The manufacturing floor at Atari headquarters hasnt changed since Duke's last visit.
In the center of the main floor, a single arcade cabinet stood alone.
The surrounding workbenches had been pushed back, giving the machine space.
Duke walked through the door, and Nolan Bushnell was already waiting for him, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.
Nola nodded, and gestured for Duke to follow him across the floor, passing by different people working in the company.
A custom-built Star Wars cabinet dominated the space.
It was painted in black with the movie logo across the side panels.
And looked nothing like the cheap wood cabinets that populated bowling alleys and pizza parlors.
The Vector display screen was black.
Arcade games in 1976 typically used 'raster graphics', that drew images using horizontal lines of pixels.
Vector screens were different, they drew lines between mathematical coordinates.
The technology was new, expensive and difficult to program, usually reserved for military radar systems.
Using it for an arcade game was a gamble for using the most foward technology available.
Nolan reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter and handed it to Duke without a word.
Duke stepped up to the control panel.
Instead of a standard joystick, the machine had a flight stick, modeled to replicate the flight controls of a starfighter but very simplified.
All designed to look futuristic but still be intuitive to the average person.
He pushed the coin into the slot and the screen flickered to life.
The trench run game looked amazing and it was pretty simple.
You pilot a space fighter through a narrow trench.
You must dodge barriers, avoid laser gates, destroy turrets, and survive boss fights as the speed continuously accelerates.
The vector created a 3D world that shouldn't have been possible in 1976.
Duke pushed the joystick forward, and the Death Star surface scrolled past, in a smooth but somewhat slow manner.
TIE fighters appeared in front of him. He turned the stick, dodging laser fire that flashed across the screen.
He moved from left to right and viceversa avoiding the barriers too.
The exhaust port appeared ahead, a small target at the end of the trench. Duke squeezed the triggers.
The screen flashed white as he won.
This was supposed to be an easy version of the real game, after all, this was a prototype, there was a lot of improvements to be made.
The best comparison to Star Wars: Trench Run is both the Original Trench Run and surprisingly Space Invaders.
Duke stepped back and let out a breath, smiling.
The game felt just like the movie's finale.
Nolan stood nearby, watching him nervously. Waiting for his reaction.
"It's worth every penny," Duke said.
The engineers let out a relieved sigh. A few high-fived each other, those late nights had paid off.
"The vector display was a great idea," Nolan said, rubbing his neck. "He said it was the only way to get the speed and depth you wanted. We had to build the processing boards from scratch, but we now have the expirience on these kind of machines."
"It's worth every penny," Duke said again, looking at the glowing high-score screen. "This machine is going to change arcades."
"The home console version is being prepared too," Nolan said, pointing to a smaller workstation in the corner.
"It's not as good as the arcade one. The hardware can't handle it, but it still feels a little like the trench run."
They walked to a regular color TV hooked up to a plastic console.
Nolan flipped a switch, and a colorful version of Star Wars: Trench Run appeared.
Duke grabbed the joystick.
The home version was simpler, TIE fighters were chunky squares.
The trench was scrolling bars, cause of the limitations of Hardware.
But the game was fun at least.
He noticed the high-score list already had initials on it.
The engineers had been playing during their breaks, competing for the top spot.
Duke pushed the joystick left, dodged a laser blast, and scored enough points to make the top five. The screen asked for his initials.
He went through the letters and entered 'CH'.
Nolan watched the screen, smiling through his tiredness, at last the product worked.
He grabbed a cartridge from the table beside him, holding it up like a trophy. The label was blank except for a handwritten serial number.
"Oh, try this, this is a prototype," Nolan said, slotting it into the console. "It's functional. I wanted you to see what this thing can do."
He flipped the power switch.
The television screen flickered, and a simple title card appeared 'SUPERMAN'
The game loaded, and Duke watched as a blocky figure in a red cape flew across a pixelated Metropolis.
The graphics were primitive by arcade standards, but compared to the Pong consoles that still dominated living rooms, it was a leap foward.
"The home version of Superman," Nolan said, handing Duke a joystick.
"We had to simplify it. No open world, but the core is there. He rescues Lois, stops Lex, and the timer keeps it tense."
Duke played for a minute. The controls were responsive and the game was simple but engaging. He could totally see kids spending hours on this.
"We're on track for a 1977 release," Nolan continued.
Duke set the joystick down and turned to face Nolan, before walking to the corner of the room, where a whiteboard had been set up for brainstorming.
He picked up a marker and began drawing.
"Space Invaders," he said, sketching a crude pixelated alien at the top of the screen.
"The player controls a cannon at the bottom, where waves of aliens descend from the top, moving side to side, getting faster as you destroy them."
"The player has to shoot them before they reach the bottom."
Nolan studied the sketch and nodded. "That's... that's smart. Simple too."
Duke nodded, already moving to the next drawing.
"Pac-Man." He sketched a circle with a mouth, a maze around it, and four small ghosts in different colors.
"The player controls this yellow character that eats dots in a maze while avoiding ghosts. If he eats a power pellet, the ghosts turn blue and he can eat them too."
Nolan's eyebrows shot up. "That's... thats... different from anything on the market."
Duke tapped the whiteboard. "Kids will memorize the maze, develop strategies. It's going to be popular, trust."
Nolan stared at the drawing for a moment, then nodded. He was already regretting showing Duke this console.
He reprimanded himself for showing it while Duke wasnt in the process of shooting a movie.
Duke smiled but didn't answer. He moved to the third section of the whiteboard.
"Donkey Kong." He drew a simple platform structure with ladders, a barrel-rolling ape at the top, and a small character at the bottom.
"The player controls this character, that has to climb to the top of the construction site to rescue his girlfriend from a giant ape."
"The ape throws barrels and obstacles and the player jumps over them and climbs the ladders."
Nolan said, "A rescue narrative."
"That's the plan," Duke said.
Nolan ran a hand through his hair, his mind racing.
He grabbed a marker and began writing notes on the whiteboard, circling Duke's drawings. "Each game will take months of coding, testing, and debugging..."
He trailed off, already calculating costs and timelines in his head.
Duke placed a hand on Nolan's shoulder.
"Relax, I didn't come here to add to your stress," Duke said, as he grabbed his suit jacket to leave directly.
____
Update: tomorrow Double chapters
I have not given up nor paused this fic.
I am literally writting this while im sick