For those out of the loop, Andrew "maybe I should just change my alias to LinuxGuy" Wyatt took [The Great Space Coaster](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/saturday/sa1300.php) into the realm of insanity and left the TW scene altogether. This meant that support of Fusion, the BBS front end many sites used, would probably stop. But Paul Bude [announced that he will be taking over development of Fusion:](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://groups.yahoo.com/group/tradewars_2002/message/8468) I just wanted to take a minute to let everyone know, that Fusion BBS development will not end. I have been working on this for the past few weeks, and I am now ready to annouce, that I am aquiring the full rights and source code to Fusion 3.x. I will continue development of it, and have a lot of things in store for it. So if you were/are interested in a BBS package, you will have plenty of options.

Realm has been [pretty busy](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.tradewars.com/discus/messages/20/104.html?995827064) with things like trying to find a publisher,(which just got a little harder since Sierra just signed on Dark Age Of Camelot) but managed to update with new [gameplay mechanics](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.tradewars.com/site/current/gameplay.php): Unlike a traditional RTS, Trade Wars is a tactically oriented combat game with an emphasis on player development. Players invest themselves in the advancement of their character (avatar) and the advancement of their mobile battle platform (citadel). Players use their avatar and citadel to harvest resources, engage in battles, and make their mark on the universe. One that caught my eye was: the universe is populated with as many engrossing activities as possible. Players can (1) become a merchant, gathering and trading for resources and then selling them for a profit. The only reason I stayed in Ultima Online as long as I did was because I loved that I didn't have to dive into a dungeon to [Hunt the Wumpus](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/people/Phd/Reid.Harmon/htw/) for cash. I could make a living by selling ingots, making scrolls, etc. I've also seen a page or two stating that the release date for TW:DM has been pushed back to next year. This makes sense since the Beta period was supposed to have happened by now, which will probably happen in fall. Until then, [go play some Pokemon!](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.tradewars.org/images/eleqpokemon.jpg)

[** The Stardock BBS**](https://web.archive.org/web/20010722191958/telnet://thestardock.com), run by the Galactic Scourges, err..Overlords, Fuseblown and Eleq, promoted Big Bang Friday as 5 games to be banged. I counted 4. ``` (J) ... Star Warz ...Star Warz Unlimited by Res Judicata (B) ... Big J Stank's ...A take ok the Pimp Title Game (T) ... SUPATRIZIT ...Re-edit for 3200 turns, ez for amacha's (M) ... Mo' Love ...One Love has Mo' Love after all... ``` That's 4 games. I even checked the default menu for any games that was not put on the ANSI Menu. The only ones that were hidden were Game L, the One Love game, and Game R, Red Alert, both running for a while now. Heh. And this was on the Stardock's *!!!!FIVE!!!!!! games this friday. One for everyone...every game meticulously cared for with loving edits. All-you-can-eat.* Well, someone must have been very hungry and ate up the 5th game..LOL

* Logs got reset on July 19. * July 19, Good Guys corp was busy running SDF. SDF in their case stands for Steal..Dump..Fart. * Prestone waxed Maurader's mule. Maurader later ran his pod into mines. * (: HabeebJabeebDaDa :)'s *** Escape Pod *** was destroyed by mines just before midnight * July 20, Res Judicata's T'Kay was blown up by a Q-gun, apparently by a p-drop. That's planet drop, not pigeon drop. * Xide, in a measure of revenge of being killed by Hellkitty a few days ago, podded and killed Prestone. * Xide was defeated invading a planet several times. In between, he and Naz was in a photon war with Hellkitty. * Old Timer thought he could paint his ISS Red and keep it. He thought wrong. Captain Z took it away from him. * Xide was p-dropped in his T'kay. * Grrl Wonder blew several ports. * This morning , Naz and Xide once again could not hit the broad side of a barn in several fedspace attacks. * Res Judicata capped Zoobar's ISS. Xide, after being hit by a Q-gun and then hopping into another ship, got back the ISS from Res. * Xide took away a havoc owned by the Good Guys, then later was p-dropped in his T'Kay. * Naz took an iggy from the Good Guys. * Res Judicata was farting photons all over the place. * Kitty Moon tried coming back from the dead and re-joined the dead right away when her scout ran into mines. * Prestone was red for a few days, but is currently back to being blue. * Game now running 58 days. Good Guys and Team Rocket..err..I mean..Rogue Nation still slugging it out for WTC Supremacy , but Dragon Elite should not be counted out. Dragon Elite always a dangerous corp as long as Guardian is leading the charge.

from Colonel Sanders: >Coming soon at [**telnet://buede.com**](https://web.archive.org/web/20010722191958/telnet://buede.com) BOTRU 2001!  BOTRU is simply- Battle of the Runners Up.  It will start the same day as BOTE!  It will have all the same rules as BOTE and be in the same universe as BOTE!  Its going to be so similar in fact, that all the servers/bbs's with an invitation to BOTE also have an invitation to BOTRU!  The idea is this, those players that don't make the cut for your BOTE team need not be cast off, just send them as a team to BOTRU, this way everyone gets to play in a huge tournament!  Also great for those of us that just don't want to get up at extern!  Macahan will be co-sysop and will help ensure the integrity of the game!  The only difference in rules is, players in BOTE may not also play in BOTRU, this tournament is specifically for those that can't or don't want to make the major committment to the greatest tournament of the year!  Team size will be 6, settings and universe identical to BOTE, come and play for the title of "Second Best!!!"  Once, I have a web page for it, I will post a link.  Don't worry, there will be no special forum for BOTRU, no special domain, it will just be an easy to read page linking to the BOTE home page for rules <G>.  I will, as they come in, put up the list of registered teams.  So bug your sysop today!  Ask him to send you to BOTRU 2001!  And bring the glory of second best to your home server!!!

WTC is still dragging on, now in it's 56th day. Every 24 hours seems to get wackier and wackier: ``` (: Cats on Mars :)'s ship was destroyed by a Quasar Cannon! (: Cats on Mars :) got hit for 12 (: prestone :) 12k? (: Cats on Mars :) no, just 12 ```

The [Battle of the Elite 2001](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://tradewars.fament.com/bote2001/main.shtml) has just been announced and will be taking place August 11th. Unlike other tournaments, BOTE is set up where any BBS may submit one team to play for them. There are already sponsors for this year's winners and like last year, I too will be a sponsor. I will once again be giving away my Tic-Tac-Toe program, but this year it will be **Supersized**(TM)using OpenGL and Fmod! A $49.99 value! Then there's also the [BOTRU](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://groups.yahoo.com/group/tradewars_2002/message/8365)

I guess I should explain where I've been the past week. I got some bad ram from one of my friends which started off the problems. I decided to install Windows 2000. With the bad ram, this ended up messing up my hard drive. Not knowing what the problem was, I figured I should back up what I can through a dos bootdisk, (I could no longer boot win98) and reformat. This took a long time, but was duable. After reformating, I was still getting errors. Running a ramchecker, I found the bad ram and took it out. It took until just last night to get the above done and start actually loading my stuff back on. Then I found out my Ethernet card is broken. I'm currently running off a ISA card I had in my 486. Uh, someone wouldn't happen to have an extra PCI card out there would they? I was planning on then restoring my files only to find out that PKZIP for dos does not by default remember what directory a file was in. So I now have about 5 billion files in one directory. I was planning to post some responses I got to the helper naming scheme but since <strong>I CAN'T FIND THEM</strong> it's a little hard. Maybe i'm just stupid. It can't be that hard to find mail in one directory right? right??? I haven't been this pissed off since I was forced to go see "What Women Want."<s>So if you sent in a response...</s> if you sent any mail in the past few weeks, please resend. Especially those talking about the helper names. *coughcough<strong>Earth&Mac</strong>coughcough*"

Whatever happened to using good names for Helpers? Lately, there seems to be a war to see who can come up with the most ridiculous acronym. Let’s take a look at a few of the leaders in this atrocity: [ATTAC](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.tw-attac.com/) – short for Advanced Tradewars Tactical Assault and Conquer. I’m sorry but I never call something “Advanced” if it’s written in Visual Basic. [SWATH](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.swath.net/) – short for Special Weapons and Automagic Tradewars helper. Is it just me or should the phrase “Special Weapons” never be associated with a word that [doesn't exist?](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=automagic) These must be some [very special](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.theonion.com/onion3502/very_special_forces.html) weapons indeed! But unlike our next contestant, the SWATH guys have an excuse: they're Norwegian! [J-Twat](https://web.archive.org/web/20010000000000*/https://www.goosemoose.com/%7Ejtwat/) I'm not even going to try. But if you look at how the acronym is spelled, there's a hyphen between J and Twat. This means that these guys actually **put some thought into that hyphen placement.** I'd hate to break it to the creators, but I don't think people who are searching for porn through google are going to use your helper. What ever happened to the TWAssist and TWHelper like names? Both of those tell you exactly what it does in the name! Please, stop the insanity. But more importantly, stop the ridiculous acronymns!

Best Team Player This award will be given to the player voted as the best Team Player. This is the player who does everything in his/her power to help out the team, regardless of how the team is faring, or the stage of the game. This person does what is needed of them, without fail, even if it happens to be the most menial task that can be found. This player can be either Red or Blue, and can usually be fairly well adapted at playing either choice. This will be the player that you usually think of teaming up with when it's time for a fresh game. People Nominated: 21 Candidate Nominated Votes ``` Peacemaker 4 4 Guardian 3 6 Jackal 3 9 Lancez 3 5 Wookie 3 2 ``` Others nominated: ``` Adomma 2 Bad Girl 2 Nazwes Chaiwind 2 Soylent Green 2 Blaze 1 Dietrich 1 Hekate 1 Jewels 1 Mirkath 1 Retaliator 1 Reza 1 Rolodex 1 Space Ghost 1 Stride 1 ZAQ 1 Zep 1 ```