Letters

Hi Eileen!

Just wanted to tell you that the ASCII versions of both Issue #9 and #10 of XYZZYnews are missing a very important "S" in the Legalese. The kind offer for the readers to send anything to your address has become a harsh denial: "end all inquiries, letters, and submissions to any of the addresses above."

Still grateful (boy, have I been missing something ignoring the .PDF version),

Miron
s590501@tfh-berlin.de

Eileen,

Firstly, I want to say that I enjoy reading the XYZZYnews each and every time it is mailed to me, and I do appreciate the trouble that you take to send it directly. It's a fine publications which celebrates an all-too-ignored genre in the gaming world.

At the end of the last issue, you asked if you should discontinue the "What's on the Disk" section to save time and space for those of us who recieve it electronically, and therefore don't recieve the diskette. Well, I thought I'd throw my two cents in and say that I really did miss that section, because it often serves as a reminder and guide to me to all the new games out there that I should be looking for. It also serves as a bit of an unintentional quality guide, because I assume that your standards for including these games on your distrubution disk are somewhat similiar to mine, and therefore, I rarely waste my time if I FTP to gmd.de and look for those specific games. Perhaps this is a use for your "What's on The Disk" column which you hadn't counted on, but I assure you that in my opinion, it is nevertheless an extremely valuable portion of the XYZZYnews, and it shouldn't be left out, if at all possible.

Thanks for everything,

Meg
73124.340@compuServe.com

To XYZZYnews:

Back in the early '80s a friend of mine and I spent several afternoons playing Adventure. Just before the floppy drive on the PC went dead, we had discovered a set of rooms under the Troll Bridge. To get down, we had to remove the Troll's Sign and hang the Golden Chain from the Sign Post. I have been looking for a version of Adventure that has this "feature" but can not find one. Do you or any of your readers have any insight?

Jim Mcdonnell
Jim.Mcdonnell@dbsoftware.com

To XYZZYnews,

Hi! First of all...let me say that XYZZYnews is terrific...you have just done an outstanding job. It's a treat to read. I have a bug for the list... in the Witness (the LTOI I version, anyhow), if you drop the mystery book in the office, Phong picks it up and starts reading... even though he is in his bedroom!

SLaM
laurie@pop.hip.cam.org

Dear Eileen,

First off, I'd like to thank and congratulate you regarding this excellent and needed publication. I thought I was one of the last people on Earth who still had an interest in Infocom games, as well as IF in general.

Recently, I happened to be shopping for entertainment software and was becoming a bit depressed by the fact that there are only a few games, constantly re-packaged, available anymore (war simulations, sci-fi and action type shoot-'em-ups, icon-driven fantasy adventures, sports simulators and classic board and strategy games), or so it would seem. Much to my astonished delight, I found a single copy of Infocom Masterpieces, which includes 33 of their published text adventures (apparently every one except Hitchhiker's Guide, Shogun, Quarterstaff and Mini-Zork). The fact that the price, $19.94, was about half what a single Infocom title used to cost me was arguably the best news of all!

Needless to say, my intense, but by necessity, largely dormant interest in IF was re-kindled in a big way so I decided to to do a Net search of "Infocom," expecting to find nothing, but still hopeful. Again, it was wonderful to be wrong. During the 1980s I solved 12 text adventures, including Zork I and II, Enchanter, Plantefall and Witness, plus seven from other companies. I'm currently making rapid progress on Sorcerer, Stationfall and Infidel, plus the original Adventure, which I downloaded from the glorious IF archive. Anyway, my question is this: I would like to begin writing my own IF, but I have very limited programming abilities (and aptitude, I suspect). I can write some in BASIC but their appeal is apt to be limited. I have heard several mentions of AGT and other IF development systems but was wondering which one might be regarded as the best for a person with limited programming abilites (and where I might acquire such, if not in the IF archive). Thanks for any help you can offer and keep up the good work!

Sincerely,

Kevin "The Cretin" O'Keeffe
GEQR17A@prodigy.com

Infocom Bugs List Update

Greetings! Love the 'zine. Anyway, I'm writing to tell you that I think I may have an addition to the Infocom Bug List -- read on:

Here begins a transcript of interaction with ZORK ZERO: The Revenge of Megaboz ( Release 393 / Pix 14 ).

&rt;LOOK
Plain
   You are on an amazingly flat plain of sun-bleached sand.
The plain seems to stretch endlessly in all directions.

&rt;I
You are carrying a ceramic pigeon and a ceramic perch. You
are wearing a cloak.

&rt;DROP PIGEON
Dropped.

&rt;E
Plain
   You are on an amazingly flat plain of sun-bleached sand.
The plain seems to stretch endlessly in all directions.

&rt;SE
Plain
   You are on an amazingly flat plain of sun-bleached sand.
The plain seems to stretch endlessly in all directions.
   There is a soldier on horseback here. His armor is made of the shiniest metals, and his steed is lighter than drifted snow.

&rt;KNIGHT, GO NW THEN W
"I'm off!" The mounted soldier and his steed jump high into
the air and vanish! A moment later, you hear a proud whinny
in the distance.
   With a surprisingly high-pitched squeal of alarm, a
mounted soldier materializes nearby. He seems somewhat
dazed by the experience.

&rt;L
Plain
   You are on an amazingly flat plain of sun-bleached sand.
The plain seems to stretch endlessly in all directions.
   There is a soldier on horseback here. His armor is made
of the shiniest metals, and his steed is lighter than drifted
snow. It seems that the mounted soldier has a ceramic
pigeon.

&rt;W
Plain
   You are on an amazingly flat plain of deep, rich loam.
The plain seems to stretch endlessly in all directions.

&rt;NW
Plain
   You are on an amazingly flat plain of deep, rich loam.
The plain seems to stretch endlessly in all directions.
   There is a soldier on horseback here. His armor is made
of the shiniest metals, and his steed is lighter than drifted
snow. It seems that the mounted soldier has a ceramic
pigeon.

This could be useful if there is ever a shortage of knights in the kingdom... :)

-- Admiral Jota
jota@laraby.tiac.net

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