Building a Gaming Empire In 1984

Ethan sat in front of his Commodore 64, staring at the pitiful 320×200 pixel color CRT monitor. He already had a plan in mind.

There was only one year left before the birth of Super Mario Bros.

Once Shigeru Miyamoto arrived in America with his plumber and the Famicom, Ethan would have missed this critical opportunity.

Looking back through the long history of video games, he had already found the game best suited for the current era.

A program born within an academy of sciences.

But before that, there was something else he needed to do.

"Good grief, I almost forgot about you."

Ethan opened the system panel. At the very bottom was a line that read.

[Beginner Gift Pack ×1].

Sam's interruption earlier had completely made him forget about it.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, you have obtained]: [Free Attribute Points ×5]

[Skill Acquired]:

[Computer Language Learning Efficiency ↑↑]

[Graphics Programming Learning Efficiency ↑↑]

In an instant, Ethan felt as though his brain was now unbelievably clear.

Everything from today's class that he had only half understood suddenly clicked into place. It was as if he were a seasoned veteran who had spent years in the industry.

This feeling...

It was absolutely amazing!

Taking advantage of this rush, Ethan felt a surge of excitement and immediately dumped all five newly acquired attribute points into Programming Development.

Game development in this era belonged to programmers!

What happened next was he entered a flow state.

With the skills boosting him, Ethan felt as though his hands were possessed. The code practically poured out on its own.

In less than three hours, the game had already begun to take shape on the monitor before him.

The game was extremely simple.

It consisted of a rectangular playing field ten blocks wide and twenty blocks tall.

As time passed, a random shape made up of four 1×1 squares would appear at the top of the field.

There were seven possible shapes.

A straight line of four blocks, L and reverse-L shapes, Z and reverse-Z shapes, a T-shape, and an O-shape.

Filename: Tetris

Ethan had thought long and hard about which game he should recreate to overtake the competition and make a name for himself before Nintendo could.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Tetris had naturally come to mind.

According to the original course of history, Tetris would actually be made at the Computer Center of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and would not begin spreading widely until it was ported to PCs in 1985.

More importantly, its rights would eventually end up in Nintendo's hands, where, paired with the Game Boy, it would become a legendary, generation defining phenomenon.

"Heh heh..."

Thinking of that, Ethan let out a few sinister chuckles.

Without even realizing it, Nintendo had just lost a huge chunk of meat to him.

Since he had finally transmigrated into the past, if he didn't make a fortune by copying classic works and instead gambled everything on original creations with an uncertain future, wouldn't that be like throwing away a winning lottery ticket to buy a mystery box?

...

Sam hummed a tune as he wandered down the street.

In his hand was a plastic bag containing two VHS tapes.

Ever since video games had "died," Sam's greatest hobby had become renting a couple of tapes from the video rental store, stocking up on snacks, and spending the evening watching movies in the apartment.

Today was no different.

With no classes that afternoon, he had rushed to the store early. Even so, he hadn't managed to get Indiana Jones. Fortunately, there was still one copy of Star Wars left.

Returning to the apartment, Sam glanced toward Ethan's room.

Ever since making that shocking declaration in the afternoon, Ethan hadn't come out of his room once. Sam had no idea what he was up to.

Sam's desk was somewhat messy. In one corner sat an Atari 2600, while his bookshelf was packed full of game cartridges.

From true classics such as Space Invaders and Adventure to disasters like E.T., Sam had practically bought every cartridge available on the market.

Pulling a bottle of soda from the refrigerator, Sam carried his haul and pushed open Ethan's bedroom door.

"Hey, Ethan, I rented Star Wars. Wanna watch it together?"

Before he could finish speaking, his attention was drawn to the Commodore 64 on the desk.

More specifically, to what was displayed on the screen.

Colorful blocks moved back and forth under Ethan's control before landing atop a growing mountain of blocks below.

"What game is this? I've never seen it before!"

Ethan stopped what he was doing and looked up at Sam.

"A game I made. Didn't I tell you?"

"WTF? That fast?"

Sam felt dizzy.

For a moment, he wondered if he had heard wrong.

"Ethan, I know you're eager to revive the gaming industry, but didn't you say it yourself? Quality comes first in games. Making something quickly doesn't mean anything."

He spoke earnestly, setting the soda down on the desk with a thump and waving the VHS tape in his hand.

"This is Star Wars, you know. I stood in line all afternoon to get it."

"You're not even going to try it? I thought a guy like you wouldn't be able to resist it."

Without any hesitation, Ethan opened the soda bottle, poured himself a full glass, and drained it in one gulp, washing away some of California's summer heat.

Sam glanced at the screen again.

Admittedly, he had been attracted at first glance.

But after looking more carefully, it was nothing more than a bunch of colorful blocks. There was no scenery, no story, nothing at all.

"Ethan, Atari spent six weeks developing E.T. and it still turned out like that. It's not that I'm looking down on you, but..."

The designer of E.T. was Howard Scott Warshaw, the same man who had once created Yars' Revenge, which had sold over a million copies.

Even a true industry giant like him hadn't been able to save Atari.

Ethan was just a college student in the same year as Sam, a rookie who barely knew anything.

Could something he threw together in a single afternoon really be called a "game"?

Just this morning, the two of them had still been comparing answers in their programming textbook!

Ethan revealed an expression that seemed to say I expected this and snapped his fingers.

"Want to make a bet? Let's bet on whether you'll end up liking this game. The loser has to buy the winner cheese pizza for a month. With sausage toppings."

Sam raised an eyebrow.

Ethan's confidence piqued his curiosity.

"Now I really want to see what kind of thing you made that's making you this confident."

He immediately set the VHS tapes aside, sat down on the chair Ethan had just vacated, and looked at the screen before him.

"So how do I play?"

"Why don't you just try it and find out?"

The controls of Tetris were so simple that Ethan didn't even need to explain them.

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