Scoobies galore

GREMLIN has highlighted the most common ailment of the British software industry, and still there's no sign of anyone trying to solve the problem of delayed product.

To be fair, awarding 'Scoobies' to just a few software houses for hyping games before they are ready - in some cases whole seasons before they are ready - belies the fact that every major software producer is guilty of over-optimistic launch scheduling.

And Sinclair User still falls for it every time. How many games have been previewed or given competition space and have still never seen the light of day?

Immediately springing to mind are Beyond's Superman - is it out yet? - and Melbourne House's Asterix. Both of these were in issues which I saw before Christmas.

But that is a minor point. My main question is: WHY DO THEY DO IT? Surely advertising in a magazine such as yours cannot be so cheap as to make it worth a company's while, filling it with colour ads for a product which, by the time it hits the shops, is as stale as month-old bread.

And do TV series licences come so easily that they can afford to waste a top-rated program like Street Hawk? Every businessman knows that to make profits you must set and achieve your deadlines for getting the product on the street.

And then they complain that the software industry's tough and it's piracy that is forcing them out of business. My heart bleeds for them ...

A T Jameson

• Software houses inform us that programmers are the most optimistic breed around. It seems that if you take the date they first give you and revise it backwards three months, add on time for testing and for re-running the expensive packaging because certain promises about game features turned into compromises ... and then some ... you have a chance - just a chance - of getting a game out before 1990. Gremlin has more views in this issue.

I'M AFRAID that I really must agree with all those who have already written to express their concern regarding the content of your magazine.

I certainly have no complaints as far as presentation goes, but the heavy emphasis on games is worrying.

At a time when many parents are frustrated because their children seem to be a generation of games players, rather than the future technological adepts that were hoped for, shouldn't the micro press be going out of its way to allay those fears?

The energy and enthusiasm that many young people put into hacking into games and telecommunications networks could be redirected through magazines such as yours towards the development of sound programming techniques, and a more complete understanding of computer systems.

I am sure that this could be achieved without endangering the appeal of the magazine to young people.

So please, let's have more pages devoted to programming skills.

Laurence Scotford

PS. I'd like to add to the recent comments on OCP's Blast compiler. I purchased this utility just before Christmas and have yet to use it successfully. Considering that I paid £25 for it, I find the program's deficiencies inexcusable.

• There is still a large part of Sinclair User devoted to areas other than games. The real difference in February and March is the brighter presentation of the games reviews and contents page, which disguises the fact that we have QLink, Hewson, Sinclair Surgery and the rest still lurking within the magazine.

Another recent innovation is more explanation on the Program Printout listings. Do you still want more on the programming side ...?

I WAS just reading through my son's February Sinclair User when I saw the letter from David Williams about Sinclair User's young image and felt I must drop you a line.

As a recent owner of a Spectrum 48K, my ten-year-old son, of course, plays lots of games on it, but I would like to spark an interest in programming in him. All the magazines I've read seem to think everyone knows everything about programming, but a lot of younger readers only know what the manual with the computer tells them, and how to load games.

If you could spare a small column each month just for beginners, explaining a certain aspect with a short interesting program, incorporating that aspect, it would make computing more interesting.

It's all very well learning from school but isn't it typical that children learn, and take more notice from a magazine?

P E Moynihan

• Yes it seems programming is in vogue ... and what's this ...?

WHEN I read David William's letter - February - my gut reaction was to agree with his remarks and to throw in a few more about low standards everywhere. Luckily I voiced my thoughts out loud, within earshot of my wife who reminded me that I claimed to be a 'young' 43. So, in an effort to be constructive, some brief thoughts:

1. Yes there is a lot of games coverage and dialogue aimed at youngsters, but if that helps to sell enough magazines to keep it in circulation so be it.
2. These youngsters can be encouraged to use their grey matter if the presentation is right. This is the challenge a good magazine should be taking up. The machine code articles were excellent and more important useful. More of this type of article I suggest.
3. Computers cannot be considered in isolation, they are part of the real world and articles presenting them in this context would be welcome, for example, does anyone use their Spectrum to control their train set (and how is it done?), has anyone out there ever written an unusual program that has helped someone in some way?
4. Could you put in news regarding the latest developments in computing, not at home computing level but at the frontier of hardware and software research?
5. Artificial intelligence is the next big development in computing - why not articles on this aspect as applied to the Spectrum?

To summarise, all the games-playing youngsters who buy Sinclair User for its games content are potential serious users if the right articles are imaginatively written. If they can be stimulated to think by regular serious articles on some aspect of computer usage that will be of interest, I for one will continue to be a regular reader.

Roy Read

WELL DONE Sinclair User! When I opened your February issue, I thought I'd bought the wrong magazine.

Then it hit me, the Ed is no longer colour blind. I agree with Andrew Wood of Nottingham, the contents page is a great improvement.

Who are these people to say that it's a child's comic? Anyway I think your magazine needs more Zapchat - with more Pokes etc - more Program Printout, someone to review the Top 30, more competitions and, every six months or so, 'Sinclair User Awards' where you get the readers to nominate their top 10-20 games.

Lastly, a big thank you for your excellent magazine. It's the best thing since the ZX80.

Barry Drinkwater

• Best thing since what? This latest bunch of colour spreads has left the Ed colour blind again, but thanks for the sentiments.

YOU CANNOT be serious! I'm thinking the C5 Microlite article - April issue - is a piece of April Fool mirth.

Ye Gods, I hope so. Could it be an order from the Japanese airforce to give prospective Kamikaze pilots on-the-job training? No, come to think of it, a standard C5 in heavy traffic would do the job quite as well.

Talk about pigs flying, now it's plastic pigs flying! And believe me, I know from experience as I own the unique, customised C5 - NEV 26G - which I use for promotions.

Strangely enough, a friend who is an aerobatic pilot, went for a spin in my C5 and said it was like a cross between a Tiger Moth and a sailing dinghy.

Maybe someone at Sinclair heard him and took him literally. In which case, what next: The QL 2 mini-submarine? or maybe the ZX125 Intercity run-about that gets you there?

Perhaps someone can persuade the Bald One to de-bug the 128 first ... or is that what the left-hand drive Euro-Spectrums were for?

• Sadly we hear the new airborne C5 may now never get off the ground. The polypropelene body was struggling to stand up to the necessary stress tolerances, and the elastic band was subject to unacceptable inflexibility at altitudes of over 5,000 feet.

Rumours that a Japanese consortium may be bidding for the work so far undertaken are now discounted.

WHAT HAS happened to the mail order business? It is not so very long ago that when buying by mail order you could confidently expect your purchase to be with you in a matter of three or four days. Nowadays, the introduction of the a 'allow 28 days for delivery' stipulation seems to have provided a ready-made excuse for a deplorable departure from the sort of service that can, and ought, to be provided.

In far too many instances, having sent off your order, you wait ... and wait ... and wait. Much of the enthusiasm leading up to the decision to purchase has been forgotten by the time your purchase eventually arrives.

When an order has been sent off through the post, it is desirable to know, as soon as possible, that it has been safely received. Regrettably, letters do go astray, and it is most unreasonable to be expected to wait up to 28 days without receiving the goods, or at least a letter of acknowledgement, wondering as the days go by whether or not the order has been mislaid.

Why is the 28 day stipulation necessary? If an advertiser has in stock the goods he has advertised, they could, and indeed should, be on the way within 24 hours. If he is temporarily out of stock, he should inform the prospective purchaser accordingly, offering a prompt refund if the purchaser so desires. It could be made clear that if payment is by cheque, then it may be necessary to clear the cheque before meeting the order, but this only adds eight days.

J L Phillips

• Who does give the best mail order service? Let us know and we'll name the guilty parties.

IN YOUR reply to K Pridmore's letter - April issue - you state that a 128 upgrade kit would be 'impractical and expensive'. But the Video Vault advertisement, in the same issue, advises readers to 'watch this space' for details of just such a kit. Is this advertisement hype, or do they know something you don't?

J R Beavis

• You've got the wrong end of the stick. For £39.95 Video Vault will fit your Spectrum with 80K of useable memory - not 128K - and the kit does not include any other Spectrum 128 features. Video Vault agrees with us that a 128K upgrade is out of the question.

I OPENED my copy of this month's Sinclair User this afternoon, and what do I find? Only a letter from a woman claiming that her son was getting funny ideas over the Legend of the Amazon Women advert.

It isn't obscene or anything, it shows how these women live. I mean let's face it, they don't exactly go round wearing jeans and sweatshirts, do they?

I've come to the conclusion that this woman was just writing in for a bit of 'aggro'.

Matthew Clarke

• It's about time this Legend faded into obscurity.

I AM writing to ask why do people copy software? All it does is put software companies out of business because no-one buys their product. In the end no-one will bother to make and sell software. This will mean an end to a major part of the computer industry and will increase unemployment.

A worried person or David Shearman

PS: your mag is cool.

WITH REGARD to Mr J Tovey's letter on Classic games in the February issue, I would like to echo the editor's comments on the matter.

What Mr Tovey obviously fails to appreciate is that people's tastes differ. My view is that a game which is awarded five stars or a Classic rating is certainly worth taking a look at, but that does not mean I will rush out and buy it simply because it has got five stars.

If Classics were limited to one arcade and one adventure it would make reviewing the other titles of the month virtually pointless, as you are suggesting that only two games a month get five stars. This is stupid as there could be five games each as good as the other and each deserving five stars. If the reviewers had to decide on which one game they were going to bestow a Classic award on, the magazine might never get printed.

On a lighter note, the new format Sinclair User is fantastic. The double-page game reviews with more colour shots are far better than short reviews with one picture.

My only suggestions are that Gordo should expand to, say, two pages of hints, and that your Software Directory also include the month - or at least year - that it was reviewed, as some of the older five star games simply would not be able to stand up on their own at full price.

Peter Craven

• Gordo expanding! Unthinkable!

The Software Directory is no longer with us but there's a complete comprehensive guide to Spectrum software on the front cover of our marvellous June issue.

HAVING read Richard Price's comments on text adventures in your April issue, I find myself in total agreement with him.

The situation regarding what is, or is not, a viable product is constantly and rapidly changing, and it is to my great disappointment that text adventures may fall victim to new programming techniques.

I do enjoy a graphics adventure, but would rather play a text-only game with a well-designed parser. Deep descriptions and a variety of locations, coupled with easy manipulation of objects, does, I think, add much more interest than intrusive graphics. Gilsoft has a very elegant solution in adventures like Madcap Manor and this may offer some hope for the ageing text adventure.

Two final points. Is Gordo's two-page spread a permanent fixture? I hope so. Secondly is Gilsoft planning to release a text compressor for its adventure system?

D M Plaffs

I MUST complain about the treatment by Firebird of genuine money paying customers. I am, of course, referring to Firebird's Elite and the abandoning of the Elite world championships and the software prize.

I have not yet reached Thargoid space, even after a month of constant pirate killing without using any dishonest tactics - tactics which I have just learned about in Duncan Wills' letter in March's Zapchat.

This isn't sour grapes on my part - my enjoyment of this superb game remains intact. It's the amount of hours I had to put in because of the deadline, which is now irrelevant. Maybe Firebird should have spent more time making the program safe from the dishonest games players of this world, and less on the Lenslok system.

I was also disappointed in there being no mission included in attaining the Elite rank.

Thomas Hanlon

HAVING recently purchased a Spectrum 128 I was pleased to see the 128 section in the April issue. With the amount of games being released for the computer your reviews gave a good and comprehensive view, and has certainly helped me in my future software choices. I hope this new section can expand and form the best 128 review magazine around.

J Steele-Mills

• I hoped so too but it appears not, see below ...

I AM an extremely proud owner of a Spectrum 128 and thoroughly enjoyed the round-up of software in your last offering (April issue). However, I feel you were rather unjust on many of the software houses who had responded so quickly to the problems of converting games for the 128. While Mastertronic had started from scratch, the other software houses had at least got products ready to go - who knows when we impoverished owners will see, and hear, the marvels of Knight Tyme? - at least there's a whole batch of other games ready to start our 48K friends turning at least light green with envy.

Your very own Andrew Hewson highlighted the problems these software houses faced when deciding whether to commit themselves to producing software for the 128. Many more could have easily gone the way of Elite and those awful Spanish version problems.

So let's have a cheer for those who not only got it right but got it out.

Ben Witherspoon

• Hooray

AFTER owning a Spectrum 128 for four weeks, I have found a few incompatible 48K games:

Barry McGuigan's World Boxing (Activision)
Hacker (Activision)
Elite (Firebird)
Skyfox (Ariolasoft)
Gyroscope (Melbourne House).

Gyroscope is not completely incompatible - only if a Kempston interface is connected. I have also encountered slight problems with Robin of the Wood, but fortunately there is soon to be a 128 version.

If any other readers have found problems of this nature, please write in to inform other 128 users before we waste our money. Apart from these hitches, I have found the 128 to be a good purchase, with tremendous potential.

Robert Williams

• We have compiled a list of 128 incompatibilities ourselves. See the news story in this issue.