Game Market 1983

Chapter 32: Sponsorship Game

Well, well... Is this speech bubble expressing the emotions the other person feels about me? How amusing. But really, to send me off in the morning with a smiling face and then harbor such thoughts inside, that's so typically Japanese, keeping their true feelings hidden.

I nestled deep into my chair after placing the game and watch in my bag. Even though I'm Korean, to them, I'm just another foreign laborer, no matter how high I might fly or crawl. I've always kept that in mind, so when I read Mr. Kamau's comment, it didn't surprise me that much. But I can't reveal my claws just yet. I'll have to endure a little longer.

...

When did the medium known as the CD come into existence? In fact, even in 1986, the year I'm living in, CDs existed. They just hadn't become mainstream yet.

Den Den Town, an electronics shopping street in Osaka.

As Mr. Gunpei and I stood in a well-lit store, we gazed at the circular disc shining like a rainbow under the bright lights.

"Wow, this is what they call a compact disc. The colors are quite beautiful."

Mr. Gunpei, who had reached middle age, looked at the CD with curious eyes, examining it from various angles. A compact disc... it was indeed more compact compared to LPs, but having been accustomed to micro SD cards and USB, I just sighed.

To be honest, I wasn't particularly interested, but I found myself here because Mr. Gunpei insisted on bringing me along, believing it's better to get acquainted with new media as soon as possible.

"Oh, yes. It's fascinating."

"Don't you feel anything when you see this miraculous item? Young people these days, they're so emotionally dry. Well, it seems like I need to provide some explanations."

Ugh! Mr. Geek Gunpei's product explanation had started! Sensing this, I tried to move away quickly, but it was already too late.

"This item is called a CD, or in other words, an optical disc. It's a new medium for recording original sound in a digital format, unlike the analog methods like cassette tapes or LPs. Thanks to this, we can listen to music with a clean sound quality, free from noise, anytime and anywhere. It has an impressive lifespan of up to 100 years!"

"100 years? The capacity would be frozen to death within 20 years due to the emergence of portable storage media... But as an audio CD, it does have a fairly long lifespan."

However, Mr. Gunpei's explanation didn't stop there.

"This device was co-developed by our Sony in Japan and the Dutch company Philips. They are currently pushing out existing analog products and rising as a new medium for records. You can record a total of 74 minutes of audio."

"Well, that's a bit odd. It's not 60 minutes, so why exactly 74 minutes?"

At this point, Mr. Gunpei raised his glasses and smiled knowingly. What's this? I just asked a question out of curiosity, but I felt like I'd asked something unnecessary.

"Oh, that's an excellent question, Kang. The current CD's standard size is 12 cm in diameter. However, the first CD proposed by Philips was 11.5 cm. It could have been more compact. It was also a little over 60 minutes. So, the time was appropriate."

"But why was the time increased?"

"Because of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, specifically the choral part."

"So, you're saying CD playback time was determined based on Karajan's performance time of Beethoven's 9th Symphony?"

"That's right!"

Hmm... I didn't know that. It's not a very important fact, but Mr. Gunpei's explanation continued.

"This medium can replace game cartridges. But the storage space is wasted, and the unit price will be high."

"Well, yeah... hahaha."

A family game is at most 4MB... It wasn't an era where we could make large-scale games due to the console's limited performance. If Mr. Gunpei's current thought had continued until the early '90s, Nintendo would have become an unstoppable monster of a company.

...

Some time had passed since the production of the cartridges was completed for the release of Dragon Warrior 2. I went with Mr. Shige to meet the president of MinTendo, the representative of the company. The event venue in Tokyo was already bustling with numerous people, and the sight was quite reminiscent of when The Legend of Karin was released.

"So, coming back to Tokyo like this, how does it feel?"

Mr. Shige, who had recently taken a break from development work, was gazing at the long line with nostalgia. It seemed like he was recalling the time when The Legend of Karin was released. Shortly after, Yuzi, who was in the middle of an interview, came running towards us with a welcoming expression.

"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Junhyuk and Mr. Shige."

"Looking at the long line at the event venue, I can truly feel that Dragon Warrior is a national RPG game."

"Compared to The Legend of Karin, Dragon Warrior still has a long way to go... Haha."

There it is again! This never-ending geek talk and greetings! If I stand here quietly, I'll have to listen to this greeting for another ten minutes, so I cut in at the right moment.

"How many copies did you produce for the initial batch?"

"Well... since the previous installment sold about 1.5 million copies, we made around 500,000. We plan to monitor the response for a week and produce more cartridges if needed. The software price remains the same as the previous one, at 5,500 yen."

Third-party titles that have to pay royalties to MinTendo tend to have higher prices compared to games released by MinTendo. Recently, due to Mr. Kamau's decision to increase the royalties for MinTendo cartridges, the prices of games from other companies have gone up a bit, but Phoenix decided to keep the price the same.

"I expected Dragon Warrior to be around 5,900 yen, so I was surprised that you didn't raise the price."

"To be honest, there were discussions within the company to increase the price a bit, but we decided it was a tough decision, considering the gratitude we have for the users who enjoyed the previous title."

"Well... I think it's a good decision."

A little later, as the grand title music of Dragon Warrior played, the event venue opened, and people waiting outside began to flock to the counters.

"Please maintain the order, everyone! Please line up at one of the four counters!"

People exchanged their tickets for the game title, completed their transactions, and then rushed out of the event venue without looking back, eager to play.

"I can understand that feeling well..."

Behind the counter, I smiled and picked up a Dragon Warrior cartridge. Inside the paper case with Toriyama's illustration was a simple manual, and inside the plastic housing was the black cartridge.

"Please ring me up for one as well."

"Oh, Mr. Junhyuk, are you buying one too?"

"I'm a fan of this game too. I don't have time to play it, but I still want to have it."

"Thank you!"

After a pleasant transaction, as I looked around the event venue, I felt a strange gaze. When I turned my head, I saw a man standing outside the event venue, looking inside.

With a lanky figure and a memorable mustache, that man gazed intensely at the event for Dragon Warrior. When our eyes met, he immediately turned and walked away.

"Ah..."

"Hmm?"

I felt like I'd seen that man somewhere before... Could it be!? Hiro Nobu Kawaguchi, the director of Final Frontier!? I quickly rushed out to catch the man who was moving away from the event venue.

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