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Chapter 5 : Never Play This Ridiculously Fun New Game
Now that the machine was repaired, Lin Lixin didn’t immediately erase the game data stored in the EPROM.
This was the genuine first-generation masterpiece Pac-Man. Playing Pac-Man on a machine that qualified as an antique to Lin Lixin was an incredibly novel experience.
In the future, the only way to play something like this would be on those bootleg “thousands-in-one” emulator boxes.
The half-open yellow Pac-Man moved through the maze, dodging ghosts while gobbling up as many pellets as possible.
Such a simple game.
Е n ūmа
And yet, in this era, it had sold millions of copies.
Even Atari, despite being in decline, had managed to sell an astonishing seven million copies on the Atari 2600, which itself had only sold ten million consoles total.
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After casually playing a few rounds, Lin Lixin handed the machine over to Sam for a proper farewell.
Looking at the iconic image painted on the cabinet, thoughts began swirling through Lin Lixin’s mind.
The developer behind Pac-Man was the legendary Namco.
Even at this point in time, before merging with the giant Bandai, Namco still wasn’t an opponent Lin Lixin could casually deal with.
Е.ǹüṁа.і̄ d̂
Pac-Man, Tekken, Taiko no Tatsujin…
Combined with countless classic gaming IPs and anime-related properties, they were undoubtedly another overlord of this era.
Reluctantly, Sam unplugged the arcade cabinet and looked toward Lin Lixin.
“You’re starting the port now?”
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The brief sadness of parting immediately vanished from his face. He could still play the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man anytime he wanted, but Tetris existed nowhere else!
These past few days, Lin Lixin had been busy developing nonstop, refusing to let Sam touch the computer at all, let alone replay the endlessly addictive Tetris.
Е̂n u ḿ а
But that didn’t matter.
Once Lin Lixin successfully installed Tetris into this arcade cabinet, wouldn’t he be able to play it whenever he wanted?
God damn, just thinking about it was exhilarating!
Lin Lixin nodded. But as he stared at the machine before him, the hardware knowledge he had just acquired surfaced in his mind.
Suddenly, he thought of an incredible idea.
An idea that could more than double this machine’s coin intake.
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“Sam, I need some parts. Can you make a trip to RadioShack?”
RadioShack was a North American electronics retail chain, known in this era as “maker heaven.”
Rumor had it that before Steve Jobs founded Apple, he practically lived inside RadioShack tinkering with inventions.
“Parts?” Sam scratched his head while looking at the long list Lin Lixin rapidly scribbled onto a piece of paper.
…
That entire week, both Lin Lixin and Sam were unbelievably busy.
Wе̌b̄n̄о̃ v е l̆ Е̄ n u m̆а̌
Aside from attending classes each day, they spent nearly all their free time working on the arcade cabinet in the living room.
Saturday night, Lin Lixin pulled an all-nighter and finally completed the Tetris arcade port before dawn.
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The world’s first Tetris arcade machine had been born.
Sam lay sprawled across the short sofa in the living room, sleeping like a corpse. The claw hammer in his hand slipped loose and hit the floor with a loud clang, startling him awake.
Rubbing his eyes, he looked toward the arcade cabinet, drool still hanging from the corner of his mouth.
After an entire week of modifications, the machine no longer resembled its original form in the slightest. Nobody would ever guess this had once been a secondhand Pac-Man cabinet.
W е̂ b̄ǹöv̈ ӗl _Е̃n̊u m a
Then he heard the familiar 8-bit sound effects coming from inside the machine.
It was Tetris.
The Tetris he had missed every single day.
“It’s done? It’s done?!”
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Sam instantly forgot his exhaustion and leapt off the couch, rushing toward the cabinet.
“It’s beautiful… I’ve never seen such a beautiful, elegant lady in my life.”
Е̇ n̈ ū ṁа. і̀ḋ
He practically pressed his entire body against the machine, looking utterly deranged.
“Bro, don’t gross me out.”
Lin Lixin twitched at the corner of his mouth and yanked Sam off the cabinet by force.
“Help me carry this thing outside. It’s Sunday today. Maybe we can attract a few players.”
“What?!”
Sam let out a miserable scream and hugged the Tetris cabinet tightly like a dog protecting its food.
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Such an amazing game machine…
If they moved it outside…
If other people discovered it…
Sam didn’t even want to imagine how many people would fall in love with it.
Just thinking about other people happily playing his beloved machine made his heart ache.
Why had things turned out this way…?
E̊ n̆ umа. і d
For the first time, he had found his favorite game.
And for the first time, he had seen hope for the revival of the gaming industry.
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Two joys overlapping together should have created an even greater happiness.
He should have obtained a dreamlike, blissful moment.
So why…
Why had it become like this…?
W̆е b ǹ o v̀ е́ l Ӗ n̊ū m̊а̌
“What the hell are you whining about? Hurry up. I’m exhausted.”
Lin Lixin kicked Sam off the cabinet and lifted one side without further discussion.
“It’s not like you won’t still be able to play after we set it up. Besides, there might not even be anyone today.”
The damage caused by the Atari crash to the North American gaming industry was far worse than it appeared on the surface.
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So severe that even when Atari tried repairing its reputation by releasing multiple decently polished games afterward, it still couldn’t stop public opinion from collapsing.
“Video games are dead” wasn’t just some slogan to North American players of this era.
Ѐń u ma .id̊
To make people accept video games again, they would need to proceed one step at a time.
…
Vivian loved morning jogging.
Even in California’s scorching heat, she never skipped it.
Only today’s run had gone slightly off track.
“Huff… huff…”
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Vivian breathed heavily, her body already drenched in sweat, making her fair skin glisten under the sunlight.
Once she finished running past the apartment complex ahead, today’s exercise would be complete.
Her gaze casually wandered along both sides of the street. Admiring scenery was one of the greatest pleasures of outdoor exercise.
Then she saw something bizarre.
Something she found both incomprehensible and deeply shocking.
Two men were carrying a giant arcade machine onto a front porch.
Wѐ ḃn_о̂v̌e l̄ Е ṅu mã
One of them, a handsome chinese guy, was kicking and punching the other white guy relentlessly. It looked like an absolute human tragedy.
The white guy getting beaten didn’t even fight back. Instead, he desperately clung to the arcade machine while wailing like his life depended on it.
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Out of justice, sympathy, and curiosity, Vivian decided to pause her morning run and stop this horrifying assault.
“What are you two doing?! Stop bullying him!”
Vivian shouted powerfully as she quickly ran across the street.
But no matter how hard she tried, she never could have imagined that the pitiful white guy she came to rescue would immediately scream in terror the moment he saw her approaching.
E̊ ǹuṁ а̊. і́ d̈
“Don’t come over here! There’s absolutely no ridiculously fun new arcade game here!”
(End of Chapter)
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