Building a Gaming Empire In 1984

Inside a Pokémon Center in New Mexico.

Mike, with the Fire-Type Gym Badge pinned to his chest, stepped onto a chair that John had pulled over. Taking a deep breath, he swept his gaze across the bustling crowd.

"Everyone! Fellow Pokémon enthusiasts! Please lift your heads and look at me!"

His voice erupted from deep within his diaphragm, booming throughout the entire Pokémon Center and drawing the attention of countless people. The badge on Mike's chest reflected the overhead lights, making it especially eye-catching. He raised his copy of The story of Clefairy high into the air.

"My friends, I believe every one of you here is an outstanding Pokémon Trainer. But I must tell you this, the Pokédex is lying!"

Looking at the puzzled crowd and at John, who was so embarrassed he wanted to crawl into a hole, Mike drew another deep breath.

"No.151! Or rather, Mew!"

"There exists a legendary Pokémon in this world that none of us have ever discovered!"

A wave of uproar instantly swept through the crowd. Anyone capable of spending an entire day inside a Pokémon Center was undoubtedly a hardcore Pokémon fan, and Mike's words immediately caused an explosion of discussion. Soon, some people connected the dots regarding the name Mew.

"I knew it sounded familiar! Mewtwo from Cerulean Cave! It must have evolved from Mew!"

"Now that you mention it, I remember too! The game said that Mewtwo was created by reconstructing a Pokémon called 'Mew' for research purposes!"

"Exactly, everyone!" Mike shouted. "We all know how GAMENOVA operates. This absolutely isn't an accident. Look here."

He displayed the manga to the crowd, read out the page number, and motioned for anyone who owned a copy of Clefairy story to check it together.

"The Pokémon hiding behind the tree must be the legendary Mew! The story of this book follows the same timeline as Pokémon Red/Green. GAMENOVA is trying to tell us through it that No.151 really exists!"

"WE SHALL FIND MEW!"

"WE SHALL FIND MEW!!!"

Click!

A reporter squeezed into the crowd swiftly raised the Minolta a7000 hanging from his neck and captured the astonishing moment on film.

History would remember it as the "Mew Incident."

...

"Ethan, the next question is something that both the fans and I are extremely curious about."

Steve stared intently at Ethan. Over the past few days, the series of marketing campaigns GAMENOVA had launched around the Pokémon IP could only be described as textbook-perfect.

Games, manga, merchandise, and even licensed everyday consumer products had ridden the momentum of the Christmas shopping season, transforming Pokémon from a newly born gaming IP into a comprehensive commercial franchise.

Even the eight Gyms had become must-visit tourist attractions in their respective areas and most notably, the recently viral "Mew Incident" had spawned countless urban legends nationwide. So, with traffic and attention pouring in from all directions, Steve was determined to capitalize on it today.

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"The legendary Pokémon No.151 that players keep talking about... does it really exist?"

Ethan chuckled and put on an innocent expression.

"Well... that's difficult for me to say."

Steve's eyebrows immediately rose. From the sound of that answer, there was definitely something there.

"Ethan, are you saying that you don't deny the possibility of Mew's existence?"

Sometimes, silence itself was already an answer.

Ever since the Mew Incident spread, it wasn't just ordinary Pokémon players who had gotten involved.

In an effort to solve this earth-shattering mystery, numerous hacker and tech enthusiast groups had announced their participation, attempting to unpack and reverse-engineer the game's source files in search of answers.

But GAMENOVA's cartridges used encryption and obfuscation jointly designed by Ethan and Carmack. To this day, no one had successfully decrypted the game's source code or developed working cheat devices.

Ironically, that fact had become the strongest evidence of all. If you didn't have anything to hide, why were you guarding it so tightly?

"Steve, if there's nothing else, shall we end today's interview here?"

Ethan cleared his throat, clearly having no intention of revealing any more information. Steve smiled and wisely ended the topic there, glancing down at the contents of his notes.

"Then regarding this Christmas season, does GAMENOVA have any other game releases planned?"

Although the recent Gym Challenges and Pokémon Pocket Monsters had generated tremendous excitement, it was still surprising that during such an important shopping season, GAMENOVA had prepared only a single game release.

Granted, that one title had already outperformed the ten thousand games Atari had shoved onto store shelves for Christmas.

Even Nintendo had never maintained such a small lineup of games. The quality was beyond question. If only the production capacity could be a little higher.

"Isn't Pokémon enough?" Ethan laughed. "At the moment, GAMENOVA doesn't have any new releases planned."

"Alright..."

Steve looked slightly disappointed but quickly adjusted. Just Pokémon and Harvest Moon alone, neither of which he had finished yet, would keep him occupied for quite some time.

But then Ethan suddenly changed the subject.

"However..."

"Hm?"

"For my beloved players, I spent an entire night persuading NWC Company to develop a classic, purist D&D-style RPG for the NovaBox!"

Under Steve's stunned gaze, Ethan seemingly performed a magic trick and suddenly produced a floppy disk that no one had ever seen before.

Might and Magic.

When a traditional DOS game received GAMENOVA's technical support and the development-speed boost provided by the Nova programming language...

Steve returned to the magazine office carrying the demo floppy disk. Under the watchful eyes of the staff, he slowly inserted it into the floppy drive.

Judging from the opening screen alone, aside from numerous adjustments made to accommodate NovaBox controller input, it looked like a traditional CRPG with somewhat better graphics. Then Steve led his party into the game world.

"3D..."

The pseudo-3D map rendering, remarkably similar to Wolfenstein 3D, clearly displayed the appearance of the town before him. This was something RPGs had never done before.

Who would have thought that GAMENOVA's second practical application of 3D technology would appear in a game like this?

...

Jon Van Caneghem, paced nervously around his room. From time to time, he sat back down in front of his computer, staring blankly at the telephone on his desk. Then, as if sitting on needles, he would spring back out of his chair and continue pacing.

Might and Magic officially launched today.

Although he had complete confidence in the game he had spent years painstakingly developing, it was releasing alongside Pokémon.

Me? Competing against Pokémon?

Can I win?

Jon scratched at his hair, pulling out a sizable clump from stress alone. According to the contract, the release schedule had to be arranged by GAMENOVA. He had no authority over it himself.

In a situation like this, should he say Pokémon was just that incredible, or that he was simply unlucky? Just then, the telephone on the desk rang. Jon snatched up the receiver.

"Congratulations, Jon..."

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