Letters @~Any letters or emails received on an adventuring-related topic @~may be reprinted in here unless marked 'not for publication'. ------------------------------------------------------------------ First an email from: Dave Booth, Nottingham @~Dave and Brian Burke were trying to get hold of Shadows over @~Riva but, as far as we could tell, it wasn't available over @~here, only in the States. Then I got an email from him that you @~may also find handy: At the Adventurers' Convention on Saturday Brian and I met up with Phil Reynolds, who we knew from his SynTax articles. He's pointed us at Software First, a UK based firm that sells software released in the States and not here --- Riva being the prime example. Just to put icing on the cake, in the catalogue on their web page (www.softwarefirst.com), they list Riva at --- 17 squid!!! Needless to say, Brian and I have put in orders :D Apparently Software First buy the game at the dollar rate i.e. 17 bucks, and sell it at the UK rate = 50% profit before overheads. But at that price I'm not complaining. As the Americans say, "Go figure"?! @~I asked Dave for details of Software First and he said: Software First are on 01268 531222. The price quoted includes P&P (i.e. they say 'no postage charge' but it's really wrapped up in the cost of the game) if you opt for second class postage. Now this is *really* weird... on the back of the Riva box it says "Manufactured & distributed by Guildhall Leisure Services, 01302 890000"! I guess from this that Riva has been available in the UK for months, but that Sir-Tech have not bothered to push it, and/or the normal retail outlets (Electronics Bucket and so on) haven't taken it on board. Makes you wonder how many potential Riva players there are in Britain who are unaware that it's available! Incidentally - Guildhall are retailing Riva at œ19.99, not cheaper than SW First as I had anticipated. SW First must be buying bulk copies and making less per copy to offer their price. So, there may be a delay in your order from them whilst they collect enough orders to make it worth their while. Still, it's worth it at that price. Their full catalogue is on the web site, in case they stock other games not readily available otherwise. (Still no sign of Faery Tale Adventure 2 though.... sigh) @~So, that's two outlets if you want Riva. I might try SW First @~for Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and The Space Bar, neither of @~which I've seen in the UK ... Sue ------------------------------------------------------------------ From Carolyn Brown, Cumbria (extract) Thank you for the latest edition of SynTax, which I greatly enjoyed, as usual, and I am enclosing my request for the next one. I was very sorry to read about your Windows 95 problems, especially as it meant your losing all the hard work you had put into your new game. I do hope that you're on the way to retrieving the situation. @~Yes, thanks, everything is getting back to normal and I must say @~that after all the kerfuffle, the computer is running much @~better. I have also gone back to reprogramming my game using @~TADS. I was very interested to see that in your solution disks, you have the solution to `Betrayal in Antara'. I must say that I wasn't even aware that this game had been released yet. When I bought `Betrayal at Krondor' ages ago, I must have sent in the registration card, because early this year I received from Sierra a leaflet advertising `Antara' and saying that it would be shipped at about the end of March. I ordered a copy and, when I had not received it by May I rang Sierra only to be told that it wouldn't be available until at least the end of July and probably not even then. I cancelled my order and bought `Daggerfall'. In a fit of despondency at having no current RPG to immerse myself in. Since then I have been looking out for `Antara' but I have never seen a review of it, nor a copy in any shop. @~The solution came from the Net. I think many RPGs come out there @~and are virtually ignored here (see Dave's letter above). While on the subject of sequels to `Betrayal at Krondor' I have not seen anything about the `official' sequel, `Return to Krondor' I believe it was to be called, which was supposed to be being produced by a company other than Sierra, who had lost the license. Anyway while waiting for the above two games to turn up I am still ploughing my way through the dreaded `Daggerfall'. @~Carolyn sent in her Daggerfall Views and they are in the @~articles section ... Sue ------------------------------------------------------------------ Now some sad news, from a mailshot from John Wilson, Zenobi Software, Rochdale **** THE LONG GOODBYE **** Well I guess it was always inevitable that things should come down to this ... even the mighty 'ROMAN EMPIRE' faded into the sunset ... so with more than one tear in my eye I have to announce that with effect from 1st October 1997 there will be no more new releases/new games. The Cat and I have decided to take a somewhat 'lengthy' sabbatical - purely voluntary of course - owing to the fact that we simply refuse to throw any more good money down the drain. Recent sales (and I use that word very loosely!) have not been great enough to generate sufficient working capital to allow us to continue splashing out on testing and publishing new adventure-titles ... it costs good hard cash to 'play-test' new games (even if it is only the cost of posting off various versions to the testers and their reports to the authors) and unless this outlay is recouped from sales there will be no more cash to lay out on play-testing the next in line. Over the past 12 years we have play-tested literally 'hundreds' of different games and if you bear in mind that each game was tested by, at the very minimum, THREE people and that some games required up to TEN or TWELVE testings, then that figure runs into 'thousands'. Each one takes a blank tape, a jiffy-bag and a first-class stamp ... the cost of which was always borne by ZENOBI and never by the author - that was our policy and that was how we conducted things. The recent fall in revenue means that we can no longer afford to do this and being how we refuse to publish games that have not been fully play-tested then we have no other alternative but to stop producing new titles. Whilst the above is a major factor behind our decision, there is one more very important matter that convinced the Cat and I to hang up our boots. Recent events concerning the infamous 'INTERNET' and the actions of certain 'groups' actively engaged in the 'INTERNET' have led to some very 'heated' exchanges - said groups have been issuing copies of ZENOBI titles to anybody with access to their activities and without any prior permission being granted by us or any 'royalties' being paid to the respective authors. Now it seems that these groups have plans to issue a number of CDROMS featuring SPECTRUM titles - and that in an effort to include ZENOBI titles in their ranks they plan to either 'archive' or 'encrypt' said titles prior to placing them on the CDROM. If this is correct and they are that eager to rip-off ZENOBI then let them get on with it. The Cat and I are heartily sick of all this hassle and we have told the groups so. We have added that if they wish to contact the various authors and seek their permissions in regards to the respective titles then we will not stand in their way. The authors of course will waive all rights to any royalty payments from ZENOBI - but being how some authors are already working in cahoots with the groups then that should not be a problem. All authors wishing to place their games in the hands of another publisher merely have to repay any relevant 'signing-on fee(s)' and all publishing rights will be returned to them. Meanwhile ZENOBI will continue to honour any orders received for titles currently on our lists - the rest is in the hands of the Gods. It has been a great TWELVE years and the Cat and I would not have missed it for anything - not even a 'Green-cheese-sandwich' - so we will miss the 'cut-and-thrust' of big business. We were the 'lantern' that lit the way for countless new authors and now sadly the likes of 'THE FIRE RUBY' by Laurence Creighton, 'FELINE SLEEPY', by Edwina Brown and 'SEASIDE SORCERY' by George Hoyle will NOT see the light-of-day .. at least on the ZENOBI label anyway !!!!!! Stay active, stay alert, keep your wick trimmed and never turn your back on a large Troll. @~I'm glad that John is continuing to sell games from his current @~catalogue but it is a shame that he will be unable to release @~any new titles ... Sue - o -