PFC Chapter 22: A mere 256KB cobbled together
Chapter 22: A mere 256KB cobbled together
In early June, the sun is at its strongest, and it's especially unbearable under the sun in California, a region known for its abundant sunshine.
But there were still long queues in front of GAMENOVA.
The small shop was packed with people; the situation would have been even worse if Lin Lixin hadn't limited the flow of people for safety reasons.
After the first two days of buzz, "1942" instantly garnered rave reviews.
The players in the entire arcade noticed these two seemingly ordinary machines that were actually playing new games.
With Lin Lixin also modifying a few more machines, the queuing speed has indeed increased.
Outside the door, Gerrard, who was somewhat overweight, struggled to push through the crowd, the intense sun making his already dark skin even darker.
No matter how much he insisted that he hadn't cut in line, it was to no avail. Seeing that he was about to be beaten up by the hot-tempered young man, Lin Lixin squeezed out of the house to help him out of the predicament.
"Mr. Lawson, it's too noisy here. Let's find a place where we can talk."
Lin Lixin was naturally sweating profusely at the current situation.
The first batch of arcade machines just rolled off the production line this week, and the initial sales contract with Meyer was just signed. Now is the busiest time of the year.
Poor Sam, he hasn't had a single day off since he rented this arcade.
Fortunately, he earned almost as much as Lin Lixin, so he was quite happy with it.
Lin Lixin brought Gerald Lawson back to the apartment, where they were finally able to have a quiet conversation.
"Mr. Lin, nothing is more convincing than your airport terminal. Screw Atari!"
Gerrard seemed to have long since recovered from his setbacks in life, and his face showed a lighter expression.
He first spat out a mouthful of Atari liquor, as usual, before taking out several documents and a prototype substrate that was clearly hand-soldered from his briefcase.
"As per your requirements, a 16-bit + 8-bit dual-processor architecture, 512KB of dedicated memory and video memory, and the latest YM2151 audio chipset!"
Lin Lixin took the board in surprise, his expression somewhat moved.
As expected of a top-tier electrical engineer rated S by the panel, in just half a month, they were already able to produce a usable testing platform.
Integrating this whole bunch of cutting-edge hardware onto a single board is not as simple as just soldering them together.
The amount of effort required to make adjustments and adaptations in all aspects is staggering.
Only an engineer like Gerald, who had led the development of an entire home video game console, could have done that.
Along with this substrate came a whole bag of EPROM27256 chips, each with a capacity of up to 32KB, and each chip costing around $50.
"Mr. Lawson, this..."
"Let's take a gamble, consider this my last adventure in this life." Gerald laughed with a sense of relief. "If even your work can't succeed, then maybe I'm just destined to be a nemesis of video games."
After that day, Gerrard shut down VideoSoft and pooled all the remaining funds to create these things.
For him, this was the last desperate gamble of his life.
Lin Lixin nodded solemnly and pulled over a chair for Gerrard to sit down.
He himself sat at the table.
Instead of starting to write code, he took out eight 27256 EPROM chips from the chip box.
The 87 arcade version of Contra had a capacity of 256KB, which was absolutely impossible to accommodate on a single 32KB EPROM.
Even if he invited Shannon, who was about to become a member of the National Academy of Engineering, it would be in vain.
But that doesn't mean he's out of options.
Lin Lixin found Sam's soldering iron and a bunch of random odds and ends, and started working on it right there at his desk.
Gerald didn't leave, but sat quietly to the side watching his actions, his surprise growing stronger.
"Are you planning to create an expansion card yourself?"
Seeing Lin Lixin weaving wires into that pile of parts into a chaotic mess, he finally couldn't help but speak up.
"Mr. Lin, you...you're not from a formal acting background, are you?"
This technique is truly bizarre, like a master craftsman who has been immersed in the industry for decades without ever receiving systematic training.
The more he looked, the more his hands itched. He couldn't suppress the restlessness that belonged to a geek, and he snatched the loose items from Lin Lixin's hand.
Ten minutes later, a neat and beautiful board was presented to Lin Lixin.
【Ding! 】
[Improved by watching the pros' gameplay; hardware skills increased by 3]
[Acquired Skill]:
[Flying Wire Expert]: You find it easier to make jumper wires neat and orderly when soldering them.
[Milestone Achievement]: Produced a storage medium with a capacity exceeding 64KB.
[Reward]: Hardware Technology +5
……
"Wow—Mr. Lawson is truly a genius."
Lin Lixin wiped his sweat and sincerely praised him.
This 256KB memory chipset is a work of art.
It consists of a control circuit and eight 32KB EPROMs.
The implementation principle is very ingenious. The CPU writes a value of 0 to 7 to the control circuit, and the expansion card will switch to different chips according to this value.
In other words, at any given moment, only one 32KB chip can be read.
Such ingenious skills are truly astonishing.
With this thing, the last barrier between him and Contra has been completely broken.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
On June 29, 1984, Lin Lixin completed all the initial development work, with only bug testing and some final optimizations remaining.
On this day, in addition to Contra, another game was also released.
A movie theater in Los Angeles.
Sam, holding a bucket of popcorn, looked excitedly at the poster on the wall.
"Unbelievable! We actually have the opportunity to watch the premiere of 'Conan the Destroyer'!"
He knew that Lin Lixin's purpose in coming here was not just to watch a movie, but this rare experience still made him extremely excited.
Over the course of the month, arcade sales soared, causing quite a stir throughout California.
For every unit sold, they can make thousands of dollars in profit from Meyer!
It's no exaggeration to say that Tetris and 1942 are now two goose laying golden eggs like crazy!
This made Lin Lixin a fortune, and this angel investor with a keen eye for talent made a lot of money.
This huge sum of money gave them more capital and an opportunity to reach people they would otherwise never have been able to.
As Lin Lixin entered the screening room, his gaze was fixed on the burly figure in the front row.
His muscles were bulging, and his bronze skin had a strange reddish tinge, hidden beneath his tight-fitting suit.
"What a young governor..."
Lin Lixin couldn't help but sigh.
At this moment, Schwarzenegger was talking quietly to the person next to him. His face showed his youth, and he was still quite different from the image of the "governor" that Lin Lixin remembered.