Editorial

Before I get onto adventure-related matters, I'd like to say a
very big thank you to everyone who rang or wrote about my health
situation following last issue's editorial. It was great to hear
from so many of you, including people who I'd never had contact
with before, apart from posting them the magazine every two
months.

Thankfully, things seem to be sorting themselves out. I am still
back and forth to the doctor's more times than I'd like to (I have
seen more of doctors in the last few months than in the last
umpteen years) and though the blood pressure is still up and down
I feel a lot better in myself. The latest test to be done is a
chest x-ray to check my heart ...  results for that next week.
Best of all, my eye is slowly improving.  It looks as that might
be due to sinus trouble.  Whatever - so long as it feels better!

Having to cut back my time on the computer has been really hard,
but the monitor seemed to affect my eye. In an effort to allow me
to work but keep me off the desk top PC, I bought my own Psion 3a.
It is a neat (sorry, Grimwold!) little beast and so handy to carry
round. I can perch it on my knee and type away while half watching
the TV or whatever.

The sad news this issue, for those of you who don't already know,
is that Red Herring has had to fold. Marion rang me about it, and,
sad though it was to make the decision, it was the only one that
could be made; the readership levels had dropped too low to make
it sensible to continue. Even fanzines, which are produced for
fun, not profit, need a reasonable numbers of readers to make it
worthwhile spending the time on their production. They ARE a lot
of work - I wouldn't consider producing SynTax if I went out to
work - as it's not just putting the magazine together, there's
mail to answer (I get an average of 6 pieces a day, sometimes much
more), phone calls to take, make or return; queries to chase up if
I don't know the answer; solutions to type up etc.

The SynTax readership is, thankfully, fairly steady. I might as
well tell you what it is - around 100 copies per issue. About 80
of these go out in the main mail out, the rest gradually over the
two months. But when you think how many 16-bit adventurers there
are out there, it makes you realise the potential market. I would
be pleased if it doubled or trebled but, since there's not much
chance of that, I am perfectly content with the loyal readers
SynTax has, many of whom have taken it since issue 1.

In SynTax's case, some people just don't like disk based
magazines, and I can understand and appreciate that. Storage and
production-wise they have a lot of advantages but they aren't so
convenient to use when you merely want to look something up.

Anyway, just to let you know that SynTax will continue until
people obviously don't want it any more - basically it's up to the
readers if/when that happens.

Now, last issue's mistake in SynTax will only have affected Amiga
readers. Cleverly, in the master.asc file, I gave the Lemmings 2
hint file a 9 letter name, lemguide2.qht, instead of lemguide.qht.
The PC and ST don't worry about this; they look at the first 8
letters and ignore anything else (apart from the extension) but
the Amiga recognises 11 letters plus the extension. This meant the
program fell over if you tried to open that file. Thanks to Vicky
for noticing and telling me, and to Richard for sorting out what
was causing the problem. It turned out to be the same thing that
had caused the Gobliiins hint file crash a few issues ago so that
cleared up another mystery.  Anyway, what you need to do is either
change master.asc (using a WP) or, easier, rename the file.

In an effort to make space for more reviews and so forth on the
disk, I've decided to only put the full index in once a year at
the most. I would have started with A-D this issue but thought
that as NEXT issue is the start of year 6 of SynTax, I'd make that
the 'full index' issue. So 32 will have A-D, 33 E-H, then I-L, M-R
and S-Z. If anyone wants a copy of the complete index at any time,
just send me a blank disk and return postage.

In early April, Virgin Radio's Big Red Mug Show one Saturday
featured an interview with Terry Pratchett. During the course of
the interview, it was mentioned that someone had brought out an
album of music based on the Discworld novels. Andy Stenhouse rang
me later that day and played me a snatch of it over the phone -
the song, 'The Wizard's Staff has a Knob on the End' which will be
familiar to all fans of the books. Marvellous!  The CD is called
'From the Discworld' and is by Dave Greenslade on the Virgin
label. It took four trips out and three phonecalls before I
finally tracked down a copy through Our Price who ordered it for
me.

MerC sent in some maps on paper for part of Elvira 2 which Alex
converted into disk format. They'll be in next issue. Alex is
looking forward to doing some more so, if you have any, please
send them and I'll forward them to him.

What else? Ron Rainbird rang me and, during the course of the
conversation, told me to warn you about a game called Darkmere
from Core Design which he's been playing on the Amiga. He said
it's a very unfriendly game. You can't skip the 10 minute intro
and you need to use a joystick, not the mouse, making survival
during combat very difficult. Also he said it's terrible to map.
The graphics are good and it has the potential of a good game but
didn't make it. Incidentally, he is desperate for maps of
Darkmere, Legend of Sorasil and the outdoor areas of Ishar 1. I'll
ask in the Help section too but there's no harm in asking twice!
He said, would I also tell you that Heimdall 2 isn't
A1200-compatible, though they may bring out an A1200 version
some time in the future.

John Moore rang about Innocent Until Caught. Evidently early
PC versions have a bug which won't allow you to board the trains.
If that happens to you, contact Psygnosis and they'll send you a
patch disk - though if John's experiences are anything to go by,
you might have a bit of a wait! I didn't find them very quick
either when I had problems with Lemmings 2.

Also several readers who have been playing Star Trek: Judgement
Rites have told me that the game takes a long time to get up and
running - 20 minutes to install but then about 45 or 50 minutes to
unzip. I noticed similar delays with a few games since getting the
PC, the worst ones being Pool of Radiance and Shadow of Yserbius,
both RPGs. Pool was the worst - and I was only loading it to make
sure it worked! I had to take it off the hard disk immediately it
had installed ...

Most people who have had letters from me recently will have
noticed (as if they could miss it!) that I have started using some
rather snazzy paper and several have asked me where I get it from.
The answer is that it comes from a mail order firm called Neat
Ideas. They sell general stationery supplies too. If you want a
catalogue, the numbers I have for them are 0800 500 192 for orders
and 0800 700 192 for their customer careline.

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy the magazine (there's actually a
few of my reviews in it for a change ... it was great to have the
time to do them) and I'll see you again in two months.

                                             Sue


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