Ethan had always known that Tetris would become popular.
Wildly popular.
But he had never expected it to catch fire this quickly.
After all, placing the machine outside his front door had originally been nothing more than a way to test the waters and gauge players' reactions before deciding on his next move.
He had never imagined things would develop into this.
Looking at the long line of players outside his door, Ethan felt a headache coming on.
As he pushed open the door and stepped outside, the people in line casually glanced up at him before immediately shifting their attention back to the arcade machine ahead.
The second person in line suddenly turned around and stared at the screen before shouting in outrage, hopping mad.
"Hey, you bastard! You secretly started another game while I wasn't paying attention!"
He distinctly remembered that this annoying Italian guy's stack had been on the verge of reaching the top.
How had he suddenly restarted from scratch in the blink of an eye?
The Mexican guy in the other seat had clearly won the previous match, but he shamelessly refused to leave and had started another round as well.
"You f**king asshole!"
As the cursing grew increasingly vicious and the emotions of the people behind them became stirred up as well, it looked as though a street brawl was about to break out.
Ethan hurried forward and grabbed hold of the furious player.
After a great deal of persuasion, he finally refunded both hot headed guys and convinced them to vacate their seats.
But just as Ethan was breathing a sigh of relief, he watched the two of them walk in a circle and voluntarily line up at the very end of the queue.
They were obviously planning to go another round!
The corner of Ethan's mouth twitched.
But then he quickly understood what was happening.
Of course.
Asking players to spend 30 or 40 dollars on a game cartridge whose quality wasn't guaranteed was something that consumers burned by Atari would never willingly do anymore.
But spending only 25 cents for a bit of fun?
That wasn't nearly such a painful risk.
He had become too accustomed to the flourishing gaming industry of decades later.
His standards for these retro games had unintentionally become too high.
To players of this era, especially those who had recently endured the disaster known as E.T., Tetris was unquestionably a masterpiece.
A masterpiece worth spending countless hours playing over and over again.
Ethan's gaze swept across the queue before stopping on a familiar figure in the middle.
He laughed.
Vivian had changed into a clean and casual outfit and apparently had gone home at some point.
She was carrying a wallet that jingled loudly with coins every time it moved.
She had also joined the crowd condemning the two line cutters earlier.
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In fact, she had been shouting louder than anyone.
Ethan nodded in satisfaction as he saw her get hooked on the game
Only then did he realize he hadn't seen Sam anywhere.
Hadn't he told him to watch the place?
Just as the thought crossed his mind, he heard the sound of a soda can rolling behind him.
Ethan turned around.
Somehow, Sam had acquired a reclining lounge chair.
He was lying there motionless, his eyes vacant and lifeless, drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.
One arm dangled limply over the side.
The can that had rolled away had apparently slipped from his hand.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?"
Seeing Sam looking like a drug addict whose soul had left his body, Ethan was startled and hurriedly shook him several times.
"I... I've had my heart broken. You wouldn't understand, Ethan. You wouldn't understand."
"Look at you. Have some shame."
Ethan curled his lip and nudged him with the tip of his shoe in disgust.
"Do me a favor. I'll give you a present afterward."
"A present?"
Sam muttered absentmindedly before suddenly realizing something.
He sprang upright.
"A new game?"
Ethan didn't answer directly.
He simply smiled and patted Sam's shoulder, gesturing for him to come inside.
What he needed to do was actually very simple.
But also very important.
Copyright registration.
He needed to register the Tetris brand name, source code, audiovisual elements, and related content as soon as possible.
Otherwise, once Nintendo's expansion plan began next year, he would be in serious trouble.
"Copy this out, organize the forms, and mail them to the Copyright Office."
Ethan directly displayed the Commodore 64 source code in front of him.
As for screenshots, photographs, circuit diagrams, and similar materials, Sam could handle printing those as well.
To be fair, the registration fee for copyright protection was only ten dollars.
It was quite reasonable.
Just after finishing his instructions, someone knocked on the apartment door.
Ethan opened it with some confusion.
A middle aged man stood outside.
"Can I help you?"
"Hey, my friend. I was wondering whether you have any plans to sell the arcade machine outside?"
The visitor was wearing a suit despite the summer heat and carried a hat in his hand.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Meyer, owner of an arcade hall. I noticed that you have a machine that I've never seen before."
Meyer had spent quite some time observing outside.
He was completely convinced that this machine called Tetris represented a tremendous business opportunity.
"Sorry, but I don't have any plans to sell it for now."
Ethan smiled and casually rejected the request.
He did intend to make some startup capital.
But he had no intention of selling arcade cabinets directly.
Even if he asked for two thousand dollars right now, Meyer would probably pay without blinking.
There were two reasons.
First, Ethan's current production capacity simply couldn't support arcade manufacturing.
Just this one machine had taken nearly half a month to modify and port.
And that was with a complete second hand cabinet that already functioned properly.
After subtracting the 800 dollars spent purchasing the machine and all the development and modification costs, the actual production cost was around 900 dollars.
That meant only a little over a thousand dollars in net profit.
Half a month's work for a thousand dollars wasn't attractive enough.
Second, they were currently in the middle of copyright registration.
Selling a machine whose chips hadn't even been encrypted yet would create unnecessary complications.
Hearing the refusal, Meyer looked disappointed, but he wasn't ready to give up.
"I understand. Then could you at least tell me where you ordered the machine from? I'd be willing to pay a referral fee."
"I found it in the second hand market."
Ethan answered vaguely.
"But leave me your contact information. If I find another one, I'll get in touch."
Even though he couldn't sell arcade machines yet, he wasn't about to let someone eager to spend money slip away.
Once things stabilized later, this guy might become one of his biggest customers.
After seeing Meyer off, Ethan grabbed a can of soda and took over the watch from Sam, settling into the lounge chair outside.
While doing so, he began planning both his next game and the question of how to earn his first real money.
As for what the next game would be, Ethan already had an idea.
At this point in time, development of Super Mario was probably already underway.
Trying to copy it would be far too risky.
But the scrolling technology used in Super Mario had given him an excellent idea.