Editorial

The last 2 months since last issue have gone even quicker than
usual and, as regular readers know, it's that time of year again
when the SynTax Contributor of the Year is announced, and the
award for 1996/97 goes to ...

                        BEV TRUTER!!
                        ------------

Yes, Bev, it's you! Well done and thanks for all your solutions,
reviews and articles over the years that you have taken SynTax.
Your Myth and Magic figurine and its base are on their way to
Australia and I hope you'll get a lot of pleasure from them.

Congratulations too to the other prize winners - Phil Darke, Alex
van Kaam, James Judge and The Grue! You have all helped make
SynTax what it is today and hopefully it will keep going strong
and improving even more right into the next Millennium.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to everyone else who has
contributed over the last year. All the reviews, articles, maps,
hints and solutions that you send are most welcome. About a
quarter to a third of SynTax readers are now on the Net, so can
easily access information from there, so it's great that, as
far as I know, I have only lost one reader as a result of his
going on-line. I also gather from talking to several of you who
haven't yet got modems that a fair proportion of you WON'T be
going on-line, for one reason or another. That means that
magazines such as SynTax are still important to a lot of people
and I know that the readers trust the views of the reviewers,
knowing that they'll give an honest opinion of the games, not
being swayed by big names or previous reputations.

Well, since last issue I finished Toonstruck (hilarious), kept
playing Magic the Gathering (excellent; still haven't completed my
first full game in Shandalar) and went back to Settlers 2. I am
having great problems with my opponents in the 8th scenario. They
are so vicious! The minute you start building anywhere near them

- wham! Over the border they pour, marmelising my little men who
don't stand a chance.

One reason for going back to Settlers 2 is that the mission disk
is now out. But evidently it isn't compatible with your old saves
(is that stupid or what?) so I really want to finish the initial
scenarios before installing it. I've been very good and haven't
even bought it yet, though twice I saw it in shops and almost gave
in. Alan had a week's holiday last week and we went into Game at
Bromley where I also saw Theme Hospital. I didn't buy that either
- do I deserve a medal? I have warned Alan that if I see both
games again, I may not be able to resist a third time.

(A postscript to that ... it's now May 11th and we went to a
computer fair this morning. I came back with Theme Hospital, Pizza
Tycoon (for œ5!) and Down in the Dumps. Look out for reviews
next issue. (In case you wondered, no-one had Settlers 2 missions
or I would've come home with THAT too!))


In the mean time, between bouts of getting beaten up in Settlers
and retreating to rethink my strategy, I went back to Flight of
the Amazon Queen (now re-released on budget, BTW) - a nice little
game, not too hard, but I got to one point where, each time I
tried to input anything, the darn thing crashed. It was suggested
to me that I try to play without the sound and that did the trick,
so I'm in the final stages of that too.

Swords of Xeen .... the saga continues. Despite emails to New
World and their parent company (whose name escapes me for the
moment ... check old emails ... 3DO, that's them) I heard nothing
back about my non-appearing guild. It's a hard game anyway (and
John 'Arnie' Moore says, bugged as anything) but with hardly any
magic spells, it's darn near impossible. I dragged the lads up to
Level 14 and there they remain, too weak to deal with any tougher
monsters.

Talking of the Might and Magic series, of which Swords is a part,
Arnie also gave me a ring just before I sat to write this to tell
me how brilliant the shareware game Yendorian Tales Book 1,
Chapter 2 is - very Might and Magic, he said. Julian Gregory has
written a review which is in this issue and I think I'll give it a
go too.

Well, I think I'll stop there and let you start reading.
Congratulations again to Bev for her well-earned award, and I'll
look forward to getting lots of reviews in over the next 2 months
from you all - I hope!
                                        Take care,
                                                  Sue









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