Letters: WoMo-Team to LCD

Hello Scene readers, hello LCD.

When trouble hits us, it hits us properly. The WoMo-Team doesn't do things by halves — both positive and 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 again at the next best opportunity; in other words: we are moving once more. It doesn’t really belong in this magazine and would take us too far to report here on our problems with this "dear fellow human" (whenever we see him, we always say "My God!". And when he hears it, he actually feels addressed... My God!). Some who visit us more often could certainly sing a song about it as well.

All of this has contributed to the fact that our meeting hasn't taken place to this day, and we still cannot announce any date 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 job is to keep a lookout for anything that bothers you and then throw a massive fit! And if you don't find anything, you head down into the cellar of one of your buildings and start making a racket with a drill, hammer, saw, etc. After 7 PM, when the kids are in bed, you get bonus points for it. How about it, LCD? Sprites from you, music from Cats Eye, and gameplay from us? Of course, anyone else who would like to take part is welcome to join in. Since this won't be read in Scene before May, you can also rest assured that this isn't a belated April Fools' joke. — So much for that.

Before printing out our last info sheet, our STAR LC10 crumbled to pieces. With problems like that, LCD as a diskmag editor can only manage a weary smile. Even a defective drive is quicker and easier to replace. Thanks to Lothar Ebelshäuser, who lent us his (he also counts among the regulars of Scene readers — how many were there again?).

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

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

Somehow I keep reading that this or that should be changed in Scene. I don't agree with that. LCD had an idea, and it was and still is a good one. He puts in the work and effort to present us with a great magazine. "You can't please all of the people all of the time," 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 again how BSE affects things. Dave Fountain handed his PD over to Prism PD, who can now boast having the largest Public Domain library thanks to that addition. However, I can understand Dave well; we've been in contact for years, and a four-page statement overall made his point of view quite clear to me. It's just a pity that, apart from Prism, there was no one else in good old England he could have passed it on to.

We also asked Andy Davis for a statement; unfortunately, it's still pending. He is the real loser in this story, though it won't do Alchemist Research any 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 variety, our time is divided. The SAM also has some solid Patience games. At the moment, we've managed to escape LCD's spell a little bit. Unthinkable if LCD were to show up with a new game of this kind anytime soon! Well, we want to counter that directly by sending him (and therefore you) a few classic Speccy Patience games from our PD for Scene. They might not have the insane sound of IP, and visually they might lag behind a bit — but they are tricky and exciting nonetheless.

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

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

The WoMo-Team, SPC, Cologne

Hello WoMo!

Well, yes, this happens to be the somewhat delayed April issue, which is why there's also a prank article for you to spot. As for the dear "God", don't forget: manslaughter in the heat of passion receives a milder sentence, and if you do it smartly and properly, you won't get caught either (at least I wasn't!).

A game on the topic would be quite interesting, even in my version: Off the Landlord. Once SCENE+ is published regularly again, my next Patience game is finished (yes? hope it doesn't bother you?), and Legacy has all its parts done, I'll get to it, beg Cat's Eye for a few tunes, and write the game. I could potentially also use the MAGS system for it, which is being developed for Legacy. Then you will finally take the lead role in Nightmare on Penningsfelder Weg 98A.

While we are on the subject 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 hoped — only 19 buyers ordered the game. You are now free to spread the game around!

Yes, about broken printers I can truly only smile wearily; those are problems that can't hurt a diskmag. But rest assured, a floppy drive isn't replaced that quickly either — after all, I have it mounted in a PC case. Soon, after the meeting, a second Spectrum is supposed to go into a mini-tower, along with MB02 and a few other things.

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

With what dying scream does a Gate$ disciple perish? "Press F1 to resume!"

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

So much for your letter, have fun with SCENE+ 16!

L.C.D.