episode_0014

“So what do you mean you got a club room?”

“Do you remember the arcade we went to when we had our meeting in December of the year before last?”

“Hey, why there?”

“The owner’s son said that he planned the route and found the location for our gathering, and he said that he was going to put a few computers next to it”

As I listen, I get a little bit of an idea.

“So my brother heard about that and asked if we could use it there. We agreed that he would pay and we would use 5 computers.”

“Where did you get the money to buy that, senior? The cost must be huge.”

“That’s the money I saved while tutoring. I’d rather collect club dues.”

“It’s so dizzy… Let’s go for now. Eunji, I’ll go out for a bit.”

***

“Here it is.”

The arcade we came to during the meeting is just a short walk from Seoul Station.

A small building next to it was undergoing interior renovation.

“Oh, you’re here. The person next to you is… Foxy?”

“Ah, Yooseop. It’s been a while.”

Han Yu-seop. He is the person who, at Jeongmo, was emitting a huge amount of popular energy while standing next to Kim Mu-sik and controlling the crowd and guiding the route.

In fact, when I first saw him, I thought he was a secret agent. No, if he was smiling like that with his eyes half-closed, anyone who saw him would think he was a secret agent with a secret plan.

Of course, I later gave up on those suspicions after I found out that he was Kim Moo-sik’s close friend and that he was genuinely helping Kim Moo-sik.

“I couldn’t hear the explanation from senior Jeongjun, so can you tell me what happened?”

“Ah, last time I was talking about business with Mooshik, and they said that they bring in dozens of computers and charge a fee for each one they use. I saw that there are cases where a computer is needed for office work and things like that, so it would be good to have one in a busy area like this.”

Hey? This is totally a PC room?

“How do I settle my bill?”

“We assign numbers to each seat, write down the time you sit in this ledger, and settle accounts when you leave. Honestly, I’m worried if we’ll settle accounts properly… But since all the arcades are going out of business, we have to try something like this. If it doesn’t work out, we can sell the computers since their value is preserved well.”

It’s too dangerous. There’s no way the billing will be settled properly, and soon semiconductor performance inflation will begin, and Moore’s law will start to operate, and the value of current computers will plummet. Of course, in this day and age, PC rooms will not go broke and sell computers…

“Let’s just do a prepaid system. You can use as much as you pay.”

“I considered that too, and even thought about installing a coin slot like in an arcade, but that seemed difficult, and I tried managing the time by connecting it to the central computer at the counter, but the computer couldn’t handle it, and it was easy to manipulate the time even with a little knowledge, so I gave up.”

I have a rough idea of how to solve this, but it will cost some money.

“Would you like to invest about 600,000 won with us? We will solve it perfectly.”

Even without games, PC rooms were emerging spontaneously.

***

“No, it’s not like this has been going on for a day or two, but at least give me an explanation and get things done, please…”

“Jeong-ah. They say that if you push through the world, things will usually work out somehow.”

“Even though I was born early, why do you talk as if you’ve lived the whole life when there’s only a three month age difference between us?”

Correct answer, Coding Wizard!

Of course, it’s not like Jeong-ah knew what she was saying, but sometimes I feel like I’m saying old-fashioned things without realizing it, and it makes me a little anxious. I wasn’t an old-fashioned person in the original world either, so why am I like this?

“So what are you going to do?”

“You should buy a server for 600,000 won and create a management system using that server. If you do that, you’ll just end up wasting a ton of money.”

“That version control system we made last time? It’s a similar structure. ”

“That’s right. It’s about connecting multiple computers like branches from a tree with one central server. But this time, there’s something a little different.”

“…? What is it?”

“First is security. Although the central server can control the computer based on access rights, the computer must be prevented from controlling the central server in return and tampering with the system.”

“Ah, in the case of version control, you can add and remove files as you like…”

“That’s it. And secondly. I’m going to change the server’s operating system.”

“…Huh? Is there anything else you can use besides Windows? You said there’s no future for MAC.”

“Linux.”

“Is that what you were making while reducing your sleep like that? What on earth made you go that far…”

It may seem that way now, but in the long run, Linux will account for 80% of all server operating systems. Since Linux came out earlier, it is possible that its market share will increase even more than before.

“This older sister has a lot of thoughts.”

“Hmm…”

***

So, I spent quite some time writing the server program on my own, and as soon as the server arrived, I started testing it.

After looking at the graphical interface of Windows, I was quite impressed by the tedious programming style unique to Linux, with only flashing text in a black prompt window.

“Jeongju, please try logging in.”

“Yes, yes”

When an ID and password are entered, they are immediately encrypted and sent to the central server.

The central server checks whether the ID and password match based on the transmitted information, records who logged in at which location and when, and then sends a signal to the computer that the login has been completed.

“You’re logged in!”

The computer receives the signal, logs in, and unlocks the screen. This is a typical PC room login system.

“It’s a success!!!!!”

“Okay!”

It was an even greater success because the testing alone took a week.

“What are your computer resources?”

“There’s not much difference. There’s just timing and error checking.”

“I’ll leave you with just 1 minute. See if it turns off properly.”

“…It’s turned off.”

After that, the computer receives information from the central server about how much time has been charged, and when that time runs out, it exchanges information with the computer, and when it determines that the time is up, it logs out and locks the screen again.

“But isn’t it not possible to change time like that?”

“You can do it because you are the one doing it. You need to have the highest administrator authentication key and there are some safety measures in place, so in reality, the only thing you can do at the counter is to add time to the account.”

“So… is it all over now?”

“Yes. Just open the store door.”

“Thank you so much, really… I can’t even imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t met at the meeting.”

“Oh, that’s not it, ”

“And the corners of your mouth are hanging on your ears. Iseo, you really can’t lie.”

“I’ve learned a bit of coding, so my expenses have decreased. Of course. Money is supposed to make people more honest.”

By creating this system, we were able to cut our usage fees in half. Thanks to that, Kim Jeong-jun even cried and bowed down to me, saying that he had saved money.

By the way, as I continued to look at the arcade next door, something occurred to me.

Originally, I was thinking of making a rhythm game for computers.

So, due to the slow response speed and stiff computer environment, I tried to follow the format of a so-called pseudo-rhythm game with only three stages of judgment (MISS, GOOD, PERFECT) and only two lines divided up and down, similar to MU○○ DASH…

How about introducing rhythm games into the arcade?

The reason arcades are losing popularity is because they are perceived as kidult culture where adults enjoy content aimed at children, but the games they are selling are basically easy to get tired of and not fun.

How about using this opportunity to revive arcades by starting with porting Tetris, the arcade’s flagship game, to the arcade?

It’s not that I have these thoughts because I’m bored and have nothing to do at the arcade whenever I have a headache and need to rest. No, not really.

This idea came to me when I was building the server and creating the PC room system, so I wasn’t able to put it into action… But at this point, when I was confident that I would be able to complete the PC room system and pass the midterm exam as easily as eating a cake, I was bored and had only one choice.

First, I went to Yongsan. I persuaded Kim Jeong-jun, who had some money, to help him study and give me some time, and then we went to Yongsan together and dealt with the Yongpals.

As soon as I saw the entrance to Yongsan Dungeon, I thought of Kim Jeong-jun, who had opened his mouth wide and protested, asking why I was called here. I laughed a little. It was the person who was fooled who was at fault, not me.

Anyway, I bought some decent motherboards and parts like buttons, and I also bought the latest display that was sold separately.

Thanks to his fairly reasonable spending, Kim Jeong-jun and the other members who heard about it were all amazed.

So the first thing I made was an arcade version of Tetris. I made two coin slots so that two people could play at the same time with one machine.

I asked for permission from the creator of the 2-player Tetris game that was used in the competition and copied and pasted the code so that two people can compete if they want.

And we promoted this on Mytel. It seems that Yoo-seop’s name recognition was higher than expected, and people started flocking to the point that we had to cancel the plan that Kim Moo-sik and I had to promote together if no one showed up.

Naturally, people who couldn’t play Tetris began to experience new things like the arcade games next door and the PC room in the building next door.

Naturally, sales skyrocketed and the worries Yooseop had when we first met became laughable.

Yooseop must have been quite moved because he cried as if he was cleaning the floor with water and performed the Samgwigugodurye on me.

They offered us a free computer usage fee and told us to use it as much as we wanted, but we refused because it was too burdensome. We felt that if we got used to using it for free, we would quickly become lazy.

In fact, in the original history, I saw that the level of sincerity in the development team I was on also decreased as the environment became more comfortable.

More than anything, we need a justification. We need to open an era where we can sell games for money with the justification that we don’t have to dig the ground to make a living. We can’t distribute games for free forever.

While we were cruising like that, an unexpected guest showed up.