Editorial

Welcome to Issue 4 of SynTax. I hope you all had a good Christmas 
and that 1990 will be a happy and successful year for all of you. 
Thanks to everyone who sent cards and good wishes.

I'm sorry to have to start this editorial off on a sad note but I 
regret  that I have to tell you that John is no longer an  editor 
of  SynTax.  He has sold his ST but will continue to support  the 
magazine by sending solutions and any other information he  gets. 
If it hadn't been for John, I would never have had the courage to 
start the magazine even though it is something that I had  longed 
to do for a considerable time. SynTax  will, of course,  continue
to be produced every two months as before!!

You  have no doubt noticed the new label on this  issue.  It  was 
designed by Ken Taylor who is a professional artist and  produces 
a lot of art work for the larger newspapers so I am very grateful 
to him for doing them for me.


There are a few improvements to  this issue. The program has been
changed  so that  each file loads in all in one go into an array,
rather  than loading  page by page  as before.  You can then flip 
quickly  through each  file - both  forwards and backwards!  This
improvement applies to all files, solutions,  reviews and  hints,
both 3-in-1 and ordinary. Also, when you print a single page, the
selection keys  from the bottom  line vanish and do not appear on
the printout. The files take  slightly longer to load but I don't
see that  causing  anyone any  problems. The  pointer will appear
once  the  whole  file  is in its array. I hope  you'll  like the
changes!

I know you're all dying to find out  the result  of last  month's
competition! As I intend to run a competition in each issue, I've
set up a new section and you'll find  all the  details in  there,
plus not one but TWO competitions for this issue. Many thanks  to
Mike  Brailsford of  Spellbreaker! for  contributing  one  of the
prizes. 

Oops, I said the magic word "contribution"! Ok, I won't  go on as
usual but, one particular plea, if there is anyone out there  who
would  be  willing  to  write  a review  etc for  UMS  and/or the  
Rainbird  or Titan scenario disks, don't be bashful, send it in - 
please! Thanks.

Colin Newman,  who runs a Prestel gallery called Joystick, kindly 
mentioned SynTax recently. If you  are on Prestel, you  will find 
Colin's  section  on  *811220003#.  Another  interesting  section 
is 16/32 (use keyword search *SIXTEEN# or go direct to  *800916#) 
which covers all aspects of ST computing and I am indebted to the 
editor  Tony Goodman for allowing me to reproduce Dave  Russell's 
interview with Steven Green,  the author of Sleeping Gods Lie, as 
this issue's special feature.  Of course,  do remember to  have a 
look  at Adventure Helpline on *81051# while you're on  the  'Net 
and say "hi" to me on Mailbox number 013026598!!

Chris Lloyd, author  of Wizard's Tower, has sent me a copy of his 
new  version  of the game.  Details have been amended in  the  PD 
section and several other new disks have been added.

Two review copies of new adventures were  sent in to be  reviewed
in  this  issue,  Advent  Software's   Suicide   or  Murder   and 
Interactive Technology's  Dead  End - my thanks  to  Mike Ireland
and Martyn Westwood  for sending them.  Martyn  has  also  made a
special offer to SynTax readers  who want to  buy Dead  End,  see
the adverts section for details but don't delay because the offer
doesn't  last  indefinitely! If there are  any  other authors  or
software  houses  who  would like to send in review copies of any
adventure-related software they produce, I would be most grateful
and will pass them on to readers to review.

I know a lot of you have other computers as well as an ST so I am
in  the process  of going through John's other solutions disks to
add to the PD  list, there should be about 10 in all! I will also
itemize the solutions  available at the end of the solutions list
next issue.

Finally,  a special  message to  those  of you  who  also  own  a 
Spectrum.  If you  would  like  a  really  useful  collection  of 
solutions plus  several  informative chapters  on playing, buying 
and writing spectrum  adventures,  you  would  do well  to buy  a
copy of Mike  Gerrard's new  book  "Adventures on the Spectrum" -
see the adverts section for more details.

A Happy New Year once again to you all, and see you in March,

                                              Sue