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Chapter 35 : Self-Developed Language and Dirt-Cheap Chips
“Wait… what?”
Vivian stared at the screen in disbelief, almost doubting her own ears.
“So… you built the demo stage using this tool?”
“That’s right.”
Lin Lixin nodded and directly opened a file.
W е̄ ḃ ń.ov̆ е l̊ Ĕn̈úm̊ а
The exact same layout as the stage Sam was currently playing immediately appeared on the screen.
“Each tile can be represented using just three numbers. This entire map takes less than 1KB of storage.”
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He typed a command into the computer, and the previously clear map instantly transformed into a matrix made entirely of numbers.
Every tile clearly displayed three values.
Vivian only needed one glance to realize just how incredible this simple and intuitive system was.
“The first two numbers represent the render position, and the third tells the graphics processor what the tile looks like?”
Wе b nо́v е̇l̇ Ė nům å
“Exactly. The texture only needs to be loaded into VRAM once. After that, all we need are indexes.”
In truth, Lin Lixin had already created a prototype of this technology during Contra’s development.
But turning it into a dedicated tool like this was something he only thought of while making Metal Gear.
With tiled maps, both memory and VRAM usage dropped dramatically.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
All the saved space could then be devoted entirely to animations and effects.
Vivian no longer even knew what to say.
Ѐn̈ u m ӓ . ïď_
She silently sat down in front of the C64, intending to try the map editor herself.
“Wait a second… the thing you used earlier wasn’t Assembly or BASIC, was it? What language was that?”
Just as she prepared to type, Vivian suddenly realized she had no idea how to use the program.
After checking the command history, she discovered that this didn’t resemble any programming language she knew.
Even so, it was absurdly easy to understand.
Everything used straightforward English naming conventions.
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“You can call it the N Language. Nova Language, basically. It’s a programming language I’m currently developing.”
“?”
Vivian watched as Lin Lixin pulled out a thick stack of printed documents from a drawer.
It was the specification manual for N Language.
“With this, development becomes much simpler.”
Lin Lixin flipped through several pages before stopping at one example.
Ӗn̈ũ m а̄
Vivian glanced over it a few times, and suddenly realized what source code she was looking at.
Her breathing stopped for a moment.
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“…This is Tetris?”
“Yep. Rewriting it in N Language only takes this single page of code.”
Compared to Vivian, Sam was holding up far better mentally.
He had long since become accustomed to Lin Lixin’s absurd technical capabilities.
Е n û.m̊а̄
But he was genuinely fascinated by this map editor.
Taking the keyboard, he tried designing a map according to the instructions in the documentation.
Ten minutes later, he had created a simple cross-shaped corridor.
After compiling and burning it into the chip, Sam restarted the game.
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The map had indeed changed into the design he created.
This practically reduced game development difficulty down to toddler level.
Ẃеb n̊o v̆ёĺ Е̌n_ūma_
Anyone could quickly learn how to create maps.
“So do you still think two hundred stages are difficult now?”
Lin Lixin spread his hands.
At this point, he no longer needed to explain anything further.
With this technology, they could even split development into dedicated planning and programming teams.
The planners would only need to sketch stage concepts on paper.
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The developers would simply translate those concepts into game maps.
This was practically a revolutionary next-generation development workflow.
…
October.
Ho Kwok-yuen submitted a report.
The graphics card designed using the brand-new ASIC integrated circuit technology had finally been born inside the former VideoSoft office in Santa Clara.
É n̊u m̆ а̃
This new technology had nearly drained every cent GAMENOVA had earned from arcade sales over the past several months.
Yet no matter how much Sam complained about it, Lin Lixin had remained determined to use it in their first graphics chip.
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And now, this semiconductor technology that defied mainstream industry trends was finally about to start making money for them.
Lin Lixin understood perfectly well that ASIC was precisely what allowed ATI, a tiny company founded with only a few hundred thousand Canadian dollars to defeat far larger giants.
“Sam, look at this.”
In his hand was the first graphics chip sample Vivian had sent over.
Ӗn̆.ǔ m̆ ā
Compared to older graphics cards, it looked much cleaner and simpler, with noticeably fewer external components.
“You spent all that time just to make it smaller?”
Sam monitored GAMENOVA’s financial reports every single day.
Naturally, he knew exactly how much money had gone into developing this chip.
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Lin Lixin smiled without answering.
Instead, he shook the chip lightly in his hand and asked:
Ё ñu m̄а
“Guess how much this graphics chip costs.”
“Forty dollars?”
Sam frequently chatted with manufacturers and had developed a decent sense for pricing.
Lin Lixin shook his head and held up three fingers.
Sam’s eyes widened.
“Thirty dollars?! That’s already a huge cost reduction!”
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But Lin Lixin shook his head again before finally saying:
“No. Three dollars.”
“Huh?”
“Of course, that’s the price at mass production scale. Right now it’s still around ten dollars.”
Lin Lixin set the chip aside and picked up another quotation sheet.
This one listed the production cost of the Metal Gear arcade board.
Еn ü m̈а́.і d́
“If it’s priced like this, we can compress total hardware costs to under two hundred dollars. Including the cabinet and factory labor, each machine only costs around five hundred dollars to manufacture.”
Sam’s hands trembled as he took the report, repeatedly checking to make sure Lin Lixin wasn’t joking.
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“I said I wanted you to make a cheaper arcade machine, sure… but this is insane!”
A five-hundred-dollar arcade cabinet was something he had literally never heard of before.
An Atari 2600 alone cost around two hundred dollars.
That meant two home consoles were enough to buy an entire arcade machine!
Е̇ n̈ u mă. і̄ d̃
“Even including transportation and storage, we can sell each unit for only around one thousand dollars… my god, that’s the same price as Pac-Man!”
Sam felt dizzy.
The shock of that price point was simply too overwhelming.
Lin Lixin, meanwhile, wasn’t particularly surprised by the number.
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Modular manufacturing.
Low-cost graphics chips.
E n ŭ m̌а̄
8-bit processors.
From the very beginning, his goal had been to drive prices into the ground.
All of his preparations were simply beginning to bear fruit.
…
Meyer finally received the phone call he had been desperately waiting for from his beloved god of wealth.
Without asking a single question, he immediately rushed over to see Lin Lixin.
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“Mr. Lin! I’ve missed you so much!”
“Here. This is the Metal Gear prototype. Want to try it?”
“Of course! Of course!”
Meyer nodded frantically and immediately sat down in front of the arcade machine to start the game.
Half an hour later, Meyer once again experienced firsthand just how terrifying Lin Lixin truly was.
Breathing heavily, face flushed red, he practically danced around in excitement, gesturing wildly while spittle flew everywhere.
Е.ñu ṁ а̌_
“Mr. Lin! This game can absolutely sell for the same price as Contra! Just name the production cost! I’ll pay in full for a hundred units right now!”
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