LINE NOISE News from Chez Diesel 25 June, 1989 STRIKE! A wildcat 24-hour strike by Space Traffic Controllers last week hit Fed Data Space, as Union Members revolted against the Galactic Administration's proposals to change working conditions in the Solar System's busy space-ports. In a near-total walkout of staff, Earth, Castillo and Venus ports were brought to a standstill, with ships being allowed to land but not to orbit again. Non- Union staff were bussed into the remaining planets and managed to keep the ports open, crossing the picket lines much to jeers and cries of 'Scab!' from the strikers. Thanks to the swift intervention of OILAS (Our Illustrious Leader's Arbitration Service) the strikers returned to work the next day as talks were convened to reach a compromise. But industrial relations broke down comp- letely again last night, leading to new action which shut down Fed Data Space in it's entirety, and this sorry state of affairs continues. Once again, OILAS is attempting to resolve matters, but meanwhile (as usual) it is the ordinary man, woman or thing who suffers. Promotions news... Cryptosporidium has been promoted to Trader. And Merchant. At the same time! Such was the extent of her wealth that even as an Adventureuse she had more than the required stats for Merchant, so skipped the tedious Trader level completely. Next we'll be seeing a GrounHog being promoted straight to Explorer! Ensor has solved the GM puzzle, but while trying to help him gain his promotion Bella and Pugwash had a few difficulties! Working together, they attempted to take out the satellites for him several times, but failed miserably - and only just escaped death, much to their disgust. Licking their wounds later in Chez Diesel (Social Centre of the Solar System) they were even more disgruntled when Hawk managed to do the job single-handed. They were seen later huddled over a large bottle of Snarcott's Rigellian Green Chilli Vodka muttering about faulty weapons... Fed Data Space has certainly suffered a plague of journalists recently. Following the dreadful review in Games Magazine, Zzap 64 managed to completely trivialise the game in their new Compunet page, being more concerned with the cost of the game than whether it was any good or not! And now City Limits, a London listings magazine, has decided to do a feature on people who are addicted to computer games and have picked Fed to illustrate their 'expose'. The journalist in question met a small selection of Fedders at the Atari Show yesterday, but what impression he formed from the rather chaotic and drunken discussion remains to be seen! He is currently running around with the persona Gonzalez, so if you come across him, react accordingly. On the subject of (so-called) journalists it has been announced that the gutterpress rag TWF is being relaunched under a new name which I find deeply and personally offensive. I can only urge all Fedders to boycott this reprehensible 'newspaper' in protest. Our Illustrious Leader has been continuing to slave over a hot monitor doing the background work which will enable companies and planets to be implemented. Although much of this is invisible to the players, she has also put in a few new features. She engaged the services of a demolition company to remove the Bank from the eastern side of Earth. This building had been causing a lot of confusion to GroundHogs, who thought they had to go there to arrange loans for their ships. The northern part of the banking complex, which contained public conveniences, is still present, but the main building is now under development, and archaeologists excavating the site have uncovered the remains of an ancient monument. Work has ceased on redeveloping the site while this is investigated. Hagar has opened a new music emporium near the Office Block on Earth. Catering for all musical tastes, it even stocks Sevrina's records! The winged sugarlump that lies on the Venus slideways has an additional use. As well as being edible (if rather bad for the teeth) it now provides a very useful form of protection for the more violent amongst you. Totally useless, but entertaining none- the-less, you can now slide down the banisters in the Mansion on Earth, much to the disgust of the Butler. The development of Quark missiles has been delayed by the ineptitude of the physicists working on them, but they hope to have them on sale soon. Our Illustrious Leader promises that companies will go in with the next new version. Further planetary construction tools will follow, and it shouldn't be long now before you all have new territory to explore. But we all know about Bella's promises! The Hazed-by-Alcohol team have been busy working on various projects. Issue #002 of DATA SPACE, the free Fed newsletter, is being cobbled together and will be available in about a week. An additional section of the Explorer's Guide is currently being written, explaining how to use the planetary construction tools (which are a little confusing!) It should be unploaded in the next few days. And programmers at Pegasus Software Services, a subsidiary of Hazed-by- Alcohol, have been working flat-out to fix the bugs in the new version of Peg- term+ for C64 owners. It offers many goodies, such as allowing you to define your own F-keys (although the feature which resulted in many players unintentionally selling their ships has been removed!) It will also be available in the next few days. On the personal side, there has been much high drama in Fed Data Space recently. Sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll has been rampant, as has violence! Cryptosporidium, flushed with the success of her double-promotion, has resumed her homicidal activities and lurks in the Interplanetary Wastes blasting anything that comes her way. You have been warned! Roxanne, once the most naive player, has discovered sex. After months of protesting innocence and disinterest, she persuaded Naias to give her lessons, and now seems set on seducing every man in sight. But although her sexual techniques seem to be quite adequate, she has missed completely the point of Lesson 5 on Tact, and has made quite a few enemies with her relentless pursuit of unwilling partners. Pugwash suffered a close brush with death when Deadly injected her with a large dose of BloodHype. Only the quick thinking of Magius saved her life, but she found herself addicted to the evil drug and went through torment trying to kick the habit. With the encouragement of Magius she finally pulled herself through the ordeal, and has vowed revenge on Deadly. The Sexiest Fedder has recently announced that she is closing down the Courtesan side of Pugwash Executive Services. I have been unable to ascertain her motives for this shock move - when questioned, all she would say is that it just wasn't the same anymore! Whatever her reasons, it will come as a bitter blow to her many satisfied customers.