Oh - almost all the Mahou Shoujo of the eighties were there.
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Let Megatech Satisfy Your Primal Desires (REDUX)
- Thread starter Caravels of Portugal
- Start date
Agreed. Before America received dubbed versions of Sailor Moon by DIC Entertainment and Cardcaptor Sakura by Nelvana, the western European countries, that is Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, and West Germany, acquired magical girl anime that were dubbed into their local languages respectively. Shows included were Sally the Witch, Majokko Megu-chan, Hana no Ko Lunlun, and Magical Princess Minky Momo, to name a few, were still fondly remembered by kids who grew up watching these shows. Additionally, these shows were also popular in Latin America, where Spanish dubs were aired. And the Italian cartoon shows, W.I.T.C.H. and Winx Club, take heavy influence from Sailor Moon in terms of premise and artstyle.
To @Nivek:
I've also discovered that Megatech Software, in real life, did attend E3 1995. I first found this piece of evidence while I was researching the company. It was a map of the venue for E3 1995 along with a list of exhibiting companies. This article was found in the June 1995 issue of GamePro magazine, which published this article as part of a special feature on the then-upcoming trade event and upcoming games.
According to the map and the accompanying list, Megatech's placement in the venue was at booth #3524. However, I cannot seem to pinpoint its exact location in the map. If anyone has the time, please find the exact locations where their booth was located at in the map.
Since the image obtained is too large for the forum, I'll post this as a link:
GamePro Issue 071 June 1995 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
GamePro Issue 071 June 1995
archive.org
As my final remarks before resume writing the next entry of the chapter by next week, assuming I have sufficient free time and opportunity to research and write.
For anyone wondering what will happen in the following chapter, it's a closely-guarded secret to avoid spoiling further events. But I'll drop you a hint - Megatech Software localizes a game, whose name shall remain an enigma, in their very first localization subcontracting work for another company. The name is not Fire Emblem by Nintendo, by the way. Rather, it's the first installment of an extremely popular Japan-exclusive game series, which was released for the PC Engine, or for American readers, TurboGrafx-16. Also guest-starring in the chapter, a certain small bishoujo game developer in Akibahara. You may know that name.
I've went through an entire month scrounging for material to provide content of the opening chapter of the timeline. It was insanely difficult because Google Search always prioritizes popular results from optimization and Wikipedia's articles on the subject are severely lacking in density. It was worth it after all.
In the age of constant reboots, remakes, and franchise sequelization of Hollywood, and the obsession of the anime industry to draw in the otaku audience at the expense of the general audience, I think it's the future of such industry practices to adopt AI-based technologies. A year ago, part of the reason why the Writer's Guild of America went on strike was that Hollywood executives attempting to exploit ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence software to replace writers and avoid paying them their salaries. The strike was successful to convince Hollywood to set up limits on the use of AI, for now.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/hollywoo...intelligence-39ab72582c3a15f77510c9c30a45ffc8
I mean didn't the deal also effectively allow them to US AI if they got the permission of the union/actors? Or was that the actors/voice actors one?
Either way I do have to say that while not ideal, the alternative would just be no real work as investors move on towards other investment options and just leave the old art behind.
It sucks how little documentation there is on the entire subject in general since at some point you are chasing rumors and doing archaeology more than anything.
the issue is that a lot come from old magazines that a lot aren't online and the most 'professional' based articles are either paywalled or are very superficial at times
It does not help that now a days there is also the possibility that the internet article might also be wrong which does not help in finding information.
I mean, I would agree with both of your statements.
Researching fandom history is like archeology, except it's for non-physical remains. The Internet is a vast and accessible pool of information, but most of the information presented, at least on the surface-level, is frivolous and indistinct. The search engines always prioritize popular pages instead of specific results, and major websites simply want revenue, views, and clicks over quality content. Not only that, but much of early fandom history is lost and poorly-documented, particularly certain niche topics or companies.
One of my best sources in searching information about Megatech Software is Google Groups. It's where I found the claim that the company attended the first E3, E3 1995, and they exhibited a demonstration of a then-unidentified game, tentatively titled 'Magazine Master' at the venue. This game was some sort of business simulation game, based on the vague description, where the player takes on a role of an editor trying to turn the fortunes of the company. I was able to confirm Megatech's presence based on the June 1995 issue of GamePro, but I was unable to correctly identify the identity of 'Magazine Master' even though I searched through MobyGames and VNDB for a match.
On the bright side, an Internet Archive user released a scan of a catalogue from Megatech Software, dated somewhere between 1993-1994. I've disputed the claimed date of October 1995, since the catalogue does not mention or feature Power Dolls by Kogado Studio. There's nothing new, except the company was a member of Software Publishers Association, currently known today as Software and Information Industry Association.
Sweethearts and Old Flames (Part 2)
Excerpt of a cease-and-desist letter from TSR Inc.
17 December, 1993.
[Sensitive Information redacted]
RE:
To Kenny Wu:
We, the legal team of Lorraine Williams, represent TSR Inc. (‘TSR’) on behalf of CEO Lorrain Williams. TSR Inc. is the sole owner and publisher of Dungeons & Dragons and associated intellectual properties, and tabletop and card games. The purpose of this letter was to raise awareness of a potential trademark infringement case. It has come to our attention that you and/or your company, Megatech Software, has attempted to file a trademark application for ‘Dragon Knight’ (U.S. Application No. [Number redacted]), and intend to release a software bearing the trademark. We believe the trademark application infringes on TSR’s trademarks.
“Dragon Knight” is a registered trademark (U.S. Application No. [Number redacted]) of TSR Inc., and used in conjunction with “Dragonlance” IP of Dungeons & Dragons, specifically as part of a series of books aimed at younger readers. “Dragonlance” is designed by Laura and Tracy Hickman in association with Margaret Weis, and all rights reserved to them.
All in all, we presume you understand the source of our concerns regarding a potential trademark infringement case. In order to remedy this matter, we recommend Megatech Software should directly end registration of “Dragon Knight” as a trademark and further uses of any trademark containing any terms associated with “Dragonlance” and “Dungeons & Dragons” and thereof.
Failure to comply will result in legal action by TSR Inc. and may incur heavy financial penalties. Trademark infringement is a serious issue. Identical trademarks by different companies without distinction lead to confusion among customers and erode trust in the goodwill of the company and associated products and services.
We hope you understand our demands and expect Megatech Software’s full cooperation in preventing trademark infringement. All rights reserved to TSR Inc. and other associated game designers.
Sincerely,
The legal team of Lorraine Williams.
--#--
18th December, 1993.
Kenny held the letter from TSR Inc. with disbelief and shock. It was the first time a company noticed Megatech Software, as well being the first time he received a legal notice from another company. The letter slightly crumpled under the slight pressure from his fingertips.
He lowered the letter to see his friends, Erwin Mab and David S. Moskowitz, lounging in the living room of his residence. The horror film, Scarecrows, played on the television which Erwin was watching. It was nearly Christmas this time of year; the decorations were mounted on the walls with lights on the outside. Yet the choice of film seemed inappropriate for the festive season, as Kenny wondered whether they should watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or something else, maybe a Christmas-themed anime. But such themed anime did not exist, at least, from what he could try to find.
David slouched against the kitchen doorway, glancing at the letter Kenny was holding. He was dressed in a tawdry, gaudy Christmas sweater, hand-made featuring Spawn by Todd McFarlane.
“Lorraine William’s a bitch,” he blurted angrily as he walked up to Kenny. “She’s a real pain in the leg. I don’t think we can simply walk up to TSR, and politely negotiate a deal with them, asking them for a permission to use that name while telling them it’s the name of a Japanese game. You think they’d be swayed by this reason. I don’t think it’s like Sesame Street. She has an army of lawyers under her hand. This company, I mean, Megatech Software is small fry compared to TSR. We’d lose even before we get into the main proceedings at court. A friend of mine who once worked at TSR said he saw her run the entire company to the ground, including Buck Rogers crap. He sensed a hunch of TSR in ruins, so he resigned from his post and flown to greener pastures.”
“Sauce?” Erwin mumbled as he glanced at David.
“I’m a former employee of Flying Buffalo, and I’ve been running fandom stuff since day one,” he replied. “Or you just want the eggnog,”
“Eggnog,” Erwin replied. “In the house,”
Kenny shuddered from the chilliness of the room and the sense of hovering fear of legal action from a company once known for publishing Dungeons & Dragons. He never personally met Lorraine Williams, but considering he was managing a video game company and the genuine, if sterile letter was of major indication, alongside suddenly remembering the case where Disney sandblasted murals at a Florida daycare, he should take the cease-and-desist letter seriously.
He sighed heavily, wiping some sweat from his forehead. “Dave, what’s our next course of action?”
“Next course of action?” David replied with a neutral expression. “Let’s comply with the request from TSR. It’ll save us a lot of trouble in the long run. Though I’m not a lawyer, so if you need legal advice, go talk to Steve or Shigeru, or the managerial staff. They’ve got the experience and skills.”
Kenny hung his head, staring at the letter. In spite of the initial frustration and sadness from the potential debacle, he saw it as an opportunity to assert himself in the business as an Asian-American male and an owner of a company specializing in niche video games. But for now, he needed to head to Liberty International offices and inquire Gary Lee and its legal team for advice.
--#--
Excerpt from “Anecdotes from the Game Studio” article by Alyssa Stanheight from the May 2009 issue of CUU: The Future of Interactive Entertainment.
‘Dragon Knight’ trademark dispute: In 1993, TSR Inc., the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game, prevented Megatech Software from using the title ‘Dragon Knight’ for the localized version of Dragon Knight III, citing its trademark for an installment in the Dragonlance series. Kenny Wu, executive producer of Megatech Software, requested David S. Moskowitz to come up with a replacement title, which ended up as Knights of Xentar. The new title was random and chosen for being simple and catchy for containing the letter ‘X’ in the title and the use of ‘Knights’ to approximate the original Japanese title.
--#--
Excerpt from Genesis Does: Sega and the Console Wars (2009) by Jeff Flores.
The Lunar series by Game Arts for the Sega CD is considered two of the best games released for the system itself, and for a very good reason. The Silver Star and its sequel, Eternal Blue, utilized the disc-based hardware capabilities of the system to present a video game story unheard of in its time from an audiovisual standpoint. These games presented fully-animated, fully-voiced cutscenes with bright, sharp graphics and detailed character designs by Toshiyuki Kuboka, who would later become the character designer for the first installment in The Idolmaster, released for the Atari Gryphon. These unique qualities rivaled even the best games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and their fellow games on the Sega CD.
Game Arts developed the game with the intention of standing out from the glut of JRPG games released for consoles at the time, dominated by the likes of Square and Enix. It was extremely ambitious and innovative project for the company since they only developed action and platformer video games with side-scrolling presentation. Four of their games were brought into America by Sierra On-Line while two were done by Nexoft and Sega. These games were relatively successful for the company, but was smaller in the face of the larger, well-connected companies.
Game scenarist Kei Shigema was assigned as the head writer of the two games. He observed that the standard JRPGs were full of plot, but packed with clichés and conveyed in a cumbersome, banal way, or in his words, “had stories, but had no story-telling”. He wrote the draft of the then-untitled JRPG early on. The original premise of the first game was darker and displayed a strong steampunk influence, drawing from Studio Ghibli’s Laputa: Castle in the Sky and other JRPGs he played for reference..
It centered on a small group of youths to live through in the backdrop of brutal war in outer space with flying mechanical castles and steam-powered rockets. It would be presented in fully sprite-animated cutscenes with excessive detail in the scenes. However, he rejected the initial premise when he learned of Final Fantasy VI by Square, which was still in development. Moreover, Kazunari Tomi, the producer, pointed out the planned animated cutscenes was beyond the reach of the company’s resources in addition to the limitations of the Sega CD hardware and its medium. He also found the premise too dark for the general player to enjoy.
Instead, Kei bucked the trend of JRPGs to increasingly incorporate science fiction elements into their plots by settling on a fully-realized fantasy setting. This focused on the lore and history of the game’s setting, as opposed to simplistic ‘good-versus-evil’ plots and fighting bosses expected of usual console JRPGs. By spinning the basic JRPG plot of “collect magical trinkets to save the world from destruction” with compelling characters and ensuring every line of dialogue was witty and humorous, he executed the game’s premise with much freshness and energy.
Toshiyuki Kuboka designed the characters after reading the finished version of the game’s premise. His distinctive anime artstyle was strongly influenced by his tenure as an animation director for Giant Robo: The Earth Stood Still and Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, which he was a character designer for the former while elements from the latter were incorporated into the designs for the cast in Lunar. He made rough sketches for the main cast, with each revision building up to their finalized artwork. Aware of character design clichés in JRPGs, he sought to avert or eliminate whenever these appeared. The garbs worn by the characters were designed with a nomadic, northerly air in the context of its relatively temperate, albeit cool, setting.
On its release for the Sega CD, The Silver Star and Eternal Blue became critically acclaimed for its excellent story, fluid sprite-based animations, and solid gameplay for a JRPG. A tagline for the first game described it as “An instant classic”, which was apropos when applied to the two games. It was the best-selling games for the Sega CD, with The Silver Star and Eternal Blue earning the number one and two positions respectively in Japanese sales charts with 189,480 copies sold while in Western markets just behind Sonic the Hedgehog CD. Sega attributed the system’s success to these games, acting as the killer application and being commended as the best games for the Sega Genesis.
Special note was focused on Working Designs’ translation for the two games. The company was a small publishing firm that previously localized Japanese video games from small Japanese studios. Under the supervision of its director, Victor Ireland, the team adapted the script to their interpretations, instead of doing a faithful translation as expected of JRPGs in its time. They injected humor in the game by rewriting lines of dialogue with jokes, and peppered it with fourth-wall-breaking jokes and pop culture allusions. Aside from the added humor, they censored scenes in the games to comply with Sega’s content guidelines and to receive the MA-13 rating such as editing sprites containing pentagrams and cleaning nudity in specific scenes and monster sprites.
These localization changes were extremely contentious in the game’s fandom and the general anime game community. However, these changes were a marked improvement over the poor translations which plagued JRPGs released in North America prior. It made the games stand out from other JRPGs, which tended to be which tended to be relatively dramatic and straight-laced, if light on plot, and considered by many players who played the Sega CD versions as being an element that made these a memorable experience alongside the animated cutscenes and its overall character development throughout the games.
The popularity of The Silver Star and Eternal Blue warranted remakes for 32-bit consoles, Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation 1. While the Sega CD versions were popular, but the low install base alongside with the hefty price tag of the system required Game Arts had to develop a rerelease that completely overhauled the games with expanded scripts, exclusive extra content, and roughly two hours’ worth of animated cutscenes by esteemed anime studio GONZO. The localized script by Working Designs was carried over for the two games. These remakes introduced the games to a new generation of JRPG fans for 32-bit consoles, those who began playing Final Fantasy VII and Panzer Dragoon Saga on their respective consoles. Only the PlayStation version of the Lunar remakes were brought over for North American audiences, as Sega struggled to manage all sorts of technical issues and marketing messes the Saturn was facing in the West compared to Japan.
Rumors of a third game in the Lunar series, besides the school-based spinoff by Ehrgeiz, excited the then-lively nascent fandom so much they obsessively oversaw any form of news that surfaced. Sadly, the third game would never come to fruition. Studio Alex, a subsidiary responsible for the development of The Silver Star and Eternal Blue, was involved in a legal dispute with Game Arts over the license during the production of the 32-bit era games. This ended with the bankruptcy of Studio Alex and its eventual dissolution in 2003. From thereon, all rights for the game series were reverted to Game Arts. Meanwhile, the original development team resigned from the company and parted ways to work on other projects. With Grandia being the premier JRPG series for Game Arts and Working Designs holding the localization and distribution rights for the game series, there was no possible chance for the third Lunar game to ever release.
Still though, the Lunar duology remains a cult classic for the JRPG genre and the Sega CD. As a cult classic, it deserves to be sat together with the likes of NieR, Xenogears, Skies of Arcadia, ActRaiser, and Digital Devil Story. Disregarding the less-than-stellar Dragon Song for the Nintendo DS, the two games are worth playing despite showing their age and loss of novelty of its special elements.
--#--
Excerpt from “An Unabridged History of Anime Games” (2020) by Cynthia Wu and Hannah Everheart.
The Lunar series by Game Arts left a lasting legacy on Japanese role-playing games and anime games in general. This game series introduced technical elements that would be later present in nearly all modern JRPGs: fully-animated cutscenes and voice acting. It is considered hard for modern gamers to appreciate such elements as this was considered one of the major hallmarks of the series. Yet the quality of the animations withstood the test of time alongside the terrific voice acting alongside the charming English localization by Working Designs. Moreover, this was the earliest exposures of ‘anime games’ to the West, following the inception of Megatech Software and the release of Cobra Mission in 1993, apart from the ur-instances such as Cliff Hanger (1983) by Stern and TMS Entertainment along with the various FMV arcade games by other companies, the arcade shmup U.N. Squadron (1989) by Capcom, and Valis (1991) by Telenet Japan, and obscure entries.
Yet the most definitive and greatest legacy in the annals of anime games was its influence on Megatech Software’s localization of Emerald Dragon. Kenny Wu cited Eternal Blue as an inspiration after playing the initial Sega CD release, and said:
“All the elements in this game [Lunar: Eternal Blue] was special while I was playing it. Although the gameplay was pretty standard for a JRPG aside from the gimmick of positioning the characters, the animation and the voice acting blew me away. It was like Wizardry [1991 anime OVA based on the game series by Sir-Tech of the same name] mixed with Final Fantasy added with a bit of Saturday morning cartoons for a good measure. Working Designs did a great job on the localization. This game and Silver Star Story had the funniest and memorable lines I’ve heard of in a video game. Way, way better than what Dave [David S. Moskowitz] wrote in Knights of Xentar. Yet these made our then-current roster of games pale in comparison. This where I realized I needed to step up my game, if I needed to stay relevant in the industry. Sure, Megatech’s games were popular and funny, but the novelty was wearing off. I began to see them as puerile and rough. This was a reason for Megatech to localize better-looking games and to polish up our localization process.”
-To be continued-
References:
- Lunar Series:
- Hardcore Gaming 101 article: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/series/lunar/
- Translated interview with the development team: https://shmuplations.com/lunar/
- Circumstances behind the nonexistence of Lunar 3:
- FMV Anime arcade games: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2017-01-08/.110758
- TSR Inc. trademark infringement case in Animerica Vol. 3, No. 2: https://retrocdn.net/images/2/25/AnimericaAVI_US_Vol.3_02.jpg
how to spot a newbie, you loss the otaku part of your name, you're just ninja
(it did long ago, as an Adult ova)
Yeah, I knew that Dragon Knight had an OVA adaptation in early 1990s. It was probably a loose adaptation like its relative from the same developer, YU-NO, since the runtime of the first OVA was roughly an half-hour according to IMDB. Likewise, Metal & Lace and Power Dolls received anime adaptations, albeit for the OVA adaptation of Metal & Lace, or Ningyou Tsukai, Kitty Media, who licensed this anime, gave it a completely different title which sounds more of an Exorcist parody than a pseudo-cyberpunk anime.
Now, the next entries for this chapter will be about Megatech Software being subcontracted by a major Japanese game company to localize a video game for the SNES. Here's a hint - it's the first installment of a popular Japan-exclusive video game series that was first released for the TurboGrafx-16, and has a red-headed girl who's the final boss of the game.
Ah. Could Megatech make original games at some point in the future?
Fire Emblem?
The Lorraine Williams era of TSR Inc. is not fondly remembered by D&D fans for good reasons. She was blamed for causing the decline of Dungeons & Dragons following the departure of Gary Gygax and her subsequent ownership of the company in 1985. She held an open contempt for tabletop gamers and the employees of TSR Inc. at the time.
Her frequent use of lawsuit threats and cease-and-desist letters against anyone, especially tabletop gamers, under the pretext of preventing copyright infringement was infamous among the fan community and even Gary Gygax became disdainful of her. This made finding new games and talking about them hard for many fans and novice players, as well giving TSR's competitors an opportunity to promote their rival products through the internet.
The push to promote a tabletop RPG brand based on Buck Rogers utterly failed despite her best efforts. Buck Rogers was a dead franchise and completely outdated, and TSR already owned a sci-fi tabletop RPG in Star Frontiers. Plus, Lorraine collected all the royalties from the Buck Rogers licenses by TSR because she was one of the main beneficiaries from the IP's real owner, the Dille Family Trust. You may recognize this little fact from a sentence in the timeline:
Dungeons & Dragons received a string of low-quality, weak video game adaptations with the exception of BioWare's Baldur's Gate due to rampant nepotism in the corporate hierarchy, poorly thought-out choices for a developer, and a severely weakened, timid fandom that engaged in self-censorship in fear of TSR legal threats. And then there was that awful CCG called Spellfire, which reused art from in-house assets and tried to cash-in on the CCG craze in the wake of Magic: The Gathering's success.
The only thing good to come out of that era was the release of several new settings for D&D such as Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, and Al-Qadim.
Sweethearts and Old Flames (Part 3)
New
25th December, 1993.
‘How did I come to this?’ thought Jennifer Smith as she walked towards the kitchen counter. ‘Four years in university for a BBA and now I’m working in a bullshit job for long hours and low wages.’
She tucked her Kenny Rogers Roasters[1] uniform, tying up her apron. She stood in front of the counter as one of the cooks laid the meals, fresh and steaming warm off the kitchen, on a dark brown plastic tray and rang the service bell to signal the food was ready. She sighed heavily, knowing it as another round of meal delivery to the customers on the table. She held the plastic tray and lifted it up while she glanced at the food.
It was a heavy meal consisting of a half wood fire roasted chicken with four side dishes, a chicken pot pie, and macaroni & cheese, complimented with two drinks served in glass tumblers. The aroma and freshness of the meals almost made her mouth water and elicited a desire to swipe a morsel out of it, but her better instincts and due diligence to her job prevented that temptation.
The combined weight of the servings on the tray burdened her slightly as she brought it towards the table as printed on the receipt. The plates and glasses slightly rattled from her shaky arms, tired from the constant exertion and too delicate for such repetitive task. The mere thought of spilling the servings and getting customers angry was a major concern in her head that kept her on her toes.
She arrived at the table where she was supposed to send the food. By now, she was shuddering from fear of causing a mess, the coldness from the air conditioners blasting at low settings, and how her muscles were tired. The licensed Kenny Rogers songs, piped through the cheap, quickly aging speakers installed in the restaurant, made her ears bleed from the scratchiness and tininess. “Ruby” held a special place in her resentment, as she heard this song play nearly every time, sometimes repeating in a row.
She placed the tray on the table, where two men clapped upon seeing the food. Their apparent satisfaction of having their food arrived on the table was tainted by the fact they were gazing subtly, creepily at her chest. She could guess this act from their positioning of their eyes. And she hated it.
Meanwhile, Kenny Wu entered the restaurant. He wore a slightly oversized t-shirt depicting the MADOX-01 from the titular anime of the same name. It was squat-looking mecha with a metallic green color, except for orange highlights in the body. A buttoned shirt, worn as a jacket, overlaid the t-shirt with matching trousers. That t-shirt was acquired from a pen pal who was involved in the anime fandom of the area and worked as a cottage dressmaker for fan-related apparel.
He saw a vacant table for four, and pulled a chair to sit down. He sighed heavily, looking at the casual, brightly lit, yet somewhat bland interior with licensed audio blaring from the loudspeakers. He lifted up the branded plastic bag and shuffled the bag to see the contents. A Sega CD accessory in its package and the JRPG Lunar: The Silver Star in its distinctive long jewel case was snugly inside the wrap of the plastic bag’s borders. These he purchased from a local video game at the request of his friend, Erwin Mab, who wanted a Sega CD for Christmas, and his own, which he wanted to try out to see if the things DieHard GameFan claimed in their article were true.
Besides the rushed, last-minute gift buying for Christmas, he contemplated employing a personal assistant for his day-to-day tasks of managing Megatech Software as its executive producer and company director. It was extremely exhausting to manage everything in the company while monitoring employee activity and conduct, even with Gary Lee and the staff at Liberty Components Inc. helping him out. A secretary was what the company needed at this time. Moreover, a gender gap among employees was matter in the company. More males were on the payroll in comparison with the number of female employees. A female employee occupying the role in administrative and managerial duties would a boost for human resources and public relations of the company. Although, the ulterior motive remained unsaid, as having a pretty, attractive female by his side sounded tempting, but a bit lewd.
Sighing heavily, he felt completely indecisive. He has not scouted yet for potential employees. Indeed, there was a plausible and satisfactory reason why. Megatech’s workplace culture was guy-centric and the games they worked on contained sexual content that would scare off any potential female employee. As he looked around, a staff member caught his eye.
A young adult waitress, roughly the same age as Kenny, touched her knees out of exhaustion. She was dressed in the service uniform of the restaurant, modest and plain unlike the ones worn at Hooters. Her blonde hair lay softly on the shoulders of her uniform. She sighed heavily from exhaustion, perhaps a long shift at work.
He recognized the girl as the upperclassman and fellow dorm neighbor during his semester at the University of California, Los Angeles. He knew of the girl’s name – Jennifer. Yet, he never got the opportunity to know more about her or introduce himself. His head slouched slightly, and his hand poked the temple of his head to stop it from knocking on the table. His mind tried to find the appropriate words to address the waitress, but every possible choice seemed too hideously awkward or very sounded as if came from an adult videocassette.
Jennifer walked towards the punch clock and slotted her timecard into the machine, in which the machine recorded her work hours and processed the timestamp. She sighed laboriously in disappointment and relief. It was almost recess in the afternoon. She needed a break after a lengthy morning to noon shift from collecting orders and sending the meals for customers in the restaurant. The song “The Gambler” played on the loudspeakers, much to her relief. This was much soothing tune compared to the overly-sweet love songs from the singer itself. She trotted her tired legs steadily towards a nearby table, which she sat down.
Kenny Wu and Jennifer Smith lifted their heads up and their locked instantly like lock and key. Without saying anything, they gazed each other in silence as they met for the first time. Despite the initial impressions, they barely knew each other aside from their physical appearances. A wistful, gentle but excited aura swathed over their heads like a red string of fate tied from their little fingers, goading them to break the ice by channeling the strength for a conversation.
“Hey,” Kenny blurted, his voice shaking timidly.
Jennifer identified the voice as someone she met before. He was a college student who regularly approached her and tried to pick up her for a date, only to quickly decline and flee in a hurry. He spoke with a timid, nerdy accent, who blushed and shuddered nervously, coupled with a matching nerdy physique – tousled, sometimes combed black hair, glasses, and a lanky body. That all happened in her study at UCLA. She never saw the student again. Yet now, the man she was sitting in front of resembled exactly what the student was in her fading, blurry memories.
“Hello, you must be…” she tried introducing herself to the man. His name she did not know because he often flubbed every time he tried to talk to her and left. But now, she just wanted to know his name and about himself, just without its associated clumsiness and terseness.
“Kenny,” he said. For him, this was his first time speaking his name to somebody he once knew. He always squandered the opportunity to pick up a girl and go for a date. He felt very milquetoast, emasculated, and insecure within his inside self and to his outside self. Only after establishing Megatech and licensing and localizing the anime games did he start becoming assertive and mature, at least to his own perception.
“My name’s Jennifer,” she replied. “I know you. You must be that nerd who resided next door in the dorms, right?”
Surprised at her recognizing him, Kenny nodded to confirm. Her long, flowing blonde hair, which she either tied it as a ponytail or a bun depending on her mood and circumstance was a defining trait of hers when somebody met.
“How’s your life going, Kenny?” she nervously asked. “Had you got a career after you graduated with your degree?”
He gazed silently. Quickly, he understood she struck rock bottom after she graduated and was now working in a low-wage job at a restaurant. This was a sharp contrast to his current situation, which was bustling and burgeoning. It would have been condescending, not to mention crushing, to tell her about his newfound success. But a strong sense of sincerity and reliability overcame his well-intentioned but deceptive urge to tell white, comforting lies. Confident to speak out, acknowledging tacitly it would hurt her feelings, he uttered: “I’m running a business,”
Jennifer initially hesitated to reply, but she spoke once a few moments passed. “That’s… great, Kenny. I guess my work in this place was equally good as you are,”
She blushed heavily, covering her face in shame and shuddering despairingly. She broke into muffled sobbing as she planted her face on the table. “I’m stuck, stuck in this sucky job. Look at me. I was an honor student, a graduate with a BBA from UCLA. Now I’m just grinding my time as some lowly busgirl in an ego-named eatery. All my time and money wasted on a degree in useless.”
Kenny frowned at her foul mood. He was empathetic with her, and knew she needed understanding in order to console her out of that mood. His arm raised and extended towards her shoulder, and patted on it. “No degree is useless in this day and age, Jennifer. My degree in programming paid off and got me a well-paying job.”
Jennifer stopped sobbing, albeit slowed down, and looked at his face. “Do you think my degree is worth something? I was trained to be a business manager for the whole semester. I couldn’t find a job in my field. Why? So many graduates like me were flooding the market, competing to grab the vaunted manager offer. They were sucking up all the opportunities I can find. Fuck, it’s either this job to pay the bills, or being on the streets.”
Utterly speechless after hearing her lament, Kenny could only gaze with a shocked yet concerned expression. He felt the same grief and exasperation of which she suffered the most after graduation. In contrast, he had it easier in his field by quickly applying for a job at Liberty International Components Inc. and later, being the director of Megatech Software. The constant air of misery surrounding her position in life had to be lifted somehow, one way or another. He could not simply leave her to her own situation.
“Hey,” he said, tugging her shoulders. She glanced with a teary face. “Don’t feel down, Jennifer. My company is looking for a manager to handle the affairs and activities of the business. The workload may be high, but the pay’s good. Much better than the wages earned at the place you work.”
In a surprising turn of events, Jennifer’s mood improved from constant, self-pitying misery to a brighter, easygoing joy. She smiled for the first time and said to Kenny: “Thanks,”
Shortly after quitting my job from the Kenny Rogers store, I left completely elated. I was liberated from that awful job. Constantly being shouted at for being too slow or making slipups, harassment from other customers, and all sorts of bullshit I had to endure for nearly two years working at this.
Kenny Wu, my old classmate and graduate from UCLA where I once studied, took me for a drive in town. He was kind to me that he offered me a business management job which I could finally apply my degree field on. It sounded too good on words and I did not know what kind of business he was running, but he assured me this was completely legitimate. “A software company,” he told me. I was so excited. I wondered what kinds of software his company was developing.
He brought me to an arcade to spend some quality time together. It was once a very popular arcade in Torrance, but now closed nowadays. The insides were dark and illuminated by the colorful neon glow from the ceiling and the screens of the arcade cabinet. The air was cooled to chilly temperatures by the air conditioners, contrasting the sun-baked air of outside. There were a lot of kids who played those arcade games or loitered for the cool air. The game noises drowned out what they were talking and yelling about, and caused me to wince from all that sound.
Kenny guided me through the arcade, showing off the arcade machines for me to see. The attract modes were showing off demonstrations of their respective games, gameplay footage in modern parlance. This was quieter than the games being played. To be honest, I was never much of a gamer. I was a model student in school and university. The only video games I played were Breakout, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man. Even then, I only played these for a few times because I saw them as wasting time.
He persuaded me to try out one of the games in the arcade, even though I refused to play any of them. But as a favor to repay him, I abided with his request. There was a wide variety of games to choose from, so I was overwhelmed by so much choice. The graphics of these games have evolved a long way since I last played them. But they all seemed too male-oriented for me – dark, violent, and scary. I did not want to play Splatterhouse, where a hockey-masked maniac bashes monsters with his fist. Lethal Enforcers, where you shoot digitized sprites of real people with a gun. Sinistar, where a scary robotic voice taunted me. And Mortal Kombat, for sure.
Maybe these elements were drawing the adolescent male patrons to this arcade for making them high and thrilled. That and the stench of expired soda and snacks staining on the floor was giving off a seedy din to the place. Since my choices were completely slim with Kenny getting tired of wandering around, I set my eyes on a lone, seldom-played arcade game at the corner of the arcade – UFO Robo Dangar[2].
I do not know honestly what drew me to that game. Perhaps it was how clean, the lack of close-up violence that characterized the popular arcade games when the attract mode was on. Or the heroic robot, reminiscent of Voltron and The Transformers, standing beside the title on the title screen. It does not matter now, since I wanted to play a single session of the game. Kenny handed me a sack of quarters for me to insert into the machine.
Once I inserted a single quarter into the machine, I pressed start and grabbed onto the joystick while hovering my hand over the fire button. I was immediately greeted by the loud, triumphant chiptune fanfare as three hangars from a sort of base opened up and three jets lifted off from the extending runway. The three jets soon transformed and merged into the titular blue-and-white robot of the game, which flew with its jets ablaze.
As I pressed the fire button upon seeing a flying enemy, the robot fired fist-shaped projectiles and destroyed it. I quickly got ahold of the game and moving the robot while pressing down the fire button accompanied with the upbeat, heavy drum machine beat. I shot a capsule, which opened up a power up that I picked up. It upgraded the robot’s main weapon from rocket fists to an energy rifle it held firing blue bullets.
I continued to play with that upgrade, gunning down enemies, both airborne and ground-based, with the blaster while flying through a desert landscape punctuated with lakes, rivers, and futuristic architecture. At the mid-point I picked up another power-up that transformed the robot into a flying saucer. This was where the UFO part came from.
I flew over a black portal on the ground. Suddenly, the flying saucer was transported into a bizarre space where colorful orbs and nuclei embedded. This was marked with an abrupt shift of background music. I was startled, but I kept that emotion by myself, not wanting to derail my enjoyment of the game. I shot up a lot of snake-like enemies, and eventually fought the boss of the space – a large v-shaped UFO which I managed to dispatch easily.
I played until I dispatched all three bosses and losing all lives in the game. By that moment, I was completely exhilarated and exhausted from playing the game intensely. It was an unforgettable experience, and I felt the joy of playing games for the first time. I briefly turned around to see an amazed Kenny along with a large crowd of players standing behind him with a similar expression. I was instantly astonished and bewildered. I asked Kenny how long I was playing, to which he replied: “An hour and a quarter”.
Looking back at the screen of the arcade machine, the high-score for UFO Robo Dangar was 1,500,020. Somehow, I achieved that without even being aware of it, beating out the previous score of 400,350 on the leaderboard. Stunned, I inputted my initials into the scoreboard and quickly egressed from the arcade with him. We were completely delighted by the experience. It was a memory I was fond of recalling whenever I wanted to talk about our lives. And this was a step which I slowly became familiar with the world of video games.
10th January, 1994.
“Is she your new girlfriend?” Erwin Mab asked, pointing his thumb at Jennifer Smith.
Kenny Wu sighed heavily in disappointment, shaking his head. “No, she isn’t. She’s our new manager, and my assistant.” He oversaw a crowd of Megatech Software’s staff members gathered in the main development studio, with them facing him directly.
“Everyone,” he blurted as he addressed the staff in the room. “I like you to welcome your new manager,” he gestured to Jennifer standing by his side, dressed in a formal work dress. “Say hello to Jennifer Smith."
Everyone in the room clapped loudly in unison as Kenny guided Jennifer to meet the staff one-by-one. The staff handed her small gifts or greeting cards with personally-written messages for her. Kenny instructed them not to relentlessly badger her with questions unless he gave his permission to do so. David S. Moskowitz photographed the events in the welcoming party, culminating in her cutting the specially-baked cake by a programmer who made it the day before.
“Three cheers!” Ned Neidermeyer, a sound engineer, exclaimed as he poured RC Cola from a bottle into glass cups. Several of the staff members walked and picked up their drinks from the table, clinking as in tradition. Erwin played “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice blasting on the boombox, much to the displeasure of others, seeing it as a novelty single.
Gary Lee entered the room modestly with little fanfare. He passed through several staff members to approach Kenny and Jennifer, who were sitting down and eating the snacks on a table. “Glad to meet you, son,” he addressed.
“Mr. Lee,” Kenny replied as he stood up. “Didn’t expect to see you here,”
“Well, I thought it would be good to drop by and see your new employee,” Gary replied.
Jennifer stood up to greet the middle-aged man with greying hair. She extended her hand to him, offering to shake her hand as a greeting. “You must be my employer, aren’t you?”
Gary grabbed her hands gently, shaking it lightly. He smiled at her, and glanced at Kenny with the same expression. He then released his grip, patting on his necktie and adjusting it.
“Thanks for providing me a job,” Jennifer said. “I could’ve starved on the streets without you.”
“My pleasure, miss,” Gary replied. “Your friend introduced me to you a few weeks ago.”
“Don’t mention it,” Kenny blurted, rubbing his head on the back. “I’ve processed the paperwork for her employment.”
“And I procured the documents for you,” Gary added. “From the offices of Liberty.”
Jennifer looked around for a moment. The loud music was annoying, sure, but it was more bearable compared to the licensed music played at her previous business she was employed at. She thought to herself about her current job. She was just newly inducted into the position of manager and personal assistant to Kenny Wu simultaneously. She preferred this over her previous one. As she continued to contemplate, she wondered what software the company was producing.
“Hey,” she tugged Kenny. He noticed and glanced at her. “About your company,”
“Talk this in my office,” Kenny replied.
Kenny Wu brought Jennifer Smith into his executive office. He opened the door and he led her in. As they entered the office, he gestured her to sit down on the sofa facing the executive desk. The sofa was extremely comfortable to sit down on, which calmed her nerves a bit. She looked around the surroundings of the room. It was modestly-sized for an executive office, usual for such business. Besides the typical file cabinets and shelves filled with administrative and business documents she would expect from a businessman, a single element stood out from the rest. Shelves filled with all sorts of robot models, bearing a passing resemblance to Transformers, and videocassette cases, both official and rudimental, and other memorabilia from media she did not recognize.
A side of the room plastered with posters ostensibly printed in Japanese-language text and hand-drawn, hand-painted posters depicting characters in an unfamiliar artstyle, painted in pastel-chalked water colors. These illustrations depicted big-eyed characters with puffy hair; sometimes with gritty, dark shading; sometimes accosted by robots or monsters; and sometimes doing cute or sexy things. The closest thing she could approximate when she described it in her mind was an amalgam style combining the big eyes and prettiness of Disney cartoons of the 1950s, the semi-grounded physique and shading of the darker, non-superhero comics of 1970s, and the high-energy innocence and themes of action-adventure Saturday morning cartoons of the 1980s.
By the side of the executive desk in the office, a cabinet with a television stood there. Under the television, a shelf held a Philips-branded VCR connected to the television with a few videocassettes on the side. A TurboGrafx-16 sat on top of the VCR, its gamepad laid on the body of the console, and cases for the games Splatterhouse, Alien Crush, Ys: Book I & II, and Keith Courage in Alpha Zones leaning by the side.
“What’s your business all about, exactly?” Jennifer inquired as she faced Kenny. “I’m just curious what you do in this company? What’s the name? Mega…”
“Megatech Software,” he answered. “Megatech, if you want to make it short. Regarding what we do in this company. We’re a licensor and localizer of software from Japan.”
Jennifer nodded in agreement, excitedly. “Software from Japan? That’s actually cool. All the best stuff is made in Japan. I’m interested. Tell me about your products.”
“We don’t peddle in business software, Jenny,” Kenny replied. She quickly became surprised at what he said and gazed at him befuddled. He nervously smiled, not wanting to belittle her intelligence or dignity. He sighed heavily. “Truth is we’re a video game company. Not the type that makes their own video games. Rather, we license Japanese computer games and localize them into English for release in North America.”
Jennifer still maintained the same expression, albeit in stunned silence. She had no words to say. She was nearly deceived, but she refrained from being infuriated at him. After all, he provided her a job that paid well based on the monthly salary and better workplace environment than her previous job. She could not simply spurn what she had already accepted eagerly.
“Kenny,” she said. “I’d like to have a look of your games. Honestly, I don’t know about the contents or how many you were releasing, but I may politely differ on the matter of your releases.”
Kenny smiled eagerly and stood up to face the shelf nearby. “Well, Jenny, you’re in luck,” he said as he pulled a copy of Cobra Mission from it. “I’ve been waiting for somebody to show off my interests. Here, I’ll demonstrate the first game we released for you to see. I think you’d be amazed.”
Footnotes:
[1] Kenny Rogers Roasters is actually a real restaurant with the same name. It serves roasted chicken on its menu.
[2] UFO Robo Dangar is an actual arcade game developed and published by Nichibutsu, an obscure Japanese game company. It's a vertically-scrolling shoot'em up strongly influenced by super robot anime.
Author's Note:
I shout out to the dedicated readers of the thread. I could've not gone far without your support. I'll give a shout out to @MemphisC for following me, and a mention for @Kennedy Forever for regularly liking my posts on the AH Quote thread.
‘How did I come to this?’ thought Jennifer Smith as she walked towards the kitchen counter. ‘Four years in university for a BBA and now I’m working in a bullshit job for long hours and low wages.’
She tucked her Kenny Rogers Roasters[1] uniform, tying up her apron. She stood in front of the counter as one of the cooks laid the meals, fresh and steaming warm off the kitchen, on a dark brown plastic tray and rang the service bell to signal the food was ready. She sighed heavily, knowing it as another round of meal delivery to the customers on the table. She held the plastic tray and lifted it up while she glanced at the food.
It was a heavy meal consisting of a half wood fire roasted chicken with four side dishes, a chicken pot pie, and macaroni & cheese, complimented with two drinks served in glass tumblers. The aroma and freshness of the meals almost made her mouth water and elicited a desire to swipe a morsel out of it, but her better instincts and due diligence to her job prevented that temptation.
The combined weight of the servings on the tray burdened her slightly as she brought it towards the table as printed on the receipt. The plates and glasses slightly rattled from her shaky arms, tired from the constant exertion and too delicate for such repetitive task. The mere thought of spilling the servings and getting customers angry was a major concern in her head that kept her on her toes.
She arrived at the table where she was supposed to send the food. By now, she was shuddering from fear of causing a mess, the coldness from the air conditioners blasting at low settings, and how her muscles were tired. The licensed Kenny Rogers songs, piped through the cheap, quickly aging speakers installed in the restaurant, made her ears bleed from the scratchiness and tininess. “Ruby” held a special place in her resentment, as she heard this song play nearly every time, sometimes repeating in a row.
She placed the tray on the table, where two men clapped upon seeing the food. Their apparent satisfaction of having their food arrived on the table was tainted by the fact they were gazing subtly, creepily at her chest. She could guess this act from their positioning of their eyes. And she hated it.
Meanwhile, Kenny Wu entered the restaurant. He wore a slightly oversized t-shirt depicting the MADOX-01 from the titular anime of the same name. It was squat-looking mecha with a metallic green color, except for orange highlights in the body. A buttoned shirt, worn as a jacket, overlaid the t-shirt with matching trousers. That t-shirt was acquired from a pen pal who was involved in the anime fandom of the area and worked as a cottage dressmaker for fan-related apparel.
He saw a vacant table for four, and pulled a chair to sit down. He sighed heavily, looking at the casual, brightly lit, yet somewhat bland interior with licensed audio blaring from the loudspeakers. He lifted up the branded plastic bag and shuffled the bag to see the contents. A Sega CD accessory in its package and the JRPG Lunar: The Silver Star in its distinctive long jewel case was snugly inside the wrap of the plastic bag’s borders. These he purchased from a local video game at the request of his friend, Erwin Mab, who wanted a Sega CD for Christmas, and his own, which he wanted to try out to see if the things DieHard GameFan claimed in their article were true.
Besides the rushed, last-minute gift buying for Christmas, he contemplated employing a personal assistant for his day-to-day tasks of managing Megatech Software as its executive producer and company director. It was extremely exhausting to manage everything in the company while monitoring employee activity and conduct, even with Gary Lee and the staff at Liberty Components Inc. helping him out. A secretary was what the company needed at this time. Moreover, a gender gap among employees was matter in the company. More males were on the payroll in comparison with the number of female employees. A female employee occupying the role in administrative and managerial duties would a boost for human resources and public relations of the company. Although, the ulterior motive remained unsaid, as having a pretty, attractive female by his side sounded tempting, but a bit lewd.
Sighing heavily, he felt completely indecisive. He has not scouted yet for potential employees. Indeed, there was a plausible and satisfactory reason why. Megatech’s workplace culture was guy-centric and the games they worked on contained sexual content that would scare off any potential female employee. As he looked around, a staff member caught his eye.
A young adult waitress, roughly the same age as Kenny, touched her knees out of exhaustion. She was dressed in the service uniform of the restaurant, modest and plain unlike the ones worn at Hooters. Her blonde hair lay softly on the shoulders of her uniform. She sighed heavily from exhaustion, perhaps a long shift at work.
He recognized the girl as the upperclassman and fellow dorm neighbor during his semester at the University of California, Los Angeles. He knew of the girl’s name – Jennifer. Yet, he never got the opportunity to know more about her or introduce himself. His head slouched slightly, and his hand poked the temple of his head to stop it from knocking on the table. His mind tried to find the appropriate words to address the waitress, but every possible choice seemed too hideously awkward or very sounded as if came from an adult videocassette.
Jennifer walked towards the punch clock and slotted her timecard into the machine, in which the machine recorded her work hours and processed the timestamp. She sighed laboriously in disappointment and relief. It was almost recess in the afternoon. She needed a break after a lengthy morning to noon shift from collecting orders and sending the meals for customers in the restaurant. The song “The Gambler” played on the loudspeakers, much to her relief. This was much soothing tune compared to the overly-sweet love songs from the singer itself. She trotted her tired legs steadily towards a nearby table, which she sat down.
Kenny Wu and Jennifer Smith lifted their heads up and their locked instantly like lock and key. Without saying anything, they gazed each other in silence as they met for the first time. Despite the initial impressions, they barely knew each other aside from their physical appearances. A wistful, gentle but excited aura swathed over their heads like a red string of fate tied from their little fingers, goading them to break the ice by channeling the strength for a conversation.
“Hey,” Kenny blurted, his voice shaking timidly.
Jennifer identified the voice as someone she met before. He was a college student who regularly approached her and tried to pick up her for a date, only to quickly decline and flee in a hurry. He spoke with a timid, nerdy accent, who blushed and shuddered nervously, coupled with a matching nerdy physique – tousled, sometimes combed black hair, glasses, and a lanky body. That all happened in her study at UCLA. She never saw the student again. Yet now, the man she was sitting in front of resembled exactly what the student was in her fading, blurry memories.
“Hello, you must be…” she tried introducing herself to the man. His name she did not know because he often flubbed every time he tried to talk to her and left. But now, she just wanted to know his name and about himself, just without its associated clumsiness and terseness.
“Kenny,” he said. For him, this was his first time speaking his name to somebody he once knew. He always squandered the opportunity to pick up a girl and go for a date. He felt very milquetoast, emasculated, and insecure within his inside self and to his outside self. Only after establishing Megatech and licensing and localizing the anime games did he start becoming assertive and mature, at least to his own perception.
“My name’s Jennifer,” she replied. “I know you. You must be that nerd who resided next door in the dorms, right?”
Surprised at her recognizing him, Kenny nodded to confirm. Her long, flowing blonde hair, which she either tied it as a ponytail or a bun depending on her mood and circumstance was a defining trait of hers when somebody met.
“How’s your life going, Kenny?” she nervously asked. “Had you got a career after you graduated with your degree?”
He gazed silently. Quickly, he understood she struck rock bottom after she graduated and was now working in a low-wage job at a restaurant. This was a sharp contrast to his current situation, which was bustling and burgeoning. It would have been condescending, not to mention crushing, to tell her about his newfound success. But a strong sense of sincerity and reliability overcame his well-intentioned but deceptive urge to tell white, comforting lies. Confident to speak out, acknowledging tacitly it would hurt her feelings, he uttered: “I’m running a business,”
Jennifer initially hesitated to reply, but she spoke once a few moments passed. “That’s… great, Kenny. I guess my work in this place was equally good as you are,”
She blushed heavily, covering her face in shame and shuddering despairingly. She broke into muffled sobbing as she planted her face on the table. “I’m stuck, stuck in this sucky job. Look at me. I was an honor student, a graduate with a BBA from UCLA. Now I’m just grinding my time as some lowly busgirl in an ego-named eatery. All my time and money wasted on a degree in useless.”
Kenny frowned at her foul mood. He was empathetic with her, and knew she needed understanding in order to console her out of that mood. His arm raised and extended towards her shoulder, and patted on it. “No degree is useless in this day and age, Jennifer. My degree in programming paid off and got me a well-paying job.”
Jennifer stopped sobbing, albeit slowed down, and looked at his face. “Do you think my degree is worth something? I was trained to be a business manager for the whole semester. I couldn’t find a job in my field. Why? So many graduates like me were flooding the market, competing to grab the vaunted manager offer. They were sucking up all the opportunities I can find. Fuck, it’s either this job to pay the bills, or being on the streets.”
Utterly speechless after hearing her lament, Kenny could only gaze with a shocked yet concerned expression. He felt the same grief and exasperation of which she suffered the most after graduation. In contrast, he had it easier in his field by quickly applying for a job at Liberty International Components Inc. and later, being the director of Megatech Software. The constant air of misery surrounding her position in life had to be lifted somehow, one way or another. He could not simply leave her to her own situation.
“Hey,” he said, tugging her shoulders. She glanced with a teary face. “Don’t feel down, Jennifer. My company is looking for a manager to handle the affairs and activities of the business. The workload may be high, but the pay’s good. Much better than the wages earned at the place you work.”
In a surprising turn of events, Jennifer’s mood improved from constant, self-pitying misery to a brighter, easygoing joy. She smiled for the first time and said to Kenny: “Thanks,”
--#--
Excerpt from “PC Jenny: A Memoir” (2018) by Jennifer Smith
Shortly after quitting my job from the Kenny Rogers store, I left completely elated. I was liberated from that awful job. Constantly being shouted at for being too slow or making slipups, harassment from other customers, and all sorts of bullshit I had to endure for nearly two years working at this.
Kenny Wu, my old classmate and graduate from UCLA where I once studied, took me for a drive in town. He was kind to me that he offered me a business management job which I could finally apply my degree field on. It sounded too good on words and I did not know what kind of business he was running, but he assured me this was completely legitimate. “A software company,” he told me. I was so excited. I wondered what kinds of software his company was developing.
He brought me to an arcade to spend some quality time together. It was once a very popular arcade in Torrance, but now closed nowadays. The insides were dark and illuminated by the colorful neon glow from the ceiling and the screens of the arcade cabinet. The air was cooled to chilly temperatures by the air conditioners, contrasting the sun-baked air of outside. There were a lot of kids who played those arcade games or loitered for the cool air. The game noises drowned out what they were talking and yelling about, and caused me to wince from all that sound.
Kenny guided me through the arcade, showing off the arcade machines for me to see. The attract modes were showing off demonstrations of their respective games, gameplay footage in modern parlance. This was quieter than the games being played. To be honest, I was never much of a gamer. I was a model student in school and university. The only video games I played were Breakout, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man. Even then, I only played these for a few times because I saw them as wasting time.
He persuaded me to try out one of the games in the arcade, even though I refused to play any of them. But as a favor to repay him, I abided with his request. There was a wide variety of games to choose from, so I was overwhelmed by so much choice. The graphics of these games have evolved a long way since I last played them. But they all seemed too male-oriented for me – dark, violent, and scary. I did not want to play Splatterhouse, where a hockey-masked maniac bashes monsters with his fist. Lethal Enforcers, where you shoot digitized sprites of real people with a gun. Sinistar, where a scary robotic voice taunted me. And Mortal Kombat, for sure.
Maybe these elements were drawing the adolescent male patrons to this arcade for making them high and thrilled. That and the stench of expired soda and snacks staining on the floor was giving off a seedy din to the place. Since my choices were completely slim with Kenny getting tired of wandering around, I set my eyes on a lone, seldom-played arcade game at the corner of the arcade – UFO Robo Dangar[2].
I do not know honestly what drew me to that game. Perhaps it was how clean, the lack of close-up violence that characterized the popular arcade games when the attract mode was on. Or the heroic robot, reminiscent of Voltron and The Transformers, standing beside the title on the title screen. It does not matter now, since I wanted to play a single session of the game. Kenny handed me a sack of quarters for me to insert into the machine.
Once I inserted a single quarter into the machine, I pressed start and grabbed onto the joystick while hovering my hand over the fire button. I was immediately greeted by the loud, triumphant chiptune fanfare as three hangars from a sort of base opened up and three jets lifted off from the extending runway. The three jets soon transformed and merged into the titular blue-and-white robot of the game, which flew with its jets ablaze.
As I pressed the fire button upon seeing a flying enemy, the robot fired fist-shaped projectiles and destroyed it. I quickly got ahold of the game and moving the robot while pressing down the fire button accompanied with the upbeat, heavy drum machine beat. I shot a capsule, which opened up a power up that I picked up. It upgraded the robot’s main weapon from rocket fists to an energy rifle it held firing blue bullets.
I continued to play with that upgrade, gunning down enemies, both airborne and ground-based, with the blaster while flying through a desert landscape punctuated with lakes, rivers, and futuristic architecture. At the mid-point I picked up another power-up that transformed the robot into a flying saucer. This was where the UFO part came from.
I flew over a black portal on the ground. Suddenly, the flying saucer was transported into a bizarre space where colorful orbs and nuclei embedded. This was marked with an abrupt shift of background music. I was startled, but I kept that emotion by myself, not wanting to derail my enjoyment of the game. I shot up a lot of snake-like enemies, and eventually fought the boss of the space – a large v-shaped UFO which I managed to dispatch easily.
I played until I dispatched all three bosses and losing all lives in the game. By that moment, I was completely exhilarated and exhausted from playing the game intensely. It was an unforgettable experience, and I felt the joy of playing games for the first time. I briefly turned around to see an amazed Kenny along with a large crowd of players standing behind him with a similar expression. I was instantly astonished and bewildered. I asked Kenny how long I was playing, to which he replied: “An hour and a quarter”.
Looking back at the screen of the arcade machine, the high-score for UFO Robo Dangar was 1,500,020. Somehow, I achieved that without even being aware of it, beating out the previous score of 400,350 on the leaderboard. Stunned, I inputted my initials into the scoreboard and quickly egressed from the arcade with him. We were completely delighted by the experience. It was a memory I was fond of recalling whenever I wanted to talk about our lives. And this was a step which I slowly became familiar with the world of video games.
--#--
10th January, 1994.
“Is she your new girlfriend?” Erwin Mab asked, pointing his thumb at Jennifer Smith.
Kenny Wu sighed heavily in disappointment, shaking his head. “No, she isn’t. She’s our new manager, and my assistant.” He oversaw a crowd of Megatech Software’s staff members gathered in the main development studio, with them facing him directly.
“Everyone,” he blurted as he addressed the staff in the room. “I like you to welcome your new manager,” he gestured to Jennifer standing by his side, dressed in a formal work dress. “Say hello to Jennifer Smith."
Everyone in the room clapped loudly in unison as Kenny guided Jennifer to meet the staff one-by-one. The staff handed her small gifts or greeting cards with personally-written messages for her. Kenny instructed them not to relentlessly badger her with questions unless he gave his permission to do so. David S. Moskowitz photographed the events in the welcoming party, culminating in her cutting the specially-baked cake by a programmer who made it the day before.
“Three cheers!” Ned Neidermeyer, a sound engineer, exclaimed as he poured RC Cola from a bottle into glass cups. Several of the staff members walked and picked up their drinks from the table, clinking as in tradition. Erwin played “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice blasting on the boombox, much to the displeasure of others, seeing it as a novelty single.
Gary Lee entered the room modestly with little fanfare. He passed through several staff members to approach Kenny and Jennifer, who were sitting down and eating the snacks on a table. “Glad to meet you, son,” he addressed.
“Mr. Lee,” Kenny replied as he stood up. “Didn’t expect to see you here,”
“Well, I thought it would be good to drop by and see your new employee,” Gary replied.
Jennifer stood up to greet the middle-aged man with greying hair. She extended her hand to him, offering to shake her hand as a greeting. “You must be my employer, aren’t you?”
Gary grabbed her hands gently, shaking it lightly. He smiled at her, and glanced at Kenny with the same expression. He then released his grip, patting on his necktie and adjusting it.
“Thanks for providing me a job,” Jennifer said. “I could’ve starved on the streets without you.”
“My pleasure, miss,” Gary replied. “Your friend introduced me to you a few weeks ago.”
“Don’t mention it,” Kenny blurted, rubbing his head on the back. “I’ve processed the paperwork for her employment.”
“And I procured the documents for you,” Gary added. “From the offices of Liberty.”
Jennifer looked around for a moment. The loud music was annoying, sure, but it was more bearable compared to the licensed music played at her previous business she was employed at. She thought to herself about her current job. She was just newly inducted into the position of manager and personal assistant to Kenny Wu simultaneously. She preferred this over her previous one. As she continued to contemplate, she wondered what software the company was producing.
“Hey,” she tugged Kenny. He noticed and glanced at her. “About your company,”
“Talk this in my office,” Kenny replied.
--#--
Kenny Wu brought Jennifer Smith into his executive office. He opened the door and he led her in. As they entered the office, he gestured her to sit down on the sofa facing the executive desk. The sofa was extremely comfortable to sit down on, which calmed her nerves a bit. She looked around the surroundings of the room. It was modestly-sized for an executive office, usual for such business. Besides the typical file cabinets and shelves filled with administrative and business documents she would expect from a businessman, a single element stood out from the rest. Shelves filled with all sorts of robot models, bearing a passing resemblance to Transformers, and videocassette cases, both official and rudimental, and other memorabilia from media she did not recognize.
A side of the room plastered with posters ostensibly printed in Japanese-language text and hand-drawn, hand-painted posters depicting characters in an unfamiliar artstyle, painted in pastel-chalked water colors. These illustrations depicted big-eyed characters with puffy hair; sometimes with gritty, dark shading; sometimes accosted by robots or monsters; and sometimes doing cute or sexy things. The closest thing she could approximate when she described it in her mind was an amalgam style combining the big eyes and prettiness of Disney cartoons of the 1950s, the semi-grounded physique and shading of the darker, non-superhero comics of 1970s, and the high-energy innocence and themes of action-adventure Saturday morning cartoons of the 1980s.
By the side of the executive desk in the office, a cabinet with a television stood there. Under the television, a shelf held a Philips-branded VCR connected to the television with a few videocassettes on the side. A TurboGrafx-16 sat on top of the VCR, its gamepad laid on the body of the console, and cases for the games Splatterhouse, Alien Crush, Ys: Book I & II, and Keith Courage in Alpha Zones leaning by the side.
“What’s your business all about, exactly?” Jennifer inquired as she faced Kenny. “I’m just curious what you do in this company? What’s the name? Mega…”
“Megatech Software,” he answered. “Megatech, if you want to make it short. Regarding what we do in this company. We’re a licensor and localizer of software from Japan.”
Jennifer nodded in agreement, excitedly. “Software from Japan? That’s actually cool. All the best stuff is made in Japan. I’m interested. Tell me about your products.”
“We don’t peddle in business software, Jenny,” Kenny replied. She quickly became surprised at what he said and gazed at him befuddled. He nervously smiled, not wanting to belittle her intelligence or dignity. He sighed heavily. “Truth is we’re a video game company. Not the type that makes their own video games. Rather, we license Japanese computer games and localize them into English for release in North America.”
Jennifer still maintained the same expression, albeit in stunned silence. She had no words to say. She was nearly deceived, but she refrained from being infuriated at him. After all, he provided her a job that paid well based on the monthly salary and better workplace environment than her previous job. She could not simply spurn what she had already accepted eagerly.
“Kenny,” she said. “I’d like to have a look of your games. Honestly, I don’t know about the contents or how many you were releasing, but I may politely differ on the matter of your releases.”
Kenny smiled eagerly and stood up to face the shelf nearby. “Well, Jenny, you’re in luck,” he said as he pulled a copy of Cobra Mission from it. “I’ve been waiting for somebody to show off my interests. Here, I’ll demonstrate the first game we released for you to see. I think you’d be amazed.”
--To be continued--
Footnotes:
[1] Kenny Rogers Roasters is actually a real restaurant with the same name. It serves roasted chicken on its menu.
[2] UFO Robo Dangar is an actual arcade game developed and published by Nichibutsu, an obscure Japanese game company. It's a vertically-scrolling shoot'em up strongly influenced by super robot anime.
Author's Note:
I shout out to the dedicated readers of the thread. I could've not gone far without your support. I'll give a shout out to @MemphisC for following me, and a mention for @Kennedy Forever for regularly liking my posts on the AH Quote thread.