America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 33 Snake's Smoothness

Half an hour later, He Guoyuan finally understood what was going on and felt both angry and amused.

"So I still got scammed." He shook his head helplessly, but his anger from before had vanished.

At least Lin Lixin was serious about the salary and benefits he offered.

It's just that this company is much more dilapidated than I imagined.

He Guoyuan's gaze lingered on the Contra game console at the base of the wall for a long time before he turned his attention to Lin Lixin.

"Canada has recently purchased several Contra consoles, but they are only available in major cities like Toronto and Vancouver."

He had never played the game, but he had certainly heard of it.

The tough guy image in Contra has recently become incredibly popular, even becoming a stereotypical label for Schwarzenegger.

He simply never expected that such an influential next-generation work would come from this young man who was only in his early twenties.

"I thought it was a new console from Sega or Namco."

Lin Lixin smiled and picked up a sketch from the table.

"Mr. He, what our company wants to make is not a simple graphics chip."

The drawing is a poorly detailed architecture diagram, with the core components being an 8-bit processor and two graphics coprocessors.

"I believe that general-purpose graphics accelerator cards are a future trend. Whether it's arcade machines, home consoles, or personal computers, they will eventually have their own graphics cards."

These words struck a chord deep within He Guoyuan's heart.

He is a visionary who constantly pursues high-end research and development.

If Lin Lixin said they were just planning to set up their own PPU design group, he might just turn around and leave.

……

When He Guoyuan left, the indignation he felt upon arrival had long since faded, replaced by an indescribable excitement.

Through the concept of "graphics card" that Lin Lixin showed him, he seemed to be able to glimpse a corner of the future.

Without much hesitation, he immediately accepted Lin Lixin's offer to join him and officially became a member of the newly registered Micro-NOVA.

Of course, he also needs to go back to Canada first to bring his wife over.

Lin Lixin returned to the arcade, finally able to resume his development work.

Looking at the half-finished tank drawing in front of him, a sudden inspiration flashed through his mind.

Given their latest dual-graphics chip design, it seems there's absolutely no need for me to dwell on the original Metal Gear.

Throughout the history of the Metal Gear series, three installments have received the highest score from IGN.

Two of them are Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the final installment of MGS.

These two games are obviously out of the question given the current hardware capabilities.

But the remaining one is different.

Its name is Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel.

It is also the highest-rated game on the GBC handheld console.

"Hiss...it seems...it actually works?"

Although the GBC is a product from 98, it is still a handheld console, and its configuration is not ridiculously high.

The biggest limitation actually comes from that custom-made Z80 processor with a frequency of up to 8MHz.

But Lin Lixin and his team were making arcade games, so they could easily bypass them using some tricks and gimmicks.

Take those two graphics coprocessors, for example.

They can transfer a large amount of graphics processing from this Metal Gear Solid game to these two chips, saving a significant amount of processor resources.

Lin Lixin sat up straight and completely deleted the realistic tank he had only half-drawn.

Reduce resolution!

Lin Lixin simply revised the specifications for all textures.

It's worth noting that the GBC's screen resolution was a paltry 160x144, which is completely different from the MSX.

However, the GBC version of Metal Gear's graphics are no less impressive than the original, and in fact, far superior.

The reason is—smoothness.

The smooth animation effects and transitions make the controls extremely responsive, a stark contrast to the stiff controls of the original game, providing the smoothest and most timely feedback.

……

Due to major changes in the design direction, the initial development time was delayed for a long time.

Given the complexity of the character animations, it took Lin Lixin a full month to finally produce a test demo.

It only includes a few simple scenarios, but the core functions have all been developed.

It was mounted on a test substrate that they had hastily put together.

This crucial hands-on experience was naturally left to Sam, while Vivian recorded the status of the graphics coprocessor to facilitate subsequent optimization.

It begins with a radio communication animation.

This is also an important means of storytelling in Metal Gear Solid.

[Sneak]: This is Snake... Colonel, can you hear me?

[Colonel]: It seems that the high-altitude low-opening rapid parachute tactic has been successful.

"Snake? Why is it named like that?"

Sam immediately realized that the main character he was playing must be this so-called "Snake".

It just doesn't sound like a person's name.

"It's just a code name." Lin Lixin smiled. There are just too many characters named SNAKE in the Metal Gear series. "I think the snake represents infiltration and concealment, which fits the theme of this work perfectly."

Sam nodded as if he understood, but his attention was already completely focused on the game.

In the scene, the protagonist stands at the entrance of the passage, with a 'maze' formed by the forest in front of him.

"Why is the resolution so low?"

Vivian frowned slightly. With two coprocessors, it should theoretically be able to achieve a level of graphics comparable to Contra.

But the resolution is decreasing instead of increasing; it's practically going backwards.

Lin Lixin did not answer, but sat quietly to the side, gesturing to Vivian not to rush.

Sure enough, as soon as Sam pressed the movement key, Vivian's doubts vanished instantly.

Although the character was so blurry that you couldn't even make out his face, his movements were frighteningly fluid.

Even the motion of lifting one's foot to start is clearly visible.

The moment Sam pressed the movement key, the character lifted his foot forward and moved in the corresponding direction.

The smooth and effortless feel of the controls surprised even Sam himself.

"Seriously, you actually made a game with such smooth graphics that doesn't involve fighting?"

Sam exclaimed in surprise. The smoother the scene became, the less he understood Lin Lixin's thoughts.

"Let me be frank, making the protagonist sneak around like a thief, isn't that going against the grain of the market?"

In his view, constantly hiding and dodging didn't bring any enjoyment at all.

War-themed games should be all about shooting! Explosions! Spectacular popcorn action movies!

Although he kept muttering to himself, Sam didn't stop what he was doing and obediently read through Meiling's instructions.

In the upper right corner is a graphic composed of green and yellow pixels, which is completely consistent with the structure of the scene.

In the game, it's called "radar".

However, Lin Lixin has another name for it – mini-map.

This thing is actually the prototype of an early minimap.