Letters

@~First a letter following Tim Kemp's article on adventure writing
@~utilities for 16-bit systems.

From The Grue!, Ormskirk

It was with great interest that I read the letter from Tim Kemp in
both SynTax and Red Herring. Sadly I think he is totally wasting
his time trying to convince Gilsoft, Incentive or any other major
software house that they should release a 16-bit adventure game
system.

Let's face facts, the one thing they are concerned about is making
a profit and the days of text adventures selling on a mass market
are over. Tim rightly states that there are some 16-bit writing
systems available but to suggest that, because they do not have a
programming team working on them and a multi-thousand pound
backing, they will be substandard, is a suggestion that does not
always hold true. Look at GAC, for example, this had all the
backing of a major software house but can you honestly say it was
a first rate product?

Now some of the systems available are not exactly works of art and
some are substandard but if you are determined to write a text
adventure at least they are there. Of the current crop I believe
TADS is by far the best of the lot.  This fine system is already
available for the ST, PC and MAC but an Amiga version is what
people really need.

I doubt even if Tim could persuade Gilsoft to do a 16-bit version
of PAW it would be any better than TADS. I would suggest Tim, and
other readers who are interested, would be better spending their
time to petition Mike Roberts at High Energy to do an Amiga
version of TADS. At least here we have a person who is interested
in text adventures and striving constantly to improve his already
excellent system. You only have to ask anyone who has used TADS to
realise that it is certainly not substandard.

I'm sure Tim's heart is in the right place but major software
houses ... you're wasting your time. Get your pens out and start
writing to Mike Roberts at High Energy and tell him we need an
Amiga version of TADS!

PS The ST and PC versions of 'The Four Symbols', written using
TADS, are finished and ready for release (end of plug!)

@~High Energy Software can be contacted at PO Box 50422, Palo
@~Alto, CA 94033, USA - Sue