Chapter 122: The Release of the Hard Disk and Gun Shooting?

“That’s a relief.”

Ras let out a sigh of relief. Producing precision machinery was truly more exhausting than he had imagined. He knew defects in manufactured goods were inevitable, but with cutting-edge precision devices, it would not be an exaggeration to say it was a constant battle against defects.

They had clearly transferred all the technology and finalized the designs properly, yet defects kept appearing endlessly.

But it could not be helped, because the ones actually producing the products were ordinary workers, not engineers like Karkov. Expecting every single worker to possess Karkov’s level of knowledge and understanding was impossible, so all they could do was continuously operate the factory while correcting critical problem areas.

Still, Ras and Meta Hardware managed to accomplish it and bring things up to the required standard.

As for other preparations, there was the installation manual. Since this was not yet an era where individuals assembled computers themselves, many people found even adding a hard disk intimidating.

Fortunately, this world still sold products through small retail shops instead of giant chain stores, making it possible for individual shops to install the devices one by one.

Otherwise, Meta Hardware might have needed to hire dedicated installation technicians.

Of course, among those retail stores were places like the shop Ras had once worked at, where they knew little about machines and merely sold products. Because of that, Meta Hardware worked hard to create detailed manuals that ordinary consumers could follow and assemble themselves.

In any case, after finishing all preparations, Meta Hardware released the hard disk alongside advertisements.

“Hard disk?”

Rajan was a thirty-year-old Bear Beastman man who liked computers and games. While reading Gamers, his attention was caught by a flashy advertisement page.

At first, he simply wondered what it was. After all, even the term “hard disk” itself was still unfamiliar in this world.

Even on Earth, the term “hard disk” had not existed from the beginning. It was named that because it was rigid compared to the large floppy disks that bent and flexed.

Anyway, after his attention was captured, he read the advertisement and became interested.

“Oh. Thirty megabytes?”

First of all, the sheer capacity amazed him. It was equivalent to thirty high-capacity diskettes. But if that were all, he would have simply used thirty diskettes instead.

The true value of the hard disk lay in its speed.

He was shocked when he saw the read and write speeds. With this, the long grinding wait times whenever games loaded data would finish in an instant.

No, with thirty megabytes, couldn’t you just install everything and play?

Another factor that interested him was the increasing trend toward higher-capacity games due to Meta Soft and the Hammer Computer.

Whenever he started getting immersed, seeing messages asking him to insert another diskette was truly irritating.

<But if you purchase this hard diskette, you will be completely freed from such inconveniences!>

Thus, many gamers, including Rajan, became tempted.

Of course, the nearly 300 Del price made them flinch for a moment. But diskettes themselves cost close to 10 Del each. Considering that, it was not actually that expensive relative to the capacity.

And so, many people convinced themselves and decided to buy it.

When the familiar Gnome shop owner at the electronics store near his house awkwardly spread out the instruction manual and fumbled through the installation, Rajan felt extremely anxious. He worried whether it would install properly—or worse, whether the man would destroy the computer before even finishing.

Damn it. Maybe I should’ve just installed it myself.

Complex electronic devices, especially computers, felt intimidating, so he had left it to the expert instead.

“It works, right?”

Thankfully, the shop owner showed him that the C drive had been created successfully. They also confirmed that reading and writing worked properly. While demonstrating it, the owner himself also looked visibly relieved.

After bringing the computer home, Rajan immediately installed Spirit Stone.

Actually, Pokémon on Earth was not a particularly large game, but in this world, because Ras had become greedy with graphics and story content, it had turned into a massive game spanning thirteen disks.

Of course, thanks to that, players could enjoy more impressive illustrations and longer playtime, but it also meant constantly swapping diskettes.

“Ohh. It works!”

Since the very act of installing something onto a hard disk felt unfamiliar, Rajan had been slightly nervous even after painstakingly copying and installing the data.

But when the screen transitioned smoothly and the Meta Soft logo appeared without issue, he unconsciously shouted out loud.

Feels faster too?

He had not measured it precisely, but things that previously took forever to load now finished quickly, and the game menu appeared almost immediately. Rajan already felt the device was worth the money.

First, he decided to check the disk-swapping sections. It was the section involving the decisive battle at the Southern Spirit Master Association, infamous among Spirit Stone players because the atmosphere became intense right before the boss fight—only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for the disk swap message to suddenly appear.

<Foolish. You dare challenge me with only that level of power?>

But after the boss’s irritating line, Rajan found himself entering battle immediately without seeing any disk swap message at all.

“Oh! It doesn’t appear at all.”

He had expected at least some kind of message, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it passed so smoothly that it felt strange.

However, this had not been intentionally predicted during development. The game’s logic simply worked by checking whether the required file existed, and if not, halting progress and displaying a message.

If the necessary file was already there, the process had no reason to appear at all.

In any case, now in a good mood, he checked other loading points as well. Naturally, none of them appeared either.

He was thoroughly satisfied.

From not needing to swap OS diskettes during boot-up to smoothly enjoying massive games and faster speeds, he felt he had more than recovered the value of the 300 Del he spent.

And this was the almost universal impression shared by those who purchased Meta Hardware’s hard disks.

“That’s a relief. Customer satisfaction is this high.”

Ras was pleased by the response.

Actually, immediately after release, the reaction had not been particularly strong, which had left him slightly disappointed.

The unfamiliarity of the device, its high price, and the fact that it required separate installation all made it difficult for consumers to approach casually.

Utaro of Meta Hardware had predicted this analysis in advance.

And Ras had also expected it to some extent, so he was not greatly shaken, but he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had become accustomed to the game industry always showing explosive reactions, so disappointment was unavoidable.

Still, if the response was not bad, then as long as they consistently managed defective products properly, establishing themselves in the market should not be difficult.

The Casual Team that created the Bubble Bobble series entered development on a new game.

The Casual Team’s morale was not bad.

Actually, when the Bubble Bobble series became popular, Spirit Stone came out and practically swept through the entire game industry, so there had been concerns that the Casual Team might feel discouraged from being overshadowed.

But that did not seem to be the case.

First of all, they had already achieved more than enough sales, and both Bubble Bobble and Puzzle Bobble had also been ported to Talados and arcade machines, continuing to sell well.

Moreover, large amounts of character merchandise had been produced and were enjoying considerable popularity. If one visited the Casual Team’s development room, there were quite a few employees decorating their spaces with such merchandise.

The Bubble Bobble merchandise released by the IP Management Team was still selling very well. In fact, after Spirit Stone activated the character merchandise market, revenue had grown even more than before.

Well, after succeeding this much, it’d be stranger if people became disappointed just because it wasn’t as huge as Spirit Stone.

In any case, it was fortunate the atmosphere remained positive.

For now, Ras visited Casual Team 1 first after their vacation ended.

He had already decided what game they would make.

Or rather, he had an entire backlog of Earth games he wanted to recreate, so there was no need to agonize over what to create.

The issue was choosing which one to make first.

And what Ras selected was the idea he had thought of at the shooting range earlier.

A gun shooting game.

More precisely, what Ras had in mind was Time Crisis, which he occasionally enjoyed at arcades in the past. He had probably chosen the genre because of the influence of recently witnessing this world’s first FPS game.

(Translator’s Note: Time Crisis — Arcade light-gun shooting game series developed by Namco in 1995, famous for its foot-pedal cover system and cinematic gameplay.)

Honestly, if it were up to him, he wanted to make an FPS like Doom, but unfortunately, computer performance could not keep up, so he decided to start with a simpler gun shooting game instead.

Of course, they lacked the ability to make true 3D like actual Time Crisis, so he only planned to borrow the overall framework and make it in 2D.

One reason Ras chose this game was because viewpoint changes were minimal and the screen was almost fixed.

That would reduce resource consumption enough for current computers to handle it.

“A gun shooting game? That sounds fine.”

Dure, who had been nervous upon hearing they would develop a new game, looked slightly relieved at the familiar genre.

Gun shooting games were not especially rare in this world either.

In fact, even before computer games existed, there were already long-standing gun shooting games using air guns to hit dolls or optical sensors to knock down model ducks.

Of course, Ras had no intention of making something that simplistic in the computer age.

“First, I’m thinking of adding a cover mechanic.”

The basic characteristics of Time Crisis alone already differentiated it from existing games.

One reason Ras enjoyed Time Crisis in the past was precisely because ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of that cover system.

It allowed players to hide from enemy fire and avoid attacks.

This diversified gameplay patterns, increased realism, and also served to temporarily relieve player tension.

Another characteristic of Time Crisis was the ability to use a variety of weapons.

From what Ras remembered, there were machine guns, pistols, and even rocket launchers.

It was clearly different from existing gun shooting games that used only one weapon continuously.

Ras also intended to add magic to it.

“We’ll include magic useful in specific situations so players can overcome crises with it.”

If many enemies appeared, players could use wide-area magic. Against extremely fast enemies, they could use homing attack magic or binding magic. There would also be elemental attributes, such as defeating a Flame Giant more easily with ice magic.

“Hmm. Interesting.”

Dure found the systems far more complex than expected, which felt burdensome but also intriguing.

The character concept also sounded quite good.

A gunman who used magic.

“It’ll allow for all kinds of effects. For example, the protagonist could use magic that slows time, causing enemies to move extremely slowly. Or they could use invisibility magic.”

This was how they would offset the simplicity of only fighting enemies appearing on fixed screens.

Traditional gun shooting games, where players constantly pulled the trigger from beginning to end without pause, would have found it difficult to include such elements, but because the cover mechanic created moments to catch one’s breath, it became possible.

And so, after hearing Ras’s detailed plans, Casual Team 1 immediately began development.

Then, some time later, there was another game to make for Casual Team 2 once their vacation ended.

This time, it was unrelated to Casual Team 1’s project.

Now that Casual Team 2 had sufficiently proven their development ability through Puzzle Bobble, Ras believed there would be no problem allowing them to develop independently.