Editorial Welcome to SynTax Issue 34 and the start of 1995. I hope you all had a great Christmas ... I was hoping for a white Christmas but settled for a white New Year. Well, what's new here? The good news is that I finally got a better PC; a multimedia 486DX2-66! I can't believe how much quicker programs run. I knew they'd be faster but hadn't appreciated just how much. And a bonus was that the scanner is much more efficient in Windows 3.11 than it was in DOS or Windows 3.1. Alan bought me a tape back-up for the hard disk too which has made life a lot easier and will encourage me to back up regularly now I have a 400MB+ HD. It can back up 250MB in 45 mins - wow! I finally finished Inherit the Earth and thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish apart from a short time when I got stuck because I'd missed a location. That's my speciality! The ending was slightly disappointing as it was completely computer controlled but I would still thoroughly recommend it, especially the CD-ROM version because of the terrific voices; they used such a good range of accents and styles. Since then I've been back to Yserbius and have almost completed it as I write this, thanks to a lot of help from Graham and Kay Wheeler who came to the rescue when something strange happened to my game. It turned out that I had confused the program by doing some things out of order; obviously it isn't very forgiving. Next issue I'll do an update to my original review, space permitting. I've got a few other programs on the go. Transport Tycoon is a big hit in the Medley household - see Alan's review this issue. Yes, it's that time of year when I drag him to the keyboard and get him to do his annual review. To say he is hooked on TT would be an understatement ... Death Gate, Legend's latest, looks excellent. A similar interface to Xanth but harder and much more enjoyable. I've also started the CD-ROM version of Lands of Lore and would recommend that very highly to anyone who hasn't previously played an RPG but would like to have a go. That's not to say it's easy, but it is very playable and you don't feel the odds are stacked against you. I also dug out an oldie - Infocom's Shogun. I loved the book but the game is very linear. Since the adverts idea didn't bring any response, I decided to finish the PD compilation of the first 5 years of SynTax and send it round the libraries together with a copy of the PD version of Oklib. I got a very good initial response from the libraries themselves, several of which got in touch by letter, FAX or phone to say they were very impressed and were not only going to add them but also review them in their newsletters or diskmags. Let's hope lots of people try them and like them too and it brings in some more readers. I covered all three formats and as many libraries as I could find, mostly in the UK but a few abroad too. If you know of any other libraries I could try, would you send me their addresses and tell me what format they cover? Thanks. The ones I contacted were: All Three: Jewel PD Amiga: 17 Bit Software, BAK Distribution, Bus Stop PD, F1 Licenceware, Hornesoft PD, KT's PD, NJH PD, PD Drome PC: A1 Shareware, A1 Shareware, Budgetware (Australia), Datadaze, Deltrax PD, Invicta Shareware, Megabyte UK, Metric Computers, PC Gold, PC Software, PCL (Software) Ltd, PD Selections Ltd, PDSL, PDSoft, Red Dragon Shareware, Round Corner, Shareware Elite, S.M.E. Shareware PTY Ltd (Australia), Softcell Services, Southern Shareware, Springsoft, Swindon Shareware, Testware Publishing, The Shareware Rack, TRY-B4-U-BI, WiseOwl Shareware, Zeon's Lair PD ST: 16/32 PDL, A-Online Atari CEC, AGPD, ASCIILUM PDL, Asgard PD, Atari User Group, AWF PDL, Balsall PD, Caledonia PDL, Digital Disk, FaST Club, Ferdy Blaset (Netherlands), Floppyshop, GL-PD, Goodman's, KEY PD, LAPD, Magnetic Fields, Merlin PD, MT Software, New Age PDL, Power PD, SDPD, South West PD, Stellar Atari ST Club, Transparent Dreams PD, Tumblevane PD Finally, Grue and I are still working away on our TADS adventures but recently hit a snag. It seems that if you have an object which is 'trapped' in some way so you can't pick it up (eg a character stops you until you've filled some conditions), if you have a container or surface with you, you can type 'put xxx on/in yyy' and, bingo! You've got the object. Disaster for us programmers! Grue has worked out a way round it and full details will be in next issue. Last, but not least, I would like to dedicate this issue to our Red Setter, Sacha, who passed away on January 8th. He was a terrific dog and a great companion for 14 1/2 years. Have a great 1995, all of you - good health, much happiness and many adventures solved! Sue - o -