We're Rich!

Chapter 35 We're Rich!

"If I had asked people three years ago what video games were, many probably wouldn't have known, because most people had never seen one. But now, three years later, I think everyone can answer that question. Those big things that are placed at the entrances of bars, nightclubs, and billiard halls, playing strange music, are video games."

"When talking about video games, we have to mention Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. He used his engineering skills to bring video games, which were originally confined to university laboratories, to everyone and added a lot of color to our daily lives. But at the same time, I believe most people have also heard about Mirova's lawsuit against Atari. Although Nolan Bushnell changed the world, he did use despicable means to plagiarize Mirova's games."

"We originally thought that the out-of-court settlement two months ago would put Atari in a difficult position, because they wouldn't be able to release their own creative games for the next year. We even speculated that Atari's settlement with Milrova would be the beginning of their decline. But no one expected that just half a month after the lawsuit ended, Atari would distribute a new game—'Snake Game'."

"When we first heard the name of the game, our entire editorial team at the Los Angeles Times was puzzled because the name was so abstract that we had no idea what the game was about."

"So, after the game was released, we were curious and went to the game console to try it out."

"To be honest, we found this game very boring when watching others play it. Because it's not a competitive game, it's a single-player game where the player plays as a snake, a snake that can move on its own. All the player can do is control the joystick, change the snake's direction, make it eat things on the screen, and watch it grow longer and bigger as it eats."

"Games that don't allow interaction with friends and lack intense competition feel meaningless to us."

"But after we tried it out, we discovered that it's a game with a unique charm!"

"Although the snake in the game can move on its own, it will also die when it touches the boundary or itself."

"Although the snake in the game can grow longer by eating, it also moves faster after eating a certain amount of food."

"This discovery has shocked us!"

"And after our repeated attempts, we even had the illusion that we weren't playing a game, but rather controlling a life!"

"The little snakes we played seemed to possess intelligence! Once they discovered that food could help them grow, they couldn't wait to speed up and search for more!"

"The little snake we played seemed to have a soul! Because it knew that whatever it ate, it couldn't eat itself!"

"Honestly, we don't know where the inspiration for this game came from! But we know it might be the best video game of the year! Or rather, it might be the best video game ever made!"

"Because it portrays the greed inherent in human nature exceptionally perfectly!"

"The game's human-centered design is incredibly fun! The increasing difficulty, designed to motivate players to achieve success, draws them in again and again to challenge themselves to 'Win'!"

"Perhaps it's because Snake Game's design is so captivating that it has taken over the entire West Coast in just one month since its release! If Pong previously occupied almost every karaoke bar, dance hall, and billiard hall's entrance, then Snake Game has completely dominated it all!"

"We don't know how many copies of Snake Game Atari sold in total! But we do know that it might not be long before Snake Game breaks all records and becomes the best-selling video game in the entire United States!"

"Because it's so much fun!"

"It was because all the editors at the Los Angeles Times were fascinated by this little snake that we contacted Atari to interview Nolan Bushnell, but we were unable to reach him because they were busy with sales."

"However, the Atari staff did answer our questions. They told us that there were two inventors of the Snake Game, and they lived right next to Atari. One of them was Evelyn Jensen, a student at Stanford University's School of Engineering, and the other was her brother, Ethan Jones, a former employee of Milrova."

"When we hear about Stanford and Milrova, we're not surprised, because they are places where miracles are born."

"We were unable to contact either of these two individuals before this article was published, which is very regrettable."

"If we have the opportunity, we will conduct an exclusive interview with the inventor of Snake Game."

"We want to know how Snake Game, the game that has already taken over the West Coast, came about."

…………

To be honest, when Ethan finished reading this article, his hands were shaking like crazy!

This is the Los Angeles Times, the largest broadsheet daily newspaper in the western United States, whose influence across the country is second only to The New York Times and The Washington Post!

This media outlet wrote a side headline for Snake Game?

Oh my god! This is absolutely amazing!

The extremely lavish vocabulary, in particular, brought a happy smile to his face!

What does it mean for snakes to be intelligent?

What does it mean for a snake to have a soul?

He had no idea!

But these overinterpretations—

"Cough cough cough." Ethan coughed twice with a stern face.

He said in a pretentious manner, "Well... the editor of the Los Angeles Times has a good writing style, it's quite well written."

"Oh! — Fxxk!!! Ethan! If you want to laugh, then just laugh it off!"

Steve Jobs shoved him and yelled, "I know you're excited! Because your face is fucking taut! You can check the rearview mirror! Fuck you! You look like you're constipated!"

Upon hearing this, Ethan couldn't hold back any longer.

"Hahahaha—"

In the empty gas station, only his laughter could be heard.

He's just an ordinary person!

He likes this kind of praise!

"Oh dear~ I'm going to keep this newspaper safe~ because they have such a keen eye and discovered a great game~"

After laughing, Ethan folded the newspaper and put it in his inner pocket.

Steve Jobs rolled his eyes at his arrogant demeanor.

"I should have known better than to buy this newspaper," he muttered.

Then, he flung open the driver's side door and shouted, "Get out! Get out!"

"What are you doing?" Ethan exclaimed, bewildered. "Oh! My dear Steve! You're not jealous of me, are you? Jealous that I'm famous? So you want to leave me here and make me walk back?"

Ethan's words nearly made Steve Jobs faint.

His vision went black, and he yelled, "Fxxk! Ethan! Are you out of your mind? I'm afraid of dying!"

"You're so excited right now, what if you weld your foot to the accelerator while driving, just for the thrill?"

"Los Gatos isn't far from here, and I don't want anything to go wrong!"

"Oh, is that so? Thank you." Ethan got out of the car with a smile.

In his opinion, it's a great thing that someone is willing to drive!

Because he had been feeling nauseous for the past month!

After he got back into the passenger seat, he patted the window and shouted, "Let's go! Home!"

With a roar, Ethan returned to Atari.

According to his previous plan, the most important thing he should do after returning was to tally the sales figures for "Snake Game".

Nolan Bushnell was even more anxious about this than he was.

He returned first and immediately calculated the total sales.

Six weeks after its release, the arcade machine sold a total of 1121 units, generating $1,345,200.00 in revenue.

2715 gaming circuit boards were sold, generating $1,086,000.00 in revenue.

The total for both items is US$2,431,200.00.

Although this number is nothing compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue generated by blockbuster games in later generations, in this day and age, nearly two and a half million dollars is enough to drive people crazy!

Of this, Ethan and Evelyn's share was 201 percent of the arcade machine, $780.00, and 195 percent of the game circuit board, $480.00.

If we deduct the 50/50 split with Evelyn, and the $7 he would receive for each motherboard exchanged, the total service fee he and Jobs received for the 732 gaming motherboards they exchanged was $5124...

In just over a month, Snake Game brought Ethan $203,754.00 in revenue!

Keep in mind, this was 200,000 in 1975!

"We've struck it rich!"

Ethan's mouth stretched from ear to ear!

"If we work a little harder and sell the game to the East Coast, our revenue share this year should be around 500,000?"

Ethan's idea made Nolan Bushnell chuckle.

He coughed twice while smoking and said, "Ethan, I understand how you feel, but the time to rob us is over."

"From now on, we can't continue selling like we used to."

Thank you to [Protection Tips] for the 100 Qidian Coins.

P.S., I made a mistake in the data when I was writing Chapter 33 yesterday. I wrote $30,000 instead of $40,000 from 100 circuit boards. I have corrected it. Sorry.

(End of this chapter)