Timberwolf was going to close down [](/category/TW_Gazette), now it appears he is not. [](https://web.archive.org/web/20030000000000*/<https://www.planettw.com>) now is suddenly closing down instead. If anyone should close down, it should be Boo! Inc. until Space Ghost stops offending my visual senses with his [](/files/Site%20Caps/BooInc/news.html) and my audio senses with that opening [](/files/Site%20Caps/BooInc/news.html), that never fails to catch me off guard at work. It's been a slow news week at The Home Sector. I guess I forgot to mention that the USO was [](https://web.archive.org/web/20030000000000*/<https://www.planettw.com/includes/frontpagenewsdetails.php?article=48>). Not that many [](https://web.archive.org/web/20030000000000*/<https://hardcoded.dnsalias.org:81/USO/USOTC.HTM>) [](https://web.archive.org/web/20030000000000*/<https://www.thestardock.com/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=GEN;action=display;num=1045676572>)

[Great posting](https://slashdot.org/articles/03/02/16/2028220.shtml?tid=95) on [slashdot](https://www.slashdot.org) about the 25th anniversary of the BBS. Check it out. TradeWars is of coursed mentioned repeatedly. I guess no one knows we still play this game. :D

I'll be quick and to the point. I'm keeping this site online for a while longer. I'm not gonna be able to get my bowling site up in time as the season will be over in only a couple months, so I'm just gonna run my bowling site off a subdirectory of this site. I have not maintained either this site or my bowling site for some time now, but now i'm going to find the time. Meaning I'll keep the Trade Wars Gazette News online for a while longer. Let's start with the USO. Currently it has 6 teams entered and the scheduled start date is Feb 23rd at Hardcoded. Planet TW is taking a haitius from Trade Wars so the USO site's address is being moved to **[https://hardcoded.dnsalias.org:81\USO\USOTC.HTM](https://web.archive.org/web/20030331110545/https://hardcoded.dnsalias.org:81/)**. Silver Dragon had said that if there is not enough entrants in the game, he'll cancel it. I think 6 teams is a good start and many players are known for 11th hour entries to keep the competition guessing. So Silver Dragon need not fret whether or not he'll have enough players. So looks like the USO will be a go this year. EleqTrizi'T continues to keep the Home Sector website updated and looking nice. Check it out at **[The Home Sector website](https://web.archive.org/web/20030331110545/https://www.thestardock.com/)**. Fuseblown and Mana Knight also contributes to the site on an occasional basis. Speaking of MK, he has woken up from a long, long, long coma, dusted off his old Commodore 64, not knowing today we use blazing P4's at speeds of nearly 3 GHZ if that, and has updated his **[website](https://web.archive.org/web/20030331110545/https://www.tradewars.org/)**. He discussed TW:DM and its apparent demise. More info can be found on his well written article. Space Ghost came out of his trusty escape pod long enough to **[inform us](/files/Site%20Caps/BooInc/news.html)** that John Pritchett has also resurfaced and possible updates to TWGS might be around the corner. Not often I can read an article where I have to scroll down the screen just to read the next sentence due to its large font :) Finally, I'll get this website fully operational within the next few days such as my MBBS-TWGS page, the ZOC scripts, and links page. I'm gonna send Macahan a payment today as I'm behind on them. Speaking of 'Ol Mac, he rebanged several games at Fament. Telnet bbs.fament.com to check them out. That's all for now. Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone.

What's going down? No one knows. Some say JP is busy with Realm Interactive and TW: Dark Millenium. Judging by [www.tradewars.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20030000000000*/https://www.tradewars.com) and it's current non-existence, jack is happening over there (although who knows; I could be wrong). Friday, Feb. 14th (today, for a couple more minutes here on the East Coast) marks the one-year anniversary of the LAST update out of EIS. Is it time for this game to die? I realize it probably won't, but what's going to happen to TW? Will it move on to new hands to be maintained and updated? I hate to be skeptical against JP and EIS, he's an awesome guy and I commend him for a job well-done. He lost a valued helper in Rave (R.I.P.) when she passed back in November. Maybe things will pick up in the future.. but it hasn't looked too good for the past 12 months. [What are YOUR thoughts?](https://web.archive.org/web/20030000000000*/https://www.thestardock.com/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=GEN;action=display;num=1045285680) (please play nice)

Posted by River Rat: "Ok the signup page for the Lotto is up and we are taking registrations. The first 60 people to signup will be guaranteed a spot on a team. The teams will be drawn randomly as close to a week ahead of time to allow them to get to know each other. Teams will consist of 5 players each and they can choose there own CEO." Go to [Alien Base](https://web.archive.org/web/20030000000000*/https://www.alienbase.net/) for more info.

"This is terrible news; it feels like the Challenger all over. Just as senseless, just as disturbing. These people risked their lives to better mankind, and it's terrible that this could happen to such noble people. " I found this quote. It's perfect. This tragedy is particularly hard to swallow, given that a local hero, an alumni of our beloved local university, was on board. Shuttle commander Col. Rick Husband was a Fresno State grad.

Things have been going well for the new site. I've been fixing odd bugs here and there, and the user base is growing fairly rapidly. Since we have reopened, we've signed up 53 users. We are also starting to average 600+ hits a day. That's good. A far cry from the 2000+ users of the BBS, but I'm not complaining :D I'll be adding some more goodness to this front page in the next few days. I really want to emphasize the calendar feature. Post to it, because it will be put to good use. Last thing I wanted to mention today, is that if I bring back the BBS, the BBS will be altered to use accounts created here at this site. I plan to make a final decision on a BBS/TWGS system sometime in Feb.

I just spent some time reading up on the events of last year's WTC. I have to wonder if it is worth having the game again, especially under its current rules (or lack thereof). To be honest, it seems unreasonable to expect or believe that TW players will whither themselves down to just six remaining players who can claim victory. Either they don't want to, or can't. So my options are... - Drop the tourney and start a new one w/rules - Add rules to the WTC. Don't tell me I should leave the game alone, as you (the players) have proven two years in a row you cannot deal with it.

This is my final installment of the Trade Wars Gazette update. I wanted to cover a number of subjects before I bring down this website for good. First off, I'm happy to announce, as many of you already know, that Eleqtrizi'T has brought the Home Sector website back up online. It was only perhaps last year that he took down the BBS and handed over the website maintenance to Fuseblown. But Fuse himself ended up a little busy to take care of it, so it looked like the Home Sector was gonna die for good. Then Easy E put out a comment page on his website where people could post their thoughts on what he should do with the Home Sector and based on those comments, he has brought the Home Sector back online. I'm very happy about this. Trade Wars was never the same without E and when he left, he also left a big void in the community no one has not been able to fill. Say what you want about Hardcoded or Coastgames, two of the leading servers today, but no one could hold a candle to the Home Sector TWGS/Stardock BBS. Games like the Title Game along with his other trademark games like Massive, One Love, etc. were ultra competitive and classic battles. Eleq's edits were out of ths world and I hope the return of the [Home Sector website](https://web.archive.org/web/20030215053448/https://www.thestardock.com/) also is followed by the TWGS or BBS soon. Another subject I wanted to cover is the U S O. This year, for the first time in U S O history, Bad Girl is no longer the moderator and that in itself is a good thing. She has made way too many mistakes in the past which had a major effect on the games. I'm not gonna get into that now, but I just want to say I have 100% confidence this year's U S O should be one of the best tournaments of the year. Silver Dragon should do all right with it. Next involves the passing of two members of the community in the past year. As many of you know, Jackal lost a valiant battle to cancer early last year and late last year, Kitty Moon AKA Rave AKA Lisa Wilson-Cutler died in a car accident. My thoughts and prayers go out to the familes of these two individuals. River Rat will run Jackal's Lethal Lotto game at Alien Base and I trust he'll do a fine job with it. I also wanted to say this to each and everyone of you in the community: I wanted to let everyone know I have no beef whatsoever with anyone in the community. This includes Space Ghost, Kemper, Prestone, both Doctors, etc - all players that I have tangled with in the forums. Trade Wars is only a text based game that sometimes can get out of hand. Many people have lives that revolve around TW such as having a computer on 24/7 and running a bot to guard a home base and have an alarm go off to wake someone if he is being invaded. If you have to do that, then you know TW has control of your life. It should be the other way around. That's the nice thing about Cherokee's "I have a life" game where there is a 45 minute time limit. Unfortunateley, even I didn't have time to play that one though I wanted to. There's been a lot of bitching lately that everyone needs to lighten up and realize it is only a fricking game, not something in real life to bitch about in the forums. Trade Wars is simply a game, nothing to get worked up over. I think all the fights is why a lot of members like BG, Guardian, Eleq, Cruncher, etc have left at one time or another. To sum it up, debates are nice in that conflicts can get resolved, but when you have turds like Res Judicata come in the forums and start crap, that's another thing and we don't need that. Finally, this domain is going down for good very soon. I have until this fall to decide if I wanna let it go or renew it. Trade wars is addicting enough that I could very well bring the site back online later this year. Right now, I'm just not interested in Trade Wars to warrant maitaining the site though Eleq's return did inspire me to write this final article and perhaps even tempt me to bring TW Gazette back online for good, but common sense won out and I decided to write this one final article. Peace out - Timberwolf

Timberwolf posted some nice comments about myself and my past/present operations over at [](/category/TW_Gazette). Thanks for nice words, Timber.