Chapter 87

Li Xuan was sitting in the company-provided car, heading to the venue of the Akihabara Electronics Expo. He looked at Zhong Chuhong beside him, who was playing Gomoku on a GameBoy. He felt an urge to cover his face, unable to bear watching any longer.

"You're such a bad player, I can't stand it! Whether you place the piece here or there, can't you see that it would form a line of four pieces diagonally?"

"Hey, do you know the rule of not commenting when watching a game?" Zhong Chuhong's face turned slightly red, and she rolled her beautiful eyes at Li Xuan. She quickly turned off the GameBoy, removed the game cartridge, and replaced it with another game called Highway.

Both Gomoku and Highway were games created by the employees of the game development department, and they had nothing to do with Li Xuan. This was exactly what Li Xuan hoped to see. Although he had countless classic games in his mind, originality was the true foundation for Oriental Electronics to dominate the gaming industry in the future.

Li Xuan had always been committed to investing in research and innovation. Hong Kong, with a population of only five million, had only two full-time universities, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong, which were far from meeting the demand for professional electronic talent, especially in research and development.

Therefore, Oriental Electronics had long set its sights on Taipei, which had a population of 18 million and a well-developed university education system. At the beginning of the year, the company held its first job fair in Taipei, attracting a large number of top graduates from universities like National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, and National Cheng Kung University with high salaries to work in Hong Kong.

Taiwan was an important part of the future world's computer and semiconductor industries. Li Xuan planned to establish a research and development center in Taipei next. Oriental Electronics had achieved incredible profitability with the two arcade games, Hong Kong Blocks and Tank Battle. Therefore, the company's salaries were 10% to 20% higher than those of comparable companies, especially for R&D personnel, where Li Xuan offered even more generous benefits.

In his vision, Oriental Electronics would be an innovative technology company, not a sweatshop. The company's profitability would not be achieved by squeezing employee income. Providing better benefits would make employees feel more like owners, be more loyal to the company, and be more passionate about their work.

Because Oriental Electronics offered better benefits than local companies in Taipei, even though the job required moving to Hong Kong, countless Taiwanese graduates were eager to join. Xu Fengxiong, a graduate of the Electrical Engineering Department at National Taiwan University, was one of the first Taipei graduates hired by Oriental Electronics after a fierce competition.

After arriving in Hong Kong, Xu Fengxiong was assigned to the handheld game project team. Gomoku was a small game he had written on a computer while in college. At the time, the handheld game project only had two games, Hong Kong Blocks and Tank Battle, which were confirmed to be ported from arcade games. The team urgently needed to develop a batch of new games to enhance the playability of the handheld game. So Xu Fengxiong thought of modifying the Gomoku program from the computer and porting it to the handheld game. His proposal was supported by Du Wenqiang, who was personally in charge of the handheld game development project.

When Li Xuan first played the GameBoy version of Gomoku, he tested it many times and found that the game's AI was quite good, with no obvious flaws. Although it would quickly lose to a Gomoku expert, who would follow the programmed moves, it could still engage in a back-and-forth game with ordinary players like Zhong Chuhong, without any significant imbalance.

Li Xuan specially noticed this new employee, and he found that he matched a famous person in his memory. In 1997, IBM developed a supercomputer called Deep Blue, which played six games against the world chess champion Garry Kasparov and won with two victories, three draws, and one loss, shocking the world. The creator of Deep Blue was Xu Fengxiong from Taiwan.

Even if the butterfly's wings flapped as hard as they could, some people would still stubbornly follow the historical trajectory. It seemed that Xu Fengxiong had already formed an unbreakable bond with chess and artificial intelligence. Li Xuan was considering whether Oriental Electronics should also develop a supercomputer in the future, like IBM, to create a human-machine battle hype and boost its reputation.

Compared to Gomoku, the other game called Highway was also quite playable. The player controlled a taxi, dodging various obstacles on the road. Passengers would wave to get a ride from the left side of the screen, and the player had to control the direction to pick them up and drop them off at their destination on the right side of the screen.

The player had two chances to hit obstacles, and the game would end on the third collision. Although the game's graphics were simple, the details were designed with sincerity. For example, when the player crashed, the car would flip over, and there would be a sound of passengers screaming. After the car resumed driving, it would be noticeably more worn out than a new one. After the second collision, the car would be even more worn out, and the game would end with only a pile of car wreckage after the third collision.

The game also included a special Easter egg to surprise players. If the player successfully delivered passengers to their destinations five times in a row, a lucky wheel would appear above the score counter in the upper right corner of the screen. The player had a chance to win a large number of points or an extra collision chance.

Seeing Zhong Chuhong playing the GameBoy with great enthusiasm, Li Xuan's lips curled into a smile. The game development department of the company was finally beginning to take shape as an excellent game company. His rebirth advantage was not invincible, and the dozens of classic games in his mind were not enough to support the entire vast game market.

For example, the new handheld game GameBoy, which came with the classic game Hong Kong Blocks, could quickly attract a large number of players and give the handheld game a good start.

But even the best games can become boring over time. To maintain the appeal of GameBoy to players, Oriental Electronics needed to continuously develop new games. Li Xuan simply didn't have the energy or creativity to support this alone.

"Alright, Miss, stop playing, we're at the venue!" Li Xuan tapped Zhong Chuhong's head.

"What for?" Zhong Chuhong, like a girl obsessed with a game, raised her head in dissatisfaction. But when she saw her boyfriend's face, full of disappointment at being ignored, she felt a bit embarrassed and quickly gave him a kiss to comfort him.

"There are so many people here, it's so lively!" Zhong Chuhong looked at the bustling crowd and exclaimed, "Where is the company's booth? Should we go there first?"

"No need, Ye Chengkang and the others will handle it. Our job is to have fun!" Li Xuan shook his head and smiled.

The GameBoy had already been distributed to toy stores and shops of all sizes across Japan and would be officially launched today. The role of the Akihabara Electronics Expo for Oriental Electronics was not as important as the Western Electronics Expo in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, last time.

At that time, Oriental Electronics was a newcomer and needed to find agents through the expo. Now, the company's purpose in attending the expo was mainly to increase its visibility. With different goals, naturally, the mood was different. Li Xuan held Zhong Chuhong's hand and strolled leisurely through the exhibition hall, occasionally stopping to experience exhibits that interested them.

The main focus of the Akihabara Expo was consumer electronics, with new products from various companies, including color TVs, VCRs, cameras, washing machines, and refrigerators. Japan's electronics industry had been booming since the 1960s and 1970s, and its electronic products were sold worldwide.