Building a Gaming Empire In 1984

Processor design in this era was all over the place, with no unified standard yet. There were plenty of chips like the Z80 that emphasized versatility. Of course, there were also lower-end products like the 6502, cheap, but with fewer features and weaker performance.

What Ethan had done was use the technological advantage granted by his skill [The Art of Language] to bypass the need for complex instruction sets. If there wasn't a suitable high-level programming language, then he'd just make one himself.

"In my view, RISC is the future. When designing a processor, the focus should be on making it faster and more specialized."

Ethan paused before changing the subject.

"However, that's not why I came today."

"I'd like to commission a new 8-bit CPU. The clock speed should be at least 4.19MHz. Other than that, the lower the power consumption, the better."

Compared to complex instruction sets, one of the major advantages of RISC was power efficiency.

By removing large amounts of redundant instructions, the number of components inside the chip could be greatly reduced, eliminating the need to spend resources maintaining all that extra functionality.

Richard's heart skipped a beat. A small, low-power processor. He already had a rough idea what kind of device such a chip would be used for.

...

Game development timelines were a mysterious thing. Some games looked packed with content yet could be developed surprisingly quickly.

Others seemed to contain very little but required enormous amounts of time spent designing algorithms and balancing systems.

And Zelda happened to be both.

After more than a month of work, Sam had finally entered the entire world map into the project. Meanwhile, Ethan and John had completed most of the game's underlying systems.

"Now I understand why you needed floppy disks..."

After finishing another dungeon room, Sam stretched lazily. With this much content, storing it on EPROM cartridges would make each cartridge absurdly expensive.

"You're wrong, Sam."

John immediately shot down Sam's casual remark without mercy. His serious attitude made Sam's lips twitch slightly, but there was really nothing he could do about him.

Damn it.

Not only was this kid an exceptional programmer, but he also understood hardware surprisingly well. He wasn't even bad at games.

"Uh... alright then. What's your enlightened opinion?"

"I think..." John said thoughtfully, "it's because data can be written to them. That's the important feature EPROM can never replace."

The two of them looked toward Ethan. On his monitor was a rather unusual screen. The display was divided into two sections. The lower half showed the game map Sam had drawn, the upper half was a UI against a black background.

At first glance, the most eye-catching element was the hollow triangle symbol in the center.

According to Ethan, it was called the Triforce, serving as the game's "main quest."

The player's objective would be to gather the lost pieces of the Triforce and defeat the final boss, a straightforward, classic heroic adventure story. Above the Triforce were two boxes.

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The one on the left was labeled [Inventory].

The one on the right was larger, containing icons for boomerangs, bombs, bows, and other items. Below them were various status displays.

From the radar minimap first used in Metal Gear to the uniquely presented health meter, the screen was packed with all sorts of information.

Hearing their discussion, Ethan raised his eyes slightly and nodded.

"Saving is definitely one reason, but the large storage capacity of floppy disks is equally important."

A perfectly balanced answer that essentially said nothing.

"The state management in this game is extremely complicated. The password-saving system we've used before won't work anymore."

The completion status of every dungeon, whether each boss was alive or dead, which items had been obtained.

Link's maximum health. The number of Rupees possessed.

With so many variables involved, it was unrealistic to preserve progress using a short numerical password. There was simply no way to compress everything losslessly into a few digits.

That was also why Ethan had only begun developing The Legend of Zelda after the NovaBox came into existence.

This was one of the biggest differences between arcade games and home consoles.

Unless Ethan somehow invented IC card technology like the Aime cards used by future Maimai players, arcades could never compete with PCs and home consoles when it came to saving progress and continuing later.

"That's true. There's no way all this data could fit. And if you also included Link's stats... huh?"

Sam stepped closer and examined the screen carefully. Halfway through speaking, he suddenly noticed something.

"How are Link's stats represented?"

There was no sign of a "Level," "Attack Power," "Defense," or any of the usual RPG attributes.

The only thing remotely related was the row of heart-shaped health containers.

Something felt off. This wasn't anything like the RPGs Sam was familiar with.

"Ethan, did you forget to design the stat screen? I'm good at that stuff, I can handle it."

Sam loved games. Besides video games, he had naturally spent plenty of time with traditional tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons.

In his mind, an RPG protagonist should have a clear sense of growth. Usually represented through levels and numerical attributes. Some electronic adaptations of D&D developed by hobbyist groups already used exactly that system.

"Stat growth? That's certainly an interesting idea."

Ethan shrugged.

If he were making Dragon Quest, then number-driven progression would indeed be an important design element. But he was making Zelda.

"Sam, after entering all those maps, did you notice a common characteristic?"

"Huh?"

"Every direction. Every road. None of them are blocked by obvious walls."

Sam froze. As memories of the maps, he'd drawn resurfaced, his eyes widened. Suddenly, he understood what Ethan meant by a true open world.

Aside from paths blocked by bodies of water or giant boulders, every location could be freely traversed.

"No fucking way..."

His eyes locked onto the screen. Locked onto the raft sitting inside the inventory.

"You mean... players can freely choose their own route through the adventure and explore the secrets hidden throughout the world?"

"Exactly."

"Then this raft... Fuck! I get it now. This is the 'restriction'!"

Realization struck Sam, and his breathing quickened. Although the map appeared completely open, requiring specific items to pass certain areas created soft barriers.

The growth in this game wasn't numerical growth. It was growth through abilities. As players continually acquired new abilities, their understanding of the world would constantly expand.

An ordinary-looking shoreline could become a gateway to a new land once a raft was obtained.

An unremarkable mountainside could conceal a secret room, revealed only by a well-placed bomb.

If Ethan actually managed to realize this design… Sam swallowed hard.

A loud gulp echoed clearly through the room.

It would become a game that completely overturned the world's understanding of RPGs.

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