Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 660 Tang Jinzhou Never Wants to Build California High Speed ​​Rail
……

The box-office hit movie "Top Gun" has a side effect that is not limited to the video game of the same name, which helped EA, which returned to the US market, get off to a good start.

For example, the interlude, "Take My Breath Away" sung by Deng Lijun - "Take My Breath Away", once released, quickly entered the "Billboard Hot 100" - "Billboard Top [-] Singles Chart".

Now Deng Lijun, in addition to being popular in the Japanese music scene, has also been recognized by the mainstream in the United States.

In this song "Take My Breath Away", Deng Lijun not only maintains a high level of style and technique as always, but also pours out her sincere feelings, making this love song a classic and perfect interpretation.

When the music sounded in the movie, the love between the heroes and heroines-the U.S. Navy F-14 fighter pilot played by Tom Cruise and the flight school instructor played by Kelly McGillis became more and more romantic. .

The success of "Top Gun" also set off a boom in merchandise such as Ray-Ban sunglasses and G-1 flight jackets.Among them, the sales of Ray-Ban sunglasses surged by 40.00%, which brought additional income to the film.

I have to say that Tom Cruise was very successful in playing handsome.

In addition, the wonderful scenes in "Top Gun" also made Zheru's other high-tech product - the cabin simulator shine, and attracted repeated consultations from many civil aviation companies and pilot training institutions.

Of course, it was not Tang Huanlai's turn to create this kind of product, but he was able to make use of the technical reserves he had already developed to make it better, and it was so easy to control that he even introduced this technology into the field of video games by the way, and released an arcade version "Flight Simulator".

In the past few years when the home video game console business has completely collapsed, the arcade machine has not been fatally affected in the North American market, and it is still alive and well. This makes the Xiaobawang arcade machine a great tool for EA to maintain its presence in the North American market.

Unlike home video game consoles, once a product model is determined, millions of units will be sold at any time, which makes hardware improvements have to be cautious; arcade machines can almost unleash their creativity in hardware design, and EA has specially designed "Flight Simulator" for "Flight Simulator". 》Customized 5 sets of expensive Xiaobawang arcade motherboards.

As a result, the "Flight Simulator" with a testing nature was sold out after the initial experience, and the popularity even caused obvious fluctuations in the coin supply in some areas, which attracted the attention of banks and governments.

After receiving the report of this unexpected situation, Tang Huan realized that "Need for Speed" should be ready to debut.

However, Trip Hawkins has a slightly different idea. He hopes that this game will be launched on the market with the next generation of home video game consoles, the third generation Xiaobawang game console, so that it can be used as a flagship game to drive the popularity of the console. sell like hot cakes.

Tang Huan did not force the other party. He still believed in his subordinates' grasp of the specific business, but he still reminded: "You plan to make the official debut of the third generation of Xiaobawang game console next year, maybe the timing is not right."

"Could it be that Zheru has made some new breakthroughs in video acceleration. Does the prototype worthy of replacement have to be adjusted?" Trip Hawkins asked suspiciously.

It has been four years since the second-generation Xiaobawang game console was released in 1983. The outside world has also speculated for a long time about EA's next-generation home TV game console, the third-generation Xiaobawang game console. Upgrade to 4-bit architecture, the storage medium becomes CD-ROM with proprietary copyright protection function, 32D video acceleration technology is fully introduced, etc.

To be honest, the remarks of these prophets are quite outrageous, but it does not mean how clever they are. Gein uses high-standard hardware platforms to crush competitors and continue to expand the market, which is already in the game software. It is an inevitable choice for EA to achieve the level of "content is king".

The mission of the third-generation Xiaobawang game console with 32-bit architecture is to give a sap to other 16-bit home video game consoles that follow the second-generation Xiaobawang game console. It has been prepared for a long time, but some external factors must be considered.

Tang Huan pondered: "According to the assessment, with the signing of the U.S.-Japan semiconductor trade agreement, Intel's complete abandonment of the DRAM business, and the booming development of personal computers, next year the U.S. market will definitely have an obvious memory loss due to the imbalance between supply and demand. Price fluctuations, this is an uncontrollable and extremely dangerous factor for the Xiaobawang game console, which is trying to control the hardware production cost as much as possible.”

Trip Hawkins was shocked when he heard that, "Will our production base in Asia be affected?"

"I'm afraid it will inevitably be affected to some extent. After all, the Japanese have almost grabbed the market share, and it's time to harvest." Tang Huan waved his hand and reassured the other party: "But don't worry, my side A new long-term supply agreement has been won, and the production of the second-generation Xiaobawang game console should not cause problems, but if the third-generation Xiaobawang game console is launched, the high-end DRAM it needs will inevitably become an obvious constraint. Cost short board."

"It's better to wait a little longer." Trip Hawkins thought for a while, and finally said: "By then, the other 16 home video game consoles should have popped up, just in time to catch them all."

Seeing that the other party was convinced, Tang Huan nodded happily and solemnly warned: "The prediction of the possible price increase of dynamic random access memory must be kept strictly confidential. It may have an impact on the current personal computer market war."

Although Trip Hawkins, who was born in Apple, has devoted all his attention to video games in recent years, the stakes of personal computers can still be seen.

He immediately smiled knowingly: "It is said that the IBM-PC compatible machine camp will soon launch a 80386-bit personal computer using the Intel 32 microprocessor, and IBM's PS/2 is almost completed. Products in the new stage of launch, at zero The supply of parts must be very sensitive, and it is estimated that there will be a good show at that time."

"IBM is not an ordinary person. I hope they don't wake up too early." Tang Huanyun smiled lightly.

He will not put his hope of defeating his opponents entirely on such a change of situation, so his mentality is also very peaceful.

At this time, the assistant came over to report, "Boss, it's almost time, we can start now."

"Let's go, Tripp, let's celebrate Top Gun together." Tang Huan stood up and said.

……

The movie "Top Gun" was released on May 5, and its final North American box office was close to 16 million US dollars.If nothing unexpected, it is the biggest winner of this summer season.

However, it needs to be pointed out that the box office of "Top Gun" is still far away from US$2 million, which cannot be ignored. This is different from the previous years' "Back to the Future", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "ET", Summer box office champions such as "Star Wars" are simply incomparable.

In other words, now is a weak period in Hollywood, the market has really fallen to the bottom, and it is not known whether it has reached the bottom.

In order to bring the audience back to the cinema, various Hollywood companies are still working very hard, and even continue to introduce new elements from the outside to please the public.

For example, Twentieth Century Fox won the distribution rights of an Australian comedy film "Crocodile" Dundee - "Crocodile" Duncan; "Entangled", after earning a box office of 1984 million US dollars in 9000, launched a sequel this year while the iron was hot. It was released on June 6, catching up with "Top Gun".

Under such circumstances, Tang Huan followed his own plan to bring Hong Kong films into Hollywood, which can be said to be a smooth hit.

Of course, this also makes the original American style "Top Gun" very rare.

But what Tang Huan likes about "Top Gun" is not here, but the public relations achievements hidden behind it.

Needless to say, "Top Gun" is a collaboration between Tang Huan and the US military, and even because of this relationship, some Hollywood staff in the project team withdrew.

The U.S. military provided a complete set of resources, including the Penguin aircraft carrier and the F-14 fighter squadron, to assist in the filming of "Top Gun".

Obviously, no matter how willing the U.S. military is to help, it is impossible to mobilize these equipment for nothing. Tang Huan still needs to give them money.

For example, in order to get those fighter planes to take off, the richest man paid $7800 an hour to cover various costs including fuel.

For another example, director Tony Scott felt that the shots of fighter planes taking off and landing on the deck of the aircraft carrier were affected by sunlight and the effect was not good, so he asked the commander to adjust the direction of the aircraft carrier. As a result, he paid another 5 US dollars for these 25000 minutes.

Don't think it's too expensive, this is already a friendly price; if you change it to someone else, even if you have money, you won't serve it!
In addition, in order to shoot real aerial footage, the crew of "Top Gun" borrowed Tang Huan's Learjet business jet used for short-distance transportation in the United States, and mobilized 6 cameras at the same time to capture every move of the fighter group.

Fortunately, Zheru's cabin simulator came in handy, which solved many practical problems and improved the quality of special effects, and then controlled the filming budget within 1500 million U.S. dollars.

The idol role played by "Top Gun" has played a positive role in American conscription that cannot be ignored.The U.S. Navy personally admitted that the number of young people applying for the U.S. military pilot exam has increased by 5.00%.

This is the result of the cooperation between Tang Huan and the U.S. military. It can be described as a happy ending for everyone.

Of course, the richest man was very satisfied. At the celebration banquet, he gave an enthusiastic toast, affirming the achievements and thanking the hard work, which was very emotional.

Just when Tang Huan was about to end this session, and his elbows turned, a guest attending the banquet rushed out, smashed the pastry plate in his hand, and shouted loudly: "Tang Huan, you ambitious Guy, do you think you are buying the entire Don King State of California, don’t even think about building the California high-speed rail.”

Although Tang Huan had lived a pampered life over the past few years, living in debauchery and enjoying the pleasures of men, he did not throw away all his hard work and immediately ducked away; the bodyguards and banquet security guards who reacted swarmed up and attacked him. Subdue the guy.

This celebration banquet also had the intention of media public relations. Many media reporters came to record this shocking excitement.

Amidst whispers and strange gazes, Tang Huan tidied his shirt calmly, as if he didn't feel any smoke and fire, but in fact he was extremely annoyed.

He thought to himself bitterly: "I am in New York on the east coast of the United States, and you can come all the way from the west coast of the United States to make trouble! Do you really think that this small trick can stop me? Is it?"

Although the troublemakers were subdued on the spot, the bodyguards certainly did not want their boss to stay in this place of right and wrong, and they quickly protected Tang Huan from the scene.

"Find out the origin of that person, and try to do a good job in media public relations." Tang Huan ordered calmly.

"We have already taken this action." The assistant immediately replied.

In fact, such a big banquet can be described as a mixed bag, and the effect of media public relations is really limited.

As a result, on the second day, the old enemy "New York Post" immediately gloated and reported the farce of how the richest man in the United States was protested at the celebration banquet of "Top Gun"; A report "Don Jinzhou, don't even think about building a high-speed rail in California!" ", to comprehensively sort out the interest disputes caused by the California high-speed rail.

In this title, Tang Jinzhou's name is particularly dazzling, and it is easy to make people think about it, and then build up hatred.

The news that Tang Huan promoted and invested in the California high-speed rail project spread during his participation in the Hannover Industrial Show in Europe. As for the conflict of interest, it was because this year was the backdrop of the US midterm elections.

Mid-term elections in the United States refer to the U.S. general elections held two years after the end of the U.S. presidential election every four years, which happens to be close to the midpoint of the four-year presidential term.

This year is of great significance, because in addition to the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and the 100 seats in the Senate that will be re-elected, 50 of the 36 states in the United States will hold governor elections. Legislature officials and county officials.

Since voters will change their voting goals in the mid-term elections based on the president's achievements in office for more than a year, the mid-term elections can be used as a mid-term exam for the president, and may affect whether the new president can be re-elected in the next term.

In short, the U.S. midterm elections will affect the adjustment of multiple sets of power structures from the federal to local levels, and this is such a year.Furthermore, in order to win, some people use the California high-speed rail as a bargaining chip.

(End of this chapter)