Chapter 192: You Better Have a Good Reason! - Part 1
Before his journey through time, Ethan had heard numerous anecdotes about how diligence and self-discipline could lead to success.
For instance, the 4 AM in Los Angeles, 4 AM in Chiba, 4 AM in Jakarta... these successful individuals, reaching the pinnacle in their respective fields, seemed to possess inexhaustible energy, greeting each new day with fervor. The only difference between them and the average person might just be the latter's lack of steadfast willpower, unable to control their own thoughts.
But as myths around him were debunked, all such tales turned out to be nonsense.
Vanessa indicated that Kobe only occasionally happened to wake up at 4 AM;
Yoko Takahashi clarified that Haruki Murakami preferred a life of sleeping at nine and waking at four, working no more than four hours a day, usually wrapping up by noon;
Principal Wang bluntly advised against blindly consuming motivational "chicken soup" stories, revealing his father wasn't always that hardworking, only putting in extra hours for urgent matters.
In his previous life, Ethan had treated these insights as mere entertainment, never bothering to discern their authenticity because it seemed pointless. However, as he found himself working late into the night in his office, he realized Vanessa and Principal Wang couldn't have been more right.
I've already made it, why keep pushing myself so hard?
Memorizing AI Go strategies is less rewarding than playing a few more rounds of Teamfight Tactics!
Who in their right mind would willingly toil through the night if not for pressing matters?
On the early morning of July 28, 1977, Ethan, sitting at his desk, was struck by this realization.
What truly troubled him was the mountainous pile of documents before him.
There were bound reports, newspapers with their gray backgrounds and black text, research materials with curled page corners, and clipped out tofu blocks.
Though originating from various sources, all these documents pointed in the same direction: a war that had raged on the Japanese home front over the past fifteen years—
The Calculator Wars.
Calculators, essentially the future's endlessly resetting devices in the hands of market vendors, first emerged in 1961 at Johnniac. Made with vacuum tubes, cold cathode tubes, and decimal counting tubes, they supported basic arithmetic operations.
Their debut captivated the world, for such a tool could assist in performing complex mathematical calculations quickly, offering vast expansion possibilities in daily life, industrial production, and scientific research. Consequently, numerous companies jumped into the fray, with American giants like General Instruments and Texas Instruments among the participants.
With Japan having smoothly transitioned from post-war reconstruction to rapid development, there was a keen desire for technological breakthroughs. Discovering the vast potential of calculators in the mid-1960s, countless companies on the small island nation aimed to carve out their share of the pie.
For example, in 1964, Sharp Corporation released its CS-3A;
Sony announced its MD-7 on the same day;
Canon and Oki Electric, not wanting to fall behind, soon unveiled their new products.
To most following the news, the calculator market might have seemed fiercely competitive, but reality was far from it.
As Ethan perused old newspapers, he found that what was touted as intense competition was, in fact, a farce. Despite the fanfare surrounding each company's launch, there were virtually no buyers because calculators were too large and expensive at the time.
Sharp's product, though only the size of a cash register, weighed 25 kilograms and cost 530,000 yen; Canon's model was slightly smaller at 15 kilograms but still priced at 390,000 yen; Oki Electric's offering was even more outrageous, exceeding half a meter in length and width, with a staggering price tag of 803,000 yen!
Even a decade later, these prices represented 50% of the average Japanese annual income. In the 1960s, not just ordinary people but even companies couldn't afford such extravagance.
Therefore, to promote calculators, manufacturers had to tackle two issues: reducing costs and minimizing product weight.
These challenges might seem trivial, but they attracted the efforts of over fifty Japanese companies. By the late 1960s, when integrated circuits emerged as the solution, they even partnered with American firms.
Canon joined forces with Texas Instruments;
Sharp paired up with Rockwell;
Sanyo boarded the ship of General Instruments;
Busicom collaborated with Intel, employing their custom 4004 chip. But—
"Wow, Ethan, you called me over just to learn about calculators?"
"Why did you suddenly become interested in them?"
Four hours earlier, in the office of Destiny Game, Steve Wozniak rushed over, perplexed as he flipped through the historical materials on Ethan's desk.
When he realized everything, from magazines to newspapers, reports to summaries, revolved around calculators, the round-cheeked chubby man expressed his surprise.
Ethan didn't hide
his intentions:
"Stephen, here's the thing. I'm collaborating with a Japanese game company... and they just told me their newly launched product wasn't actively developed but was taken on passively... The vanished company is called Systech, supposedly a casualty of the previous calculator wars..."
After Ethan shared his predicament, Wozniak, lounging in the guest chair, nodded affirmatively, "Ethan, what your partner told you is indeed true."
"Systech, a Japanese company, did go bankrupt during the calculator wars."
"Or rather..."
"When Hewlett-Packard launched the HP-35, all calculator companies worldwide went silent."
"And when we developed the HP-65..."
"Those companies, having invested heavily for over a decade without return, nearly all filed for bankruptcy..."
With a laugh, Wozniak spread his hands, conveying the simplest form of slaughter with the most straightforward words.
Indeed!
When Yamauchi stated over the phone that the COLOR TV GAME product was largely unrelated to them, attributing its research to Mitsubishi Electric and Systech, the latter having perished in the calculator wars, Ethan embarked on a quest for the truth. He had Eulise Noble transport all materials related to the calculator wars from Stanford's archives and library to the company, and upon thorough examination...
He uncovered an astonishing fact!
The calculator wars were ignited by scientists at Johnniac...
Occurred in Japan...
But ended in America!
In 1970, Stanford's former president Fred Terman's student, HP founder Bill Hewlett, instructed HP engineers to develop a calculator small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. Within two years, HP and the Stanford Research Institute introduced the world's first pocket-sized scientific calculator, relegating all predecessors to history's dustbin.
Yet, the focus wasn't on the compact HP-35 itself, as other companies still had hope due to minor technological gaps.
With just six months to a year, other firms could produce HP-35-like devices.
But...
Despair set in merely eighteen months later.
HP launched the world's first programmable handheld calculator, the HP-65!
To exacerbate the despair, HP engineer Steve Wozniak designed a read-write magnetic card for the HP-65, enabling it to play music.
As pocket players emerged...
Investors and engineers, once optimistic about their companies, were left gasping for air! They threw in the towel, declaring bankruptcy, convinced they could never catch up to HP's innovative development approach.
And the Systech chosen by Mitsubishi Electric, seeking to emulate the Odyssey, fell during this technological revolution, initiated by none other than...
Silicon Valley!
As Ethan discovered his ongoing endeavors were tripped up by a tech revolution sparked years earlier by his compatriots, his head buzzed incessantly.
A war that concluded in 1974 still affecting him?
Damn it!
What a mess!
The absurd truth prompted him to summon Wozniak from Apple. When Wozniak nonchalantly acknowledged it all, asserting those Japanese companies were simply incompetent, Ethan was left reeling.
He was speechless with countless complaints, unable to vent or swallow them.
After sending the tech genius Steve Wozniak away, Ethan, holed up in his office, felt as if his head was bursting. As the witness and initiator of the event confirmed Nintendo's information wasn't unfounded, the likelihood of Yamauchi lying about the COLOR TV GAME became slim. And if they weren't lying?
"Fxxk you!"
Ethan sighed to the heavens.
"What have I gotten myself into? First, Ralph H. Baer's groundbreaking patent! Then, Chuck Peddle's self-referencing! Followed by Philips's flip-flopping in optical storage and concurrent promotion of magnetic storage! And now, Nintendo's role as the scapegoat, making wedding dresses for other corporations! Is this just the plain reality of business warfare? Why is starting my own business so damn hard!"
Ethan was truly at a loss for words.
He just wanted to make some easy money with his knowledge from a past life!
Why must complications always follow?
What frustrated him the most was that each issue seemed like pulling a radish out of the ground, always bringing up more dirt!
Nonetheless, despite his myriad frustrations, Ethan merely vented briefly before resettling himself and starting to jot down his action plan.
Although Wozniak, an unequivocally loyal ally, had vouched for Yamauchi, indicating Nintendo might indeed have had no control over the COLOR TV GAME project, Ethan saw this as no excuse for Nintendo's innocence in Magnavox's underhanded tactics against him.
At best, it indirectly confirmed that Nintendo would do anything for profit.
Otherwise, why not secure a proper license for the COLOR TV GAME?
Magnavox had dutifully paid them for the light gun patent, yet they chose to ride on Mitsubishi Electric's coattails without contributing a penny towards the color TV gaming console's licensing fees, purely aiming
to monopolize profits.
Such behavior, though common in the business world, didn't mean Ethan had to accept it. Or rather, when others employ it, it's utterly despicable!
Unfortunately, being human inherently means harboring double standards.
And with that realization...
Hmph!
"Mr. Arakawa, is your president, your father-in-law Mr. Yamauchi, still unable to visit North America?"
The next morning at 9 AM, Ethan met with Arakawa once again.
Perhaps due to a sleepless night, Arakawa's eyes were red with bloodshot veins, and the dark circles under his eyes made him appear somewhat haggard.
Even so, upon hearing Ethan's inquiry, he still managed to squeeze out a smile and continuously apologize.
"Mr. Jones, after leaving yesterday, I immediately contacted our headquarters again. Our president, Mr. Yamauchi, indeed cannot visit America in the near future. Please accept our apologies for any offense caused."
This response was within Ethan's expectations, so he nonchalantly nodded.
"So, I'd like to know, how does your side plan to handle this matter?"
After ending the call with Yamauchi the previous day, Ethan had informed Arakawa to return to his hotel and wait for further news, promising to personally investigate the truth. Receiving Destiny Game's invitation for a meeting this morning, Arakawa understood the main topic of discussion.
Facing Ethan's question, Arakawa, who had spent the night acquainting himself with the details, pursed his lips and earnestly said, "Mr. Jones, I'm not sure what you mean."
"According to what I know, my father-in-law had already informed you last summer during your meeting that he received the information from Magnavox."
"From the beginning, my father-in-law never concealed his source of information from you."
"If you considered that meeting as evidence of Nintendo and Magnavox's close cooperation, why didn't you directly raise your concerns to my father-in-law then?"
"Although you're angry now, we at Nintendo understand that the COLOR TV GAME project is the root of your displeasure, but we have repeatedly explained that all this was an accident."
"You can't label an accident as a long-planned conspiracy."
"Because that wouldn't be fair to any of us, would it?"
Arakawa tried to cast a radiant glance at Ethan, squeezing out a smile as best he could.