Editorial

First of all congratulations to this year's SynTax Contributor who
is - Vic Horsley ... well done Vic! The runners up are Bev Truter 
and Peter Clark. At the end it was very close run thing between Vic 
and Bev but Vic's long solutions for Battlespire and Pool of
Radiance just tipped the balance. Without contributors, SynTax 
wouldn't survive so thanks to all of you, and to those who didn't 
win prizes this year, for taking the time to send reviews etc in.

More thank yous to those of you who sent in reviews for this
issue after my plea for help last time. Unfortunately I am still
very short of them ... I think I've got 3 in hand for next issue
and that's it.

I think part of the problem is that all of us have busier lives
than we did a few years ago so review writing has understandably
taken a back seat. I know that my pottery is taking up a fair bit
of my spare time. So is ebaying! I've also found that I don't seem
to be as good at managing my time as I used to be. I've got quite
hooked on Lemmings Paintball this issue as it's a nice game to
spend short periods of time on, or just tell yourself you're going
to do 3 levels, say, while having a coffee break.

I haven't been back to The Hobbit but I've got an apology to make.
In the last issue I said Andrew Clark had programmed both ACE and
The Hobbit but it turns out that it was Peter Clark who did The
Hobbit ... sorry Peter! Incidentally Peter told me he is writing
this year's convention Megapoints game using ACE and it will be on
general release after the convention.

Thinking back to games we used to play, how well do you know
Infocom? Most of us played their games a decade ago ... some of us
played ALL of them. I still have a few to do. I found a quiz on
the Internet and have put it into this issue for you to see how
well you remember their games. The results will be next issue.

In this issue I've reviewed the online game Dransik. I'd been 
keen to play a modern MUG, or MMORPH as they're now called, but
couldn't really consider it until I got broadband. Even now I
haven't got the time to sign up for one so I took advantage of the
free 10 days online they were offering. I DID enjoy it! Over the
next few issues I'll test out some more and let you know how I get
on and whether i finally get hooked on one and sign up.

Talking of broadband, I'm very impressed with its speed but not so
impressed by Freeserve's customer service department and helpline.
When i finally get settled at a permanent address I will go to
cable because I've heard it's a lot more reliable.

Well, I'll stop there and get on with finishing the magazine. See
you next issue ... and did I mention about needing reviews...?

                                                     Best wishes,
                                                             Sue




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