Will hugged a box of office supplies he had hastily packed as he was led to the GAMENOVA's office building, whose exterior had just been completed.
A massive GAMENOVA Entertainment logo hung prominently above the entrance. The building's facade adopted a clean monochromatic design, with only a few accent-colored trim pieces highlighting the structure's geometric divisions.
The strength of reinforced concrete made it possible to use bold, interlocking cubic architectural forms. Large curtain walls of glass, framed with contrasting colors, clearly marked the employee lounge, gym, and other recreational facilities.
The sight instantly matched everything Will imagined a Silicon Valley tech giant's office should look like. It was modern, elegant, and efficient.
"Pretty cool, right? We just bought the building ourselves." Ethan patted him on the shoulder, signaling him to follow.
Fortunately, they had moved to a new location. Otherwise, if Will had seen that small office, it would have been rather embarrassing.
Passing through the parking area in front, they entered a reception area that matched the building's exterior with the same clean, modern design. A smaller company logo was mounted on the partition wall behind the reception desk, and several fluorescent lights embedded in the ceiling cast a rare cool white glow for this era.
On the receptionist's desk sat a CRT monitor, and judging from the classic IBM Model M keyboard, the computer itself was certainly no cheap machine.
"This is... unbelievably luxurious..."
Will had never seen anything like this.
The machines he used were affordable home computers like the Apple II and the Commodore 64.
Professional IBM PCs were beyond even his imagination, not to mention expensive workstations. Yet at GAMENOVA, even the receptionist's computer was a top of the line machine.
It practically had "I'm Rich" written across its face.
What amazed Will even more was the building's unique design philosophy.
Unlike the mainstream Memphis style, with its abundance of bright colors and decorative elements, GAMENOVA embraced subtraction. Design elements were stripped down as much as possible, leaving only black and white as the primary palette, accented with a few thematic colors in different areas.
"What a fascinating style... and unexpectedly beautiful."
Will looked around in astonishment.
This "non-mainstream" design didn't feel ugly at all. Instead, it felt exceptionally comfortable, rebellious, and avant-garde. It was perfectly in line with GAMENOVA's identity.
"Come on, Sam should already have the paperwork ready."
Ethan led Will upstairs.
Although the first floor featured high ceilings and an expansive layout, nearly the entire level had been designed as a relaxation area. That much was obvious from the rows of arcade cabinets and various gaming consoles lined up in one corner.
Only the second floor was the true office area. The moment he stepped upstairs, Will was stunned once again.
"An open plan office? That's incredible!"
It was completely different from the tightly packed cubicles he had imagined. There were hardly any permanent walls. Instead, the entire floor adopted the bullpen-style open workspace favored by Silicon Valley technology companies.
Even the partitions dividing departments consisted almost entirely of floor to ceiling glass. They were open, collaborative, and designed to eliminate hierarchical barriers.
Judging from the nearly empty desks, Ethan clearly hadn't lied when he said the renovations had only just been completed.
Most of the workstations were completely vacant. It barely looked like anyone had even started working here yet.
Ethan's gaze landed on Vivian. She was holding a freshly brewed cup of coffee, leaning casually against one of the desks.
"Making progress on the project?"
Vivian rolled her eyes.
"What? Am I not allowed to come see you just because I want to?"
"Of course you are. Absolutely."
Ethan chuckled before pulling the still somewhat nervous Will over.
"Let me introduce you. This is Vivian, CEO of MicroNova, GAMENOVA's semiconductor subsidiary. And this is Will Wright, a promising new developer I just hired."
"A newcomer? That's pretty rare."
Vivian curiously examined the rather unremarkable, scruffy-looking young man. He couldn't have been much older than Ethan, but he certainly didn't carry himself like any sort of elite professional.
With his blank expression and absent-minded demeanor, he perfectly embodied the stereotypical image of a nerd.
Still, Vivian knew one thing for certain. When it came to identifying talent, Ethan's judgment had never been wrong.
"After all, Carmack's been dragged over to your side to work like a slave. The development department's running short on manpower."
The more Ethan looked at Will, the more satisfied he became. With a status panel like this, even if he had no idea who Will Wright was, he'd still find a way to recruit him.
[Will Wright]
Overall Rating: S (Godfather of Simulation Games)
Art Design: 71 (Growth Potential: B)
Hardware Design: 90 (Growth Potential: A)
Game Design: 128 (Growth Potential: S+)
Programming: 122 (Growth Potential: S+)
With stats and growth potential like that, this was unquestionably a top-tier talent.
As they talked, Ethan noticed Vivian shift slightly, revealing something that had been hidden behind her.
It was a circuit board equipped with an ISA expansion slot, and it contained a large number of components, yet the layout remained remarkably clean.
The routing clearly bore the craftsmanship of an experienced engineer. Its chip architecture looked completely different from the NovaWonder hardware Ethan was familiar with.
It was a graphics card.
Ethan raised an eyebrow before lightly patting Will on the shoulder.
"Why don't you head over to that office? Sam will get you settled in."
After Will left, Ethan turned his attention back to the graphics card, his expression full of surprise.
"Already? You finished OpenGL too?"
The development speed had exceeded even his expectations.
"Not yet," Vivian shook her head.
"But we rushed out this prototype as a proof of concept. It still can't be mass-produced, but everything it needs is already there."
The development process for this graphics card had been a truly no expense spared undertaking.
It had been built by throwing money at the problem. For the sake of this project, the entire core engineering team at SGI had been dragged over and worked overtime for half a month straight.
As she spoke, Vivian bent over, opened up an IBM PC/AT sitting on the workstation, and inserted the graphics card into an empty ISA slot.
Its video output connector was clearly different from the familiar EGA interface. Instead of nine pins, it now featured thirteen.
"I added several dedicated ground pins to the new standard and separated the RGB channels."
Noticing Ethan studying it, Vivian folded her arms proudly and explained, "That way, each color signal line is paired with its own ground line, forming a simple shielding loop that greatly reduces interference."
Although analog signals offered tremendous advantages in color reproduction, even theoretically supporting an unlimited color range, they also suffered significantly from signal interference.
As a result, they required a much cleaner transmission environment than EGA.
"As expected of you."
Ethan accepted the video cable she handed him and examined it carefully, clicking his tongue in admiration.
"But thirteen pins feels... a little awkward."
The number thirteen simply wasn't elegant for connector layouts. It was difficult to arrange neatly, and besides, the future VGA connector would ultimately have fifteen pins.
It was just that several of the communication protocols those additional pins would eventually support hadn't even been invented yet.
"Let's increase it to fifteen pins. Five pins per row, three rows total."
"That'll also make it easier for us to support more new types of data input in the future."