When Kobayashi Tetsu returned home, Yuji Naka still hadn't left.
Seeing him holding a boxed package, Yuji Naka took a closer look and was instantly shocked.
"Kobayashi-kun, th-this isn't right, is it? Aren't you a SEGA developer? Why did you buy a Nintendo product?"
Kobayashi Tetsu waved his hand. "It was free."
Yuji Naka didn't believe it. "Free? There's such a good thing in the world?"
"I told them I didn't want it, but they cried and knelt, begging me to accept it, so I reluctantly did."
Kobayashi Tetsu pressed his fingers to his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.
After a moment, he suddenly put the box down.
"How much do you know about Nintendo? If you're not too familiar with them, try this machine. Development is paused for today. Our main mission today—play games."
Yuji Naka really wasn't familiar with Nintendo.
He had dropped out of high school, come to Tokyo with only a few thousand yen to his name, and lived on part-time jobs. He didn't have the money or time to play games.
Now that Kobayashi Tetsu had spoken, Yuji Naka naturally put aside his work and helped unpack the machine and connect it to the TV.
Besides the game Hayato Chiyama had given him, Kobayashi Tetsu also bought two other launch titles:
Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye.
Yuji Naka tried them for a bit, then put down the controller.
Kobayashi Tetsu asked, "How does it feel? Don't think—tell me your first reaction."
Yuji Naka responded quickly. "The controller feels good. The games… how to say it—they have a straightforward kind of fun."
"Yes, exactly that."
Kobayashi Tetsu said, "Nintendo's games have a kind of simple joy. How do Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. feel to you?"
This time Yuji Naka thought a bit before answering. "They're both very fun. They don't look complicated, but they're extremely enjoyable, and the graphics are quite refined."
—Compared to other games in 1983.
Then Yuji Naka added, "I'm not flattering you, but I think Kobayashi Puzzle is no worse than these two games—no, actually, it's more fun."
Kobayashi Tetsu waved his hand. "It's Kobayashi Blocks, not Kobayashi Puzzle—but we're not talking about that today. Tell me this: if Nintendo is about to release a game, and the release date is the same as our Tank Battle project—how would you feel?"
Yuji Naka's face went pale instantly. Four big characters practically formed on his forehead:
"Holy crap, we're done!"
He swallowed hard. "It can't be that coincidental, right? We'll finish Tank Battle around September. Would Nintendo really release something then?"
"They will," Kobayashi Tetsu said. "I can guarantee it—September, at the latest mid-September."
Kobayashi Tetsu raised a finger. "Because the manager of the Nintendo specialty store invited me to do an exhibition match on September 1st—using their game."
...
...
Kobayashi Tetsu's reasoning had basis.
Nintendo wasn't a company that did meaningless things.
Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, had yakuza ties; his subordinates even called him "Boss." A man like that didn't act without purpose.
If Nintendo arranged an exhibition match at this timing, it certainly wasn't just to arm-wrestle SEGA.
Kobayashi Tetsu believed it had to be tied to something similar to SEGA's activities—like promoting a console or a new title.
Currently, FC sales were ahead of SEGA's. Even after SEGA's marketing and hardware revisions, they were still slightly behind.
So this move by Nintendo was, with high probability, meant to promote a new game.
Thinking of the prototype Hayato Chiyama had invited him to test, Kobayashi Tetsu immediately thought of only one possible title:
The FC version of Mario Bros..
He wasn't entirely sure of the exact release date, but he was certain it was in September—right around the time Tank Battle would release!
Because Chiyama Hayato had invited him to an exhibition match on September 1st.
If it were an ordinary game, Kobayashi Tetsu wouldn't be this anxious.
But Mario was different.
In 1983—this very year—an incident occurred in America that outsiders knew nothing about, but insiders were utterly shocked by:
The Atari Video Game Crash.
The most famous American game company, Atari, hastily released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a game of such poor quality that it triggered a chain reaction and crashed the entire U.S. game market.
This indirectly allowed SEGA of America to grow stronger.
—Because with Atari gone, SEGA's American branch no longer had competition and began expanding. This indirectly led, years later, to the internal power struggles between SEGA of America and SEGA of Japan. SEGA of America's rebellion would eventually deliver one of the critical blows to SEGA Japan.
But that was far in the future.
Focusing only on the impact of the crash:
With Atari's collapse, the U.S. game market fell flat. Experts predicted it would take at least twenty years for the American industry to recover to its 1970s peak.
But those predictions were overturned in just two years.
And the one who overturned them was Nintendo.
In 1985, Nintendo launched the FC in North America under the name NES, nicknamed the "gray machine" because of its grey casing.
Alongside the console, a game launched that exploded across the U.S., reviving the entire American gaming industry in a single year, and enabling Japanese games to dominate the U.S. for a full decade.
That game, released alongside the NES, was—
Super Mario Bros.
Mario thus became one of the most influential characters in global video game history—so iconic that, aside from Princess Peach refusing to marry him, many real-world girls were willing to say they'd marry "Mario-san."
So of course Kobayashi Tetsu couldn't ignore this.
He believed in Tank Battle—but he believed in Mario even more.
After all, he personally liked playing Mario!
"But thinking carefully, maybe I should be confident too. I believe in Mario, but I should also believe in Tank Battle—a top-tier title on the FC!"
There was a saying about the FC: the "Four Classic Giants"—games that most players loved when they turned on their FC:
Contra, Salamander, Rush'n Attack, and Jackal.
Neither Tank Battle nor Mario was among them.
From another angle, since neither was first place, everyone stood on equal ground.
Second wasn't much better than third!
Seeing it was getting late, Kobayashi Tetsu pushed Yuji Naka to get off work while dialing the phone.
At the very least, he needed to circulate this information inside SEGA. He believed in Tank Battle, but he believed SEGA needed to respond quickly even more.
"Hello, connect me to SEGA…"
"Yes, SEGA. This is Atlas Studio—the one that made Kobayashi Blocks and Kobayashi Doctor. Transfer me to the hardware division, home console development. I need Acting Section Chief Kobayashi Kentarō!"
Kentarō hadn't been home for nearly a week. Even Kobayashi Tetsu had to reach him by phone.
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