"Ethan, we've run into a bit of a problem."
After finishing the reports in his hands, Sam frowned slightly.
"What is it?"
Ethan pulled his attention back and looked at him in confusion.
The phenomenal success of Contra was beyond question. It was selling like wildfire right now. What could possibly have gone wrong?
"It's not bad news." Sam scratched his head as he organized his thoughts. "It's that we're selling too well. A little too well."
"What's the problem with that?"
"Tetris and 1942 aren't the issue. The problem is Contra."
Comparing several orders and reports, Sam showed Ethan a set of figures.
"It's just... too expensive. So expensive that only medium-sized and large arcades in each region can afford it."
Several documents summarized the sources of recent orders, and without exception they all came from fairly large establishments.
Small arcades or convenience stores like theirs simply couldn't afford to buy it.
"A monopoly..."
Ethan muttered to himself, immediately understanding what Sam was worried about.
Contra's explosive popularity had indeed revived the gaming industry to a certain extent, but at the same time, it had invisibly impacted the lower-end market.
"Exactly." Sam nodded, his gaze drifting to the new content on Ethan's screen.
"If you're planning to develop another game, continuing to pile on hardware and making high end arcade machines will probably... backfire."
Arcade machines were different from home consoles. Each neighborhood only needed a few of them.
Once the grassroots end of the market ran into trouble, it would instead deal a devastating blow to the entire arcade industry.
The better it sold, the more problems it created.
But once he understood what Sam was actually worried about, Ethan relaxed instead.
"Look how nervous you are. I thought it was something serious."
He smiled, turned his eyes back to the screen, and typed in the title.
METAL GEAR.
"Don't worry. This new project is specifically meant to solve that problem."
...
The Metal Gear IP was actually divided into two parts: Metal Gear (MG) and Metal Gear Solid (MGS).
In fact, what later generations referred to as "the beginning of the legend" usually meant the latter.
MGS was Hideo Kojima's personally directed reboot of the series.
Released on Sony's PlayStation in 1998, at a time when 3D gaming was only just taking off, it went on to become a true classic.
No matter how one looked at it, the current hardware was far too weak to recreate that genuine legend.
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But that didn't mean the original Metal Gear was an ordinary game.
The first Metal Gear was released in 1987 for the MSX2 platform. It was also Kojima's very first game after graduating from university and joining Konami.
The MSX wasn't an arcade platform, but a home computer, similar to the Commodore 64 sitting on Ethan's desk.
Its feeble performance made it completely incapable of rendering flashy, high-end graphics.
Creating exhilarating wartime action like Contra was simply impossible.
To solve this, Hideo Kojima came up with a solution so ingenious that it left people in awe.
"Infiltrate and avoid combat? If you're discovered, you fail?"
After listening to Ethan's explanation, Sam looked completely dazed.
"That's right. A stealth espionage game. Or, if you prefer, you can think of it as... hide and seek."
"This... this is simply unimaginable..."
Sam tried to picture the gameplay Ethan described, but he simply couldn't understand where the fun was.
Who wouldn't want to wield powerful weapons and defeat enemies amid a hail of bullets?
Sneaking around like some coward terrified of dying, it was unbelievably frustrating!
The idea Ethan proposed was practically going against the mainstream on purpose.
"Ethan, this is too risky. If the goal is to lower the hardware requirements, wouldn't it be enough to take the 1942 system and make another game with a different theme?"
Sam had thought it through. Even if it was just recycling old ideas, he'd still buy into a reskinned version of 1942.
Swap the airplanes for tanks or battleships, and wouldn't that be just as fun?
"We'll think about rehashing old games when we're so broke we've lost our minds."
Ethan laughed heartily, unconcerned by Sam's doubts.
Before he had actually seen SNAKE hiding inside that cardboard box, he had never imagined stealth gameplay could be enjoyable either.
After all, he was the kind of player who would choose dual greatswords even in the newer Assassin's Creed games.
...
Santa Clara County, Mountain View.
Gerald Lawson accepted the hand soldered arcade motherboard Ethan handed him, his eyes widening in surprise.
Although the board had been assembled entirely by hand, it was neat and elegant, with not a single component wasted. Every wire lay perfectly against the board.
This craftsmanship was completely different from the style Ethan had shown him last time.
In just a single month, he had improved this much?
"Well... I suppose I should get used to the fact that you never do things the normal way."
Gerald quickly composed himself and carefully examined the board in his hands.
"What's this for? There's only a single 8-bit Z80 processor."
He had assumed Ethan had come with another request for high end hardware. Instead, it was such a low end motherboard.
Ethan took out a document from his bag and carefully placed it in front of Gerald.
The title on the cover page immediately told Gerald what it was about.
Replaceable Arcade Motherboard Standard.
His eyes sharpened. He instantly understood what Ethan intended to do.
"Mr. Lawson, I believe you've already guessed it. I want to introduce a more flexible arcade standard, allowing arcade machines to swap motherboards as freely as home consoles swap cartridges."
The reason he had come to Gerald was precisely because Gerald had created the world's first interchangeable cartridge home console.
There was no one more suitable to take on this task.
"This is to... reduce manufacturing costs?"
"Exactly." Ethan nodded.
"The Tetris, 1942, and Contra arcade machines currently published by GAMENOVA differ only in their hardware specifications. Their cabinets and button layouts are completely identical."
"If the production line can be split into two parts, arcade motherboard production and cabinet production, then both flexibility and manufacturing costs can be effectively controlled," Gerald said, immediately picking up where Ethan left off.
The two were instantly on the same wavelength.
"Oh, right."
Just as Ethan was about to leave, he suddenly remembered another important matter and pointed at the motherboard.
"If you were to develop a home console with these specifications, do you think it'd have potential?"
Although it was only an 8-bit machine, both Nintendo's Famicom, which was currently dominating the market, and Sega's SG-1000 successor scheduled for release the following year still used 8-bit hardware.
It wouldn't be until Sega's Mega Drive in 1988 and Nintendo's Super Famicom in 1990 that 16-bit processors became widespread.
Ethan was eager to overcome the current hardware bottleneck so he could bring more game concepts to life that were currently impossible.
But at this stage, 16-bit processors were still prohibitively expensive.
If players had to spend four or five hundred dollars on a home game console, then even Contra wouldn't be enough to make it sell.