Everyone focused their attention on Sega's new handheld console on the large screen.
Compared to Sega's GG released in 1990, this handheld console was much slimmer, roughly the size of a palm. Its total length when held horizontally was similar to a future Huawei Mate 30.
The directional pad and buttons were on both sides, with the screen in the middle.
When you hold it horizontally, you can feel considerable comfort.
Tom Kalinske had a triumphant smile on his face.
Today was destined to belong to Sega.
Kalinske held the sega gp in his hand, "The sega gp weighs 256g. It fits in one hand."
The people below might not have a clear concept of this.
However, the Nintendo personnel present today all frowned deeply.
Around this Time last year, Sega's GG handheld weighed over 450g, almost a pound, like a large brick.
The Game Boy weighed 300g.
And this Time, Sega directly reduced the weight to 250g.
Gunpei Yokoi, who was sitting below the stage for Nintendo today, and also the leader of the GB development team, showed an expression of disbelief when he heard this weight.
It felt as if he had been hit on the back of the head with a blunt object.
Within his realm of knowledge and concepts, making a game console this small and light was almost an impossible task.
This was beyond his understanding, and Gunpei Yokoi almost jumped out of his chair.
"This is impossible. How can existing technology make a game console to this extent? Do they not use batteries?"
...
Kalinske picked up the new handheld console with one hand, "Before I formally explain this handheld console, please allow me to demonstrate it for everyone, so that everyone present can have a more intuitive feeling."
After speaking, Kalinske inserted a cartridge into the game console. The cameras broadcasting live quickly zoomed in to show the demonstration effect.
In 1992, there was no technology to directly connect electronic devices for screen mirroring, but live broadcasting technology was already quite mature.
The process was also broadcast to the audience through several large color TVs and electronic screens.
The audience held their breath, anticipating the scene they were about to see.
Not far from Aoki Haruhi, Nintendo's employees also became somewhat nervous.
However, Nintendo's development manager, Gunpei Yokoi, sat below the stage, appearing extremely calm.
Gunpei Yokoi was considered Nintendo's second legendary figure, a top expert in hardware development. He designed the Game & Watch, the Famicom, and the Game Boy, earning him the title "Father of the Game Boy."
The D-pad was invented by Gunpei Yokoi.
With wide eyes, he silently watched the game console in Kalinske's hand on stage. Instead of worrying about trivial matters, he focused more on the game console itself.
...
Kalinske turned on the power, and the screen immediately lit up.
The start screen of "sonic the hedgehog" appeared.
Sonic is a blue Hedgehog, covered mostly by blue quills, with peach-colored skin covering his arms, mouth, and abdomen, and black pupils.
He has six feather-like quills on his head, two quills extending from his back, and a short tail.
He wears lightweight, super-friction red sneakers with white laces, white cuffs, and golden buckles, as well as white gloves with sock-like cuffs.
Little Sonic wagged his finger on the screen.
Pressing the button immediately entered the initial position of the game.
The little Hedgehog stood on the left side of the grassland and began to run under Kalinske's control.
This was a side-scrolling game, similar to super mario, but much faster in terms of speed than mario. When sonic the hedgehog jumped, his entire body would curl into a ball, like a large gear with sharp edges.
The sense of rotation also made adrenaline surge.
Originally, according to company strategy, to make the game console sell better, Sega's most powerful game should have been directly integrated into it. The advantage of doing so was to bind the game to Sega and build a reputation.
On the other hand, players buying a game console would essentially receive a sonic the hedgehog cartridge worth 4000 yen, and nothing could be more appealing to players than that.
However, on the GP handheld, to further save game console space and make the handheld smaller and lighter, Sega did not directly integrate the sonic the hedgehog game into the hardware this Time.
Upon seeing sonic the hedgehog, another round of enthusiastic applause erupted below.
There were even children screaming.
"Look, it's Sonic!"
"It's in color!"
"Oh my goodness, to have this effect on a handheld console is quite remarkable."
"Color screen game console! As expected, Sega is still Sega. Color screen game consoles are clearly much better than black and white screens."
"Hmm, being able to play Sonic anytime, anywhere, there's nothing more exciting than that, right?"
...
The surroundings were all English, as this was Chicago, USA, and the media and audience were basically foreigners.
Fortunately, Aoki Haruhi's English in his previous life was good, and he was a high-achieving student who graduated from a 985 university, often needing to read English academic papers, so he understood clearly.
Upon hearing, "There's nothing more exciting than Sonic," Aoki Haruhi sneered inwardly.
That's because Pokémon hasn't been born yet. Once our Pokémon is complete, you'll know what the true handheld overlord is.
Next to him, Nao Tsuda's English wasn't very good. Seeing Aoki Haruhi smiling foolishly, she also started to smile.
...
Compared to others, Gunpei Yokoi seemed much calmer. He scrutinized the sega gp in Kalinske's hand and whispered to his colleague beside him, "Such a game console must have high power consumption. It poses no threat to the Game Boy."
Before he finished speaking, the screen of the Sega game console being demonstrated in Kalinske's hand suddenly flickered twice, then went completely black.
The scene was silent.
Then, after two seconds, a burst of laughter erupted.
"Hahaha..."
"The sega gp is too crappy, isn't it? It just started running, and it's already dead?"
"How funny. Didn't they check the machine beforehand? At least bring a handheld that can complete the game demonstration?"
"What happened? Did it suddenly die, or did it burn out?"
"Is the screen having issues, or did the battery just run out?"
"This is hilarious. It's my first Time seeing such an amusing demonstration at a press conference."
"Sega has really embarrassed itself this Time."
...
Gunpei Yokoi was also amused by this incident at the scene.
"This is the new handheld console jointly developed by Sega and Sony? It hasn't even been officially released yet, and such a big problem occurred during the demonstration. How can they still claim their handheld is excellent?"
"Yeah, is there something wrong with the quality of this game console itself? What were they thinking, bringing it out without inspection?"
"Maybe it was just an accident."
In any case, as arch-rivals, the Nintendo employees were very happy to see such a situation at the Sega event.
...
Holy cow.
Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but exclaim inwardly—
What kind of luck does Sega have?
It's probably similar to Microsoft's system demonstration leading to a blue screen, right?
Historically, this unfortunate company, Sega, has indeed had a difficult fate.
It seems that luck has never been on Sega's side from the very beginning.
Seeing this, Aoki Haruhi himself broke out in a cold sweat. If he were on stage and something like this happened, he wouldn't know how to react at all.
Moreover, his heart sank by half.
A bad start, a bad start.
...
Kalinske, who was closest, instinctively didn't throw the game console away, but he could smell the burnt odor emanating from it.
However, his reaction ability was also quite swift; he immediately burst into laughter.
This laugh completely bewildered everyone present.
After two seconds, everyone quieted down.
At this moment, Kalinske put the GP game console into his pants pocket and calmly asked, "For color screen game consoles, what is everyone's biggest concern?"
"Is it that the screen isn't clear enough?"
"Is it that the game console's controls feel bad?"
He moved along the edge of the stage, smiling and politely looking at everyone.
At this moment, everyone felt somewhat confused.
How could he remain so calm after such a major demonstration accident?
Could it be that we were wrong to laugh just now?
Was all of this actually premeditated?
The Nintendo personnel had similar expressions, looking at each other, finding it difficult to understand what was happening.
How strong must Kalinske's psychological fortitude be?
"Both," Kalinske smiled, raising a finger and wiggling it twice, "but also not."
"The biggest problem with color screen handhelds lies in battery consumption."
If everyone was initially shocked, laughing, and skeptical of Sega's new handheld, by this point, they seemed to have calmed down and been pulled back into a rational state by Kalinske.
"Earlier, what I demonstrated for everyone was how long a small battery could power a color screen game console if we used old-era battery technology," Kalinske concluded.
Then he pulled a dry cell battery from his pocket.
"This should also be a concern for players."
Kalinske smiled. By this point, he had already covered up the issue of the screen burning out, transforming it into battery consumption.
Then, he threw the dry cell battery in his hand heavily onto the floor and stepped on it.
"In the new era, we no longer need dry cell batteries. Because we have newer technology."
After speaking, Kalinske pulled out a brand new sega gp from another pocket.
He flipped the device over, opened the back cover, took out the lithium-ion battery, and held it up.
The camera quickly zoomed in.
Countless audience members, including Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi, stood up curiously from their seats.
"This is our brand new lithium-ion battery technology, provided by Sony," Kalinske said with a smile, waving to the staff below the stage.
The staff looked bewildered, not understanding what he was going to do.
"The reason the screen went black just now was because I used a depleted battery. Next, I will replace it with a new battery to demonstrate for everyone."
Upon hearing this, the staff immediately understood and their minds cleared. They quickly rummaged through their bags for a lithium-ion battery, ran swiftly onto the stage, and handed it to Kalinske.
After reinserting the battery, the game console started, and the screen lit up.
"Next—Sega!
Game Pocket!
Demonstrating for you again."
Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap…
A round of enthusiastic applause erupted, and countless audience members stood up and cheered, feeling that the segment Sega had designed was simply too brilliant.
"It really scared me to death; I thought something had actually gone wrong."
"This performance style is too dramatic, isn't it?"
"I thought the GP game console was really broken just now, but I didn't expect it to be just a segment designed by Sega."
"F*ck, it made me think it was real."
"But I have to say, Sega's performance was quite successful; I was instantly drawn in."
"And it's memorable, isn't it?"
…
Aoki Haruhi was dumbfounded, but looking at the reactions of the people around him, they were laughing exaggeratedly, their faces flushed, seemingly having believed Kalinske's words—
It was just a pre-rehearsed demonstration effect.
The purpose was to make the performance more dramatic and eye-catching.
The logic in everyone's minds was—
If the game console had a problem, why would it work again after inserting a new battery?
Then it must have been the battery that was dead, not a malfunction of the game console.
So, with this series of operations, Kalinske successfully dispelled the audience's doubts.
But only Aoki Haruhi and Kalinske, who was standing on stage, knew perfectly well that what happened just now was absolutely not a pre-designed performance segment.
There was a genuine problem.
Kalinske first put the burned-out game console into one pocket, then pulled out the good game console from the other side.
They were not the same game console at all.
Problems like this are very common in reality; after all, products have a yield rate, and even if two qualified game consoles were prepared beforehand, it's not impossible for a situation to arise.
…
By this point, Aoki Haruhi had broken out in a cold sweat, but he also couldn't help but applaud Kalinske in admiration.
The reason he was able to salvage the situation today was mainly due to Kalinske's strong psychological fortitude, extraordinary quick thinking, and—
A little bit of foresight.
If he hadn't placed a game console in the other pocket beforehand, he wouldn't have been able to smooth things over just now.
But this also illustrates one thing—
That is, Sega's new handheld is indeed small enough, similar to future smartphones, to truly fit into a pocket.
At the same Time, the suit Kalinske wore today was also quite suitable; when open, it just covered both pants pockets, otherwise the bulging parts would have let the audience know that he actually had two game consoles hidden on him.
As long as it was covered up today, it wouldn't matter even if someone later discovered the true "magic trick" based on media footage.
At most, it could prove that Kalinske used two game consoles for the demonstration, but who could prove that the first game console was actually faulty?
…
Upon seeing the lithium-ion battery, Gunpei Yokoi finally understood—
No wonder this game console could be made so small and lightweight.
It turned out to be the battery all along.
"I didn't expect such amazing technology to already exist in the world."
Gunpei Yokoi's eyes dimmed, and he slumped into his chair like a deflated ball.
…
After successfully demonstrating sonic the hedgehog.
Tom Kalinske introduced the various parameters of the sega gp:
"Screen size 3.2 inches."
(The iPhone 12's screen size is 6.1 inches. 1 inch equals 2.54 cm, so 3.2 inches is about 8 cm. Screen size is calculated based on the diagonal length, meaning that for a square, the side length would be 5.6 cm.)
It was actually a very small screen, only about half the size of a typical smartphone screen in 2023.
It was precisely because the screen was small that Sony's lithium-ion battery could power it.
The current sega gp is roughly equivalent to future color screen phones. However, its screen is slightly larger than those phones.
"8-bit console, capable of displaying 4096 colors. Resolution 160x146."
"Battery life can reach 3 to 5 hours."
At this point, Kalinske also showcased the charger and charging cable technology.
"Sony's developed lithium battery technology allows for direct charging, eliminating the need to purchase additional dry cell batteries."
A battery life of 3 to 5 hours isn't particularly impressive, considering the Game Boy's battery life is 8 to 15 hours.
This indicates that the power consumption of color screen game consoles is indeed still too high.
But the valuable point is that it can be recharged.
In the future, as long as smartphones can be charged, what does it matter if the battery life is only 3 hours when playing games continuously?
…
Such terrifying technology exists?
Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi found it hard to believe, but when he witnessed it firsthand, his heart was greatly shaken.
If it were true, then battery technology would bring about earth-shattering changes to the entire handheld console industry.
…
After the introduction of Sega's GP handheld console was complete, everyone in the audience stared with wide eyes, awaiting Kalinske's final announcement.
Which was the price, the issue everyone cared about most.
The Game Boy's current market price is 12,500 Japanese Yen, or 99 US dollars in Europe and America.
And it's a black and white screen.
So, with the GP's powerful performance advantages and its battery life shortcoming compensated for, it surely wouldn't be cheaper than the Game Boy, would it?
Everyone was estimating the price in their minds.
Probably around 25,000 Japanese Yen, or 199 US dollars.
Then, Kalinske picked up the microphone, a smile playing on his lips, and stated directly, "99!"
"Wow!"
A thunderous roar erupted from below.
The audience couldn't help but cheer wildly.
"What the f*ck? Did I hear that right? Is that really the price of the sega gp?"
"A color screen console, new battery, light and thin, and it's the same price as the GB?!"
"Is Sega crazy? Can they even break even?"
"Who cares if they're crazy, I'm definitely crazy!"
"Sega is terrifying."
"Yay, Sega is too kind, aren't they?"
…
Kalinske was originally about to leave but turned back halfway and said into the microphone, "August!"
At this point, Sega's press conference had concluded.
Kalinske had finished introducing Sega's new handheld console.
All the audience members stood up from their seats and applauded him.
A thunderous ovation.
Aoki Haruhi clapped his hands vigorously, not only because of the success of the press conference but also because he was happy that Kalinske was able to turn the tide.
Even now, he still felt a lingering fear.
However, all that was in the past.
A bright future awaited Sega and Pokémon.
Meanwhile, on Nintendo's side, Gunpei Yokoi and Randy's expressions were not good.
They merely tried to force a faint smile when facing the cameras.
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