Chapter 4

The next day, Yang Yun joined the asset reorganization and restructuring team of Huamao Electronics Factory. This was the private name given by Zhao Yongping and his Soviet expert friend, Alexei Pagitrov. The three of them conducted a systematic analysis of the factory's equipment and technology, aiming to produce a report on the factory's transformation as quickly as possible.

It took another week for the three, led by a local driver, to thoroughly investigate all the large and small electronics factories in Zhongshan City. They also made the effort to visit Guandong and Shenzhen, meeting with many peers in the industry.

Back at Huamao, everyone was heavy-hearted.

In the factory manager's office, Zhao Yongping had a grim look on his face and said, "Alexei, Xiao Yang, time waits for no one! The Little Genius Cassette Company has already started building its sales channels. The Pyramid Learning Machine is selling well, and the Nintendo Famicom has firmly held the high-end market in Shenzhen. We are far behind!"

Alexei rubbed his big nose and shrugged, "Since you both see potential in the cassette market, don't hesitate. Set up the production line, and Xiao Yang and I will start building the 6502 CPU development platform!"

Zhao Yongping nodded and looked at Yang Yun, asking, "Xiao Yang, what do you think?"

Yang Yun smiled, "Manager Zhao, Alexei, why build a platform from scratch? Why don't we take a different approach and directly purchase a set of ready-made cassette burning equipment?"

For a moment, the two didn't react. Zhao Yongping asked, "You mean we should follow the example of those small, unbranded factories and secretly burn cassettes?"

Yang Yun nodded, that was exactly what he meant.

Each game console has its corresponding development machine and independent development software. The development machine is a complete set of equipment for producing the console, and the cassette motherboard is the most important product on the development platform. It uses an independent pseudo-fixed operating system, with ROM sizes varying and different costs.

As for the development software, the Chinese are particularly skilled at cracking, so these small, unbranded factories are not short of such technology—how to create games or crack others' games, and how to convert computer language into data instructions to be sent to the CPU, and then burned onto their own cassette motherboards through the development platform.

Creating original games is so much trouble; it's faster and more profitable to just crack others' games!

This is the spirit of imitation that has left the world in awe! A phone containing seven operating systems, with the ability to switch between them at any time—this is something we've done before!

The Chinese are particularly adept at these things. They buy genuine Nintendo game cassettes, crack the software inside, and then directly burn it onto their own cassettes. One game is 256K, no problem; I can take a 1M cassette and fill it up, turning it into a four-in-one. A game is 32K, use a 2M cassette, and it instantly becomes a sixty-four-in-one.

Everyone understands this principle, and it's clear as day.

Alexei quickly shook his head, "This is not good! Without authorization, this is a legal liability."

He is Soviet, and in terms of patent rights and legal awareness, he is much stronger than most Chinese.

Zhao Yongping was silent. He is a graduate of Renmin University and has lived in the capital for many years. He certainly knows the word "patent." The country established a patent office a few years ago, but the legal awareness of the general public is very weak, so most people don't take it seriously. The few small, unbranded factories that Yang Yun mentioned probably don't even know what a patent is!

Yang Yun, of course, understood everyone's concerns. He smiled slightly, "Who said we are infringing? We are just using this ready-made platform and software to create our own games. Manager Zhao, starting from scratch with nothing is too risky, and time doesn't allow it. Nintendo and Little Genius are already 100 meters ahead, and we haven't even reached the starting line. In extraordinary times, we need extraordinary measures!"

After much consideration, Zhao Yongping gritted his teeth and said, "It's decided! We will buy a set of equipment!"

...

...

"Huamao Electronics Factory has gone crazy!"

"They sold the machines in the factory and brought back a few sets of equipment that no one knows how to use!"

"What a waste! We need to report this to the factory management!"

Although the workers at Huamao Electronics Factory had been on strike for a long time, they were not unaware of the big and small events happening in the factory.

Zhao Yongping was a hired factory manager. Although he was in charge of production and operations, he shouldn't be selling the machines, right?

Fortunately, Zhao Yongping withstood the pressure from the group and gave Alexei and Yang Yun free rein to build the platform. His future was tied to this unknown project, and now he had no choice but to take a risk.

Yang Yun and Alexei's relationship grew increasingly close. They were both tech-savvy, and although Yang Yun was not as proficient in assembly language and VB as the Soviet expert, he had many ideas and was quite accomplished in data structures, which often left Alexei amazed.

What can I say, I came from 2013! In the first year of university, computer science students must learn assembly language and data structures as foundational courses. Back then, I was timid and obedient, never skipped classes, and wasn't allowed to bring computers to the dorm, so I studied well for a year, and my foundation is still solid...

Yang Yun also learned a lot from Alexei, especially from the platform software they bought. After seeing the visual programming, Yang Yun was eager to try it out. He had many ideas, and his first game was about to be born!

Finally, five days after the platform was set up, on May 4, 1989, a memorable day, three people gathered in the research and development workshop of Huamao Electronics Factory.

"Xiao Yang, why did you rush us here?" Zhao Yongping was busy, writing reports, handling assets, and integrating sales and R&D teams. He wished he could turn one minute into two.

Yang Yun skillfully opened a program, handed over a controller, and gestured, "Try it out!"

On the screen, a square area appeared, surrounded by a frame, with a stick in the middle and a small square dot nearby.

Zhao Yongping pressed the START button, muttering, "What's this? How do you play?"

"Use the up, down, left, and right buttons to control the snake's movement. Eat the single dot, and the snake will grow longer. Be careful not to hit the walls or eat your own body."

Snake!

It looked very crude, not much like a snake at all—just a square stick!

The interface was too simple, with a circle of black dots forming the walls, and the snake's body moving in pure black and white. The food dot for the snake looked more like a stain on the screen.

But soon, everyone became interested.

"Hey! A dot appeared on the right!"

"It's going to hit the wall! Turn right quickly!"

"He's already eaten 20 dots!"

"It's too long! Turn quickly! See, it's too late!"

"Manager Zhao, you're amazing! Are you making a flower roll?"

Zhao Yongping's hands were sweating. In his first game of Snake, he ate 22 dots. When the 23rd dot refreshed inside, he was careless and didn't leave a way out. The snake's head ended up right next to its tail, coiling tighter and tighter, just like a big flower roll!

Alexei couldn't resist, snatched the controller, and shouted, "Let me try!"

Yang Yun wanted to tease him, so he modified the source code and opened the game. The snake controlled by Alexei moved twice as fast as Zhao Yongping's!

"Oh my God! Ёб-твою-мат! @#￥%……" Alexei couldn't help but swear, making Zhao Yongping, who was watching, raise an eyebrow.

Snake had successfully captured everyone's interest, but did it have market potential?

Zhao Yongping squinted his eyes, looking at the excited Alexei and Yang Yun, and fell silent, quickly calculating in his mind. He concluded that this game could be sold!

But he had one more important question to confirm, and he looked at Yang Yun.