In the year of 1997, in addition to the stunning memories brought to the world by Hale-Bopp, many other things happened on this land. The return of Hong Kong City and the atmosphere of celebration spread to every region and corner of the country. Even Shanhai City organized celebration parties and patriotic education. The fireworks that bloomed at night stayed in the retina for a long time.
Su Rui's songs drifted through the streets and alleys with the wind blowing through the alleys. The news reported in a clear and loud voice: "The 36-year-old British Princess Diana died in a car accident on the banks of the Seine in Paris. This woman who had attracted the attention of the world for 16 years since she married into the royal family ended her short life tragically..."
At this time, Cheng Ran was attending a new high school.
New things are being known and spread among these high school students. IBM announced that the super parallel computer "Deep Blue" that defeated the world chess champion Kasparov in the "Man vs. Machine" game has bid farewell to the chess world, and said that it has completed its historical mission, but it is not an artificial intelligence. Where will the next generation of artificial intelligence that can defeat the world champion be? Everyone will discuss these things from all over the world, and even argue with each other. Many people will look back many years later and find that the speed of change in the world and society is amazing.
This week after the military training, Cheng Ran came to his second aunt's graphic advertising printing shop. Thinking back to the military training, he wanted to sing when he graduated from junior high school, so he played and sang with his guitar. During the military training, he was so tired that he just wanted to listen to people singing quietly, and he had no interest in singing for everyone. So Cheng Ran resolutely refused at that time, regardless of how others made fun of him.
Cheng Ran looked at the printing shop and asked Cheng Xiang, "Where is Second Aunt?"
"My mother went to play mahjong. It's the weekend, and there are not many people coming to the company. Don't worry, I can take charge of the store." Cheng Xiang took charge of everything.
Speaking of which, my second aunt is quite capable. She used to work in advertising. After resigning, she opened a graphic printing shop on Dongfeng South Road where government office buildings are concentrated. She once monopolized the business of many units here. In that era, a professional copier was very large, and not every office had a typing copier.
Second Aunt started with a small shop and expanded it to three rooms. She has six employees, three printers, a binder, and a photocopier. The entire equipment is sufficient, and this set of equipment is more than enough for making cards.
"Brother, I asked my mom to order the materials you need... This is the coated paper you wanted, and these, these... We used a small portion of the materials before and only made ten sets of samples. This time, let's get started. How many should we make?"
Cheng Xiang then turned to the woman who was working on a document contract in front of the computer and said, "Sister Zhao, I'm going to rely on you guys in a while!"
Little Zhao's name is Zhao Qingfen. She is about twenty-five or twenty-six years old and has been working with her second aunt for three years. She is from the countryside and has not received much education, but she has a quick mind. Under the guidance of her second aunt, she learned to use computers and software tools. Now she is the general in the printing shop, leading five people independently. Now when her second aunt has nothing to do to play mahjong, Zhao Qingfen can complete a lot of work at hand.
Three people in the store were not working today. Together with Zhao Qingfen, the four of them were watching the store. Facing Cheng Ran, Zhao Qingfen had an impression of Cheng Xiang's brother, so she smiled and said, "You guys are going to make game cards again... Be careful that your mother will scold you again!"
Cheng Ran knew this "Xiao Zhao". Many employees of Second Aunt's graphic company came and went in the future, but Zhao Qingfen stayed here all the time, even after getting married and having children. Later, Second Aunt could no longer work, but she still hoped that Zhao Qingfen would take over the store, and even let her manage it completely, and give her a fixed amount of money every year. Of course, Second Aunt was also very good to her. They would visit each other during festivals and help out when there was something going on at home. They were not a family, but they were better than a family.
"Sister Zhao, my brother and I are starting our own business! I'm using my lucky money to make money, and my mom agreed, otherwise why would she give me the money... Of course, we have money now, so the wear and tear of the machine and the ink costs are all on me."
Zhao Qingfen hid her smile and walked over, "Okay, okay, let's see what else you can come up with."
"Brother, let's get started. Sister Zhao can help us!"
In fact, Cheng Xiang is only fourteen years old now, and Zhao Qingfen is more than ten years older than him. It's okay for Cheng Xiang to call her aunt, but this child is so sweet-mouthed that she calls him "Sister Zhao" all the time. Zhao Qingfen is very happy, so naturally she is happy to do anything they ask her to do.
Cheng Ran nodded. Cheng Qi was still very quick. Perhaps he had the pocket money he could freely spend as an inducement. When he entered university, he had already registered the copyright at the Provincial Copyright Bureau. However, in this era, Cheng Ran did not really have the ability and environment to pursue piracy. Instead, he took precautions for the future and made arrangements in advance.
After receiving the news that Cheng Qi was ready, they could start production in the rear.
“Let’s make a hundred sets first!”
Cheng Ran said that they were not big enough to find a publisher, so using Second Aunt's advertising graphic company was enough. Zhao Qingfen and the other three people all came to help. They were all experienced. Modernization was a good thing. Cheng Ran used a scanner to sort out the cards he drew, and then used a color printer to print out the cards one by one. The color printer kept spitting out colorful cardboard.
The next step was manual work. Zhao Qingfen and others helped cut the color-printed coated paper into card-sized pieces.
Cheng Ran fiddled with the finished card. The card was made of 300g coated paper and had just the right weight to it. It was an indescribable wonderful touch.
The most important thing about board games is the mechanism, otherwise once a board game is released, it will only be like a moth flying into a flame. Why Bing! can be so popular, and why the poker games of "Dou Di Zhu" and "Gan Deng Yan" can penetrate into thousands of households, is because there is a fair competition mechanism that is easy to understand and easy to spread.
In general, it allows people who are playing the game to not get stuck.
In later generations, board games became popular and many board games emerged one after another, but there were often only a few classic ones. Some were complex and not conducive to dissemination, while others were conducive to dissemination but had flaws in their mechanisms, which eventually led to collapse.
Three Kingdoms Kill was born out of Bang!, and has gone through many revisions and tests in later generations. Although later generations also blindly updated versions and added new characters, Three Kingdoms Kill went offline and died due to bloat.
But what Cheng Ran has come up with now should be considered a relatively mature solution.
Seeing that everyone was working busily, Cheng Ran went out to the nearest department store and soon came back with big bags of cakes, candies and fruits.
"Come on, come on, everyone, have something to eat... You've worked hard!"
Everyone stopped eating and ate the food Cheng Ran bought, looking very happy.
Zhao Qingfen, who loved lollipops the most, put one in her mouth, peeled one and handed it to Cheng Ran, and said with a smile, "How much do you sell this for?"
Cheng Ran stuffed a fruit lollipop into his mouth and said, "A deck of cards costs us about five dollars... let's set it at thirty!"
"This thing, someone really bought it..." Zhao Qingfen was stunned. At this time, Cheng Ran's second aunt only paid 500 yuan to ordinary employees, and Zhao Qingfen 700 yuan. The salary of an average employee family is about 700 yuan.
Zhao Qingfen was a little surprised that a deck of cards cost thirty yuan.
Cheng Ran thought for a moment and said, "Do you think Internet cafe games are fun?"
Cheng Xiang nodded hurriedly, "It's fun!"
"You can save money to play a single-player game for four or five dollars an hour, just because it's fun. This game only costs thirty dollars a time, only two people can play it, and any number of people can play it. At this price, it shouldn't be hard to sell it..."
Zhao Qingfen frowned again, "It's very troublesome to do this. If you just want to make money... why bother? As long as there is a good place, just relying on color printing, bid binding, and mass printing is enough to make money, just like making money with a printing machine..."
"Your space has a ceiling, but this one has no ceiling," Cheng Ran said calmly, "and... this is the future."
(I have been traveling all day on planes and cars, but fortunately I have still managed to write the update! Thank you to the leader "岚风ろ星辰"! Thank you to brothers and sisters such as "超级NB极品大帅哥股海任逍遥叹忘之歌迎风发很乱" for the rewards!
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