Abstract
This chapter looks to the Chinese game industry of the twentieth century to illuminate the industry of today. The chapter proceeds in five sections. The first two sections discuss the early history of Chinese game machines, including the game console and the learning computer. The third section lists notable Chinese PC games from the 1990s and argues that the cultural crisis felt by players and employees during that time contributed to the emergence of domestic PC games. The fourth section examines the “China image” game, concluding that the term empties the concept of the domestic game of all meaning. The fifth section describes the end of the first generation of Chinese PC game companies.
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Notes
- 1.
In 1986, the price of this kind of game console was about 40 yuan (5.77 USD) (Zhu 1986, p. 24).
- 2.
In 1986, the price of this kind of game console was more than 1000 yuan (144.18 USD) (Zhu 1986, p. 24).
- 3.
In 1989, there were as many as 513,000 video game consoles imported through customs.
- 4.
These factories were generally small and staffed by a few dozen people, including a dozen or so technicians. For example, Freetron, Hong Kong, established a factory in Foshan, and Venus Technology Co. established one in Shenzhen. The annual production capacity of such factories ranged from several hundred thousand to one million units per year, with annual revenues of around one million dollars.
- 5.
Numerous countries around the world have production practices connected to learning computers. For example, the MSX game consoles in Japan included learning functions. However, the learning computer historically has been less critical in countries other than China.
- 6.
According to the point of view at the time, “Learning computers are usually referred to as a personal computer (PC) system for assisting education” (Wu and Wenhu 1988, p. 5).
- 7.
For example, the 48th Institute of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, and the other five units participated in the development of the Chinese learning computer XMF-I (reference price: 988 yuan [142.45 USD]). Organized by the Computer and Information Bureau of the Ministry of Machinery and Electronics Industry, Tsinghua University hosted the joint design of the CEC-I learning computer developed by the sixth institute of the Electrical and Mechanical Department (机电部六所), the State-run 734 Plant (国营七三四厂), the Shanxi Computer Factory (陕西省计算机厂), and Huaming Computer Co., Ltd. (华明计算机有限公司). Other familiar Chinese learning computers on the market at that time included the Hope H101 (1987), the COMX (1988), and LASER (1988).
- 8.
In 1987, Li Peng, the Vice Premier of the State Council, led the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the China Learning Computer Products Exhibition.
- 9.
Representative PC learning computers include Subor, Doctor (小博士), Deep Town, Pyramid, Challenger, GMT, Hongyuan (宏源), Keda, Beautiful Monkey King, Yuxing, Hesheng, and Xiaojiaoshou.
- 10.
Parents often buy computers at the request of teenagers, so teenagers’ game motivation constituted the real motivation to buy learning computers.
- 11.
The CPUs of 8-bit game consoles in mainland China were provided by Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), and UMC was only a contractor under the global CPU technology monopoly system.
- 12.
Yanshan Tank (Yanshan Software) was a hack of the Namco classic Battle City. The Chinese word “Yanshan” appeared in the game, which is the earliest in-game advertisement in the Chinese game industry.
- 13.
The archetypal example is “China’s first programmer,” Qiu Bojun, who not only founded Seasun but also developed CAAC (The Civil Aviation Administration of China).
- 14.
The so-called self-manufacturing here refers to the new gameplay of self-produced games, such as the kriegsspiel of the Golden Disk educational game.
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Acknowledgments
This chapter was supported by the Sumitomo Foundation of Japan with a Grant for Japan-related Research Projects (No. 178012).
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Jian, D. (2024). The History of the Twentieth-Century Chinese Game Industry: The Practice of Domestic Games as Evidence. In: Chen, F., McAllister, K.S., Ruggill, J.E. (eds) The Chinese Video Game Industry. Palgrave Games in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41504-3_2
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