Takuya Nakayama pushed open the door and left.
In the hallway, several employees were walking briskly, clutching thick stacks of documents and engaged in a heated discussion about code bugs.
The hardware and software for the New Handheld were being developed at full speed. All of Sega seemed like a super-charged sports car, its engine roaring.
Everything was ready; all they needed now was a favorable wind.
Now, it all depended on what kind of good news Sato could bring back from Sharp.
On the morning of the third day, the Tokyo sky finally cleared. Golden sunlight streamed through the slats of the blinds, illuminating the President's office at Sega Headquarters.
Takuya Nakayama had just sat down in his spacious leather office chair and lifted the cup of Blue Mountain Coffee his secretary had just brewed. Before the rich aroma could even unfold on his palate, the heavy solid-wood office door was thrown open with a loud bang.
Hideki Sato strode in.
He was carrying a black metal briefcase, holding it as if it contained a priceless treasure. He slammed the case down onto Takuya Nakayama's large solid-wood desk.
"Managing Director, we did it! They actually pulled it off!" Hideki Sato, still gasping for breath, pulled out a chair and sank into it. His fingers flew across the combination lock, trembling with excitement.
Click. The case sprang open.
Nestled within thick, high-density anti-shock foam lay several LCD panels, each sealed tightly in a silver-gray anti-static bag.
"Sharp has given us a definitive answer," Sato said, carefully lifting the bags and arranging them on the desk as if they were newborn infants. "The technology for this screen will be finalized in the third quarter of this year. Their first new production line in Tenri is expected to go live in early 1998, perfectly aligning with our launch schedule!"
Takuya Nakayama set down his coffee cup and picked up one of the bags. He held the panel up to the light, his gaze deepening as he inspected it through the transparent plastic.
"What are the technical specs?" he asked. "No empty promises like NEC's, I hope?"
Sato whipped open his notebook, pointing to the dense, almost illegible columns of data. His voice rose an octave in excitement.
"None at all! The maximum size is 8.4 inches, and it can perfectly display 260,000 colors. But the real breakthroughs are the thickness and power consumption!"
"Managing Director, this screen has completely eliminated that damn backlight module! Its thickness has been compressed to an extreme 2.2 to 2.4 millimeters—thin as a razor blade! As for the power consumption—" Hideki Sato swallowed hard. "It's ridiculously low, only one-seventh that of a traditional transmissive TFT screen! Maybe even lower!"
Takuya Nakayama placed the antistatic bags back on the table, his fingers rapping it twice.
One-seventh the power consumption.
What did that mean?
It meant two ordinary AA batteries would be enough to power Sega's new handheld for over a dozen hours.
This was the most crucial, non-negotiable metric for a handheld console.
"Are these the samples their lab produced?" Takuya Nakayama pointed to the bags on the table.
"Yes, I practically begged their Technical Director for them. I managed to bring back engineering samples of three different specifications." Hideki Sato opened the first bag and took out a small, exquisite panel. "This one is 3.0 inches, with a resolution of 240 by 160 pixels."
Then, he opened the second one.
"This one is 3.5 inches. The resolution is still 240 by 160 pixels, but the physical area is larger."
Finally, he took a deep breath and pulled out a panel that was noticeably larger than the others.
"This one's 3.9 inches, and the resolution has been pushed to a staggering 320 by 200 pixels."
Takuya Nakayama laid the three screen panels side-by-side, carefully comparing their size differences.
"The first two have the same resolution, just different sizes," Hideki Sato explained professionally from the side. "Since the pixel density doesn't increase much, the yield rate and cost difference between the 3.0-inch and 3.5-inch panels are very small. We just need to focus on testing their image quality and power consumption."
He pointed to the largest 3.9-inch panel, his tone turning grave.
"But this last one... the cost is significantly higher. The pixel count is nearly double, yet the pixel density is no lower than the first one. The engineers at Sharp specifically warned us that such a high resolution will put a massive strain on the motherboard's chip in terms of data throughput. It could even bring the whole system to its knees."
Takuya Nakayama picked up the 3.9-inch panel, weighing it in his hand.
He knew all too well that the new handheld's chip combination was the MC68000 paired with an auxiliary Z80. This architecture had once dominated the home console market, fueling the Mega Drive's glory days. But on a handheld, its clock speed had been deliberately throttled to keep heat and power consumption under control.
Forcing a high-resolution screen would not only severely drag down the game's frame rate, making action games stuttery, but also exponentially increase the strain on the battery. It would be completely counterproductive.
"The 3.9-inch option is out. We'll keep it as a backup for now, or save it for a future upgraded model." Takuya Nakayama decisively set down the larger panel without a hint of regret. "Focus our testing on the 3.0-inch and 3.5-inch versions. Making a handheld console is an art of balance. Performance, power consumption, cost—none of these can spiral out of control. A product with a flashy exterior but no substance won't go far."
Hideki Sato immediately circled the 3.9-inch option on his notepad and crossed it out with a large X.
"What are Sharp's ordering terms? For a product this good, they must be making a huge sacrifice, right?" Takuya Nakayama lifted his coffee, which had already gone lukewarm, and took a slow, deliberate sip.
"They're asking for the moon," Hideki Sato said with a wry smile, closing his notebook. "A minimum order of one million units—not a single one less. And they're demanding a thirty percent down payment upon signing the contract to fund the construction of their new production line."
One million units, plus a massive down payment—for any other game company, this would be an astronomical figure enough to make them turn tail and run.
If the new console's sales tanked, this inventory would be enough to bankrupt a mid-sized company.
But for Sega—and for Takuya Nakayama, who had just conquered the North American Internet market and was sitting on a mountain of cash—this hurdle wasn't even a puddle.
"The terms are acceptable. Accept their offer," Takuya Nakayama declared, setting his coffee cup down on the desk with a sharp clack. "Tell Sharp that as long as the quality meets our standards, money is no object. You're done for the day. Take these screens to Yuji Naka immediately. Give him all the specifications and tell him to finalize the UI and front-end display logic right away!"
Hideki Sato's eyes lit up. He shot to his feet, slid the screens back into their anti-static bags, and snapped them into the secure briefcase.
"Tell Yuji Naka he has two weeks," Takuya Nakayama said, leaning back in his chair, his gaze as sharp as a blade. "In two weeks, I want a development kit that can run the game perfectly sitting on my desk. The launch title for the new handheld can't be delayed any longer."
"Understood! Consider it done!" Hideki Sato grabbed the briefcase and marched out of the office like a general who had just received his orders.
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