The typical time traveler

Takayuki is a time traveler. But he's just an average one among the time traveler army. No system, no old man. Takayuki's greatest relief is that electronic games don't require remembering all the main storylines; most games focus more on gameplay. And gameplay, by Takayuki's time, has basically formed a complete routine.

Movies-grade games, according to the technological level of this world, will have to wait at least three to five more years. The tech talents of this world need to elevate the CG graphics to a certain level before they can achieve that. In the early stages of gaming, gameplay is king.

If Takayuki were to produce some classic movies or TV shows or animations, he might run into obstacles. Apart from some obscure movies he personally watched dozens of times, he'd have a hard time remembering all the story details. And movies and TV shows often reveal their true essence in the details.

But in the early days of gaming, just by adding gameplay elements never seen before, one could make good profits.

After settling Dragon Quest, Takayuki plans to immediately start making some small games, like Gomoku, Aeroplane Chess, as supplements. Then, he'll dive into action games like Contra and Red Alert, work on a cooperative tank battle game, and create an adventure game akin to Castlevania. For casual gaming, there's Bomberman, and Galaga. This way, he'll cover almost all the popular game genres of the NES.

Finally, he'll hit them with the ace in the hole: the world's best-selling game, Tetris.

With these, he'll have all the classic game templates of the NES.

It's not easy for programmers to create entirely new code based on imagination. But just replicating existing code? Takayuki is pretty confident about that.

So, he's not worried at all about the game lineup. His only concern is that this thing might not be particularly popular at first.

Now, it seems that worry was somewhat unnecessary.

However, Takayuki still lacks a suitable partner.

In terms of doing business, Takayuki isn't skilled, and time travelers aren't omnipotent. But Masashi Ota seems like a good choice. He has a sharp business acumen. There might be more suitable candidates in the future, but for now, it seems to be only Masashi Ota.

That's why he chose to confide in Masashi Ota about his plans.

Masashi Ota indeed felt very tempted by what he heard.

The profits from his arcade were always decent. But to put it bluntly, he could only say he was moderately well-off, not super rich.

Masashi Ota was already in his thirties, and he was starting to think that this was how his life would be.

But Takayuki's sudden appearance exposed him to an entirely new field.

Although he didn't understand gaming, he understood the market.

Just a slight nudge from Takayuki, and Masashi Ota could already envision the scale of the future electronic gaming industry.

"In fact, there's something else I haven't mentioned. Electronic gaming isn't just popular in Japan; it's global. By then, the market might not just be worth billions."

Here, Takayuki was talking about billions of US dollars.

"Takayuki, are you suggesting that I become your partner?" Masashi Ota looked at Takayuki seriously.

"Of course. Actually, I have other better candidates in mind. But if possible, I hope my partner is someone I choose myself."

In this world, Takayuki is a second-generation rich kid. His forebears have many wealthy acquaintances. They can easily invest a large sum of money in Takayuki's venture, without worrying about running out of funds.

But this also poses some risks. Those wealthy acquaintances of his forebears are very controlling. Once Takayuki grows up, they might forcibly intervene and take control of the company. That's not something Takayuki wants to see.

That's why he chose to find a partner himself, and try to avoid using the money of his forebears' friends as much as possible.

"Takayuki, to be honest, we've only known each other for less than a month, so I might need some time to consider."

A business worth just a few million yen isn't a big deal for Masashi Ota. But suddenly, the business seemed to be getting much bigger, and he felt a little overwhelmed...

Takayuki nodded. "I understand that. So, you can take your time to consider, but it won't be too long. You need to make a decision as soon as possible. After this time period, I'll look for other suitable partners."

Masashi Ota is a shrewd businessman; he won't easily pass up such an opportunity. But he also has concerns, which Takayuki can't influence. Everything depends on him.

There's no shortage of visionary businessmen in this world. If necessary, Takayuki will find another one.

Of course, the premise is that he must be in control, and the other party should only be responsible for business matters, without interfering with his game development.

Once he finds such a partner, Takayuki can focus on developing games with his team.

The money earned should be enough; he'll just focus on game development. If he runs short of money, he can always make some investments in the stock market with his insights from his past life or invest in some promising stocks as the internet is just beginning to rise. Even though the names are different from his past life, the trajectory of development is still traceable.

What Takayuki hopes for more is to bring games to this world and promote them. This way, he'll have a greater sense of accomplishment.

There wasn't much more to say between the two. Masashi Ota paid Takayuki ¥3 million for the remaining fifteen game consoles and left with the manufactured game consoles.

The installation of the game consoles is straightforward; Takayuki didn't need to help. He just needed to give a simple introduction on how to connect them to the TV, and Masashi Ota would handle the rest on his own. So, Takayuki didn't need to go over personally to assist with the installation.

In the end, the two exchanged contact information, and their work for the day was thoroughly concluded.

Remi Honda and the other workers assembled over two hundred machines today. They looked excited; it meant each of them would receive an extra two to three thousand yen in commission today. This was just the first day, and they weren't even proficient yet. With time, their assembly speed would undoubtedly increase.

Next, Takayuki's consideration was starting to advertise. He set aside some money for the workers' wages and used the remaining money to contact one of the TV stations in Tokyo to negotiate the details of airing commercials.

The final negotiated price was ¥5 million for a fifteen-second commercial slot during children's programming for one week. Takayuki planned to air the commercials for a total of four weeks, totaling ¥20 million. He paid ¥500,000 as a deposit and would settle the remaining amount after the game consoles were officially released to individual households in a month.

The price of advertising during this time period was the maximum Takayuki could afford, and the timing of the broadcast was just right as the target audience initially was children.

As for the content of the advertisement, Takayuki had already prepared. He would use footage he had previously shot in the park and arcade, showing kids playing games, along with selected clips of gameplay. Finally, he'd display the slogan, "The ultimate entertainment for kids." And that would be it.

During this month, Takayuki planned to continue working tirelessly. While Sayuri continued to address hardware glitches in the game consoles, Takayuki would focus on game development, aiming to create five games before the official release of the game consoles.

These would be Dragon Quest, Contra, Gomoku, Tetris, and as a bonus, Super Mario Bros.

Among these, Contra and Dragon Quest would have the most complex code; the rest could be completed quickly.

If it weren't for the memories from his past life and his identity as a programmer, trying to develop this many games within a month would be akin to dreaming.