Letters

If you write to me at SynTax, I'll assume you don't mind me
including your letter on here, unless it is clearly marked "not
for publication". Please feel free to comment on any
adventure-related topics.
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Mark Bradshaw, Aberdeen                                 (extract)

Issue 2 was brilliant but seems small - couldn't the screenshots
be left out unless they are of the non "big-league" games? I
mean, most (if not all) SynTax readers will have seen the
screenshots of Zak and Deja Vu 2 in various mags, so it seems a
bit of a waste of space. How about double-sided disks? If people
specified which make of computer they had (ie which disk drives)
there could be two versions - a normal single-sided and a
double-sided which could have extra items such as the adventure
list and the suppliers index, along with some screenshots.


And more from Mark a few weeks later....

Congratulations on another great issue! The screenshots were
better this time showing graphics we might not have seen before
(Bloodwych) and the competition is a great idea! However, I
haven't a clue and so take a guess (and I emphasise GUESS) at it
being from "............" - there, I told you it was a guess.

@~I think the idea of mostly using graphics from the less
@~well-publicised adventures is a good idea and one that I will
@~try to stick to from now on. I covered the idea of
@~double-sided disks in the November letters section and there's a
@~bit more in the reply to Neil's letter in this section. Glad you
@~liked the competition and thanks for entering it - more on the
@~results of that in the special section. Again, it is something 
@~I'll continue to do each issue - any ideas for new competitions
@~will be most welcome.


Ian Taylor, Wallington                                  (extract)

OK, I give in! Please find enclosed a cheque for lots of money
(ie œ20) for the next 6 issues of your wonderfully garish
magazine (I loaded Issue 2 on the colour TV instead of the B&W
portable we use for text purposes, hence the "garish"!)

Liked Issue 2 as much as Issue 1. Same crits apply, but generally
good - though I suppose the cheque tells you that! I would prefer
to see something a little more original as the feature other than
a secondhand article, but can't offer any suggestions - sorry
about that.

One point I'm curious about - a general one on adventure fans -
what types of books do they read? Are they mostly detective
fiction or are they SF/Fantasy or what?

Incidentally, one non-computer game I would strongly recommend to
adventure fans is "Consulting Detective" - you play one of the
Baker Street Irregulars trying to beat Sherlock Holmes by solving
the clues faster. It's really well done, and while a knowledge of
the Conan Doyle stories is useful for bonuses, it's by no means
ideal. I'm by no means a Sherlock Holmes fan but the game's great
(if a little hard on the little grey cells (oops, that's
Poirot!))

@~Thanks for the subscription, Ian. I hope you like the new faster
@~file display which you suggested some time ago.  
@~On books, I tend to read more Fantasy than anything else, with a
@~bit of SF. One SF author I recently discovered (courtesy of my 
@~next-door neighbour) is Robert L Forward - excellent. I think 
@~I pick Fantasy over detective books in the same way as I show 
@~the same preference in adventure games, being more into dragons
@~than fingerprints! What about the rest of you? And how many of 
@~you have been as amazed as I was by the bookshop Forbidden 
@~Planet?
@~The only board game Alan and I play regularly is Trivial Pursuits
@~so I will look out for Consulting Detective for a change.



From Neil Shipman, Bristol

The first 3 issues of SynTax have been great. It's an excellent 
magazine and one which I'm thoroughly enjoying. There were a 
number of points raised in the last issue's letters which are 
worth commenting on.

As someone who's reviewed adventures for fanzines over the last 
few years I must endorse Sue's comments about the personal nature 
of reviews. I try to be as objective as possible but my own 
preferences are bound to show through and, in the end, all you're 
getting from any reviewer is that person's point of view. You may 
well form an entirely different opinion of the game. For the 
record, I very much prefer the "traditional" text adventure, my 
all-time top 3 being Wishbringer, Beyond Zork and Trinity. I don't 
find the latest graphic masterpieces with animation, sound and 
arcade sequences nearly as interesting, thought-provoking and 
enjoyable - and I don't even like Dungeon Master!


Because reviews are necessarily subjective, rating adventures in 
order to make a comparison between different ones is really a non-
starter. You only have to look at some of the marks awarded to 
games in the glossy magazines to see why. For example, Atari ST 
User gives marks out of 10 for sound, graphics, playability, value 
for money and overall. In the December issue Indiana Jones was 
given 8, 9, 10, 10, 9 and Starwrek 7, 9, 9, 8, 9 whilst in January 
Scapeghost was awarded n/a, 9, 10, 10, 10. Compare these marks 
with the adventures themselves and/or the opinion you formed from 
the reviews in SynTax and the Starwrek demo on the Atari ST User 
cover disk (Yuck)! And in SynTax, where it's not just the latest 
games that are reviewed, allowances would have to be made for age 
as well as leaving something in hand for future developments.

I make no bones about sending some of my reviews in to more than 
one magazine. Indeed, some readers may remember having seen my 
ones of Corruption and Fish! in earlier issues of Adventure Probe. 
But we don't all take the same magazines and, if you don't want to 


see the same reviews/features/articles appearing in SynTax/Probe/
Confidential then you know what to do - write something yourself!

I like the use of a different colour to individualise each issue 
of SynTax, from the disks themselves to the display and the 
highlighted comments. The 3-in-1 hints are a superb feature. I 
don't think it would be worthwhile taking up space (and time and 
effort) to add music but I do like the screenshots. The one of 
Bloodwych in issue 3 was excellent and using a doctored one for a 
competition was a good idea - no I didn't recognise it! On average 
3 screenshots take up about 15% of the disk's data file space and 
they use the disk medium of the magazine to good effect, so I say 
keep them in. I'm doubtful about maps. Perhaps we could see a 
couple of complete ones to help us decide?

Demos would probably take up too much space but could be included 
(as could more screenshots and even music) if you produced a 
double-sided disk. How about going double-sided on SynTax's 1st 


birthday? So that single-sided drive owners (like me) don't miss 
out you could make two singles available instead, but at a premium 
(say œ1.00) to cover costs.

That's about it. Keep up the good work - and a Happy New Year.

@~There's an excellent map of Hacker 2 in this issue's Screenshots
@~that was sent in by Phil Darke. But generally I think maps done
@~in this way would take up too much space as most adventures 
@~would need several screens. Doing them on the WP is out because
@~you can't get the fine detail you need. Hmm, I'll have to think
@~around the subject a bit more.
@~The problem with using 2 single-sided or 1 double-sided disk is
@~that, because of the room taken up by the program, the contents
@~of a full d/sided disk won't fit onto 2 s/sided ones (as each
@~s/sided disk would need a copy of the program) So either the 
@~d/sided one wouldn't be full or the s/sided would have to lose
@~some files!