Five Weeks to Disaster

Lyrics

[Intro]
The plastic alien is watching from the monitor bezel.
It’s 3 a.m. again.
Just you and me, my beautiful Atari 800.
We’ve got work to do.

[Verse 1]
The phone call came on July 27, 1982.
Some man named Ross made a promise in a boardroom.
Twenty-five million dollars for a ghost in a movie.
And they gave the job to me.
They said, make the magic happen, Howard.
Make it ship for Christmas.
September 5th is the deadline.
Do the math.

[Chorus]
Five weeks to build a world from nothing.
Five weeks to make a little man phone home.
Just the 60-hertz hum and the clack of the keys.
And these endless, endless pits I keep coding for him to fall in.
Five weeks, and the whole world is waiting.

[Verse 2]
The fanfold paper piles up by the door.
6502 assembly, a language only you and I speak.
The coffee is cold, the epoxy from the rework is warm.
I smell it in my sleep.
I tried to make it something new, you know.
A different kind of game.
But the clock on the wall just keeps screaming my name.

[Chorus]
Five weeks to build a world from nothing.
Five weeks to make a little man phone home.
Just the 60-hertz hum and the clack of the keys.
And these endless, endless pits I keep coding for him to fall in.
Five weeks, and the whole world is waiting.

[Bridge]
They won’t see the love in here.
They’ll only see the bugs.
So tonight, I’m leaving a scar.
A secret just for us.
One vertical line of brown pixels.
A hidden room, a key.
Where I can sign my name: H. S. W.
A ghost in my own machine.

[Outro]
September 5th.
It’s done.
It builds.
I think it works.
They’ll start shipping in December.
But I have this feeling, my friend...
I have this feeling you’re destined for the desert.