[8 Jan, 1977]
Today is Saturday, I asked my Uncle to take me to the game studio. He agreed.
Then he left and made sure his secretary to oversee me because the movie 'Saturday Night Fever' will be released in few days. I went to the meet the team leader for the development of the game Kauffman and the engineer Howell Ivy.
At first, they were shocked to learn that a kid has given the idea of the game and the development direction. But after having a conversion, they saw me in different light due to my thoughts and imagination.
As a developer having vivid imagination is gift and they were happy to have a wonderful kid like me.
Uncle had sent them a script of the movie and asked them study to see if they are useful.
I too read the script and had a discussion with them. I asked them if they can include the dialogues like 'May the Force be with you', 'I find your lack of faith to be disturbing', 'Never tell me the odds!', 'No, I am your father'…. It can be used in different scenarios like if the player wins we can include 'May the force be with you' or if he loses 'I find your lack of faith to be disturbing' etc.
They were surprised and said it was possible and started to gather the team to see if there are any other dialogues in the script that can be used.
I gave them some of my ideas, they listened to me and we got engaged in the discussion and the development.
I also said that now I had another idea for making a new game. They looked surprised and asked me what it was, I replied that I will tell them next time.
They too agreed and started to work on the game.
I spent all day with them and Uncle has come to pick me up. I said that I would come again next week with my new game idea and bid farewells.
Uncle has been informed of the situation by the secretary in the afternoon. So, he wasn't that surprised of me saying about another new game idea.
He just looked at me and asked that if I was happy spending the time here?
I replied that I was happy and they all are good to me.
He just said "it was good to see you happy but you shouldn't say your ideas to others without thinking. They can steal your idea. Then they will say that it was theirs and you have stolen them. People can be deceiving. So, don't just say your thoughts casually and come to me. I will help you. Family can be trusted to an extent. I hope you can understand but you are still a kid…."
"So, listen carefully Edward, I want you to tell me if you have any new ideas so that I can be prepared and tell you if they are suitable. Understood, kid." said seriously and explained to me.
I was shocked and I forgot that others can also steal your ideas if you are vulnerable and kind. They can take me for a pushover and steal my ideas. I can't entertain such thoughts because entertainment industry is such a place. The ones who can stay are strong, ruthless and have more connections and money.
I just showed him a confused look and nodded my head showing that I understand.
He just rubbed my hair and said "You will understand, kid… when you grow up."
I shook of his hand and turned my head thinking what Uncle has said.
We reached home.
Next day, I spent whole day drawing the games 'Pac-Man', 'Tetris', 'Snake' and 'Indiana Jones' games in a picture book format.
All I just have to do is to draw the characters and write down their names. Next is the storyline or theme of the game and how it should be.
Except for 'Tetris' and 'Snake' because I have written down the simple game plans for them.
For 'Tetris', I said it would be good to have building blocks falling on the ground and we have to align them to make them disappear with some ideas of how it should be.
For 'Snake', I wrote down of a snake that eats everything on the screen without touching the walls or boundary.
After completing them, I started to check and corrected the mistakes.
I then refined them to the best of what a child of my age can do.
Three days later, Uncle took me to attend for the movie screening. It was decided to release on more than 1000 screens of which half are Uncle's and other was due to his connections.
The Universal and Warner Bros has released their movies in the same month with more than a week gap before and after it.
The Universal's 'The Sentinel' movie was a mild success and Loin's Gate 'The Late Show' is art film released by Warner Bros.
'Saturday Night Fever' movie has grossed over $40 million in a month. It was a box office success.
There are no films that took away its box office in the following days. It grossed over nearly over $153 million in three months. It showed a gradual declined in the three months. It has started a trend of disco all over the place.
It was released to overseas by Fox and grossed over another $120 million in the two months.
The theaters reduced the screen as it has shown downward trend like other movies. It has been on the run till late May and was taken out of the theaters.
It has grossed about $311.2 million world-wide against $5 million budget, with a 6224% profit ratio.
After the distribution and tax cuts, the movie made a profit of over $150 million.
The game 'Star Wars' also completed. Uncle has asked the GALAXY Games company to provide about 5000 arcade machines. Then 1000 arcade machines were placed in the theaters that were scheduled to release the 'Star Wars' movie.
A month before the movie release, the remaining 4000 arcade machines were put in these theaters who agreed with the Fox to promote the movie with the game.
With in a week the game made a successful impact. It has attracted large amount of traffic and publicity before the movie release.
More than 40,000 orders were given from the theater chains. They were happy that many students and young people were attracted to their place.
In a month, a total of 70,000 orders were given of which 40,000 were of theater chain and remaining were of the arcade owners who has seen its potential.
20th Century Fox and Uncle sighed in relief that this big production will be able to recoup the cost and a possibility of having profit.
The movie was also decided to be released on large scale of more than 2000 screen due to the visibility it has gained through the game.
In my previous life, I heard that George Lucas has fled to avoid the people from Fox if the movie failed because he lost hope. But due to my interference this was never happened.
He along with the 20th Century Fox and Uncle Rob attended the movie screening. I was able to attend the movie opening with my Uncle.
I was able to see the epic movie on the screen once again. This was the cultural symbol which has broken many records in my past life.
With more budget, it seems Lucas was able to refine some special effects scenes which has different from the past.
The movie was a huge success. It has brought out special effects to a new level. It has garnered many praises from the young people and critics.
The movie earned about $7.9 million and was a box office champion.
It has continued to be box office champion for more than four months.
It has earned a world-wide box office of $800 million, with $460 million coming from domestic sales and $340 million from international sales.
It has achieved of 6,690% profit with a production budget of $12 million.
Uncle invested and got 22% box office from the domestic sales. I am sure Fox must be regretting in giving such a huge amount of more than $100 million. They will play tricks for sure.
But from what I see uncle is not worrying over the issue.
GALAXY Games have also released another game 'Snake' at the end of the year.
It was sensation in the arcade world. The arcade owners were ordering more than 70,000 units because the game will be over soon in a minute or seconds for a newbie.
It was practically collecting money.
The GALAXY Games became popular all over the country. The 'Star Wars' game was licensed to released overseas and it was also a huge success considering the influence of its other part 'Star Wars' movie.
The game pushed the company forefront and received many praises.
This helped in the release of the 'Snake' game and regaining more success through 'Snake' game which further solidified the company's name.
The team was expanded from 20 something people to more than 40 people.
Now they all work together to produce 'Pac-man' and 'Tetris' games. They were also working on the home console game versions.
The company wants to enter the home console games, but in the console development the Atari and Sega are in the lead are trying to occupy the market.
Uncle felt that it was unnecessary to involve into that market and instead solely focus on games development. Later the company can acquire the home console companies which are closed to bankrupt or joint venture in developments.
Now uncle want the company to study the consoles and wait until the market is developed.
The GALAXY Games company now have 'Tetris' and 'Pac-Man' in development. The 'Star Wars', 'Snake' and 'Death Race' games are now made towards the Home Consoles. The company decided to license the games in the Atari home consoles first and Sega consoles a few months later.
There is no exclusivity in the agreements. Uncle felt that the game will bring more profits his way until the market is developed and occupied by them.
After these games, Uncle and me decided to develop the 'Tron' and 'Indiana Jones' games for the next projects.