Chapter 157: Ras’s Regret Over the New Game
Chapter 157: Ras’s Regret Over the New Game
“A problem?”
Ras grew a little tense. The unexpected appearance of a next-generation CPU was already more than enough of a problem. After finally giving up and shifting direction toward developing a 16-bit computer, he really wanted to be spared any new obstacle that delayed development again.
“Well. It generates too much heat.”
“Ah...”
That was certainly a troublesome problem. On Earth, heat had not been a major issue until around the 386 computer. The degree of integration had not been that high.
However, in this world, they were now at about the 286 level, no, perhaps because it had been greatly improved with magical devices, its performance was almost close to a 386. Yet in any case, the heat problem had appeared starting from 16-bit computers.
Naturally, the problem was not integration density.
It was because of the magical device added for performance. That magical device controlled several conflicts and covered for low precision, but in exchange, it emitted heat.
“Of course, there’s no problem for one or two hours, but if it’s used for more than three hours in an enclosed space, damage will definitely occur.”
“What does the other side say?”
There was no way the developer would not have recognized this problem, so Ras asked that first.
“Yes... They said not to use it for too long, and if it must be used for a long time, open the case or attach a cooling device.”
Karkov answered in an utterly dumbfounded tone. Certainly, telling users to limit usage time was absurd. However, a cooling device did make sense.
“We’ll have to attach a cooling device.”
“Yes. That is the most realistic solution.”
Karkov answered with a deeply displeased expression. Since he had perfectionist tendencies, he hated the messy idea of attaching a cooling device, which did not directly improve performance, just to use a defective product.
Perhaps it was because of that expression. Ras had assumed Karkov would handle it properly now that he understood a cooling device was needed, but a thought occurred to him just in case.
“Then what kind of cooling device are you thinking of using?”
“Yes? I haven’t thought about it yet, but if we want to be certain, wouldn’t installing something like a water-cooling system work?”
“...”
Ras thought it was a good thing he asked. It was not completely wrong, but it was too much. Since Ras planned to target the global market with this computer, he needed to lower the unit cost as much as possible and also consider ease of manufacturing so they could produce many units quickly.
“Let’s keep it simple. Attach an air-cooling fan to a heat sink.”
“A mechanical cooler, you mean? Something like that will have low reliability...”
“It’s fine. If we make it as simple as possible, it won’t break that easily. And it would be better to mass-produce it, lower the unit cost, and make it easy to replace without burden.”
Ras did not know much about hardware. However, fortunately, he knew the proven answer in this area. Even in Earth’s history, this kind of cooling system started being attached from the 486 onward, and it became completely standardized as the basic form from then on.
In any case, aside from the heat problem, there were no special issues, so the development team began redesigning it again. Since Karkov was showing considerable enthusiasm, Ras decided to look forward to it.
Even while Ras was looking forward to the next-generation computer, his game development teams continued developing games suited to current specifications.
Since he had continued increasing the number of development teams, several projects were underway at the same time. One of them had almost reached completion.
“Ah!”
Garazt had almost made it back, but by a hair’s breadth, he was caught by the grotesquely shaped mechanical sun. He stared blankly at his character, which exploded spectacularly.
The game he and the other development team employees were playing was Territory-Capturing Game. Since it was the simplest game among those currently in development and had the lowest development difficulty, its development speed was also fast.
However, low development difficulty did not mean low fun.
If it did, the employees would not be so absorbed in testing it right now.
“Ah. This is extremely simple, but it’s fun.”
Garazt met the eyes of Geogra, the team leader of Casual Team 2, who was watching people’s reactions from behind. After smiling awkwardly for a moment, he gave his impression of the game.
“Thank you.”
Geogra also looked awkward. Of course, seeing people enjoy a game he had worked hard to develop made him feel good.
Ras also looked around the development room with a satisfied expression. In truth, since it was such a simple game, and unlike the original, the erotic elements had been removed, he had been slightly anxious. Fortunately, just as he thought, the simple gameplay itself did not seem bad.
And while observing the employees’ reactions, he felt there was not much strong like or dislike. Games were heavily affected by taste, but because this one had extremely simple rules, it seemed there were not many elements that would cause rejection.
“Ah! How do you get 100% in this?”
It was Pana. She had been playing hard to see the special illustration that appeared when one reached 100%, but because she could not defeat the enemy and kept avoiding it while capturing territory, she later ended up in situations where she had to evade the enemy in narrow spaces. As a result, she kept staying around 80%.
“Ah. For that...”
Prani, a female Orc who was one of Casual Team 2’s graphic artists, came over and tutored her. People doing the same type of work seemed a little closer to each other.
“When the enemy is this fast, you have to make territory from the start while thinking about trapping it.”
Prani explained the golden skull’s pattern and gave an overall strategy, including how to dodge early, how to shape the territory, and how to ultimately lure it in.
And with games like this, once one knew the strategy, it was really nothing. Even if it made one wonder whether it would really work, trying it exactly as told made it work so absurdly well that it felt ridiculous.
“Ooh!”
Pana carefully built up territory and then lured the skull. Seeing that troublesome thing crawl into the trap she had made like a stupid mouse gave her an intense thrill.
“Now! Hurry and close it off.”
“Yes. Yes!”
Then, just as Prani said, she sent out her point and closed the entrance. Once the area containing the skull became Pana’s territory, the golden skull exploded with a brilliant light.
“It’s 100%!”
After the golden skull disappeared, all that remained was eating up empty territory, so Pana boldly rushed out and captured the remaining area in one go. Then the shining golden text “100%” filled the screen.
After that, the hidden illustration popped up. Originally, it was a peaceful image of Pikachu swaying its lightning tail and saying “Pika?” but in the hidden illustration, it appeared in a flashy burst of light, unleashing “100 volts.”
“Oh. That’s drawn well.”
As the graphics team leader, Pana unconsciously gave an evaluation of the illustration right away.
In truth, Ras had wanted to include something like a video. However, with current computer specifications, it was impossible to implement animation at the level Ras wanted, so he gave up and inserted the flashiest illustrations possible instead.
Fortunately, the reaction seemed better than expected. It was a little disappointing that it was not a pretty, scantily dressed character moving like an animated film from his memories, though.
The reaction to the hidden stages was also good.
“Ooh...”
Aspa seemed suited to this game, because he became accustomed to it faster than others and cleared it easily. Because of that, he felt it was a little boring, but after filling 100% and entering a hidden stage, he saw three spaceships, the enemy he had just defeated, appear at once. A sound mixed with admiration and anticipation escaped him.
The difficulty certainly became considerable when there were three times as many enemies. Dodging the missiles they fired felt as though he were playing a shooting game.
The hidden stages were difficult like this, but there were also absurdly easy ones where the pointer’s speed was increased tremendously, and some combined both elements.
In other words, a huge number of enemies appeared, but the pointer controlled by the player also became faster so that playing somehow remained possible.
Aside from that, it was clear they had tried to give a fresh feeling by letting players control the golden skull instead of the pointer and experience gameplay from that side.
“Damn it. It’s lame when I’m the one using it.”
Perhaps the rule that any powerful enemy becomes weak once it becomes an ally applied here too, because the golden skull that had been so troublesome felt endlessly frustrating when Ras controlled it himself. However, it was a bonus stage where dying did not matter, and this was also fun in its own way, so while Ras complained aloud, an amused smile appeared on his face.
“It’s well made. If there are no major issues in the test results, contact Barbal Soft right away.”
“Yes!”
Perhaps Casual Team 2 had also become quite skilled now, because there were not many bugs. Seeing that, Ras was pleased as he thought he could now give this team a more difficult project too.
“Hmm... This one is a very simple game.”
Amans, who had received the game excitedly after hearing that Meta Soft had released a new work, looked a little disappointed after testing it.
That was only natural, because Land of Adventure 3, which had come out right before this, had left an incredibly strong impression on him.
He had already rated the Land of Adventure series highly, and since the third installment had not come out for quite a long time, his expectations had risen. Then 3 fully satisfied those expectations and gave him the feeling that this was what a new era of games looked like.
“Well. It’s fun, though?”
Kadanio found Amans’s reaction strange. To him, it was quite a good game. Kadanio was also the type who liked complex games, but this fit his tastes in its own way. Perhaps because there were not even any specific characters, the extremely simple gameplay did not create resistance and allowed him to become absorbed.
“Yeah. It is fun. I just expected something like Land of Adventure 3 from before.”
“Ahh... But it’s hard to release a big masterpiece like that every time.”
“True. That is true.”
There were some people like these two who showed somewhat subtle reactions, but most evaluations at Barbal Soft were good too. As a result, Territory-Capturing Game was also released with strong backing.
The reaction was not bad. It had Meta Soft’s name value, good gameplay, and many illustrations from existing IPs, so it also had a certain amount of buzz.
“But it doesn’t feel that hot.”
Ras felt slightly disappointed by the steady sales pace and the somewhat lukewarm reaction on Spirit Space. There were certainly people saying it was fun, but it did not seem to be a game capable of creating a fever.
“Still, wouldn’t it heat up a bit if you held a tournament or something later?”
“Well, I suppose so.”
Ras gave a faint laugh at Ella’s words, which sounded almost like comfort, and stroked her head once.
Even so, he could not help feeling disappointed. In truth, however, the reason he felt disappointed had a somewhat different cause. It was because the erotic element of the original Gals Panic had been removed.
Because that thought lay at the foundation, everything else felt lacking to him.
Especially because his thinking about sexual elements had changed slightly after encountering this world’s erotic game recently, it felt even more regretful. If he had thought like this when development of Territory-Capturing Game began, he probably would have tried to include the erotic elements somehow.
However, the game had already been released, so it was too late.
Hmm...
Then, suddenly, that homemade erotic game came to Ras’s mind.
And when he thought about it, because of Ras himself, the current environment had changed quite a lot compared to before. There was not absolutely no way.
However, there were a few things that bothered him, so he continued thinking for a while afterward. In the end, Ras had Ella call the employees of the beautiful-girl game development team, which was still in the middle of recruitment, to the chairman’s office.
Footnotes:
Translator’s Notes:
486 — Fourth-generation x86 microprocessor family introduced by Intel in 1989.
Gals Panic — 1990 Japanese arcade game by Kaneko. It is a territory-capturing game known for combining Qix-style gameplay with erotic reward illustrations.
Pikachu — Electric-type mascot character from Pokémon, first introduced in 1996.