May/June 1996
Issue #9

Hollow Voice

This issue's awfully late in coming out this time around, largely due to my already fully booked writing schedule. I've been so busy, I haven't even had a chance to play any text adventure games in months! Needless to say, I'm out of touch with the newsgroups too. I've had to hear third-hand about Mike Roberts releasing TADS as freeware and what's up in the r.a.i-f competition. The good news is that the book I'm working on is wrapping up even as we speak, and I hope to be both a diligent zine editor and a reliable source for game hints again sometime in the near future.

I'm finding that each issue's Top 10 picks for Web sites devoted to text adventure games are increasingly reflecting the impact of new technologies. For example, this issue's list includes a wonderful site with a number of Java-enabled Inform games you can play online -- if your browser supports Java, that is. There's also a site devoted to the long-awaited developments in playing interactive fiction games on Apple's PDA, the Newton.

This issue also includes a thoughtful article by John Wood on player character identity in interactive fiction. It's a response of sorts to Doug Atkinson's article on gender and IF games back in issue #3, which I think has generated more response than any other article to date in the zine. Matt Newsome shares an e-mail exchange he had with Infocom implementor Stu Galley, and the prolific Chris Forman contributes his reviews of Spiritwrak and Gumshoe.

In other news, I've been asked to allow XYZZYnews to be translated into German, which I'll be more than happy to see take place. I wouldn't mind seeing translations into other languages either.

Until next issue, happy gaming!

Eileen Mullin
eileen@interport.net

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May/June 1996 Issue #9

Hollow Voice

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May/June 1996
Issue #9