Chapter 92: Tetris 2 Arcade

Ras, who could not personally offer much help, could only hope they succeeded while paying the billed material and equipment costs.

“It isn’t exact, but I think we can make it in about two months.”

Perhaps thanks to all that support, Karkov seemed to have found his direction to some extent. One week after Ras asked about the prototype, Karkov gave him an approximate date.

Since Ras did not know much about this kind of technology, he simply counted the days from a business standpoint.

First, development on the personal communication card is finished, and mass production has begun. The corporate solution is almost in its final stage, but that market hasn’t been entered yet anyway, and it isn’t the kind of product where we can expect huge sales volume... If it takes two months, wouldn’t it be better to finish development on the hard disk side first?

Of course, making a prototype did not guarantee immediate mass production. Even if they were making it based on transferred, completed technology, unexpected problems could always arise.

That was especially true in manufacturing, where physical products had to be made. Ras had now learned that through experience as the president of a proper manufacturing company.

But that did not mean he could simply proceed with everything only after each issue came up. He had no choice but to create a production plan while hoping no problems occurred.

If he waited for each task to finish before proceeding to the next, there was no telling when they would ever start production. And even if there seemed to be no competitors right now, that was never certain.

Meta Hardware itself was not proceeding with technology it developed independently. It had purchased outside technology, so another hardware company somewhere might also be proceeding in a similar way.

And in the worst case, there might be a spy inside the company, causing this entire project to leak. Ras was now drawing quite a lot of attention not only in software but also in hardware, so this concern was not simple paranoia.

“Yes. Then I’ll look into factories.”

Utaro agreed with Ras’s judgment. In truth, it was not something that required much debate. They were in manufacturing, had no debt at all, and had plenty of funds. Worrying over the cost of reserving a few factories would be stranger.

Moreover, Karkov was a genius in this field, recognized by both himself and others. There probably was no basis more reliable than his words.

From a management perspective, following the advice of such an expert was only natural and did not require hesitation.

Of course, there would be times when the judgment of a trusted expert turned out wrong. But that was simply unavoidable. There was no such thing as one hundred percent certainty in the world. Risk was only natural in business.

In any case, Meta Hardware entered the preparation stage for hard disk production.

Ras was in the office as usual. After roughly handling his work, he was reading a computer magazine to rest and gather information.

<New CPU Release Imminent!>

For anyone highly interested in computers, it was the kind of article title that could make their heart pound, but Ras’s expression was indifferent. After all, this was not the first or second time such articles had appeared.

They keep circling around the point every time...

At first, he was genuinely excited whenever an article like this came out. He thought the 16-bit computer was finally going to appear. But then there were excuses about the technology still being under development or yield rates being secured, and the actual product never came out.

He felt as though he had already seen news about a new architecture being developed half a year ago. There had also been articles months ago about improving integration capability by securing finer process technology. The technical environment for a new CPU clearly seemed to have been created, and development did seem to be happening, but he had no idea what obstacle they were stuck on.

Can’t they just poof and solve this with magic somehow?

Meta Hardware was busy these days, but in any case, it had secured a certain level of development capability.

And even if the CPU was developed, it would still take time before an actual product appeared, so there should be enough time to finish the current projects. They could slowly begin preparing for development, but this damn CPU refused to come out, which was frustrating.

Even with only 16-bit, the variety of games he could make would expand greatly.

If it’s something simple, RTS might be possible too. Maybe FPS...

When it came to FPS, he did have something in mind that was not necessarily Doom or Counter-Strike. For now, the entire development team was already deployed, so it was only waiting as planning documents.

Ras wondered whether he should simply organize one more development team. Labor costs were not that high in this world yet anyway, and he still had many games he wanted to make. He was also opening up overseas markets, so there should be no problem finding markets to sell the games he made.

While he was thinking about this, the telephone rang. Ella picked it up with an extremely practiced attitude, even though she had been in the middle of handling paperwork.

These days, Ras sometimes thought back on the period when he had taught Ella various tasks and felt deeply moved. She had now become a competent secretary whom no one could easily find ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fault with.

“It’s Panchi Games, President.”

“Okay. Put them through.”

Ras and Ella used polite speech with each other because they were mindful of the president of Panchi Games on the other end of the line.

Before picking up the receiver, Ras glanced at the calendar. He had already been thinking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it was about time for them to contact him.

After exchanging greetings, the news he heard was exactly what he expected.

“I called to inform you that development of the arcade version of Tetris 2 has been completed.”

“Ah! Congratulations on completing development. And thank you for letting me know, President Cheims.”

“Haha. Thank you.”

After exchanging appropriate pleasantries with Cheims, Ras ended the call.

It was good news. Fighters’ Club was still maintaining its popularity, but players were likely starting to feel some fatigue.

For Ras, who had ambitions of creating a versus-game boom and turning games into sports, this meant it was time for a different kind of versus game.

Another versus fighting game would not be bad, but he wanted to broaden the variety of competitions if possible. In addition, versus fighting games tended to be favored by men.

But Tetris 2 had low violence, cute characters, and an image of requiring mental strategy. That meant it had the potential to draw a more diverse group of people into games and game sports.

In any case, once the planned product finally came out, Ras immediately issued an official memo telling everyone to place it with care. He had already given instructions to each regional office while making advance purchases, but he emphasized it once again.

And so Tetris 2 was installed in Arcade Game Land stores across the country.

Thompson was a child from an ordinary working-class family.

Now eleven years old, he was still attending school because of his father’s stubborn insistence, so he had not gone to work at a factory. Still, there was no helping the fact that his family was poor. But even when parents sent children to school despite difficult circumstances, not every child understood their parents’ feelings and studied hard.

Thompson was not exactly a bad kid, but he was an ordinary child, so he liked playing.

And the game children liked these days was electronic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠games. Of course, Thompson could not afford something like a computer. Instead, he saved his small allowance or did simple errands around the neighborhood to collect coins, then played arcade games with them.

“Hey! Thompson! Did you hear? A new game came into the arcade!”

There were many children like Thompson. Just as school ended and he was about to go home, Orlando from the next class came to Thompson’s classroom. This guy got along well with Thompson because they both loved arcades, and they played together every day.

“Huh? Really?”

Arcade Game Land was like heaven to children like them. Even when they had no money, these children went to the arcade and spent time watching games. No, even when they did have money, they were so poor that they saved and saved, only playing one round when they truly wanted to. Most of the time, they spent it watching.

That was why they knew exactly what games were in the arcade.

For children like that, a new game was bound to become a huge topic.

The two immediately slung their bags over their shoulders and headed to the arcade.

Arcade Game Land was crowded with people as usual. Thompson and Orlando watched the employees’ expressions as they entered the arcade. From the employees’ perspective, it was only natural that kids who came every day just to watch without playing would bother them.

But since there was no rule telling them to kick such kids out, the employees merely kept an eye on them. Ras probably did not know about this situation, but even if he did, he likely would not have kicked them out. It was not because he was especially considerate of children, but because there was nothing to gain by doing so.

It would only make them seem stingy for no reason and could cost them future customers.

“It’s over there.”

Thompson had gone there so many times that he knew the arcade layout thoroughly. He also knew new releases were placed where they could be easily seen from outside, so he quickly found it.

“Wow...”

As expected, the new game’s popularity was incredible. A huge crowd had gathered around it. Thompson and Orlando squeezed through the people and approached the machine.

Then they saw the nameplate attached to the machine and were startled.

“Huh?”

Tetris 2?

He could see colorful things falling downward, but he had no idea it would actually be Tetris 2. He had heard that it had come out as a computer game.

He remembered how Artsusa, the rich young master in his class, had bragged about it. They were not close enough for Thompson to visit and try it, but he had read Gamers when someone brought an issue to school, so he roughly knew what kind of game it was.

Naturally, he wanted to try it.

But for Thompson, who had no computer, that was impossible. Even at his young age, he knew there was no way his family would buy him one. That did not mean he wanted to suck up to Artsusa either.

Artsusa was not exactly a bad guy, but Thompson just found it irritating that he was rich.

Instead, Thompson sometimes came to the arcade to play Tetris 1, and it was fun. But of course, it was very different from the second game he had read about in the magazine. So he had only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠played it in his imagination and soothed his disappointment that way. Seeing it appear as an arcade game now made him extremely happy.

“Are you going to play? You kept saying you wanted to play Tetris 2.”

“No. Not right now.”

But he did not immediately take coins out of his pocket. He knew from experience that if he played now, he would lose in an instant and not enjoy it at all.

For now, Thompson decided to watch people play and learn.

The match he was watching was a versus match between a Dwarf big sister who looked about twenty and an Orc uncle. Thompson’s gaze lingered for a moment on the red, curly-haired Dwarf big sister.

It was not that seeing a woman play games was especially strange. There were games women liked, such as rhythm games and crane games, and he had seen plenty of people who started with those games, became curious about others, and tried them now and then.

But women usually preferred games they played alone. Seeing one sit beside someone else with the chairs lined up and fight against him looked a little unusual.

When he looked around, quite a few female gamers besides that Dwarf big sister were also enjoying Tetris 2.

Thompson found it a little strange, but after watching the screen for a while, he started thinking it made sense. The game was colorful and cute in a way that seemed like something women would enjoy.

The two players worked hard to break blocks and drop dragons onto their opponent’s side. Chains also triggered from time to time, and whenever that happened, some of the spectators let out impressed sounds.