Priscilla was a writer long before fate, or more probably an advertisment, brought her to the west coast of Ireland. Hardly a computer expert at that stage, she looked upon the micro as another medium, like books or comics, to be exploited as a rich experience - rather like the school. In fact the Secret of St Brides , their first adventure, set in the corridors and dormitories of the house, then out onto the cliffs, came from a game that they would play as they took the pupils on rambles. A mystery would be created from a few bare facts found as they walked along the shore. Selling at first by mail order only, via a suggestive show of stocking tops and school uniform, Secret sold well enough to gather some good reviews and cement a proper distribution deal.
People make a fetish of excess sophistication.
Its main strength lies in Priscilla's writing skills, which are both witty and atmospheric. Secret is also refreshingly different - there's not an orc or an elf in sight. And it casts you in the role of a female character, though neither woman sees herself as carrying out a crusade for women in computing. Spurred on by their success, the Games Mistresses, as they styled themselves, set to work on The Snow Queen , intended to be the first of a series of tie-ins with books in which it's hoped that facsimilie editions will accompany the game. Snow Queen is based on a classic, dark fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen in which a girl seeks to save her brother whose view of life has been corrupted by a fragment of a mirror made by the devil.