The Fix You're In

by Jon Compton

Smashing Gremlins

In issues two and three there were some strange text kerning problems. Although the problems that occurred in issue three were caught at blueline stage and corrected, many noticed the closeness of punctuation marks to the lower case "y," and the tightness of letters following capital "W" in issue two. We'd like to be able to come out and say this problem has been corrected, but the truth ofthe matter is we frankly don't even knowwhat caused the problems in the first place. We spent considerable amounts of time on the phone with Adobe and Corel Corporations, but to no avail. Speculation has been that the problem was caused by the new Lino650 typesetter, but others think that since the job was run on a new Pentium computer, the kerning problems are a result of the divide error fault in the Pentium processor. Although these speculations amount to little better than guesses, we have stopped running GameFix on both machines. If these actions fix the problems, we'll count our lucky stars and go on. If not, we'll try something else. [As a footnote, if Corel Corporation doesn't get their act together with Ventura 5.0, a good case will be made for switching to Macintosh!]

The Dating Game

A few astute observers out there will note that we bumped our cover date up one month. This action does not mean we are going to continue to run late. The staff at GameFix is currently attempting to get the magazine distributed at Tower Books. For this to happen, the cover date must be well in advance of when the issue actually ships, more so even than if we were on our originally intended publication schedule. Rest assured that GameFix is not skipping a month or an issue.

Up and Coming

Looking ahead, issue six will contain Joe Miranda's Redline Korea. RK deals with the potential for conflict with North Korea in the coming years. Issue seven will have The Big One, a strategic level game of the conflict in Europe during the Second World War. The Big One was originally published by 3W as 2WW, but has been extensively redeveloped by Paul Cooper. Issue eight will have another Joe Miranda game, but this time the game is Cybernaut, a science fiction game of computer warfare. Issue nine will contain a Guadalcanal game from Mike Smith, and issue ten will have Timothy Kutta's So Sioux Me. Be advised that although issues six and seven are etched in stone, the rest are not and are subject to change.

In This Issue

Once again you'll notice we've made a few more small changes in GameFix. Last issue you probably noticed the redesigned cover; now you'll see we've turned our attention to the inside of the magazine. Much of this alteration is due to the insightful comments of Redmond Simonsen, whose helpful suggestions have caused us to continue to reevaluate our look and impact.

A new column we've added this month is Tim Kutta's Behind the Lines, featuring Joe Miranda in this issue. Joe's thoughtful and sometimes controversial ideas stand out in this piece. Tim will continue to seek out interesting hobby personalities and ask them probing questions in future issues. The interviews will not be limited to designers alone, but will include people whose contributions to the hobby range from graphic arts to company management. In this way we think you'll get a broader view of the people who make up the business end of the gaming industry. Tim has even threatened to make me submit to a grilling, and I've promised him more controversy than he'll know what to do with.

Also new to issue five is the industry news feature. Here you will find out about industry goings-on, and other information tidbits. It is not a rumor column; don't believe it unless you read it here.

You will also find, as promised, the optional rules for issue four's Bombs Awayl game. These include rules for solitaire play and variable victory.

Back Issues Still Available We still have issues 1- 4 in stock. They are available direct from GPG for the cover price, shipping inside the US included. Canadians please add $1.00 per issue shipping, overseas add $4.00 per issue.