Rebirth of America, this is my time

He sold 313 machines in one morning and earned US$370,000. This number was already a lot in the United States in 1975.

After simply calculating the share, Ethan's face lit up with joy after two and a half years of working as a worker.

Although he didn't become a millionaire, wasn't he making money much faster than the potato buyer next door?

After a brief celebration, Nolan Bushnell asked Atari's staff to start delivering goods in the afternoon.

More than a hundred employees joined the battle, and two people jumped out in a pickup truck.

Only then did Ethan discover that most of Atari’s staff wore multiple hats.

When they pick up the ruler brush, they are engineers, when they put on formal uniforms, they are receptionists, and when they get into their cars, they are the company's delivery persons and outsourced maintenance personnel.

The first two were fine, but the third thing about sharing private cars for public use made Ethan extremely impressed.

A few decades later, if the capitalists dared to let their employees do this, it would cause public outrage and riots and demonstrations.

Of course, Atari, or rather Nolan Bushnell, wouldn't let their work go in vain.

On the basis of regular wages and oil expense reimbursement, they will be given an extra five US dollars in bonus for every machine delivered.

A normal person can pull four units in a cart and earn twenty dollars in half a day.

This is a daily salary for most people!

Under the heavy reward, Atari's staff were very motivated.

Looking at the heated scene, Ethan, who was acting as a supervisor with his hands behind his back, looked satisfied. At the same time, he also sighed: "Nolan, is this the key to your success? To kill other competitors as quickly as possible? "

Although Nolan Bushnell didn't understand what rolling death meant, he knew that Ethan was talking about Atari's execution.

So he put his hands on his hips and said with a smile: "I can't help it. Who said that in the past, the most important thing in the video game industry was timeliness?"

"After customers place an order, if we cannot deliver it to them within two days, there may be imitations of our competitors placed in front of their stores on the third day."

"Imitation is so fast!"

"So, in our line of work, time is life!"

"The faster the machine sells, the faster we have to deliver it! We must make those merchants who want to make money fall in love with us!"

Ethan liked this approach, and under his watch, the Atari guys showed amazing efficiency.

We set out around one in the afternoon and came back around five in the evening.

Those signatures meant that stacks of green Franklins had been obtained.

What's even more amazing is that at the same time, Nolan Bushnell and his colleagues who stayed in the company made hundreds of phone calls to get in touch with partners in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The content of communication is also very simple.

First, he introduced himself politely, and then directly stated the facts, saying that we held a new product introduction meeting this morning, and old friends in San Jose and San Francisco were so generous that they directly bought 626 units.

Next, we will tell you that our machine this time can limit the player's game time. If you are interested, I can save a few machines for you because of our frequent cooperation with old friends.

If you're not sure you can get it, that's okay, we'll be doing events in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego tomorrow.

You can just come directly when the time comes.

After presenting the facts and building relationships, the combination of punches that they had collaborated with appeared together.

The other party naturally said that he would definitely be there tomorrow.

Those who are more impatient can decide directly.

And then...

In just one afternoon, with nearly 200 phone calls, Nolan led people to sell more than 100 units.

After all the company's subordinates came back, that night, Nolan even arranged the delivery for the next day's business trip.

When the next night came, after dinner, Ethan went to Atari to check the results. He went out for 200 units in the morning, but ended up with scores of dozens of units in the evening, which made him even more happy.

However, just when Ethan was thinking that if this shipment rate is maintained, it will not be long before the shipment volume of "Snake Game" reaches one thousand units, Nolan Bushnell announced to all Atari employees ordered——

"Everyone, starting from tomorrow, or from now on, we will no longer make the complete game console of "Snake Game". We will only make circuit boards. Please pay attention! I said we will no longer make the complete console! Everyone will only make the circuit board. Make circuit boards! Just make circuit boards!”

‘? ? ? ’

This decision made Ethan somewhat incomprehensible.

He didn't understand why Nolan Bushnell suddenly gave up selling the whole machine.

Because the current sales momentum of the complete machine is very good!

When the profit of the whole machine is higher than that of the game motherboard, it is obviously more profitable to make the whole machine!

And just when he was wondering why, Steve Jobs gave the answer.

"When selecting the first batch of invitation customers and the second batch of delivery customers, we will choose some who are easy to talk to."

"They're open to new things, but that doesn't mean they're going to buy into our pitch."

“If we told our customers at the beginning that we would replace all the electronic arcade machines in the store with “Snake Game”, they would definitely disagree because the market has never tested the capabilities of “Snake Game”, so they would rather spend money. Buy the whole machine, use time to test the effect of "Snake Game", and use your eyes to witness the results of "Snake Game"."

"And after they finish this step..."

"If they understand that "Snake Game" can really make money, they and other merchants will never accept the purchase of the whole machine."

"Since new games are more profitable than old games, why don't they just change their phones? In this way, they can save a lot of purchase costs!"

"And for us, we actually like this model."

"Because a pickup truck can only hold a few arcade machines, but it can pull a truckload of circuit boards."

"Believe me, we'll be busy in a week at most!"

"Because those guys will call like crazy and say they want to replace the circuit board!"

‘So that’s it? ’

Ethan, who only knew about the arcade industry through rumors and had never had personal contact with it, felt that he had learned something else.

As Ethan waited, just three days after the first batch of "Snake Game" was shipped, Atari's phone was buzzing with calls!

Merchants who have cooperated with Atari have expressed their desire to buy games!

And those merchants who have no cooperation also want to buy arcade machines!

At first, Atari's staff had a record of being kind.

But after that, their attitudes became worse and worse.

“Okay!” is a good response.

Words like "I know the special code, just wait!" are endless.

This kind of rubbish service attitude made Ethan, who acted as the supervisor, a little dissatisfied.

Immediately express that you must treat customers with God-like tenderness!

But when he left the scene in person, he showed the staff how to answer the phone.

As soon as I picked up the receiver, a heartbreaking shout appeared——

"Oh! Sxxt! Is it Atari? Is it Atari? You are a bunch of bitches!"

"I bought ten arcade machines from you last year! Ten arcade machines!"

"I support your business so much! How could you not tell me when you released a new game!"

"Dxxn's! The dance hall next door to me got two machines from you! Two machines!!"

“I ended up making two hundred dollars in one night!!!”

"MFxxk!!! That special code is two hundred dollars!!!"

"My guests! All my guests were taken away by that Bichi!!!"

"You beasts! I'll give you one day! Send me ten game motherboards!"

"Remember your grandpa's name! I'm in Saramento! I'm Great Tim!"

‘…’

'It was just an accident. ’

Ethan smiled awkwardly and wrote Silly Tim on the paper.

Then, he answered the second call——

"Haha? Atari? Do you sons of bitches look down on me?"

"Why are the stores around me notified of new product launches, but not me?"

"MFxxxxx! Your animal-like behavior has cost me a lot of money!"

‘…’

"Silly code, I am your father!"

Ethan was too lazy to pay attention to him and hung up the phone directly.

Then he smiled and waved to the Atari staff, "Continue, you continue."

The way Ethan hit a wall made Steve Jobs laugh out loud.

He came closer and said, "Why do I feel like you are interested in selling game motherboards?"

"Of course I'm interested! Because it all means money!" Ethan rolled his eyes at Steve Jobs.

At the same time, he was also muttering to himself, ‘I can’t tell you that I’m here to steal my master, can I? ’

Seemingly seeing what Ethan was thinking, Steve Jobs smiled and said: "Oh Ethan~ Do you want to know how we change the motherboard for others? For example, the original machine casing is "Pong", the game inside is also "Pong", but now we have changed the game inside to "Snake Game", but the outer shell is still "Pong"."

The tongue-twisting words made Ethan raise his eyebrows.

Although he was a little confused, he understood clearly, "Didn't you just bring those arcade machines back and replace the motherboards?"

"It was before, but not now, because it would be too much trouble!"

Steve Jobs said: “We now change everything on the spot!”

"ha?"

This fact made Ethan a little curious, "Change on site?"

"Yeah? Change it on the spot!" Steve Jobs nodded: "Are you interested? If you are interested, come with me and have a look?"