Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 348
"Computers have been working hard for the traditional task of data processing for decades. Maybe it is tired of this old-fashioned job, so it is now looking for innovation, and networking and communication are a choice that represents the future."
In order to support his point of view, Tang Huan naturally had to give some examples.

For example, some word processing software now begins to provide email-related functions, as well as BBS, which is in the ascendant, and MUD, a word online game that is still in the experimental stage.

Companies under Tang Huan's name are actively participating in these fields, and he is naturally very eloquent when he speaks.

Listening to Tang Huan's analysis of the significance of the Internet to the video game industry, Ray Kassar, the CEO of Atari who was sitting in the audience, couldn't help thinking.

Even though they are competitors with a very bad relationship, he has to sincerely admire that EA is indeed leading step by step in the technical field. No wonder it can surpass the second-ranked Atari by so much in terms of performance.

Thinking of this, Recasa began to distract himself, recalling a series of aggressive plans made by boss Steve Ross for Atari at the previous Warner meeting.

Since Atari lost the lawsuit with Activision, the other party's development of video games on the Atari 2600 platform has become justifiable. In the future, Atari will inevitably face competition from both internal and external directions.

Therefore, Warner first requested that Atari must launch the next-generation video game console as quickly as possible, and that it was not compatible with the existing Atari 2600, so as not to make wedding dresses for third-party game manufacturers such as Activision.

For a long time, Warner's management in New York has been interfering in Atari's operations. Recasa is naturally quite dissatisfied with this, but he is powerless to fight.

Just like this request for the successor of Atari 2600, Recasa feels a little inappropriate.

Incompatible with old products, externally, it is possible to exclude third-party game manufacturers such as Activision and enjoy exclusive benefits, but internally, it also makes the work more difficult.

Gein, if the new product does not have a matching game, it will be a mirror image, and users can only use it as a decoration when they buy it back.Regardless of whether it is porting existing games or developing new games, the workload cannot be underestimated.

Now that the development of games by third-party manufacturers has been legalized, it is better to admit the reality and see if they can cooperate with these motley crews and share benefits.

But the arm couldn't twist the thigh, and Warner didn't accept Recasa's suggestion at all.

Under such pressure, Recasa had to find the successor of the Atari 2600 as quickly as possible-the Atari 5200, which was the redesigned personal computer Atari 400/800.

In fact, currently the Atari 5200 exists almost exclusively in files.

While the internal hardware was the same, requiring only a reconfiguration of software and input devices, the Atari 400/800 PC transformation still took a while.

This was completely an emergency method that Recasa had to adopt when he was forced to do so.

But one thing is too ironic. The Atari 400/800 was originally designed for game consoles. It was only because of the boom in the personal computer market that it was changed to a personal computer, and now it is back to a game console.

Such changes day and night, at a loss, seems to be an ominous omen.

In addition to rushing ducks on the shelves of the Atari 2600 successor, Warner also set a performance target for Atari with an increase of 60.00%.

When Recasa saw this number, his scalp felt a little numb. In order to achieve this goal, Atari had to recklessly dump the Atari 2600 and game cartridges on the market.

Steve Ross said confidently: "Look at EA, following the craze of the summer vacation, it launched the video game "007", which easily sold 100 million sets in one go. It can be seen that the market space How big it is, it can be said to be infinite, what reason does Atari have for EA to be so dominant? "

Recasa knew that Steve Ross was jealous of the success of the resource collaboration between United Artists and EA, but until now, there was still no spark between Warner and Atari, and it was incomparable for the boss to sit on the treasure mountain but not see it. Annoyed, I still don't want to get into trouble and say "fishing in a dry marsh", just follow orders.

Just so, regardless of the launch of the Atari 5200.To develop as many new games as possible, it is necessary to further enhance the strength of the game technical team.

But the room leak happened in the night rain. Atari's most important technical veteran, Allan Alcorn, the developer of the pioneering arcade game "Pong"-Alan Alcorn, also left Atari recently.

His departure means that the technical team from the era of Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has completely disappeared, and the impact is not insignificant.

The reason for this situation, Recasa knows well, is nothing more than his iron-fisted policy, which has aroused the dissatisfaction and resistance of these old employees.

Before taking over as CEO of Atari, Recasa served as vice president of Burlington Industries, a textile company, and has considerable managerial qualifications.

At Atari at the time, the boss Nolan Bushnell even soaked in the bathtub for meetings, which shows how chaotic the company is.

In 1978, Warner added an additional $2600 million in R&D funding for the Atari 80, but the annual sales volume was only [-] units, so the headquarters arranged for Recasa to take over Nolan Bushnell's position.

After taking office, Recasa immediately carried out a drastic transformation of Atari, recruiting managers with business school backgrounds to establish the order that a modern enterprise should have.

However, Recasa is not the founder of the company, and his prestige is naturally not comparable to that of Nolan Bushnell. Nolan Bushnell left the company he created as a victim of being squeezed out. As a result, he was in a reform environment. The old Atari employees in the film naturally became resistant and even gave Recasa the nicknames "Sock King" and "Towel Czar".

After that, these people left one after another because of reasons such as dissatisfaction with the treatment and unsatisfactory work. What's more, there was an Activision that poached the corner of the old club.

For this result, Recasa has never regretted it.

In his view, if he did not bring order to Atari, how could he create a sales performance that increased from US$7800 million to US$9 million in just a few years.

If the Atari 2600, which has an additional US$[-] million in research and development funds, does not earn back profits through marketing as soon as possible, how will it explain to the board of directors.

If it really follows the requirements of those technical lunatics and continues to invest endless resources in research and development, Atari may be bankrupt by now.

The ass determines the brain, and I feel that I saved Atari from the quagmire. Recasa, who has great merit, has always dismissed the hatred and resistance of Atari's old employees, including heavyweights like Alan Alcorn run away.

However, the situation has changed now. The plans formulated by the headquarters all require outstanding technical personnel, especially technical elites like Activision who can produce games that are popular in the market.

It seems that we have to find a way to find some really outstanding old employees, or go to other companies to dig some accomplished people.

Recasa, who was performing various calculations in his head, was pulled back to the real world by a burst of warm applause.

He looked up and saw that Tang Huan had finished speaking.

"Oops, I was distracted just now, and I may have missed some useful information." Recasa couldn't help feeling a little annoyed.

After thinking for a while, Recasa got up and went to the file office set up by the COMDEX Organizing Committee to ask, "Do you have Tang Huan's speech here?"

After searching on the computer, the staff gave a positive answer.

While waiting for the manuscript to be printed, Recasa noticed that almost all the office equipment here, from computers to printers, fax machines, etc., bear the logo of Fangyuan Computer.

It is incredible that Tang Huan not only dominates the field of video games, but also has an extraordinary dominance in the personal computer industry.

Atari has also set foot in these two fields, but it is still far from the height of others.

Recasa, feeling emotional in his heart, got the desired printout and walked towards the display area.

Due to the prosperity of electronic games, COMDEX specially opened up a special area for this field, and many game manufacturers took advantage of this opportunity to show their new products, even samples, in an attempt to understand the market feedback.

Although Atari also has newly developed works, the progress is often too far behind the COMDEX time to make the most of this display opportunity.

On the contrary, EA can step on the drum every time, and can always bring the marketing function of the COMDEX platform into full play.

For example, this time, EA demonstrated a new type of game on COMDEX - fighting games, and provided a trial version of "Street Fighter", and the official release time is next month's Christmas.

This year's peak sales season was going to be tough again, and Recasa sighed secretly.

In the entire game area, EA not only occupies the best and largest position, but also has the largest audience.

Judging from intuition, the innovative fighting game "Street Fighter" must be another work that kills all directions, so Recasa paid special attention to it, and even tried it out if there is a chance. .

However, after seeing the spectacular queue, Recasa gave up this unrealistic idea.

Fortunately, although you can only watch from a distance, you can't play close by, but gathering information is enough.

The trial version of "Street Fighter" only provides three fighting characters-a western boxer, a Japanese ninja, and a Chinese monk.

Judging from the image and sound alone, Recasa was able to confirm that this game can only be run on the extremely powerful platform of the Xiaobawang Arcade.

Amidst the blaring music, the punching sensation gave even a seasoned professional manager like Re Casa a layer of goosebumps.

After realizing his gaffe, Recasa felt a little embarrassed and immediately realized, "Competing with such a powerful opponent, it seems that there is no other way but to win through quantity."

Thinking of this, Recasa showed a malicious sneer on his face, "Since Atari is preparing to launch the next-generation game console, the Atari 5200, what is there to miss about the Atari 2600 platform? The action of fishing in the dry lake, let it finally shine, and maybe there is still hope of challenging EA's status."

After collecting the information in front of the EA booth, Recasa decided to go to the personal computer exhibition area on a whim. The market performance of the Atari 400/800 is quite satisfactory. I don't know what new developments other peers have.

As a result, in front of Fangyuan Computer's booth, Recasa met his intelligence-seeking colleague, Don Estridge of IBM.

……

Bill Lowo was very loyal, and in accordance with Don Esterlich's wish, he successfully lobbied a group of senior executives from IBM headquarters to come to COMDEX to observe the competitors up close.

But what they didn't expect was that Fangyuan Computer announced at this COMDEX that in addition to personal computers and peripheral equipment, its product line also added new products from low to high - personal workstations, network Servers, even supercomputers, and the new products that were showcased on the spot were the personal workstations PW-2400 series.

When Leng Buding saw the PW-2400, Don Esterlich, Bill Lowo and others did not quite understand the significance of this product positioning.

What exactly is a personal workstation?A top-end PC, or a minicomputer?
Their doubts have been answered after experiencing the functions of professional software such as AutoCAD and Photoshop running on the PW-2400—this thing is definitely the most powerful competitor of the current minicomputer.

"I didn't expect that a personal computer company could design and manufacture such a promising product." Bill Lowell sighed in admiration, "It seems that network servers and supercomputers may not be their bluff, they may be real. It exists, but it’s a pity that it’s not shown.”

The executives of the management committee who were lobbied to visit also had a strong interest in PW-2400, but the information available at present is only some indicators related to performance, which is really limited.

One of the executives suddenly said with an idea: "With this complete system, maybe when we go back, we can suggest to the headquarters to acquire this Fangyuan Computer Company."

Upon hearing this, a black line appeared on Don Estrich's forehead, and he said in his heart, "You all stay in IBM's kingdom all day long, and you are too ignorant of outside information. Tang Huan is recognized as a Silicon Valley upstart. I have never been short of money, how could I sell such a promising company.”

When Don Estrich was feeling ashamed of his companion's ignorance, he suddenly heard someone laughing and asking, "Who wants to buy a round computer? You might as well tell us the conditions."

(End of this chapter)