Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

In the eyes of outsiders, Nintendo is a listed company.

There should be countless financial resources behind it, and no matter how bad it is, there will be no financial pressure.

However, the fact is quite the opposite. At this time, Nintendo was in debt.

The reason for today's situation is not unrelated to Yamauchi's own toss.

His father disappeared, since he took over Nintendo at the age of 21. Although Bo Yamauchi has made Nintendo's traditional products, Hanaza and poker products top-notch neon.

But when he visited the world's largest poker company in the United States, he was disappointed.

I originally thought that the headquarters of such a company must be located in a high-rise building, which is very grand.

However, upon arriving at the poker headquarters, a small office and factory greeted the eye.

That's it? Hiroshi Yamauchi was very disappointed that the top companies in poker were nothing more than that.

How much room does this industry have for Nintendo to grow?

So Thauma Yamauchi, who had a sense of crisis, began to toss about.

First, a brick and stone transportation taxi company was established. After a few years of operation, it was sold because it was unprofitable.

Later, the instant noodles that just appeared in the 1960s were extremely popular, and he couldn't sit still and invented instant rice soaked in water.

He believes that rice is just what people need, and instant rice is a golden track.

So excited to build a factory to produce, the result is self-evident, all over the place.

Did you think this was the end? No, the young Yamauchi Bo started a love hotel again.

You heard that right, it's that kind of hotel. As for the business situation?

Cough, it seems that in the end the hotel only welcomed one guest, Thin Yamauchi.

However, Yamauchi Bo still did not give up. In 1971, he began to produce Nintendo office supplies and household products.

Naturally, the achievements are lacking, but at last the toy industry involved in the same period has improved somewhat.

Even the developed light gun sold well. At that time, the bowling boom subsided and a large number of bowling alleys were transferred.

This made the young genius Tomo Yamauchi, who was reading the newspaper, think of another idea, and it was a big business.

That is to cooperate with the light gun to transform the abandoned bowling alley into a shooting range.

Just do what you say, after the launch of the first shooting range, the effect is overwhelming.

People lined up to experience this novel entertainment, so Yamauchi hit the iron hot and bought bowling alleys.

When I didn't have enough money, I went to the bank for a loan, and finally bought a large number of bowling alleys.

After the renovation of all the sites was completed, they were about to do a big job when they encountered an oil crisis.

The neon economy fell into a short-term recession, and entertainment facilities became the first project to be reduced.

As a result, all of Nintendo's shooting range business was wiped out, and it owed billions of yen in debt for this.

Had it not been for the improvement of the arcade business in the past two years, Nintendo might have gone bankrupt long ago.

Even so, Yamauchi still often sighs with emotion, "I don't know how long I can last, every day is like walking a tightrope."

This is the situation Nintendo is in right now, owing a lot of debt because of the legacy of history.

Now that he has finally seen the considerable profits brought by GW, how could it be possible that Yamauchi is not interested.

It is no exaggeration to say that the GW handheld has almost been regarded by him as the lifeline.

At first, he didn't take Shirakawa Electric's entry seriously, after all, the other party was a cross-industry outsider.

However, when he learned from Yokoi Junpei that the opponent's handheld was better than his own, he became a lot more cautious.

Another uneasy opponent, Yamauchi sighed softly.

The other party can directly compete with giant companies like Sony and live well, so it must not be so easy to deal with.

Especially the other party's generous investment, Bo Shanuchi was very envious.

Perhaps at this moment, Shirakawa Electric is stronger than Nintendo in terms of financial resources alone.

At least they have no foreign debts, and it doesn't look like they are short of money.

But the more this is the case, the more Nintendo cannot allow any mistakes in the handheld business.

He has already decided that Nintendo will launch a GW handheld every month.

If the quality is not enough, then the quantity should be added.

In short, the handheld cake, Nintendo not only has to eat big, but also eat fast.

…

The time has entered July, and Shirakawa Electric's handheld GAME BOY has gained a lot of attention since its release.

First of all, the current Baichuan Electric is no longer an unknown person, and every move will be reported by the media.

Second, cross-industry operations are still an unknown video game industry.

Such a bold move naturally attracted everyone's attention, and everyone was curious about how Baichuan Electric would perform next.

Some media praised Baichuan Electric's brave and diligent progress, while some media bad-mouthed that Baichuan Electric will encounter its own Waterloo.

So not long after GAME BOY was released, professional media rushed to conduct various evaluations.

However, the results of the evaluation were surprisingly good.

At the moment, there are only two companies in the handheld business, and the evaluation and comparison are naturally conducted between the two.

However, as a pioneer, Nintendo is actually inferior to Shirakawa Electric in all aspects.

this…? For a while, everyone even wondered if they had reversed the result.

No matter how you say it, Nintendo is also an experienced practitioner. From arcade machines to home consoles, and now handhelds.

This is a proper industry leader, will he lose to a rising star who has just entered the game?

However, the public doesn't care whose handheld is more professional.

Good looks, fun games, cheap price, and that's it.

So not long after it was launched, GAME BOY, whose word of mouth gradually fermented, became the darling of fashion in one fell swoop.

The excitement of "Thunder" and the simplicity and fun of "Snake" deeply attracted young men and women.

This kind of portable game console can use the fragmented time to bring entertainment and spiritual enjoyment to the public.

It has to be said that this is indeed a pioneering work.

So in less than two weeks, Shirakawa Electric's GAME BOY announced that it had sold 200,000 units.

This number makes the market boil like a fire cooking oil.

"Game Console" magazine directly exclaimed, "A new force in gaming has emerged! Shirakawa Electric will be a giant in the future!"

This result is too impressive. Although the handheld is cheap, it can't stand to sell so many.

Now the name of "Thunder and Lightning" can be said to be very famous.

Of course, Shirakawa Electric's handhelds are extremely popular, and Nintendo's handhelds are naturally not bad as a pioneer.

This market is basically blank, and handhelds are cheap.

The shipments far exceeded the expectations of the two companies, and the current market is far from saturated.

Such a large piece of fat made the eyes of many bystanders turn red.

So before July is over, more than a dozen clubs have started to set up portable game console projects.

Not only them, but even some big factories are starting to make moves.

…

"Your company's game console business seems to be quite good recently."

In an auditorium in Tokyo, Norio Ohga was listening to a speech on the rostrum.

While casually chatting with the people around me about the recent wave of handheld devices.

Bai Chuanfeng turned his eyes in surprise, "Why, Sony is also planning to enter the field of video games?"

Norio Ohga smiled gracefully, "Sony's current strategic focus is on the stage. Sony doesn't know much about video games, and doesn't plan to get involved."

I hope you can still think like this in the future, Bai Chuanfeng teased secretly.

Seeing that Norio Ohhe stopped talking, Bai Chuanfeng also turned his attention to the rostrum again, where a speech debate was going on.

About the establishment of next-generation audio format standards.

Because most of the participating parties are Japanese companies, this session of the International Audio Association Conference was also held in Tokyo.

As a member of the CD camp, Baichuan Electric was naturally also invited.

Moreover, Bai Chuanfeng was invited by Ohe Norio to call and personally invite him to participate in this audio conference as a representative.

Anyway, it was in Tokyo, and it was a meeting related to the formulation of industry standards. Naturally, Bai Chuanfeng would not be absent.

At the moment, there are two sides in the debate on stage, one is the representative of Sony, and the other is the representative of JVC.

They are fighting with each other on the disc formats they have developed, and they are competing with each other.

The battle situation is more intense than expected, after all, it is a battle of formats.

If anyone loses, it means that all previous research and development efforts have been wasted. A lot of manpower and material resources will be in vain.

But seeing He Dianxiong's confident appearance, one knows what the final result will be.

Sure enough, in the actual disc trial session, the CD disc jointly developed by Sony and Philips ran smoothly, and the sound was clear and fidelity.

The AHD discs developed by JVC and Panasonic, although the sound quality is not bad, but the fluency is not good, and the disc jammed within two minutes.

Seeing the engineer on the other side sweating profusely and throwing himself on the machine to make up for it, Bai Chuanfeng shook his head, the outcome has been decided.

As expected, in the final selection process, the rotating chairman of the association announced that CD has become the mainstream audio format of the next generation.

With the thunderous applause at the scene, representatives of Norio Ohga and Philips took the stage to give a speech.

Each of them looked forward to the bright future of CD, and expected all colleagues to work together to contribute to the vision of the audio industry.

Finally, Norio Ohga announced ambitiously that Sony would fully promote the commercialization of CDs and their players in the Japanese market in 1982.

Tsk, big companies are different, they are very confident.

The format over there has just fallen, and the launch time of the supporting player has been announced here.

The research and development time starts from today, which is actually very tight.

After all, it is a brand-new technology, a brand-new product, and there is no reference.

Fortunately, because Bai Chuanfeng knew that CD would win, he had already made arrangements in advance.

The stupid bird flies first, hoping to catch up with giants like Sony.

"I heard that Shirakawa Electric has established a branch in the United States?" Norio Oga, who returned to his seat, asked nonchalantly.

"After all, it is the registration country where the patent of Baichuan Electric's Walkman is located. Alas, it's too late to go back. I am ashamed of my folks in the United States."

Norio Oga froze for a moment, this guy's shamelessness once again refreshed his impression.

However, he didn't bother with Shirakawa Electric's setting foot overseas.

Although Bai Chuanfeng was a bit shameless, he also pointed out that he owns overseas patents.

Launched its own Walkman in the European and American markets, which is a native product.

Isn't this what it should be, what's so surprising.

Whether it is local or overseas, everyone competes fairly according to their own abilities.