Personal Computer Video Games

Chapter 6 Personal Computers (×) Video Games (√)

Yes, Ethan did it on purpose.

因为他所指的Altair 8800（牛郎星8800），是世界上第一台微型计算机。它于1975年1月1日和大众见面，《大众电子》这本杂誌就是它的首发平台。

As it is a commercial product, this time, Popular Electronics did not publish the design drawings of Altair 8800. Therefore, unless you have the hands-on and creative abilities of a wild Iron Man, it will be difficult to imitate.

That's why Ethan's question, which he already knew the answer to, was actually asking for trouble.

After dodging the treasure crab shell thrown by Evelyn, he raised his hands and surrendered to his murderous sister.

"Alright! Alright! Alright! I was just joking..."

Evelyn rolled her eyes at Ethan's admission of defeat. She felt helpless in the face of this guy who kept provoking her and was as thick-skinned as a politician.

He pursed his lips and said, "Ethan, I can't make something like Altair 8800, because its core is not the drawing and soldering of circuits, but the input and output of binary data."

"If you just want me to replicate its circuitry, I can buy a machine, take it apart, and study it. It would probably cost around five hundred dollars. In just a few days, I should be able to figure out how Edward Roberts soldered the motherboard, how he embedded the memory chips, and how he drew several slots on the motherboard for data storage, thus establishing the circuit connections between the CPU, RAM, and ROM."

"But data transmission is something that can't be imitated in a short time. How to compress its size will require some research time."

Evelyn was telling the truth.

Before the advent of operating systems, all computers were controlled using instruction sets, or more simply, computer languages. Currently, the most widely used language in the industry is FORTRAN.

As the world's first officially promoted high-level language, FORTRAN has been widely used in numerical, scientific and engineering computing fields. However, due to its highly specialized nature, it is very difficult for ordinary people without a foundation to learn.

Therefore, in order to better popularize programming knowledge to the public and enable college students to use computers better, BASIC, a general symbolic instruction code for beginners, was created. Because it is easy to understand and seventeen statements can cover most needs, it soon left the campus and entered society after its birth, becoming the first choice language for beginners to learn programming.

Altair 8800 uses a simplified version of BASIC.

As for who the software developer is?

Most people of this era are unaware of this.

But Ethan Jones, who had lived in America for many years, already knew that it was a team.

One of them was named Paul Allen, and the other was named Bill Gates.

Microsoft's first step toward global dominance was to port the BASIC programming language to the world's first personal computer.

Of course, this may sound simple, but it is very troublesome to do because personal computers in this era have very little memory. Therefore, the challenge lies in how to compress and optimize the memory to leave enough space for the machine.

Under Paul Allen's direction, the BASIC they created for Altair 8800 was only 4KB in size.

For true experts, this might not be difficult to make, but for ordinary people, it's still quite challenging. After all, not everyone can afford a computer worth $250,000, and not everyone has time to sit in front of a computer and write code.

Because Ethan knew this thing was difficult, he didn't force Evelyn to do it when she said she couldn't handle it.

He clapped his hands and said, "Okay, then let's do something different. You know 'Pong,' right? Can you make that kind of arcade game?"

"Pong?"

Evelyn nodded after only a second of thought.

"Can."

Then, realizing what she meant, she added, "You don't mean you're thinking of making video games, do you?"

"Bingo! Congratulations on answering correctly, but no extra points!"

Ethan snapped his fingers and laughed, "I just want to make games because I have a lot of ideas in my head."

Yes! After Ethan discovered that the return cycle in the financial investment field was too long and the personal computer industry had software programming barriers, the video game industry, where everyone copied each other, became his first choice to make money!

There's nothing we can do; the gaming market at this time is still a wasteland.

If you have an idea, you can make money.

Although he had never been involved in this industry in his previous life, that doesn't matter, right?

He plays too many games!

In his past life, the contents of his Steam, PS, Xbox, and NS content libraries were his lifeblood!

From playing "Kuroshio" on his home computer while flipping through an English-Chinese dictionary in the 1990s, to playing "It Takes Tow" with his girlfriend after work more than 20 years later, these are some of the most cherished memories of his life!

And now...

Can memories be monetized?

This is absolutely the most wonderful thing in the world!

Evelyn didn't know why Ethan was so happy, but she knew her brother must have some kind of wicked idea.

At the same time, she was also a little worried. "Ethan! Your inspiration didn't come from Milrowa, did it?"

"If you're trying to get revenge on Mirova for firing you by plagiarizing their games... then I'm not helping you! Absolutely not!"

"How could that be! Do I look like that kind of person?" Ethan said, somewhat displeased.

"Yes. You're the kind of guy who always gets revenge, even though you look all polite," Evelyn said seriously.

"???"

Ethan was speechless; he hadn't expected to be seen this way by Evelyn.

"I really did not plagiarize Milrohua."

Ethan emphasized one point.

However, his words received no response.

Evelyn still looked at him with suspicion.

Faced with this situation, Ethan shrugged, unsure how to explain, and resorted to shamelessness, "Evelyn! You just said you'd help me! You can't go back on your word!"

"..." Evelyn paused for a moment.

The next second she shook her head helplessly, "Yeah~Yeah~Yeah~"

Ethan's shameless tricks made Evelyn feel like she had traveled back in time.

Years ago, when she was tinkering with all sorts of fun gadgets in Popular Electronics magazine, Ethan would pester her to make toys like this. Although she found Ethan annoying at the time, but...

Well, Evelyn thought about it briefly and realized that Ethan always managed to get what he wanted from her by being cheeky.

"So, are you going to just verbally explain your ideas to me, or do you have a complete plan in mind?"

Since Ethan started to cheat, Evelyn decided to assess the severity of the situation by identifying inspiration.

Her question made Ethan happy.

"Of course there is a complete plan."

"Wait a moment, I'll go back to my bedroom to get it."

Evelyn was somewhat surprised by Ethan's cautious approach.

In her opinion, Ethan's idea of ​​making her a game must have been a moment of impulsive enthusiasm after being scolded by Mirova today, but she didn't expect that this guy would actually have a planning proposal.

Evelyn was even more astonished when Ethan brought over the three-page document.

Although the paper was somewhat worn, with many stains at the bottom and numerous corrections on the text, the content inside was still complete and clear.

Ethan used the first sheet of paper to explain his game concept—

This is a game where there is no victory, only defeat.

The second page further summarizes the gameplay—

Players control a constantly moving object of a specific length on a bounded plane, using its head to collide with light spots that appear within the plane, allowing it to grow, until it touches the boundary or itself, at which point the game ends.

The third page showed a game interface—

On it, Ethan drew a snake.

That's right!

What Ethan wanted to do was—

Snake Game!

Note: ① The story of Bill Gates and Paul Allen writing BASIC for the Altair 8800 is quite interesting. Their version is that, lacking a prototype, they created an emulator on a DEC PDP-10—a popular computer in universities at the time—to simulate the Altair. They then spent about a month developing a BASIC interpreter. However, an interesting thing happened when a documentary was made about them in 94. When reporters interviewed Harvard University, the staff managing the lab equipment said they were unaware of this story and didn't often see them using the machines. They even suggested that Bill Gates and Paul Allen might have used MIT's machines. However, when the reporters went to MIT, their lab access records didn't show them there. So, how these two miraculously developed a BASIC interpreter without any machines is now only known to Bill Gates, as Paul Allen has passed away.

(End of this chapter)