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Letters from our readers

To the Editor:

Regarding your Glitchery column in the first issue, Columbus sailed to the west, not the east. Sailing east, he’d have crashed back on shore.

Steve Burkow
Santa Monica, CA

Lucky for him we weren’t navigating.

To the Editor:

I think it was obnoxious the way you used your book review page in the second issue to badmouth most of the videogame books on the market. They’re not as bad as you think!

C. Berkowitz
Hartsdale, NY

Book critic E.C. Meade replies, “Actually, they’re worse. And what’s amazing is that there are more on the way, witness Playing Donkey Kong to Win; How to Beat Atari, Intellivision, and Other Home Video Games; and Defending the Galaxy: The Complete Handbook of Videogaming. It’s some consolation that most of these books have been colossal flops. As for our criticisms being obnoxious, the books are worthless whether we say so or not — so we might as well say so.”

To the Editor:

On the subject of Supergaming through enhanced sound, you neglected the piece de resistance: using a reverb or echo on the videogame sound. Doing so makes your explosions sound like explosions! If you add that sound the music, as suggested, you’ll never bother visiting an arcade again.

Jay H. Wald
Whippany, NJ

We will be dealing with enhanced sound effects in an upcoming issue.

To the Editor:

I enjoyed your first issue, and found the article on “Supergaming” especially interesting. I have tried to find the Teledapter around town, but no one knows anything about it. Please let me know how I can get this device by mail.

Bill Slagle
Corpus Christi, TX

You can write to Rhoades National Corporation at PO Box 1052, Highway 99E, Columbia, TN 38401 for information about all of the Teledapter units or call, toll free, 800-251-8608.

To the Editor:

With all the companies that are entering the videogame market, and with nearly one hundred cartridges available for the various systems, it’s impossible to look at a package and decide which game will be worth thirty to forty dollars. Can you publish brief evaluations of every game on the market?

The Bastiens
Prince George, British Columbia

We’re considering it. In the meantime, as useless as most of the books about videogames tend to be, two or three of them do offer ratings of virtually all the cartridges.

To the Editor:

I was very happy to pick up the second issue of your fine publication and read Richard Meyers’ look at the state of the pinball industry. I’m as hopeful as Mark Ritchie regarding the future of the industry: I’ve seen people at arcades wander from crowded Centipede games and try their hand at pinball.

Although diehard fans resent the invasion of “our” field by computer-like designs and digital printouts, if change is the price of survival, I’m all for it.

I’m not sure that either the Hyperball rapid-fire approach, or the Caveman pinball-videogame approach is going to last. They seem more like gimmicks than like embellishments of the medium. But pinball can tolerate experimentation since the basic idea of the game is so sound.

One variation I’d like to see is a multi-level pinball game where you can choose the level on which you’d like to start. The game would be less predictable that way.

Please keep up your coverage of this video-related field.

Carl Goldstein
Philadelphia, PA

We intend to feature pinball articles whenever we happen upon an interesting facet of the industry. This happens to be the case with our next issue, when Richard Meyers takes a look at one of the more glamorous aspects of the pinball industry.

To the Editor:

I’d like to know what your staff thinks are the best of the home videogames. And while you’are at it, no one’s ever given a definitive answer as to which of the home units really is the top-of-the-heap.

Pauline Price
Colt’s Neck, NJ

We’re preparing a comprehensive look at all the home units, and plan to compare them all early next year. As for which videogames are the best, it’s obvious that everyone’s taste and opinion is going to differ. A football fan might find Intellivision’s cartridge yards ahead of any space game, while a science fiction fan may swear that ColecoVision’s exciting Cosmic Avenger is, was, and always will be the most challenging videogame of them all. What we have to say pro and con to you will be cited in our Preview section, but the “best” labels are ones we feel should be left to the individual players.