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Although Ethan had played countless video games in his previous life, when he racked his brain for ideas, he could only squeeze out a handful of inspirations related to the minimalist pixel style.
After all, in the era when he was gaming, arcade hardware had already improved, and the titles that dominated the market were Street Fighter, King of Fighters, and Mortal Kombat.
Still, even though the golden age of black-screen pixel games had passed by then, the ones that survived into that era were all true classics — like Tetris (Northern Cube), Space Invaders, and Pac-Man, which he had just written on the paper in front of him.
Each of them was a super IP that had once created a market worth hundreds of billions.
Even reproducing just one of them would be enough to cover all the development costs of a Silicon Valley startup in this era.
Make two That would make him a legend.
And if he made all three? In literary terms — that would make him the God of Games.
After all, in his previous life, there really was someone who managed to create three all-time classics.
Shigeru Miyamoto gave the world Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda — a holy trinity that secured his place at the very top of gaming history.
And under his influence, Pokémon was also born. Satoshi Tajiri (Ash Ketchum himself) even said that his rival character, Gary Oak, was named as a tribute to Miyamoto.
Of course, all of that was tied to home consoles, which had nothing to do with Ethan for now.
Hardware costs in this era were still high, so he focused on the most basic charm of pixels.
And as an unrepentant layman, what did he want to do most?
He wanted them all. He had already given up the easy road of financial speculation to start a business. If he didn't make a name for himself, all this effort would be wasted.
So when he rolled up his sleeves, he decided to go big right from the start.
But which one should he unleash first? Northland Cube?
Ethan circled the name on the paper. After a long moment of thought, he scribbled it out.
Even though he wasn't a programmer, he knew Northland Cube would be the hardest of the three to make.
First, there were many different block types to implement, and the display logic and pseudo-random generation formula alone would be a huge challenge.
That kind of workload couldn't be finished in a short time.
Second, the elimination logic was tricky. The game would need to constantly track the highest filled grid, calculate available space, and make sure the pseudo-random system left the player with a fighting chance — so the game didn't feel unfair.
That level of logic was way beyond what simple arcade circuit boards were built for.
Even the most brilliant electrical engineering couldn't solve that. And that wasn't even mentioning features like speed increases tied to the score counter.
The more Ethan thought about it, the more he felt it would be unfair to dump that workload on Evelyn.
He wasn't sure if she could build Northland Cube, but he knew he couldn't afford to waste time finding out.
In the arcade world, what mattered most was speed, precision, and ruthlessness.
If your tech wasn't ready and you took even one second too long to launch — you were already dead.
Besides, Northland Cube wasn't really suited for arcades anyway.
It was a game that thrived in private, something players should own and take their time with.
Put it in an arcade, and the owner would go bankrupt — or worse, start smashing the machines after seeing a skilled player hold a single credit for hours.
With Northland Cube strategically shelved, Ethan turned his attention to Space Invaders.
To be honest, Ethan had never actually played the realSpace Invaders. What he had played was a knockoff — if memory served, it was Little Bee, produced by Namco.
But does that really matter? Not really. Because the gameplay was essentially identical!
Both Little Bee and Space Invaders are fixed-screen shooters.
The player can only move their turret or spaceship horizontally along the bottom of the screen, firing bullets upward to clear waves of enemies descending from above.
The only real difference? In Space Invaders, the enemies march down as a single coordinated block. In Little Bee, they can break formation, dive, and swoop down individually to attack the player.
From a technical standpoint, this game felt much simpler than Northland Cube — or at least Ethan hoped so.
Still, he hesitated, circling the name on the paper. What really gave him pause was a memory from his previous life.
"Wait… wasn't this game popular mainly because of Star Wars?" Ethan muttered, scratching his head.
Yes — he was almost sure of it. In his memory, Space Invaders had gotten a huge boost from the Star Wars craze.
After George Lucas's space epic had conquered the world with its dazzling visuals, Space Invaders had been released — and exploded in popularity almost overnight, sweeping across North America like a tidal wave.
This legend was so deeply ingrained in Ethan's mind that when Spielberg once mentioned a friend planning something big, Ethan had immediately guessed it was George Lucas — and that it must be Star Wars.
If that was the case…Maybe he should just wait.
Why fight against history? If the momentum of history is the best recipe for success, why not take advantage of it?
But Ethan still wasn't completely sure his memory was accurate. Better to set Space Invaders aside for now.
When his eyes fell on the third name, Pac-Man, he immediately felt more confident. Pac-Man is a maze chase game.
The player controls a yellow ball in a closed maze, eating every pellet while avoiding four pursuing ghosts. Clear all the pellets, and you move to the next level.
Get caught by a ghost, and you lose a life — three lives gone means game over. Ethan felt this game was perfect for him.
After all, he had already made Snake.
A confined space, an ever-hungry protagonist, constant tension — Pac-Man felt like the spiritual successor to Snake.
Or better yet…Its creative evolution. And with a gimmick like that, would merchants really be able to resist buying it?
Not a chance. Pac-Man was the safest and smartest choice.
Ethan thought for a moment, then confidently put a checkmark next to Pac-Man.
Then he scribbled a "2" next to Space Invaders.
And left the crossed-out Northland Cube as his final, third project. Seeing the order laid out in front of him made Ethan feel completely at ease.
Step one: use Pac-Man to establish a foothold in the market.
Step two: unleash Space Invaders to conquer the world.
Step three: drop Northland Cube and show everyone what a real pixel game looked like.
At the thought, a crooked grin spread across Ethan's face.
"Hahahahaha!"
Ethan threw his head back and laughed, utterly delighted.
Then he brushed everything off the desk, grabbed a fresh sheet of paper, and prepared to sketch out Pac-Man as it existed in his memory.
But before he could even start, a sharp dong dong dong knocked on his office door.
"Please, come in."
Although Ethan was clearly unhappy at being interrupted, he didn't show it on his face.
The door opened, and the company's administrative clerk — the blonde, sharp-eyed Julis Noble — stepped inside.
"Mr. Jones, a man claiming to be the CEO of Sega is here to visit. He says he wants to meet with you."
"...?"
Ethan blinked in surprise.
"Sega?"
"Why would Sega come to me?"
Still puzzled, Ethan asked directly, "Did he say what this is about?"
Julis shook her head. "He said they want to discuss a possible cooperation."
"Cooperation?"
Now Ethan was really surprised. What on earth did he have that Sega could possibly want to cooperate on?
Patent licensing for video games? Impossible. Not only did Ethan not hold any actual patent authorization — he was simply sheltering under Ralph Baer's banner to bypass Magnavox's lawsuits — but even if he did have it, Sega wouldn't need him.
After all, back in April this year, after Magnavox settled the Pong lawsuit with Atari, they had immediately turned around and sued Sega. But that case had been resolved quickly, and both parties reached a settlement.
So logically, Sega should have already obtained their own Magnavox patent license — probably at a hefty price.
After a brief moment of thought, Ethan still couldn't figure out Sega's intentions.
He tossed his pen aside and asked, "Is the reception room on the second floor available?"
"Yes."
"Good. Invite him over."
Ethan then grabbed the blackened paper on his desk and fed it into the shredder.
Since he couldn't guess Sega's purpose, there was no point wasting time speculating. Better to meet the man directly and hear it from him.
Notes:
① Although Northland Cube (Tetris) is known as a Game Boy title, it is objectively the most difficult of the three games Ethan considered to develop. The algorithm for tracking grid capacity and generating pseudo-random blocks has even been analyzed in academic papers. Because the design goal was to prevent randomization from breaking the gameplay loop, every failure in Tetris always comes from the player's reaction time — never from the game's algorithm "cheating."
② Space Invaders really was inspired by the popularity of Star Wars. Its creator, Tomohiro Nishikado, openly stated that the game borrowed elements from multiple films and series, including Star Wars. To capitalize on the sci-fi craze, the first promotional posters for Space Invaders mimicked the Star Wars title style — the logo itself was essentially a reversed perspective of the Star Wars logo (this image can still be found on the English Wikipedia page). The game only launched in large batches in August 1978 — shortly after Star Wars premiered (June 30, 1978) — and when it hit the North American market, it was promoted directly alongside Star Wars.