ctnovel Chapter 199 Storing Data in the Cloud
Chapter 199 Storing Data in the Cloud
Chapter 199 Storing Data in the Cloud
The prototype machine, which was called "Indiana Jones: Temple Run," was eventually taken to Spielberg's place by a special car.
As for the licensing issue, it was already agreed upon with Lucas on the very day we met.
However, the matter left for Lin Lixin was not yet finished.
If they were to sell it under the current circumstances, they would certainly achieve remarkable results. However, since they had already started, Lin Lixin still planned to take this opportunity to test some new technologies that he had never used before.
GAMENOVA headquarters.
After listening to Lin Lixin's account, Gerald frowned and fell into deep thought.
"Use IC cards to store player data, in order to add more gameplay elements that extend the game's lifespan, such as out-of-game progression —"
This is indeed an extremely bold idea.
Saving your game on arcade machines has always been a challenge.
In the past, they used a compromise technique called "password archiving".
However, given the current needs, it is clear that password archiving is not feasible.
Because it is not secure enough and its capacity is too small.
According to Lin Lixin, what he wanted was something like a phone card.
It can describe a player's identity information and other basic details.
"Hmm—I'm afraid it won't be that easy."
After briefly considering the feasibility in his mind, Gerald shook his head, expressing pessimism. "The production technology of IC cards is not yet mature. The estimated cost of an IC card with a microprocessor is already close to $20."
That alone is enough to destroy the previously envisioned gaming environment.
This is just the cost price.
Including transportation and other costs, the price of an IC card is estimated to be close to $50.
It's already almost as good as a console game.
Isn't this ridiculous?
It's worth noting that arcade games are still generally priced around 25 cents per game, and even the biggest titles are only priced at $1 per game.
And this is just the least problematic issue among them.
What truly renders IC cards useless in practical applications is their capacity.
"The cards currently in use in Europe are only about 16 bytes. Even if we customize a version, the capacity will not exceed 1KB."
This capacity renders the idea of using IC cards for archiving completely useless in practice.
"If you really want to use a card, I have a better idea."
Gerrard suddenly changed the subject.
Although adopting IC cards is not very feasible at this stage, there is something that can serve as a perfect alternative.
After saying that, Gerald got up and went to the storage room to rummage around.
A short while later, he took a card out of the box.
One side of the card is bisected by a wide black stripe.
Compared to expensive integrated circuit chip cards, these less reliable but cheaper and easier-to-use cards are more suitable for the current market environment.
"Magnetic stripe card?"
Lin Lixin was taken aback, then reached out and took the card, examining it in his hand.
Indeed, compared to IC cards, the cost of this thing is practically dirt cheap.
Both the reading and writing equipment and the card manufacturing cost are far lower than those of IC cards.
Moreover, the capacity of magnetic stripe cards is actually larger than you might imagine.
At least in this era when circuit miniaturization is still being explored, the capacity of magnetic strips is already astonishing.
Each of the three magnetic tracks can store dozens of characters.
This amount of data is more than enough for storing data in a simple arcade game.
But Lin Lixin shook his head and stuffed the card back into Gerald's hand.
"No, Gerald, this set of cards must use IC cards, specifically IC cards with a microprocessor."
Although IC cards are much more expensive than magnetic stripe cards, they have one major advantage that magnetic stripe cards simply cannot match.
Safety!
The information is stored in the chip, which is not as easily damaged as a magnetic strip, such as by a key or other object, and thus cannot be lost.
Not only is data storage secure, but data retrieval is also highly secure.
The magnetic stripe on a magnetic stripe card is essentially just a stripe of plaintext storage.
If discovered by someone with malicious intent, the contents could be copied without any effort.
IC cards are different.
It can encrypt data using its built-in microprocessor.
To read the data on the card, it is necessary to pass the card reader's legitimate authentication and the card's asymmetric encryption verification.
Data decryption requires three steps.
These technologies give IC cards a significant edge in security.
Lin Lixin pondered for a few moments.
"We can only work on the cost issue gradually, but data storage has never been a problem from the beginning."
"Because Temple Run doesn't have a large amount of save data?"
"No, its data volume far exceeds the capacity of the IC card, but we don't need to store the data on the card."
Lin Lixin tapped the table, a smile spreading across his face. "The cards only store players' personal information; we'll store the data in the cloud!"
"Cloud? What does that mean?"
In an era before the internet was widespread, this term sounded quite strange to Gerrard.
Lin Lixin chuckled and didn't explain anything further.
To get this part of the work done, he'll have to make several trips to different departments.
The first thing to do, naturally, is to solve the production problem.
Lin Lixin directly approached Vivian, who was working overtime at Micron, about this.
"That's no problem—Micron has an existing COB packaging production line. We just need to find a place to buy a card manufacturing line and we can start production immediately."
This level of computing demand doesn't require high-end chips or the ultra-micro manufacturing processes used by Texas Instruments.
As for data encryption, this can be easily achieved with simple asymmetric encryption techniques such as RSA.
Next, all we need to do is work with Carmack and his team to optimize the server-side for high concurrency and add features such as message queues and partition scheduling. Then the system can be officially put into use.
Lin Lixin had high hopes for this thing; otherwise, he wouldn't have invested so much in the server development, regardless of cost.
When the topic of arcade games and IC cards came up, the first thing that came to his mind was Sega's Aime in later years.
"Ka Si She Tong".
A dedicated membership card for Sega arcade games such as DanceX.
If it can actually run, then it has great potential.
ArcadeArea is a fairly large, mid-sized arcade.
Store manager Henry had his butt sticking out, with half of his body inside a Metal Gear box.
He reached out and grabbed the new roll of lottery tickets, then put it into the empty automatic ticket dispenser.
He then carefully inspected the substrate again before stepping out of the frame, dusting off the dirt, and standing up straight.
The new ticket machine modification offered by this silicon-based oasis has recently become extremely popular, with many of its machines being equipped with this gadget to stimulate consumer spending.
"Alright, that should solve the ticket problem. Have fun playing the game."
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