Chapter 150: Pleasant Surprise

"What the fuck???"

"You're saying they only come to the company once a week?"

Ethan looked at the Apple employee in front of him, his face filled with astonishment.

The young man with sparse hair nodded fearfully and explained softly, "Mr. Jones, things are not as you think. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Wozniak just don't like working in the office, but they still have precise control over everything in the company."

"They will come to the company on Monday afternoons to present their work from the previous week to us, make sure we understand their ideas, and address any issues we encounter during our work. Of course, if there are emergencies during working hours, they will come immediately to resolve them."

"..."

Ethan was speechless.

To be honest, he didn't hear any dedication to work from the Apple employee in front of him.

"Resolve emergencies during working hours?" "Isn't that what they should do?"

"Handling work once a week?"

"Oh—these two guys are living more comfortably than me!"

These facts made Ethan feel uncomfortable.

He hesitated for a while over there, afraid that asking for help would disturb Jobs and Woz's work. But unexpectedly, these two gentlemen didn't even work in the first place?

This is ridiculous!

Thinking about this, Ethan felt a bit annoyed and went straight to Jobs's house. When he flipped in through the open window, he found Jobs practicing calligraphy on the floor!

Not only that, when he discovered Ethan's arrival, he warmly welcomed him—

"Ethan? Why are you here?"

"Hurry, come and see how I wrote this character!"

These words made Ethan's head spin.

Coming to Jobs's side, he questioned why the company's leader could be so casual.

This question stunned Jobs for a moment, then he realized that Ethan was here to reprimand him! But he wasn't afraid, he just smiled and said:

"Oh Ethan, aren't we learning from you?"

"When Stephen and I found that the rigid environment of the company constrained our thinking and the strict work schedule made us lose our motivation to think after work, we decided, like you, to integrate work into our lives."

"Although we don't go to the office every day, as long as we're breathing, we're working. And this way of working, which can be done anywhere, has given us countless inspirations!"

"Wow! So you're blaming me for not going to work?" Ethan never expected that Jobs would push the responsibility of not working onto him.

But he couldn't refute this.

After all, he hadn't worked a single day in the office so far.

And admitting this was clearly not Ethan's style. After a moment of eye contact with Jobs, he asked again:

"You say this way allows you to gain countless inspirations?"

"Can you let me see your inspirations?"

Ethan admitted that he was being a little stubborn. He just wanted to expose Jobs's disguise of not going to work. But before he finished his words, Jobs immediately nodded.

"Of course!"

He got up from the floor briskly, took Ethan into the room, and pointed to the new machine on the table, saying, "This is our inspiration."

With Jobs's gesture, Ethan saw a white machine. It was a trapezoidal electronic device with a compact and sleek body, making it indistinguishable from current household appliances. But the protruding keyboard on the slope revealed its identity to outsiders.

Not only that, there was also a square screen above the machine that could be held in both hands.

On the right side of the screen were two rectangular boxes.

Although Jobs didn't reveal the identity of this product, Ethan could easily call out its name at a glance, because this machine looked almost identical to the computers of the future.

"APPLE 2?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah!" Jobs nodded. "Ethan, you're right! It's APPLE 2!"

"I've said we want to make a home computer, so I asked the people in the company to design a computer that looks like a household appliance according to my requirements! When this kind of machine with this design appears in front of the public, I think no one will doubt its ease of use, right?"

"After all, the barrier to use now is just twenty-six letters!"

At this point, excitement also appeared on Jobs's face.

"More importantly, Stephen has realized the idea of games!"

Jobs opened a drawer, took out a stack of papers, and waved them at Ethan.

"Here are six games. As long as our users enter the codes according to the instructions on it, they can successfully play them on the computer."

"Even the longest code is only eighty lines, which is 'Snake,' and the shortest code is only fifty lines, which is 'Pong.' I believe that with this simple design, as long as users have a little patience, they can enjoy the joy brought by the computer!"

As Jobs continued to introduce, Ethan's expression changed dramatically.

From stiffness to happiness, from a cheerful smile to unexpected surprise.

If these things were their inspiration, Ethan admitted—

These guys going or not going to the office doesn't really matter, right?

"Oh Steve, you're right."

"Genius should never be limited!"

"Hahaha—" Ethan's change of tone made Jobs narrow his eyes with a smile.

At the same time, he also handed a game card to Ethan.

"Do you want to give it a try?"

Ethan had business to attend to when he arrived today, but when the finished APPLE 2 appeared before him, he knew that chubby Woz must have had time to help him.

Under such circumstances...

It wouldn't hurt to experience the APPLE 2.

Smiling and nodding, Ethan agreed.

Jobs immediately bent over and turned on the computer.

As the power light came on, the Integer BASIC programming language built into the ROM automatically started running, and then, colorful images appeared on the screen.

It was a rainbow-striped apple, a classic logo passed down through the generations.

This image also stirred Ethan's memories.

He glanced sideways at Jobs.

That long-haired figure seemed to have already touched success.

Although Ethan didn't understand the technology, with the help of the game manual written by Woz, he found the programming instructions in just half a minute. And after tapping away at the code listed in the manual, when he pressed the enter key representing "start," the classic interface of "Pong" suddenly appeared on the display screen with its forty rows and twenty columns...

A white vertical line divided the screen in two, with two small horizontal paddles at either end.

With a light tap of the spacebar, a small white ball immediately shot off from the centerline, bravely heading towards the left side.

Upon hitting the left paddle, it changed direction instantly as if struck, rushing towards the right side.

However, as Ethan subconsciously tried to control the paddle using WASD, he found that no matter how he pressed, the paddles on the screen remained unresponsive.

So, he could only watch helplessly as the ball flew out of bounds.

"Is this a bug?" Ethan asked in confusion.

At this point, Jobs chuckled and took out a pair of game controllers from the drawer.

Then, he pointed to the jacks next to the Apple 2.

With his operation, the Apple 2 turned into a game console directly.

This transformation widened Ethan's eyes!

Jobs then sat on the table, smiling, "Ethan, I don't know if you remember, I once told you, we at Apple don't make games. But when designing this machine, I had Steve add the functionality of game controllers..."

"It's not because the keyboard can't play games, but I thought, it's a bit of a loss to directly hand over the home game console market to Magnavox. I don't know what your vision for Destiny Game is, but I know that if I add joystick functionality to the APPLE 2, then perhaps when needed, we can appear in front of the public as both a home computer and a home game console..."

"At the time, I was very nervous about making this decision."

"Because this approach might disrupt your plans."

"But now..."

"Do you like it?"

Jobs patted the APPLE 2 beside him.

And also raised his eyebrows at Ethan.

Ethan, who witnessed all of this, felt immense surprise!

Could the Apple 2 suddenly become a game console?

Oh! Damn!

With this thing, who the hell would dare say Ethan Jones is slow?

With this thing, who the hell would dare say Ethan Jones doesn't have a console project?

"Damn! "

Ethan, wrapped in joy, exclaimed loudly, "This is freaking amazing!"

"Oh, Steve, your design is really freaking awesome!"

"Hahaha—" Ethan's reaction made Jobs laugh incessantly.

"I know, I know, I know I'm a genius!"

And after the laughter, he also explained the shortcomings of the machine to Ethan.

Although the Apple 2 could instantly transform from a home computer into a home game console, due to its configuration, it couldn't achieve the affordability of a home game console. For example, the cost of 4K memory was over a hundred dollars, and the cost of their built-in color display was even more than two hundred dollars. With the high cost, the price of the whole machine would also increase.

According to Jobs' idea, $1,298 would be profitable.

Ethan had no objection to this.

Because he would always make home consoles.

Now, what was lacking was time.

The Apple 2 could temporarily help him solve the embarrassment of having no product before launching the console.

Although Ethan understood that a price of $1,298 would deter many gamers, they weren't selling the games themselves, but the gimmick of making games.

When "Star Wars" hits the market in sync with the times, they can buy endorsements, stating that the production machine for the "Star Wars" video game is the latest APPLE 2, and in order to help more people experience the joy of gaming and game development, Apple will provide the BASIC programming code for classic games for free, and Ethan Jones also hoped that someone could transition from being a player to being a creator.

Ethan believed that when he publicly expressed his eagerness for more people to succeed like him, those American kids would surely be eager for the Apple 2!

There was no way, as popular as the winner education in America!

All the kids freaking thought they were the chosen ones!

When "Pac-Man" was released, there were quite a few loose orders in the sales of APPLE 1!

And in the future...

Apple might really become a learning machine!