From: gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Subject: PBEM fanzine 92 # 6
Organization: Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 20:19:14 GMT

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A Fanzine for Free Computer-Moderated Play-By-Electronic-Mail Wargames
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volume 92, number 6  (yes, volume 92 is the first)   december 15, 1992
======================================================================
Greg Lindahl, Editor                                 gl8f@virginia.edu
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Table of Contents:

Opening Stuff

   o  The Editor's Corner

Announcements

   o  Washington Diplomacy Judge to be phased out

Articles

   o  A Review of VGA Planets 2.1

Regular Features

   o  Game Descriptions & Information
   o  Hints regarding sending electronic mail to other networks
   o  What's this "ftp" thing anyway?
   o  Archives and subscriptions by email

======================================================================
The Editor's Corner
======================================================================

Gee, these months fly by quickly. This issue is a bit slim, due to a
dearth of submissions. But that's the least of my worries: ever order
dancing gillies from Scotland and discover that they are 1/2 size too
large? I even mailed them a sketch of my foot.

Problems aside, I hope to have a better selection of articles next
issue. I am currently involved in beta-tests of 2 new games; Dreams of
Glory, and Space 1992. Hopefully they'll reach a finished state during
the new year.

-- greg (gl8f@virginia.edu)

======================================================================
Announcements
======================================================================

Washington Diplomacy Judge Being Phased-Out

Ken Lowe, who has probably done more for free PBEM wargaming than any
other single individual, recently announced that he will be phasing
out his Diplomacy server, judge@u.washington.edu. No new games will be
started, but all existing games will be allowed to finish.

All is not lost, however, because Ken has given away the code to the
server, and David Kovar and the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF)
are donating time (human and computer) to start a new Judge:
judge@morrolan.eff.org. If things run smoothly, it will gradually take
over as the central diplomacy server.  Attempts are being made to
insure that all games on the EFF judge have moderators, and that the
number of new games is kept low enough to avoid lots of abandoned
positions. There are also other smaller judges elsewhere but, for now,
I am only advertising the EFF judge.

I don't think I can possibly say enough positive things about what Ken
has done. Long before anything of this scale was ever attempted for
free, he wrote the server, got the necessary permission from Avalon
Hill, and spent large amounts of time moderating zillions of games.
Actually, that's unfair: nobody has attempted anything this large
since. There are probably more gamers involved in this game than all
other free PBEM games combined. At this point there is about one new
game being started each day, and the rate is increasing because a new
Usenet newsgroup devoted to diplomacy, rec.games.diplomacy, is
attracting a fair bit of attention.

If you've played games on the Judge, one way that you can show your
appreciation to Ken is to send him a postcard through the mail, or a
T-shirt with your school or company logo or some other interesting
design from wherever in the world you are. He says that he wears a
"large medium or small large", and prefers a colored background rather
than white (i.e. gray). His postal address is:

      Ken Lowe
      University of Washington JE-30
      4545 15th Ave NE;  Suite 300
      Seattle,  WA  98195

Finally, please note that existing Washington Judge games will still
need replacement players for quite a while, so keep an eye out for a
chance to be useful. I try to play around one "dud" replacement
position for every active game I'm in; it doesn't take much time and
it helps things run much more smoothly.

======================================================================
A Review of VGA Planets 2.1                              Matt Bakaitis
======================================================================

First, a quick note before I launch into an actual review of the game:
VGA Planets is a game written exclusively for MS-Dos machines.
Because of the method used to transfer data, you need the programs to
decode the binary data files. From what I've heard however, there are
no plans by the author to port the game to any other platforms or tell
anyone how he has set up his data files. So, for the moment, MS-Dos is
required to play the game.

VGA Planets is a pretty sister of Russell Wallace's Galaxy game.
However, as you get to know the game, it turns out that Galaxy may be
the better choice in the long run. The game is based around a classic
theme: each player starts off on a home planet, invests in technology,
builds ships, colonizes other planets, and meets with (and kills) the
other players. It's a simple premise, and one that can't really be
screwed up, thankfully. In these areas, the game shows great promise.
The rules for each are very simple and easily grasped.

The best part of the game is the player's VGA graphic turn processor.
Instead of using text file reports, the moderator mails out binary
data files.  The player's program then chews up this file and reports
the turn results through a set of screens - one each for ships,
planets, and starbases. The combination of menus, mouse directed data,
and graphs allow the player to slide through a turn with relative
ease.  Essentially, imagine this program to be a collection of the
Galaxy utilities bound together by a VGA interface. A great idea, and
one that works rather well.

But not perfectly. The things I don't like about the game (and will
soon drive me away from it) can be divided up into two sections: bugs
and rules quirks.

First, there are enough bugs in the game to make it frustrating. The
worst part is that they are documented in the rules included in the
compressed master file. They even claim to have fixed them, though we
keep running into them. The funniest, one that actually seems to have
been fixed, is reported as a new _feature_.  The author fixed a
program crashing bug and claimed it was a FEATURE!  OK, so I'm a
little excited about this. I guess that the fact that the program
works _is_ some sort of a feature if you look at it the right way.

Second, there are rules quirks. Tens. Hundreds, even. Just to be
fair, I'll report a few that were universal to every player in the
game I've been running the last six weeks.

The most costly deals with constructing a new starbase. The game
allows a player to construct a starbase at a planet where one already
exists. However, when construction is complete, it never shows up.
The player is charged for money and materials, but no base. This is
probably more a bug than a quirk.

The rest of the major ones deal with the initial setup of the game.
The map is fixed, it never changes from game to game. That's one. To
make things worse, this fixed map has huge gaps between planets in
some places and huge clusters in others. The distribution is crazy.
That's two.

When the players are placed, each player's planet is different. Fine,
but there doesn't seem to be a minimum requirement of materials.
Thus, in this game we are playing, I landed on a planet, in a huge
void of space, with _no_ fuel and almost no other minerals. My planet
was barren. Another player, after about twenty processed turns, still
has a planet rich with fuel. I've been out since turn two. This
situation is repeated in different ways - players placed in an empty
area of the map, or placed on a poor planet. The game was essentially
decided at setup. That's three.

Finally, the fourth gripe, the one that "wins" the contest: Players
may only build specified types of ships. There is no individual design
possible. The problem lies with the fact that each race has a
different set of ships that they may build. There is no attempt made
to give some of the races a fighting chance. One race, the Lizards,
might as well not be played in an aggressive game. If hostilities
erupt, they have a hard time simply defending. Don't even think about
an offensive. Another, the Evil Empire, is stocked with a full range
of cargo ships and warships. If placed near the Evil Empire, either
become good friends or start building guns the first turn.

VGA Planets has a ton of potential. It even makes a good game to play
for a short time. However, I doubt that it will survive in its current
incarnation. Promises of a new version don't seem too promising,
considering that the author states that he is "very pleased" with the
current copy.

My recommendation would be to get a copy (ftp to "ftp.ucsc.edu" and
look in the "/PC/vgaplanets-2.1" directory) and play with it. You may
like it, and will probably play it. We do. But, I doubt we will be any
more games once this one is finished.

======================================================================
Game Descriptions and Information
======================================================================

Galaxy -- Galaxy is a closed-ended strategic economic/military space
simulation. The game typically takes place on a 100x100 2D map, with a
few hundred planets and 20 to 50 players. Players compete to capture
planets, which can be used for economic expansion. You may purchase
technology in many areas, allowing your ships to fight harder and move
faster. Galaxy turns range in size from 10kbytes early in the game to
100-200kbytes late in the game. Games are being run by the author,
Russell Wallace, and also by Rob McNeur, Howard Bampton, and the
Generic Association of Gamers at Western Washington University.

Announcements of new games have been generally posted to the Usenet
newsgroup rec.games.pbm. The last time that Russell started a game, he
got twice as many players as he wanted. So it would be a good idea if
there were more moderators, or if the GAG folks started up more games
on their server. It would also be nice if new games got announced
somewhere near the 15th of the month so I could publish a notice about
them here, but that's probably hoping for too much.

The rules and source code are available for ftp on ftp.erg.sri.com,
directory /pub/pbm/galaxy. If you to get into a game as a stand-by for
a dropped player or try your luck at getting into a new game, try
sending email to some of the people who are actively running games,
namely RWALLACE@vax1.tcd.ie, rob@ccc.govt.nz, and bampton@cs.utk.edu.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Diplomacy -- The Diplomacy Adjudicator is a fully computer-moderated
gamemaster for Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame. To get more
information from the moderator, send email with the word "HELP" in it
to judge@morrolan.eff.org. Some information is available via FTP from
milton.u.washington in the public/misc subdirectory. All of the
information up for ftp is also available via the email server. There
is also an older diplomacy Judge at judge@u.washington.edu, which is
not starting any new games but has lots of standby positions
available.

Diplomacy is covered by its own on-line magazine, which you can
subscribe to either by reading the newsgroup rec.games.diplomacy, or
by sending email with the phrase:

subscribe dipl-l Your Name

to the address listserv@mitvma.mit.edu.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Star Empires -- Star Empires is a simple closed-ended strategic
space-opera-style game. Roger Lincoln is currently running game #2.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestial Empire -- Celestial Empire is a closed-ended strategic
economic/military space simulation. Empires compete to capture worlds
which produce many different types of resources, of which different
amounts are needed to manufacture various items. The author, Dougal
Scott, is currently running several games, and he periodically starts
new ones.  The rules may be ftp-ed from yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au in the
directory /pub/celemp. After you've read them, if you still want to
join a game, send your name to Dougal.Scott@fcit.monash.edu.au.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Olympia -- Olympia is an open-ended economic/military simulation in a
fantasy setting, with a little role-playing thrown in for good
measure. The beta-test just finished and hopefully the next iteration
will be out soon, but Rich Skrenta is threatening to make it a
commercial game...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Other games -- While these aren't wargames, they are PBEM games of a
sort -- sports games. Generally these games have long seasons so you
can't join in the middle, but if there's an opening, you might get in
early.

- Experimental Electronic Football League (EEFL): wickart@ichips.intel.com
- United Electronic Football League (UEFL): billones@grebyn.com
- World Electronic Football League (WEFL): sarge@cs.uq.oz.au
- World Email Hockey Association (WEHA): creare!inb@Dartmouth.edu
- S. P. Australian Rules Football (SPARF): mel@soda.berkeley.edu
- Ultra Cricket: astley@franklin.cc.utas.edu

If you'd like to see a sample set of rules, our popular columnist Mel
Nicholson has an email server... for details, send email to
munch@soda.berkeley.edu with the subject "help" to receive information
about his game.

And yes, I refuse to publish contact information for any form of PBEM
Wrestling.

======================================================================
Hints regarding sending Electronic Mail to other networks
======================================================================

OK, so now you're wondering, "I'm using FidoNet or CompuServe or
FoobieBlech and those email addresses he keeps on talking about sure
look funny to me!". Welcome to the modern world of networking. See,
there's this big amorphous network called the Internet that lots of
other networks, like FidoNet and CompuServe (but not GEnie, yet) are
hooked up to. And you can send email between all of them, if you know
the right incantations. Often size or cost limitations will keep you
from being able to play games on another network, but at least you can
send me letters to the editor or articles.

Compuserve: If your ID is [76515,1122] then your canonical Internet
address will be 76515.1122@compuserve.com. The comma is replaced by a
period, and that's your username. Compuserve.com is the name of your
site. The .com on the end means that Compuserve is a business, and
also generally means it's in the USA. This address is the one that
non-compuserve people will use to talk to you.

To send mail from CompuServe to the Internet, you use this sort of
address: >INTERNET:gl8f@virginia.edu In this example, the ">INTERNET:"
part indicates that the email is going to the Internet, and
gl8f@virginia.edu is a normal Internet address (mine).

Compuserve users have to pay extra for mail to or from the Internet.
If you're a flat-fee user, the cost is 5 cents per 2500 characters,
minimum 15 cents, and the first $9 per month is free. This can add up
to a bit of money if you send frequent messages, or get into a Galaxy
end-game where your turns are large.  In addition, the maximum size
for a given message is 50kbytes, and most Internet games do not split
their game turns into pieces if they are too large. But you can try.
Diplomacy, for example, should definitely be ok in size and volume if
you play a no-press anonymous game.

To go from FidoNet to the Internet and back is a similar process.
Actually, it's not so simple. I have a document that describes this,
but since FidoNet seems to be a bit of an anarchy, you can't even send
netmail from some nodes and others may not be configured properly to
send mail to and from the Internet. And, when you send email, someone
is paying to send it, or maybe there is a local gateway and it's free.
So, you should probably talk to your sysop first to figure out what's
going on.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is this: FidoNet users can send
mail to the Internet by sending normal netmail to the user UUCP, and
then on the first line of the message, put the line:

To: gl8f@virginia.edu

To send email from the Internet to FidoNet, you take an address such
as "Dale Webber at 1:105/55.0", and turn that into
dale.weber@p0.f55.n105.z1.fidonet.org. Again, this is subject to the
same caveats above about the gateway and the costs involved. From what
I've gathered (but I haven't asked recently), they ask that you keep
messages under 10k bytes and to only send two or three a day.  This is
a fairly small amount that would limit your ability to play Internet
games, but you can still submit articles to this fanzine (hint, hint).

If you want to avoid the limitations, yet don't know how to get
directly on the Internet, I can mail you a list of public-access Unix
sites with Internet email capabilities. Just send me a short note,
using the above info, to "gl8f@virginia.edu", and I'll mail a copy
back.

======================================================================
What's this "ftp" thing anyway?
======================================================================

ftp is an acronym for "file transfer protocol", and it is only
directly available to the privileged few who are directly hooked to
the Internet using heavy-duty hardware. There is a way to use ftp via
email, and if you can get email to me, I will send you a document
explaining how to use it, or send email to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com,
with an empty Subject: line, and the word "help" in the body of the
message.

======================================================================
Archives and subscriptions by email
======================================================================

PBEM is archived at "ftp.erg.sri.com". I will also be setting up a
mailing list to distribute this magazine, but keep in mind that it
will be posted on a regular basis to at least Usenet and CompuServe,
so if you're reading it now, you probably won't need to get on the
mailing list to receive it in the future.

======================================================================

PBEM is published monthly. Please redistribute it far and wide, but do
not modify or delete any articles.

PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Our focus is primarily on free wargames, but we're
interested in articles about anything relevant.

Newsgroups: rec.games.pbm