: Celebration Party and Two Bonuses

Chapter 60 Celebration Party and Second Dividend

"Welcome, my friend! Steve Jobs, welcome to my party!"

"Hi~ Barbara~ It's nice to see you~ Your outfit looks great today, and it matches your hairstyle perfectly~"

"Oh, you must be Mr. Vinton? It's a pleasure to meet you! I'm Ethan Jones... Oh yes, Evelyn is my sister... And this is your wife? Oh, Mrs. Cerf, hello..."

"Hello~ Chuck~ We meet again~ Oh... you look so good! Your cheeks are so rosy! Is it because things are resolved?... Hahaha~ I never thought the law could cure illnesses~"

Saturday, September 1975, 8.

The clear blue sky is refreshing and invigorating, and the boundless expanse of blue sky makes one want to shout. But what's even more exciting than the natural environment is a three-story villa in Palo Alto, Bay Area, where people are bustling about.

Men and women of all ages and styles gathered together, some there because of Ethan Jones, others at Evelyn Jensen's invitation, to celebrate the success of Snake Game.

Although several months have passed since the release of Snake Game, the parties that need to be held are still a must.

From Ethan Jones' perspective, this is actually a good opportunity to maintain the relationship.

For Evelyn Jensen, this is a great way to enjoy life.

Two people may have different views, but that doesn't matter, right? As long as the process is the same, they can have fun together.

As for why it's in Palo Alto...

It's quite a coincidence that this happened.

Evelyn Jensen received nearly $200,000 in her first share of the profits from *Snake Game*. Not wanting to hand over most of it to the IRS, tax avoidance became her only option. But personal tax avoidance methods are limited: investment or property ownership. With no good projects to operate, buying a house near a school was her best choice.

The villa she chose was also very nice; the 6,000 square feet of living space could fully meet all her needs, and the configuration of a front parking space and a back garden made this villa the most eye-catching one in the downtown area.

Most importantly, the price here is only $160,000!

"Sixteen thousand US dollars? That's so cheap?" Barbara exclaimed in disbelief, looking around as she sat on the sofa. "My place costs eighteen thousand! And it's not even this big!"

"That's because you live closer to Stanford!" Vinton Cerf, wearing a hearing aid, shouted. "How long does it take to drive from your house to Stanford? And how long does it take from here to Stanford?"

"But there shouldn't be a difference of 20,000 US dollars, right?"

"How could there not be? Don't you always tell your students that a lawyer's time is money?"

"Oh—Vinton—this isn't class time! And please keep your voice down, I can hear you!"

Ethan found the two professors' loud conversation hilarious.

Vinton Cerf has some hearing problems, so he needs to wear hearing aids for a long time.

Because his wife also has a hearing impairment, even with a hearing aid, the sounds she can hear are very limited. So, their daily communication is mostly done by shouting. Over time, his speech has become like arguing, which is very troublesome for his wife.

Evelyn told him this little story; the girl told him to speak louder when he talked to Vinton and not to be afraid of scaring him.

Barbara clearly didn't like this way of speaking, after all, she was a soft-spoken person.

He chuckled and shook his head, then turned his gaze. To his surprise, he found Woz, the chubby boy, surrounded by Evelyn's other teachers. He leaned closer to listen—

"Wow! Woz, you actually know Evelyn's brother?"

"Uh...yes...we're friends..."

"Oh! Then you can't sell those toys to the school through them anymore..."

"I won't, I won't!" The chubby boy shook his head frantically.

Ethan found the conversation amusing and took the initiative to ask the chubby boy if he had any unknown dark history.

Upon hearing this question, several Stanford professors immediately pointed out that this guy, taking advantage of his position as a Hewlett-Packard employee, frequently sold strange and unusual toys for pranks to Stanford students.

For example, things like electric chickens, electronic dogs, and electronic bombs...

Since everyone knew his background—and Lockheed was personally recruited by Principal Fred Terman—they usually turned a blind eye to him. Whenever he made a fool of himself, they could only try to reason with him.

There's nothing we can do about it!

You can't hit them! You can't scold them! So you can only try to persuade them with kind words!

This fact made Ethan laugh out loud, pat Woz on the shoulder, and give him a thumbs up, praising him as awesome.

After he finished laughing, he turned around and went to listen to Mr. Foberle and Chuck Patel tell their stories.

Half an hour later, Thomas's voice came from the courtyard—

"Guys! I've got the fire going! Come on over and grill!"

Ethan then joined the others in rushing into the back garden.

While parties in Los Angeles may be extravagant and glamorous, normal people's gatherings are not nearly as extravagant.

Eating, drinking, singing, and dancing—that's the mainstream.

At 11 a.m., the party began. During the barbecue, Ethan performed a few tricks, playing the guitar he had learned in his previous life, which caused a sensation. Even Evelyn and Thomas Linda were curious about when Ethan had learned to play that thing.

When asked about this, Ethan simply laughed it off, saying that he learned it in three years of silence.

Evelyn could accept this answer, but as for Thomas and Linda... since their daughter wasn't asking anymore, they couldn't be bothered to care.

Ethan's demonstration also inspired others to showcase their talents.

Mr. Foberle whistled, the chubby Wozniak told a few jokes, Jobs pulled out a harmonica from somewhere and started playing Beatles tunes, and Evelyn sang a few Barbra Streisand songs.

The group played happily for a long time until the evening sunset, when they finally said goodbye to each other.

Since it's customary to bring gifts for the host at parties in the US, Evelyn's new house was overflowing with gift boxes. And because the theme of this party was to celebrate the success of "Snake Game," Ethan and Evelyn didn't want their guests to leave empty-handed, so they prepared a return gift for everyone.

Ethan asked Jobs to order twenty Snake Game machines from Atari, and then he and Evelyn signed the panel and wrapped them as gifts to give to everyone.

This fact delighted Vinton Cerf and his cronies; after all, in this day and age, almost everyone doing computer research played video games—it was their favorite pastime. As for the sorceress Barbara—

"Oh Ethan~ How am I going to carry such a huge arcade machine back home?"

Looking at the machine that was as tall as herself, Barbara put her hands on her hips, looking helpless.

"It's alright, it's alright, Ms. Barbara, I'll take it back to you."

Thomas reacted quickly, immediately summoning his P.E.K.K.A.

At the same time, he addressed the people around him, saying, "Is there anyone else who has trouble carrying something? I'll deliver it to you!"

"I might not be good at other things, but my service is excellent! Just tell me what you need, don't be shy!"

…………

Happy times are always fleeting; after the party ends, everything goes back to normal.

Nothing major happened in the next two weeks. Apart from Evelyn starting school, everything else proceeded smoothly.

Chuck Patel's 6502 was already in normal production, and the first batch of two hundred chips had been delivered to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. With the arrival of the chips, the iPhone 1 officially entered the production phase. Of course, the name "iPhone" was just something Ethan called out in his mind, because up to this point, Steve Jobs hadn't thought about starting a company; he was just figuring out how to sell the unnamed iPhone 1.

Such trivial matters were of no importance to Ethan. He could let Steve Jobs and his team do whatever they wanted, because even if they didn't end up naming the company Apple, but something like Pear or Navel Orange, it wouldn't really matter.

After all, the key to a person's success lies in their ability, background, and funds, but not in their name.

It's worth noting that in Ethan's previous life, Steve Jobs's appearance was used as a negative example by many masters, who said he couldn't accumulate wealth, which is why he was fired from his company.

and then?

When he was invited back to the company to develop the iPod, all those self-help and physiognomy gurus fell silent.

And after the iPhone 4 was released...

Steve Jobs' face has become the most classic image of a successful person.

Besides these things, the biggest worry plaguing Ethan was emptiness.

Every morning when I wake up, I have to think about what I should do.

Ugh, these days are so damn boring!

When September 10th arrived, Nolan Bushnell called to tell him that the second phase of revenue sharing for "Snake Game" had been received and that he should go and check the accounts.

This fact made Ethan even more helpless, because he hadn't even spent his first batch of dividends yet!

However, although he said no, his body was honest. After hanging up the phone, Ethan ran over there eagerly.

When he drove to Atari, the bear hug that came his way almost strangled him.

"Oh—Nolan—I'm suffocating—"

Ethan patted Nolan Bushnell on the back, hoping the other would let go of him.

Nolan Bushnell, however, exclaimed excitedly, "Oh—Ethan—if this makes you breathless, then won't the financial report later make your head spin and your blood pressure skyrocket?"

These words filled Ethan with anticipation, and when he followed Nolan Bushnell into the office, the thumb-thick document made him smile, as it detailed the achievements of Snake Game in the central and eastern United States over the past three months.

The general outline of the matter is as follows:

Although Ethan Jones did not express his opinion on agency cooperation last time, after he left, Nolan Bushnell still chose to partner with Chicago arcade companies Midway Games and Chicago Coin.

Of course, the final agreement reached by both parties differed from the documents Ethan Jones had previously seen.

At Nolan Bushnell's insistence, Midway Games and Chicago Coin were required to sell Snake Game arcade machines for $1,300 each and offer resizing services for $450 each, because only in this way could price chaos be avoided in the central United States, near Texas.

After all, when the merchants in Texas ordered the circuit boards for Snake Game, Atari quoted $400 each. If the distributors' prices were lower than the original manufacturer's prices, how would Atari do business in the central region in the future?

Therefore, we must obtain the power to set prices.

After raising the price for distributors, Nolan Bushnell also increased the commission rate they agreed to.

For every electronic arcade machine they sell, Atari takes 18 percent of the selling price.

For every electronic motherboard they sell, Atari takes 20 percent of the selling price.

Ethan Jones's cut of Atari's share in these two categories is 15% and 18%, respectively.

Although on the surface Atari appears to be doing nothing, yet still taking $39 from each arcade machine and $9 from each motherboard, Ethan Jones's cut has actually increased. When Atari sold the arcade machines for $1,200, Ethan Jones would have received $180. But now, with the price at $1,300, Ethan's cut is $195, an extra $15.

Since his own interests had been enhanced, Ethan became too lazy to care about Nolan Bushnell and his group taking a cut.

After all, they raised the contract price, so it's not a problem for them to get some compensation for their hard work.

In the past three months, Midway Games and Chicago Coin sold a total of 3722 arcade machines, generating $4,838,600.00 in revenue, and 5899 circuit boards, generating $2,654,550.00 in turnover.

After a simple calculation, the bonuses attributable to Ethan Jones and Evelyn Jensen amounted to $1,203,609.00...

When this number appeared, Ethan Jones couldn't stop smiling!

He did nothing for the past three months, and then he received more than 600,000 yuan in bonuses?

This is fucking...

It's so cool too!

Uh, wait...

He actually did get things done in the past three months!

I got a MOS 6502 for free! I got a promise from Steve Jobs for free!

Hahahaha—

He tries his best not to laugh!

Hehehehehe~

:)

Thank you to [Yishan Daojun] for the 500 Qidian coins.

Note: ① In the West, there is a practice of physiognomy, with the earliest theory appearing in 1598. Steve Jobs was initially analyzed as a bad person, with people saying his face was bad and he couldn't hold onto his wealth, which is why he was kicked out of Apple and failed in his own computer company. However, after Pixar became a huge success and he returned to Apple, those experts said Jobs' face was excellent. In short, it was a complete reversal of their predictions.

(End of this chapter)