Chapter 316: The Creed Chaos System II
Suffice to say, the Creed Chaos System put the whole of Nintendo's structure into chaos.
The very existence of this new 16-bit system has got to be the greatest roadblock that their Famicom-NES line has ever come across.
16-bit was completely double what they were capable of. Making it an entirely greater generation than the 3rd-gen console systems that are predominantly prevalent in the market.
A faulty publicized iteration didn't end them...
The game market crash didn't discourage them...
Negative video game perception didn't deter them...
Stubborn retailers weren't able to dissuade them...
However...
A superior console will surely outdo them.
Their prized console was facing its greatest adversary yet. How could Nintendo not be thrown into disarray?
Surely, it wasn't that bad.
They could still push on with the North American market since they've already opened it up.
The Nintendo Entertainment System still had a chance to establish itself as the most dominant console just as how the Famicom is to Japan.
With explosive publicity, finding the right partners, and the power of marketing... the NES could blow the competition off the market.
They really had the confidence to do that... but not anymore.
It may not seem like it but the disparity between 8-bit and the theoretical 16-bit systems was big.
It wasn't just about the difference in numbers.
It was the difference in colors and display. It was the difference in tech. It was a very fundamental difference in how games are played.
With that said, reaching the coveted 16-bit isn't that easy. If it was... Nintendo would have started work on it.
It was a very complicated process.
Even the original Famicom was supposed to be a 16-bit system. They had to downgrade it to an 8-bit-er due to factors such as high cost and finding it hard to configure the circuitry and specs.
How did a newcomer like Creed Games even manage to pull it off? Did they really pull it off?
Oh... how Nintendo hoped that these pesky Creeds messed up.
Of course, Nintendo also hoped that they really had a working system.
Sure, the NES is as good as a second-placer when that is the case, however, the prospect of a working 16-bit system also opened up opportunities.
Nintendo could also work on a 16-bit system of their own... and work their ass off to catch up and overtake this ambitious Creed Chaos System.
Possibilities were opening up for Nintendo as well.
Now, they only had to open up a Creed Chaos System to see what its secrets are all about.
Deplorable... yes... but this was a semi-tech industry. Reverse engineering and outright plagiarizing the work of competitors were a necessity.
Especially when you're desperate and felt cheated.
It was them that opened up the eyes of the North American market to the prospect of consoles. Creed are just shameless opportunists.
With Creed opening up the floodgates for 4th generation console technology, it was only fair for Nintendo to be the shameless opportunist this time around.
------
In any case, Nintendo was quick to work.
Minoru Arakawa himself purchased 5 units of the Creed Chaos System, booked the earliest flight available, and headed back to Japan to reconvene with his true boss and father-in-law.
Hiroshi Yamauchi had long been informed of this worrying development and personally picked up his son-in-law to get to the bottom of this whole mess.
Seriously, the NES updates of last Christmas were a complete breath of relief from a whole year of problematic developments.
To think that within the second year, a much bigger problem has arisen already.
Tough and ruthless Yamauchi himself was starting to reconsider whether this whole NES thing was still worth it or not.
Honestly, this blow-by-blow and successive setbacks may be getting to him as well.
As of now, assessing the legitimate threat of this unexpected competition takes precedence.
Learning and breaking down the enemy's technology may prove fruitful and Nintendo could find a way to come out on top.
-----
Studying the imported Creed Chaos Systems was what came next... and Nintendo's top minds were needed for this operation.
They called out Gunpei Yokoi. Developer of the Ultra Hand, the Game and Watch, R.O.B., and current Head of Nintendo's R&D1.
For the General Manager of R&D2, "Technology Fellow" Genyo Takeda was here.
Then there's another big player in R&D2, Masayuki Uemura.
A couple of other notable engineers and technicians were also called out, however, Yokoi, Takeda, and Uemura were the trio with the most prominence.
The Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System were their collective brainchild and they were quite shocked to know that something had actually surpassed the technical capabilities of their creation.
This Creed Chaos System was truly something if it is as advertised.
Of course, there was also someone that was relatively clueless and out of place in this hardware-heavy gathering.
This someone happens to be named Shigeru Miyamoto. "Uhm... am I in trouble, Yokoi-san?"
"Why would you be in trouble?" Gunpei Yokoi assured the man. "You are just here to check some games from a troubling competitor that has just risen up."
"Oh." Miyamoto was relieved. "For a second there, I thought I was going to be grilled for not being able to release my game this month."
"That Legend of Something game of yours?" Yokoi asked.
"Hai. I wanted to go with Zelda but it turns out some company called Creed Games had locked that whole name in." Miyamoto went on. "What's even stranger is that this Legend of Zelda thing also had character names that were totally what I wanted to go for."
"What's also strange is that the game that I am working on has the same issue as well." Yokoi could sigh at this coincidental twist. "Miyamoto, it's only going to get stranger for us because this new machine we're looking at is actually from this Creed Games company."
"Eh!" Miyamoto was perplexed. This whole Creed seems to be hanging over his shoulders a lot. "Is it really?"
The eavesdropping Uemura chipped in. "Also, if it is what it is. This Creed company could very well be the cause for the current games we are working on to be scrapped."
If 16-bit is truly viable now, why would their boss Yamauchi settle for 8-bit games?
"Wait!" Miyamoto really had a hard time coping here. "What is really going on here?"
"We will all know in a minute." Takeda said since the machine from America was finally screwed open.
These experts checked the circuitry to the best of their judgment... and some things weren't quite right.
They even re-checked and studied every connection for hours... and something still didn't seem quite right.
"So... what do you guys think?" Arakawa was a pure businessman, so he was a layman to this sort of thing.
"Is it legitimate?" Yamauchi was more straightforward. "And if so... can we make our own with it?"
"It is 16-bit with a 16-bit processor but it seems underwhelming." Uemura murmured.
Genyo Takeda pointed out. "It has advanced circuitry and parts with all that is available today... but it is totally just a 1985 version of 1977's Intellivision."
"Right. There are even inexplicable parts like this unnecessary transceiver, however, its general circuity is Intellivision all over again." Uemura supported.
Mattel's Intellivision may not seem like it but it was technically the first 16-bit console in a sense. However, it hadn't really made that much of a splash for a reason.
Yamauchi knew of that console as well. "Wasn't that a failed 16-bit console? With only 16-bit on select parts yet totally underwhelming on other factors. Does that mean this Creed Chaos System is a flop as well?"
That was good news yet the perplexed expression of these experts only made the Nintendo presidents perplexed as well.
This Creed Chaos System could have been dismissed with that.
Its hardware was underwhelming and not the 16-bit configuration that they envisioned the 4th gen console to be.
However, they also tested the software side of things... and they were surprised that it was actually 16-bit in some sense.
There's even an inkling in their guts that the software could surpass that. Was this the reason for the 16+bit typo?
"I want answers." That was all Yamauchi needed to do to snap these techno-people awake.
"We actually don't have any concrete answers ourselves, Yamauchi-san." Yokoi could only grimace.
"If we're talking on the hardware side, we could probably make a better version of this, with better memory, storage, and circuit boards." Uemura explained. "In fact, we already have tried this type of configuration from all our attempts to make the step into the 16-bit territory."
"Theoretically, this Creed system is doable but not ideal. In fact, their system should be crashing a lot and freezing up but it isn't doing that."
"Which leads us to believe that the true magic in this system is with its software."
"So... we just study, copy, and reverse engineer their software then." Yamauchi had a can-do attitude.
"If only it was that simple." Yokoi grimaced again as he had no choice but to attempt again at looking into the software.
-----
Usually, it should have been easy. Nintendo may not have the best programmers... but a game console's coding and protective system should be relatively breezy to get into.
It was just a video game system with low-end circuitry.
However...
How could they work their tricks when they came across something so chaotic that they didn't even know what to do?
They tried infiltrating the core of this Creed Chaos System, alright.
But all they got was...
A dark background, characters of either red or green fonts, and randomly dancing about.
It is just pure madness. Whether this was a protective coding or not... these snoopy Nintendo professionals finally knew why it was the Creed Chaos System.
Try as they might. They never really got anywhere with it.
Yamauchi and Arakawa and the team toiled around with these machines and their anomalous software for days.
They even revisited the pseudo-16-bit hardware for clues.
Ultimately, they were heading nowhere.
They were back to square one. They might have even dropped to square zero because their attempts at reverse-engineering this cursed Creed Chaos System didn't result in anything at all.
The codings in each of these nifty boxes could very well be chaos... and this chaos only led the whole of Nintendo to just be in more disarray.
After all, their deep research into the ins and outs of this Creed console may not amount to anything but it made them realize just how much the NES didn't stand a chance.