In mid-November, the Age of Discovery has entered the stage of pressure and will be released on Christmas Day.

At this time, Zhanlong and others began to devote themselves to a plan called "X".

Su Budong’s requirement for everyone is “speed of fighting dragons, standard of fighting dragons, and spirit of fighting dragons”

Several hardware engineers from the United States came to China and participated in this X plan with Zhan Long.

Even Song Xile, who had always been able to enter the studio, was expelled by the security guard at the door.

"What's so great about it? Isn't it just a broken machine?" Song Xile, who was driven away, was not at all conscious and muttered that his roommate, Comrade Liu Meili, is also among the members of the planning team, and hello every day to face foreigners every day. People who are familiar with him know that he is a rough man, and those who don't know think this guy is an international student. It is said that Comrade Liu Meili is indeed powerful, and it is said that he has contributed a lot of unique wisdom of Chinese people.

Chu Xingyun admired Su Budong's ambition or ambition. In order to make this X become a Christmas gift in the hands of players during the Christmas holiday, Zhanlong and others devoted all their energy to this handheld machine code-named X.

"This is the first cry of Zhanlong in the field of game consoles." Su Budong said. He racked his brains and dug out all the memories about GB. Regarding the idea of ​​handheld consoles, Su Budong had several ideas: small size, portability, guaranteed battery life, and not easy to break.

So in addition to looking for hardware engineers in the United States, Subudon also applied for 10 reinforcements from the Computer Center of the Red Rakshasa Academy, including Pakitnov.

After all, the Red Rakshasa people have the most say in making this kind of machine with thick skin, thick flesh, resistant to fabrication and hard work.

The most important thing about a handheld computer lies in the CPU.

Due to its cooperation with IBM, the transfer of technical patents is now very cheap, so Su Budong customized a batch of FMG-chips (8-bit) from Zilog.

FMG, full name FIGHT Matrix Game, is the code name given to the chip by Su Budong. It is customized based on the Z80 chip. The chip contains 8KB memory, 8KB video memory, and the highest frequency is 4.16MHz. As an 8Bit processor, it has a 16-bit storage address, has 16 and has a cassette socket, channel exit and picture processing unit (PPU), and can be compatible with the IBM8080 microprocessor instruction set.

In addition to the CPU, there are also corresponding equipment customizations such as display screen, shell, circuit board, remote control keycap, memory card, etc. Zhanlong has issued massive orders to the four Asian dragons such as Baodao and Bangzi. It is expected to be delivered at the end of November and will be assembled in China.

The display uses Sharp's four-color black and white display. The shell is customized with four color shells: red, yellow, blue and white.

The remote control keycap uses the classic FC cross and AB keys, which is convenient for players to understand. However, in order to avoid patent disputes, the cross keys and the FC handle are still different, and the cross shapes of the same PS handle are used, which are divided into up, down, left and right. The AB key is a font patent. In order to distinguish it from the depression AB keys of the series, matte bulges are made to make the feel more comfortable.

In a theory, problems that can be solved with money are not problems.

The rest are software issues.

When the first handheld machine sample was collected, only Su Budong knew the most clearly which handheld machine they were targeting and what performance they should have.

This is by no means a toy that can be used as a test product to market, but a landmark game console related to Zhanlong's future direction.

After the prototype was developed, I found that there was a problem with the graphics system when testing the game.

GPU VRAM, the memory address of this part is from 8000 to 9Fff, a total of 8KB. This part always stores background and game data. Although the Sharp screen only has black and white colors, it can still display bright and dark gray, with a total of 4 colors. In this way, each pixel displayed needs to occupy 2bit space. For the Gb display system, the screen will cache pictures of 256*256 size, of which a certain area of ​​160*144 size will be displayed on the LCD screen, and the size of the picture to be cached is 256*256*2=16KB. However, the video memory of the handheld console is only 8KB from 8000-9Fff, which is obviously unsatisfactory.

In order to overcome this problem, Su Budong and the R&D personnel almost lost their eyes. Su Budong began to miss the black technology of the Ren family again. At that time, Lao Ren was also facing this situation. How did they solve it? Let the video memory that is less than 16KB can also display content of 16KB?

Time is tight, Su Budong is driven to the cafeteria for dinner, and what he is thinking about is how to realize it.

While eating, Song Xile made four pancakes of upturned pots and placed them in front of Su Budong and showed off: "Do you want to eat it? But I won't give it to you." Su Budong stared at the pancakes, and Song Xile felt so angry that he was staring at them. He embarrassedly pushed one of the rolls in front of him: "Forget it, look at you so pitiful, I'll give you a roll to eat."

Su Budong subconsciously spread the cake, revealing pig intestines, scallion, white sesame and other items.

"They were all rolled up and looked like a piece." Su Budong squatted down, looking at the cake on the table in parallel, and then rolled it up again. The two ends of the cake happened to be a square.

"I understand." Su Budong slapped Song Xile's forehead.

Song Xile was stunned: "What do you understand?"

Su Budong pulled Chu Xingyun and Liu Meili and said, "I understand. We should not think about insufficient video memory. If we want to make it display, this problem is actually a trick. You see, we use part of the video memory to store image data and part of it to store mapped data. The picture will be divided into each 8*8 block size, each block has a number, and the part of the mapped data is stored only the number of each block. In this way, each block may be reused, so as to achieve the purpose of displaying 16KB data in less than 16KB video memory! When the picture is loaded, the data loaded in is actually just a mapped data, not the real picture data!"

Chu Xingyun's eyes lit up: "It's amazing."

Liu Meili had no idea what Su Budong meant, and said hanhan: "I don't understand, but you must have solved the display problem?"

"That's right." Without having sex, Su Budong returned to the office and began to tinker with the video memory data distribution, dividing the data distribution into four situations: tile set 1, tile set 0, tile set 1 mapping, tile set 0 mapping, and tile set 1 and 0 are divided into tile numbers.

In the X handheld, all moving objects are called sprites. The X handheld can control 40 sprites, each sprite is 8*8 or 8*16 picture blocks. At the same time, due to hardware capabilities, each scanning line (se) can only display 10 sprites. The image data of each sprite is stored in the 8000-8Fff area, and the sprite's own attribute data (x and y coordinates and other data) is stored in a special sprite attribute table (Sprite Attribute Table), also called object attribute memory OAM (Object Attribute Memory). This area is located in the memory FE00-FE9F. OAM is divided into 40 4-byte blocks, each block represents a sprite.

……………………

The geniuses of China, the United States, and the Red Rakshasa took a month to overcome all technical difficulties.

This is a nearly perfect handheld machine of this era.

Pakitnov used it to test the Tetris he invented, chewing betel nut in his mouth, and asked, "Su, how do you want to name him this game console?"

Su Budong smiled and said, "I thought about a few names, but I don't know which one is suitable."

"I think Sunny is good."

"Game Sunny?" Su Budong thought for a moment. "Okay."

Pakitnov was stunned: "Are you serious?"

"Aren't I serious?" Su Budong put away his joking expression.

"Have you given the naming rights of such a game console that is destined to be recorded in history?" Pakitnov's expression was extremely complicated.

"Of course, my friend, you have the right to name it." This is a way that Subudon is trying to win people's hearts. After all, this guy is the founder of the masterpiece Tetris.

"I don't know what to say..." Pakitnov was so moved. In the West, naming children is sacred. When it comes to such a game console, Pakitnov felt that it is worth it than winning any medal.

"My friend, don't show such an expression." Subudon was so amused and crying. He did not think of any name, and Pakitnov's name was really good.

The time is coming to early December. If there is no preheating advertisement at this time, it will directly affect the sales of GS handheld machines during the Christmas holiday.

How should I choose the first escort game for GS handheld consoles?

Everyone talked about various classic games of Dragon War.

Su Budong went against the crowd and chose several games as the starting lineup from this.

The first one is undoubtedly Tetris. With this game assured, there is no need to worry about the player's dilemma of not playing the game after the game console is released. This game is a masterpiece among the masterpieces, and the name of the highest sales volume in history is not a big deal.

The second model, Pokemon, is only the complete version on the handheld machine. In order to cooperate with the first escort, Pokemon has added an island map, which can capture the magical beast: Super Dream. It also adds online battle functions and data cables (buy on one side).

The third one, Castlevania, adds some maps and easter eggs.

The fourth model is Blue Dragon 1st generation, adding the plot, equipment and easter eggs to the second week.

The fifth paragraph is the Legend of Jin Yong, which adds the reincarnation function. After the character is reincarnated, he can inherit some of the martial arts functions in his previous life, and the difficulty of NPC increases.

Then came the game release plan. In January 1988, the Battle Dragon Collection was released, which included Contra and Tank Battle.

In February, hot-blooded football will increase the team and personnel.

March, Street Fighter, adds roles.

In April, Star Kirby, add Easter eggs.

In May, the aircraft battle will increase the body and story, and the second week will be opened.

In June, the Great Age of Discovery War Dragon GS handheld version.

Immediately afterwards, Zhanlong released a Reuters picture of GS handheld consoles to the world through the "Game Collection" magazine!

Players around the world looked different after learning the news through different channels!

Nintendo.

"Zhanlong's handheld machine?" Yamauchi looked at the information map and keenly realized that Zhanlong was vaguely disconnecting from his own. It was a dangerous signal to release the handheld machine without saying hello to him! He would never allow people who disobey orders!

But Zhanlong has only released the preheating of the handheld console. As for what is actually going on, who knows? He doesn't think that this handheld console has the possibility of surpassing FC.

Yokoi Junhei came to find Hiroshi Yamauchi: "I think our Nintendo handheld consoles should also be taken into consideration."

Yamauchi Hiroshi shook his head: "Don't worry, since Zhanlong wants to be the first person to try it out, then let him try it." Now Nintendo is a leader in the game industry, and there will be many challengers in the first place. Zhanlong, the object he regards as a freehand object, is exactly the object that Nintendo can observe. If Zhanlong's handheld console is successfully released, it will be too late for Nintendo to release his own handheld console. However, Yamauchi Hiroshi would not have thought that Su Budong's cruelty is that he used many Nintendo's "uninvented" technologies and registered patents. If Nintendo wants to use them, he will have to pay a considerable patent license to Zhanlong.

"I don't know how much his handheld game will be." Yokoi Junhei said. His problem is also a concern for many players.

"I have someone counted it. No one would buy it at all. If it is less than 16,000 yen, he would lose money. I can't tell anything about this kind of machine at all." Yamauchi said arrogantly.

"It is said that there will be a press conference in China tomorrow, and media around the world will go crazy. Tomorrow's press conference is still in China. It's too late for them to want a visa." At this time, some information about Zhanlong was extremely important.

If Zhanlong made Nintendo, as the leader of the industry, feel threatened, then other manufacturers will see a hint of business opportunities.

"Do you have a handheld console? You actually chose a game cassette... I just don't know how much the premium is." Glory, Korami, and Capcom immediately sent a letter to inquire.

Zhan Long's reply made them immediately decide to develop a game for GS.

Zhanlong replied in reply: "In the first year, each game will receive a 15% profit as a premium. It will be sold through Zhanlong channel. The number of games released each year is 9, and each card licensing fee is 100 yen. If you produce it yourself, you don't need to pay a 100 yen premium. However, all games need to be reviewed and released. After the second year, each game will be signed at 25%, the authorization fee is 200 yen, and the number of games released is 6."

"How?" As the Yuqi family, they have been suffering from Nintendo for a long time. In the Ren system, about 30% of the revenue of game manufacturers was taken away by Nintendo, but because Nintendo controls the entire production process and sales process, game manufacturers have no control over the entire game life cycle. For example, during some major festivals, Nintendo will deliberately reduce the production of cassettes by other game manufacturers and make way for their games. If a game manufacturer offends Nintendo, it will be "punished" in the production of game cartridges. Because Nintendo is at its peak in the field of game consoles, software manufacturers dare not speak out.

Therefore, the condition given by Zhan Long is extremely sincere and even tempting.

Anyway, there is no harm in signing a contract early.

"Sign!" Zhan Long's reply was obviously that the earlier they signed, the more beneficial it was. Moreover, their companies had cassette production lines, which basically could catch up with the Christmas holiday.

So Japanese game manufacturers gathered in China and lined up to sign the contract.

The Christmas host battle slowly kicks off.

In mid-December, the GS handheld machine advertisement was filmed and divided into Japanese and rice versions.

The Japanese version hired popular idol Yasuko Sawaguchi as the spokesperson.

Mi version invited Mike Jackson, who complained: "Why didn't my plants and zombies come out?"

However, under Subdong's human offensive, Mike Jackson specially provided a special version of GS "Plant vs. Zombies", which eliminated Mike Jackson's complaints.

Immediately afterwards, the Zhanlong press conference was held in the Zhanlong Technology Building in Beijing, Huaxia!

Most of the reporters who can come to the scene are foreigners. There are only a few domestic media outlets.
To be continued...