Video Game Empire

In Union City, in the southeastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, in the computer park franchise store where Li Xuan spent the afternoon before, the store manager Jamie was playing GameBoy in the store. Since Dongfang Electronics acquired Computer Garden Company, GameBoy handhelds were quickly put on the counters of various branches.

"Hi, can I buy copies of "Tank Wars" and "Hong Kong Cube" here?"

Rost confirmed outside the door that the store's sign was "Computer Corner" before pushing the door in and asking. He is a game fan and likes the new arcade game "Tank Wars" very much at the beginning of this year, but there is no place to pick up the plane near his house, so he has to drive out every time, which is very inconvenient.

Yesterday, he accidentally saw a report in the newspaper, "Computer copies of popular arcade games and landed in the United States." From the report, he learned that copies of these two games can be bought in the computer garden store. So he drove for nearly half an hour today and finally found Jamie's store, ready to buy a copy of the game.

"Yes, copies of these two games are available in our computer garden store!" Jamie replied with a smile. In the past few days, there are many game fans who come here every day in his store.

"Yes! Give me a copy of each!" Rost decided to buy the game disc without asking the price.

"Sorry sir, do you have an ABC computer at home?" Jamie asked instead of rushing to get a copy of the game for the customer.

"Ikon's ABC computer?" Rost shook his head, "No, I already have an Apple computer!"

Jamie spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "Then I'm sorry, sir! The copies of the two games "Hong Kong Cube" and "Tank Wars" can only run on the East-DOS operating system of the ABC computer. If you do not purchase ABC computer, even if you buy a copy of the game back, it won't work on your Apple computer!"

"FUCK! Whose idea was this, it's disgusting!" After hearing Jamie's explanation, the young man immediately cursed.

Jamie pretended he didn't hear it. Almost every customer who came to buy a game board couldn't help but scolded a few words after hearing the result. He was used to it.

"Would you like to buy a GameBoy game console? There is also the game "Hong Kong Square" on it. I was playing it just now, and this handheld game console is very small and light, and can be carried in a pocket, which is very convenient!" Mi Yang picked up the GameBoy handheld in Yang's hand and immediately sold it.

"Can these two games really only run on the ABC computer?" Roster asked reluctantly.

"Yes, they all only run on the ABC computer's proprietary East-DOS operating system. East-DOS is compatible with CP/M, but CP/M is not compatible with East-DOS. So the software on other CP/M systems It works on the ABC computer, but the software on the ABC computer doesn't work on the other computers!" Jamie explained in detail.

"Is this the ABC computer from Ikon?" Roster asked, pointing to a black computer with tough lines and a stylish appearance.

"Well, yes! This is the basic configuration ABC-1!" Jamie nodded and said to the customer.

"Can you open it for me to try? If it's really good, I'll buy another one and give my old Apple computer to my brother Wynn!" Roster thought for a while and said.

With the purpose of buying a copy of the game, but finally buying an ABC computer to go home, Jamie has met several customers in the past few days! To them, Jamie can only describe in one sentence, rich and willful!

But he just likes such willful customers, so Jamie quickly activated the ABC prototype on the counter and began to demonstrate some basic operations to Roster. Then I took another "Tank Wars" game floppy disk, put it into the floppy drive of the chassis, and opened it to enter the game program.

The Key-102 keyboard of the ABC computer can be set to a two-player game mode, one person uses the direction keys, and the other uses the four keys "W, S, A, D" to control the up, down, left, and right directions. These were the most common settings in later computers, but a very nice innovation in 1980. Because before the Key-102 keyboard came out, most keyboards on the market did not even have the concept of direction keys.

The two happily cooperated in a tank battle. Playing games together is a good way to communicate feelings. Jamie took the opportunity to continuously instill the advantages of the ABC computer to customers.

"Dad, this game is so interesting, and I want to play it too!" I don't know when there will be another pair of father and son customers in the store. Jamie hurriedly left the computer and said hello to the new guest.

"Can I let my son try it out too?" The father asked Jamie, looking at his son's eager expression.

"Of course, sir, no problem!" Jamie nodded with a smile, then greeted Roster and started teaching the little customers how to operate the game.

Twenty minutes later, Jamie happily sent off the two groups of customers. Two more ABC-1 computers were added to the store's sales list today. These days, the ABC computer from Ikon is the main push in his store, and the original Apple computer has long been moved to an inconspicuous corner.

It is said that Aikang Computer Company and Computer Garden Company are the same behind-the-scenes owner, but these have nothing to do with franchise stores like Jamie. All they know is that, according to company policy, selling an ABC computer is more profitable than selling an Apple computer. So Jamie has been trying his best to sell Icon's ABC computer to customers lately.

From August 1st, ABC Computer has quickly entered the counters of large and small computer sales companies in the United States and the United Kingdom. There are also a series of practical softwares listed on the market simultaneously with the computer. For example, the previous arcade games "Hong Kong Cube", "Tank Wars", and the computer game version of "Pac-man" which has just entered the North American market.

In fact, as early as the beginning of the year, when the arcades "Hong Kong Cube" and "Tank Wars" just became popular in the American market, Dongfang Electronics received many offers from American game companies to purchase the copyrights of the two game computers, but all of them were rejected by Li Xuan. .

The legal department of Dongfang Electronics Co., Ltd. has been closely watching the US computer game market for half a year. As soon as it finds that other companies have infringed the copycat behavior of "Hong Kong Cube" and "Tank Wars", it will immediately send the other party a strict wording. attorney letter. If the other party still does not converge, see you directly in the law.

For this reason, the legal department of Dongfang Electronics has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation fees against three small American software companies in the past six months. And this has also caused American computer game fans to be extremely obsessed with the two games "Hong Kong Cube" and "Tank War", which have not landed on the PC platform for a long time.

Therefore, relying on the huge popularity accumulated by the arcade versions of the two games, the computer copies of "Hong Kong Fang" and "Tank Wars" immediately detonated the enthusiasm of players as soon as they were launched. After all, going to grocery stores and small shops to play arcade machines is not as comfortable and worry-free as playing on the computer at home.

However, the copies of the two games "Hong Kong Cube" and "Tank Wars" can only be run on the ABC computer of Aikang, which makes countless players who are ready to buy game disks depressed.

In the future, Dongfang Electronics will naturally launch copies of games based on other operating systems, but that will be a few months later. For now, at least, the only way to get these two games on a PC for the first time is to buy an ABC computer.

That's why Jamie keeps encountering customers like Rost who buy ABC computers to play games these days. Of course, it's rare to buy a large ABC computer like Rost who already has an Apple computer. What Li Xuan really wants to win are those customers who just want to buy a computer.

For example, the father and son who bought an ABC computer with Ross, maybe they did not have a clear preference before, but decided to choose the ABC computer because of these two games.

PS: The new week has started again, and Sky is begging for a recommendation ticket! Everyone who has votes, please give them to Sky, I have not forgotten the 2200 and 2400 chapters that I owed before, and will make up for it as soon as possible!