Rebirth of America, this is my time

"Yeah! Cheers!"

Two hours later, cheerful voices echoed in Atari's office.

At this moment, the three people present had happy smiles on their faces.

Nolan Bushnell is very satisfied, because when Milohua first imposed an innovation ban on Atari, Atari found a new way to expand its business. .

"I wish the new game a great sale!"

Don Valentine was also very happy. As an investor in Atari, he spent $600,000 on Atari. If Atari was directly strangled to death by Milohua, his 600,000 savings would be wiped out.

At this time, he was not the investment tycoon he would be in the future. The $600,000 was the result of his hard work. No one would give up their hard work freely, so Atari had to find a way out.

But now, there is a way out.

“Happy to work with!”

Ethan raised his cup and clinked it with Nolan Bushnell and the others.

When the crisp sound sounded, the orange-yellow liquid also swayed and jumped up.

After Ethan gave up the retreat, the cooperation between the two parties was discussed very quickly.

As for the content of the contract, it naturally makes Ethan satisfied.

The contract stipulates that Ethan Jones and Evelyn Johnson will license the game "Snake" to Atari for one year. For this, Atari needs to pay a sum of $6,000. Licensing fee, and promised to manufacture at least one thousand "Snake" game consoles for sale in the next year.

If we look at it from the perspective of future generations, this contract is simply a pediatric agreement. Compared with video games that can easily sell millions of copies, the number of one thousand game arcade machines is really too small.

But this is 1975! This is not the mobile Internet era!

You know, one year after the release of the nationally renowned "Pong", only a total of 2,500 units were sold! By 1974, when Atari was sued by Milohua, after verification and confirmation by the court, the total shipment volume of "Pong" arcade machines was only 8,000 units!

But even so, the price of one thousand US dollars still brought Atari eight million US dollars in operating income!

Therefore, in Ethan's opinion, the agreement in the contract to guarantee the production of one thousand units is a very good start.

After all, the first pot of gold...

If you can earn it, you win!

The most important thing is to make a name for yourself!

As for the share, it is very simple, 15% of the selling price.

Although Ethan still wants to go higher, if possible, he hopes to reach the level of Apple in later generations, but the cost of arcade machines in this era is simply not comparable to that of the iPhone.

A TV-sized screen costs US$75 for the cheapest notebook product. The BOM cost of a game motherboard is US$150, plus sub-boards and miscellaneous spare parts, such as built-in speakers and custom shakers. Damn, the total cost of a complete machine is basically not less than six hundred dollars.

When the gross profit was only 40%, letting Ethan take away 15% was Atari's limit.

Because after deducting other expenses, Atari's founders and investors could only get 78%.

Of course, the sales of game arcades are not actually the majority of revenue from video games in this era.

The real source of profit is actually the sales of game motherboards.

The gaming arcade motherboard replacement service provided by Atari is priced at US$400 per order. After factoring in materials, labor and transportation costs, the net profit per order is actually as high as US$150.

Therefore, for this item, Ethan's asking price was quite harsh. He initially wanted to take 30% of the selling price, which was one hundred and twenty US dollars, but Nolan Bushnell and Don ·Valentin would not agree even to death.

He said that the motherboard replacement service is actually an upgrade of Atari's already sold products. It belongs to Atari's stock market. Ethan wants to take away 80% of the net profit? It's better to kill them directly!

But when it comes to negotiation, it means asking for a high price and then paying back the money.

After a period of back and forth, this number was cut to 18%.

In other words, for every "Snake" game motherboard Atari sells, Ethan can get $72.

It’s almost half of the net profit.

While this number may seem small,...

Other things in this era are not expensive!

After drinking the whiskey in the glass, Ethan couldn't bear the spicy feeling.

And his sad face was also visible to everyone.

"Hey, Ethan, your ability to drink is totally out of control."

The contract was signed and the confrontation was over. Nolan Bushnell quipped: "When I was your age, I was killing people in nightclubs!"

"Yes! Ethan, you still need to practice your drinking ability."

Don Valentine, the founder of Sequoia Capital, also smiled and said: "If you wait until you become a millionaire to practice, it will be too late, because by that time, there will be many beautiful girls swooping at you. ! They want to get you drunk! They want to have a nice and fun night with you!"

The two sang and sang together, making the atmosphere heated.

Ethan, on the other hand, waved his hand and said, "I can drink well, but I drink too fast."

"Hahaha~" The two laughed.

"real!"

"We understand! We understand! We all understand!"

The tough-talking look made them laugh even more.

After chatting, everyone did not forget about business. Nolan Bushnell took out a stack of checks from the drawer in his office and wanted to pay the licensing fee of six thousand US dollars to Ethan. But when he was about to write, he stopped.

"Ethan, do you want one check or two checks?"

Since they had already reached a cooperation, Ethan naturally would not hide the copyright issue and directly took out the document with full authorization from Evelyn Johnson, otherwise they would not be able to sign the contract.

As for writing checks, Ethan certainly wanted to write two checks. After all, he had agreed with Evelin from the beginning that the income from "Snake" would always be half, but in terms of the amount, He has ideas.

"One is three thousand, one is two thousand, and then give me another thousand in cash."

"I think there should be no problem with this, right?"

This proposal made Nolan Bushnell feel strange, but he still complied with Ethan's request.

He wrote two checks to Ethan, and then took out a neat stack of twenty dollars from the safe in the office.

Count out half of them and hand them to Ethan to count.

After confirming that it was correct, Ethan smiled and said: "Then, I will wait for the game to be released?"

"Hmm, at least fifteen days, at most a month, we will have the first batch of machines ready."

Nolan Bushnell thought for a while and said: "At that time, we will invite previous partners to the company to experience the machine. If you are interested, you can come and take a look, and we will call you in advance."

"Okay, see you later."

"goodbye."

After everything was done, Ethan stood up to say goodbye. When leaving, Steve Jobs, who was waiting for the results outside, also took the initiative to see him off.

Ethan did not refuse the courtesy from the future gang leader Qiao.

After leaving the factory gate, Ethan also waved to Old Qiao who was bidding farewell, gesturing for him to follow him for a while. After Atari's factory completely disappeared, he handed over the fifty twenty-note cards he had just asked for. The knife was handed to the other party.

"This is..." Steve Jobs was confused.

"Your reward." Ethan Jones said with a smile: "If it weren't for you, I might not be able to achieve such a happy cooperation with Atari as I am now. This is what you deserve, accept it."

"But...this is too much."

Steve Jobs was hesitant, but at the same time, he didn't say no.

"Oh! Brother! The information you provided me is worth more than a thousand dollars!"

Ethan Jones raised his voice and put the money directly into his hand.

"Besides, you won't get this money for nothing! Nolan just told me that after the machine for "Snake Game" is ready, he will invite partners to come over and inspect the machine. I am very interested in this, so you remember to do it when the time comes. Go to my house and call me.”

"Also, this is our first time working together. I don't know how eloquent Atari's sales staff are, but I think your sales skills should be very good, so I will ask you to help me more when the time comes."

When Ethan said this, Steve Jobs became rude.

His eyes flickered, he glanced at the beautiful knife in his hand, and smiled, "Okay, then I'll accept it."

"That's right, brother!" Ethan raised his eyebrows and patted his shoulder with his hand.

Jobs put the money in his pocket and said, "Isn't that why you called me here?"

"certainly."

"..." Ethan's answer stunned Jobs for a moment, and then he smiled and said, "Then I'm leaving?"

"Uh-huh~" Ethan waved his hand, signaling him to get out of here.

This performance made Jobs turn around and leave.

However, after a while, he trotted back again.

This situation made Ethan very strange.

But when Jobs gasped and told him that in fact, Nolan Bushnell asked him to go to the exhibition today and arranged a bounty mission for cooperation and a reward of 500... looking at the man who waved and left again. Figure, Ethan laughed.

If before, he felt that the appearance of Steve Jobs was a bit unreal, then now, he was sure that the person in front of him must be the real Steve Jobs.

Because in his memory, Steve Jobs was very short of money at this time.

The money was so short that one person lost all the bonuses from "Arkanoid".

Ethan admitted that he just wanted to get in touch with Steve Jobs, and he just coveted Steve Jobs' body... Bah! It’s a body that’s hungry for apples! That's why Steve Jobs was paid a thousand dollars.

And now...

"Is this guy quite honest?"

Looking at the bouncing apple walking on the road, Ethan smiled at the corners of his eyes.

Note: ① Jobs was compensated for writing "Arkanoid" like this. Nolan asked Jobs to make the game "Arkanoid" and promised to reward Jobs with a hundred dollars for every transistor used less, because at that time, The most expensive cost of a game motherboard is the transistor. The fewer transistors used, the lower the cost of the game motherboard. Then Jobs gave this thing to Wozniak to make, and the master only used 44 electronic components. After making the game motherboard, Nolan gave Jobs a bonus of 5,000 US dollars and 900 US dollars to make the game. However, Jobs only gave Wozniak 450 US dollars, leaving the remaining 500 US dollars. Thousands of people put it in their own pockets. Decades later, Wozniak said in an interview that he didn't care about the five thousand yuan at all. He just felt that Jobs cheated him and he was sad. But at the same time, he also said that he could understand Jobs. Because Jobs was very poor at that time, and his adoptive parents spent almost all their savings to support him in college. And then there’s another thing. The “Arkanoid” that Wozniak made was not the “Arkanoid” that Atari later released, because all the engineers at Atari didn’t understand how Wozniak used it. The game was made with forty-four transistors. Even if they were given a circuit board, they couldn't copy it. Therefore, Nolan's money was actually wasted. ② Regarding the price of "Pong", I calculated it myself. Du Niang said it was one hundred dollars per unit. Nolan himself said the screen cost was seventy-five dollars, and the motherboard was close to two hundred dollars. It is completely inconsistent.