"I just saw you playing "American Cubes" with all your concentration. You can forget about hunger. I clearly felt that you felt happiness from it. Isn't the essence of video games like this? It simply provides people with joy!"

"I was thinking that a middle-aged man in his forties and a designer who had played countless games can still get happiness and laughter from the game, let alone other people? Since that's the case, how can the game die?"

Jester said sincerely, and his rhetorical question, like the previous question, made his father and Mark Seney go into deep thought.

Yes, how could the game die?

It took a long time until the first dish of Guru pork was served, and Jester's father spoke and broke the silence.

"Actually, when I was at home just now, Mark and I were discussing what happened in the future... Atari might be difficult to have another chance. I worked there in 1974 for a full ten years..." Jester's father's tone was a little lonely and desolate, but Jester heard a different meaning from his father's words. He had made up his mind to leave Atari.

"Jess, how about you going to Japan?" Jester's father looked at Jester seriously and asked a question. "Sega's American branch has invited me, Mark and many software and hardware engineers in the company, hoping that we will go to Sega's parent company in Japan to continue to engage in the development of game software and hardware. You know, I love this industry, if I can, I don't want to give up."

Jester's throat moved and did not directly dissuade him, because he knew that, judging from the current situation, as long as he wanted to continue to develop in the electronic game industry, then going to Japan was the only way.

But how could he let his father go to Japan? So he frowned and thought seriously for a while, organized his words before he spoke.

"Dad, grandpa is almost eighty years old and has not been in good health recently. He has called several times and wants you to go back and see you. He misses you very much."

Hearing Jester's words, the expression on Jester's father's face changed violently, and even a hazy water vapor gathered in his eyes in an instant. He took a deep breath and eased his tears.

Jester knew that what he said just now worked.

One aspect of his grandfather getting older is that his grandfather hates Japanese people the most in his life. If his father really went to Japan and worked for Japanese companies, then the relationship between the two might have been somewhat eased and there would be no possibility of recovery.

But it doesn't mean that he doesn't love his father. Only Jester knows that every time he goes to San Francisco, he always pretends to be careless and prepares gifts. When he comes back, he also pretends to be careless and asks some news, just wanting to know that his grandfather's health is getting better recently.

Jester's father ran away from home in his twenties. He has been around for almost twenty years now. He has never been back except when Jester's grandmother died of illness and her death day.

Speaking of which, the conflict between his father and his grandfather was just because of the differences in their ideology.

Jester's father is a Chinese, but he is completely different from Jester's grandfather or Jester's uncle.

Jester's grandfather was born in China and grew up in China. He even made great contributions to expel and invade, so he naturally didn't need to explain his feelings for his hometown. His uncle was already in his teens when he left the country. He had long had his own worldview, had seen the beautiful mountains and rivers of the motherland, and had also seen the deep hardships of the motherland. He knew where his motherland was. They recognized Chinese culture and everything about China from their bones.

Just like the song "My Chinese Heart" written by Huang Zhan, a master of Chinese music, "Although the dress is worn on my body, my heart is still the Chinese heart. My ancestors have long branded everything about me with Chinese marks." "The blood flowing in my heart is surging with the sound of China. Even if I am in a foreign land, I cannot change my Chinese heart'.

This song is a true inner portrayal of Huang Zhan at that time, so he was able to complete it in one go when he was first created, because it was all the thoughts in his heart.

But this is not only a portrayal of Huang Zhan's inner thoughts, but also a portrayal of the inner thoughts of people who are similar to Jester's grandfather and his uncle, who have left the motherland for various reasons in their early years and crossed the ocean, knowing where the motherland is, what it looks like, what it is, and what it represents.

But his father is different. He is a typical second-generation immigrant. He was born in the United States, studied in the United States, grew up in the United States, saw everything about the United States, loved American culture, and even liked American girls. It is impossible for you to make such a person love a country that has nothing to do with him except blood ties like his elders.

His father and his grandfather had a different view of their daily relationship, especially when his father was dating a white girl and proposed to get married and his grandfather refused mercilessly, the conflict between him and his grandfather broke out completely.

Mark Seney also noticed the strangeness between the two. He didn't understand why Jester's father's emotions suddenly became so gloomy. In his impression, his colleague was very optimistic and seemed to have nothing to make him perform like this.

Jester also noticed Mark Senni. He could use family affection to persuade his father not to go to Japan, but this had no effect on Mark Senni. He had to have other excuses to persuade him.

What is the most powerful thing for aspiring young people in the United States?

There is no doubt that it is a dream.

"The market in Japan is too small, Mark, dozens of times smaller than that of the United States!" Jester's speech speed suddenly became very fast, his tone was contemptuous, and a series of words ejected from his mouth like bullets from a machine gun.

And the target is Mark Seney who is still sitting in the unknown.

"Mark, think about how many units can a home machine be sold in Japan at most? One million or two million? How many units can an arcade machine be sold in Japan? One thousand? Three thousand? How many units can a game card sell in Japan at most? One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Look at these numbers, it's not worth mentioning!"

"In Japan, this market is too small! It's almost impossible to become an industry! Mark, what are you trying to fight in such an industry!"

Jester's face suddenly became stern, and he said something Mark Seney was very reluctant to listen without hesitation.

He was directly questioning Mark Seney's dream, which is a very serious matter in the United States.

This made the young Mark Seney a little angry. The two questions from Jester made him feel that the other party was his fellow men, and they were all people who firmly believed that the electronic games industry they loved would have great potential in the future, but they did not expect that the other party would say such unpleasant words in a flash.

"Jest!" Mark Seney interrupted Jester's words in anger, and even his nickname was unwilling to shout, as if the friendly relations established through "American Cubes" had been lost with Jester's contemptuous words.

"Adali sold more than 20 million units of 2600. The arcade machine I designed for the ball platform has been shipped to 30,000 units, and Atali's most popular game cartridge can sell one or two million. Atali's peak profit was 2 billion US dollars a year, which is more than any Hollywood company. This is a just-in-the-star industry. You say that such an industry is so small that it can hardly become an industry? It's so funny!" Mark Senny argued with Jester mercilessly, but he didn't realize that after hearing his words, Jester's face was not at all angry, but instead showed a smile.

"You also know that you are talking about in the United States, not in Japan. The US market is huge enough to independently promote the emergence, development, and rise of an industry, but Japan cannot." Jester interrupted Mark Seney with a smile.

Hearing Jester's words, Mark Seney's neck seemed to be strangled, and his throat kept surging up and down, but he did not continue to say it.

His face suddenly became a little dark, as if he was talking to himself, and as if he was talking to others, whispering: "Yes, Japan is too small."

"So, now I'm back to the question I asked at the beginning. Do you really think video games are dead?" Jester asked this question again.

Without any hesitation, Mark Seney said to Jester directly: "Although the market is now collapsed, I firmly believe that an industry that can constantly bring people joy, laughter, forget sadness, and inadvertently intoxicated by it will never die!"

Jace nodded, clenched his fists and held them in front of him. At the same time, he said to Mark Seney in his most unwavering tone: "Since you think this is the case, and I also think this industry has great potential, why not continue in the United States? You must know that even if you go to Japan to continue making video games, if this industry really improves, you will still have to return to the United States, because Japan is too small and it cannot support such a large market!"

"Believe me, if you really believe that there is a future for video games, then stay in the United States, because no matter where you go, as long as you are still in this industry, you will definitely come back! Since you will come back in the future, why don't you leave now?"

Mark Seney was so excited by Jester's words that he was constantly reminding himself that Jester was right. Since he would definitely come back in the future, why don't he leave now?

But when I think of the current situation of the American game industry, the almost collapsed market, hundreds of thousands of game cartridges buried in the sand, household game consoles that were cleared out in one or two, and arcade machines that could not be sold in the warehouse... The blood that had just been ignited seemed to cool down in an instant.

The grayish color on Mark's face became even stronger.

He wanted to say something he would not leave the United States, but he couldn't say it when he was at his lips.

He doesn't want to leave the United States, but reality is difficult to transfer by personal will.

In fact, Tramel's plan to completely transform Atari into a computer company has begun. Last month, the headquarters laid off thousands of designers who developed games in one go, and the layoffs in arcade have also begun. At most, the end of the month, there may be results.

"When Nolan Bushnell founded Atari, he was not a few years older than you and me. At that time, no more than a thousand Americans knew what video games were, but they could all succeed, selling hundreds of thousands of PONGs! Selling 20 million Atari 2,600! Let the concept of video games be known to every American! Then why can't we? Our situation is much better than they did at that time! At least we don't need to let our children's parents understand what electronic games are when buying Christmas gifts on Christmas!"

Jester said loudly, and even stood up, waving his fists, his voice almost roaring.

The diners around were looking at Jester like they were looking at a psychopath.

But Jester didn't care.

Seeing that Mark Seney was still silent, Jester simply continued to say.

"This is not a job! Mark, this is not! What we have to do is stand up and tell everyone with our actions that we can bring video games back to life, make video games popular again, make video games popular in the United States, and make video games back to the track it should have been, rather than being thrown into the corner like now, decades later, our descendants can only know from the encyclopedia what their fathers were doing when they were young."

"They would say that, oh, video games? Something meaningless!"

“It’s not a job, Mark.”

"This is the mission!"

"Your, mine, the mission of everyone who loves video games!"

“It is calling us, the ones who truly love it.”

"Someone has to come forward and do something! Do you want to step forward and be a hero, even if it's only a few minutes, or be a coward for the rest of your life?"

"You choose it yourself!"

After speaking loudly, Jester sat down with a breath of breath.
Chapter completed!