Chapter 166: Release Day (bonus)

December arrived, and Christmas came right on schedule. 

If anyone was especially excited about Christmas, it was definitely the players, who had packed the parking lots of shopping malls across the country until there was barely a space left. 

America was a country built around highways. Unlike Japan, where high-rise buildings and dense crowds seemed to be everywhere, much of the United States was made up of relatively scattered buildings connected by roads. 

Even a shopping center like this one, which should have been well away from residential neighborhoods and the city center, was now completely packed with customers who had driven in from all over the surrounding area. Clearly, all these people had gathered here for the same reason. 

"GAMENOVA's new console is finally on sale!!!" 

The NovaXeno, GAMENOVA's new console that had been advertised for nearly half a year, was finally going on sale today, along with its next generation launch title, Civilization. 

Over $300 was incredibly expensive? 

Come on. This was a next-generation 16-bit machine with a built-in CD drive, network connectivity, and the ability to display thousands of colors on the same screen. 

Forget nearly $400. Even if they were told they'd have to make a huge sacrifice to get one, there would still be plenty of people willing to charge forward without a second thought. 

That was the kind of influence GAMENOVA had in America. 

But while the players were buzzing with excitement, Ethan and his team were so overwhelmed with work that his head felt like it was about to split open. 

The problem was simple: they just couldn't make enough consoles to keep up with demand. 

Whether it was Micron, which was still adapting to the new SDRAM architecture, or the OEM manufacturers, all of them were running their factories around the clock 24 hours a day without stopping. 

Yet even with inventory preparation beginning months in advance, they had only barely managed to produce 500,000 units. 

If this were back when the NovaBox had first launched, a full 500,000 units would have been enough to meet market demand for several days. 

But GAMENOVA was no longer the same arcade manufacturer it had been back then, when it didn't even have its own platform. Its growing influence had already allowed the NovaXeno to surpass one million units in preorders alone. 

And not to mention that there were still countless players waiting for feedback from the first batch of users before handing over their $400. 

So, 500,000 units weren't even enough to cover the preorders. 

... 

Three in the morning. 

Mike Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce set out from UCLA and drove through the night, arriving at a shopping mall that was already packed with people. 

Faced with the chaos outside, none of them were surprised in the slightest. This was exactly what a GAMENOVA product launch was supposed to look like. 

Mike spread out a blanket, while Frank handed drinks to the other two. Allen tossed a NovaPocket handheld and a big pile of batteries onto the blanket. They had clearly prepared themselves for a long battle. 1

"Come to think of it, I never expected that expansion floppy drive to come in handy again. I figured it'd be nothing more than a collector's item once the next generation came out." 

Mike popped open his soda and took a couple of big gulps as he gazed at the poster hanging near the mall entrance. 

NovaXeno retained GAMENOVA's usual design philosophy: simple, modern, and free of unnecessary details. Aside from the obvious circular CD drive protruding from the body, the console itself still had a straightforward rectangular shape. 

According to the promotional material, NovaXeno could also be connected to an external floppy drive through a standard interface and used as a NovaBox, allowing it to play all the older games that had already been released on the NB without any problems. 2

This was an emulation feature implemented through a dual width mode CPU. In other words, the entire NovaXeno could essentially be regarded as a new machine with an 8-bit NB emulator built into it. 

"Come on, Mike. After today, we're entering the 16-bit era, so stop obsessing over those old 8-bit games." 

Frank made no attempt to hide how quickly he'd abandoned the old generation. Of the three, he was clearly the most excited. 

After all, he was the only one who had preordered an NX console. The other two could only stupidly hold their CDs and grin like idiots. 

"Hard to say. Nobody has ever seen what a 16-bit game is actually going to look like. Maybe the improvement isn't even that big?" 

Allen habitually poured cold water on their excitement. 

"What nonsense are you talking about? It's got 256KB of memory, Allen. 256KB!" 

With specs like these, home consoles didn't even come close. You'd only find hardware this powerful in high-end arcade machines. 

At the time, only top of the line IBM-compatible PCs had memory capabilities like this. 

"Specs don't prove anything." 

Allen shrugged. "Tetris and Pokémon are both so much fun, and they can still run on a handheld." 

He held the NovaPocket in his arms without even looking up. 

"If anything, I'm a little worried that GAMENOVA might get complacent and stop paying as much attention to the little details just because the hardware has gotten more powerful." 

"Tch. There you go acting cool and nonchalant again. If you're so confident, don't play the NX when we get home." 

"..." 

"One thing has nothing to do with the other. I'm definitely going to play it, but I'll be critical of it." 1

"You shameless bastard." 

"All right, sir. Let me check your preorder information. Good, that'll do." 

The salesgirl wore a professional smile and deliberately tried to show off her looks. 

But no matter how hard she tried, the man standing in front of her, or rather the long line of people behind him, had their eyes firmly fixed on the cardboard box in her hands. Not one of them even spared her a glance. 4

And that genuinely annoyed her. 

"This is the Civilization CD you preordered. Please take good care of it." 

Frank swallowed nervously as he accepted the case with both hands. 

Through the plastic wrapping, he could just make out the faint reflection of the CD inside. 

The cover featured the same artwork from the very first promotional trailer: the mighty Atlas, towering over the scene as he held the sky above his shoulders, with Earth floating beside him. The title stood out in bold, sculpted lettering, accented by curling flourishes and deep three-dimensional shadows. 

[CIVILIZATION] 

This was it! This was really it! And it was finally here!! 

After months of anticipation, Frank finally had the Civilization CD in his hands. The wait was over. Everything he had been looking forward to was suddenly real, and the magnificent "The Dream of Flight" was already playing in his head. 

Supported by the other two, Frank shakily turned around and headed toward the door. As he walked, he heard the salesgirl's voice coming from behind him. 

"I'm sorry, sir, but we're out of NovaXeno consoles. That was the last one. We'll give you a call at the number you left as soon as we get another shipment. We still have Civilization in stock, though." 

The last one. 

Frank trembled as he looked back at the person clutching his chest and stomping his feet in despair. 1

Just moments ago, the man had been happily chatting with the three of them. They had even played a round of Street Fighter together online. But judging by the look of things now, Frank suspected that guy was going to hate him from this moment onwards. 1

..... 

Inside the school building. 

Mike and Allen sat to the side, watching as Frank carefully took the NovaXeno out of its box and connected each of the cables one by one. Then he placed the Civilization CD into the NX and pressed the power button. 

Zii— 

The CD drive spun rapidly with a barely audible whir, while the CRT television flickered with horizontal lines. Then "The Dream of Flight" began to play. 

Compared with the vinyl version, the sound quality was noticeably poorer, and the song had been given a completely electronic arrangement. Still, the three of them had heard it so many times that they recognized it immediately. 

It was definitely the same song. 

As if deliberately showing off its advanced graphical capabilities, the game's main title screen made extensive use of various blue gradients combined with accent colors. 

At the center of the screen were several options for the player to choose from. 

[Single Player] 

[Multiplayer] 

[Game Settings] 

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A.N: If you're wondering who these guys are, then you might know some of the games their studio Blizzard Entertainment has made, like The Lost Vikings, Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft. 9

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