THE SHANGHAI STORY (con.)

When I saw The Turtle being played on the computer, it appealed to me immediately. The game was simple, but wonderful, a compelling challenge, that people would probably want to play again and again. I said as much to Brodie.

"I agree," he responded. "You know, I first programmed The Turtle for an on-line service where people have to pay every time they play. More people play it, 'again and again,' than any other game on the system."

"I'm not surprised. But, it helps to know that."

Now I was beginning to try and figure out how we would justify selling this simple product for a retail price of $50, the minimum price that we could sell Macintosh software for at that time. But first I was going to have to see how good a game it really was, the marketing strategy was moot if the game wasn't fun...fun for a lot of people.

"Brodie," I asked, "do you mind if I take a copy of this with me? I'd like to play it myself, as well as have a few other people play it. Then I'll be in a better position to judge the potential, and to begin to discuss publishing it for you."

"I don't know...(pause)...I don't want to lose control. I've worked on this for a long time, I wouldn't like it if something happened and the code got out."

"It's hard to proceed without taking a good look. I can guarantee that I will take personal responsibility for your program. That I will know where every copy is, and that I will get every copy back if we're not able to make a deal."

Brodie looked over at his mom, I saw her shrug her shoulders. I imagined the conversation had went something like, "

What do you think?

I don't know. It's your decision.

I waited while he thought it over.

"You'll take personal responsibility?" he asked.

"I guarantee it."

"OK, I'll give you a copy."

The first person I showed it to was Kathie. She really didn't like computer games and I thought she'd be a good test. If she showed any interest at all, well, it would be worth further exploration. Kathie saw the program for the first time Thursday night, December 26th, in our kitchen (I'd set up the Macintosh on our kitchen table). I showed her basically how it worked and then left to watch television and do some reading.

About 11 o'clock I told her I was going to bed. She said she'd be right there. I woke up during the night and noticed the Kathie wasn't in bed. I looked at the clock and saw that it was 5 o'clock in the morning.

I hollered out, "Kathie, are you here?"

From the kitchen, "Yes."

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes."

"Are you coming to bed?"

And she gave me, for the first time ever, an answer that would be heard millions of times around the world as the years passed and more and more people played Shanghai,

"I'll be there in a minute, I just want to play one more game."

I began to think we might have something here.

The next morning I took the program into work and talked to an associate of mine, Sam Nelson,

"This is a new program I'm thinking about licensing, would you mind taking it home for the weekend. Maybe you could find some time to take a look at it."

"No problem, we're not doing anything else."

"This one is real confidential. Don't show it to anyone...except Paula...I gave my personal guarantee."

"Gotcha." Sam responded.

On Monday morning, he came into my office and asked, "Can I borrow your Macintosh?"

"What's wrong with yours?"

"Paula wouldn't let me bring it to work, she wanted to play The Turtle. We didn't do anything all weekend but play that game!"

Now, I really began to think that we might have something.

The next person I gave it to was the Engineering Manager in our department. He got the program at about 9am, and a Noon he came into my office threw the disk down on my desk and said, "Don't let me have this back until after work, I've wasted the whole morning!"

I guess he didn't see play-testing as part of his job and, I knew I had something.

Page 3