Dear IE,

At LONG last I've broken down and written you. I've been meaning to for some time (like since episode 3). Before I get to my point in writing, I'll try to ensure that this IS published.

IE IS BETTER THAN SEX! (almost)

Let me wipe this brown stuff off my nose now. ... OK, now to the point of my letter. I usually watch IE in Demo Mode then later go over it in standard mode to get a second look at key points of interest. For episode 17, however, I had a friend over who insisted on "Just looking at a few things." When I then went to demo mode for the whole picture I noticed a difference that was not there before. No AVI video clips! They were there in standard mode, but they were skipped over in Demo Mode! The question is, why?

Next question. You were able to give some advice to a budding programmer for writing a game. What about some advice for a budding writer who can barely program a VCR? I am developing a game's plot, storyline, missions, ships, the whole 25 yards, BUT I only know about a dozen Turbo Pascal commands and that's about as far as it looks like I'll ever go. Any game companies I could send my ideas to with any hope of seeing a finished product out of this? (Or at least get a letter that says, "We ran the numbers and while it looks like a killer game, it would run slowly on Pentium 133 with 192MB of RAM and a 9 gig drive.") If you want details just ask, they you can say "cool" or "junk" in regard to my ideas.

Now, for praise. I liked the most recent incarnation of your interviews. Not having to bog through those questions was a big relief. Also the changing backgrounds were a hoot, but I kept seeing a pointer and pull-down menus appearing on the sides. One more bug that needs to be squashed.

I feel I should point out I am the founder, president, secretary, and only member of the North East PA Official Throg Fan Club. Why didn't you have him for the "Ultimate Doom" review? You should have more of that fun-loving ... whatever he is.

One last note. In your review of SimIsle that Ricardo Montalban impression sounded more like Dracula. No biggie, but it's the sort of thing you would point out in a game.

D.H.
Scranton, PA

P.S. I know none of the fonts will make it into the letters section, but I figured it couldn't hurt.