Wednesday, January 31, 2001

The Postman Unleashes the Dogs of War

Unbriddled Ebay enthusiasm for my refound love of war games has made my mail box go BOOOM.

Recently foudn in the box:
  • Kriegspiel from Avalon Hill circa 1970
  • Asteroid Pirates from Yaquinto
  • the 15 Task Force Games listed a few days ago
  • PanzerBlitz from Avalon Hill (I actualy bought this one from a game store)
  • 221 B Baker Street
  • Monday, January 29, 2001

    Free Game: Battle Of Seattle

    Heres a great little game I found this morning called The Battle Of Seatle. The premiss and plot center around the WTO civil/uncivil action up in Seattle. Its a perfect example of a good DTP game. The rules, map and game counters are all there for the grabbing, just add a printer and youve got another game in your cabinet.

    I have writting the author to see if they have a CyberBoard for it; if not Im going to take a crack at it. If you play this game, let me know and we can meet on the streets for some civil unrest.

    Friday, January 26, 2001

    Free Zope Hosting

    A compnay called NIP Ltd. is offering free zope hosting. This is the first of its kind i have come across. Yea its in the UK and yea its not the speediest connection but its free and its zope and they have Squish dot as one of thier allowed objects.

    As some of you know WSMF was running some very usefull Zope projects up unitl i moved out of DSL land. Befoire I start send folks over there for new WSMF projects, like a wargame./boardgame site, Im going to shake it down over the next few days. If this works out it means I can do zope sites again over the internet. At work I have a few projects hosted, but not being able to do my own zope stuff on the internet has really taken a bite out of the effectiveness of WSMFs many projects. Egroups and Blogger are great for many things, but nothing near what a site running a few key zope objects can do (ie squishdot, zwiki, zsql, etc)

    (if anyone has an internet based zope site up and wants to dontate some space to wsmf, well as nelson mandella says "aint to proud to beg")

    Here are the links http://freezope.nipltd.net/

    and the starts of a WSMF game site at http://freezope.nipltd.net/wsmf/games/

    Tuesday, January 23, 2001

    The microGames Keep Rolling In

    15Task Force Mini Games Shrinkwrappedare now mine. In an ebay score I have won the auction that includes the following Task Force games:
    • Valkenburg Castle
    • Cerberus Task Force Game #3
    • Intruder Task Force Game #6
    • Starfire II
    • Spellbinder
    • Robots!
    • Survival / The Barbarian
    • Ultrawarrior
    • Starfire III Empires
    • Moon Base Clavius
    • The Warriors of Batak
    • Boarding Party
    • Escape From Altassar
    • City States of Arklyrell
    • Checkpoint Omega

    As a nice bonus there is a copy of the first issue of “Interplay” – The Metagaming house organ.

    Now thats a lot of Game Luvin in one purchase.

    Monday, January 22, 2001

    Thin Devices

    How to increase profits? Lower costs and sell it like hotcakes. Easier said than done for a large chunk of the production industry but this site shows at least one company with the goods.

    DTC currently has a working model for a paper thin cell phone that can be used and rubishtized. Next up on thier agenda, a Paper Laptop Computer

    Friday, January 19, 2001

    221 B Baker Street on the Decks

    Another day, another game has been reclaimed from the great entropy machine of time. This times its 221 B Baker Street, a game I hope to adopt so Heather can play soon.

    As always Opponents Wanted.

    Wednesday, January 17, 2001

    Old and New Games for the Grabbing

    Have you ever wanted to play Ancient Art of War, MULE, TacOps and a slew of other games that circulated on your computer over the last 30 or so years? If so head on over to The Underdog Games Site. Here you will find well over 1500 full computer games form the 70's thru the Now that are either Abandoned, Forgotten, or let out as Free by the creators. A truly amazing site when you see the scope of depth they reivew, document and comment on these games as well as making full versions of them available to play.

    To see a bit of their goods, here is a list of War Games sorted by Yeard , heres just the SSI Games. The fun is never ending at this site.

    If nothing else this will be a great tool to work out new game ideas by using the old ones as test beds and jumping off points.
    Warp War on the Decks

    Yes strategy game fever is taking hold. I just own an ebay auction for a copy of Warp War . This is the first ebay thing i have bid on in years, had to make a new account and everything.

    If things go well I should be able to play this in a week or two. I think i already have the Cyberboard gamebox for it. If anyone wants to partake in a few games let me know.

    Tuesday, January 16, 2001

    FlashBack Philosophy

    Ive been spending the last few months reading and working thru the masses of mouths talking about/peddling/ushing various hazzanas to P2P. Seems to me its yet another hype fest set up by and for the same mouths that were feed by the hype of B2B, TheWeb, IntraNetworking, and going back to the 80's..Expert Systems.

    Sharing data and building group workspaces is nothing new. Its the continuing extension of the need for people to be connected. Everything and Egroups are more P2P in practice than 80% of the schemes Ive heard come out of the lists of pundits.

    The best thing to come out of the whole thing is my refinding Adam Ant. Yea its a jump or two on the tree of interconnectedness, but it is the shiz.....

    I'm the dandy highwayman so sick of easy fashion
    the clumsy boots, peek-a-boo roots that people think so dashing
    so what's the point of robbery when nothing is worth taking? (oh oh)
    it's kind of tough to tell a scruff the big mistake he's making


    we're the dandy highwaymen so tired of excuses
    of deep meaning philosophies where only showbiz loses
    we're the dandy highwaymen and here's our invitation (oh oh)
    "throw your safety overboard and join our insect nation"


    stand and deliver your money or your life!
    try and use a mirror no bullet or a knife!


    and even though you fool your soul
    your conscience will be mine
    all mine

    Sunday, January 14, 2001

    Let the Games Begin

    Having spent the last few weeks reintroducing myself to the wonderfull world of war and strategy games I am wanting more now than ever to play these things. If you are a playa drop me a line.

    The person who got me itching for these things, one Mr T Blake, as released a new game of his own creation. Im going to sit down today to learn it and possibly get the author himself to playtest a game with me. The game is called Insectica , go give it a whirl.

    Thursday, January 11, 2001

    Once More Into The Breech

    Whats made out of paper and can conquere the world? An old war game chit. Back from teh days of yesteryear the Wargame Fever is back on me. Since finding Cyberboard [1], a program that allows people to play these old crusties on a PC, I have been getting the hankering to take over the world, drop into a bug hunt, flip some cards and roll the dice once more.If you are a dormant wargamer I would suggest heading over to The PBem Emporium for a quick refresher. If your interested I am working on compiling the best of the web, ftp and other sites onto one cd. So far its packed with rules, boards, game playing aids and other utilities like Cyberboard.

    [1]The CyberBoard board gaming system makes playing board games by mail and electronic mail a more enjoyable experience. The system allows you to easily graphically design the various parts of a board game on your computer. The players can make their moves and exchange recorded versions of the moves with their opponents. The opponent can then play back the moves. Although many types of games may be created using CyberBoard, games that use counters or chits such as war games work particularly well.

    Wednesday, January 10, 2001

    The OTR 800 News LIne

    Need a fix of whats new, exciting and bubling up in the world of OTR? Dial the number belwo and follow the easy instructions. Its a real 800 number, so dont worry about charges or scams.
    The message will have the current status of the OTree System, news and information on OTR happenings in general, and lots of information you might find helpfull in your OTR endevours.
    Updates will happen at least once a day, probably more if things are jumping.
    So how do you listen to to the OTR Announcements?
    1. Call Tellme at 1-800-555-TELL. 2. At the Tellme Menu, enter the Announcement number: 1-509-749.
    Free Legit Books Online

    Some authors get it, that treating unfetered file sharing as a possible entry into the consumers mindspace could boost sales of tangible objects. The book publisher Bean has opened its web site up to its authors who would like to make thier works avialble for free to the nets populace. The Bean Free Library has only a few authors now, but I expect it will grow over time. Its good to see a publisher make a move like this in a market full of other companys falling over each other to make proprietary fee based system and over priced reader devices to peddle thier books.

    Tuesday, January 09, 2001

    1 800 555 TELL

    I have been using the TellMe service off an on for a few months, but recently things seem to be jumping up with new features, extensions, more free services, and some great users making the most of the services. http://www.tellme.com/ is where to go on the net to learn more about it or just pick up any phone and dial 1 800 555 TELL
    New Offerings in the OTree System

    The following Collections are beinging injected into the OTree system. If your not a memeber head on over to the Otree Main Egroup and read the FAQ on the hows and wherefors of joining up and having your snailmail box blessed wiht OTR goodies.

  • The Great Gildersleve (4 cds) (package 013)
  • Have Gun Will Travle + Six Shooter + Ft Larimie (3 cds) (package 014)
  • Amos and Andy (3 cds) (package 015)
  • Boston Blackie + Frank Race (3 cds) (package 016)
  • Stephen Hawkings -- Dropping Da Bombs

    Most of the world knows Prof Hawkings for his thoughts on the universe and its workings. Few people know of his lyrical stylings. The www.mchawking.com site will go a long way to correcting this. Be sure to check out the mp3 section.