"Awesome! This is way more fun than One on One!"
After all, while One on One also featured shooting mechanics, they were basically limited to dunking.
If Ethan could actually make this work, it could grow into an entire franchise, and the most obvious advantage was their expansion disk drive. They could sell character packs again!
Sam's gaze swept across the game consoles beside the television before suddenly landing on the NES that still had Pinball inserted.
"You're playing Pinball?"
"Yeah, just studying their physics effects."
Only then did Ethan return his attention to what they'd been discussing, quickly calculating the NovaBox's performance in his head.
"Tell me... what do you think about making a real physics simulation?"
"Huh??"
Sam had absolutely no idea what had just happened. Even if he did, he still wouldn't understand what Ethan was trying to do this time.
"Don't you think... fixed trajectories and fixed speeds make basketball far too boring?"
Acquiring the new skill had changed Ethan's understanding of game physics. Now, with only a few modifications, creating a simplified physics system wasn't difficult at all.
Ethan sat quietly in the spectator stands of a basketball gym. It was a small gymnasium in Los Angeles that he had rented for three months to meet any potential development needs.
The squeak of sneakers against the hardwood echoed throughout the court.
Kareem stood just inside the three-point line. He gave a light hop, flicked his wrist gently, and sent the basketball through the hoop in a flawless arc. These were the most reliable two points in the world.
Sitting beside Ethan was a man dressed in a suit. He cradled a basketball in his hands, his eyes following Kareem's movements across the court.
Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
The greatest basketball player in NBA history, and one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century. During the third game of the 1985 – 1986 season, he had unfortunately broken his foot and was still recovering from the injury.
Judging from the movement of his leg, however, he was at most one or two months away from returning to the court.
"Kareem's skyhook has to be the most reliable move I've ever seen," Michael said.
Ethan smiled. "Maybe, but your fadeaway is right up there."
Ethan held a sketchbook in his arms, casually jotting down a string of numbers that Michael couldn't make sense of. These were all key parameters that would be used in the basketball physics system.
The simpler something needed to be, the more complicated it became to develop.
"Haha, are you planning to put that move into the game?"
Jordan let out a hearty laugh. Compared to Kareem, he had a much more outgoing personality.
"I'm just getting started in the NBA. You, on the other hand, have already built a name for yourself in the gaming industry."
His gaze shifted from the court back to Ethan, his admiration completely genuine. To the gaming industry today, GAMENOVA was synonymous with blockbuster success.
"So, Ethan, do you have any secrets to success you'd be willing to share?"
Hearing the question, Ethan chuckled and deliberately put on a profound expression.
"Have you ever seen Los Angeles at four in the morning?"
Jordan froze for a moment before shaking his head, just that single sentence had moved him.
Ethan continued, "The sky is full of stars, the lights are sparse, and hardly anyone is on the streets."
"Every day at four in the morning, Los Angeles is still shrouded in darkness, and I'm still sitting in front of my computer, staying awake in that darkness."
"One day passes, yet the darkness over Los Angeles doesn't change at all."
"Two days pass... more than ten years pass... and it still doesn't change."
"But I become an exceptionally skilled programmer."
Jordan was completely stunned, unable to respond for a long while. In his mind, he could almost see Ethan working day and night, sacrificing his sleep and food in pursuit of creating the perfect game. So that's how it was...
"Everything you said, is it all true…?"
"Oh, no. I just made that up."
Ethan smiled sheepishly, interrupting Jordan before he could elevate the conversation any further.
"To be honest, if I had to point to one thing, it'd definitely be passion. No one can develop a game that they themselves don't enjoy playing. If I'm still awake at four in the morning, it's probably because I'm playing games."
The sudden reversal nearly made Jordan stumble, and the speech he'd carefully prepared got stuck in his throat, unable to come out or go back down. In the end, all he could do was throw back his head and burst into laughter.
"Right! Exactly! I fell in love with sports, and with basketball, because of my family."
Thinking back, he'd been cut from his high school basketball team when he was fifteen. If he hadn't continued loving basketball back then, how could he have come back stronger the following year? How could he have become the NBA Rookie of the Year?
"Then I'll be looking forward to your next game, Ethan."
"Absolutely! And I hope you return to the court soon, Michael. Go out there and score sixty, no, sixty-three points in a game!"
Two months later, it was the playoffs. The Chicago Bulls faced the Boston Celtics.
Michael Jordan returned to the court and exploded for 63 points, setting a new NBA playoff single-game scoring record.
Although the final score was 131–135, with the Bulls narrowly losing after one costly mistake, Jordan's astonishing performance stole countless headlines. If that game was a feast for basketball fans, then the banquet gamers had been waiting for had finally arrived as well.
And as if they had planned it together, the two companies released their new basketball games on the very same day.
EA's One on One: Earvin Johnson vs. Larry Bird, priced at $49.99.
And GAMENOVA's Double Dribble, priced at $69.99.
Suddenly, players were faced with a difficult choice.
......
"Hey, guys! Want to stop by the game store after this? That basketball game I told you about is finally out!"
Harvey caught the pass from his teammate and launched the ball towards the basket. Unfortunately, he put just a little too much force into it, so the basketball bounced once around the rim before rolling out.
"A game? That's not cool, man."
The others stopped walking and looked at Harvey with puzzled expressions.
When he'd first talked about that video game featuring NBA superstar Larry Bird, they'd all assumed he was just messing with them.
But as the release date drew closer, he seemed more and more serious. Every day he went on and on about how incredible the version he'd played on PC was and how brilliant EA was.
Now he actually wanted them to go to a game store with him, the kind of place only nerds went. Seriously, what was he even thinking?
"Guys, it's Magic Johnson versus Larry Bird!"
The group exchanged amused glances, trying not to laugh.
"Harvey, then you'd better treat the boys to dinner."