June 30, 1989
Took the 1:08 train into the city with Emily and bought a CD player at Harvey’s on 45th Street (the Chinese salesman was impressed that I was buying it for my dad). Spent the evening showing Dad the game and listening to “Persian” music for inspiration. Dad was really impressed by the game, and even more by the CD player.
Dad is in a bad state because of his business worries and the stress between him and Mom. I think the best way to cheer him up is to concentrate on making this music happen.
“It’s a big job,” Dad said. “What if we can’t get in all done in three days?”
I said: “Then we have to scale it down to a size that we can do in three days.”
Robert called to say Lance had come into the office looking for me, looking glum. He’s just gotten a really high salary offer from some company in Mountain View, which Broderbund probably won’t be able to compete with. If Lance quits and takes this other job, he won’t be able to do POP, and there’s no one else at Broderbund who’s available that I’d trust to do it.
I could call Brian/Bill on Monday and tell them I won’t sign anything until I know who they’re going to give the job to… but I don’t want to look like I’m the gun Lance is holding to their heads in order to get a raise. It’s tricky.
