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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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 21^st century. Maybe he’s just flushing money down the toilet.

I’ll stick with my Apple II.