
From freeplay@snet.net Sat Jan  4 19:25:10 1997
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 22:19:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Shnayer <freeplay@snet.net>
To: freeplay@marit.cypronet.com
Subject: FreePlay Newsletter Vol 1.12 (Dec 16,1996)

F R E E P L A Y !
Multiplayer Internet Gaming Newsletter
Vol 1.12 - Dec 16, 1996
Home Page - http://freeplay.home.ml.org
Archives - ftp://ftp.etext.org/Pub/Zines/FreePlay (also at WWW site)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Murphy's Law of Lag: You will always freeze as
soon as you need to avoid something.

Murphy's Second Law of Lag: No matter how
lagged you are, you can always be lagged more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor - Mark Shnayer <freeplay@snet.net>
Associate Editor - Scott Grattan <scotti@gj.net>
Copy Editor - Leann Shnayer (no email id yet, im working on it :)
Reporter - Andy Hartwell <phatso@world2u.com>
Webmaster - Orog Ork <orogork@cs.tu-berlin>

Sections
-----------
Announcement - Goodbye Geocities and we got TWO FTP sites.
Editorial - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Rambling On - By Scott Grattan.
Gaming News - All the multiplayer news you can use.
Hot Links - Bookmark these now!
Resources - To make multiplayer gaming a heck of a lot easier
Updates -  Take old bugs out, put new ones in.
Previews - The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Review.
PBEM Games - Play By Email Games
Online Games - Multiplayer Internet Games you can play NOW
Humor  - Something to make you laugh while you are gaming
Details  - How to subscribe, back issues, legal junk
************************************************************************

Announcement
------------

We have a new copy editor!
--------------------------
After re-reading and spellchecking this newsletter three hundred and
eight nine times (but, who's counting), I have drafted my wife into
becoming our official Copy Editor. She says "under protest" because he is
NEVER getting off the &#(^%$ computer otherwise!
Among her other duties are rubbing my sore back from leaning over and
staring at the computer monitor for hours on end!


Goodbye to Geocities.
---------------------
The FreePlay WWW site is moving to Dragonfire.
The new address will be http://www.dragonfire.net/~freeplay
It will hopefully be up there early January.
It would have been there already but they just suffered a major disk
crash. (on Friday the Thirteenth, wouldn't ya know, with me in the
middle of uploading my html stuff for my WWW pages!).
Once they replace their crashed ftp drive I will archive the FreePlay
newsletters at my anon ftp site there and get the FreePlay WWW site up
There will also be a mirror ftp at ftp.etext.org just in case.
But keep your bookmark set to http://freeplay.home.ml.org
As soon as the WWW stuff is moved to the .org URL will
automagically send you to the new and improved FreePlay home page.

FreePlay Newsletter is now archived at ftp.etext.org
---------------------------------------------------
Issues #1 thru #9 of the FreePlay Newsletter in .zip format are
now available at ftp.etext.org.
Click on ftp://ftp.etext.org/Pub/Zines/FreePlay
if your email reader supports clicking on URL's or
using your favorite ftp client go to the above.
I will be uploading issues Vol1.10, 1.11, and 1.12 shortly.

************************************************************************

Editorial - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
---------
Isn't anybody RELEASING any multiplayer games??? It is getting damn hard
to find recently released online games. Instead, the preview section of
this newsletter has overtaken the online game section!
It used to be Microsoft was THE company to hype their software years in
advance with previews and rumors and private beta tests. They were
accused of issuing vaporware, rumors, and press releases just to try to
control or stop other companies from developing in a specific market
till they got their product released.
Now, its every and all the gaming companies pulling the same stunt.
If this keeps up I will have to rename the newsletter to the
FreePlay Preview of Multiplayer Games newsletter!

We are taking a Holiday Break, so no issue on Dec 30.
The next issue of the FreePlay newsletter will go out January 13,1997.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
************************************************************************

Rambling On - By Scott Grattan.
http://www.gj.net/~scotti
-------------------------
Well, I finally got tired of putting together web pages for other people
and get something up for myself.  If you are looking for something
entirely unexciting, this is the place to go!  I haven't had much time to
put into it, but I'll be working on it, so check in a month or so. If it
still hasn't changed, please email me and tell me to get my ass moving on
it.

Diablo has hit the shelves in some areas, but not here.  I've got every
store in town on auto-dial, in case they forget to call me when it comes
in.  If you've got it, I'm jealous.

Magic: The Gathering has been a much anticipated item, and MicroProse
finally managed to squeeze out a demo!  I think the competition they're
getting from Acclaim to release M:TG is lighting a much-needed fire under
their butts, and hopefully we'll see something before Christmas.  Read
more about it in my reviews in this issue (in the online gaming section).

Computer Player, a magazine (you people DO still read, don't you?) is a
mag that I never really paid much attention to until recently.  They're
getting better and better about their reviews and content of articles.
Now, they're changing their name to Computer & NET PLAYER, and as far as
I know they're the first to claim NET gaming savvy-ness (a word?  it is
now!).  I found myself agreeing with MOST of their reviews, and they
manage to get some real juicy stuff dug up.  In addition to changing
their name, they're also allying themselves with OGR (online gaming
review (http://www.ogr.com)), a well-known source of information when it
comes to up and coming gaming news.  Check them both out!

SkyNET has been taking quite a bit of my time lately.  If you checked
out Future Shock, and weren't impressed, join the club.  But SkyNET has a
lot more playability, and is net-able!  I haven't found anyone to play
yet, but when I do, I'm sure I'll have to sacrifice even more of my sleep
/eat/work time.  Between everything else that's coming out, we're going
to have to start lobbying for longer hours in the day!  If you do have
SkyNET, here's a few things for ya to try:

SkyNET Cheat Codes
------------------
Hit ALT and \ at the same time to be able to enter these codes:
GARBLE          Garble cheat codes toggle
SUPERUZI        Get the Super UZI
ICANTSEE        Show viewscreen
WHOAMI          Shows your name
COUNTERS        Shows current co-ordinates
VERSION         Shows version
HELLO           Shows message: Hello?

If you're REALLY bored, try shooting the moon.  Those guys at Bethesda
must have a lot of free time on their hands!  Go to their homepage
(http://www.bethsoft.com) for the latest patch.  No more dying from
sliding!

Well, time to get back to acting like I'm working.  Next time I'll have
something to say about Diablo (didn't I say that last time?), as well as
a bunch of other things that are looming on the horizon.  '97 is going
to be an awesome year for games, but I'm sure I'll wind up having to buy
all kinds of neat gizmos for them too.  Such is the burden we gamers face,
but the ride is worth the price of admission!
************************************************************************


Gaming News - All the multiplayer news you can use.
-----------

Happy Puppy
http://happypuppy.com
----------------------
A web site for video game players, last Wednesday Happy Puppy announced
it will shift its editorial coverage to focus exclusively on consumer
gamers.

Coverage of the gaming business, of interest primarily to people within
the gaming industry, will be discontinued.
(FreePlay: the heck with them , I hate all that yellow background on
their WWW pages, and I *HATE* the way the left frame is constantly
pushing banner ads and other ads in your face.)

Programmer fired for unauthorized content in computer game
----------------------------------------------------------
12/06/96 - 10:03 AM ET By The Associated Press_
SAN FRANCISCO - Buxom beauties are fine but buff hunks aren't, a gay
programmer discovered when he got fired for adding some muscle men in
swim trunks to a computer game.

Jacques Sevrin, who worked at Maxis Inc., slipped the unauthorized
characters - who kiss each other on some days - into the new action game
SimCopter, a follow-up to the popular SimCity 2000 game.

In the new game, players fly rescue missions through a complex
3-D city with tiny characters in the background.

"The artist that was working on it made them these standard
female computer-game bimbos, really skimpy shorts, big breasts
- what you'd expect," Sevrin said Wednesday.

The male figures were "really dumpy, little squat middle-aged
types," he said, so he threw in some beefcakes.

The game was released Nov. 20 and 78,000 copies were shipped
before the company discovered the additions.

Sevrin was fired the next day for "adding the unauthorized
content," a violation of company policy, Maxis spokesman
Patrick Buechner said.

The additions also went unnoticed by even hard-core devotees
of the game, said WiredNews, an on-line news service that
first reported Sevrin's firing. New versions of the game,
which will ship starting next week, won't contain the hunks.

Sevrin, 33, said since the company doesn't object to images of
scantily clad women, studly men also should be allowed. He
said there was nothing overtly sexual about his characters.
"These boys in swim trunks just walk around - very rarely, I
might add - except on certain days of the year," he said.

On those dates, which the program automatically reads based on
the computer's internal calendar, include Friday the 13th and
Sevrin's birthday, Sept. 30, as well as Aug. 22, his ex-
boyfriend's birthday.

"On those days, all kinds of things happen. There will be boys
kissing, there will be a greater number of bimbos, there will
be Elvis impersonators. It's really hilarious," he said.

Despite being fired, Sevrin said Walnut Creek-based Maxis was
a fine employer and he never felt any homophobia at the
company.

"I didn't do it out of anger, just kind of 'Why not?' I can't quite
figure out why they would be so angry. It's not a game for kids, it's
for 20-year-olds, " he said. "But you put gay and kids anywhere in the
same sentence and people explode."
************************************************************************

Hot Links - Bookmark these now!
---------

Command & Conquer - Red Alert -=Data Downlink=-
http://health2.uwsp.edu/c&c/DataDownlink/RedAlert/
Submitted by Orog Ork <orogork@cs.tu-berlin.de>
--------------------------------------------------
This area is dedicated to information resources on Red Alert.
It has a message board, file area, scenarios and utilities to download,
and just about everything and anything to do with Westwood's Red Alert.

The Cheater's Guild
http://www.thecheatersguild.com/
--------------------------------
The Cheater's Guild Motto
I came, I tried, I lost, I tried again, I cheated, I won.
This is simply the best and most up to date WWW cheat page for
multiplayer and other games it has been my pleasure to
surf into.

The Quake Weenie Tactics Site
http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~agiesler/quake
-------------------------------------------
Bullies kicking sand in your face? Whomped more often than you whomp?
Wonder why you spend so much time lying on the ground looking up at
other Quake players as they run by?

>From the author of the Descent Weenie Tactics Site, the Quake Weenie
Tactics Site will help you to move yourself from utter humiliation to
mere embarrassment.  Tactics, statistics, console basics, and more.
We're growing, so stop by and submit your Quake deathmatch tips.

"You know... you suck a little less than you used to."
Can't you hear it already?

Quad City
http://www.mind.net/worksj/quake/mainmenu.htm
---------------------------------------------
The most complete guide for Quake on the Internet. Almost everything you
could ever want to know about setting quake up for network, and local
playing. Step by step instructions make it simple enough to get anyone
fragging along in no time.

The Official Doom FAQ
http://sync.mpx.com.au/wizards-lair/MAC/doom/index.html
-------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the post-release v5.7 of the "Official" DOOM FAQ.

************************************************************************


Resources - To make multiplayer gaming a heck of a lot easier
---------

Audssey Mailing List
http://www.psnw.com/~henrich/00-index.txt
-----------------------------------------
Audyssey is a mailing list for the Audyssey Gaming Magazine.  The
bimonthly publication offers reviews and information about games that are
usable by the blind, i.e., text-based games.
You do not, however, have to be blind to join the list.  if you are
interested in nongraphical games, by all means, subscribe to the list.
The list is a one-way list.  Only the magazine and administrative
messages will be sent to its subscribers.
The magazine is edited by Michael Feir.
To subscribe, send a message to jmeddaug@cris.com with the words
'subscribe audyssey' in the subject or body.  Note that this is not a
listserv address and that several other lists are run through this
address.
Thanks to Paul Henrichson <henrich@psnw.com>, you can download back
issues at: http://www.psnw.com/~henrich/00-index.txt

SHAREGAMES on Sonic@Fan.net
---------------------------
SHAREGAMES is an unmoderated, games distribution list. There will be
games distributed almost everyday but at least once a week. People who
belong to the list are welcome to contribute games to the list. This is
a shareware games list, everything possible will be done to stop any
commercial game from being passed through the list but since this is an
unmoderated list, there are no guarantees that this type of activity
will never occur on the list. People can also talk about new and old
games out there. If you really like games, then this is a list for you.

To subscribe to SHAREGAMES, send email to Sonic@Fan.net and in the
subject and body of the message, place the line
SUB SHAREGAMES your-email-address
For example:    SUB SHAREGAMES luke@isp.net
************************************************************************


Updates -  Take old bugs out, put new ones in
-------

Links LS Patch
http://www.accesssoftware.com/patch.html
----------------------------------------
Links LS update version 1.30 now available!
CHANGES AND FIXES IN LINKS LS VERSION 1.30
Fixed a sound library edit bug.
Fixed a bug introduced by ver 1.10 that stopped the Links LS icon from
working correctly.
Fixed a 'view saved shot' bug.
Fixed a rare ball flight bug caused by a FIFO buffer overflow.
Made a change to allow a 9 hole match play game to finish as soon as the
winner is determined.


Pirates - The Quest for The Seas
http://www.mountainside.com/
--------------------------------
Originally reported in Issue #4, the game has been updated.
The next version of PIRATES is: Version 2.0 (NO LONGER A BETA!!!)
It will be released on or before: December 15, 1996
Some of the features that will be included in this new version are:
Ability to BUILD YOUR OWN SHIP, name it and customize it the
way you like it! Trade cargo space for firepower, trade crew for
cannons, increase the speed and visibility, add an iron hull for
strength, and more!

Improved battles! Movie clips instead of moving cannon balls! Ships
will have "hit points" instead of simply judging the victor by the
number of cannons they have. Each battle will have a cannon round
and a crew round....

Ability to navigate the directories on your PC when opening /
creating PIRATES files. No longer will it be necessary to place all
your PIRATES files in your PIRATES directory!

Ability to store treasure in a fort of the territories that you govern.
No more losing EVERTHING when someone pillages your ship!

You will be able to order your crew to attack any ship that passes by
when it's not your turn. This will allow you to barricade certain
territories, or just become a real menace to society.

When attacking a ship and you lose, the winning player's ship will
suffer some damage. Also, you can do damage to a fort even when
you lose.

Smarter computer players...you'll even be able to tell the game
whether you want the computer players to be able to attack each
other, or whether they form an "alliance". This should make them a
lot tougher!


Plutonium PAK v1.4 to v1.5 Patch
http://www.apogee1.com/catalog/duke3d/dukefix.htm#pak15
-------------------------------------------------------
Please note that if you do not already have the Plutonium PAK v1.4
CD-ROM, you cannot use this patch.

On December 12th, 3D Realms released the Plutonium PAK v1.5 patch. This
small update to v1.4 fixes some bugs in the game, as well as corrects an
install program problem for people with computers that have 64Mb of
memory or more.

This file is available right now!. You can download it here!. Please
note that this will only update a game that has already been updated with
the Plutonium PAK. If you do not already have the Plutonium PAK CD-ROM,
this patch is not for you.


SubSpace by Virgin Interactive Entertainment
(review by Scott Grattan)
http://www.vie.com/subspace
---------------------------
Another version has been released, and with it several new arenas!  Most
of the changes are purely cosmetic, with new artwork for all the ships.

Two new arenas have been added, so there's sure to be something to keep
you happy in the SubSpace universe. Here's what the latest news.txt has
to say.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Version 119.
-New ship graphics. (new web art available for those with sites)
-New help/tutorial screens.
-Teammates now give you no points if you kill them.
-Suicides now impossible but you CAN damage yourself severely.
-Packetloss scheme implemented to even out connections. This should
allow people with bad connections to stay logged on in all but FLAG ZONES.
-Names containing naughty words now blocked ,you bad people :)
-Flags now do not appear until after the first minute you enter the game.
-Subspace.exe now separated from art & sound files. I future revs this will
allow for much smaller updates.
-In some zones you will get a %of you own bounty added to your kill(10-20%)