Chapter 191: Bethesda Joins

At the Activision branch, Will, who was discussing the decision tree with David, watched Ethan rummaging through a pile of games with great interest and felt somewhat puzzled. He knew that Ethan had previously made a trip to Bethesda Softworks alone, intending to invite them to become his subsidiary. 

However, things didn't seem to be going as smoothly as they had hoped. Yet Ethan remained completely unfazed. 

Over the past few days, aside from working with Carmack and the others to keep pushing the project forward, he had spent nearly all his remaining time going through Activision's old games. To him, it was nothing short of a treasure trove. 

Ethan pulled out a cartridge labeled Pitfall! and inserted it into the Atari 2600 sitting on the table. It was the undisputed champion among Atari games in 1982 and, even now, remained one of the best-selling video games in history. 

David's name appeared on the title screen, followed by the Activision logo, making it clear that the game had been developed entirely by David himself. 

That kind of situation wasn't unusual during the 8-bit era. Back then, a single talented developer could handle almost every aspect of a game. 

The game world soon came to life on the screen before Ethan. The color palette was extremely limited, yet the visuals were surprisingly easy on the eyes, lacking the harsh, garish appearance often associated with DOS games. 

The colors had been chosen with considerable care. The blue sky made it difficult for the forest to fully convey the tropical rainforest atmosphere David had envisioned, but given the limitations of the hardware, they had already done an impressive job of bringing the environment to life. 

At the very least, by Atari 2600 standards, this was undoubtedly a masterpiece. It was no wonder that the four of them had gone on to become half of Atari's backbone. 

The gameplay itself was straightforward. The player controlled an adventurer whose objective was to collect as much treasure as possible and complete the journey in the shortest time while avoiding crocodiles, poisonous snakes, and various other hazards. 

The classic treasure-hunting adventure immediately reminded Ethan of a movie Sam had been particularly fond of back in the day. 

Raiders of the Lost Ark, or, as it was better known, Indiana Jones, the trailblazer that would inspire countless treasure-hunting films to come. 1

And as it turned out, the movie had even received an officially licensed video game adaptation. Its creator was none other than Howard Warshaw, GAMENOVA's very first third-party developer. 

The more Ethan thought about it, the more he felt that this truly was a remarkable era in human history. 

Here was a group of exceptional developers whose creativity and technical skills stood at the very peak of the industry, yet they had once been earning a mere $30,000 a year at Atari. 

Even after leaving to found Activision, their situation hadn't exactly improved. Once the company went public, they were quickly pushed to the margins, their contributions gradually losing the recognition they deserved. 

And after CEO Jim left, things only went from bad to worse. Their treatment continued to deteriorate until, eventually, they had been driven all the way to rock bottom. 

"Hmm..." 

After playing two quick rounds, Ethan tossed the controller aside. The game was certainly fun, but it was also undeniably outdated. The hardware limitations only made matters worse, leaving both the graphics and controls feeling clunky and unresponsive. 

Honestly, it was hard to get hooked, especially when there were already so many better alternatives out there. 

"But there really is something to this gameplay…" 

Ethan suddenly thought of a game IP, one that would eventually accumulate nearly 500 million downloads worldwide. 

Temple Run 3

"David, would you be interested in rebooting this IP? This time, on a 3D engine?" 

"A 3D version of Pitfall!?" 

David, who was still discussing the details of LCP with Will, was slightly stunned. He clearly hadn't expected Ethan to bring this up out of nowhere. 

"Yeah. It's been a long time since GAMENOVA released an arcade-style game. I think this could be a perfect opportunity." 1

The success of Temple Run would later coincide with the golden age of smartphones, when mobile devices were rapidly spreading around the world. 

It's simple yet addictive gameplay was perfectly suited to the needs of mobile players at the time. It was easy to pick up, instantly entertaining, and endlessly replayable. 

Along with Subway Surfers, which followed the next year, games like these became defining examples of the endless-runner genre and a snapshot of an era when mobile gaming was taking off. 1

As for something like Mirror's Edge, a genuine 3D action-running game that pushed the concept much further, there was simply no way to recreate something on that level under the current technical conditions. 

David's eyes flickered, and the way he looked at Ethan suddenly changed. 

Every time Ethan came to Activision, he seemed to have another surprise up his sleeve. And somehow, they had ended up with a boss who actually played games and genuinely loved them. It was awesome! 1

"Absolutely. We can make it work!" 

"Yeah, we'll talk about the hardware configuration and gameplay design later. I'll take a look at something else for now." Ethan grinned. 

Compared with console and PC games, arcade games had one significant advantage: their hardware specifications didn't need to be nearly as constrained. 

After all, the cost of the hardware was ultimately borne by the arcade operator. An arcade cabinet could be equipped with much more expensive hardware than a home console without making the machine prohibitively expensive for the player. 

But consoles were a different story. Every additional component increased the manufacturing cost and, ultimately, the price consumers had to pay. A more powerful graphics system could easily push a console beyond what the average player was willing to spend. 

That difference gave Ethan far more freedom. With OpenGL and 16-bit graphics cards at his disposal, he could experiment with much more ambitious projects without worrying about the hardware costs of developing for home consoles or passing those costs directly on to the players. 

In a way, this brought GAMENOVA back to how it had been in the beginning. 

There was no need to worry about costs. They could simply let their hands loose and focus entirely on implementing the game's content. And Temple Run, with its fast-paced, bite-sized gameplay and no need for a save system, was practically made for arcades. 

Ethan returned to his pile of cartridges and began rummaging through them in search of another hidden gem. Before long, he pulled out another one. 

Kaboom! 

An action game developed by Larry, another of the legendary four developers. It had been a huge success as well, selling more than a million copies. 

But before Ethan could even slot the cartridge into the Atari 2600, his phone suddenly rang. He pulled out his phone and answered. 

"Sam?... They're already here?... All right, I'll be back." 

The moment he hung up, a panel visible only to him appeared before his eyes. 

Among the rewards was a skill gift pack that Ethan had yet to open. It was clearly the reward he had received for what happened with Christopher. 

Quake must have left quite an impression on him, so much so that, after spending just a day thinking things over, Christopher wasted no time heading straight to GAMENOVA's main office. 

When Ethan returned to the office, he found Christopher and Julian sitting in the meeting room, with Sid across the table, chatting casually with the two of them. 

Christopher looked up when Ethan walked through the door. 

For someone as gifted as Christopher, nothing could shake his confidence more than realizing just how much he still had to learn. 

If Wolfenstein 3D had made him feel like he had witnessed a "clever trick that took an entirely different path," and DOOM had seemed like a "brilliant technique that could be studied and pursued," then Quake was something else entirely. 

Christopher had spent the past day racking his brain, trying to figure out how DOOM had somehow been taken to this level in such a short time. Even if he managed to find a clue, turning that idea into a working game would still require an enormous amount of development time. 

For the first time, Christopher felt something he had never felt toward another developer. 

Fear! 4

... 

"Ethan, we'd like to be part of GAMENOVA." 

After seeing Quake, Christopher could no longer find a reason to turn down Ethan's acquisition offer. He had always believed he stood at the very top of the industry, and that there was very little left for anyone to teach him. 

It wasn't until Christopher dragged the mouse and looked up that he realized the "ceiling" he'd been staring at wasn't a ceiling at all, it was just another floor. 

And above that, there was still a sky.