day of the exhibition, which is not open to the general public, the most eye-catching star exhibit is undoubtedly the MC68000 processor brought by Motorola.

Intel had developed the 16-bit 8086 processor as early as 1977, while Motorola took two more years to develop the MC68000. However, what Motorola released last year was just a laboratory engineering sample, and the MC68000 they brought this time is the product model that will soon be mass-produced.

Although the MC68000 from Motorola was late to the game, it directly skipped the 16-bit system and is a 16/32-bit hybrid CPU, using superior technology to defend Motorola's leading position in the processor market. Intel would not transition to the 32-bit era until the release of the 80386 in 1985.

For arcade enthusiasts, the MC68000 should be a familiar CPU. From the mid-1980s to the 1990s, a large number of arcade machines used this processor as the main CPU of the arcade board. If you open up well-known arcade games like The King of Fighters or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you will find the MC68000 or its later improved version, the 68HC000, embedded on the arcade board inside.

Li Xuan also lingered at Motorola's booth for a long time. In addition to the processor, there were many other electronic exhibits, such as pagers, which marked the beginning of Motorola's recognition in China.

The video game section only occupied a small part of the entire electronics exhibition. Li Xuan was surprised to find that the Apple Computer booth was also located in the gaming area. He thought for a moment and realized that, from the perspective of mainstream electronics industry professionals, personal computers were still just larger game consoles.

To compete with the Apple II, Atari specially developed an 8-bit computer, the Atari 800, which was primarily used for gaming. A few years later, the Commodore 64, which sold 17 million units throughout the 1980s, was essentially a game console marketed as a personal computer.

It wasn't until the appearance of IBM's PC that personal computers truly began to make significant strides in the business and office sectors, gradually shedding their reputation as game consoles. Perhaps because Apple did not have any major new product launches, the booth only featured the latest upgrade of the Apple II, the Apple II+, and the founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, did not attend the exhibition.

This made Li Xuan feel a bit disappointed, as Jobs was one of the business heroes he admired. Many Apple critics accused him of lacking technical expertise and only using some business tactics, but it was his creative ideas that deeply influenced the world twice.

Many people's success can be attributed to the times, but what Li Xuan admired most about Jobs was his ability to rise again and achieve new heights after a fall. A similar example is Shi Yuzhu in China. You can criticize Brain White Gold and the game Journey to the West, but in the history of Chinese business since the reform and opening up, how many business heroes have risen again after a failure? Chu Shijian, who made Chuzhi oranges famous nationwide, is a half-example.

Next to the Oriental Electronics booth is Sega, which dominated the American video game market alongside Atari throughout the 1970s. This time, Sega brought two newly developed arcade games, "Samurai" and "Hunt Africa" (screenshots are available in the related section). However, the two new bosses of Sega were not at all happy.

David Rosen, an American Jew, founded Sega in Japan in 1954. At the time, Sega's main business was selling pinball machines to U.S. troops stationed in Japan for their entertainment.

Later, David Rosen sold most of the shares of the Sega he founded to an American company, Gulf & Western Industries. Last year, when the major shareholder of Sega intended to sell his shares, David Rosen, with the support of Japanese entrepreneur Nakayama Tatsuo and other investors, completed an MBO (Management Buyout) of Sega.

David Rosen became the president of Sega Corporation and was responsible for Sega's U.S. business. Nakayama Tatsuo became the CEO of Sega and was in charge of Sega's operations in Japan. In Japanese companies, the president is equivalent to the chairman and is the top leader, while the CEO is equivalent to the CEO.

David Rosen and Nakayama Tatsuo both placed great importance on Sega's first battle of the new year. In the past two years, Sega's development has not been smooth. In 1978, Taito Corporation rose rapidly with the release of "Space Invaders." Although Sega obtained the North American sales rights for "Space Invaders" from Taito due to Taito's lack of a complete North American sales channel, the follow-up games it released did not perform well, far inferior to Namco's imitation, "Galaxian." Sega's original dominant position in the arcade market was strongly challenged by the suddenly rising Taito. This is why David Rosen had the opportunity to repurchase the shares he sold in 1966 from the major shareholder who did not see a bright future for Sega.

After rejoining Sega as the top leader, David Rosen quickly launched two new games, "Head On" and "Monaco GP." The two new arcade games performed well last year, helping Sega regain some of its lost momentum.

However, David Rosen believed this was not enough. He wanted to re-establish Sega's monopoly in the arcade industry. Therefore, at this Western Electronics Exhibition, he brought two new games. "Samurai" and "Hunt Africa," which he had high hopes for, both use the latest Sega arcade motherboard, Dual, like the previous "Head On."

"Samurai" is a hard-core action game with a period drama flavor. The player plays as a red-clad swordsman, dodging the long whips and shurikens of ninjas on the roof, slashing all the enemies on the screen, and finally facing off against the boss.

"Hunt Africa" is a game where the player drives a vehicle transporting animals along the edge of the jungle. The player can get out of the vehicle at any time to enter the jungle. When encountering fierce animals, the player first uses tranquilizer darts to temporarily put them to sleep and then scores points by loading them onto the vehicle.

David Rosen and Nakayama Tatsuo, who had specially come from Japan, were initially full of expectations for the two new games their company had developed. Both the internal evaluations by Sega's developers and the feedback from invited players were very positive. They planned to use these games to re-prove Sega's strength to all arcade players.

However, as the saying goes, "comparison kills." Soon after the exhibition began, the crowd at the neighboring booth kept increasing, while Sega's booth remained deserted. It wasn't until David Rosen noticed several familiar American arcade distributors at the neighboring booth that he realized something was wrong.

So, he and Nakayama Tatsuo went to the neighboring booth to check the situation. But when David Rosen saw the game画面 of "Tank Battle," his heart sank.

PS: Thank you to the generous donations from Yuchujiu, Atubo409, RA2, and Yuanfen12345. Let's have a great week with lots of recommendations!

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