Did some fine-tuning on the guards’ swordfighting program and related issues. Wrote a letter to Dad all about the music for POP.

Eleven hours at the office. I put in comic-book-style impact stars like the ones in Karateka. It helps a lot. It only took three hours. A very good thing to have done.

I’m worried about Jim. I’m starting to wonder if this wasn’t a big mistake. He acts like a good, old-school programmer, but the further along we get, the more it seems like he’s doing all these things for the first time.

Brian strongly advised me not to hire Alick, but said it was up to me.

I signed on for this river trip to Idaho. It’s expensive. The other three people going with Doug are Robert Garriott (president of Origin Systems), Ken Wasch (pres. of the SPA), and Laurent Weill (pres. of Loriciel). As an act of self-definition, this trip terrifies me. It’s the sort of trip that Ed Bernstein and Steve Patrick would go on. I’m 10-20 years younger than these guys and my personal fortune is comparatively miniscule, but sooner or later I’ve got to stop presenting myself to the world as a meek and nerdy kid.

Everyone has their own particular form of self-destruction. Mine, I’m starting to think, is standing outside myself, watching myself live my life, turning my face so as to give the cameras a better angle, and thus missing the whole thing.

Greg Hammond has been playing POP and is just so excited. It’s incredibly gratifying. I dropped by QA and watched Randy and Will playing it. Yup – it definitely works. I’m not crazy. The only questions are (1) will I finish on time and (2) will there be an Apple market left and (3) can we get the conversions out fast enough?

Roland’s going to start coming into the office on Thursdays and Fridays. With Robert gone, I really appreciated the companionship.

Everyone at Broderbund is being nice to me. They think my game is hot. Bill McDonagh told me POP is going to be a #2 testing priority (“Don’t worry, they go way lower than 2,” he added dryly). I asked him what I needed to do to make it a #1. He said: “Get the IBM conversion done!” Ha ha.

Brian, however, said that the QA guys told him: “We don’t care what priority this is – in our book it’s a #1.” They’ve been playing it after hours and on their lunch breaks.