Building a Gaming Empire In 1984

After listening to Ethan's explanation, Satoshi and Ken finally understood what he wanted. GAMENOVA was preparing a "Monster Encyclopedia" that would catalog every creature appearing in its upcoming game.

Ethan intended to entrust the project to Game Freak because, in his words, Ken's art style perfectly matched his tastes, while Satoshi's approach to world-building and content design was equally impressive.

The two of them were utterly flattered, since at this point in time, Satoshi had never experienced anything like this.

Forget becoming acquainted with Shigeru Miyamoto in the future, even his current relationship with Namco amounted to little more than having met them once.

In Satoshi's eyes, GAMENOVA was a company with even greater potential than Namco, a younger, more innovative, and more forward-thinking game developer.

If they could truly become part of GAMENOVA, that would be an incredible opportunity.

As for Satoshi himself, he had always harbored ambitions of entering the game development industry. It was just that the idea was still in its infancy, so Ethan's proposal was like striking a match in a room full of dry tinder. In an instant, it consumed every corner of his mind.

"I accept, Ethan! Game Freak will give your project our full support."

"That's wonderful to hear. Though, if possible, I'd also like to discuss an acquisition."

Ethan hadn't traveled all this way merely to commission concept artwork.

Now that he had found the young and still fledgling Game Freak, he naturally wanted to seize the opportunity to bring the whole studio under GAMENOVA if he could.

Game Freak wasn't an ideal third-party partner like Howard Warshaw or Jon Caneghem.

That much was obvious from the remarkably talented, yet highly specialized skill sets of its members. But as a first-party studio directly under GAMENOVA? They were a perfect fit.

Just the design philosophy behind Pokémon, combined with GAMENOVA's technical prowess. He could hardly imagine how extraordinary such a game would become.

At Ethan's signal, Sam immediately drafted a preliminary agreement on the spot and handed it over for the two of them to review.

However, when they reached the clause requiring them to relocate their office to America, both men hesitated.

Joining GAMENOVA certainly wasn't a bad thing. They would see a much broader world, and they would gain access to the most advanced game development techniques and hardware technology available.

But Satoshi was only twenty years old. Ken was only nineteen. At that age, leaving their families behind to move halfway across the world.

"Ethan, I have an idea."

Noticing the change in their expressions, Sam considered it for a moment before proposing another solution.

"Weren't we already looking for an opportunity to establish a branch office in Japan?"

"Instead of bringing them to California, why not let Game Freak become our foothold in Japan? Whether it's distribution or other business operations, everything would be much more convenient."

Ethan paused, that really was an excellent idea. After all, artwork and technical support could be exchanged remotely, so development wouldn't actually be delayed by very much.

Satoshi wasn't what one would call a model student. His English wasn't particularly strong, but he still managed to catch phrases like "establishing a company in Japan" from Sam's explanation.

Stolen novel; please report.

Never in his life had he seen such an enormous stroke of luck fall from the sky.

"You're right, Sam."

Ethan nodded, accepting the proposal and turned towards Satoshi. Before he could even speak, Satoshi shouted in heavily accented but utterly sincere English.

"I accept!"

...

While Sam worked on drafting the official letter of intent, Ethan casually chatted with the two of them.

The longer the conversation went on, however, the more something felt off. It felt as though he had forgotten something important.

Smack!

Ethan suddenly remembered it, the realization hit him all at once. The three founding members of Game Freak still weren't complete.

"Satoshi, do you happen to have any friends you could introduce to us?"

Ethan deliberately steered the conversation in that direction. The soul of Pokémon couldn't exist without every member of Game Freak's legendary trio. Satoshi's original concepts, Ken's illustrations, and...

"Friends?"

"Mm. For example, someone who composes music? Musical styles differ from region to region. Maybe someone unexpected would be a perfect fit."

"Oh... in that case, I actually do know someone."

Satoshi immediately understood what Ethan was getting at. A friend from Yokohama came to mind.

"I have a friend named Junichi Masuda. He's very talented when it comes to music, and he also knows a bit about programming."

"Oh, so invite him over."

...

By the time the two of them returned to California, Gerald had already assembled a preliminary testing platform. It was a compact device equipped with the latest Z80Y processor and the NovaWonder graphics chip.

The moment Ethan pushed open the door, he saw Carmack sitting on a chair, furiously typing away on the development computer. Hearing someone enter, Carmack didn't even bother looking up.

"Ethan, you came back at just the right time. I just finished porting Tetris."

As soon as he finished speaking, he struck the Enter key with a sharp tap. The ROM burner immediately programmed the software into a test ROM chip.

After Gerald inserted the newly programmed chip into the prototype hardware. The tiny 2.6-inch LCD screen displayed the title screen of Tetris.

The colors were simple, but the smoothness was astonishingly good. Carmack had even created smooth falling animations for the blocks, taking full advantage of the graphics chip's sprite capabilities.

In the short week Ethan had been away, both Gerald and Carmack had given him enormous surprises. Everything was now ready for the official launch of the Pokémon franchise. Everything except for one final, crucial component.

Communication, collection, training and trading.

The first two could be handled entirely through software. But trading… In an era before the Internet, that was no easy feat.

"Gerald, the NovaPocket needs communication capabilities."

Looking at the prototype board, Ethan stated the final hard requirement.

"Communication?"

Gerald's eyes widened.

"You want to add communication hardware to a handheld? Then you can forget about battery life."

Ethan's earlier requirement, over thirty hours of operation using four AA batteries, had already been incredibly difficult. But Gerald had managed to achieve it, now adding a communication module on top of that, even he couldn't see where to begin.

"It doesn't need anything as sophisticated as the floppy fax system. Face to face communication is enough. A cable or infrared will do. I've already written the communication protocol in advance."

Before Ethan's eyes, his status panel quietly appeared. Among his skills was one that had remained unused for a long time:

[Systems Mastery]: [Master signal modulation and demodulation technology. Increased learning efficiency for information-related skills.]

It was a reward from a skill gift pack he had received long ago. Aside from the floppy fax machine, he had never found a suitable opportunity to make use of it, but now, its moment had finally arrived.

"Fine. But what about the NovaBox?" Gerald asked. "Are you planning to make the new game a NovaPocket exclusive?"

After all, the NovaBox had already been on the market for quite some time. There was no practical way to retrofit communication hardware into all the existing consoles.

But abandoning the massive console market altogether? That made no economic sense either. As though he had expected the question all along, Ethan grinned.

"Gerald..."

"Have you ever heard of something called a Pokémon Center?"

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