Game Market 1983

Chapter 38: The Mysterious Game

"Kang Junhyuk, what does this '[email protected]' even mean? And there's a message telling us never to abandon this game. Lastly, 'To Be Continued...'! It's clearly hinting at a sequel. Perhaps those alphabet symbols can be used as a password in the next installment, creating a connection between them. If we do that, it might not be easy to find used copies of the game. Whoever did this is not just skilled in gaming but also in marketing the game industry!"

At that moment, Kang furrowed his brows as he mumbled about the alphabet symbols Shige had mentioned and then spoke up.

"Isn't that... an e-mail address?"

Indeed, Min-Tendo was the ultimate gaming guru. To know the e-mail address format from 1987 is quite impressive. At that time, there was barely any civilian access to what we would call the internet, mainly used for military purposes. I never thought civilians from that era would understand its significance. Could it be that Kang was also a time traveler like me?

"E-mail? Kang, do you understand the meaning of these alphabets?"

"Well, I don't really know either. This format is similar to what you'd call your home address in the network, right? You can't know the contents just by looking at the address where the letter will be delivered."

Wow, what a metaphor. I was silently impressed, but no one in the room seemed to understand what Kang was saying.

"Network? Home address? Kang... I'm not very knowledgeable about these things, even though I've developed games. Could you please explain it more simply?"

Hmm, can I make it simpler than that? I took a deep breath, sensing Kang's frustration, and explained to Shige.

"Shige, you have a telephone at home, right?"

"Yeah, of course. Who doesn't have one these days?"

"A telephone is a communication device. It lets you talk to people far away."

"Right...?"

"What Kang is talking about is that those alphabets are like phone numbers. You send electronic mail to distant people using these addresses through a computer."

"Oh, I see! Kang, you're right! That's what I meant! As expected of Kang! You understood!"

From my perspective, you, who already knew this format, seem more monstrous. But at that moment, Director Kamakuchi closed his eyes and asked a question.

"Ugh... Anyway, the conclusion is that there might be another sequel to the game, right? Just thinking about it is terrifying. Shige, how much was the price of that game again?"

"Hmm... The price that started at 1,000 yen has now skyrocketed to nearly 15,000 yen due to the premium attached. It's an extraordinarily absurd price, but the demand is still incredible. No one has cleared it yet, which ignites the users' spirit of challenge. Moreover, there's a perception that it's a rare item that can't be easily obtained by conventional means."

"I don't know where this genius came from, but if I could meet them once, I'd hire them at any cost. They must be a developer who knows how to exploit the crowd psychology."

They are already hired... However, while Kamakuchi, the director, was still in the midst of his job offer enthusiasm, Kang Junhyuk spoke up.

"I may not know game development as well as Shige or Kang Junhyuk, but there's something strange about Shige's story."

"Something strange?"

"Yes. The cartridges we make are commonly called ROM packs. Oh, if you don't know what a ROM pack is, Mr. Kamakuchi..."

At that point, Director Kamakuchi cut him off with an impatient expression.

"Ah, stop explaining so much and get to the point."

"No, I must explain for you to understand. ROM stands for Read Only Memory. In other words, it's memory that can only be read. As far as I know, you can't write, delete, or modify data on a ROM cartridge. However, the Dragon Emblem we're talking about is deleting data itself depending on the way you play."

At that moment, my hand, which had been fiddling with a pencil under the table, froze. Huh...?

"Shige, do you happen to have that game called Dragon Emblem with you?"

"Yes, it's in the development room. I was planning to investigate its structure, but it seems the system is locked tightly..."

"I see. Could we take a look at it after the meeting? I need to examine the inside of that cartridge."

&

Ultimately, the meeting, which hadn't reached any conclusion, ended with one statement from Director Kamakuchi.

-Create a game similar to Dragon Emblem and release it officially.-

Considering the appeal and marketability of the SRPG genre, this was an order to develop a new game in the shortest time possible.

However, as we had to go with the perception that we were representing the game called Dragon Emblem, Shige declined Director Kamakuchi's development order. As for me, I had been in frequent contact with outsourced companies due to my recent work on new console production, making it difficult for me to participate in the development.

In the end, we entrusted the development of the new Emblem series to one of the most cooperative subcontractors, Intellic Systems. It was quite interesting that a game I had borrowed ideas from was now being outsourced to the original company. The story was taking an interesting turn.

A while later, Shige, Kang Junhyuk, and I gathered around the development room to unbox the Dragon Emblem cartridge. If Kang Junhyuk examined it personally, one of my secrets would be exposed.

When we removed the game cartridge with a flat-head screwdriver and revealed the chips that made up the ROM cartridge, Shige cocked his head and asked Kang Junhyuk, "Is there something unusual here?"

Kang Junhyuk suddenly started to sweat and mumbled with a perplexed expression, "Shige, this game initially cost 1,000 yen, right?"

"Well, the rumor is that it did. Now it's considered rare, so it has a premium..."

"Oh no, who in their right mind would sell it at a price lower than 1,000 yen?"

"Why? Is there something peculiar about it?"

"First of all, this cartridge isn't originally made for Dragon Emblem. It's a counterfeit, where they acquired another game cartridge and inserted different chips into it."

"I see. Does that mean they put a different game inside a pre-made game cartridge? But as Kang Junhyuk mentioned, ROM cartridges can't have their data deleted, right?"

"They ingeniously changed the path for reading data. It's like a custom chip, which is a small storage device that allows reading and writing within a 24KB capacity. With this, they can completely delete data based on the style of play. However, I can't fathom why they would add such a feature to a completed game..."

UFO devices, which were commonly referred to as custom packs, worked by inserting one pack called a custom pack in the front and the game you wanted to copy in the back. Pressing the copy button would then copy the data from the game pack into the custom pack. It could be considered the origin of illegal ROM pack replication.

What's interesting is that you could erase the copied game and insert another one, so I was curious if this technology still existed. I met a man in Akihabara's electronic market named Chandra, an Indian...

In the labyrinthine alleys of Akihabara, he sold computer peripherals outwardly, but that was just a cover. He was secretly making family-use custom packs for illegal distribution.

After lurking around him for a few days and waiting for the right moment when I could corner him under the pretext of reporting to the police, I succeeded in finding his weakness.

What happened next? Well, it's quite obvious... I replaced the Indian nerd with a custom chip, which allowed data to be copied onto the existing cartridge.

At first, Chandra and his colleagues were uncooperative, but when they realized that selling illegal replication cartridges was more profitable, they quickly agreed. Thanks to that, a significant initial investment was made, but the increasing scarcity of the product eventually led to a turning point in profitability.

"It's only now that I understand why Dragon Emblem dug into the gap in the used market."

Goonpey seemed relieved, as if his doubts had been resolved. Unlike when we developed Super Mario, this time Shige was making a peculiar expression.

"I still don't understand at all. Do you know, Goonpey, why this amazing game didn't go through the official route?"

"If it had gone through the official route, Dragon Emblem would have lost its unique gameplay. Think about it; if you use the official distribution network, wouldn't it set a fixed price for the game? The custom chip used in this is already 8,000 yen.

Our MinTendo has set the maximum price for a game cartridge per consumer protection law at 6,000 yen. If we had released this custom chip as is, we would have incurred massive losses. And if we had released an initial batch of 10,000, it would have been difficult to obtain the same rarity we have now. So, they aimed for the free-price formation in the used market. Dragon Emblem is a game that thoroughly exploited the flaws in our MinTendo cartridge production method."

Goonpey's explanation left Shige and the surrounding developers nodding in admiration.

Of course, I was also uttering words of admiration for Goonpey's deductive skills. To think he had pierced through everything with just one custom chip, he truly was no ordinary guy.

&

In this month's release of the latest FamiTongshin magazine, something interesting happened.

A gathering of users who had been playing Dragon Emblem up to now was preparing to provide strategy guides. What was the name of the event again? Was it... "The Ultimate Challenge"?

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