March 13, 1986
I have to get out of here. This isn’t even half a life. It’s like living under house arrest. Moving to California is no longer a career move, it’s an escape hatch.
March 20, 1986
This negotiation with Broderbund has dragged on so long and gotten so frustrating, it’s pretty much cured me of any lingering sentimental feelings of being part of the “Broderbund family.” I still feel affection for Doug and Gary, but the reality is, it’s a corporation. To the people I’m actually dealing with, it’s just business.
Mom just showed me an article in Venture magazine about how Electronic Arts gave Timothy Leary a $100,000 advance for his new game. Why am I still talking to Broderbund?
March 28, 1986
Bill McDonagh called to tell me that Karateka has sold a quarter of a million units in its first month of release in Japan.
April 15, 1986
Got a new contract draft from Broderbund. They’re still offering $0 advance, but I think it’ll be OK.
April 29, 1986
The digitizer arrived. I fired it up and quickly determined that the tape I shot in October is useless.
Basically, the digitizer recognizes two shades: black and white. The background needs to be dark enough to be perceived as black even when the brightness is turned up high enough to make David’s arms and face and feet visible.
Second, it can’t reduce or enlarge.
Maybe if I paint his skin white and give him a white turban and shoot it against a black wall?
I still think this can work. The key is not to clean up the frames too much. The figure will be tiny and messy and look like crap… but I have faith that, when the frames are run in sequence at 15 fps, it’ll create an illusion of life that’s more amazing than anything that’s ever been seen on an Apple II screen. The little guy will be wiggling and jittering like a Ralph Bakshi rotoscope job… but he’ll be alive. He’ll be this little shimmering beacon of life in the static Apple-graphics Persian world I’ll build for him to run around in.
April 30, 1986
Spent the day getting DRAY to pack and unpack, load and save. Another couple of days and it’ll be doing everything DRAX should’ve done all along.
This is the utility I should have had for Karateka. It seems like a lot of work now, but it’ll pay for itself many times over when it comes time to cut out all those frames and put them in order.
May 17, 1986
I think the best way to do the digitizing for the game may be to shoot it in Super 8, put it on the Moviola, then train the video camera on the screen and feed it directly into the digitizer. That’d result in a cleaner picture, eliminate the freeze-frame noise. Also, I could manipulate image size by zooming in and out.
One disadvantage is the hassle of getting Super 8 film developed. And I’d need a movie camera as well as a video camera.
How’s this: Buy a video camera now, shoot on video the best I can, digitize it – noise and all – and use it as a dry run placeholder, while I program the rest of the game. Then shoot the final stuff on Super 8 once I have a clearer idea of what I need.
July 7, 1986
Got a call from Ed Badasov at Broderbund.
“I understand you want to come out here,” he said.
I explained: “I figure it’ll take me a year to do the game, so what I’d like to do is relocate to the Bay Area. If I could stay with someone for the first couple of weeks until I find an apartment, that’d be a big help.”
He asked if the project was a sequel to Karateka. When I told him it wasn’t, his enthusiasm dimmed noticeably. I felt like I was talking to a studio executive.
July 25, 1986
Moving 3,000 miles away on the strength of nothing more than a vague idea – “an Arabian Nights-type-game” – feels kind of scary, and appealing.
July 31, 1986
Just looked at the “final” version of PC Karateka. It seemed OK, I guessed, except for overall sluggishness, frequent disk accesses, and a few minor graphics glitches. Then I booted up the Apple version to compare… and it was so smooth, it made me want to cry.
The PC version is maybe 50% of what it should be. I can’t even tell these guys what to fix… it’s a million little things, and they’re just not up to the hassle. That kind of attention to detail is why the Apple version took me two years. This version is probably the best I’ll ever get out of them.
Oddly enough, this makes me more psyched to do the new game. It reminded me why I’m good at this – of what I can do that others can’t, or won’t.
August 1, 1986
Ed sent sketches of someone’s ideas for Karateka II – Gene’s, presumably. I wasn’t too enthused at first, but now it occurs to me there is a way that this could work.
If I get actively involved in the game design – make up a storyline, draw up sketches, brainstorm with Gene, etc. – and stay on in a kind of supervisory capacity, while turning the programming over to Steve Ohmert – that’ll let me keep some control over the project’s development, and also justify asking for a higher royalty rate than if I weren’t involved at all.
It makes sense. They can’t very well turn me down – I own the copyright to Karateka, so there’s no sequel unless I agree to it.
August 2, 1986
I told Ed Badasov I’d like to design Karateka II for them. He said:
“We already have two designers, Gene and Lauren. We don’t need a third. After all, designing it is something that, basically, anyone can do.”
As for royalty, he offered 3% — one-fifth of the original rate — and seemed to think that is basically a gift and they are doing me a huge favor.
He went so far as to point out that they could release Karateka II under a different title and pay me nothing, and word would get around that it was in fact an unofficial sequel to Karateka, so they’d still benefit from Karateka’s success without having to pay me a royalty.
I’m proud of myself for not having lost my temper.
Dad advised me to hold out for 15%, the same as on Karateka. I’d be happy with 10%, which is what Doug Smith got on Championship Lode Runner. But I don’t think they’ll give that much.
September 3, 1986
It’s official – I’m going to California. I have a plane ticket and everything.
“Actually,” Ed said, “I was expecting you today.”
My life is about to change.
California
September 10, 1986
[San Francisco] “I thought you were the pizza man,” Tomi said when she opened the door to the Baker Street apartment and saw me there at the top of the steep steps with my two bags.
Now I’m reclining in luxury in one of their new armchairs, listening to Maurizio Pollini play Chopin preludes on their new CD player. There’s a stunning view of San Francisco Bay out the windows that makes my stomach contract every time I look at it.
Did I mention that I’m scared? Getting a ride to work this morning with Tomi, pulling into the Broderbund parking lot – that was scary.
Now that the day’s over and it’s clear that I had nothing to be scared of, I’m not scared any more – I’m terrified. I’m scared shitless.
I have to rent a car. I have to drive it. On these insane twelve-lane racetracks they call freeways. I have to find an apartment and rent it. I have to move in. I have to buy a car. I have to buy insurance. I’ve never done any of this stuff before… and now I have to do it all at once.
And on top of this – or rather, at the bottom of it – I have to make a computer game.
It’s gonna be fun.
September 11, 1986
Visited Danny Gorlin. He’s sunk more money into developing the development system to end all development systems. Saw the final version of Airheart. It’
s got some staggering special effects and it’s no fun at all to play.
Danny thinks spending a million bucks on a development system will give him an edge. He might be right. But the best Apple games have been developed on a plain Apple II with two disk drives. Lucasfilm spent a million bucks to make Rescue on Fractalus and Ball Blazer, and those games aren’t significantly better than, or different from, the competition. The real strides forward – Raster Blaster, Choplifter, (what the hell) Karateka – were the work of solo programmers with no special resources.
Maybe Danny is leading game design into the 21st century. Maybe he’s just flushing money down the toilet.
I’ll stick with my Apple II.
September 11, 1986
Met with Gene, Lauren, and Ed Badasov and showed them my Baghdad ideas. (Ed B. made up the working title Prince of Persia.) The storyline didn’t impress them much, but I think they saw promise in it.
It doesn’t really matter a whole lot what they think – I’m the one that has to do it – but it sure as hell wouldn’t hurt to have them enthusiastic. In a few months I should have something to thrill them.
I’m starting to get psyched to write this game. Slowly.
September 12, 1986
Apartment hunting with Steve Patrick. We checked out one place with a pink carpet, dusty chandeliers, and an old-lady landlord who said she doesn’t like renting to kids. “They make a lot of noise,” she said. “They invite their friends over.”
“Not me,” I said. “I just got off the plane from New York. I don’t have any friends.”
“Oh, you will,” she said, ominously, sounding like Yoda in Empire. “You will.”
Steve and Tomi told me I can stay with them until they kick me out.
“You should live in the Marina district,” Doug advised. “You’d meet a lot of… (pause)… yuppies.”
September 18, 1986
Looked at a house in Mill Valley, on a shady road winding through the redwoods. When I rang the doorbell the lady peered around me and said, “Is your mother down there?”
She spent fifteen minutes showing me the house, but I don’t think I ever quite convinced her I was serious.
September 23, 1986
Spent much of today working on the logistical problem of how to get the footage from a VHS tape into the computer. I finally (tentatively) settled on photographing the frames one by one with a regular 35mm camera, getting prints made, then (after retouching as needed) digitizing the prints with a regular Sony video camera. It sounds like a pain but I think it’s the best way.
September 25, 1986
Another solid workday. Today I stayed till around 7 and got DRAY pretty much finished. I tested it out by digitizing a page out of Muybridge. It’ll do what I need it to do. It could use another day of work. Actually, I could keep working on it for a month, if I didn’t have so much else to do.
September 26, 1986
Ed Bernstein called his last P.D. meeting this afternoon. He’s leaving to head up Broderbund’s fledgling board games division. DOUG HIMSELF will be taking over as acting head of P.D. He’ll be taking my desk, the better to stay in touch with the people. So I’ll be moving into Ed’s office. Life is strange.
P.D. is throwing Ed a goodbye party. “Better the devil we know than the deep blue sea,” Steve said.
At lunch, Doug said: “You seem to have a very strong entrepreneurial bent.” I was surprised, and said something about how I’d probably inherited it from my father.
Coming out here was definitely the right thing to do. In Chappaqua, I was in a rut. Now, I’m in the thick of it. It’s great.
September 27, 1986
I have a car.
September 28, 1986
I have an apartment.
September 29, 1986
Today I moved into Ed’s office. Obviously, this is a temporary arrangement; eventually some new guy will be hired to run P.D. and I’ll get booted to some other part of the building. But while it lasts, it’s great.
Besides vast amounts of space, a couple of armchairs for visitors, my own phone, and a door that I can close, the office has the most important thing of all – equipment. A printer. An amber screen. An Apple IIc. It didn’t occur to me until I was actually confronted with two Apple II’s on my desk and I had to figure out what to do with the extra one – but it’s perfect. Now I can run programs without destroying the source code in memory. It’s…(gulp)… a development system.
October 14, 1986
David Stenn read my screenplay. He said it has promise but would need at least one more rewrite to be saleable. Perhaps sensing my disappointment, he said: “Look, it’s great for a first script – it really is. I wouldn’t show you my first screenplay. You obviously have talent, you should stick with it.”
He was more impressed with the reviews of Karateka I’d sent him. “You’re in the right business,” he said. “What do you want to get into this one for?”
October 15, 1986
Bought a camera at Whole Earth. It was more expensive than I’d anticipated — $250 with the lens – but it’s a good camera, and I imagine I’ll find some use for it even after the game’s done.
I shot my first roll of film (David turning around) and had it developed at the local one-hour photo stop. I think this will work. The real problem, obviously, will be going from a sheaf of snapshots to the 280 x 192 Apple screen, and the loss of accuracy entailed therein. It almost makes me want to do it in double hi-res.
October 19, 1986
Shot four more rolls of film: David running and jumping in the Reader’s Digest parking lot. One year ago tomorrow. Red and orange leaves… God, I’m homesick.
October 21, 1986
Today I wrote the first lines of code of the game (not counting the hi-res routines). It Begins.
October 23, 1986
Everyone in the office has been playing a lot of Tetris – a Russian submission for the IBM PC. It’s a classic, like Breakout. But I don’t think Broderbund is going to publish it. The knaves.
October 25, 1986
Yesterday I implemented the running animation. Next I’ll do the jumping… then the stopping… then the “jumping from a stopped position”… oh boy, this is great!
I restrained myself from taking all my work papers home with me yesterday… and I’m restraining myself from going to work today. There must be Balance.
October 31, 1986
Ed was pretty thrilled with the rough running and jumping animation, now under joystick control. So was Tomi. Lauren, Doug and Gary didn’t act all excited, but I think they were secretly impressed.
I love the quality of the just-digitized roughs, but I’m having trouble preserving that fluidity and realism when I clean it up and stylize the figures. This is going to be a problem.
I beat out Ed and Steve for the #1 spot on the Tetris high-score list.
The Mets won the World Series.
November 9, 1986
God, I miss New York.
Fifth Avenue… Christmas shoppers… rich ladies in furs laden with shopping bags and kids… crisp cold autumn air… the smell of burnt pretzels… St. Peter’s… the steel drum players wearing woolen gloves with cut-off fingers, breath condensing on the air…
I’m looking out the window at the San Francisco skyline across the bay dotted with white sails. It looks unreal. Like some kind of paradise.
November 10, 1986
Called Kyle Freeman in L.A. (he’s at Electronic Arts now) and asked him what he’d charge to license his Apple music subroutine. He spent half the phone call dumping on Broderbund. I realized after I’d hung up that this was the first thing I’d done independent of Broderbund since I got here. Interestingly, it actually strengthened my confidence that Broderbund is the right place f
or me. It reminded me that I am independent.
November 18, 1986
Digitized the running skidding turn-around that was so amusing on videotape. It looks OK. I’ll need to redo the straight running, but I think everything else will work as it stands.
About half the animations are in now. Next step will be getting the character to interact with the environment (climbing a rope ladder, pulling a lever, etc.)
At this juncture I think I’ll redirect my attention to the game design.
December 2, 1986
Spent most of the day trying to figure out the velocity of a falling human being as a function of time. Enlisted practically everyone at Broderbund at one point or another. They all seemed to find this a more interesting problem than whatever they were working on.
December 24, 1986
Home for the holidays. It’s good to be back. Not much has changed except that David has taken over my room. We played a game of go. He’s seven stones stronger.
Pizza at Mario’s with David and his friend Andy. We pumped about six bucks into a three-player game called Gauntlet, which has pretty good graphics and a great appetite for quarters.
People tend to be pretty bowled over by the animation test I’ve been showing them. “Don’t you realize what you’re looking at?” Jon Menell said. “This is the light bulb.”
January 11, 1987
Macworld Expo ’86 was pretty slick. The coolest thing there was the Radius 8 ½” x 11” tall screen.
Dad called all excited because David did well in the dan tournament. I hadn’t stopped to think about it until now, but the speed of his rise has been really startling. From total beginner to shodan in nine months. If he keeps this up another year or two, he could be one of the best non-Asian go players in the history of the world.
That’s something.
January 22, 1987
The Nintendo game machine has sold a million units in the U.S. over Christmas. As of now, only a handful of cartridges are available. Nintendo is keeping a tight rein on new titles, presumably to avoid a flood of product like the one that sunk Atari a couple of years ago. Broderbund — thanks to Doug’s Japan connections — has three of the coveted slots.
The Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985-1993 Page 2
