Chita Hiroto was a salesman at a well-known circuit board manufacturing factory in Tokyo.
In recent years, his company's performance had been outstanding.
Orders poured in like snowflakes.
At that time, Japan's national economy was changing day by day, growing like a rocket.
At the same time, people's demand for a higher standard of living also grew stronger.
This led to the rapid expansion of industries such as personal computers, televisions, and mobile phones.
Moreover, the technological level of this parallel world in the 1990s was equivalent to that of Yukihira Soma's previous life ten years later. Compact mobile phones had already become widespread, and all kinds of flip phones could be seen everywhere at the time.
Naturally, companies specializing in the production of circuit boards for various products also flourished, earning enormous profits.
It was in this way that Chita Hiroto's family rose into the middle class.
However, these good times did not last long.
Although the technological level was ten years ahead, history itself did not change.
The Japanese economic bubble that had burst in Yukihira Soma's previous life on Earth also burst in this world during the same period.
From that moment on, the people fell into deep hardship.
They were no longer obsessed with high consumption and began to tighten their belts everywhere.
In the past, products such as personal computers, high-end televisions, and mobile phones had been everyday desires—but now, they were no longer necessities for most people.
The performance of circuit board manufacturing companies also plummeted, surviving only on a small number of high-end automated machinery orders.
Just as quickly as the rocket had risen in the past, it now fell just as fast when it exploded.
As a salesman, Chita Hiroto also found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
Thanks to Japan's lifetime employment system, he still retained a respectable job. Combined with his family's conservative nature and their avoidance of reckless investments, the bursting of the bubble did not hit them too hard, making them one of the luckier families among thousands.
However, demand for high-end consumer goods continued to decline, and electronic products were among the most easily discarded items.
Even with lifetime employment, his current salary as a salesman was pitifully low—barely enough to cover basic household expenses.
Recently, his superiors had been assigning sales targets like mad. If they failed to meet them, they were forced into dogeza apologies and endured four hours of verbal abuse from their leader every day.
The pressure on him was immense.
Only when he saw his son's cheerful smile and his wife's gentle consideration at home did he feel slightly relieved, convincing himself that the humiliation and scolding at work were worth it.
So even though the situation was bad, he still tried to save some money to buy things his son liked, just so he could see that bright smile.
However, today his son suddenly said that he wanted something new—something that sounded related to the television.
This salesman, who had been tormented by his boss for nearly a week straight, couldn't help but start thinking.
"Come on, son. Tell me exactly what's going on. What is that little person moving on the TV that you're talking about?"
Seeing that his father seemed genuinely interested, Chita Otoko became even happier.
It seemed that his father might be able to fulfill his request again this time!
"Dad, it's like this…"
At that moment, Yukihira Soma and Aeri Hayasawa had already been going out for more than a week, having explored nearly all the nearby parks.
Yukihira Soma wanted to visit even more parks, but yesterday, officers from the Metropolitan Police Department had apparently taken notice of them. They warned him not to set up stalls casually. If he wanted to do so, he would have to apply for a designated flea market.
As a result, the plan to continue promoting the game had to be temporarily suspended.
However, after visiting so many places, video games had basically begun to spread among children.
They had even taken on the air of an urban legend.
This was more or less enough for Yukihira Soma, so he shifted his focus and began preparing for the next step of his plan: recruiting more people and seeing whether he could find an electronics company to produce a batch of first-generation Famicom-style game console prototypes.
Yukihira Soma couldn't help but sigh.
He had arrived at the perfect time—just in time to catch the last train toward getting rich through small electronics workshops.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Jobs and others had assembled personal computers in a garage, and Nintendo had created the first Famicom prototype with just three or four people.
Likewise, Bill Gates had learned the BASIC programming language at the age of thirteen and earned thousands of dollars with only two people.
If this were after the year 2000, it would have been impossible to develop such a product without assembling a research and manufacturing team of several hundred people.
Stories of getting rich and famous had become increasingly rare.
The Famicom prototype in front of him—combined with some experience from Yukihira Soma's previous life, a simple game system written in BASIC that he had barely used back then, and a capable employee with electronics experience—had just barely been assembled.
Of course, this was mainly because a game console system itself was far simpler than a personal computer and required far less complex knowledge to build.
But to develop it further, relying on this prototype alone was impossible.
He needed to produce more consoles—at least a batch that could be used in arcades.
"Mr. Yukihira Soma, what are you doing?"
Aeri Hayasawa, finally able to rest, felt as if the past two days had been a dream.
Her salary was paid daily, and all she had to do each day was inspect the prototype for potential defects.
Now, she was sipping juice through a straw while curiously staring at the computer screen in front of Yukihira Soma.
"I'm working on a proposal."
"A proposal? Are you finally going to sell the product? I guarantee you—this product is extremely popular with kids. It'll definitely sell well!"
"It's hard to say," Yukihira Soma shook his head.
In this world, although there were no direct competitors, other entertainment industries were extremely powerful and monopolized most people's attention.
He wasn't sure whether it would be easy to draw people away from existing forms of entertainment and into video games.
That was why he had to do everything possible to make the game more appealing.
First, he needed to simplify the mechanics and lower the difficulty while increasing the sense of exhilaration.
In the early days, Famicom games were generally quite difficult.
Compared to large-scale games of the 21st century, games from the Famicom era would probably be considered "hard mode," excluding nightmare-level titles like Demon Village, which were practically unplayable for humans.
"Hard to say? But I see those kids having so much fun. And honestly, I've been playing it myself lately."
Over the past two days, whenever Aeri Hayasawa had nothing to do, she finally remembered to try Super Mario herself.
After all, she had helped make it—so she felt she should at least experience it.
And then, before she realized it, she became completely absorbed.