Letters @~Any letters or e-mails received on an adventuring-related topic @~may be reprinted in here unless marked 'not for publication'. -------------------------------------------------------------------- @~The changes made to SynTax last time went down well. Here are a @~few comments. First from: Andrew Wielochowski (by email) Got the latest issue of SynTax, seems different than the other issues (can't say how, but I seem to prefer it) which is strange cause nothing's really changed. I've quickly browsed through Excuse Me but haven't really got round to playing properly. @~Andrew also had a query: While browsing the internet I found various sites supporting, hem hem, AbandonWare, I looked at them and they include Police Quest 1-3, Larry 1-5, Space Quest 1-3, Kings Quest 1-3, Wolf3D, Spear of Destiny and thousands of other old games. Are these really legal are they really AbandonWare? Can I safely download them? Do you know or could you put this question to other readers? @~Does anyone know? I'd be surprised if the Sierra games were now @~AbandonWare as they still produce compilations of their older @~games. -------------------------------------------------------------------- @~Nick also mentioned the free game with last issue and had a good @~idea ... Nick Edmunds (by email) Just got issue 61 and I thought to myself ooooh free gift, what a great idea (I haven't been so excited since I had my Frosties this morning). You have previously mentioned that interest in the disk library is waning (probably due to the intrusion of the Internet) and I feel it is a shame that so many great games get forgotten or overlooked and so much hard work go unseen. So what about, when space allows of course, continuing to include games with SynTax. Particularly older, classic, games or those written by SynTax readers. Perhaps readers could vote for their favourite game/disk from the library (so far the Zuni Doll has been my fave). I'm sure most amateur authors would agree to their games distribution simply to boost the circulation of games that may otherwise not get the airtime. @~Great idea - has anyone else got a nomination for their favourite? -------------------------------------------------------------------- @~George Rawson asked last issue for recommendations of strategy and @~war games. John Ferris sent him this email which he said I could @~reprint here: John Ferris (by email) George, There are a number of decent strategy games out for the PC. If you like the "god game" genre, there's Civilisation 2, a game that a colleague at work bought a PC to play. Special Reserve (mail order) sell it for œ10.99, or the "ultimate collection" for œ18.99. I have had a little experience on it and there's certainly a lot of controls and features to learn. I'm quite interested in war games and I can recommend Empire Interactive/Talonsoft series on the American Civil War. There's the BattleGround Collection 2 (Gettysburg, Bull Run, Antietam & Shiloh) which should be around œ20 or so in the shops. Their latest is Chickamauga which is probably quite expensive still, I haven't played it but I believe there is a scenario editor. This series is in my opinion pretty good as long as you take the time to read the manual. I tend to prefer the ancient scenarios for wargames, but I don't know of any decent games. The "Great Battles" series has a collection of Hannibal, Alexander and Caesar, but I don't know how good they are and they are not yet cheap enough for me to take a risk on them. If you hear of any recommendations for that era (and Napoleonics as well) I would be interested in any recommendations. Best Wishes, John Ferris -------------------------------------------------------------------- @~Bev also had a few words on the subject. Bev Truter (by email) Re George Rawson and his plea for strategy/wargame suggestions, Jess is into what she calls "strategy" games, i.e., economic management combined with military campaigns; and the Civilization series, the Caesar series, Populous series, and of course THE SETTLERS SERIES fit that description. But by "war games" he might mean the old board-type wargames, some of which ended up on disk / CD? Lyn's son was raving about Dark Reign (at least I think that was the title?), which seems to be the build-an-empire and conquer-everything-in-sight kind of game. Jess bought Populous: The Beginning, which I think is the 3rd and most recent in the series, and seems quite taken by it. Also I know a couple of people who are playing Aureum and loving it, but that seems to require frequent checking in encyclopaedias and trips to the library! @~Again, if anyone has any more suggestions, please let us all @~know. -------------------------------------------------------------------- @~I didn't get much response to the new paper version of SynTax @~which is usually a good sign - it means everything is working as @~it should. However, I did get one comment from: Graham Raven, North Ferriby The new SynTax on paper is great! And my, isn't it thick! I really can't fault the new format, I'm very impressed! @~Glad you liked it - I greatly enjoyed putting it together. -------------------------------------------------------------------- @~Finally, do you have a Psion 5? And can you answer a question for: Claire Dyard, France I've just bought a Psion 5 with which I can play Inform and Infocom games: luckily enough I've got plenty of Infocom games and even if they are for the Atari, I could transfer them on the PC and Psion. The Spectrum emulator for the Psion installs the QWERTY keyboard so I'm unable to play Spectrum text adventures on the Psion (a pity, really). If one of SynTax's geniuses could help me with this annoying problem, I'd be very happy! @~If you can help, tell me and I'll pass the information on to @~Claire. Or you can email her at cdyard@aol.com - o -