Editorial

I'm sorry to have to start this editorial with bad news but sadly
I have to tell you that Steve McLaren died at the end of February.
Steve had taken SynTax for 5 years and though he didn't live all
that far away (Margate) we had never met. But we wrote and talked
on the phone regularly and I always enjoyed hearing from him.
Steve was a very keen adventure gamer and got a lot of enjoyment
from his computer, and was always enthusiastic about writing hint
files for SynTax which went in as Steve's Hints 'n' Tips. I will
miss his letters and phone calls, and my sympathy goes to Sue,
their children and the rest of his family.

It's very hard to know how to continue writing after typing that
but I enjoyed having another visit from Alex in January. We
had a full day together this time, went to Silica Shop where he
bought Diablo - see his review in this issue - and thoroughly
enjoyed the rest of the day chatting and playing Diablo. I did
more watching and encouraging ("Hey - look out, skeletons!") than
playing ...  when I DID have a go, poor Aragorn didn't stand a 
chance! The first time we saw the first major baddie, the Butcher, 
was quite an experience.

On my own I completed Shannara and since then I've mostly been
playing Toonstruck. What a brilliant game. I've long been a fan of
Christopher Lloyd, since the days of Taxi when he was the Reverend
Jim - anyone remember that? - and he is almost as bemused and
befuddled in this. I did start playing Swords of Xeen but, as John
Moore had warned me, it is very bugged. I just couldn't get the
Guild to appear in Hart, the first major town, so after several
weeks and two restarts, I emailed New World Computing to moan.
Haven't heard back yet but I'll let you know what they say.

I was a happy bunny when a demo of Magic the Gathering turned up
on a cover CD. Within a few games, I was hooked and checked
MicroProse's web site to see when it was due out - March 7th. I
was straight on the phone to preorder it from a mail order firm in
Yorkshire.


Alan WASN'T a happy bunny when he spent a fruitless few days
trying to network our 2 PCs. We'd already tried linking them with
a null modem lead and made a start on a two-player game of
Transport Tycoon. It was good fun except that the system wasn't
very stable and we experienced a lot of crashes. When Alex was
here, he'd suggested networking and Alan got very keen on the idea
(he fancied using the modem and scanner which are on my PC!) and
bought all the bits at PC World. But despite advice from a friend
of Alex's from MSN, we just couldn't get them working due to IRQ
(we think) conflicts. Maybe one day we'll have another go, but at
the moment we're too despondent and confused to try again.

Alex's updated SynTax home page should be up by the time you get
this. No movement on the chat room idea as yet due to general lack
of interest apart from a few of you. I may just suggest we get it
going and then we can see who joins in later. I'll email anyone
who's expressed any interest. Check out Alex's pages in the
meantime for further info. The address is in the articles section.


I've decided to have a change of system with the solutions in
future and give the '3 free disks' in exchange for any new
solutions so long as I haven't already received a solution from
another reader ie I won't, in future, count solutions received
from other sources such as the Net. I can't face noting in the
list which ones are eligible, so either just send in your
solutions and I'll let you know if you're entitled to the
freebies, or you can contact me first. (I hope that's clear - it
looks a bit complicated the way I've written it!)

Well, I think that's about it. Spring is on the way and I hope
you'll all find time to keep adventuring and send in contributions 
for next issue.

                                                        Sue




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