WHY CAN'T WE BUY RPGs AT SAINSBURYS?

                      From Brian Burke

The only time I buy/look at UK gaming mags is to see where I can
buy a new game at a reasonable price. Mail Order games are usually
so much cheaper than those in the local store. To date I've been
catching up on `old' PC software, DOS based games that never
appeared on the Amiga, and still have a way to go in absorbing the
back catalogue, so I've not had too much trouble obtaining
software, and cheaply too.

BUT now, having played and thus been spoilt by Stonekeep and
Shannara, I want to intersperse those games with the newer WIN95
releases. Yes it's true I've submitted to the ear and eye candy
that those games provide. They make the old stuff look positively
mundane. So I've been searching my local stores for, as an
example, "Anvil of Dawn" to no avail. I was really cheesed this
weekend when Nottingham's PC World opened and you could get a book
to the value of any bit of software you bought. I found a book on
WIN 95 at œ27.49 but couldn't find Anvil anywhere, or any other
CRPG for that matter, at all.

So the request is - where do Syntax readers buy their RPG software
from? Is there a specialist UK mail order house that I've not
spotted yet (besides Special Reserve where you have to pay extra
to join their club anyway)? Or ......what?

PS - I've just read Merc's review of `Anvil of Dawn' (SYNTAX 42)
and, knowing he's an RPG buff as I am, promptly rung up the one
Mail Order House that listed it. It cost me œ5 more than Merc
paid! Some excuse about it not being manufactured in the UK, only
abroad, by which I assume Germany. It's due this weekend and
should prove an excellent fill- in until `Shadows Over Riva' is
published.

PPS - I enjoyed the descriptive skills displayed by the author of
the `Shivers', didn't learn much about what they thought of the
game but enjoyed reading the text.

@~I would recommend Strategic Plus Software of Hampton Hill (0181
@~977 8088) for those hard-to-find games, imports, pre-ordered
@~stuff etc. They give 10% discount for 'in the pipeline' orders,
@~apart from that they are on the expensive side but if you've
@~GOTTA find a particular game, they're the guys to try (end of
@~advert!). Other than that, for every-day software, probably
@~Premier on 01268 271172 ... Sue












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