Editorial

It's now a year since the points-mean-prizes system for
contributions was started in SynTax. Thanks to everyone who
contributed over that time and congratulations to Neil Shipman,
Graham Wheeler, Dave Barker, Colin Campbell and Alex van Kaam who
were the eventual winners. Their points have been zeroed and the
system will now start again as explained in the contributions
section. The next lot of prizes will be awarded in Issue 23.

It's been a busy two months, what with one thing and another. I
was very pleased to be asked to be one of the judges in the 1991
AGT Adventure Writing Contest and though it's been a lot of work
playing through almost 20 adventures, I've had a load of fun doing
it. The standard is really high - none of the games is poor though
obviously some are better written than others.

What fascinated me was that several of the games had been written
using customised versions of AGT. When you register the program,
you have the option to buy the source code and can then adapt it
to suit your needs. There certainly are some clever people about
to tackle something like that!

My apologies to some of the PC readers who got the wrong version
of the READER program last issue and didn't have the colour change
option. They've got the correct version this time and now they can
also use page up/page down to scroll backwards and forwards
through the file. They can also move up and down line by line if
they want.

The ST side of SynTax is still dropping and the Amiga and, more
especially, PC readership increasing. Several more readers have
changed to the PC version this issue and thanks to an excellent
write up by Paul Rigby in Computer Gaming World, an American
magazine, I've had several enquiries from both here and abroad,
especially the States. Thanks, Paul!

This is the first issue that doesn't have any screenshots so the
extra space has been used for more features, longer solutions and
so forth. The ST version of SynTax has also gone double-sided so
that I can duplicate it on the PC which is so much quicker than
the ST because of the hard disk - but don't expect a full disk!
The smallest disk size is now the 5 1/4" PC disk and THAT is full.

Despite the plea for contributions to Brainchild last issue,
suggestions for the game are still in short supply so the game is
being extended to Red Herring readers too with plans to convert
the final game to 8-bit machines as well. Please (please!) send in
any ideas you have for the adventure to High Voltage Software. It
would be a great shame to see all their initial hard work be
wasted through lack of interest. ST readers can get a copy of the
base game by sending a blank disk to High Voltage at 58 Freville
Close, The Leys, Tamworth, Staffs, B79 7ER and PC and Amiga owners
can get a copy of the messages by sending them an SAE. Just tell
them you're a SynTax reader.

Enjoy the disk and see you in May,
                                          Sue