====================================================================== @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@``````````@@ @@``````````@@ @@`````````````` @@@@ @@@@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@``@@ @@ @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@ ``@@`` @@```````````` @@``````````@@ @@```````````` @@`` `` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@`` `` ```````````` `````````````` `` `` ====================================================================== A Fanzine for Free Computer-Moderated Play-By-Electronic-Mail Wargames ====================================================================== volume 93, number 7 december 20, 1993 ====================================================================== Greg Lindahl, Editor gl8f@virginia.edu ====================================================================== Table of Contents: Opening Stuff o The Editor's Corner o Short Summary of Available Games Regular Features o Game Descriptions & Information o Archives and subscriptions by email o Hints regarding sending electronic mail to other networks o What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== The Editor's Corner ====================================================================== Once again it was a slow month for articles, and I have not written one either. Nevertheless, we do have a few mildly interesting developments. Galactic Conqueror is a new game, somewhat like Galaxy, but it comes with a fancy user interface. Unfortunately, the rules are currently available only in German, and the interface program only runs on PC's and Atari ST's. Maybe I should have studied German instead of Russian when I was an undergraduate. The Delft ftp site has added gopher service. Finally, I should note that commercial access providers have finally begun to get their act together regarding Internet email. America OnLine in particular is available all over the US, and splits incoming email that is too large into pieces that it can handle. GEnie is also available over much of the US and handes large incoming mail. Neither service charges extra. For those of you leaving schools in the US, these services might be worth looking into if you live outside major metropolitan areas. -- g ====================================================================== Short Summary of Available Games (full information down below) ====================================================================== Arena --- fantasy arena combat game. In beta-test, with occasional service interruptions and bugs still being found. In fact, it is currently down and will not be back until January at the earliest. Atlantis --- An open-ended economic/strategic fantasy game. Russell is looking for someone to complete the code for version 2.0, but version 1.0 source is available and at least one group is running a game. Celestial Empire --- a more complicated space-opera game. There are 2 games running. New games start occasionally. Dougal Scott is looking for a moderator to take over running these games. Diplomacy --- Play Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame by email. There are 1000+ players involved in ~200 games, with new games starting frequently on several automated email servers. Galactic Conqueror (German language) --- An economic/strategic space-opera game, with fancy interface programs available for PC's and Atari ST's. Galaxy --- An economic/strategic space-opera game. There are around 500 players involved in a dozen or so games. New games start occasionally. Judgment Day --- A simple strategic game of economics and warfare, set in the "modern era": tanks, plans, and atomic bombs. Beta-test finished, looking for moderators to run more games. Olympia II --- Open-ended strategic/economic fantasy game. Currently in alpha-test, which means that the current game world will be destroyed when the "real" game starts. Phoenix --- You can ftp the rules, but no game positions are available. Sports Simulations --- a variety of different electronic leagues are available. Each game generally does one or two seasons per year. Decentralized games --- a couple of games are available which are designed for a few players, and the moderation programs are available so you can run your own games. For more information on any of these games, please wade through the "Game Descriptions and Information" section below. It lists ftp sites and the addresses of the moderators. The sports simulations and decentralized games listings are located in the "PBM List", which is a separate document. ====================================================================== Game Descriptions and Information ====================================================================== FTP Site: ftp.erg.sri.com username: anonymous Directory: pub/pbm Contains back-issues of this magazine, source for Galaxy, and rules for a whole bunch of games. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FTP Site: ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl username: anonymous Gopher Site: gopher.cp.tn.tudelft.nl Directory: pub/pbm The same stuff as sri.com, often a little more up-to-date. European users are encouraged to use this site. ====================================================================== Game: Arena Type: fantasy arena combat Duration: open-ended Turns: as often as you like GM: srt@aero.org Email server: arena@sun-dimas.aero.org Status: turns every 12 hours when up DOWN; BACK IN JANUARY AT THE EARLIEST Description: Arena burst forth from Scott Turner's fingers after he looked at a Dungeon Masters turn. It reminds me a lot of the ancient microgame "Melee" designed by Steve Jackson: you begin with a set number of points, and use them to design a gladiator. Unlike Melee, you then send your gladiator off to combat with a set of orders, and the battle is fought without human intervention. Winners grow stronger. Right now the game is in beta-test. The rules are available from the ftp sites. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Celestial Empire Type: strategic economic/military space-opera Duration: close-ended, 30+ turns Turns: one per week GM: Dougal.Scott@fcit.monash.edu.au Status: occasionally starting new games Description: Players 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 running several games, and he periodically starts new ones. The rules may be ftped from yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au in the directory /pub/celemp. After you have read them, if you still want to join a game, send your name to Dougal at the address above. He is also looking for a new moderator to take over running his games, because he is graduating. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Diplomacy Type: email version of Avalon Hill's pure strategy game Turns: frequency varies from one per day to one per 2 weeks for different games. Email Server: judge@morrolan.eff.org HELP in body of message, Email Server: judge@u.washington.edu the subject is ignored. Description: 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 the body of the message (the subject is ignored) 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 probably the biggest PBEM game out there, with 229 games going as of December 15. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Galactic Conqueror (German language) Type: strategic, economic/military, space opera setting Duration: typically 25-30 turns Turns: typically 1 per week GM: hz@zardoz.ruhr.de (Harry Zimmermann) Description: Galactic Conqueror is strategic SF-PBeM-Game for up to 50 players. Each player starts the game with a small fleet of starships and is the owner of one of several hundreds of planets. The winner is determined by an point system which gives points for specific actions each turn. The first one who reaches a pre-set winning score will be the winner of the game. Since there are almost no trade options in the game, player interaction mostly concerns negotiations about borders and coordination of attacks or defense. Players can: o invest in science o build industrial facilities and strongholds on planets o build ships (26 different classes) o attack enemy or neutral planets o engage in espionage or corruption o and much more... At the start of the game, each player can see only 4-10 planets, whose coordinates are given relative to his own starting-planet. Every time a new planet is conquered, all planets up to a given distance from this new one are revealed. The rules and an Atari ST and PC Clone client can be ftped from ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl, in the directory /pub/pbm/Galactic_Conqueror. The clients are graphical point-and-click interfaces to the game. You could play without a client, but this is not recommended. An X11 client is in the works, as is an eventual translation of the rules into English. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Galaxy Type: strategic, economic/military, space opera setting Duration: typically 50-80 turns Turns: typically 1 or 2 per week GM: rnovak@nyx.cs.du.edu (Robert Novak) GM: bampton@cs.utk.edu (Howard Bampton) GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) Email Server: galaxy-request@acca.nmsu.edu, Subject: HELP Description: 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 several different 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. The rules and source code are available for ftp. You can write to humans who run games; they start games occasionally and also have standby positions. They are: rnovak@nyx.cs.du.edu bampton@cs.utk.edu rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie Howard Bampton has a variant called "blind" galaxy. You can ftp the source for it from cs.utk.edu:/pub/bampton. There is an automated email server which runs some mailing lists related to Galaxy. You can talk to it by sending email to galaxy-request@acca.nmsu.edu with the word "help" in the subject. Note: in the subject. Game announcements are typically made on the mailing lists, so you will not miss any if you subscribe. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Judgment Day Type: strategic economic/military, present day setting Turns: one per week GM: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace) Status: beta-test finished, looking for a moderator Description: Judgment Day is a game for up to 25 players. Each player controls an empire which can build weapons and attack each other. When the nukes start flying, remember to duck and cover. The source code is available at the ftp sites or from Russell. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Game: Trax Type: Abstract Strategy Turns: ?, unlimited duration GM: Mel Nicholson Status: up and running Email Server: munch@soda.berkeley.edu (with "help" in subject) This is an automation of Smith's abstract strategy game Trax. The server maintains a ladder and facilitates competition and informal play. For information, mail munch@soda.berkeley.edu with the subject "help". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sports games and Decentralized games are on the PBM List, distributed separately on the Internet, and at the end on CompuServe. ====================================================================== Archives and subscriptions by email ====================================================================== PBEM is archived for ftp at "ftp.erg.sri.com" and "ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl", or check archie or use Veronica to look for gopher sites, of which there is at least one, cic.net. I have a mailing list that distributes the magazine, but I prefer that you obtain it via Usenet or CompuServe or other means. ====================================================================== The remainder of this magazine does not change, and is not of interest to most readers anyway. Skip it. ====================================================================== 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, CompuServe, DELPHI, America Online, GEnie and (soon) Prodigy 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" -- notice that the comma has become a period. To send mail from CompuServe to the Internet, you use this sort of address: >INTERNET:gl8f@virginia.edu 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, but 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. Diplomacy and Arena, for example, generally don't have large turns. Diplomacy games with no press don't send that many messages. America Online does not charge any extra fee for Internet email, and has recently removed their limit on message size, so they are perfectly adequate for playing Internet games. Their addresses look like "username@aol.com" I don't know anything about DELPHI, other than that their addresses look like "username@delphi.com" Prodigy has finished their gateway. I don't know how much they charge for sending messages to the Internet, but they do have a charge for sending large numbers of messages inside of Prodigy. Their addresses look like "username@prodigy.com" GEnie's addresses look like this: username@genie.geis.com. The maximum incoming message size is 900kbytes, but the biggest outgoing message is 50k or 2500 lines, as limited by the GEnie message editor. GEnie doesn't charge extra for Internet email. FidoNet addresses, such as "Dale Webber at 1:105/55.0", look like dale.weber@p0.f55.n105.z1.fidonet.org in Internet form. To send email to the Internet from FidoNet, send normal netmail to the user UUCP, and then on the first line of the message, put the line: To: gl8f@virginia.edu Unfortunately, unless your FidoNet BBS is hooked directly to the Internet, they ask that you keep email under 10kbytes and only occasional. Ask your sysop for more information. 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. The Dutch ftp site, ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl, has a way for you to retrieve any of its files via email, either by sending it mail or telneting to it. To get the helpfile either : telnet ftp.cp.tn.tudelft.nl 2001 MAIL HELP (for small help file) or SEND HELP (for big help file) or INDEX (for the index) QUIT or mail to pbm-server@cp.tn.tudelft.nl with the following body : BEGIN HELP or SEND HELP or INDEX END ====================================================================== PBEM is published monthly. Please redistribute it far and wide, but do not modify or delete any articles. Write me if you want to redistribute it in other forms; such permission is easy to obtain. For example, some old articles are being translated into German. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Our focus is primarily on free wargames, but we're interested in articles about anything relevant.