Rebirth of America, this is my time

Evelyn, Ethan, this is where I usually work.

After taking Ethan and Evelin around the dilapidated house in Five Corners for a few times to satisfy their curiosity, Vinton Cerf also took them to visit his office.

It was a rather large square room. Since it was located at the very end of the first floor, the layout here was surrounded by windows on three sides. After opening the blinds, you could even view the room at a 180-degree angle. The perspective overlooks the greenery downstairs and various fountains. The beautiful feeling of taking a step back and being submerged in the dense forest of reinforced concrete and touching nature with one step forward is great.

Oh, Vinton, the environment here is much better than that at Stanford.

Evelin looked around and gave her own evaluation, No wonder major universities have always said that their enemy is not their colleagues engaged in research, but the federal government.

It's really hard not to be tempted by this kind of work environment.

Hahaha……

Evelin's words made Vinton Cerf and Ethan Jones both laugh.

They understood what Evelin meant, because this was a joke that had been circulating for many years. Even when Ethan traveled through time decades later, the joke still existed, but the person narrating it had changed.

In the future, many American technology companies will complain that they are never afraid of poaching by competitors, but private recruitment by the federal government is annoying.

Because for those scientists who are obsessed with research, the federal government's non-public projects are much more interesting than the public plans in private companies. Although the salary given by the federal government may not reach the salary standards of world giants, they can be recruited by the federal government. Which one is not free from wealth?

However, even if the salary is not comparable to the world's best, the supporting facilities can reach the world's top. The environment that Vinton Cerf has now is not something that various companies in the future or Stanford can create now. It's not a question of whether companies and universities have money, but the federal government doesn't have to consider money when doing these things.

There is no need to talk about this unspoken rule that everyone knows well, so after laughing, the three of them talked about other things. Vinton Cerf first asked about the situation of the two of them. When he learned about Planet After War was released as a rushed product, he immediately expressed his admiration for the quality of the game produced by the rush process.

You said it only took you ten weeks to make this game?

Wow~ You guys are really awesome for making such a complete game in such a tight time! I'm not complimenting you, I mean it!

Although technically speaking, the production of this game is not difficult, the creativity that leads the work is not simple, because this kind of thing is difficult to complete in a short time.

Vinton Cerf gave his evaluation with a smile.

Ethan and Evelin, on the other hand, expressed their gratitude politely.

After raising this topic, the two also asked about his work content. Although it may involve confidentiality, Vinton Cerf didn't care and said directly: Barbara said she is very busy?

Oh - I'm actually busier than her. Because they called me to DoD, hoping that I can develop a joint communications system to integrate the tactical communications systems of our country's army, navy and air force to improve the relationship between the three services. coordination and efficiency.”

I've been working on this since March.

Although there is an agreement, it is very simple to interconnect computers in various bases, but you also know that the technical personnel in the army will definitely not be as professional as us and can accurately identify the data sent by all parties, so currently The first problem we solve is to make a tool for them that can support simultaneous access by multiple users, transaction processing, and a tool with rollback capabilities.

Although Vinton Cerf's words were clear and coherent, his face was full of sadness while speaking. This state made the siblings very curious, and Eve, who had been with Vinton Cerf for several years, Lin didn't hesitate and said directly: Wen Dun, is this matter difficult?

I see you look very bad.

It's not difficult. Vinton Cerf shook his head decisively and said, This kind of thing is even very simple for us, but what I'm not happy about is that when we started designing this tool, we learned that the CIA We are also considering creating a tool that ordinary people can use.”

And in this regard, they choose to purchase externally.

“Private purchases.”

On the surface, this matter has little to do with us. Although the CIA's needs and our research and development are indeed the same thing, we belong to two different systems. But the problem is, when our people understand that they When the purchase price is much lower than our R\u0026D budget, our project will be stuck there and unable to advance...

When Vinton Cerf said this, Ethan and Evelin immediately understood.

The reason why this guy is unhappy is actually the unique way of doing things in the federal government.

Every time they start a project, they have to make a project budget. If the quotation can meet the psychological expectations of the people above, it will be easier to advance the project. But if the quotation does not meet the above standards, it will be stuck for a year and a half. All normal.

Although many times, things like getting stuck are just words. When these technical bosses say how much a project will cost, it is impossible for the guys who are counting on them to say no with a twitch in their heads. But you are afraid of comparison in everything, right? When the CIA's new needs are the same as their research and development goals, whoever spends more money will be embarrassed. Even if there is no problem with the final accounts, they may be caught by the idiots in Congress.

Oh Vinton, it's really unlucky to encounter something like this.

Ethan expressed his feelings in a regretful tone.

At the same time, he also asked casually: Can I know which company undertook the CIA project? It can't be IBM, right? If it is them, then this matter is a bit disgusting.

It is normal for federal agencies to outsource services in any era, and the companies that can get federal orders are also large and small. If it is a giant of the era like IBM, then they will definitely not modify the quotation after it is quoted, but if Some ordinary companies...

There is still a lot of room for maneuver.

After all, small companies dare not offend anyone.

But Ethan's words made Vinton Cerf shake his head, IBM? How is it possible! If it were them, this kind of thing would never happen at all, because they would discuss it with various departments before making a project quotation. Contact someone to avoid duplicate projects, only small companies would be so reckless!

As far as I know, that company was only established after receiving the project?

That's why I say the CIA purchases from private individuals!

Sometimes I even wonder if the CIA will use this method to embezzle funds again!

Speaking of this, Vinton Cerf suddenly frowned, Oh! Fxxk!

This kind of thing seems really possible!

No, I have to have someone check it out!

What's the name of that company? It seems to be called Software Development Laboratories? Oh! Sxxt! This kind of name sounds like a scam!

Vinton Cerf flipped through the information on the table furiously, as if he wanted to find information about the opponent, but it was more like he had grasped the opponent's handle and wanted to win back the victory.

Ethan and Evelin smiled and shook their heads as they looked at him with anxious looks. But since Vinton Cerf had something to do, they didn't bother him and stood up to leave.

Vinton Cerf did not stop him, but when he said goodbye to them, this guy took the initiative to ask the two of them to help him with something. At first, Ethan thought it was a big deal, but after the other party said it, Only then did he realize that this guy had asked him to find out information.

The company I was talking about is in Santa Clara.

Because the founder of that company used to work at Ampex in Redwood City.

So, if you have time, then make a trip to Santa Clara to see what this company is doing. If they are developing the tools I mentioned, then forget it. , but if they are really defrauding funds... hum...

At this point, Vinton Cerf stopped.

The cute look of wanting revenge made the siblings dumbfounded.

Although Vinton Cerf's behavior seemed a bit childish, because if people in the CIA really wanted to defraud funds, they would not need to use such troublesome methods, but the two of them still followed his wishes, nodded repeatedly, and agreed. Come down. After leaving Arlington, they felt it was still early, so they made a temporary decision to visit other friends.

They flew from Washington to Boston and met with Professor Ralph Bell, who was old but did not want to retire. During the chat, the old professor learned that the next target of the Destiny Game was the home console. , the old man looked very happy.

You are finally going to make a home console? Oh - this news is really great -

To be honest, I have always felt that the home console is the most suitable machine for people to play games, because it can provide players with choices. However, due to some reasons of the times, it may be too expensive when it appears and cannot meet the needs of the public. Standards, this is my problem, I didn’t consider it carefully, it’s not the problem of the machine, it itself is not wrong...

Since you want to develop machines, as a company consultant, I naturally can't watch from the sidelines. In this way, if you encounter any problems during the research and development process, you can call me directly and I will help you solve it, or directly Fly over...

You must not think that doing this will trouble me, because this is my dream. Just like you have told the world time and time again that my original intention of making games is to bring happiness to people. I really hope for this goal. Can be achieved……

The two arrived in Boston in the morning and left by plane in the evening.

I only had a meal with the old professor at noon.

Although this kind of communication has the suspicion of a special forces punching in, but...

All right.

Ethan admitted that he was using the special forces punch-in method to maintain his interpersonal relationships.

There is no way, who makes him really busy now? If it weren't for the fact that recruitment takes time and relationships need to be maintained, he would have been working hard in the company!

Before, he had always thought that the natives had nothing to fear, but in the end, he was kicked in the butt twice by the natives. When he took a step and fell down, he really didn't dare to do what he did last year, like taking a few months vacation, because he didn't know whether the enemy would pop out in the next second.

And if you want to avoid the tragedy of rushing ducks to the shelves from happening again, you have to take the initiative and run forward.

However, no matter how tight the time was, he did not go back immediately.

After coming out of Ralph Bell's place, he and his sister went to MOS Company again.

As the guarantee for the success of the Destiny Game, the 6502 R\u0026D team was also a relationship that he needed to constantly maintain. But after he came here, he discovered that several people were missing from the original team.

What's going on? Ethan looked at Chuck Paido in surprise.

Where are they? Are they sick?

Chuck Paido smiled and shook his head and said, No, they just resigned.

What? This answer surprised Ethan.

He just didn't pay attention to this place for half a year, so there were fewer people in the company?

What the hell is this?

Why? he asked curiously: Why do they want to leave?

Because...interests... Chuck Paido didn't mean to hide it. He smiled and showed an unfinished design drawing to Ethan, It's all because of it...

It turns out that since Chuck Perdue told Ethan Jones last year that the Chuck Perdue chip production company in California will not pay dividends for the time being, and they need to use the funds to develop a 16-bit CPU, MOS Company has indeed We continued as per the original agreement.

On the surface, this is a great thing.

These people came together because of the same dream. Now they can continue to work hard because of the same dream after achieving success. This kind of thing is very inspiring no matter how you look at it.

But the problem is that things like human hearts are never static.

Chuck Paido can continue to work hard for his dream, but some people think that to advance research and development, you must make money. “They said that the reason for making cheap chips was because there was no such product in the mass market, when we ourselves could not find the value of the chips. At this time, lowering prices and allowing the market to explore becomes the only way to promote products, and after finding the market for the product...

“The next generation of new products must be profitable.”

Moreover, the 16-bit CPU we studied is different from the previous 6502.

The R\u0026D funds for the 6502 were actually borne by Motorola. We ourselves did not spend too much money on this project, but the 16-bit new product is different. It cost us our own money.

In this case, they cannot accept the idea of ​​low price...

Just leave.

And with them gone, it may be a while before 16-bit chips are actually made.

Chuck Pedro looked at Ethan Jones with regret.

And Ethan Jones——

He also sighed with a wry smile.

To be honest, Ethan can actually understand those people's decision. After all, generating electricity for love must be voluntary. Any force is actually a hooliganism.

Chuck Paido and others want to develop new chips and continue to supply them to the world with the previous low-price strategy. This idea is actually extremely noble.

And those who leave want to get a share of the bright future through chips, which is normal, because dedication and reward are inherently complementary to each other.

And when these two diametrically opposed concepts appear, it is natural for them to part ways due to incompatibility in their three views. This kind of thing cannot be avoided and cannot be solved.

All Ethan could do was express his regrets, and then asked Chuck Paido for the contact information of those people, and borrowed the MOS company's phone number to call them one by one to express his gratitude to these former warriors.

I'm sorry to call you at this time, because I just learned about this matter. Although I really want to persuade you to come back, I know that this kind of persuasion is extremely hypocritical to you, so I am calling you. Before giving it to you, I have told myself that I will support your decision and believe in your decision. Today’s phone call is to express my best wishes to you. I hope you will ) can harvest a better tomorrow of their own...

Although we separated today because of different ideas, we are still friends. I, Ethan Jones, admire your efforts to change the world very much. If you (we) have any difficulties in the future, you can feel free to call me. Call me, or go directly to California and find me at my company. As long as I can help, I will definitely help...

If he had just traveled through time, Ethan would definitely not have been able to say such disgusting words, but now, this kind of emotional catharsis is easily accessible to him. He feels that he is not hypocritical anymore, but has grown up. When he knows that there are really people in this world who are living for their dreams, he will respect those who once had dreams, are struggling now, and have dreams in the future.

Although Ethan returned to California depressed, he thought that MOS's chip dividends would last him a lifetime, but he didn't expect that the R\u0026D team had fallen apart before the 16-bit chip came out. This kind of surprise was really unexpected. The release of new machines by Dali and Milowa caught people off guard.

But when he returned to the company, the recruitment results that had come out made him extremely happy.

Under the leadership of Damio Dean and with the assistance of Julis Noble, the content production department of Destiny Game has found ten employees, five of whom are famous.

They are Bob Whitehead, who graduated from Stanford in 1974 with a double bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science;

Alan Miller, Larry Kaplan and David Crane graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975, 1976 and 1977, and also had a bachelor's degree in computer science;

And Tripp Hawkins, who studied at Harvard University as an undergraduate and is currently a graduate student at Stanford and will graduate next year.

When these five people show up...

Ethan was shocked!

Even if they turn into ashes, Ethan can still recognize them!

Because the first four special codes founded Activision, and the latter one is the boss of EA!

In the past life, the founders of the two giants in the American gaming industry are now applying for jobs at Destiny Games?

This result made Ethan somewhat unexpected!

After he asked, Damio Dean told him the reason.

Bob Whitehead, Alan Miller, Larry Kaplan and David Crane all worked for Atari and developed games for the new generation console, but because of the machine's failure and After Warner took over, they felt that there was no future for them to stay at Atari, so they chose to resign.

Coincidentally, when they resigned, they found out that we were recruiting, so they came over to try their luck. I saw that they all had experience in game development, so I took them on.

Tripp Hawkins was recommended by Mr. Jobs. He actually applied for Apple at the beginning, and his target was to be a sales executive, because he got a bachelor's degree in literature from Harvard and also studied business administration at Stanford. He had a master's degree and didn't understand technology, but during the communication with Mr. Jobs, Mr. Jobs discovered that he had a deep understanding of games and had already been exposed to games in 1968, so Mr. Jobs recommended him. …”

Damio Dean's narration made Ethan laugh.

Although the five people in front of me are all fledgling boys and are not future giants in the industry, it makes me sad to think about having celebrities from their past lives working for me!

Moreover, the appearance of these five people gave Ethan confidence in the establishment of the content production department, because in his previous life, time had proven that they would be successful. In the absence of his system, Ethan Jones, this kind of recruitment of celebrities The act of coming to work can avoid stepping into pitfalls to the greatest extent.

Compared with the smoothness of the content production department, the recruitment of the machine research and development department is a bit uncomfortable.

Because in the past two rounds of recruitment, Damio Dean and Julis Noble have not found suitable candidates. When the guys who come to apply for the job talk about the development of home consoles, they will be interested in the new era and Apollo. ’s design was full of praise. When Atari and Mirowa had registered patents for their machines, the employees’ appreciation could only bring about one problem, and that was unintentional borrowing in the design.

If this kind of thing happened in normal business operations, it would naturally not matter. Just like Mr. Lu Xun said, 'There are a lot of articles in the world, see if you can copy them.' But when Atari and Milohua When they are all competitors in the game of destiny...

For reference, that is really not possible.

Because people will use a magnifying glass to study them.

However, whether a suitable machine designer has been recruited is not important to Ethan, because he has a number of classic models such as FC, NFC, PS, and XBox in his mind.

When he closes his eyes, he can see the future...

The model design is too simple!

Hehe~

However, just as Ethan was wondering whether he should try his hand at Nintendo and copy FC, on July 4, 1977, Julis Noble hurriedly knocked on the door of his office.

Boss! Something happened!

Hearing such words made Ethan's breath suffocate.

At this moment, he really wanted to throw this guy out!

Because every time she said in hasty words that something was wrong, something big and bad for him would definitely happen in the outside world!

But even if Ethan knew that something was wrong, he didn't show it. While praying to God, hoping that the other party would bless him, he smiled and said: Something happened? What can happen now?

Both Milohua and Atari have been defeated by us, and we have no rivals in North America.

But unfortunately, Julis had no intention of joking.

A newspaper was pushed directly in front of him.

Boss! It's Nintendo!

Nintendo?

This name made Ethan frown. He really couldn't think of anything that Nintendo's little Karami in the current gaming world could do, but after he saw the news in the newspaper -

He suddenly stood up!

His eyes are as wide as bells, and his ears are as erect as antennas!

He almost tipped the table over!

Oh! Sxxt! What is this special code! he roared.

At this moment, there was a large black and white photo on the newspaper in front of him.

A boxy machine was printed on it.

Below the picture, there is a text like this.

[Liben Company’s latest product from Nintendo, the home console COLOR TV GAME 6, has detonated the island nation]

Thanks to [Xiaoyi’s daddy] for the reward of 1,700 starting coins, and thank you to [Colorful Bat] for the reward of 200 starting coins.

Note: ① On March 9, 1977, DoD approved the plan for the Joint Tactical Communications System (Joint Tactical Communications System). ②Ampex was founded in 1944 and is an electronics company that started out as a military company.

PS, no more