Editorial

This issue I finally admitted defeat and altered the 'All About
SynTax' file to read that the magazine is released 'in the second
half of the month' rather than the middle. Something always seems
to crop up at the wrong time - work, family stuff ... this time we
booked a week away in the Lake District for the 18th May and I had
hoped to get the magazine out before we went. But I'm writing this
on the 15th and I can tell that there is no hope of making that
deadline. My life is just so much busier than it was when I first
started SynTax but isn't it better to have too much happening than
be bored?!

This is the time for the SynTax annual contributors' awards -
doesn't it come round quickly? - and the Contributor of the Year 
for 2001-2002 is Peter Clark! Well done, Peter, and thanks for all 
the reviews and solutions which you've sent in. The runner up 
was Alex van Kaam and third prize goes to Carolyn Brown - 
congratulations to them too. All of them will shortly be receiving
their prizes of fantasy figures, Peter's coming on a base with a
specially engraved plaque. Peter also gets a year's free SynTax
sub of six issues, Alex five issues and Carolyn four.

I've had a slight change of plan with the actual awards. I've
previously always given Myth and Magic figures but the shop in
Sidcup where I used to buy them changed hands last year and the
new owners don't stock them. There are two more shops locally that
I know of, who also keep them, but they don't have such a good
selection. But one of these stocks some terrific fantasy figures,
dragons and the like. So I've decided to ask the winners which
they'd prefer. I'll let you know next issue what they chose. From
now on, I'll also be offering other fantasy figures as prizes.

I forgot to put Boxman on last issue's disk to go with the review
so have added it onto this disk. It really is a great little game.
I'm currently stuck on Level 15, but am still hoping to solve it.
I know other people who have got a lot further. I looked at the
Boxman site some time ago and there are extra one-off levels to
download from there. It looks as though the game was written to 
publicise a packaging firm, unless I've totally misunderstood the 
blurb. The firm has now gone, but Boxman lives on and is 
incredibly popular.

I was surprised a few weeks ago when I tried to go onto the
Underdogs site and instead got something different. Thanks to Dave
Barker I can tell you that it has moved to www.the-underdogs.org -
evidently the guy forgot to renew the domain name. I've copied
their current master list into this issue for those of you who
wonder what software they have for download. It's a very
impressive list!

The Adverts section has gone in this issue as all the games in it
have been added to the library (with the authors' permission, of
course). The only one which has just had to be removed is Joel
Finch's Multidimensional Thief as I have lost touch with him.

I had to buy a new monitor recently. My old one went wrong after
being moved. I thought it was a 19", so bought a replacement the 
same size. It was only œ149 which was much better than the œ299 
I'd paid four years ago. But when we got it home, I found my old 
one had actually been a 17"! I couldn't believe how much cheaper
they'd become.

Time's been tight for playing. I bought Loco-commotion, which is a
puzzle game played with model train layouts. Certain problems have
to be solved to get a train or two from the start to an exit gate.
Great graphics and good fun. I've put in a review this issue.

I also had to install Windows XP when I was offered some work from
one of the magazines who were doing an XP special. I must admit to
being a lot more impressed with it than I thought I would be. But
as you'll see from this issue, some people are having problems
getting older games to run, something I haven't tried to do yet.
I'll let you know how I get on with it.

Well, that's it, I think, for another issue. Keep happy and
healthy.
                                                       Sue

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