Doug told Tomi my game is going to be a smash hit.

Spent much of today on hands and knees, poring with Eric over three dozen snapshots spread out on the office floor, trying to deconstruct Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn’s climactic duel in Robin Hood. We really busted our brains.

As a result, my conception now is totally different from what it was yesterday, or Sunday. It’ll all be worth it. This is going to be the greatest game of all time.

I just got off the phone (at 1 a.m.) with Lawrence Payne of Compu-Tech Systems in London, who make the digitizer that so inconveniently stopped working a few months ago. It’s 9 a.m. in London. He gave me his home number so Russ and I can call him tomorrow morning and he can help us try to fix it.

But really, what I need to do is rent a video camera and find two people to re-enact the moves of Guy of Gisbourne and Robin of Locksley for digital posterity. I want to have it up on the screen now. When I’m pumped up like this, I can hardly sleep at night.

Russ and I “fixed” the digitizer (it was in the wrong slot) and changed my life. In the past week, swordfighting has gone from a vague notion of something I’d have to put in the game someday, to reality. The little guy now thrusts and lunges. Everyone who’s seen it is thrilled. The amount of painstaking work still ahead of me is too huge to contemplate, but it’s paying off more dramatically than anything I’ve done in months. This is going to be a good game.

I came up with an idea for Robert’s game. The goal is to rescue people who are trapped in the building; you disinfect the rooms and make it safe for them to escape. 

Robert, for his part, came up with a good idea for me – solid blocks to fill up the empty spaces. It’s totally changed the look of the game. Now, it really feels like a dungeon.

Been playing Super Mario 2. First time in ages I’ve been addicted to an arcade game. Several points worth noting:

-   It took me hours of play to get through the first area; but having done it once, I can now zip through it reliably in minutes.

-   I’m building up a repertoire of skills.

-   There are certain things that it pays to do in the first area – like boost your life meter from 2 to 3 to 4, and collect an extra life – but you can also keep playing forever in the same area, if you like, without achieving anything.

New Year’s Resolution: Finish Prince of Persia. (Ship by June 30, 1989.)

Been working hard on POP (48 hours last week) and it’s really looking good. The swordfighting is starting to take shape, and it not only looks terrific, it’s actually fun. It blows Karateka out of the water. It’ll become the centerpiece of the entire game. Tomi was right all along. (“Combat! Combat! Combat!”)

[In L.A.] Lunch with Larry Turman. He was in a good mood, but it sounds like being a film producer has been frustrating for him lately. He asked me if I was still with Leading Artists. I wonder if they’ve dumped me and I just don’t know it?

Dinner with Virginia. “You’ve changed!” she said immediately. “It’s like you’ve grown up!”

I mentioned that Leading Artists hasn’t contacted me about renewing our representation agreement. She said that’s probably their way of tactfully waiting to see if I write anything new.

She still loves Birthstone. “Are you kidding?” she said. “It was, what, two years ago? And I still remember the plot in, like, this incredible detail. It’s a great script. I can’t believe it hasn’t gotten made.”

Worked from home today. I did a lot of work, actually. I finished the CWP (“Creative Work Plan”) and documentation they’ve been asking for, and I think I finally licked the problem of the prologue. I described it to Tomi over the phone and she loved it.

Also, I wrote up a schedule that has me giving a preliminary playable version to QA on April 15. The game should be done around Memorial Day – in time for CES – and ship shortly thereafter.

Forget screenwriting. This is my project. For the next four months, I’m going to focus on POP full time.

Brian was thrilled with the CWP. He couldn’t believe that I’d done it and now he doesn’t have to. “I want you to know,” he said, “that this is absolutely unprecedented.”

The plan: Beta version by April 15. Show it at CES the first week in June. Ship by June 30.

It’ll sell for $35-40 and be a one-disk product. Brian didn’t put up a struggle when I told him I was ditching the level editor. He agreed, and even persuaded me to limit the game to one scenario rather than four. “People expect to get a certain amount of value for their money,” he said. “Why give them more?”

Reducing it to one castle will save me weeks of work – at least. The more I think about it, the more I like it. I’d been worried that including really hard puzzles in the basic game would render it unwinnable for the majority of players. But, as Brian pointed out, if players get frustrated they can always call Tech Support for hints.

Spent the day fine-tuning the swordfighting. It’s tons better now. I’ve simplified the controls so blocking is now automatic with retreating, rather than a separate action. It’s finally starting to get that back-and-forth feeling of a real Hollywood sword fight. It’s gonna be great.

A lot of heavy work, most of it invisible, but which will make it much easier for me to implement the enemy guards in their flowing robes and turbans.