Editorial

I would like to start this issue's editorial by thanking everyone
who contacted me by phone or letter to say how sorry they were to
hear about Sacha. We both appreciated it very much. I hadn't
planned to get another dog too quickly but the house was so quiet
without him that within 3 weeks we had been to look at a litter of
English Setter pups and booked one. We collected him on 5th March.
His name is Robbie, and he is a tricolour English setter so he's
white with blue/black markings on his back and orange markings on
his face and legs - or he will have when he is fully grown. At the
moment, he's mostly white. He is unbelievably cute, with teeth
like needles and a terrible time-waster. Lucy, our cat, is
understandably wary of him at the moment but she and Sacha got on
so well that I'm sure she'll eventually get used to him.

You've probably noticed your disk looks rather different this
time.  Having got heavily into DTP since upgrading the PC, I
decided to produce a new range of matching leaflets, reminders and
compliment slips, and I thought it would be nice to use a similar
design on the disk labels. I would like to say a very big 'Thank
you' to Marion for printing the labels for me over the last few
years, but I hope you all like the change of image.

There is a slight change in format this issue too. The solutions
section was getting rather unbalanced because of the maps.
I know a lot of you find them very useful but it can theoretically
halve the number of solutions that can be covered due to the 17
item limit on the menu system. So most of the maps have been moved
into the Hints section which was often a bit thin. I had planned
to combine the map and text files but Alex suggested doing it this
way as it gives people the opportunity to print just the maps
rather than both maps and text.  Good idea, Alex!

Thanks to Bev and James Judge for suggesting some more libraries
for me to contact about the PD versions of SynTax and Oklib. The
new ones covered are all on the PC - Advantage, AJB Software,
Beneted Systems, CyberSpace Solutions, D&E Software Services,
Major Shareware, Share Soft (Australia), SMS Shareware, Superior

Shareware Services (Australia), Valley Shareware (Australia),
Ultimate Shareware Supplies.

Alex and James had a joint 'good idea' - a section covering bugs
in games. Not compatibility problems, proper programming bugs.
They have mentioned Arena and Ravenloft already. So if you have
any contributions for this section, send them in. Let me know what
version you're playing and exactly what went wrong - and if
there's any way round it.

Bev had another good idea. Like several others of you, she enjoyed
Jean's 'Day in the Life' article about Settlers and suggested some
'story solutions' along those lines. I did one a long time ago for
Demon's Winter and Alex's solution along the same lines for Xeen
has been printed over the last umpteen issues.  Bev has kicked off
this issue with one for Deadly Labyrinth and after a bit of postal
discussion between here and Australia, we came up with the title
"Travellers' Tales". You'll find it in the Articles section.


The tape back-up system is a big hit! It may be expensive to get
it set up but it certainly encourages me to do regular back-ups.
What I am doing is a full back-up once a month, then each week
just a back-up of modified files - which over the 3 weeks worked
out at 720 files totalling 87 meg! Just imagine trying to find all
THOSE changes if I had a crash and didn't make regular back-ups!

Another big hit is the offer of 3 PD disks to people who send in a
solution which isn't already included in the Solutions list. I am
extending the offer this issue and adding some commercial
software. Most of this is secondhand but a few programs are still
shrink-wrapped. I have listed them in the Help section. Give me a
ring if you want to check machine specifications or need more info
on any of them.

My New Year's resolution of playing a few games 'for me' rather
than 'for review' is still holding up. I finished Yserbius just as
the last issue was being copied. An excellent game, highly
recommended but sadly not bug free. It is possible to confuse the
program by doing things out of order. But if you are aware of
this, it is worth playing. Since it is possible to get the twin
pack of Yserbius and Twinion for under a tenner, the package is
excellent VFM. I haven't started Twinion yet.

I also finished Shogun. My verdict? Buy the book instead; the game
is too linear and very dry.  Alan and I both finished our first
Transport Tycoon empires and are now moguls ... what a great
feeling!  It really is a brilliant game, very addictive.

Lands of Lore is still on the go. When I started playing it I
remarked to a few people that I was finding it pretty easy. They
said, wait until you reach the Urbish Mines. I'm now IN the Mines
and they weren't kidding. However, Phil Darke added, if you think
the Mines are tough, wait until you reach the Tower ...  gulp.

Since I like to have 1 RPG and one text / graphic adventure on the
go at once, I also started - and finished! - Under a Killing Moon.
I'm not generally keen on detective games but I would recommend
UKM. The acting is b-a-d but it's intentionally bad to give the
impression of an old B movie (I assume so, anyway!). Disagreeing
with opinions I've seen in some reviews in the glossy mags, I'd
say that the game's designer who plays Tex is the best of all the
actors. Yes, even better than Margot Kidder (who appears very
briefly), Russell Means and Brian Keith.  The thing I find rather
ridiculous is the disk swapping because it is on 4 CDs. We used to
moan about swapping floppies, but already we're swapping CDs. It's
a crazy world!

Quite often, when I get a new game, I install it to check it
works, then wipe it again. This was especially true on the old PC
with just 145 meg HD space. I did this with Ultima Underworld
ages ago but when I went to reinstall it recently, the second disk
failed. I have spoken to 3 other people who have had the same
problem. Have Origin done something to the disk so you can only
install it once? Mindscape don't want to know, since they don't
carry Origin's products any more - Electronic Arts, who took them
on, don't either because they weren't Origin's distributors when
UU1 came out. Does anyone have any ideas? Whatever the reason,
it's very annoying.

The final comment is, thanks for continuing to support SynTax. The
Adventure and Strategy Club folded recently due to falling
readership which was very sad news. It is obviously easier for me
to continue on disk as I can copy just the number I need, I don't
get sucked into having 100s of copies printed which could be the
case with a paper based magazine. Luckily the SynTax readership is
pretty steady, even increasing slightly, but if you can continue
to spread the word, I'd be very grateful.

                                                  Sue









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