Audyssey;

Computer Games Accessible to the Blind

Issue 18: May/June/July, 1999

Edited by Michael Feir



+++

Welcome





Welcome to the eighteenth issue of Audyssey. This magazine is dedicated to

the discussion of computer games which, through accident or design, are

accessible to the blind. This issue marks the third anniversary of

Audyssey's existence. We've come a long way in that time, and I hope all of

you enjoy this celebration of that fact. As usual, we have news from PCS,

and a letter from a new company called ESP Softworks which anyone looking

for Windows-based games should take interest in. At long last, Adam, the

Immortal Gamer, makes his return to the Audyssey scene as promised in the

last issue. Enjoy, everyone.



Please write articles and letters about games or game-related

topics which interest you. They will likely interest me, and your fellow

readers. They will also make my job as editor a lot more interesting and

true to the meaning of the word. This magazine should and can be a highly

interesting and qualitative look at accessible computer gaming. To insure

that high quality is maintained, I'll need your written

contributions. I'm not asking for money here, and won't accept any. This

magazine is free in its electronic form, and will always remain so. PCS

needs to charge a subscription cost to cover the disks and shipping costs

that it incurs by making the magazine available on disk. I'm writing this

magazine as much for my own interest as for everyone else's. Your articles,

reviews, and letters, as well as any games you might care to send me, are

what I'm after. Send any games, articles, letters, or reviews via E-mail, or

on a 3.5-inch disk in a self-addressed mailer so that I can return your disk

or disks to you once I have copied their contents onto my hard drive. Please

only send shareware or freeware games. It is illegal to send commercial

games. By sending me games, you will do several things: first, and most

obviously, you will earn my gratitude. You will also insure that the games

you send me are made available to my readership as a whole. As a

further incentive, I will fill any disks you send me with games

from my collection. No disk will be returned empty. If you want

specific games, or specific types of games, send a message in ASCII format

along. Never ever send your original disks of anything to anyone through the

mail. Always send copies! This principle may seem like it shouldn't even

have to be stated, but when it comes to just about anything related to

computers, there's always some poor soul who will act before applying common

sense. Disks are not indestructible. Things do get lost or damaged in the

mail, and disks are not immune to these misfortunes. If you have a

particular game that you need help with, and you are sending your questions

on a disk anyhow, include the game so that I can try and get past your

difficulty. If you can, I recommend that you send

e-mail. Thanks to my new computer, I can now send and receive attachments

with ease. This way, no money will be wasted sending me a game I already

have, and

you'll get my reply more quickly. You are responsible for shipping costs.

That means, either use a disk mailer which has your address on it, and is

either free matter for the blind, or is properly stamped. I can and will

gladly spare time to share games and my knowledge of them, but cannot

currently spare money above what I spend hunting for new games. I encourage

all my readers to give my magazine to whoever they think will appreciate it.

Up-load it onto web pages and bulletin board systems. Copy it on disk for

people, or print it out for sighted people who may find it of value. The

larger our community gets, the more self-sustaining it will become.



This magazine is published on a bi-monthly basis, each issue

appearing no earlier than the twentieth of every other month. I now use

MS-Word to produce Audyssey, and can therefore accept submissions in pretty

much any format. They may be sent either on a 3.5-inch floppy disk, or via

e-mail to my CompuServe address. I will give my home address and my

CompuServe address at the end of the magazine. There are now several ways of

obtaining Audyssey. To subscribe to the distribution list so that you

receive all future

issues, send a subscription request to J.J. Meddaugh. As he is running

several lists, be sure to specifically ask to join the

Audyssey list. His address is:

jj@bestmidi.com

Travis Siegel has set up a list to facilitate discussions among

readers between issues. To subscribe to this discussion list, send a message

to listserv@softcon.com with "subscribe audyssey" in the body of the

message. To post to the discussion list, send your messages to:

audyssey@softcon.com

You can find all issues of Audyssey on the Internet on Paul

Henrichsen's web site at:

www.thesocket.com/~henrich

If you have web access,

Audyssey now has an official web-page, maintained by Igor Gueths at:

www.concentric.net/~igueths

Besides having all issues of Audyssey available for down-load, six megabytes

of storage space are available for popular games. Kelly Sapergia also

maintains a page for Audyssey. You'll find the address of his web-site in

the "Contacting Us" section. If you have ftp access, all issues are also

available at Travis Siegel's ftp site:

ftp.softcon.com

Look in the /magazines directory.



For those of you who have trouble finding some of the software discussed in

this magazine, or if you know someone who doesn't have access to the

Internet, but would be interested in the magazine, this magazine is now

available on disk. PCS has agreed to distribute Audyssey, as well as

selected shareware or freeware software on disk for ten dollars US per year.

To subscribe to Audyssey on disk, contact them at:

Personal Computer Systems

551 Compton Ave.

Perth Amboy N.J.

08861

Phone (732)-826-1917

E-mail: pvlasak@monmouth.com



+++

Contents:

Welcome

Contents

>From The Editor

Letters

Mudding With Jaws for Windows and Gmud

The Latest Finds

Audyssey's New Factory Floor

Personal Computer Systems Software Over-priced

Free Game Winner

Adam, The Immortal Gamer

News From PCS

Game Reviews

Echoes from Audyssey's Past

Contacting Us +++

>From The Editor:



Well, folks, this issue marks our third year. To all who contributed, thanks

a bunch. Until the very last minute, I thought that the task of making this

issue special would fall on my shoulders almost exclusively. Almost no

contributions came in until the last couple of weeks. As a result, I had to

do a whole lot of editing and last-minute revisions in not a lot of time. I

would ask all of you to try and get your submissions in as soon as possible

so that I can spend more time getting the magazine in proper trim instead of

merely trying to find a place for everything.



As you'll read about later, I got a new computer system. This will make

Audyssey far easier to produce. At the same time, the nature and scope of

the gaming universe is on the brink of drastic expansion. Both PCS and the

new ESP Softworks are planning to release Windows-based games for blind

people in the very near future. We can all look forward to a lot of fun. I

certainly hope that this pending infusion of new games will lead to more of

you writing articles and reviews. Articles in particular are still in very

short supply.



For all those who have waited patiently for a return visit, Adam, The

Immortal Gamer has once again graced these pages with his presence. I hope

all of you enjoy this episode, and that some of you try and write others for

the rest of us.



Before I leave you to the rest of these lines, I'd like to go out on a limb

a bit. There is an organization called ZBS Audio which produces excellent

audio dramas in sterio sound. A few of them are even in 3D sound. Their

web-site is currently not the most accessible place on the Net, but it is

well worth checking out. Their site is at:

www.zbs.org

Alternatively, you can call them at:

18006623345

or

15186956406

Believe me, folks. It's well worth the time and/or money to call. They offer

a special discount on their dramas for blind customers, so be certain to

take advantage of that. You might also want to tell them you heard about

them through Audyssey. Well, I guess that's about it for this one. You can

expect the next Audyssey at the end of September barring any more dry

spells. Remember, I'm counting on you to keep this magazine going.



+++

Letters:

++

        From Robby Spangler:

        Hi Michael. I am making my won game. I am having someone program it for me,

but I don't no when it will be done. It is called "Spangler town Adventure."

The game is cool. You start in a little building. Then you must find all of

the treasures in order to end the game. The game is not even programed yet.

When it is, I will write a review about it.

        I like playing PCS games. I have ordered a copy of Cops 98. It sounds very

cool. The next game I will get is called Maze 98. I have a copy of Mobius

Mountain. It's a nice game for math. Any time you need a little math

practice, just get Mobius. My sister Rachael loves that game. I will

probably order a copy of the Maze demo. I have also got the Shoot demo.

        You can write back to me at:

8856 N. Kimmel Rd.

Clayton Oh. USA

45315

+

I wish Mr. Spangler the best of luck with the design of his game. He and I

have been in contact for a while now thanks to PCS, and he has expressed a

great deal of interest in games. He is looking for some one to help him

program his game when he has it ready. If any of you want to lend this young

fellow a hand, please do so. I've recently sent him some of the better games

out there, and we'll doubtless hear more from him in the near future. Enjoy

your Summer, Robby, and best of luck in school if you don't get this issue

until then.



++

>From PCS:



Dear Mike and staff,



     You can blow out the candles for Audyssey's third birthday, and

celebrate another passing year of excellent work and effort by you and your

team!   We just want to say thank you for the unselfish time and effort that

the Audyssey folks have spent bringing a super well needed magazine to the

blind Gamer.   P C S asks all subscribers to join us in applauding the folks

who turn out this superb magazine for all of us!   Write Mike and his staff

letting them know how much Audyssey has meant to you over the last year,

and how much you would like to see them keep up the great work for years to

come.  So, take a well deserved bow, you all earned it!



     Audyssey and Personal Computer systems share something in common, we

are both new kids on the block in the entertainment area for the blind

computer community.   In the three years of Audyssey we have seen Michael

plant the seed of his dream with hopeful anticipation, publish with

uncertain support his little sprout of a magazine, and then work pushing and

prodding subscribers to participate in nurturing Audyssey to what it is

today. It is a

flourishing bountiful tree.  We have also been with Mike through his last

year in school, working at his first temporary job, and searching for full

employment.  Michael started out with a lap top having minimal capabilities

to a new computer with all the trimmings, and I'm sure we will be hearing

the ins and outs of it soon.   We have all gotten to know quite allot about

Mike throughout the last three years, and we hope to see him continue with

Audyssey far into the future.



     Now that Audyssey has been around for three years, it does not mean the

magazine can survive without subscriber participation. Mike and his staff

have jobs, families, and other obligations to take care of.  Without you the

subscriber feeding the magazine with raw input, letters, articles, ideas,

and comments, the staff cannot devote all it's time researching and making

articles out of their

heads.  Without new and diverse information coming in, the articles from the

staff over time will get stale and Audyssey will suffer. This magazine is

yours, the subscriber's. It can only reap what the subscriber sows into it.

So subscribers, don't sit back and let Michael and his folks work on the

magazine themselves. Write to them and contribute to hurling Audyssey into

the year two thousand and beyond!



     Personal Computer Systems will be at the ACB convention in Los Angeles

the first week in July.  We will be showing off our E Z Bar a bar code

reading system, the future audio game format, and signing people up for our

contest in which you could win a free E Z Bar system. If any of Audyssey's

subscribers are there, come down to our booth

and say hello.  We will have a couple of computers set up to play our games.

Feel free to stop and play a while!



Until next time, have a nice day!



Phil and Carl

+

I'm certainly greatful to PCS for its continued support of this magazine.

Their offer of free games to anyone joining the Audyssey staff has given us

all a nice bit of incentive above and beyond the satisfaction of helping

others find pleasure in their computers instead of only a means to do work.

As Audyssey has expanded, so too has PCS. They are now colaborating with

other developers like Mr. Greenwood. May you find many more such partners.

Sadly, this magazine couldn't be published in time for us to take PCS up on

its offer and drop in on their convention. I hope it went well, and look

forward to hearing about its results. Having had a peek at a prototype of

their Windows version of Kickboxing, I can tell all of you that we have some

exciting times ahead of us. All the kinks aren't out yet, but the basic

ability to make Windows-based games for the blind has been demonstrated

admirably. I urge all of you to take a look at the interesting article they

wrote for this issue which discusses the economics of making games for the

blind. It certainly provides food for thought. Also, check out their new

demo of Lone Wolf. You'll find details in the News from PCS section along

with the article.



++

>From James North:



Hello, Michael!



I just finished reading Issue #17 of your Audyssey game magazine and would

like to say it appears you are doing a fine job with it.  I would also like

to introduce myself as I was referred to you by a young woman named Teresa

Vanettinger at this year's National NFB Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.  My

name is James North and I was in Atlanta representing a company named ESP

Softworks.



Our company is primarily interested in the development of Windows-based

games and entertainment software that is fully speech and screen-review

accessible.  To the ends of accessibility, we're also making our products

affordable.  We believe that products that aren't affordable aren't

accessible (I would very much like to see that philosophy take place in the

adaptive equipment/software arena).  While still in the development and

design stages, we are planning quite an innovative product line-up for

gamers!   Our initial product offering will include real-time

action/adventure games, turn-based strategy games, educational games,

classic game packs, simulations, and future endeavors in virtual mobility

training combined with encouraging entertainment value.



ESP Softworks has been around for nearly a year now in it's conceptual form,

but has just recently started 'putting the word out' to the public. To kick

this off, we attended the 1999 National NFB Convention and the response was

overwhelmingly positive beyond our expectations.  This

shouldn't come as any surprise, though, as just about everyone enjoys

playing games in some fashion!  At the convention, we had the opportunity to

meet a great deal of people and got a lot of good feedback, suggestions,

and wish lists.  It's very important to us to maintain open contact with the

players and potential players of our products.





The convention was a great way to introduce ourselves to a number of people,

but will plan to continue this introduction with the opening of our web

site, attending other state and local conventions, and contributing articles

related to gaming and technology trends to various publications.

We would also like the opportunity to contribute to Audyssey as well.  We

feel that exposure is very important in this industry in order to spur

interest and innovation.  Magazines such as Audyssey and companies such as

PCS have appeared to have a positive impact to this effect.  We hope that

this will continue in the future!



As I mentioned before, our primary development arena is the Windows 95 and

Windows 98 platforms.  In reading Issue #17, I agree wholeheartedly

regarding the viability of DOS-based games.  I've been an avid computer game

player for nearly two decades now and can remember spending many hours

playing text adventure games on my Atari and then later on the

IBM-compatibles.  Classics become classics for a reason and I don't feel

that the introduction of one type of game should preclude or necessarily

phase out any other.  The value of a game, in my opinion, is it's

playability including it's entertainment value.  ESP's goal is to

offer products that take advantage of the technology trends of today so that

when people explore these other avenues of technology, they don't do so on a

barren playing field.  The rich multimedia capabilities and device

independence of the Windows operating system is destined to be

advantageous for everyone.  Our goal is to put it to work for game players

in such a way that it's enjoyable and usable.



Teresa had taken a couple of our product information and game demo audio

tapes with her at the convention and mentioned she would forward you a copy.

Please let me know if you haven't received the tape and I will send

you a tape or CD.  Our web site should be up by the end of July, and will

feature product information, online demos, release dates, news, surveys, and

giveaways.  We would also like to offer a section on our website to

Audyssey in order to help distribution and to offer back issues.  There was

mention in Audyssey that some of the games were available in a six meg

archive.  We could also set aside an archive of these games for users to

have easy access to via the web or ftp.  Since, as you mentioned, the

magazine should be promoted in areas in which potential readers don't

already have access, we could also promote the magazine at any conventions

or technology fairs we attend in the course of promoting our products.

Please let me know if any of this is of interest to you.



Well, I'm going to close for now.  My return e-mail address is

jrnorth@espsoftworks.com.  I look forward to talking with you soon.



- James





The upcoming Genesis Project is a fully interactive, real-time adventure

game incorporating the latest DirectX and Accessibility technologies.  The

Genesis Project combines real time game play and cinematic quality audio

and special effects with a storyline worthy of a great sci-fi novel...





jrnorth@espsoftworks.com



ESP Softworks Inc.

Software Development Division







www.espsoftworks.com

+

While I've already made a reply to Mr. North, I'll take this opportunity to

publicly wish this new company the best of luck. Audyssey will definitely be

keeping close tabs on the activities of this visionary corporation. I look

forward to experiencing the premiere release, which is said to be a science

fiction real-time adventure with cinimatic-quality sounds. Although no

further info was available to me at the time of this publication, I have no

doubt that we'll be hearing more from Mr. North and company in the near

future.



++

>From James Peach:





Hello Audyssey community,



Happy anniversary to all, all-be-it a little late.  I am happy to be at this

stage with Audyssey, the staff and the community, as this is my first

anniversary with Audyssey Magazine.  I have seen many changes in the whole

blind games environment, since I began working for Audyssey, but this is

probably only a coincidence.  Frankly, I am very pleased with the number of

companies and developers that have jumped into the niche market of

blind-accessible games, and I hope to see it continue.



Something that concerns me of late, is the lack of mail to me, concerning

anything.  If you have not heard a word from me on the distributionlist, it

is because Iim not registered with it.  Aside from being forgetful and

usually occupied, I much rather receiving email from people, personally,

than from a distribution list.  If this is a serious concern for those

wanting to contact me, let me or somebody at Audyssey know, and I'll try to

make that extra effort to get on the list, and get in touch with the

readership.



A note about Lords of the Realms 2; I have discovered an autobattle option

in the game, which allows the computer to calculate how a battle will

result, instead of having to do it in real-time.  Though this can take the

fun out of battling the enemy on a face to face basis, it means that you

won't have to miss out on combat (because it is real-time). With this in

mind, I have increased my rating of Lords 2 upto 8.5/10, from the previous

7.5.  I hope that this will give anyone waiting on purchasing this game a

greater reason not to .



Finally, I am finding the world of graphically-based, blind/sighted team

games, to be a very large and daunting one.  As well, I have been covering

every genre of gaming, and though I can manage, for genres such as RPG's, I

would feel better if someone with greater skill and expertise were covering

such a game genre.  What I'm trying to get at is that I could use some

assistance in my devision under Audyssey.  If anyone would be interested in

taking me up on this offer, I can be reached at: jamespeach@hotmail.com



Happy anniversary, enjoy the rest of this issue and the rest of the summer!



James Peach: Mainstream Games, Audyssey Magazine



+

Thanks for your thoughts on this important occasion, James. I certainly hope

that we get another member covering mainstream games before the next

anniversary. It has certainly worked out well having two people covering

interactive fiction. Considering the vast array of games in his perview, I

think James has done quite well since he joined up with us. He has told us

what to buy, and perhapse more importantly, what not to buy. Buying

mainstream games is quite a risky proposition for most of us, since we have

no way of knowing ahead of time whether they'll be playable in any

meaningful way or not. I hope that those of you who play these games with

sighted people have bennifited from his council, and that you might share

your experiences with us. Tell the rest of the Audyssey community what has

and hasn't worked for you.



While I still hope that James will join our discussion list, I can certainly

sympathise with his hesitation. He has very limited time during this phase

of his life. He is working during the Summer with the Community Access

program in his town in Manitoba. He has often wondered about the lack of

contact from the rest of you. I urge all of you who have questions regarding

games not specifically designed for the blind to pose them to him. You can

be certain that he'll answer you in as timely and helpful a fashion as

possible.



++

>From David Greenwood:



Michael,



I have an idea which could be carried out on the Audyssey mail list and

reported on an ongoing basis in the Audyssey Magazine.



I thought it may be fun and interesting to design and develop a game using

ideas from the Audyssey mail list members. We could present a basic game

scenario and encourage the mail list participants to provide interactive

feedback.  I manage an Information Systems department for a medium sized

international company and we have used JADD, Joint Application Design and

Development, to develop many systems.  It seems to work well in most cases.

 I would find it interesting, both professionally and as a Gamer, to head up

this project.



How it might work -



I will present the initial scenario and some ideas on how the user interface

might work.  I will then sit back and wait for feedback.  Mail list

participants can comment on each other's ideas and when things settle down I

will prepare a summary of our design to date.  This summary may need to be a

questionnaire with each participant voting on opinions which can't be agreed

on.



I will then go away and develop a proto-type. Each participant will then

down-load the proto-type and the mail list discussion will continue for

another round.  This may be an iteractive process which may go on for

several months.



Each participant will obtain a free copy of the final game, and PCS will

then be free to sell it as one of their commercial games.  I would suggest

it could be sold to all other Audyssey subscribers at a somewhat reduced

price, say $$15, but this must be discussed with PCS first.



A Scenario suggestion -



The game could be loosely based on the highly graphical and popular "Doom".



You find yourself in a maze of tunnels.  From a distance you here the sounds

of approaching monsters.  From the volume and direction of the sounds, you

can decide to run or attack.  You must find a way to the next level of the

maze while collecting weapons, ammunition, and receiving points for killing

monsters.  You initially start off with a single shot

rifle an 30 rounds of ammunition.  Hidden in each level of the maze is a

more powerful weapon which you will want since the monsters get a little

tougher the farther you go.



The sound will be continuous allowing you to walk, run, or shoot regardless

of the sound playing.  You will always shoot in the direction you are

walking, but the skill will be deciding on how much ammunition to use and

how close you will allow the monster to come before shooting.  Fast

reflexes will also come into play.  You will also need to be careful of

monsters lurking around corners.  Each level will contain different monsters

with different abilities.  You can identify the monster by its sound.



There will be boulders to move, doors to find, pitfalls to avoid, and other

things we can decide on later.  I believe this game can provide the same

entertainment value that Doom or Wolfenstein delivers.



What do you think?





David Greenwood

+

Well, as to what I think, it sounds like an excellent plan. I'm all for it.

Mr. Greenwood has demonstrated his willingness and ability to make things

which seem years away from being possible happen. First, he demonstrated the

possibilities offered by real-time games with Lone Wolf. He followed that up

in short order with Trek99 featuring continuous sound. With him heading the

attempt, I think we can be fairly certain that the results will be another

breakthrough in blind gaming. For those who wonder what is possible through

joint development, check out Nethack and Adom. These games were the results

of colaboration via the Internet. Some of Infocom's best games are the

result of joint efforts with authors like Douglas Adams. Shades of Gray, an

excellent game written in AGT, is another example of joint effort.



I hope this idea gets off the ground and into reality. I also hope this

possibility incourages more of you to join our discussion list. Developers

like PCS and Mr. Greenwood will then have even more cause to use it as a

springboard for ideas. Like Mr. Greenwood, I'd also like to know what the

rest of you think of this idea. I look forward to the discussion and

thoughts this is likely to generate.



+++

Mudding with Jaws For Windows and Gmud

By Dave Sherman



Anyone interested in mudding using Windows and JFW may get some use out of

this info. (I apologise for not having any help for WindowEyes, or any other

Windows screen readers.  Perhaps users of other apps could revise my tips in

order to make GMUD work with their particular screen reader.)

--------- Forwarded message ----------



To get a copy of GMUD, download it from :

ftp://papa.indstate.edu/winsock-l/mud/

FILENAME:  gmd3219b.zip



    Here's some tips on setting up GMUD for JFW.  (Some things may vary

depending on your system setup, but most of this info should help.  You may

need to experiment a little).   I'm using Win '95 on a P166 with 32

MB of RAM, and a VGA monitor set at 640x480.  I'm using JFW v3.3.25.

I've set up GMUD to work optimally with speech.



 First I'll run through the pertinent menu selections:



Use the "Worlds" selection of the EDIT MENU to enter and save mud address,

port, and (optionally) login info.  There are a few other settings in

"Worlds", but the manual will explain them.



VIEW MENU:

-   Disable "Toolbar", "Connected World Window", and "Macro Window". This

will give you the max. screen width and height.  The disabled windows are

only useful if you have good vision, and are fast with a mouse.



OPTIONS MENU:

-   Colours ... I've just left mine the same as my usual desktop setting

(which is white on black).

-   Font ... (This option may depend on your system and video card)  I've

set the font point size to 10.  When I had it set at 12, it was sporadically

crashing JFW. (Also, a smaller pt. size allows more text per line).

-  Screen Wrap ...

The first set of radio buttons is "Virtual screen width".  Choose the second

button, "Wrap to Screen".  Next tab to the check box "indent wrapped lines

two spaces".  Leave this box unchecked.  Then tab to the last set of radio

buttons, "wrap to nearest".  And choose "word".

-   Command Stacking ...

   In this option choose which character you want to use as a delimiter, and

decide whether you want command stacking activated or not.  (There's just

one edit field, and one check box.

-    Local Echo

I disabled this option. (It's just extraneous speech for you to listen to.

-  Speed Walk ...

Again there is a check box to enable/disable this feature.  And there is a

edit field for the key combination you want to use for Speed Walking.



WINDOW MENU:

The only option you will probably be interested in under this menu is

"(P)ause".  Occasionally people get so "chatty"  in muds that it is

impossible to keep up with the scrolling window ... and so does JFW and the

computer.  So you May want to pause the scrolling in order to read

something.



------------

Read the manual.doc file and the on-line help files.  This program is fairly

straightforward.  Most questions you have should be answered in these files.

The manual.doc file is a MS Word file, so if you don't have

MS Word, then just use Wordpad.



----------

JFW CONFIGURATION:



1.  Once GMUD is up and running, route the JAWS cursor to the PC cursor.

Then Press and hold CTRL +SHIFT while tapping the left bracket twice. This

will make a frame around the input window.  When the JFW  frame box

comes up, just give it a name, and optionally some description info.  Tab

below the description window to the set of four radio buttons.  Select

"silent".

(Bare in mind that I've set up GMUD so that what a user types is not spoken.

If your uncomfortable with this then don't set up the silent frame and some

of the settings below).  I've found it to be helpful to be able to type and

not have my keyboard input interrupt what is being scrolled on the output

screen.  It helps quite a bit in conversations.



2.   Once your frame is saved and you're back in GMUD, bring up the Config.

manager.  Press INSERT+T to make sure the Config. changes will be made and

saved to GMUD only.

  Then Open the set Options menu and choose User Options.

- For typing echo, choose "none".

- For screen echo choose "all".

- Be sure the typing interrupt check box is not checked.



Then save this configuration and exit back to GMUD.



GMUD should now be set up for the optimal speech output  with JFW.  GMUD

will read the new lines as they appear on the screen.  And if you've

silenced the typing functions, (your input), you should be able to keep

track of all that scrolls across the output screen.  This cuts down

significantly on the need to use the JAWS cursor to review the output

screen.



One final tip:  When in combat, the speech output is usually about  one

screen behind the output display (this is just due to the fact that JFW

doesn't speak as fast as the screen scrolls).  So, you may occasionally want

to press CTRL to silence the output speech, and clear the speech buffer.

This way the next new line of output will give you an accurate description

of how the combat is going.



Good luck, and hope this helps.







+++

The Latest Finds:

+

Jewel of Knowledge

by Francesco Bova

Reviewed by Justin Fegel



The Jewel of Knowledge is a new game that appeared on the Interactive

Fiction Archive this past week.  It's the first solid piece of interactive

fiction to be released in the last four or so months.  I can only assume

that the lack of new quality games means that all of the IF authors out

there are hard at work on their entries for the annual Interactive Fiction

Competition which will take place in a little over three months from now.



The jewel of Knowledge is a medium sized game written with Inform and

features a traditional fantasy/dungeon crawl style of plot.  The druids of

your homeland have, through their meditations, uncovered the whereabouts of

a jewel of great power that, if found, would give the one who owned it

infinite knowledge and wisdom about all things.  With this power, whoever

possessed the jewel would be almost like a god.  The jewel is said to be

hidden somewhere in caverns deep beneath the earth's surface and is guarded

by three ancient dragons of varying powers and abilities.  Your task is to

lead an expedition down in to the bowels of the earth in order to find the

jewel and bring it to the druids.



While the plot is fairly traditional, there are some elements that give this

game a unique feel.  Instead of the game starting at the beginning of your

quest, you begin the game on the final leg of your journey.  At the opening

scene you are on the fifth layer of the earth's crust with Jacob, who,

besides you, is the only surviving member of the party of adventurers who

started this quest with you.  When you play this opening scene for the first

time, you may think you are stuck in a colossal maze, but in reality, you're

not.  This opening scene is actually an interactive prologue.  Your

objective here is to ask Jacob about certain key subjects related to your

quest.  Talking to Jacob will give you some useful information that you'll

need later in the game.  Once you have asked these questions, the ground

will suddenly give way and the two of you will tumble down a sinkhole to the

final level.  Jacob will be killed in the fall and the game will officially

begin.  If you are playing for the second time or need to restart for some

reason you can skip the prologue by typing "bypass."



While I thought the interactive prologue was a good idea and well

implemented, it can be somewhat frustrating for first-time players.  When I

started the game I thought I was lost in some horrific maze and the game

wouldn't let me do anything with my possessions.  I didn't realise that this

was just a prologue since interactive introductions are not all that common

in games.  After getting some help, I finally figured out what was going on,

but I think the author should have noted at the start of the game that this

first part was just a prologue.



The ending was kind of a surprise, but I liked it.  I don't want to say to

much about it and spoil it for those who haven't played yet, but I'll give

you a little hint:

Sometimes, acquiring ultimate power is not the solution.

Okay, that might be a little vague and it wasn't a great hint, but I think

once you get to the endgame, you'll understand what I meant.



The puzzles are not very hard at all, in fact, most of the solutions are

quite obvious.  I must also warn you that it is very easy to lock yourself

out of winning and there are several ways to do it.  So make sure you save

often.



Overall, this is a solid piece of work.  It's not to hard, not to easy, it's

well implemented, and the text is well written.  I would say it's a nice

distraction for a rainy day or a boring evening.  You can download the game

at FTP://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/zcode and look for the file jewel.z5.



Happy anniversary Audyssey!



+

"Adventure 551"

Reviewed by Kelly Sapergia



   "Adventure", or "Colossal Cave", was one of the first text

adventure games of all time. It was first made in the late 70's.

And it's still popular with Interactive Fiction players in the

late 90's. There are numerous versions available for just about

every computer platform. Even for a lot of the Adventure Game

creation programs, like AGT, and Inform.

And now, we have a new version of the game in TADS. Welcome to

"Adventure 551"!

   One thing you're probably asking yourself at this point is

"What's so good about another version of the game?" Well, this

version is based on Dave Baggett's TADS version from 1993, but

with a twist. "Adventure 551", which I'll refer to as "ADV551",

features two games in one. One is a 551 point version by Dave

Baggett (which I've never tried, unless it was in the "Colossal

Cave Revisited" game), and the normal 360 point version. You can

switch between these two games with a single command.

Another bonus is that ADV511 will let you get rid of those

annoying dwarves, and the pirate who shows up at random to steal

your treasure. That made it more fun for me to play.

   I've never been able to win Colossal Cave in any form, and

this one's no exception. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun

with this game. One thing I wish the author of ADV551 could have

done was to make it easy to get through the mazes without wasting

time walking around in circles looking for the exit. That's

infuriating! But on the bright side, the game is well written,

and I'm glad I downloaded it. I'm rating it 9 out of 10.

   This game is available on the GMD.DE archive site in the

/games/TADS directory. The file is ad551.gam.

+

Wrestling League Simulation

Reviewed by Steven Cullen

Hello everyone, an all new and exciting sports game has emerged called

Wrestling League Simulation. This is one of the best sports games I've ever

played. The object of this game is to wrestle your way through the ranks of

wrestlers To be come a contender, and wrestle the world champion Jazzy Joe

Trophea. The game works like this, the game is turn-based. It starts with a

list of numbers and a list of corresponding moves. For example, press one to

put your opponent in a head lock. Press two to put your opponent in a leg

lock. The thing I like most about this game is that you can create an

unlimited number of your own wrestlers. You can decide whether you want the

wrestler to be made manually, which means that you give the wrestler a name

and a special move. You can also decide whether you want the computer to

make a wrestler. Each wrestler gets their own specialty move. You can decide

in what situations you want your specialty move performed. For example, will

your wrestler perform this special move while locked up with another

wrestler, or will you perform the special move while your opponent is down

in the ring. One of the things I like best about this game is that you can

give your wrestlers belts. You get to name the belt, and decide whom to give

the belt to. One of the other parts of this game I like is that you can make

tag teams. There are four different modes of play in this game human versus

human, human versus computer, computer versus computer fast, and computer

versus computer slow. I am currently using jaws for DOS and this game works

very well with speech. The only part of the game that my friends and I have

to criticise is the fact that there are no real sounds with this game. This

game would be excellent if only there were some real sounds included with

the game. Over all this is a great game with lots of replay value and will

provide for hours of fun.



+

Birth Of The Federation

Game by Microprose

Reviewed by Michael Feir



At last, a turn-based strategy game set in the Star Trek TNG universe has

appeared. Since no time restrictions are necessary, the game can be

considered one of the best in terms of sighted-blind teams playing together.

All aspects of the game are easily described by a sighted companion,

including placement of fleets and planets. Blind people can participate

meaningfully in all aspects of game play including combat.



Although containing small fragments of speech, the game will require a fair

amount of reading by sighted companions. Items such as combat results,

descriptions of various cultures contacted during the game, and other events

are indicated via limited spoken messages. However, item descriptions,

technical breakthroughs, etc, are not spoken.



Taking only one CD, this game presented no problems installing other than

having to change your monitor to 800x600 resolution while the game is

played. This change is apparently necessary for the video clips used

throughout the game. The sound is quite good, and each power you can play as

has a unique set of sounds for things. You can play as any of five different

major powers in the Star Trek universe. Each of these have different

strengths and weaknesses. Up to thirty minor races will be encountered by

the five major ones as they expand throughout the galaxy. These provide the

empire who wins them over via diplomacy or conquest unique advantages.



A whole host of other features and parameters await the bold strategist who

tries this game. It is an understatement to say that the re-play value of

this game is nothing short of astounding.



This game is widely available in computer stores, and can also be purchased

on-line on the Web. It requires Windows95/98. Despite its lack of speech

output, Birth of the Federation has already provided my father and I with

hours of enjoyable play. We're not even close to winning our first game yet,

and are unlikely to be before playing through at least five hundred more

turns. I rate this game at eight out of ten for blind-sighted teams.





+++

Audyssey's New Factory Floor

By Michael Feir



As of this issue, Audyssey is being produced on a brand new computer system

I have just acquired from the folks at Microcomputer Science Centre. Instead

of using Wordperfect5.1, Audyssey is now being made with MS-Word. I now use

MS-Outlook to retrieve my E-mail. This means that it is far easier to deal

with sending and receiving attachments, and it is now possible to receive

your submissions in pretty much any format you care to send them in.

Inserting E-mail messages and the like is now a much more simple exercise

than previously. Also, it is less likely that items will be lost as has

happened on a couple of occasions before. To anyone who may have sent

something which wasn't published in this issue, I would ask that you

re-submit it for the next one. I have turned my old laptop into a strictly

DOS-based machine, and thereby saved a ton of space on its hard drive.

Unfortunately, I had to format the hard drive to do this and may have

forgotten to copy a few files.



With far better access to the Internet thanks to Internet Explorer, I can

conduct better and more thorough net searches for possible undiscovered or

new games of interest. I will be able to follow up many more of your tips on

Internet sites. Keep in mind, however, that I have other occupations besides

editing and writing this magazine. I still rely on you, the readers, to keep

it alive. My staff are there to help you enjoy games and provide a core of

material for Audyssey. It is up to you to provide direction and ideas.



The computer I've obtained is a Pentium3 with a DVD drive and Soundblaster

Live with surround-sound speakers. I am running Windows95 at present. In a

nut-shell, a whole new world of possibilities has been opened up for me. I

can examine the latest commercial games for accessibility, and can fully

appreciate PCS's games with their excellent sounds. With my own line and

Internet access, I can now look at some of the Web-based games emerging.

Should any of my readers be sighted and want to send print materials, I can

scan them with Kurzweil 1000 software and an HP scanner I got with my

system. Please note that materials to be scanned cannot be hand-written.

They must be typed or printed via computer.



With these major improvements, I predict that Audyssey will better reflect

the efforts of those who contribute to its pages. The arrival of this new

gear is very timely indeed as seen by PCS's and ESP Softworks's intentions

to construct games for Windows-based environments. It is far easier for me

to edit a review or evaluate an article if I can experience what the author

experiences for myself. Of course, it also means that a wealth of new

distractions are within my grasp. I can only hope that future games are not

so spell-binding that they inhibit Audyssey from being published. As I get a

great deal of satisfaction out of producing Audyssey, this is quite unlikely

to occur. As long as you readers continue to submit your articles, reviews,

letters and ideas, I'll keep my end of the bargain and put out another

Audyssey issue.



What will happen to my old laptop, you ask? I'll use it as my travelling

machine. With the 830 MB on its hard drive, I'll be able to carry around

practically the entire collection of text-based games and demonstrate or

share them with people. Writing has long been a hobby of mine, and the

laptop will now be my portable means of doing this. It'll be at Lake Joseph

Centre during the last week of August while I'm there on vacation. For those

who can come to Ontario during the Summer, Lake Joseph is a wonderful

vacation spot. I've often wrote articles and poems during the week I spend

there most years. Hopefully, I'll be able to attract more people to the idea

of computer games for the blind and to the Audyssey community.



+++

PERSONAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS SOFTWARE OVER-PRICED

By Carl Mickla



     During the last week of May and the first week of June, there was some

discussion of the cost of software that Personal Computer Systems charges,

and the quality of the games.   I would like to start out by talking about

what a small software company must spend to produce a quality software

program.



     First a software engineer must be employed.   Lets go cheep and say

thirty five thousand for one year.  Then lets add in a programmer, again we

will go cheep with twenty five thousand.  Then, throw in two thousand for

equipment and supplies.  Now, this is really a low budget company that is

put together here.   If you're counting we are up to sixty two thousand

dollars and these people are working at home.  Notice, no support personnel

like someone

talking to dealers, customers, or potential customers, packing

orders, and dealing with any other interruptions.   This is

strictly a two person show.



     Lets say that they produce five programs a year, and lets sell them for

thirty dollars each.  Then using PCS best year numbers and there best

program for each of the five games.  fifty games times five is two hundred

and fifty games total.   Now out of the two fifty one hundred and seventy

five were sold by dealers.  The dealers get half of the game cost.  That

means for one hundred and seventy five games two thousand six hundred and

twenty five dollars is made.   For the other seventy five games two thousand

two hundred and fifty dollars was taken in.  This makes a grand total

of  Four thousand eight hundred and seventy five dollars total per year.



     I hope prospective game programmers for the blind community are not

reading this. In order to break even with payroll and expenses, if the same

amount of games were sold, each game would have to be sold for two hundred

and forty eight dollars.  How many of you would pay that kind of money?  I

wouldn't, and I don't think anyone else would.   Well, remember the less

games sold the more they must cost.



     So, how are we going to make some games and put them out there for a

reasonable price?  The first thing we do is get rid of the engineer and the

programmer.  Then we find two semi-professionals and let them think they are

making a difference.   What they do is produce the cleanest programs, which

work with most machines, return the money to anyone who is dissatisfied, and

try out new ideas.   In return we will pay them thirty dollars per game, and

put up with some inconveniences like buying a game finding out it does not

work and requesting our money back.



     That sounds like a bargain to me at twice the price!  Are you sure none

of you out there would like to give it a go!   I assure anyone wanting to

open one of these low budget companies that there are plenty of games

waiting to be made.   I can't claim there is a whole lot of money,  but most

of the time you will be appreciated.



     I would like to now talk about inconveniences and why you are asked to

put up with them.   As you should know by now I do not have a software

engineer on the books.   Not that I would not like to have one, but as it

was shown earlier you or I couldn't afford one.  So, this means that I

cannot test our programs as extensively as I would like.   I must make a

commitment of so many games by November to our dealers, and have the games

ready by September of the next year.   I have been putting out about five

games a year,

and that is what I think is needed to have a chance to make the time worth

wile.   I choose not to use many beta testers because there just isn't many

of the proper type, real programmers, or the extensive time it would take

them to fully test the games.   I do put out full free working demos so that

you can try before buying.

 Share ware sounds great, but I know many if not everyone does not buy it.

Share ware is like communism, sounds good on paper, but in practice it

doesn't work.   Just ask many of the people who ask for a five or ten dollar

payment how much money they made, or how many share ware companies are

making it supplying the blind community.   Share ware is great for people

who want to use and not pay, or for companies who get huge contracts from

the government and try to catch some additional sales.  Their thinking is we

already made our money, and any sales from share ware is just icing

on the cake.   So, occasionally I may produce a program that might have a

problem, and I depend on some of you to help fix it.  If you don't want to

help, well, that is OK too. I'll refund your money, but if you are willing

to help me improve my games you will help yourself and others who may run

into the same problem.  I feel that PCS belongs to its customers,

and for putting up with these occasional stumbles, I keep putting out games

for a fair price.



     The companies which sell games to the sighted world sell

hundreds of thousands if not millions of games.  They also have many

programmers working on a game at the same time.  If I had that kind of

volume then I could give you more for the buck too.  When two hundred and

fifty games is about the best to be done, then how can you expect much more

then what I am doing?   Would you put out as much time and effort for the

same return that I'm receiving?

Those big computer gaming companies that sell millions of games still sell

their games for thirty, forty, and fifty dollars and even more.  Why don't

the game companies who must be doing a bang up job produce games for the

blind?  There isn't enough money in it for them.  When someone says "PCS

games are over priced" I take exception to that.  I don't think one can

compare a very small shoe string company with the productions from million

dollar companies.  It is like comparing oranges and apples.   Yes, PCS

programs are

not the same as the commercial games for the sighted world, but games for us

don't have to be.  The big companies are not making any games directly for

our world and are not likely to either.   I am trying to put out a product

which is new, fun, and exciting allowing us to have some enjoyment on our

computers too.  I was not always blind and I know what the sighted world has

to play with.  What the big companies are doing is fantastic and I can tell

you

that I could never program any where as good as they are.  What I can say is

I am doing the best with the least and I feel that a fair product is being

produced.



     PCS will be producing versions of games to work with Windows and DOS

without the aid of a screen reader.  All the text that is usually spoken by

the synthesiser is recorded by a human.  These games will be between ten and

thirty megabits in size, and will be on CD only.  Now, here is the killer,

Because of the cost of producing recorded text, the cost of a CD writer, and

the time in putting everything together, These programs will be selling for

forty nine dollars.  I know the cost is high, but we will still produce

versions of the games as we always have on floppy, needing

screen readers, and for this year at least the price will stay the same  at

thirty dollars.  As I stated earlier if the volume of

sales was larger then I could keep things the same, but it just

doesn't look like its going to get much better.  Phil and I have

got to make more then lunch, dinner, and expenses.  I know that producing

games is not going to be a full time thing in the far future, unless

something big happens.  For now I am committed to this for at least the next

three years, and who knows what might happen by the end of that time.



     I would like to hear from you, the people who these things

matter to.  What do you think of our prices?  Are you dissatisfied with the

quality?  Is PCS missing something big?  Send your thoughts to Michael at

michaelfeir@csi.com

or  to PCS at

pvlasak@monmouth.com

or write to

PCS

551 Compton Ave.

Perth Amboy, NJ. 08861

USA.

phone (732) 826-1917

I want to know what is really on your mind!



+++

Free Game Winner!



This time around, the free game goes to Willie Phipps. For his excellent

advice on setting up Gmud to work with Jaws for Windows, he has well earned

the free game of his choice from PCS. Ms. Van Ettinger was a very close

runner up for having thought of the Audyssey community at such a crucial

moment amid the bustle of a convention. A note on how these things are

decided is doubtless in order here. If possible, I'll award the free game to

the person who makes the best written contribution to Audyssey for a given

issue. When articles and submissions of high enough calibre fail to appear,

the award will go to whoever makes the biggest discovery for the Audyssey

community. When I say "big" discovery, I mean in terms of its potential

impact on the Audyssey community as a whole. Last time, Robin Mandell won

when she discovered the first company other than PCS to offer games

specifically for the blind. Congratulations, Willie.





+++

Adam, The Immortal Gamer: A Leap of Faith

Episode by Michael Feir



At long last, Adam has been induced to leave the confines of his city and

home. He has decided to take a skiing vacation with a bunch of his friends.

They are at the top of a mountain, and begin to ski down its snowy surface.

Suddenly, the ground gives way under Adam as he descends. He is caught

completely by surprise, and topples head over heels. His skis and poles go

flying off into the air, lost forever. Adam sees his whole life flash before

him in a serge of adrenaline. He has wasted so much time. So many

opportunities have passed him by in favour of his obsession with games.

There are so many things he wants to do, but he is forced to realise that he

is likely tumbling to his doom. He vows that if he survives, he'll try

harder to appreciate the real world. THUD!!!



Adam lands in a snow-covered patch of a roof. Recovering his wits, he

realises that he is resting against a steeple sticking out of a mountain's

side. Getting carefully to his feet, Adam notices a scroll sticking out of

the snow near him. He picks it up before going through the open window he

finds. Closing it behind him, he turns to see a number of munks staring at

him.



"What are a bunch of munks doing at a ski resort?" Adam asks in a surprised

and tactless fashion.



"I am Brother Joseph. I lead this order in its failing attempts to preserve

the balance within the lands of Quendor. You have been magically summoned

here to help us rid the land of an evil demon who has escaped from

imprisonment within a magical rod. This rod has been sundered and scattered

about the land. You must recover all four pieces, and join them together to

trap the demon once more. Take this magic book and amulet, as they will aid

you in your quest."



Adam suddenly realises that he is now in the game called Spiritwrak. Being

somewhat familiar with it, he quickly proceeds through the initial parts.

The puzzle of the general store was child's play, although he did stub his

toe on one of the large wooden crates used to balance his weight in the

special hallway. Of course, Adam had to find out what Dorn Flakes tasted

like. The sugar rush transported him instantly to...



Greater Anthar, home of the Flathead Stadium and other attractions, is

bustling with activity as Adam walks around. he heads quickly for Flathead

Stadium to try his hand at golem wrestling. Just in case he needs them, Adam

takes a minute to memorise the spells to defeat the three golems from his

book. He also memorises the spell of healing a couple of times. Without

another thought for safety, he charges into the stadium. A burly man rises

to block him from passing, but Adam belts him in the head with customary

directness. The man responds by grabbing our protagonist around the neck,

and tightening his grip until Adam is forced to squeak out a humiliating

apology for his unprovoked assault. At last, the man lets go of Adam, and

allows him to proceed into the locker room.



"You look like a strapping and daring guy! Get in there and start scrapping,

kid.!" The coach practically pushes Adam into the field before scrambling

quickly to a safe vantage. The first round commences just as Adam manages to

orient himself in the large field.



The wooden golem arrives first to challenge the immortal Gamer. Twice as

tall as Adam, the wooden golem is comprised of strong lumber. It attempts to

smash Adam with a powerful swipe of its limb, but Adam nimbly dodges. Adam

attacks with maximum punch power, striking hard at the centre of the chest.

The golem is staggered by the blow, but otherwise uninjured. Adam prepares

to charge it again when a swift kick from the golem catches him in the face.

A multitude of slivers are embedded in Adam's pain-twisted visage. "Youch,

man!" Adam screams as he desperately tries to gain some distance. The wooden

golem closes with remarkable speed, and Adam is eventually forced to use the

Egdelp spell. In an instant, The golem is covered in waxy build-up. It slips

and topples to the ground, completely unable to rise again. "Knock-out!" The

referee calls out.



The pause in between rounds gives Adam a chance to cast the healing spell on

himself. This removes the splinters from his battered pate and relieves him

mightily. Suddenly, the second golem appears. This one is made entirely of

stone. Despite a towering ego, Adam instantly realises the futility of

attempting to attack such a creature physically. As he is forced to this

conclusion, the stone golem lunges at him. "Knarf-knockers!" Adam ejaculates

as he darts quickly out of the way. The golem slams up against the wall and

sparks fly. Quickly, Adam casts the Tossio spell. This instantly turns the

stone golem into a pile of delicious pasta. "Take-out!" The referee says

gleefully. "Yummee!" Adam says as he digs in with great gusto.



The third and final golem is made of iron. It is faster than the others.

Rolling quickly in, it attempts to flatten Adam. Despite a valiant attempt

to stave off injury, the golem is just too quick for Adam. It smashes into

him with enough force to catapult him to...



"Thought you'd drop in for a drink, did you, Sir?" Adam regains his senses

to find Delbin, a kindly bar-tender, gazing down at him. "Not too many of my

customers do that literally." Nervously, Delbin turns his attention briefly

away from the recovering Adam towards the trio at the bar. They stand around

a single glass of ale, each keeping one eye on the glass and the other on

his/her companions.



"What's all this about?" Adam asks as he tries to appraise the three

characters. As Delbin gives his answer, Adam realises that the beverage is

being contested for by a wizard, a warrior, and a thief.





("Quite a situation we've got sir. Those three at the front of the bar all

ordered a glass of Special Borphee Ale. Well, with the shutdown of the

Brewers Guild in Borphee since the Great Change, I can't keep that

particular beverage

in stock, but I've got that one left there. Seems none of them's leaving

until they decide who gets the ale -- and let me tell you, those three are

folks who don't like to be disappointed!" Adam takes a moment to study the

situation, and observes the following:



The man in black makes a lightning fast move for the glass of ale, but is

countered by an equally fast move by the warrior. "Lose something, thief?"

the woman says. "No need to get violent, Morgan." the thief says.



The wizard looks at his companions. "Say, did I ever show any of you my

famous disappearing glass trick?"  He starts to take off his wizard's hat,

but the gentleman and ranger stop him. "Don't even try it, Frobar." the

woman warrior

says.



The female ranger fixates on the glass of ale. "Look you two, some of us

have better things to do, like fight wars." The wizard scowls. "Oh save it,

Morgan." he says.): [Taken directly from Dan Yu's Spiritwrak]



Not seeing any other way to resolve the situation, Adam looks through his

book of magic. Casting the Zemdor spell on the glass, he causes it to

triplicate. Three glasses now stand on the table. Rivalry is transformed

instantly into companionship as each of the contestants takes a glass of

ale. As the very capable trio disband and leave Delbin's pub, the atmosphere

and Delbin both become much more relaxed.



"A fine talent you have there, Sir. You have my thanks. For restoring

tranquillity to this here establishment, I award you this very special

drink. Enjoy it." And so Adam does...



What a major mind-blower! Adam reels violently from the effect of Delbin's

oh so generous flagon. He stumbles down a narrow trail, all but washed away

by waves. Rocks make the going even more tough. Suddenly, a wave catches him

completely by surprise. He falls into a hole and...



"Where am I?" Adam asks drunkenly aloud. Hearing the echo shocks a bit of

sobriety back into him. Well, enough to realise he is in a dark cave at any

rate. A hand grabs his shoulder, and Adam nearly clobbers what life remains

in the old hermit out of him. "You're here, my troubled friend."



"What gave you the first clue?" Adam asks in bellicose fashion. "Don't you

dare answer that it's the alcoholic reek, or I'll knock you on your rump!"



"The putrecent olfactory aura generated by the copious stimulating

concoction was what first apprised me of your presence."



"Whatever that meant. How do I get out of here?" Adam feels the walls

closing in on him as the conversation echoes around.



"Go back the way you came." The hermit watches Adam scan the surrounding

walls. "Have you forgotten where you came from?" The hermit asks.



Although not meant as an insult, the question hits Adam hard. It penetrates

through his battered brain, and he remembers his real friends and the skiing

trip. As soon as this happens, Adam finds himself sitting at a table in a

lodge. A fire crackles nearby, warming him quickly. He and his friends are

seated around a large table, a feast set before them. Adam joins both in the

sumptuous meal and the even better conversation. Life has gained a new

vitality for him. This vitality leads Adam and friends on many more

adventures, just as Spiritwrak will take you on many more adventures. These,

however, are for another day.



+++

News From PCS



With Kickboxing and Trek99 still fresh in everyone's mind, PCS has now

released a fantastic update to David Greenwood's Lone Wolf game. They are

also updating all their game demos to incorporate sound drivers which work

better and will allow those with Windows to use Windows sound resources.

You'll still need to play in a DOS-box or in DOS mode, but this too is on

the verge of change. Recently, PCS sent me a prototype of their first

Windows-based game. They chose to convert Kickboxing, and plan to convert

their other titles to Windows-friendly versions. These will not even require

the use of a speech package. They will feature recorded speech, and better

sounds as well. I think we can all look forward to an exciting next couple

of months. Without further delay, here are the details on the new Lone Wolf

game as set down by PCS. Hours before publication, I received word from Phil

that the Trek99 and Lone Wolf updates were sent to the catalogues and should

be available shortly.



+

New Lone Wolf Demo!





Changes Since Version 1

-    Real sounds of submarine warfare!

Hear the sounds of your periscope, torpedoes launching, your Klaxon

horn   and explosions!

Hear the sonar of destroyers hunting you!



-    Two-dimensional Sound Blaster sounds.

You can here the props of your target going from your left speaker

to your right!  If the sound is coming from

behind, the game slightly muffles and distorts the sound while

still maintaining different balance and volume.  In very little

time you should be able to determine the direction and distance of

a sound, and hence, the ship or object.



-    When hit, your submarine will not necessarily be destroyed, it

can sustain different degrees of damage.



-    You can automatically set course to any ship or object.



-    Many more missions with new challenges and targets.



-    All radar, periscope, and sonar reports will be displayed from

left to right.



-    Typing G followed by M, S, E, or D will give you the game

mission, game status, experience level information, and your

submarine's damage report respectively.



-    The Home and End keys will centre elevators and rudder

respectively.



-    Page up and down keys have been added to control volume

(Internal sound driver only)



-    Other sound drivers in Lone Wolf

If you can't use the internal sound driver, you can now choose one

of the external sound drivers.

You can pick or change your sound setting before you play the game,

or during a game.



The demo version contains the first two missions:

Mission 1-

You are ordered to practice at the firing range just outside the

naval base. An assortment of classes of ships will pass from port

to starboard at various distances, angles, and speeds.  You must

sink all ships to pass this test. You need not move from your

location, therefore only use your engines to change your firing

direction if needed. Make extensive use of your radar, periscope,

and targeting systems.



Mission 2-

Urgent! You must locate and destroy all oil platforms in the Boot

Strait.  It is strongly suspected that the area is mined.  A

destroyer has been spotted patrolling  the area.



Good Shooting!



The demo is ready now, but the full $30 version will be sent to the

catalogues after the July conventions.





























+++

Game Reviews:

+



Title:  Dr. Dumont's Wild P.A.R.T.I

Authors:  Muffy and Michael Berlyn

Parser:  Inform/Z machine

Release discussed: 1 serial number 990223

Availability:  Commercial, from Cascade Mountain Publishing, whose

URL is www.cascadepublishing.com  Price is US$24

Game reviewed by Jayson Smith



To order the game, go to www.cascadepublishing.com, go to the

'software' section, select 'Dr. Dumont's Wild P.A.R.T.I' read about

it and click 'Order now!' to place an order.  To do this you'll

need a browser that supports secure Internet connections.  Netscape

and IE should do.  Most versions of Lynx will not.  Or you can call

them at the number listed on every page on their site.  In either

case it should be delivered to your E-mail box, as a zip file

containing some executable programs that may or may not work on

your platform (any Zmachine interpreter can be used, I prefer

Frotz), a few PDF files (one containing the manual and one

containing virtual feelies), and the game file itself, called

dumont.z5.  More about the PDF files later.



     So what about the game?  Well, it starts when you go to your

physics class and Dr. Dumont, your professor, takes you over to the

research zone to show you an experiment he's been working on,

called the Particle Accelerator and Reality Translation Integrator

(the P.A.R.T.I of the title).  This machine puts you into the

subatomic world, but instead of seeing protons and quarks it loads

metaphors into your mind for what is going on.  Dumont wants to

find the mysterious "Particle X" which has been eluding scientists

for years.  He wants you to get in the machine so he can take your

body specifications, and you do so.  He goes away for a moment,

which stretches out.  As you look up to see what's going on, your

hand brushes against something, you hear a click, the machine's lid

closes, and...  Well, looks like you've just sent yourself into

this subatomic world!  You wake up in a bedroom with nothing but a

dirty pair of jeans.  And there's some stuff in this world that

isn't real.  You see a dresser in the bedroom but the drawers are

painted on it.  And going south takes you into a bathroom where,

although the bathtub is very real, the sink, toilet and cabinet are

just painted on the walls.  Such is the start of Dr. Dumont's Wild

P.A.R.T.I.



     Pretty soon, you realise that there are five elements you need

in order to shut P.A.R.T.I down, and the process of obtaining these

five elements is imbedded in the process of obtaining five keys, of

different shapes and colours.  All of these objects play an

important part in shutting down the machine.  Also pretty soon you

will realise that the lab, which should be one of the first areas

you will come to, is basically the centre location of the game.

Not much really happens here, but the room has eight exits each of

which goes to a different area.  All of these eight areas of the

game are important, and each has its uses and puzzles that you need

to solve.



     The game is pretty much open from the outset.  As far as I can

remember, there is only one area of the game which must be solved

before you can solve one other area.  Other than that, you can do

most of the stuff in whatever order you want.  There is a built-in

hint system.  It is not adaptive, which means you can get hints for

puzzles you've not even seen or heard of yet.  However, it does

have a function which will let you turn hints off for the rest of

the game, if you feel you may be using them too much or don't want

to get tempted and spoil the game for yourself.  However, once this

is done, the hints are disabled for the rest of the game, and even

saving and restoring won't bring them back.  So if you need a hint,

you either have to restart, or restore to a point before you

disabled hints.



     I'd like to talk about one problem I had with the game, being

a blind person.  This concerns the PDF file containing the virtual

feelies (the equivalent of little things that come in game

packages) to help you along.  There is one area in which you need

to consult a flyer that comes with the game.  You need to get some

instructions on how to proceed so you can solve the puzzle in

question.  The only problem is that the flyer is apparently

incorporated into the PDF file as a picture and not as text, so a

PDF to text converter won't convert it (at least the one at

pdf2txt@sun.trace.wisc.edu didn't).  At this area of the game

you'll either need to have some sighted help or ask somebody else

who either has the info or has solved that puzzle already in order

to proceed.  Also, this puzzle is crucial to your completion of the

game and without solving it you won't have everything you need.

I'm sure it was implemented in this way to provide some degree of

copy protection, as some of the older games did with actual print

or other thingies.  Still, it can keep you stuck until you get help

if you're blind.



     There's another little part of the game that requires you to

consult your game manual to find out how to properly do something.

But thankfully, the manual translates quite readily into ASCII text

form.



     In summary, I think this is a great game, well worth the $24

I paid for it.  I wish that solving the puzzle requiring the flyer

were a bit easier for blind people, but I do know that this was

probably put in not only to be a good puzzle but to provide copy

protection.  It is still a good game and I'd recommend it to

anybody wanting to play some great IF.  It is very professionally

done, and I have not found any major bugs.  Yet!  So if you've got

US$24 that you're trying to find a good way to spend, and you want

to play some great IF, then Dr. Dumont's Wild P.A.R.T.I. may be

just what you've been looking for!

+

        Lords of Time

by Level9

Reviewed by Justin Fegel



You are sitting in your living room working on a project when there is a

blinding flash of light. You look around, but nothing obvious seems to have

happened to you or your surroundings. As you scan the room you notice a

picture of a kindly old man Hanging on the wall. As you examine it the man

suddenly steps out of the picture and reveals himself to be Father Time. He

tells you that you have been chosen to save the world from the meddling of

the evil Timelords who wish to change history to meet their own ends. You

have been unaffected by their attempts to alter time and therefore, you must

travel through history to collect nine sacred artifacts and throw them in to

the cauldron at the end of time. Each of the artifacts will be marked with

the picture of an hourglass so you will be able to recognise them.



This is a large game with a lot of locations and objects to manipulate.

There are nine time zones you must travel to in order to complete the game,

which is about right since you need to find nine key items. I thought the

method of time travel was pretty cool! The time machine is a giant

grandfather clock. There are nine cogs that represent each time zone. To

travel to a particular time zone, you just turn the cog that represents that

time zone and that's it. Some of the time zones include the Roman era, the

medieval era, the Ice Age, and the future.



Lords of Time is the first in a trilogy of games known as the Time and Magik

Trilogy. The second two games in the series are Redmoon and the Price of

Magik. I haven't played much with these two games yet, but from what I've

seen of them so far, they have more of an rpg feel to them. There are

creatures to fight and there seems to be a lot of spell casting. The manual

that Level9 distributed with the trilogy is publicly available at

ftp://ftp.gmd.de in the /if-archive/level9/manuals directory. The manual

contains a background story for each of the three games. Reading these

stories is a good idea because they contain information that is not directly

available in the games themselves and you will have a better understanding

of what's going on. For instance, the background story for Lords of Time

gives information about the Timelords, Father Time, how you were chosen, why

the Timelords wanted to control time, and what happened after the Timelords

were defeated by you.



The descriptions of locations and objects were good, all most at a par with

Infocom. This game also has lots of well designed puzzles, most of which are

straight forward and logical. It might not hurt however to play with the

solution file close at hand as there are some tricky spots. You can find

solutions to Level9 games at

ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/level9/hints/solutions. Another thing that

impressed me about the game was how large its vocabulary is. Level9 games

have been known to have large game dictionaries, sometimes containing more

than 1,000 words, and I believe it! While playing the game, I don't think I

once had to rephrase a command or try to guess at a verb or a noun. This

made the game even that much more enjoyable.



I played this game using the Level9 Interpreter which I wrote about in Issue

17. This interpreter is available from ftp://ftp.gmd.de in MSDOS and Windows

versions. Look for the files l9dos.zip or l9win.zip in the directory

/if-archive/level9/interpreters/level9. Lords of Time is included in a

collection of level9 games compressed in a file called level9.zip which can

be found at ftp://ftp.gmd.de in the directory /if-archive/games/spectrum.

Unzip the compressed archive and look for the file time.sna.  If you'd like

to give Redmoon and the Price of Magik a try, they are also included in this

archive. Look for the files redmoon.sna and price.sna. To download the

manual for the Time and Magic trilogy, look for the file TimeAndMagik.zip in

the directory /if-archive/level9/manuals.

+



++

Echoes From Audyssey's Past

By Michael Feir



While searching for material for this very special issue of Audyssey, some

one pointed out that I might want to pick something previously published in

Audyssey and put it in this issue for further reflection on where we've been

and where we're going. For this issue, I decided that "Within An Old White

House", a poem I wrote in university about interactive fiction, would best

complete this issue. It reflects on how Infocom once held centre-stage with

its text games, and how the commercial world has all but passed them by. The

leap from text to graphical games was a large one for the general gaming

public. As Audyssey moves into its third year of existence, blind gamers are

about to experience a similar leap forward to Windows-based games making

extensive use of the audio capabilities offered by sound cards. Unlike the

fans of interactive fiction, we are not in danger of losing what we already

have. Interactive fiction will continue to be produced. So will DOS-based

games. We can look over this threshold without any trepidation what-so-ever.

Those without the latest computers will not suddenly find themselves with

nothing to do. Let me assure all of you that Audyssey will continue to cover

all kinds of accessible computer games. I hope all of you enjoy this look

back into our past, and also stay a part of the Audyssey community as it

enters this unknown territory we call the future.





Within An Old White House

by Michael Feir



I sat before my great machine, and gave a woeful sigh,

Countless icons filled the screen, but none would catch my eye.

Each icon ran a game I owned, from Doom to Daggerfall,

But none of these could rescue me, for I had won them all.



My case was grave and serious, since I could not afford,

To purchase any other games and keep from being bored.

My bank account was empty and my credit cards all maxed,

Any game worth paying for would be so steeply taxed.



Desperately, I donned my helmet, and got upon my bike,

And aimlessly, I rode along the paths where others hike.

Within the woods, I lost my way, far from the beaten trail,

Darkness neared, then stars appeared! My legs began to fail.



Fearful of the woods at night, I slowly peddled on,

Searching for a sheltered site where I could rest till dawn.

I came upon a small white house, its entrance boarded closed,

With all my might, I could not pass the obstacle they posed.



To have safe haven near at hand with access thusly blocked,

Was very hard for me to stand, With helpless rage, I rocked.

I paced in fury around the house, and hadn't gone too far,

When all at once, fate smiled on me, A window swung ajar.



With ebbing strength I forced it wide enough to clamber through.

A kitchen lay around me with its table set for two.

Physically exhausted, I collapsed into a chair,

An older man walked in and took the other that was there.



"I don't get many visits," Said the hermit with a chortle,

"Eccentricity compelled me to board up their standard portal."

"Rest here, my weary traveller, Feel free to help yourself."

He motioned to a bunch of tasty food upon a shelf.



We ate and talked of many games, our claims to private glory,

Of reality's far too frequent stings, and of my tragic story,

He conversed with great intelligence, in a diction quaint and kind,

His thoughtfulness would always be engraved into my mind.



At length he rose up from his place, and headed off to bed,

First showing me a couch where I could lay my weary head,

I rested well that starlit night, but had some freakish dreams,

Of darkened realms deep underground, explored by lantern beams.



My brass lamp shone on wonders, an  many terrors too,

My ears took in a dragon's roar, and the gurgles of a grue!

I walked across a rainbow, above a waterfall,

And ballooned up a volcano's core, behind an icy wall.



Waking from my dreams, I was quite startled through and through,

To discover that a part of them seemed absolutely true!

I looked around the living room, and as the hermit snored,

I saw a trophy case, a rug, a lantern and strange sword!



And as the morning sun came up, bestowing warmth and light,

The hermit came with rueful cheer and asked about my night.

I told him all that I had dreamed, and requested he explain,

This world that I had visited, so full of joy and pain.



He moved aside the oriental rug upon the floor,

I gaped in disbelief when this revealed a closed trap-door.

I helped him heave it open, since the effort made him frown,

He took the lantern from its place, and with me ventured down.



The cellar in which we found ourselves brimmed with forgotten junk,

Amid the mess, the man possessed a rusty iron trunk,

I helped him hoist the tarnished box into the living room,

He opened it with care and took its contents from their tomb.



The old computer he unveiled was piteous to behold,

I would have laughed had he not shown it reverence due to gold,

He plugged it in and turned it on, Its screen was black and white,

Its ancient disks could not hold more than half a megabyte.



"The tale I have to tell you happened in the recent past,"

"There was a firm whose every game was intricate and vast,"

"For years they were successful, and proceeded with aplomb,"

"But I doubt you've ever heard of them, for they were Infocom."



"Zork was where you were last night, They made that universe,"

"It inspired many gleeful shouts, and many a-vengeful curse."

"Just give me half a moment, and I'll show you what I mean,"

"These days what you will shortly view is all too rarely seen."



He put a disk into the drive, and entered a command,

And while the system worked he placed a book into my hand.

My fascination grew quite strong as I began to find,

Details of the fantastic place which occupied my mind.



I closed the book and found that I was thoroughly ignored,

The world could end, but he'd still bend before that old keyboard,

My anger quickly cooled and gave me cause for private shame,

Our ages were quite different, but our passions were the same.



Despite my small deduction, I still felt rather vexed,

When I looked to see my dreamscape and discovered only text!

"Take the very best in modern sound and animation,"

"And what is there will not compare with your imagination."



Doubtfully, I played his game, My choice was quickly made,

I had to find more of these games so rare and seldom played,

I almost asked the hermit why this company had died,

But the answer cut me to the bone before I even tried.



These pioneers were swept aside by new technology,

Graphic games won market shares for their simplicity,

Time turned its page upon this age of thought-provoking fun,

And Pac-man's maze became the craze obsessing everyone.



"The look upon your face tells me you've understood my story,"

"You comprehend what caused the end of Infocom's brief glory."

"But don't despair, Just be aware they've left a legacy,"

"Their games have been preserved upon the Masterpiece CD!"



"And if you can't afford to buy a copy of it yet,"

"Loyal fans have made new games and placed them on the Net!"

"And though their works are gratis, they are to a large degree,"

"Free from major glitches, and quite high in quality."



"Return now to your youthful life with my earnest benediction,"

"And do be sure you search the web for interactive fiction."



Gloss



1. The gamer bemoans his seemingly inescapable fate. Despite having an

enormous quantity of games at his disposal, he still faces the prospect of

boredom.



2. Due to previous expenditures, now devalued in the face of boredom, the

gamer lacks the financial means to purchase yet more games to fend it off.



3. Driven to drastic measures, the gamer rides his bicycle off into a nearby

forest. Failing to maintain a sense of direction, he eventually finds

himself lost. As night arrives, his legs grow weary from his continual

exertion.



4. Afraid of spending the night in the open woods, the gamer searches for a

less exposed place to spend the remainder of the night. He comes upon a

house like that found at the start of Infocom's game "Zork I: The Great

Underground Empire". As it is in the game, the gamer finds the front

entrance to the structure boarded shut. As the player of Zork cannot remove

them, neither can he despite the use of all his strength.



5. The cruel irony of his circumstances infuriates the gamer, resulting in

the bodily undulations he recounts. Unwilling to give up on the structure

entirely despite being balked by the boards, he walks around it in quest of

another means of ingress. Like the player in Zork I, he finds this in the

form of an old window left slightly ajar.



6. Despite his near exhaustion, he is able to force the window open wide

enough to allow entry. He finds himself in a kitchen, as does the player in

Zork I. Incidentally, there are no chairs in the house in the game, nor is

there an old man living in the house.



7. The old man greets the gamer by informing him of how infrequently anyone

visits the house. he then goes some way to explaining this lack of company

when he describes how his obsession with the Zork games has prompted him to

board his front door and leave his window open instead to conform with the

white house in Zork I. the hermit then offers the gamer rest and food. The

"tasty food" referred to by the hermit can actually be found in the building

found in Colossal Cave, the first computerised text adventure ever created.

this adventure would be crucial in inspiring the creation of the original

mainframe version of Zork, now known as Dungeon.



8. The gamer and hermit are better acquainted through long and worthwhile

conversation. the hermit displays intelligence, eloquence, and kindness to

the gamer, who is deeply effected by the affability of his host.



9. Growing sleepy, the hermit shows the gamer to a couch for him to sleep

on, and proceeds to his own bed. The gamer sleeps well, but has strange

dreams. These dreams are of places and events in the Zork universe. In the

Zork trilogy, the player is constantly in need of a source of light, which

is usually a battery-powered brass lantern. Almost all of the Zork trilogy

takes place in underground settings of various kinds.



10. The gamer briefly recounts the contents of his dreams. The dragon is

found in the second game of the Zork trilogy, "Zork II: The Wizard of

Froboz". Grues can be found in most of Infocom's fantasy games. They are

said to make sinister gurgles, and will devour adventurers foolish enough to

explore in darkness. The rainbow and waterfall are found in Zork I, and the

icy wall and volcano core are in Zork II.



11. The gamer awakens to find more evidence of the hermit's obsession with

the Zork universe. The items mentioned are found in the living room and

attic of the white house in Zork I.



12. The day dawns, and the hermit makes a cheerful entrance. The gamer asks

him to shed light on the mysteries surrounding the house and his dreams.



13. As the player does in Zork I, so the hermit moves aside a rug to find a

trap-door. The gamer helps him open it, and taking up an actual replica of

the famed fictitious lantern found in the Zork trilogy, they proceed

downwards into the cellar of Zork I.



14. Unlike the empty cellar in Zork I, the hermit's is full of junk. The

iron trunk is a chest found in "Zork III: The Dungeon Master". The hermit

requires the gamer's help to get it up into the living room. In Zork III,

the player must trust a pirate in order to salvage anything from the chest.



15. The computer described by the gamer in such a deprecating manner is

modelled after an Apple II E, one of the earliest popular home computers on

which games like Zork could be played. Old five-and-a-quarter-inch floppies

could normally hold around three hundred and sixty kilobytes. This is far

less than half a megabyte, which is comprised of one thousand kilobytes.



16. The hermit begins his explanation by telling the gamer about Infocom.

Despite enjoying a period of phenomenal fame and success, Infocom has since

faded largely into obscurity.



17. The hermit reveals the origin of Zork, and prepares to show his

attentive listener one of the Zork games.



18. The hermit gives the player a manual to one of the Zork games. Infocom

took extraordinary pains to provide players with plenty of background

information and documentation to its games. The Zork documentation largely

consisted of historical information, a realistic travel guide, and a

financial report from the dominant corporation in the Great Underground

Empire, or GUE.



19. The gamer emerges from being engrossed in the book to find that the

hermit is completely absorbed in the game he had originally loaded for the

gamer's benefit. The gamer is originally angered by this, but this quickly

turns to shame as he recognises that he is similarly guilty of ignoring

those around him while playing games.



20. The gamer is angry at having his expectations dashed by discovering only

text on the old screen. The hermit responds to the gamer's ire with

Infocom's response to similar surprise and questions regarding the lack of

graphics in their games.



21. The gamer quickly finds himself hooked on interactive fiction, and is

led to wonder why such good games could not support the company which made

them. Before he can ask, he intuits the answer of why Infocom collapsed

commercially.



22. The gamer realises that graphical games, far easier to grasp

intuitively, spelled the demise of Infocom. As graphical games became more

refined, Infocom's text games were unable to attract such large numbers of

entertainment-seekers. In truth, Sierra's graphical adventures were a more

direct threat to Infocom's survival. As the King's Quest, Space Quest, and

Police quest games emerged, they provided a midpoint between the simple

video game and the brain-taxing and completely non-visually stimulating text

adventure.



23. The Masterpiece CD referred to by the hermit is produced by Activision,

and is called the Infocom Masterpieces CD. It contains thirty of Infocom's

best games, and can be found in computer stores.



24. The hermit gives the financially strapped gamer further cause for

celebration by telling him of the many free works of interactive fiction

obtainable from the Internet. These are mostly found at:

ftp.gmd.de/if-archive.

The entire Zork trilogy can be found at:

ftp.activision.com/activision/zork/legacy

Hints and documentation for these games is available at:

ftp.gmd.de/if-archive



25. The hermit ends his lecture, and tells the gamer to return home and try

these games for himself.



The End



+++

Contacting Us

I can be reached in three ways. The easiest is through CompuServe.

My e-mail address has recently changed to a much easier one for you to

remember. It is now:

Michaelfeir@csi.com

You can also call me via telephone. I have voicemail, so you can

leave a message if you fail to catch me at home and off-line. I'll

do my best to return calls, but won't accept collect calls. My

number is as follows:

(905)-814-0608



Alternatively, you may correspond with me on 3.5-inch disks,

provided you be sure to send them in returnable disk-mailers. I

don't have the money to pay for postage. My mailing address is:

5787 Montevideo Road

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Postal code: L5N 2L5



Adam Taylor, star of Adam, The Immortal Gamer, and our resident

ADOM guru, can be reached three ways. You can send him e-mail at:

blade@ican.net



Or, you can check out his homepage on the web:

Blade's Armory

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/9111

His page is dedicated to providing help, cheats and solutions to

many games. Send him a request, and he'll do his best to find what

you need. He also has sections on ADOM and Nethack available. And,

you can download the magazine from his page.



Finally, if you wish to contact him at home, his address is: 3082

Bartholomew Crescent

Mississauga, Ontario

Canada L5N 3L1



Justin Fegel is one of our two interactive fiction staff members.

He will be happy to advise and guide players through the many

interactive fiction games out there. He can be contacted at:

zardak@dmv.com



James Peach, our commercial games expert, will do his best to

advise those seeking commercial entertainment which is accessible

to blind players with or without sighted assistance. He can be

contacted at:

jamespeach@hotmail.com



Kelly Sapergia is another expert in interactive fiction. He is a

well-established reviewer of games for Audyssey, and has an

interest in developing interactive fiction as well as playing it.

He can be contacted at:

http://sf.live365.com/ksapergia





Michael Feir, Editor of Audyssey

E-mail: michaelfeir@csi.com

Phone: (905-814-0608



To unsubscribe from AUDYSSEY send a message to LISTSERV@SOFTCON.COM with 

unsubscribe AUDYSSEY in the body of the message.

Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.