The Next Day: January 8th 1985,
The Morning After – Plans and Possibilities
The next morning, the apartment was unusually quiet.
The entire Williams family had gathered around the kitchen table, steaming mugs of tea and coffee in hand—save for Alex, who nursed a glass of orange juice and looked more alert than anyone else.
Oliver sat at the head of the table, arms crossed, the manila envelope with the lottery tickets resting in front of him like a loaded weapon.
"I called in sick today," he began. "Martha's staying home too. We need to figure this out—quietly."
Martha nodded, her usually bright features drawn with concern. "I'll call my sister-in-law. She knows someone who specializes in financial planning. Someone we can trust. We need to move carefully."
Ashley leaned forward, hair tied up in a messy bun, notebook in hand. "We're going to need a lawyer. Maybe more than one. A financial advisor. A tax consultant. And someone to help us set up—like—a trust, maybe?"
"You've been researching?" Jennifer asked, raising a brow.
"I was up till 3 a.m.," Ashley replied.
Duke, arms folded across his chest, glanced toward the envelope. "What happens when we cash them? I mean, it won't be anonymous, right? What about things, like... taxes and stuff? Won't the government take half of it?"
"Depends on the state," Oliver replied. "And yes, the government takes half. That's why we're bringing in David first. He'll help us set up the right structures—an LLC, or a blind trust maybe. Something that keeps our names out of the papers."
"No pictures. No interviews. No one from school, church, or anywhere hears about this," Martha said again, more firmly this time.
Jennifer raised an eyebrow. "Church?"
"Hypothetically," Martha muttered. "We're still going."
Ashley leaned forward, brow furrowed. "Are we going to move? Buy a new house?"
Oliver exchanged a look with Martha. "Not yet. That's the kind of thing that makes noise. We don't need noise."
"We lay low, for now at least. " Martha agreed. "Pay off the debts, help where we can. But no flashing cash. We survived sixteen with nothing but a couple of backpacks and a baby—we know how fast people change when they think you've got money."
Alex had been quiet this whole time, sipping from a glass of orange juice, eyes flicking from speaker to speaker with keen interest.
Martha looked at her children, her voice gentle but firm. "Until we have a plan, you all keep this a secret. Not a word to anyone at school, church, or online. Understand?"
The kids nodded—some more reluctantly than others.
Jennifer frowned. "What about our lives? School, friends… everything is going to feel different now."
"We don't let it change us," Oliver said, voice steady. "The money's a blessing, but it's not a pass to stop being decent people. We don't flaunt it. We don't brag. We protect each other."
All eyes turned to Alex, who had been unusually quiet for once.
He met their stares calmly. "I understand. I wasn't going to tell anyone anyway."
"Good," Martha said, although her gaze lingered on him longer than necessary.
She still wasn't sure who this boy was—not exactly. He looked like Alex. He sounded like Alex. But there was something in his eyes. Confidence. Focus. Purpose. It was uncanny.
Oliver tapped the envelope. "We confirm everything today. One of the tickets is small enough to claim without too much fuss. We'll use that as a test. The other—we play our cards right, and it sets us up for life."
"Can we use part of the money to help Grandpa Fred and Grandma Francine?" Alex asked.
Martha's heart softened instantly. "Of course we can."
"Then I want to," he said simply. "They looked after me. They deserve to have less to worry about."
Ashley smiled. "You know, I like this new version of you."
Duke snorted. "Yeah. Still weird though."
Jennifer just sipped her tea, quietly watching Alex with the same curiosity and caution as their parents.
There was a long pause.
Duke leaned his elbows on the table. "So we wait for Uncle David, then what?"
"We see what our options are," Oliver said. "We'll probably cash in the smaller ticket first. Quietly. If that works, we go from there."
Jennifer narrowed her eyes at Alex. "You never said how you picked those numbers."
Alex met her gaze calmly. "I just had a feeling."
Oliver's expression tightened. Not angry—just uncertain. Like he wanted to ask more but didn't know how.
"Alright," he said instead, standing. "I'll call David this morning. No one goes anywhere until we know what we're doing. You hear me?"
Everyone nodded.
Martha picked up the envelope and placed it into a metal lockbox, sliding it into the back of the pantry behind cans of soup. "Until then, we act like nothing's changed."
"Except everything has," Ashley whispered under her breath.
No one disagreed.
Minutes Later.
Oliver stood near the corded wall phone. He had already downed two cups of coffee, but the nervous tension still hung on his shoulders like a wet coat.
He glanced toward the hallway where the kids were playing a board game with Alex, then back toward the pantry door, behind which the metal lockbox—and the winning tickets—were safely hidden.
He took a breath and dialed the number.
The line rang twice before a familiar, steady voice picked up. "David Henry."
"David, it's Oliver. Got a minute?"
"Ollie! Man. I've been meaning to call you. How's the family? Everything alright with Alex?"
Oliver hesitated. "Yeah. Well—not exactly. Something came up. And I need your help. Legal help."
David's tone shifted instantly, sharp and professional. "Talk to me."
"We hit the lottery."
"...You what?"
"Won. Not a joke. Two winning tickets. One for $250,000. Another for five million."
There was a long pause on the line.
"Damn, Oliver. Are you serious?"
"I wouldn't call if I wasn't. I need you to come by. We want to handle this quietly. Legally. And we trust you."
David exhaled a low whistle. "You did say you wanted to retire early if possible. Alright, I'm moving some things around. I'll be there in an hour or so."
"Bring whatever paperwork or prep we might need. And David... no one else. Not yet."
"Understood. See you soon."
Oliver hung up the phone, feeling the first real wave of relief since last night. David wasn't just any lawyer—he was family. He had stood beside Oliver and Martha when no one else had, even after their own parents had turned their backs.
He turned to Martha, who was watching from the doorway. "His own his way. He'll help us figure this out."
She nodded and walked over to him, slipping her hand into his. "Good. One step at a time."
Together, they returned to the kitchen, where the scent of toast and laughter filled the air—a quiet calm before the storm of decisions that lay ahead.
An hour after Oliver's call, a familiar knock echoed at the front door. Martha opened it to find David standing tall in a sharp charcoal blazer, a messenger bag slung over one shoulder and a steaming coffee in hand. Behind him stood a slightly younger man, neatly dressed in a gray three-piece suit and carrying a slim leather briefcase.
"Uncle David!" Ashley called from the couch, instantly rising to greet him. Duke and Jennifer followed suit, and even Alex brightened at the sight of the man, rushing over with a grin.
David pulled Alex into a brief hug, ruffling his hair. "You're looking sharper every time I see you, kid. Keep this up and I'll have to start charging you for compliments."
Alex chuckled. "Only if you're cheaper than therapy."
David laughed before turning toward Martha and Oliver, his expression sobering slightly. "Alright," he said, "I came as quickly as I could. This is Tom Ellison, one of my firm's best financial advisors. Quiet, discreet, and damn good at his job."
"Pleasure to meet you both," Tom said with a courteous nod. "I've been fully briefed. We'll handle this smart."
Martha waved them in, and soon the family of six, along with David and Tom, gathered around the kitchen table, now cleared of everything but notepads and coffee mugs.
David sat down, pulling out a slim file folder from his bag and placing it on the table. "Okay. First things first—do not go to the lottery office until we have everything lined up. This kind of sudden windfall can cause waves. And I mean tsunamis, not ripples."
"Trust me, we know," Oliver said, rubbing his temples. "The kids are excited, but Martha and I have been through enough to know how fast something like this can turn sour."
David nodded. "Exactly why we're here. Now, I want to lay out a step-by-step plan so you can claim these winnings discreetly, protect yourselves legally and financially, and avoid every leech, reporter, and long-lost relative that might come crawling out of the woodwork."
Oliver and David both glanced over at Martha, whose eye twitched at their actions.
Unlike her husband who came from a wealthy family background, before he was cut off after choosing to stay by her side and their unborn twins at the times. She came from a humble lower class family, not mention the fact that Oliver family was all the way across the ocean.
Hence that last statement was true, but also currently only applied to her.
Tom opened his briefcase and began arranging documents, charts, and a few blank forms. "The good news is, lottery laws in this state allow for anonymity in certain cases—if we claim through a trust or legal entity. That's going to be our first move."
David continued, "Oliver, we'll create a holding trust—quiet and airtight. You and Martha will be listed as co-trustees, but I'll help you assign a proxy to actually appear when the check is handed over. No press, no names on record, no unnecessary exposure."
"What about taxes?" Martha asked, her voice calm but firm.
Tom replied, "A sizable portion will go to federal and state taxes, of course, but we can manage the rest to ensure you retain long-term value. The key is smart allocation. Once the money clears, we'll help you break it into diversified holdings—some liquid, some long-term."
Jennifer blinked. "Wait—so this is like... hiding in plain sight?"
"Exactly," David said. "You'll live well, but quietly. Think secure investments, maybe a new home down the line oce everything is finalized, private schooling if you want it. But no sudden Lamborghinis or gold chains."
Ashley laughed, "Darn. I already had the tiara picked out."
"Get a chocolate one. Less taxes," David quipped, smirking.
Martha reached across the table and squeezed Oliver's hand. "So when can we start?"
David leaned back, confident. "We already have."
Tom slid a few documents across the table. "We'll need signatures from both of you to begin drafting the trust. After that, I'll set up an appointment at the claims office using the proxy. We'll move fast but carefully."
As pens met paper, the Williams family—who'd once been scraping by month to month—began the first steps of transforming their future.
" Oh, and another thing," Tom spoke out recalling another matter. Grabbing everyone's attention in the room.
He continued, "May I suggest the two of you start thinking about investing a portion into acquiring real-estate. It's a great way of gaining an additional source of income. If you're interested that is. "
David on the other side nodded his head at Tom's advice, as he himself having already bought two properties for an extra source of income. Through a colleague's advance and was already thinking about purchasing more down the line.
Hence, David also encouraged Oliver and Martha to think it over seriously, giving his on experience in the matter as examples.
" It's a great idea, it will also allow the two of you to have an extra source of income, though having tenants may bring its own sort of problem. But, you can figure that out along the way. " David advised, seriously.
Both Martha and Oliver weren't stupid, and had already been discussing the prospects of investing a small portion of the prize money. Into something beneficial in the long run which is something Oliver learned from his unreliability father.
And as the morning sun spilled through the kitchen window, Alex looked between his parents, siblings, and the two professionals at the table. For the first time, he didn't just feel like things were turning around.
He felt like they were building something real.
Two Days Later –
The official claiming of the lottery winnings had gone exactly as David promised—clean, discreet, and entirely off the radar. With the holding trust established and Tom's financial planning underway, the Williams family quietly moved out of their cramped three-bedroom apartment into a modest yet comfortable home on the quieter side of town, just a few streets away from the Henrys.
No headlines. No distant relatives showing up. Just a quiet, fresh start.
For Alex, however, the real work was just beginning.
Henry Residents
"Alright," Alex said, setting a stack of lined papers onto the workbench in Michael's garage. "Before I even say anything, just look through this. Page one is the pitch. The rest? Concepts, mechanics, progression structure… you'll get it."
Michael and Mark exchanged a glance, eyebrows raised, before flipping through the pages. Mark leaned back against the wall, eyes skimming the sketches and bullet points. Michael pulled up a chair and squinted at a rudimentary dungeon map Alex had drawn in pencil.
The Legend of Zelda was written in bold, underlined letters at the top of the first sheet.
"This… is cool," Michael muttered. "Like, really cool."
"It's ambitious," Mark added, flipping to a page labeled Core Loop with neatly written steps like Explore Overworld → Discover Dungeon → Acquire Item → Unlock New Path. "But... I mean, you think we can actually make this?"
Alex shrugged, playing it casual. "Why not? I mean, yeah, there's a lot to learn, but you both know your way around a keyboard. You've messed with BASIC and C, right? MS-DOS?"
Michael nodded slowly. "A little. I've typed out programs from magazines. Though it seems more video game these day rely primarily on assembly. "
"Same," Mark said. "I know enough to write a calculator or make the screen flash, but… a whole game?"
Alex smirked. " Hey, there no rush we'll learn as we go, isn't that how most endeavors all start out as."
Mark raised an eyebrow. "You sure you know what you're doing?"
"Let's just say I've been doing a lot of reading of my own, " Alex replied smoothly. "And I've got a pretty solid plan for how we can split up the work."
Michael was quiet for a moment. Then he looked up, excitement creeping into his voice. "You know what? Let's do it. Even if it doesn't go anywhere—it'll be fun."
Mark sighed, but a small smile tugged at his lips. Adjusting his round glass and nodding at the idea. "Alright. I'm in. But only if we get to use your mom's garage, Mike."
" Sure it shouldn't to much trouble," Michael said with a grin. " I'll tell them we're be building the future in here."
Alex chuckled. "Good. Then the future starts now."
As three boys began delving into what needed to be done, a knock soon interrupted the discussion. As Gabriella opened the door to inventing the three to come down stairs for launch.
Later That Day –
Back home, Alex approached Martha and Oliver as they sat in the den, sorting through some papers related to the house. He stood tall, notes in hand and a rare glint of nervous energy in his eyes.
"I want to make a video game," he said. "And I want to do it with Michael and Mark."
Oliver glanced at Martha, who arched a curious brow.
"You want to make video games?" she asked.
"Yeah. I've been working on the design, mapping out the mechanics… it's all here." He passed the simplified notes to his parents. "But I'll need some gear. A PC. Maybe a graphics tablet down the line. Some basic dev tools."
Martha flipped through the pages while Oliver leaned forward, scanning the diagrams.
Oliver scratched his chin. "Is this what you really want to do?"
Alex nodded. "Yeah. I know I just woke up not too long ago, and this might seem sudden… but I've never been more sure about something."
Martha and Oliver exchanged a long look. This was still Alex—their boy—but he was so different now. Clearer. Focused. Driven.
And most importantly… he was asking for something constructive.
Oliver smiled. "Alright. We'll cover what you need to get started. Within reason."
Martha added, "But you're studies still comes first. You'll need to balance both."
"Deal."
The Garage Studio – First Steps
By the end of the week, the garage at Michael's house had been cleared out and rearranged. A sturdy old workbench served as their desk, with three brand new PC sat at the center, and a corkboard hung on the wall with index cards labeled Player Movement, Combat, and Dungeon Logic.
Alex pinned up a new card at the top:
Project Hyrule – Day 1
Three boys. One garage. One dream.
It wasn't much. But it was theirs.
And from that humble space, the foundation of something far greater had begun.
--------
January 28th, 1985 – Garage Studio Setup
Michael's garage no longer resembled a space for storing bicycles and old paint cans. It had transformed into the heartbeat of something bold and new. Thanks to financial backing from Alex's parents, the boys had converted the space into a functioning mini development studio—primitive by professional standards, but full of potential.
The Equipment Setup
IBM PC XT – The workhorse of their studio. Powered by an Intel 8088 processor and 640KB of RAM, it was equipped with a CGA graphics card and dual floppy drives. This machine handled most of the coding and design implementation.
Commodore 64 – Primarily used for audio testing and sprite work. With its SID sound chip, it allowed Mark to experiment with chiptune melodies and simple animations before transferring assets to the PC.
Dot Matrix Printer – Used to print updated design notes, debugging reports, and Alex's detailed game concepts for review.
Cassette Recorder – A low-tech but effective backup solution for storing sound tests and early code versions, used until they had reliable disk redundancy.
Graph Paper & Stationery – Alex's tools for designing dungeon maps, interface layouts, and overworld navigation by hand. His sketches helped communicate complex ideas to the team clearly.
Reference Materials – A stack of BASIC and assembly programming books, technical manuals, and magazines like Compute! and BYTE, most of which had been borrowed from Mark's dad, Damien.
First Major Hurdle – Three Weeks In
The initial weeks flew by in a haze of enthusiasm—until they hit a wall.
Their first major obstacle? Tile-based movement and screen transitions.
Mark had managed to get basic 8-directional sprite movement working in BASIC. But creating a smooth, tile-based system with screen-to-screen transitions quickly spiraled into chaos.
"I can't get it to stop glitching when the sprite hits the edge!" Mark groaned, smacking the keyboard as the screen flickered and the sprite got stuck in a loop.
Michael leaned over the code. "We're choking the memory. If we keep loading all the screens at once, it's going to crash everything."
Alex, who had been sketching out dungeon ideas, set his pencil down and leaned in. "Okay. Let's try this—what if we break the world map into chunks? Load only the adjacent screens into memory and reference them through a call table?"
Michael raised an eyebrow. "Like… a primitive paging system?"
Alex nodded. "Exactly. We fake a big world, but the game only sees a small slice of it at any one time."
It wasn't elegant, but it worked—and it was their first real breakthrough.
Alex grinned, but kept the rest of the master plan in his head. He knew the full codebase and final design intimately—he could've done it all himself if he wanted to. But this was never meant to be a solo act. He needed Michael and Mark to grow—to gain the skills that would one day allow them to lead their own projects.
Besides, they were on the clock. Nintendo's version of The Legend of Zelda would be coming soon. They had to finish first.
They were officially in the trenches now.
Four-Month Time Skip – May 28th, 1985
Spring had come to life—and so had The Legend of Zelda.
The garage now breathed with activity: walls papered with index cards, corkboards covered in code snippets and dungeon layouts, labeled floppy disks stacked in crates, and the steady clack of keys filling the space deep into the night.
Development Summary (February – May):
February – Finalized core movement and world grid systems. Refactored engine code twice for smoother performance.
March – Implemented combat mechanics. Mark handled enemy AI while Michael built object interaction and collision logic. Alex finalized puzzle design and scripted NPC behavior.
April – Dungeons locked in. First boss fight tested. Music and SFX built on the C64, then adapted to the IBM's hardware limitations.
May – Final polishing phase. Debugging, interface tweaks, title screen art, and a basic password-save system added. A playable full-length demo was compiled—limited in polish, but fully functional.
Alex calculated they'd need another month or two to finalize everything. But before then, they needed to figure out how to release it—starting with showing the game to their families.
Demo Night – That Evening
Hence, the boys decide invited their families over to the garage to showcase their project. Folding chairs were pulled out, sodas passed around, and the boys gave a brief—nervous—introduction.
Micheal's parents David and Maria sat toward the back, David's arms crossed as he watched with quiet pride. He'd seen Michael obsess over computers before, but this? This was different.
Maria leaned over. "You see how happy he is? He hasn't stopped smiling since we got here."
David nodded. "Haven't seen that look since he was six. I guess they actually did it."
Near the workbench, Mark's parents Damien and Donna Hunter stood side-by-side.
Damien, normally unreadable, allowed himself a rare smirk. "That's our boy," he said quietly. "Didn't think he had it in him."
Donna nodded her head approving. "It's beautiful… I thought they were just goofing off in here."
At the front, Alex's parents Oliver and Martha stood close, Martha's hand pressed over her heart as Link entered the first dungeon.
"He really… made this," she whispered.
Oliver gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "They all did. But… I still can't believe Alex was apart of this."
The changes in Alex were greatly exaggerated to the point that both Martha and Oliver sometimes wonder who really made it out of that accident. Both Martha, and their three other children have been helping home school Alex for the last four months now.
Within just two months in Alex had caught up to his siblings level, leaving them with little more to impart into him. Which greatly surprised everyone.
On the other side Duke, Ashley, Jennifer, Gabriella, and Grayson were all present too, seated along the side wall. Duke and Grayson had helped occasionally—debugging, playtesting, even helping with minor sprite work—which helped speed things up.
The demo ended to soft applause. The game wasn't perfect, but it worked. It had a beginning, a middle, and an end. More than that—it had heart.
Their parents beamed.
That's when Alex stepped forward, with an innocent smile on his face, this sight made both Martha and Oliver a little nervous at that smile.
Then Alex said the one thing no one expected:
"There's still one more thing we need to figure out: distribution."
That word hung heavy in the air.
------
There was a pause silence as Alex's word fell, as everyone began processing the words Alex had just utter. While Oliver on the other hand sighed in exacerbation at this situation, while Martha on the other side had a slight frown on her brow.
" Do you know anything about? " Ashley question, as whispered into Duke ears, as Jennifer and Gabrielle who were seated cl
Most of the parents and siblings sat stunned by the statement — all except Duke and Grayson, who had helped during development and were privy to the trio's internal thought process. They weren't surprised when Alex stepped forward to say it out loud.
Maria blinked. "Distributor?"
Damien leaned forward in his seat, brows furrowed. "You three went looking for someone to help sell your game?"
Michael and Mark exchanged glances — suddenly realizing that this part of the plan hadn't been fully discussed between the three of them, either. Not in detail, anyway. The question of how they'd actually find a distributor or publisher still hung loosely in the air.
David, seated with his arms folded, gave a thoughtful nod after a long moment. "That's a very valid point," he said, his voice calm but sharp. "You boys made a game — which is incredible. But how are you planning to bring it to market? You can't just walk into a store and put it on the shelf. Who owns the rights? Who handles logistics, quality assurance, licensing?" His legal instincts were already kicking in.
Alex didn't flinch. "I've been thinking about that," he said. "The U.S. game market isn't in a great place — not since the crash in '83. But Japan's a different story. It's booming. Companies like Nintendo and Sega are pushing boundaries over there. If we want to make an impact anywhere… that's where we start."
That earned a few wide-eyed looks.
"Sega?" Donna repeated.
Alex nodded. "They're a Japanese company that's been in the arcade business for a while. From what I've learned, they've recently started developing home consoles."
"And where exactly did you get this information, little brother?" Duke asked, suspicious.
Alex waved him off with a half-smile, not wanting to dig too deep into the specifics.
"I keep up with the latest gaming news," Alex said simply.
David raised an eyebrow. "Alex… you're nine right?"
Oliver chuckled but didn't say anything — watching his son with a growing curiosity. Intrigued on were this was going.
"But I also know you're not just guessing," David added. "You've done your homework, haven't you?"
Alex nodded once. "Yes, sir."
David exhaled, leaning back. "All right. Then we can start putting a real plan together. But this is going to take serious legwork. Contracts, negotiations, translation, copyrights. A business entity — unless you want to hand this over to someone else entirely. Which, frankly, I wouldn't recommend."
Martha looked from Oliver to David. "You're saying… this could be real?"
David nodded. "It already is. These kids made a fully functioning game from scratch. If Sega or anyone else bites? This could be the beginning of something much bigger — a real company in the making."
"I can help with the legal framework," he continued. "But we'll need to formalize things first — set up a company to hold the rights and manage any offers. Since the boys created it and funded it, we need to make sure it's all above board — especially for their protection."
"Who handles the business side?" Maria asked.
"I can help there, too," David replied. He glanced at Oliver. "But I'd also suggest bringing in someone familiar with Japan — someone who understands the culture, the language, the industry expectations. I might know a guy from law school — working out of Tokyo now. I'll make some calls."
The room buzzed with a new energy. What had started as three boys tinkering in a garage had grown into something far more ambitious.
Michael turned to Alex, still processing it all. "Huh.... that want better than I expected?"
Alex smirked at Michael's words, " We made something that in their eyes, has the potential of being successful and making a lot of money if done right. Why wouldn't they support us this one time. "
Michael's and Mark blinked as they process Alex words, thinking about carefully it didn't seem to far fetched.
Alex grinned. "First we had to make the game. Show that we can actually do it and make a damn good one that could even capture their attention even just a little."
Mark shook his head, smiling in disbelief. "You're out of your mind."
"And that's why it's going to work," Alex replied simply.