Game Market 1983 Chapter 39

Chapter 39 : Unique Marketing (2)

“Wow~ You really are… kickking a.s.s.”

“Kicking a.s.s~?! It’s called an outstanding marketing skill~!!”

On top of that, if the customers wanted to collect all these ill.u.s.trations, they had no choice but to purchase the magazines from these 4 locations~ The magazine companies would benefit in their own right, and the news would spread from the word of mouth. Killing two birds with one stone… I took a sip from the cup Junpei gave, and I beamed.

“Aii? This is a game cartridge?”

“It’s a game cartridge for experimental purposes. You will be able to enjoy up to stage 2 with this.”

“Oh~ That’s great news to hear. All of the other reviewers were interested in Psychic Battle too… But this is a bit bigger than a regular cartridge…?”

“I’ve implemented a specialty chip inside that will improve the performance…”

“Ah~ That’s why it’s so idiotically fat… But I do feel a certain pull from it too~ Then should I play it? “

“You’re planning to try it out now?”

“Why not? It’ll be exposed to other reviewers~ Good?”

“Whatever you say~”

As soon as Junpei left the reception room, he shouted to his co workers that were busy working.

“Oi~! The game that I’ve been harping about until my mouth dried up, the experimental cartridge for Psychic Battle has arrived!! Whoever mocked me for dying at the first stage, come out!!”

“Oh~? Psychic Battle~!? Me~! I’ll give it a try!!”

The experimental Psychic Battle cartridge was able to instantly garner the peaked interest of the FamiTong employees. A moment later, they gathered around the small TV screen and began galvanizing their tongue as the projectile-barrage scene came on.

“Spin the cross key and press the B key.”

Junpei was standing over to the side throwing out snide remarks with a smirk on his face to his friends who were dying before the half-mark of the first stage.

“F..f.u.c.k, Why is this so hard?”

“I was the only person to reach the Boss Stage in the presentation conference, alright? I told you it was shockingly hard, didn’t I? Move to the side, I’ll show y’all how it’s played.”

Junpei grabbed the controller that his co worker threw in frustration, pushed him away, and he took a seat.

“Now~!! Come watch my out-of-the-world plays!!”

Compared to the other employees, Junpei did have some talent. After deducing that the barrage would become increasingly more focused the longer he stayed in one spot, Junpei darted across the stage and avoided the incoming projectiles.

Even though the total number of barrage was calibrated to be capped at a certain value, there were moments where the frames per second would be lowered, though it did not noticeably impact the gameplay experience.

“It seems much more stable than before, the frames aren’t plunging as much.”

“Of course. The software was tidied up as well. There are some frame drops here and there, but the code is the most efficient it could possibly be.”

A while later, Junpei faced off against the insect boss of the first stage again.”

“I will pay back the debt that I owed you!!”

This Junpei b.a.s.t.a.r.d wasn’t going to fall for the same patterns again. After the barrage of projectiles had set in again and the frames started to fall, he antic.i.p.ated the killer move of the boss and hurriedly maneuvered his character to the end of the screen to avoid the deathly laser.

In the end, Junpei’s play had defeated the first boss, and he used the momentum to attack the second stage.

“Oraahhh!!!!”

He activated the barrier skill and proceeded with caution but with the addition of the spinning projectiles, the difficulty became much harder. No matter how good the player was, they wouldn’t be left with much HP by the time they reached the second boss.

“Would it be possible to clear this?”

Contrary to Junpei’s expectation of another gigantic monster appearing, a psychic boss with similar characteristics to the main character appeared.

“The second boss is a psychic user just like me~!! I have a chance!!”

Different from the gigantic boss of the first stage, a huge smile was plastered on Junpei’s face after seeing a humanoid boss appear. He thinks it’ll be easier because there is more s.p.a.ce to evade? Seeing the overconfident self of Junpei, a grin was drawn on my face as well.

‘Let’s see if anyone can clear the second stage before the full game is released.”

Junpei lightly s.h.i.+fted to the side to dodge an attack of the boss while simultaneously punching in the commands to fire a homing laser beam that chased the target. At that instant… Shroop!!!! Just before the laser beam made contact with the bewitching boss, it vanished.

“Teleportation!!!!”

As Junpei desperately attempted to make distance with the boss who appeared right behind, he couldn’t escape the magnetic pull of the boss. Following the humongous combo laser attack of the boss perfectly hitting Junpei’s ‘Azesha Ren’…

“Heukkkk!!!!!!!”

As the scene of the scar-filled Azesha Ren’s desperate pose was displayed, everyone collectively gasped. Compared to the ill.u.s.trations that I’d handed to Junpei, the scene was a bit milder, but it was clear that the previous image was overlapping with the current one in Junpei’s mind.

“Pieces of clothing come off when she’s. .h.i.t by the boss’s attack… Vice versa, if the boss is. .h.i.t with the special skill of her character…”

Ensuingly. A reporter who was sitting beside me had cut me off, and he tightly grabbed Junpei’s hands and spoke.

“Junpei, I’m begging you. You must defeat the second boss with your special ability.”

“Woahhhhhh!!!!”

It’s incredibly easy to predict males… What was the big deal about a piece of clothing flying off… In reality, the “pieces-flying-off” concept had already been introduced in game centers with the popular “Golden Castle” game.

One had to dodge the incoming magic spells with a s.h.i.+eld using high, middle, and low commands to proceed. Being hit with spells would cause pieces of armour to fly off.

The only problem was the character was a male… However, the scene of the players at the game center collectively cheering on to remove the clothing of the female enemy knight came into my mind, and I let out a smirk.

Of course, with the current specs of the Family console, it would be too much to express the full graphical scenes of the flying clothing so I had to make do with the cover ill.u.s.trations. However, the reception of the concept itself was tremendous here as well…

&

“Planning to go so soon?”

“Yup, I have an appointment with someone soon. Enjoy the game and make sure to write a nice article.”

“Don’t worry about the article~ It’ll be a spectacular piece of writing~!!”

“Alright, thanks.”

“There’s one thing… Junhyuk.”

“Hmm?”

Junpei was wearing an awkward expression and scratched his head unlike his usual self, making me a bit apprehensive. What was it? Was there a problem with my Psychic Battle??

“You told me you’d given different ill.u.s.trations for each the characters to the four magazine press, right?”

“Yeah… Why??”

“There are only three main characters in the game, was one of them ill.u.s.trations of the telekinetic second stage boss, Catherine?”

“Yeah. Why?””

“Who did you give that ill.u.s.tration to?”

“I handed it over to Game World before coming here…”

“Arghhh~!! You should’ve given that to us instead!!!”

“…. Was she your ‘type’?”

What… He made that serious expression just because of this…? This man, he was into the dominant female fetish… I smirked at the bothered Junpei.

“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to my employees and have them send you all four sets.”

“R..Really?”

“Yes~ b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

“Okay~!!! You were being a little idiotic, but, since the game is so good, I’ll write you a great review~!!”

“Then, I’ll be heading out now~”

I looked at my wrist.w.a.tch and saw the time almost nearing the appointment, I quickly started heading to the subway station, waving to Junpei.

“Contact me when you arrive at Kyoto~”

“Alright man, break a leg~”

-We will be arriving to s.h.i.+buya… s.h.i.+buya station in a moment.-

Instead of the robotic announcer, the raggedy voice of the subway operator rang out through the speaker.

‘This homely feeling is something I can get used too..”

I prepared to get off the subway holding my lightened business bag.

I wouldn’t be late, but it’s pretty close? I have 5 minutes left until the appointment…

Chik… I ran towards the stairs as soon as the subway doors opened. The station was b.u.mbling with activity six in the afternoon.

‘It’s packed in here… Right, it’s when people get off work.”

The symbolic meet-up location of s.h.i.+buya station was the Hachigong mound.

In this era, there was a certain feeling of elation in meeting up with a person. Should I say it’s the excitement of choosing a time and location and waiting?

Handheld phones were non-existent, much less a mobile phone, so it was impossible to know where the other person was; however, with this inconvenience came a certain air of excitement and antic.i.p.ation.

Even though I was a bit late… I glanced at my wrist watch again and came out of the station. The famous Hachigong mound was already filled with people looking at their watches and waiting for someone. And I was easily able to find Yuki amongst the group of people.

“Ah~!! Mr. Junhyuk~”

Yuki saw me through the moving crowd and welcomingly waved her hand. We’ve only had a brief encounter at the Dragon Emblem conference, but I’m feeling pretty good to be greeted like this?

“It’s been awhile.”

“Ah… yes. How have you been?”

“I really thought you’ve forgotten about me after no contact after our first call.I haven’t gotten the chance to ask for your number, so I couldn’t call either…”

“Sorry. I was too busy with work…”

“But thank you for not forgetting me and contacting me.”

As she lowered her head and greeted me. I also reflexively lowered my back.

“N, not at all.”

“Should we go somewhere to eat some food while we talk?”

“Sure. But I’m not familiar with s.h.i.+buya, so I don’t have any recommendations.”

“Hmm~ then should we stop by a convenience store first?”

Yuki and I stood over the symbol of s.h.i.+buya, the bridge, and we smiled at each other. Yuki possessed a great sense of intuition for a girl in the 1980s.

The current popular trend amongst girls was tying their hair with a white headband and giving it a wave at the end which gave off a neat feeling instead of the old-fas.h.i.+oned curly hair.

And the dimples forming on her face every time she smiled was a charming as well..

“Waw~ s.h.i.+buya has quite the crowd.”

“It’s much more lively than Kyoto, isn’t it?”

“Oh? How did you know I was based in Kyoto?”

“You said you were working for Mintendo. Isn’t the headquarter based in Kyoto?”

“Ah… You know well.”

Ding Dong~

Ding Dong~

A moment later, as the notification rang out along with the traffic light turning green, the mult.i.tude of people moved at once through the wide road.

Looking at the scene of the people swarming to the s.h.i.+buya station, I’m being reminded of the game “Three p.r.o.nged legend” from 2000 that I used to enjoy.

Defeating hundreds with one warrior brought me great joy, but a game like that would take some time to be developed?

That game was released along with SenSony’s Gear Station 2… It would come out approximately 15 years from now…. Wait a moment, no. There is no need to wait that long…?

“Mr. Junhyuk?”

“Ah, yes?”

“We… should be going this way?”

“Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought…”

“Hmm…”

Yuki made a fl.u.s.tered expression for a brief moment before moving her foot again. Now…. I’m going to get hate from all over for being immersed in games day and night. I suppressed my inventor’s spirit, and I followed her back.