On that fateful night, after leaving the office, I sat in front of my room's telephone, feeling a sense of unease. A piece of paper with Yuki's contact information lay before .
"Why am I so nervous about making a simple call!?"
To an outsider, I might have appeared pathetic, but for soone who had lived through 2015, making a call to soone else's house felt incredibly awkward.
If only I had a mobile phone, I could have sent a text ssage first, but here I was, hesitating to make a phone call out of the blue. I slowly turned the dial on the telephone.
With a clinking sound, the rotary dial rotated, and before long, I could hear the dial tone coming from the receiver.
"Hello?"
Uh… that's the voice of a young woman…!! I cleared my throat and said, "Uh, is this Yuki?"
"Oh, Yuki? I'm Yuki, but just a mont~"
Ah, she's the older sister... I could hear her calling for Yuki on the other side of the line, and soon, the familiar voice reached my ears.
"Yes, this is Ishikawa Yuki."
"Ah… I… we t at the Dragon Emblem event, right? I'm Kang Junhyuk."
"Ah~!! Junhyuk-san~ Hello."
"Yes, I'm sorry for the delayed contact, I've been busy."
"It's okay; I thought you might have forgotten about since you didn't contact ."
"No, I didn't forget, it's just that I received your contact out of the blue, so it was a bit awkward..."
"I gathered my courage to give you my contact back then, you know?"
"I'm sorry. Instead, when I co to Tokyo next ti, I'll treat you to a al."
"When are you coming?"
Normally, a Japanese person might respond with a simple "No, it's fine," but she unexpectedly asked straight up.
Since I had business with Pentagon Soft for the upcoming sequel to Final Frontier, I promised to get in touch before my next visit to Tokyo before finally hanging up the receiver.
"Oh… even when I've co to the '83s, talking to a woman is still nervewracking... It's not a problem to chat with female employees at the headquarters... it's strange."
I sighed softly and turned on the computer's power switch.
Beep~ Diddly-diddly-dee~~
Computers of this era are truly fascinating. I initially found everything quite awkward when using a non-Windows-style PC with a prompt interface, but now I've beco completely accustod to it.
I loaded the coding I was currently working on with a prompt command and then fell into thought for a mont.
I had already been planning the expansion scenario for Dragon Emblem before its release, so I seamlessly transferred it to an expansion cartridge. Recently, I've been working on another ga.
This ti, the genre is... a bullet hell shoot-'em-up action ga, I decided.
While I created Dragon Emblem, my na was not publicly associated with it, so this ti, I planned to develop the new ga under my na with a Mintendo license.
&
A few days later, a presentation for the new ga developnt was held in the Mintendo headquarters conference room. The audience included Mintendo employees as well as so journalists from Famitelecom.
The initial announcent was about Shige-san's Super Marriage 3. The ga's background design featured a unique production that felt like watching a one-act play, inspired by the curtain call of a stage play.
Particularly, the appearance of Super Marriage with a raccoon tail, which had been added since the Udon incident, was deed cute even among the attendees at the presentation.
In Raccoon Marriage, if you pressed the jump button repeatedly after running at a certain speed, Mario could fly high into the sky. When they demonstrated this surprise feature, everyone burst into laughter at Mario soaring through the air.
Shige-san explained how they used this elent to create hidden routes in each stage, allowing players to skip to other stages or obtain unique items.
"So, it seems that the foundation of the Marriage series is full of items pouring out in the third one... Like turning into a raccoon, hidden routes in every stage..."
Finally, Shige-san's presentation ended with Mario's transformation into a Tanuki statue.
"Great~!! That's fantastic. This is what Super Marriage is all about!! Shige, you finally got it together."
President Kamauji clapped enthusiastically with a satisfied expression. Gunpei-san, who was in charge of the presentation, cald the atmosphere in the hall and introduced the next ga.
The next ga was the family version of Konkomi, a ga currently enjoying great popularity in arcades, and Double Dragon.
Both gas were two-player co-op, and since they were already popular in arcades, the mood in the conference room continued to heat up. At that mont, journalist Junpei from Famitelecom asked Gunpei-san a question.
"By the way, when is the release of the new handheld gaming device you announced for Carin's Legend a while ago? And how much will it cost!?"
Gunpei-san responded with a slightly embarrassed expression, "We're considering releasing it during the Christmas season at the end of the year. We're doing our best to adjust the price as the user's expectations are high, but the exact price hasn't been decided yet. We'll probably have more details to share next month."
"Wow!"
"Well then, let's finish this new ga presentation with the next ga. I have great expectations for the director of this new ga. As you all know, he was the one who proposed the idea of Ori Hunting and has been actively assisting as an associate director in various Mintendo gas, our hidden developer, Kang Junhyuk."
"Wow! The original idea provider for Duck Hunt?"
"Shige-san said he's a highly capable guy, and he's Korean."
"Korean...? Co to think of it, they said the planner for Dragon Emblem was Korean too, right?"
When Gunpei-san introduced , President Ani sighed inwardly. I slowly rose from my seat, retrieved a floppy disk, and approached the podium.
"Hello. I'm honored to introduce my first ga to such a large audience. As Gunpei-san introduced, I have only played a supporting role so far and haven't created a ga that stands out as the main director. Recently, Dragon Emblem caused quite a sensation, right? As a fellow Korean, I wanted to create a ga that would satisfy family gars. The genre is a sowhat unfamiliar one called 'Bullet Hell Shoot-'em-up Action.'"
"Bullet... Hell... Shoot? What's that? Shooting?"
"Action, right? But if it's a battle, does that an two players fight?"
As the audience murmured due to the ambiguous genre na, I inserted the floppy disk into the demonstration device and powered it on.
"Is there anyone who'd like to try it out for themselves?"
At that mont, Junpei, who was sitting in the back, raised his hand quickly.
"Junpei Ishimoto-san, please co forward."
Junpei ca to the stage with a slightly embarrassed smile.
In fact, I had inford Junpei in advance when I t him before the event. When I call a volunteer to the stage, he should eagerly raise his hand and co forward...
Of course, anyone else would have been fine, but Junpei, who could demonstrate at a certain level of difficulty without dying too easily, was the perfect choice.
"Please pick up the controller placed in front of you, and first, enjoy the first stage we made as a demo. Ah~ the ga is called Psychik Battle."
"Psychik Battle? A battle of psychic powers... Not bad, right?"
As the Mintendo logo passed, accompanied by the cheerful BGM and the words "Psychik Battle," the audience in the conference room beca increasingly interested.
When Junpei pressed the start button, three charming female protagonists appeared, and character selection began.
"Girls!? I thought it was a shooting ga?"
"They could be pilots, you know."
"Oh... I see..."
Until then, there was a strong perception that shooting gas inevitably involved flying aircraft, likely influenced by gas like 1945 or Twinbee. However, with the sudden appearance of beautiful won, people seed to interpret them as pilots.
But the character Junpei chose continued to soar through the blue sky with a splendid cutscene and entered the stage.
"Ah!! So that's what they an by psychics!!"
Psychik Battle was a side-scrolling shooting ga. To make a comparison, it could be said that it took so inspiration from the arcade ga "Tengai," which many people had played at least once.
Junpei smoothly controlled the character, moving back and forth. When he pressed the A button, blue missiles were launched at the enemies.
"Hmm... The entrance to the stage is unique, but the content is just a regular shooting ga."
Of course, this guy openly criticizes gas made by his friends. Well, that's why it's even more trustworthy, but...
"Why don't you try playing a bit more?"
Shooting gas didn't require a special strategy. Anyone could easily adapt to the straightforward gaplay of dodging enemy missiles while shooting them down.
The enemies targeting the protagonist were psychic individuals too. The screen was quickly filled with various psychics, and they were firing countless bullets.
"Uh... Ugh...!?"
At first, Junpei easily dodged one or two bullets, but he gradually started making strange groaning sounds as he stared at the screen filled with bullets.
Well, I've heard this kind of groaning sound at the ga center before. When Junpei gets incredibly focused on one thing, he unintentionally makes a strange groaning sound.
My presentation proceeded quietly, except for the weird groaning sound from this guy.
The speed of all the bullets in Psychik Battle was not constant.
So bullets ca fast and hit hard, while others approached very slowly, taking your breath away. But what would happen when the screen was filled with them?
"Ughhh!!! Aaargh!!!"
Junpei scread in agony, but he miraculously dodged all the bullets coming at him.
"Wow~~ That's amazing! Wasn't he a Famitelecom journalist? The ga's content is great, but how can he avoid all those bullets?"
"Well... that's true? My head is spinning..."
"Ughh!! Bombs!! Bombs!! Do we have bombs here?"
When he couldn't find any more space to dodge, Junpei urgently shouted towards . In shooting gas, bombs were often used for ergency evasion, granting the character a brief mont of invincibility.
"Rotate the D-pad once and press the B button."
"D... Rotate the D-pad?"
That's right. Psychik Battle was the first command-input shooting ga.
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