In that I have no one large topic to address this month, I'm going to steal a format lock, stock, and barrel from Suck (http://www.suck.com trust me on this one) and treat several unrelated topics at a shorter length. Bear with me.

One of our readers, a dedicated fan of Earthdawn, called up the other day and very generously gave us a couple of corrections for "Causoban," the Earthdawn city-cum-scenarios we ran in SHADIS #24 and #25. Consequently, we'd like to correct the following errors:

• The Scourge lasted for four hundred years, not eight hundred.
• There are Troll player-characters, but no Ogre player-chatacters.

Thanks for the tips, and we promise not to make any more erors in the futrue!

Activision

I was recently in an electronics store (the third most dangerous shopping environment for me, (behind bookstores and music stores), and on impulse I picked up a discounted copy of the Atari 2600 Action Pack. Remember all those early 1980s, when Activision was pushing the envelope of 2600 capabilities with Kaboom and Pitfall? Well, 15 of those games are on one CD-- following in the footsteps of Infocom's twin CDs which collected all of their text adventures in one e place. The collection appeals to the same set of brain cells which thinks, "Hey, a lava lamp Cool!"

It's been well over a decade since . played any of these games, and I was momentarily shocked to find how kind my memory had been to the graphics. Contrariwise, the help screens, which included occasional designer notes, were rather more enlightening this time around; then are quotes like "In those days, we had to build everything from the pixel up" and "Games were only 2K in the beginning.... I had to modify he chip to [design a 4K game]." (Bob Whitehea d, author of Boxing, Chopper Command, Stampede, and other games.)

The graphics are jaggy enough to cut your finger on, and the gameplayy is no longer as challenging - I've had twelve years to develop, my hand--eye coordination - but these are still fun for a change of pace. To complete the authenticity of the gaming experience, there is a "Nagging Mom" feature built in which will occasionally exhort you to turn off the games and come to dinner. Unlike the first time around, this feature can now be turned off.

Ann Dupuis, of Grey Ghost Games, recently asked us to insert an announcement calling for game masters and players in the second annual FUDGE Tournament, at Origins in Columbus. Unfortunately, due to space limitations, we don't have room to make the announcement... sorry, Ann! (Further info is available on the World Wide Web at http//members.aol.com/ghostgames .