The Adventurers' Convention

         Two views from Dave Booth and Brian Burke

@~The Convention was held in Birmingham in October. Dave and Brian
@~went and wrote telling me about it, so I asked if I could
@~reprint their e-mails here and let you know how the day went ...
@~Sue

1. Dave Booth's Account
-----------------------
The Convention was a cracking day out.  It was great to see a mix
of computers all running adventures - Amigas, Ataris, Speccys and,
horror of horrors, a couple of PCs!  The turnout was good, though
I gathered that there were fewer than previous years
(understandable given the non-mass market nature of text
adventuring).

The highlight of the day was a competition, where we each played
an adventure written specially for the Convention.  Each player
had to try to get the most points in a 20 minute session.  I was
singularly unimpressive at 20 out of a possible 270 (ISTR)... but
thankfully Brian equalled that, and we didn't get the wooden spoon
either!

Phil Reynolds and I propped up the bar for a duration, during
which I explained that I was getting (at last) into Pratchett.
This struck a ringing chord, and by the time we left the hotel I
had a list of fantasy books to get.  Now then, all I have to do is
make time off the PC to read them.... :)

Brian was particularly pleased to get a copy of Space Quest 6, as
he'd been after it for some time.  Now that Riva's arrived,
however, I guess it will be a few weeks longer before he finishes
it.

We didn't stop around for the Murder Mystery, so it'd be
interesting to see how that went off.

Nice way to spend a Saturday!

2.  Brian Burke's Views
-----------------------
You've probably already heard from Dave Booth that Phil Reynolds
(we met him at the Birmingham bash) identified a UK source for
Shadows Over Riva. I'm happily playing away having taken my party
once more through Blades of Destiny and Star Trail (lost my
earlier Saved Game!)

We had a pleasant time in Brum, re-met Bob Adams and Larry
Horsfield - the latter was demo'ing Red Alert and Warcraft 2. Phil
is an interesting guy.  Dave & I had to play a text adv in a
competition. Ho ho - where's the mouse gone then?. We were given
20 mins - after 17 I still had zero points but recovered to obtain
20. Much to my amazement this was the same score as Dave. Dave
then noticed that one of the 8 bitters had only scored 12, so we
felt much better then. I bought Space Quest 6 for a fiver and have
been enjoying that till Riva came along - it's like putting on an
old pair of gloves - fits a treat.
                              - o -