Letters: WoMo-Team & LCD

Hello Scene readers, hello LCD.

When trouble hits us, it always hits hard. The WoMo-Team doesn't do things by halves, neither positive nor negative. In a personal letter to LCD, we already told him about our difficulties with our landlord, which forces us to relocate our SPC headquarters at the next best opportunity — meaning: we will be moving again. It doesn't belong in this magazine, and it would go too far to report here on our problems with this "dear fellow human" (whenever we see him, we always say "My God!"; when he hears it, he feels addressed... My God!). Some people who visit us frequently can certainly sing a song about it, too.

All of this has contributed to our meeting not taking place so far, and we cannot name a date yet until we know how things will continue for us.

In any case, this man gave me an idea. An idea for a game where you play a landlord. Your task is to look out for anything that bothers you and then get thoroughly worked up about it! And if you don't find anything, you go into the basement of one of your buildings and start making a terrible racket with a drill, hammer, saw, etc. After 7:00 PM, when the children are in bed, you even get bonus points for it.

How about it, LCD? Sprites from you, music from Cats Eye, and gameplay from us? Anyone else who would like to participate is of course welcome to join in. Since this won't be read in Scene before May, you can also rest assured that this is not a belated April Fools' joke. So much for that.

Before printing out our last newsletter, our STAR LC10 printer broke down. With problems like that, LCD, as the editor of a disk magazine, can only give a weary smile. Even a defective drive is faster and easier to replace. Thanks to Lothar Ebelshäuser, who lent us his (he is, after all, among the core regulars of... how many were there again? Scene readers).

The last issue of Scene had a lot of great pictures that I still need to transfer into my image database. What I'll do with them eventually is written in the stars. My ancestors were definitely not hunters, but rather gatherers.

Thanks to Peter Rennefeld, you can now all play Chicago. Moni and I once spent entire evenings playing it. I agree with Peter that some of the Spectrum characters develop their own kind of risk-taking behaviour. Knowing Peter, he probably unscrewed his Speccy during the game to measure which IC "Karlchen" was currently sitting in and playing from. But Karlchen is clever.

Somehow I constantly read that this and that should (or ought to) be changed in Scene. I don't agree with that. LCD had an idea, and it was and is a good one. He takes on the work and effort to present us with a great magazine. You can't please everyone, as the old saying goes. I think he should find his own style and stick with it. I like Scene just the way it is.

The British have just shown us once again what BSE does. Dave Fountain handed his PD over to Prism PD, who can now boast of owning the largest Public Domain library thanks to this addition. However, I can understand Dave well; we have been in touch for years, and a four-page statement overall made his view of things quite clear to me. It's just a shame that there was no one else in good old England to whom he could have handed it over.

We also asked Andy Davis for a statement; unfortunately, it is still pending. He is the real loser in this story, though it won't do Alchemist Research any lasting harm.

Last but not least: Indian Patience. Since we are not only on the Speccy, but now also own a pocket calculator of the PC brand, things are divided. The SAM Coupé also has some strong patience games. At the moment, we have managed to escape LCD's spell a bit. It is terrifying to think what would happen if LCD came along with another game of this kind soon. Well, we want to counteract this directly by sending him a few classic Speccy patience games from our PD for Scene (and thus for all of you). They may not have the mind-blowing sound of IP, and visually they might lag behind a little — but they are tricky and exciting nonetheless.

So whoever held out this far should now relax, for example, with a round of Pairs Patience.

Don't rejoice too soon, we will be back!

The WoMo-Team, SPC, Cologne

Hello WoMo!

Well, yes, this is a somewhat delayed April issue, which is why there is also a prank article for you to find. As far as the dear "God" is concerned: remember, manslaughter in the heat of passion receives a lighter sentence, and if you do it cleverly and properly, you won't get caught either (well, at least I wasn't!).

A game on the topic would be quite interesting, even in my version: Bump off the Landlord. Once SCENE+ comes out regularly again, my next patience game is finished (yes? hopefully that doesn't bother you?), and all parts of Legacy are complete, then I'll get to it, beg Cats Eye for a few songs, and write the game. I might also be able to use the MAGS system for it, which is being developed for Legacy. Then you will finally get to play the lead role in Nightmare on Penningsfelder Weg 98A.

Speaking of my games: I have decided to release my Indian Patience as freeware now. Everyone who paid for it will get their money back with interest; over the coming days, I will refund the full amount to every buyer. Sales didn't go as well as I had hoped — only 19 buyers ordered the game. You may now distribute the game freely!

Yes, about broken printers, I really can only smile wearily; those are problems that can't touch a disk mag. But rest assured, a drive isn't replaced that quickly either — after all, I have it mounted in a PC case. Soon, after the party, a second Spectrum should be moved into a minitower, together with MB02 and a few other things.

The ASC members who had no objections to the publication of their addresses have been compiled in the editorial section; all those who haven't paid their dues for 1997 Anno Domini are no longer on the list. By the way, a new dating system is starting soon: instead of "Anno Domini", it will be called "Anno Bill Gate$". One reason to switch to the new system is that PCs will still jump to 00 after the year 99 instead of from 19 to 20. The other reason is that Billy has more and more followers, just like back in Rome when Christianity was emerging. Unfortunately, we no longer have enough lions around to prevent this.

What is the dying cry of a Gate$ follower? "Press F1 to resume!"

Johan's pictures were really great and are wonderfully suited for DTP, so you are the primary target audience. I think Thomas will also make good use of some of them.

So much for your letter, have fun with SCENE+ 168!

L.C.D.