Chapter 505: The Two Johns’ Breakup Game and the Midnight Call From the Sister-in-Law
MIT PhD Zhang Chaoyang, founder of Atexin, isn't he the founder of the famous Sohu company?
It's the end of 1997, and 1998 is coming soon.
Li Xiaofan suddenly realized that the domestic Internet boom is about to surge, and he has to hurry up to make plans in China!
"Qijun, has this Zhang Chaoyang given you his business plan?"
"Yes, I just received his business plan in my mailbox. The new project is called 'Sohu'..."
"Okay, forward it to my email and I'll take a look. Qijun, then you can reply to this Dr. Zhang Chaoyang and say that I'm interested. I'll make an appointment to meet and talk next time I return to China!"
Gu Qijun on the other end of the phone was a little puzzled. How could the boss be interested before he even read the business plan? Is it just because of the golden signboard of the MIT PhD?
When Gu Qijun was wondering, Li Xiaofan instructed on the other end of the phone:
"Qijun, please help me pay attention to whether there are two people named Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the Stanford campus recently. If there is any news about them, please inform me as soon as possible! If they are interested in starting a business in our incubator, we will accept them unconditionally and give them the most favorable policies!"
"Okay, Mr. Li, I know, Larry Page and Sergey Brin... I wrote it down with a pen."
On the other end of the phone, Gu Qijun was confused again. Where did Mr. Li get the news? The names of the two people he just mentioned have never been heard of in Silicon Valley. Are these two guys reliable?
And Li Xiaofan's heart:
When I was studying for an EMBA at Tsinghua University, Yahoo was the most discussed Internet company case.
In the past, Yahoo had several big mistakes. One of them was in 1998, when Yahoo rejected the request of Larry Page and Sergey Brin to acquire their project. At that time, Larry Page and Sergey Brin only offered $1 million.
So, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in desperation...
In 2002, Yahoo wanted to acquire Google and offered $3 billion. Google wanted $5 billion, but Yahoo thought it was too expensive and the deal was not concluded. Before Li Xiaofan was reborn, Google's market value had exceeded the $1.5 trillion mark!
The second mistake was in 2006, when Yahoo proposed to acquire Facebook for $1 billion, and Zuckerberg agreed, but Yahoo bargained down to $850 million. Zuckerberg, who felt humiliated, angrily refused. Before Li Xiaofan was reborn, Facebook's market value was already close to the trillion-dollar mark!
In 2008, Yahoo was in decline. Microsoft was willing to bid $44.6 billion to acquire it, but after internal discussions, it rejected the acquisition. In the last few years, Yahoo's market value has been falling.
Finally, in July 2016, the once prosperous Yahoo was acquired by the American communications giant Verizon for only $4.8 billion...
Just before Li Xiaofan was about to hang up the phone, Gu Qijun reported the last matter to Li Xiaofan.
"Mr. Li, John Romero, one of the founders of IDsoftware, which developed the game "Quake", has left IDsoftware. I am trying to contact him and invite John Romero to come to our incubator to start a new business..."
In his previous life, Li Xiaofan didn't know much about the story between the founders of IDsoftware. He only knew that there were two famous founders of IDsoftware named John.
This news from Gu Qijun aroused great interest in Li Xiaofan.
"Qijun, what's going on? Why did John Romero leave IDsoftware?"
"Mr. Li, this is what happened. In the early days, John Carmack and John Romero, the main founders of IDsoftware, were both super players of the game "Wolfenstein". Later, the two worked closely together to develop the game "Wolfenstein 3D". "Wolfenstein 3D" brought in a monthly income of $150,000, which earned IDSoftware its first pot of gold. With the success of the game, Carmack and Romero's personalities became more distinct. Contrast: Carmack was more obsessed with technology, while Romero was more obsessed with games. "
"After Wolfenstein 3D, Carmack spent six months writing new engine code. The new engine's calculation speed was much faster than before. The two of them worked together on a more tense and exciting game, Doom. The huge success of the Doom series made the two Johns hot stars in the gaming industry. Romero was pushed to the altar and worshipped by countless players, but Carmack quietly stepped down from the stage and hid behind the scenes. After Quake, the conflict between the two became more and more intense. "
Gu Qijun continued: "In the past, when Carmack wrote a new game engine, Romero would always be the first to realize its value. Romero was free and easy, while Carmack was serious and serious. The two complemented each other like yin and yang. They were a pair of partners who worked and experimented together. The former's game design and the latter's engine have always been the core of success. However, this time, after the successful development of Quake 1, the conflict between Carmack and Romero intensified. Carmack began to complain that when he was working very hard to develop a new game engine and needed Romero the most, he could not find him. So the two had a big fight, and Romero resigned in anger!"
Last year, Li Xiaofan asked Gu Qijun to find John Carmack, the founder of IDSoftware, and ask if their company needed investment.
John Carmack refused because IDSoftware was not short of money at all! When the game "Doom 2" alone, its total sales in the American and European markets exceeded 100 million US dollars!
A popular game is equivalent to a money printing machine and a cash cow.
…
Now, after hearing the news, Li Xiaofan happily said to Gu Qijun on the phone: "Qijun, convince John Romero to come to our incubator to start a business and make games as soon as possible, and we will invest in him!"
…
After the call, the happy Li Xiaofan called Gu Li to play a new game together.
Earlier this year, IDsoftware released "Quake II".
The engine of this new game was completely rewritten by John Carmack, achieving effects that the first generation of games could not match. And for the first time, color light and shadow effects were realized, so that objects in the game can show different color effects when reflecting light and shadow.
The level design of Quake II also shows a completely different style from Quake I. The single-player game is full of traps and opportunities. Players can enjoy the fun of solving puzzles while enjoying the gorgeous effects and the fun of slaughter.
This "Quake II" is also the first to support the OpenGL standard and full 3D acceleration, and from then on the game screen can be accurately filled with pixels.
The graphics cards of the two computers in Li Xiaofan's living room are NVIDIARIVA128 from NVIDIA, which supports OpenGL standard and full 3D acceleration. NVIDIA's graphics cards are beginning to be recognized and loved by a large number of game players.
When Li Xiaofan was entering the installation base of the game, walked out of the elevator, walked into a hall along the corridor, pressed the switch in the left front to open the secret door on the wall, got the No. 4 gun, turned around and walked back, his cell phone rang again.
He turned his head and saw that the call was from his sister-in-law Irene.