Editorial

Hello again! Welcome to Issue 3 of SynTax. Thanks for all your
letters and phonecalls over the last two months, I'm glad you're
all enjoying the magazine so much.

There's something new for you this issue - a competition! In the
Screenshots section, you'll find a picture to identify. Just 
write to me (Sue) and tell me which adventure it came from. 
Couldn't be easier, could it? Of course, the picture has been
"altered" a bit to make the answer less obvious. The first correct
answer drawn out of my big straw hat on December 15th will win a
free issue of SynTax. I hope you enjoy figuring out the answer and
will take the time to enter.   

There is something I would like to hear your views on and that 
is the extract from Mike Gerrard's review of SynTax in the first
issue of a new magazine called Zero. We are very grateful to Mike
for giving us such a good and lengthy write-up and he has also 


raised some interesting points about what he thinks should be in 
the magazine. I have reproduced the relevant section of the 
review in the Letters section. I am certainly getting conflicting
views on certain sections, notably screenshots - people either
love 'em or hate 'em!

The Troll also gave SynTax a plug in ST Action as did Keith 
Campbell in Computer and Video Games, Pat Winstanley in ACE, and
Pendragon in Atari ST User; thanks to all of them. The mentions 
have brought forth quite a few enquiries and orders, some from as
far afield as Scandinavia! Thanks to Tony Browne for writing a 
review of SynTax for Adventure Probe and to Mandy for publishing 
it. I'd also like to thank Marion Taylor for taking SynTax 
leaflets to the PC Show and October Adventure Convention/MugMeet
and Mike Keeley (Slough Computers) and Keith Wadhams (Gallery 
Software) for distributing leaflets for us.

A few people have asked exactly which programs are used to put
together an issue of SynTax so here goes..... To write the

program, STOS basic and compiler. To do the screens and
screenshots, Degas Elite, Grabber and STOS' compact.acb to
compress them. To do the files, several word-processors, First
Word Plus (and spell checker - an essential for me and mine now
contains such useful words as "kobold", "gnorth" and "oops"!),
ST Writer Elite and Word Writer plus some utilities, CON WP 
and Ajax.

Two people have also suggested that it would be useful to give
some addresses of mail order firms who stock old, discontinued ST
adventures, especially the old Infocoms. Unfortunately, few
people now advertise Infocoms but a few firms you may find useful
for cheap, deleted software are:
SDC/Bargain Software, 60 Boston Road, London W7 3TR (01 741 1222 
for orders)
SK Marketing, 10 Fulham Broadway, London SW6 1AA (01 381 6618)
Castle Software, 2 Williams Clowes Street, Burslem, Stoke on
Trent, ST6 3AP (0782 575043)


I must make it clear that I have no personal experience of these
firms, I am just getting their names from current adverts!

A bit of news; a new association has been formed for people who
play adventures, RPGs, strategy games or any (as they call them)
"make-you-think" games. Inter-Action is the name and it is  run
jointly by Nik Wild, Rob Steel, The Harlequin and Auntie  Marg.
For œ15.00 a year, you will get a bimonthly dossier called
Harlequin and Steel which has reviews, previews, news, hints etc.
A bimonthly intermediate newsletter will bring all the up-to-
the-minute news and there will also be a telephone helpline. For
more info or to subscribe, contact Inter-Action, The Cottage,
Ashford Carbonell, Ludlow, Shropshire, SY8 4DB.

Finally, a plea for contributions. Even if you have never
contributed to a magazine or fanzine before, please try to find
the  time to send something in to me for a future issue. Reviews
in particular take a long time to do so if you've played a game


you have strong opinions about, for or against, why not send in a 
review? 3-in-1 hints will be very welcome for any games we haven't 
so far covered and, of course, solutions, quick hints, STAC 
routines, programs to put on PD/Shareware disks or anything else 
you like will be welcomed. See "Contributions" for more details.

That's it from me - enjoy the magazine and see you next year!!

                                               Sue