Half an hour later, Kwok finally figured out what was going on and couldn't help feeling both annoyed and amused.
"So, I still got tricked."
He shook his head helplessly, though the anger from earlier had already faded.
At the very least, the salary package Ethan had offered was genuine.
The only issue was that the company was far more run down than he had imagined.
Kwok's gaze lingered on the Contra machine standing against the wall before he finally looked back at Ethan.
"Canada recently imported a few Contra cabinets as well, though only major cities like Toronto and Vancouver have them."
He had never actually played the game, but he had certainly heard of its reputation.
The tough guy protagonist from Contra had become unbelievably popular lately, even turning into one of the defining stereotypes associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
What he hadn't expected was that such an influential next generation game had been created by the young man before him, who was only in his early twenties.
"I thought it was a new machine from Sega or Namco."
Ethan smiled and picked up a sketch from the table.
"Mr. Kwok, what our company wants to make isn't just a simple graphics chip."
The blueprint showed a rough architecture diagram lacking fine details. At its core was an 8-bit processor, accompanied by two graphics coprocessors.
"I believe general-purpose graphics accelerator cards are the future.
Whether it's arcade machines, home consoles, or personal computers, they'll all eventually have their own graphics cards."
Those words struck directly at the deepest part of Kwok's heart.
He was exactly the kind of visionary who constantly pursued cutting edge research and development. If Ethan had told him they were merely planning to build their own PPU design team, he might have turned around and left on the spot.
...
By the time Kwok departed, all traces of his earlier frustration had vanished, replaced by an excitement he found difficult to describe.
Through the concept of the "graphics card" that Ethan had shown him, he felt as though he had caught a glimpse of the future. So, without much hesitation, he immediately accepted Ethan's offer and officially became a member of the newly registered MicroNova.
Of course, he still needed to return to Canada first and bring his wife over.
Afterward, Ethan returned to the arcade and was finally able to get back to development work.
Looking at the half-finished tank sprite in front of him, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed his mind.
Based on their latest dual graphics chip design, there seemed to be no need to obsess over the original Metal Gear anymore.
Looking at the history of the Metal Gear franchise, three entries had received IGN's perfect score.
Two of them were Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and the series' final installment, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Those were obviously out of the question given current hardware limitations.
But the remaining one was different.
Its name was Metal Gear: Ghost Babel.
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It also happened to be the highest-rated game ever released on the Game Boy Color.
"This actually... might work?"
Although the Game Boy Color wouldn't be released until 1998, it was still ultimately a handheld system. Its hardware wasn't outrageously powerful.
Its biggest limitation was actually its customized Z80 processor running at a frequency of 8 MHz.
But what Ethan was building was an arcade machine.
There were plenty of unconventional tricks he could use to work around that limitation.
For example, the two graphics coprocessors.
They could offload a huge amount of the graphical processing from Metal Gear onto dedicated chips, saving a tremendous amount of CPU resources.
Ethan straightened up and immediately deleted the realistic tank artwork he had been drawing.
Lower the resolution!
He simply redesigned all texture specifications from scratch.
After all, the Game Boy Color's screen resolution was only a pitiful 160×144, completely different from the MSX.
Yet the Game Boy Color version of Metal Gear actually looked no worse than the original and, in some ways, was significantly better. The reason was simple, for smoothness.
Its silky animation and cutscenes made the controls feel incredibly responsive, completely unlike the stiff controls of the original game. Every input received immediate, fluid feedback.
...
Because of the major shift in design direction, development took much longer this time. Combined with the complexity of the character animations, it took Ethan an entire month before he finally produced a playable demo.
It only contained a few simple areas, but all of the core functionality had already been completed. The demo ran on a hastily assembled test board.
Naturally, the critical playtesting session was handed over to Sam, while Vivian recorded the status of the graphics coprocessors from the side to aid future optimization.
The game began with a radio communication sequence.
This was one of the primary storytelling methods used throughout the Metal Gear series.
[Snake]: This is Snake... Colonel, can you hear me?
[Colonel]: Looks like the high-altitude, low-opening rapid parachute insertion was successful.
"Snake? Why would someone have a name like that?"
Sam immediately understood that the protagonist he was controlling was called "Snake."
Still, it didn't sound like a person's name.
"It's just a codename."
Ethan smiled. There were simply too many characters named Snake throughout the Metal Gear series.
"I think a snake represents stealth and concealment, which perfectly matches the theme of this game."
Sam nodded, half-understanding. But his attention had already become completely absorbed by the game.
On-screen, the protagonist stood at the entrance to a passageway. Ahead lay a forest that formed a maze-like environment.
"Why is the resolution so low?"
Vivian frowned slightly. With two coprocessors, the machine should theoretically have been capable of visuals on par with Contra.
Yet instead of increasing the resolution, they had actually lowered it. It felt like moving backward.
Ethan didn't answer. He simply sat quietly and gestured for Vivian to be patient.
Sure enough, the moment Sam pressed the movement key, Vivian's doubts instantly disappeared.
Although the character sprite was so blurry that it was impossible to make out his face, his movements were astonishingly smooth.
Even the motion of lifting his foot to begin walking was clearly visible.
The instant Sam pressed a direction, the character leaned forward, lifted a foot, and moved naturally in that direction.
The responsiveness was so satisfying that even Sam was taken aback.
"Wait, you used graphics this smooth to make a game where you don't fight?"
Sam cried out.
The smoother the visuals became, the less he understood Ethan's thought process.
"Let me be honest. Making the protagonist sneak around guards like a thief, doesn't that go completely against what the market wants?"
In his view, constantly hiding and sneaking around wasn't satisfying at all. A war-themed game should be about gunfire!
Explosions!
Spectacular blockbuster action scenes!
Although he kept complaining, Sam's hands never stopped moving. He obediently read through operational instructions.
In the upper-right corner sat a graphic composed of green and yellow pixels whose layout perfectly matched the structure of the surrounding area.
Within the game, it was called a "Radar."
But Ethan had another name for it, the minimap.
In fact, this thing was essentially the prototype of the modern minimap.