Letters

...So, now about your club, how is it going? I am very interested and would also help you if I can (or may?)...
Werner Baumert (Achern)

Hello Werner! What do you mean, if you may? Of course you may! Finally a voice rising from the crowd and offering me help. I gladly accept help from anyone who lives on this planet or even outside it! Without users' assistance, SCENE+ cannot survive, because that is how SCENE (the paper predecessor, only two issues came out) was ruined! Working on a diskmag is naturally much easier, which is why I could continue for a few months like this, but that's not the point. In any case, your help is welcome—what did you have in mind? Articles? Screens? Programs?
L.C.D.

...Regarding the ASC: From my experience with SUC, I can only tell you that if you really want to make things happen, you simply have to put money into it. You have to place classified ads wherever possible; people all over Austria should learn about the existence of the ASC.
Personally, I'd prefer if you joined the editorial staff of SUC-SESSION and contributed 3–4 pages a month... Support with regional advertising campaigns would be provided. But I understand that you want your own club, just as I do.
LEGACY OF ZER looks good, I'm already looking forward to it.
Thomas Eberle (Filderstadt), SUC club leader

Of course I will place ads, and not just CLASSIFIED ads, everywhere; thanks for the advice. Apparently the one on ORF teletext didn't help! To put even more money in, I naturally need to have it first (aren't I wise?), which is why I will be working again starting in March. As for joining SUC, even though it would be very appealing, I can't possibly guarantee writing 3–4 pages a month; I don't know enough about so many topics, and besides, I would only disappoint SCENE+ subscribers. A merger would indeed be tempting, but I still have to decline. It's easy for you to talk: SUC was taken over with quite a few members right away—Rolf Knorre couldn't scare away so many members that you had to start from scratch, could he? I can also completely understand that you want to expand SUC-SESSION; I plan the same with SCENE+, only that I use software for it, which makes it a bit easier. It's not about having my OWN club either; someone else can run the ASC as far as I'm concerned—my only concern is saving the Austrian scene (if there is anything left to save at all).

Thanks also for the articles and demos. Too bad that on my way back through the Czech Republic I couldn't drop by Jaxon Hollis and Omega to meet you, but I had the flu and almost died from it myself.

The little preview of "Legacy" that I sent you was only a very, very, very small part; it won't just consist of text and digi-pictures, but will also feature action and action-adventure sequences, as well as dialogues with various characters. You will also be able to take control of other characters to get closer to solving the Genomorph problem. Three to five disks in +D format (i.e. 800 KB per single disk) are conceivable, with the loading routines easily adaptable for Opus. The size of some maps is still giving me headaches, because despite using multiple compression techniques, memory runs out too quickly, and the graphics rendering speed shouldn't be too slow either. In any case, it will take at least until the Filderstadt '96 meeting before everything works properly.

I naturally hope that I can continue to count on your support.
L.C.D.

...And thanks also for the pictures, they will fit into my program excellently, provided I may use them. By the way, why don't you publish "Lords of Zer" as a serialized story in SCENE? I'd really like to read the rest, and others surely would too. It's quite exciting and I'm really looking forward to the finished game...
Cat's Eye (Austria)

Of course you may use the pictures I put in the gallery; so far there are no pictures from anyone other than me—should that change, the artist's name will be stated. All pictures signed with LCD are PD (Public Domain). As for the other matter, I've thought about it quite carefully. If I published the story here, it would be rather unfair of me, as the walkthrough for the game would practically reveal itself. I would only spoil the fun for every player. Maybe I will write an SF story specifically for SCENE, or I could just as well publish an older piece of work, but for that I'd need to know what other readers think (space here shouldn't be wasted).
L.C.D.

Dear Leszek,

Many thanks for your letter and your new disk magazine. Well done! It's due to the tireless efforts of people like yourself and WoMo, that the Speccy scene is still very much alive. I'll look forward to seeing future issues and any new games you may write — if I write anything myself, I'll send you a copy too for your library. Unfortunately, I seem to be rather stuck for ideas just now, as there are so many good utilities already in existence. That's what comes, I suppose, of the Speccy being so old.

Anyway, thanks for keeping in touch and keep up the good work.

Best wishes,
Miles Kinloch (England)

Thank you for the letter. As you can see, there is something new for you on this SCENE: it's PYRAMID PATIENCE, my new game. I will continue to support Speccy in future too, so there will be new programs from me in next SCENE issues (hopefully, but I cannot code too fast).

I have some ideas for new +D utilities, so for example a disk archiver that uses 82 tracks per side, 512 bytes per sector and also the directory tracks; it can have simple compression. If you can code something like that, I will be able to send out SCENE in archived form, rather than on two disks, if necessary.

The decision to change SCENE from a paper magazine to a diskzine was right: I now have more subscriptions than before and hope to improve this by showing SCENE to some English magazines. If someone will write for SCENE in English (TASWORD II, WordWrap on!), I will publish it in English too. It will make this magazine a bit more attractive outside Austria and Germany.

I hope to hear from you soon again!
L.C.D.