Letters

@~Any letters sent to me that aren't marked 'not for publication'
@~and which deal with adventure-related matters will be considered
@~for inclusion, maybe being edited in the process.
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@~Comments on SynWin, help wanted on the Internet, DM (again!) and
@~RPG Guides, ethics, more ethics and ideas, plus Amiga TADS and
@~RPs ...

@~First, a quick SynWin comment and Internet help wanted:
From Susan Hilditch (Sox), Thornton-Cleveleys

I realise that it has been a very long time since you heard from
me. However, I received my copy of Syntax this morning and was so
pleased with SynWin that I was moved to put fingers to keyboard to
tell you.

I am hoping to get a new modem this week, the first one I got had
to be sent back, so keep your fingers crossed for me! I hope to
join the growing numbers of surfers on the Internet, (or cruisers
on the information super-highway) if only to be able to watch the
Guinness advert over and over again. Sad I know!

PS I am almost connected to Compuserve now, but the fax software
won't let me use it because it doesn't recognise the modem.
Perhaps they'll never be friends. I would welcome some advice on
being a beginner on the Net: what to look out for, who to speak
to, where to start...  Any ideas?

@~On behalf of Alex, thanks for the SynWin praise. As for Internet
@~help, I'm still hoping someone will do a beginner's guide. I've
@~listed some more sites in the Internet/WWW section in Articles.
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@~Alex did a special Dungeon Master version of SynWin for James -
@~we all know his views on the game. Well, in this special version
@~he couldn't escape seeing its name everywhere! However, Alex had
@~a few more DM comments to make after seeing Issue 38.
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From Alex van Kaam, Deurne, The Netherlands

To James J.

Glad you liked my SynWin Dungeon Master Special,

For those of you who don't know this, I made a SynWin version for
James that had Dungeon Master all over it.:-)

You are a big fan of Bloodwych, I also played it and its data disk
but I did not like it as much as Dungeon Master.

Now if I should write a RPG guide like you have I would mention it
just as I would mention other games, here is a good example:

Bloodwych, this DM clone is graphically a lot different from DM
but its two player option gives it something new and extra, and
although it never reached the height of DM when it was released it
is still a good buy.

And here is a bad example:

Bloodwych, this DM clone is rubbish, it is graphically well below
DM, simple puzzles, and really a pain to play, so stay clear of
it.  I still curse the day I bought it, I don't understand why
people like it, it's crap, and those who like it should see a
doctor.

Now as you can see, the first example fits well into a RPG guide,
it tells people what it is and what it has to offer, the second
example is just my personal opinion and should not belong in a RPG
guide it should belong in a RPG I like and dislike guide.

Now on your personal opinion, yes I agree Dungeon Master 1 &
Chaos Strikes Back, and even the new 2 are dated and there are
lots of better looking and playing games but that also counts for
your Bloodwych.  The reason you rate Bloodwych so high is
probably the same reason other people like Dungeon Master, it was
for many one of the first encounters with this type of game and it
had just that little something that grabbed them.

Now you don't understand why people still rate it so high, well
another example then:

My first car was an old Toyota Corolla hatchback, it wasn't much,
but it was my first car. I now drive a new BMW Compact, it's far
superior to the Toyota but I still have fond memories of the
Toyota and rate it high.  The same goes for Dungeon Master 1, I
have played so many better RPGs but I still have very good
memories of Dungeon Master which can't be replaced by any other
game because Dungeon Master was there first.

Although I do not agree with your point of view on Bloodwych, I do
respect it, so James, respect other people's views.

And yes you may disagree with my and other peoples views on
Dungeon Master and you have the right to state your point of view,
but do it once and not in a RPG Guide and keep it with that.  I
personally get bored with your Dungeon Master crack downs, I was
reading your RPG guide, and again you were cracking down Dungeon
Master, well I pressed Go Back and selected another article, now I
don't think you wrote your RPG guide for this.....

And no I don't close my mind for other people's views, I'm just
tired of your Dungeon Master view every other issue.

So please James, let it rest.

Alex (the funny guy)

PS: Vandalising your SynWin was not to force you into telling lies
about Dungeon Master, it was just for fun.
------------------------------------------------------------------

@~And another of James' articles gets a few comments:
From Jean Childs, Bagshot

I'd like to comment on an article in September's SynTax by James
Judge "Adventurers - Aren't We Cruel?". First of all James, do you
know the best way of getting rid of that poor mummy at the start
of Dungeon Master? You open the sliding door and enter the room.
You then back out allowing the mummy to come after you. As soon as
it is in the door entrance, you slam shut the door.  Repeat these
actions a couple of times, and 'poof' no more mummy.

In his article James asks whether we, as law-abiding, basically
nice people should go about killing things that stand in our way,
and that at least we should have a little compassion in our hearts
when we decapitate these poor monsters.  Well what about the
people who write these games? Do they worry about the spider's
poor babies that it has left behind, or the rat's wife and how
much sorrow she will feel. If they do then they could at least
include in their program the squeals of 'mummy, mummy, come back'.
Oh dear, he's got me at it now.  My main reason for writing is in
defence of "breaking into someone's house to pick up a teddy bear
secreted underneath a bed" that James refers to.
@~This was in Jean's game "WYSIWYG" from those who missed James'
@~article ... Sue
He didn't mention that in so doing that poor little bear could be
released into the wild to join his playmates. The little teddy
didn't want to be left under the bed. At least in that same game
there is one place where you get arrested for entering a house
unlawfully.

The first game that I ever wrote was for the BBC computer and was
called "The Good Samaritan". The player had to remove a thorn from
a lion's paw, release a genie from the bottle and let it free, and
even give your best warm coat to a poor cold beggar. The spade
wasn't used to dig for treasure but to tidy an old lady's garden.
(I think I must have been in the same frame of mind as James when
I wrote it.) So why did I scrap it? Firstly because it was dead
boring, and secondly because it was so predictable.

Well I think I'll just wait for a treasure hunt group to come
a-knocking on my door asking for obscure items. Then I'll try
slamming the door a few times to see if it works as well on them
as it did on the mummy in DM.

@~Remind me not to visit Jean on my next treasure hunt ... Sue
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@~Next some comments on the magazine's contents and a suggestion
@~for a feature ...
From John Nicholls, Birmingham

I've not really had much to do with adventure games since leaving
the Spectrum scene some years ago (how DID Bilbo escape from the
goblin's dungeon?) though my interest is now in the throes of
revival. I have noticed though that the increased memory of such
machines as the ST has not apparently led to many (any?)
relatively longer or better games than were available in just 48K.

The Hobbit, if I remember correctly, had something like 50
locations. And graphics, too. So even a half meg machine should be
capable of ten times that number of locations. And the mind
boggles at what the Spectrum programmers could have done with
1040k! And yet we find proud boasts of a mere 150 or so locations
having been achieved.

Why is this?

There must be a reason, but I don't know what it is, unless it's
something to do with Murphy's Law of any program tending to take
up all of any available memory. But if the extra memory is not
being used on locations or graphics, where does it go? On more
complicated vocabularies and parsers, I expect.

James Judge's tongue-in-the-cheek defence of monsters and other
baddies struck a chord with me. Even if he didn't really mean it,
I agree with him. A lot of the violence in games is unnecessary
and stretches one's credulity to the limit.

OK, so you shoot the monster. But how? If your hands were free to
pick up objects, then presumably the gun was holstered or tucked
in one's belt. Does the monster stand still, tapping an impatient
claw, whilst you juggle with the carried items in order to get to
your weapon?

Of course, as an expert marksman you invariably fell the beast
with one shot. Unlikely! And all without dropping the carried
items? Can't we sometimes see a wounded beast drag itself away,
probably to return in even nastier mood at some later point? And
carried items rolling away into odd corners, possibly leading to
new discoveries?

And having to die and restart - or even be reincarnated and
returned to the start - can be a bore. It could be more
interesting if you fell through, say, a previously concealed exit
and you found yourself in some strange location on the far side of
the playing area, or faced with some extra problems that you could
have otherwise avoided.

I don't think that violence and death are really necessary
ingredients of a good adventure. There was a game for the Spectrum
that used neither.  "The Snow Queen" did not even allow stealing,
and did not always permit items to be just dropped.  They had to
put back in their proper places! Neither did one die, though
punishment was sometimes inflicted by being moved back a number of
rooms, and repeated until you did find the right solution.


That said, though, I do think that many adventure writers are
becoming quite sophisticated. Their imaginations inflict some very
clever problems upon the unwary traveller and many do quite well
in the endless struggle to invent new themes.

I was well pleased with SYNTAX. My reading of it did, in fact,
consist mainly of skimming through it. I look forward to settling
down to a good read as soon as I can.

There was one feature in the AGT documentation that I'd like to
see incorporated in SYNTAX. That was an outline of the authors. It
might be nice if you could provide a similar profile of editorial
staff and main contributors of SYNTAX, if only for new readers,

I deduced, quite cleverly, that you are a woman from the fact that
your name is Sue. (Please correct me if I'm wrong). But that, as a
new reader, is almost all I know about you. I know little of just
who you are, what you do or how you do it, though of course I did
discover that you are an adventure writer of at least one
adventure.  I did gather that you are versed in a number of
machines. Do you have one of each? Or do you use emulators on a
PC, or something like that?  Other names mentioned in SYNTAX mean
nothing to me, either, though your points list gave clues to some
of the more frequent contributors. But not all, due to the zeroing
feature of the chart. I was intrigued by some of the pseudonyms
used. The Bitmap Kid? The Unknown Adventurer? The Grue?

@~A potted profile of readers is a good idea, nothing too long,
@~maybe 100 words or so on each. If regulars would like to send in
@~details next time they write, I can start compiling a feature
@~for a future issue. If I don't get much of a response, I'll send
@~out a short questionnaire!
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@~Finally, Amiga TADS comments
From Bill Hoggett, Darwen

This is probably a good point to bring up some comments about
some of the stuff you've sent me the last couple of times. I've
had a chance to play with both AGT and TADS on my Amiga and
while AGT has so far been able to recompile all the PC source
code I've thrown at it (albeit very slowly) TADS has been far
less co-operative. I don't know if it's because of the earlier
version (v2.01.16 for the Amiga compared to v2.2 for the PC) but
on the Amiga Hi-Tech Drifter will not compile although it does
so on the PC version. Since Hi-Tech Drifter is a v1 game(it
needs the special -1d parameter when compiling) there should be
no problems compiling it on the Amiga v2 TADS (in theory).
However, when I attempted this the compiler spat out a few lines
telling me in no uncertain terms that it would have nothing to
do with the -pragma$ statement and a few other errors which I
believe to be related.

As documentation for the unregistered TADS has been until recently
non-existent I haven't got a clue where the compatibility problem
lies. This is a shame as I greatly prefer TADS to AGT as an
adventure writing system (in text adventure terms it's better than
Visionary) and would consider registering with Michael Roberts if
I can get the Amiga version to actually compile something.  Has
anyone of your Amiga contacts succeeded (or even attempted) to

compile Hi-Tech Drifter on their machine? (I guess not since it's
not available in your Amiga catalogue!).

@~No success as yet ... Sue

As I've mentioned registering have you
considered becoming a registration point in the UK for things like
TADS or, say, the Adventions titles. I know this would be extra
hassle (and maybe not viable) but it might encourage people to
register more readily. The Amiga has lots of quality shareware in
the Public Domain and many of these authors hail from the US,
Europe or Australia/New Zealand. From experience I know that it
can be a real pain to send the required money (in the desired
format) to register various packages. Recently the practice of
Registration Points is becoming more popular allowing the users
greater ease in paying for their software and at the same time
increasing the trust buyers have in the shareware system.
Obviously this requires an agreement between the author and the
person running the Registration Point and I have no idea what that
may be but I thought the idea was worth mentioning.

Sorry, I've just re-read the above paragraph and realised I
haven't explained the concept (in case you haven't already come
across it). If you're running a Registration Point people would be
able to send you the registration fee for the software you support
in UK currency and you would then send the corresponding amount to
the authors according to whatever agreement you have with them.
The authors will then send the registered software and any extras
to the customer directly so you would not be handling any of the
software.  Clearly the fee required to register in this manner
would have to be adjusted to compensate you for running the RP and
all the work involved but this would be sorted out in the
agreement with the software author.

@~I actually already run an RP for Joel Finch's Multi-dimensional
@~Thief - though I actually send out the software too - and I will
@~suggest this to Mike and the two Daves next time I write to
@~them ... Sue

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