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Chapter 24 : A Movie Theater Should Be Showing Movies
The audience members who had originally planned to leave quickly realized something interesting might actually be happening, and quite a few returned to their seats.
Beneath the flashy title logo, the two protagonists stood back to back, each wearing nothing but a tank top stretched tight over bulging muscles.
The blond 1P character had a buzz cut and a blue cigarette hanging from his mouth. Though rendered in limited pixels, his eyes still conveyed unmistakable determination.
The moment Schwarzenegger saw that face, even he froze for a second.
It was obviously modeled after him.
E n̊ ǔ_m a.
Only… even more “hard-boiled.”
And the 2P standing behind him, with that iconic long curly hair and facial features was unmistakably Stallone’s legendary Rambo.
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“Arnold, this is just a cover image. Any game can do that.”
The manager was terrified Schwarzenegger would be swayed by such superficial flattery and make an impulsive decision, so he hurriedly reminded him.
After all, a cover was only static pixel art.
Hire an artist, spend some money, and anyone could make one.
Е n̂ û m̀ а̄
Even E.T. had gorgeous cover art of the alien on its box.
But what about the actual game?
“I understand.”
Schwarzenegger nodded and turned his attention back to the game itself.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Because the prototype board had not yet been installed into an actual arcade cabinet, Lin Lixin had only prepared a testing control panel for it, allowing single-player only.
Schwarzenegger examined the button labels written in charcoal pencil on the controller before pressing Start.
W̃ ê b̂.no v̌е l̈ Е n ŭ m̂а
Under the eager anticipation of everyone waiting to see a joke unfold.
The game officially began.
The protagonist leapt from a helicopter, flipping through the air before landing.
In the pitch-black night sky, the stars twinkled clearly.
Below the starlit sky were mountain silhouettes in the distance and jungle terrain in the foreground.
The spectators who had been waiting to laugh instantly fell silent.
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Even the water at the bottom of the screen had animated ripple effects.
They had never seen visuals like this in a video game before.
“This… this is really something video games can do?!”
Among the crowd were clearly some gaming veterans.
One of them stared at the projected screen in utter disbelief.
He could clearly see that as Schwarzenegger moved the character, the detailed protagonist sprite actually played smooth running animations.
Ӗ ñ u m а
Frame-by-frame animation.
Was this not absurdly overkill?!
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Even the manager, who had remained pessimistic the entire time, quietly shut his mouth.
Someone capable of becoming a talent manager naturally possessed sharp business instincts.
From the very first glance, he already realized the situation was completely different from what he had imagined.
This game was probably nothing like the industrial trash Atari mass-produced in the past.
W еb ǹ ӧ v ẽ l̊ Еn umӓ
Schwarzenegger enthusiastically tapped the buttons, familiarizing himself with the controls.
Every input received immediate visual feedback.
And because the protagonist resembled both his appearance and physique so closely, the immersion he felt while playing was unbelievably strong.
“The gun can move too? It can even aim diagonally? Incredible.”
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For this era, eight-directional shooting was already outrageously advanced technology.
Even in Lin Lixin’s stitched-together version of 1942, shooting had only been possible in a single direction.
E̊ n̄u m а̀. і̌d
But in Contra, depending on player input, the gun could freely aim upward, left, right, and diagonally.
Pressing down alone would also cause the character to lie prone.
Jumping, crawling, and moving all had their own dedicated animations, with the protagonist’s leg movements clearly visible.
Yet this was only the beginning.
Thanks to the vastly superior RAM and VRAM capacity of the custom board Gerald had prepared far beyond anything contemporary arcade hardware possessed, Lin Lixin had been able to completely unleash himself during development.
Up to sixty-four active objects could appear on-screen simultaneously.
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This advantage allowed Contra to support huge numbers of bullets and enemies at once.
After advancing only a few steps, the first enemy appeared, charging toward Schwarzenegger.
And when everyone saw that enemy also possessed smooth running animations.
The gaming veteran in the audience twitched violently at the corner of his mouth.
“Even the fodder enemies have full animations…”
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Е̂n ům a
Several bullets sprayed forward, instantly riddling the enemy with holes.
Schwarzenegger’s expression became extraordinarily animated.
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He had never experienced anything like this before.
The sensation was completely different from watching a movie.
The immersion was so intense that it genuinely felt as though he himself had infiltrated an enemy stronghold.
“Mr. Schwarzenegger! Quick, shoot that item! It upgrades your weapon!”
Ӗ n̊ům̊ a
Sam sharply spotted a floating power-up and hurriedly shouted a reminder.
The moment he first playtested the game, he had immediately recognized the mechanic.
Lin Lixin had basically reused the same system from 1942 again.
“Got it.”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Schwarzenegger wasted no words and immediately aimed upward, firing several shots into the sky.
Sure enough, after the item was shot down, it dropped an icon marked with the letter “M.”
W еbn̆о̀ v̆еl̀ Е̄nú m̂ ӓ
Schwarzenegger raised an eyebrow.
If there was any weapon beginning with M that represented hard-boiled action heroes.
Then it could only be one thing.
Machine Gun.
The instant he picked it up, the protagonist’s weapon underwent a dramatic transformation.
The previously intermittent bullets immediately became a torrent of rapid-fire rounds, dense suppressive fire pinning down newly appearing enemies.
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Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger was not a seasoned veteran like Sam.
Several minutes later, he ultimately fell before the first mini-boss.
Faced with that gigantic “Wall of Sighs” composed entirely of alien machinery, Schwarzenegger experienced genuine helplessness for the first time.
“What a shame. If I hadn’t missed that attack-speed power-up earlier, I probably could’ve beaten it.”
He could only blame his own mistakes.
As the saying goes:
W ӗ b̈n ô vе̂ l̂ Е́ ǹ um̌ a
“Laymen watch the spectacle; experts watch the technique.”
But Contra truly had both.
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Spectacle for the masses.
Technique for the experts.
This simply did not look like a game that should exist in 1984.
Manager Dave silently reexamined Lin Lixin several more times.
Е́ nū m̀ а̂ .і̃d
He found it almost impossible to believe that such a game could have been created by this young man who looked barely over twenty.
He had originally believed video games would continue declining until they disappeared into history entirely.
But Contra…
It felt as though it had crossed countless worlds and been brought back from a future where video games had fully succeeded.
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“Mr. Lin.”
Manager Dave solemnly bowed his head slightly toward Lin Lixin.
W̃ ѐ b_n o ṽ ѐ.l Е ṅů.m̊ а
“Please allow me to apologize for my earlier rashness. This is absolutely an unbelievable miracle.”
At this point, only a fool would fail to understand the correct choice.
Dave turned toward Schwarzenegger.
“Arnold, I think this—”
“We absolutely have to accept this endorsement!”
Schwarzenegger cut him off directly, his expression turning serious.
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“Absolutely CINEMA!!”
(End of Chapter)
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