Game Market 1983

Chapter 56: The Approaching 16-Bit Era

After taking a short break with Gunpei, we returned to the event venue, only to find the line still stretching endlessly outside.

Even the display shelves for the demo devices were crowded with people eager to get their hands on the latest portable devices.

"Boss, please save me!"

Mina, who had been shivering in the cold inside a van until dawn, had now transformed into a kimchi thanks to her interactions with the guests.

"I'll handle the guests for now, so take a break."

"Thank you."

Well, wearing high heels all day can be quite painful. After switching with Mina for my duties, I took a stroll around the event venue.

Among the students trying out the game devices on the display, one of them had a surprised expression.

"It's so light..."

Honestly, it wouldn't be considered light, to be frank.

If you look purely at the design, it's not much different from a brick, and while the weight is listed as 220g, that's the weight excluding the batteries. When you add the four batteries, it's nearly 300g.

But compared to the compact size of Sony's "Walkman," which was a small electronic device of this era, it was indeed quite small.

Although it may seem insignificant to me, it must be an innovative item for them.

I slowly made my way to the Psychic Battle event area.

As I did, Kasihwabashi, one of the male employees from the promotion team, who I had been brewing coffee with until dawn, rushed over to me.

"Game Boy is doing well, but the guests who came to the event to experience Psychic Battle shouldn't be underestimated either, right?"

"Of course, it has to go well. I told President Kamauichi that people waste money on useless things because of this."

The launch event for the portable Game Boy was important, but the reason I personally volunteered to support this event was because of this.

And the demo cartridges I produced in small quantities for this day were enjoying explosive popularity. Why? It was all thanks to this phrase.

Challenge the sensational new game, Psychic Battle!! -

Clear the first stage and receive an illustration of your favorite character.

Clear the second stage and receive a demo cartridge for Psychic Battle.

The gifts were simple, but their effect was tremendous.

With the main cover of four major game magazines last month, the game gained significant recognition, and review articles for the game were quite favorable.

Thanks to that, this month, for the first time, we surpassed Super Mario 3 in the expected ranking, taking the first place. But I wasn't satisfied with just that. I took one step further.

This month, I added the event date and location to the bottom of the Psychic Battle article in Famitsu.

Gunpei-san also agreed to my proposed event plan with hopes of a collaboration effect.

As a result, on one side of the event venue, Gunpei-san's Game Boy and, on the opposite side, my Psychic Battle were attracting a massive crowd of people.

Even the passersby in front of the event venue stopped in their tracks, watching the intense bullet hell spectacle of Psychic Battle.

"Oh~! What a shame!"

When the player, who had left the first-stage boss with barely any health and then got a game over, hung their head in disappointment, the next challenger stepped up immediately.

"No one has received the demo cartridge as a gift yet."

"Once you get the hang of it, they'll start appearing gradually. It's only the first day of the event, so running out too quickly wouldn't be fun."

"Is that so? There are even people who repeatedly challenge it to collect all four illustrations that were on the main covers of the magazines, so it's a bit challenging."

"If it gets too serious, we will have to intervene. It's a space prepared for various users to try out."

"Yes, understood."

"I wonder how many demo cartridges will be given out during the event..."

I thought with a smile while surveying the event venue.

&

The successful launch event of the Game Boy sold out completely in just four days after it started.

This was six days earlier than the expected inventory depletion date we had predicted.

It seems that it's Christmas season, and many were buying it as gifts for children. Interestingly, in these four days, we sold more of the initial 300,000 units than the combined sales of Nintendo's Family Computer and NEGA Disk.

The Nintendo executives, who had predicted the product would fail as it was too expensive for a children's toy, were reportedly shocked by this astonishing sales figure.

Additional production immediately began, but it seemed challenging to meet the enormous consumer demand for a while.

In addition to the success of the portable Game Boy, the one who benefited the most was Sharp, which provided the black and white LCD screens to Nintendo. Sharp began supplying the Game Boy's LCD screens, and due to the sudden surge in business from the Game Boy's success, they made a huge profit in an instant, despite their previously struggling business in the face of Japan's economic recession.

Sharp's President, Mr. Machida, and Mintendo's Mr. Kamauchi had a very odd relationship, so it seemed that they mutually benefited in supplying the LCD screens.

The portable Game Boy used an STN reflective black and white LCD to balance power consumption and price. However, even with this, it could only be played for a maximum of about 5 hours (continuous play) with four AA batteries.

Furthermore, the STN LCD was vulnerable to light reflection, making the screen nearly invisible due to sunlight during the day. It also lacked a backlight, making it impossible to play at night with the lights off.

Nevertheless, it was selling like hotcakes, overturning all these disadvantages with the merit of being able to enjoy games alone without needing a TV.

"Hey, give me a turn too~ Huh?"

"No way~ If you want to play, ask your mom to buy it for you~"

"You're so mean."

As I walked the opposite way to meet a personal commitment, I passed by two kids who were having an argument. The chubby kid seemed like a bit of a momma's boy from his appearance, but if his friend asks, he might concede to a single round. He's quite greedy, isn't he?

It's like watching Nobita and Takeshi from Doraemon.

I chuckled and passed by the kids.

Today, the day the Game Boy launch event ended, was Christmas Eve.

Gunpei and the other employees had just left the event venue and were heading to Kyoto for the year-end festivities, but I remained in Tokyo.

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