For a week or two, I thought that Barefoot might become aware that he is an asshole and might [stop being one.](https://eisonline.classictw.com/) High Hopes are shattered easier than low ones. [Sigh.](https://eisonline.classictw.com/) I thought about replying to his [latest holier than thou fest,](https://eisonline.classictw.com/) but decided against it. He's going to be banned anyway so there is really no point.

The Battle of the Elite's website can now be found at [https://tradewars.fament.com/bote2000.html](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://tradewars.fament.com/bote2000.html) Two traders you may be familiar with will be the gameops, [Hosem](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://tradewars.fament.com/Cruncher/Hosem.htm) and Monday. One of the prizes already announced is a free copy of SWATH for the winners. But [ATTAC](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.tw-attac.com/) and [EIS](https://eisonline.classictw.com/) are also supporting, which could mean even more free l00t. All software authors are asked to help contribute, which includes myself. Look for my prize to be announced soon!

I'd post something new that's happening, except nothing is. If you've been wondering about the coherency of my last post, it was inspired by Captain Ebolter who I linked to at the end. His use of the English language was so profound, I had no choice but to adapt it. Did I also mention it's finals week here at UL? Did I also mention I had to take a hard test? I certainly know I didn't say that I also slept 16 hours yesterday.

i log on to homesect0r and stuff this weekend and im all ok lets go to sd and whatnot so i kill some aliens in msl and get a commish thingy and i get iss.boom.i see guy fighting ferrengi out sd and im all woo follow up behind him cause hes gonna die and such and i hit him.he call 911 zyran say no like.im like wtf.so i see he got like 12 fig left so i figure ah what the heck and cast photon on him and i get this error message saying could not photon sd.wtf wtf wtf.then i get mad and leave and see eleq in space so im like Interdictor biznatchio and i get error message say sysop hate me.im like wtf again.eis the game is broken fix this stuff asap [and what not.](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://lum.xrgaming.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/003467.html)

**I've heard that Nintendo has tried to talk you into making "Pokemon 2002" where you trade through the galaxy for Galactic Pokemon. Any truth to this?** I don't expect Pokemon to be still around in 2002. I know this is radical thinking, but I base it on my market research and the precedent set by Pogs (tradable disk game for those who don't remember). That's probably just wishful thinking, though :) **Any chance you could tell us a few of the things planned for the real sequel?** That's so wide open at this point that I wouldn't want to pin it down. The opportunities will largely dictate the form of the project. If it's possible to interest a game publisher in the project, then the sky's the limit. If I'm forced to continue developing as a "lone gunman", or with a small team, the scope of the project would be severely limited. That's not to say that it wouldn't be an enjoyable game. Just that it would likely be another small market game, hopefully a slightly bigger step in the right direction than Trade Wars 2002. Things are at a very early stage right now. There are two other individuals involved with the project, and a third being considered. The two I will name are Bil Simser and John Glynn. Bil has been around the BBS scene for awhile, and was involved in the MBBS version of LORD (to name only one project). He also authored the CDX DirectX toolkit, and is publishing a book on DirectX RTS game design (yes, there WILL be graphics :). John is a very talented musician (music too!). He has a web-based recording business, Lead Mine Pond Productions (https://www.leadminepond.com), an eclectic musical style, and for some odd reason, a desire to score computer games. Our plan is to put together a working prototype game and shop that around to some publishers. If anyone takes an interest, we'll forge ahead with a full-scale adaptation of Trade Wars 2002. If not, that won't deter us. We'll simply scale back on the production and plan to release the game TWGS-style. Regardless of how large the production becomes, it is my goal to continue to release the game for hosting by small gameops just as Trade Wars 2002 always has been. **What lies in the future for Tradewars 2002 and the Tradewars license?** My view of Trade Wars 2002 is that it's a part of computer history and was a classic before I ever started poking around the code. My goal is to leave the current version of the game in a highly playable state so it can continue to be enjoyed in a spirit of nostalgia well into the future. As for the license, the name has a great deal of recognition value, and I'd be crazy not to attempt to utilize that. If I don't, somebody else will. There are already several other "Trade Wars" game projects out there :( **Speaking of that, there have been quite a few games lately that make use of the "space trading" genre that Tradewars revolutionized and kept alive all these years such as the upcoming Freelancer and the now canned Privateer Online. (Thank those bastards at EA for the later) I've seen a lot of articles about these games that keep saying how they wish Tradewars was still around. What do you think both players and webmasters can do to tell people that Tradewars is still alive?** I have personally been quiet about the current project. I want to have TWGS running smoothly before giving it any major push. It has come a long way and I think it makes a pretty good impression at this point. But with only a little bit of serious play, the game bugs start to show up and many people will not stick around long enough to see them fixed. Once I'm satisfied with the stability of the game and server, I'd want to try to get word out to the over 17,000 people who registered Trade Wars 2002 since 1990, and the untold number of players. The best way is probably word of mouth. The game server tends to get its own word out, as shown by the number of people who have registered over the last year despite the fact that I have never advertised. Actually, if and when that time comes, the two best approaches that I know of will be news reports/interviews in relevant online and printed publications, and exposure through the major shareware download sites. A mention on any one of those sites can get the word out to thousands of people who will be at least curious about what's going on with Trade Wars these days. **Is EIS planning to hire any interns soon? Uh.....a friend of mine...yea that it, who goes to school and yells a lot on his webpage he does on the side said he'd be really interested. He said he'd only work for McDonald's Hamburgers.** Actually, that's a tough issue for me. One of my highest goals right now is just to reach a point where I can HIRE anyone. I have far too many things that I'd like to accomplish, yet I'm still too small to properly compensate anyone for their help. I'm constantly being offered help in many forms (except money, of course :), but volunteers can't provide the kind of effort that I need. I need people who can take the lead in various projects, and you simply can't ask someone to do that for free. Actually, the first thing I need is someone who knows how to run a business, and then perhaps the rest could follow. I have my nose too much in the code to do what needs to be done to keep EIS moving forward. Maybe I should have gone for a business degree instead of engineering :( **What do you plan to add to TWGS in the near future?** There are so many directions I need to go. Security needs to be improved (ie, added). I want to rewrite the server in two parts, a server core and an administration client, so the efficient server core can run in the background, even as a service, and the admin client can be run only when needed, local or remote. I want to add a feature to broadcast game information from TWGS sites to an EIS game list server, and provide a web site where players can search for their next game (similar to Micro's automated Trade Wars listings). I want to generalize the server so that it serves Trade Wars games, but can also serve other games designed for it (I'm working on rights to port Legends of the Red Dragon as the next title). There are many other smaller goals, and I'm always receiving valuable feature requests from customers. **Will Barefoot ever stop talking about "fixing" tradewars 2002? (You don't have to answer this :D)** No comment :) **What kind of games to do you play?** I enjoy all kinds of games, but I try not to play them too much because I can waste a lot of time there. On the other hand, it's important to keep up with developments in the industry. I recently played and finished Homeworld, Age of Empires II, Myth II, and Baldur's Gate. I'm most interested in strategy games, which tend to be RTS these days. **Favorite Breakfast Cereal?** I never stick to one brand very long. Variety is the key :)

Graz "I'm not a dupe...no really!" Hoppa recently announced something: [https://www.egroups.com/message/tw2002/15143](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.egroups.com/message/tw2002/15143) "tw.tradewars.org will host it's first major series of tourneys.. there is a practice game already in progress.. the tourneys will be a series of 5 games- ... The tourney will be hosted on a DEDICATED 550 processor with a little over 1k ram-" That's right, apparently this "little over 1k ram" tournament will be run on an **overclocked TI-85 Calculator.** Graz later corrected me by saying it was really 1 gig of ram which was "given" to her. That's roughly $700 worth of ram. **How the hell does that happen?** Does she have some sort of secret benefactor like Pip does in *Great Expectations*? Furthermore, when will people learn that ridiculous amount of ram make no diffrence in performance? Granted, [Ultima 9](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.dailyradar.com/reviews/game_review_441.html) might actually be playable with that much ram, but I'm more interested who in their right mind actually gives out $700 dollars worth of ram when only $120 is needed at most. **Interview with John Pritchett Part 2 now up** [Part 2 of my interview with John](/post/1155) is up. We talk about the Pokemon inspired sequel to Tradewars and find out how John gets his vitality in the morning. It's also proven to whiten your teeth! [Read part 1](/post/1154) if you haven't. Still have questions? [send them in!](mailto:mk@tradewars.org) I'm looking for questions from people to make up part 3 of this interview. I've gotten a few in already. The interview will be archived in the Articles section.

"one night while playing Lemmings he had been playing some strange, text-based game on a BBS." For those of you that don't know him, John Pritchett is the current programer of Tradewars 2002 and also heads Epic Interactive strategy. I've never heard of the guy, but I guess he's pretty important if I'm interviewing him. He also owns the rights to some tradewars 2002 game. I think he was on that "Who wants to be a Millionare?" Show also. **My first question is, what do you do besides program Tradewars? I've heard reports from someone that there's a John Pritchett working at a local McDonald's in Fresno, CA.** Yeah, that's me. And I'm also an editorial cartoonist in Hawaii, and I occasionally show up on TV credits as a sound technician. Actually, I considered changing my name because this one is way too common :( Seriously, though. I actually do this full time. Because of my wife's career, we need to be pretty mobile, which means I can't really spend too much time with any one company. So we decided that I would take a shot at building my own company on the Internet so I can carry it with me wherever we decide to go. My work with Trade Wars has been very helpful in this way, because it puts me in contact with people who are active in the gaming industry (it's amazing how many people have played this game). Trade Wars isn't my only project, of course, but most of my other projects are still in R&D.; I'm currently in Oklahoma City, but I expect to be in a small town in Nebraska within a few months :( Not a lot of game development going on in that neck of the woods. Some of you may know of the last company I worked for. It was Multi Service, the company that runs Metropolis BBS on the side. That's where I met the Martins. That's an interesting story, actually... **Care to elaborate on this story?** Certainly :) I might as well give an overview of my history with Trade Wars, if you don't think it's too long-winded. It was always my dream to be an independent software developer, or more specifically, a game developer. But I always believed it was a long shot, and I didn't focus my efforts on making that happen. I got a degree in a non-computer field, and when I graduated, I looked for work that was focused on my field of study, yet computer related. I ended up going to work for Multi Service out of college, back in '94. I worked in the billing department (their primary business is a fuel credit card for fleet customers). This was not at all interesting to me, but I chose the job over more interesting jobs in other areas (including a job designing control systems for satellites) so I could stay close to my then girlfriend, Angel. After about 6 months at that job, I was driving to work and I rear-ended a green minivan at a stoplight. The occupants were very understanding, and as we discussed what we should do, it became obvious that we all worked at the same company. They introduced themselves as Gary and Mary Ann Martin, and they said they ran Metropolis BBS for Multi Service. I had no idea who they were, or that Multi Service even ran a BBS. Later that same day I requested to begin working part time in that department, and ended up doing projects for Gary. One morning while analyzing the BBS audit trail, Gary casually mentioned that he was a game author. This caught my attention, obviously. I asked for details, and he told me about Trade Wars 2002. I had done some BBSing in college, though very little, and I had heard of the game. Since my exposure to BBS doors was very limited, I was impressed by this. He then mentioned that he needed someone to handle bug reports because he and Mary Ann had become too busy lately. He said that he had been reluctant to bring anyone in on the project, but that he was confident of my skills and judgment (a decision that I'm sure he came to regret ;). That was about TWv2b5, and I worked a few hours a week for awhile doing minor bug revisions. The first revision that many of you will recall was the Type II TransWarp drive. This went on for awhile, and after I had been at Multi Service for two years, I decided to propose a deal with Gary and Mary Ann. I knew I wouldn't be staying in Kansas City for much longer, and that I'd be traveling with Angel (who was my fiancé by that point), and I decided to take a chance on a career path that would be more portable, not to mention more enjoyable. The Martins agreed to provide a small but guaranteed monthly salary if I would take the lead role on an online game project, a sequel to Trade Wars. This was very exciting to me, and I decided that with the small amount they offered, and my savings, and by moving back in with my mother so I could live rent-free (she's always been supportive of my crazy dreams :), I could give it a go. Well, obviously, things went off track. Not long after I had designed a game proposal, Gary and I agreed that it would not be acceptable to release a sequel to a game that was never complete. Gary had been selling registrations to a game that was never bug free. We agreed that in order to avoid alienating our prospective market, I should attempt to fix a few of the serious problems. One of those fixes, unfortunately, was multiplayer interaction. I set out to design a multiplayer solution for the game, and the result was TWv3. In hindsight, this was the wrong move, because the logic of the code was just not suited to multiplayer. I had little time for anything but TW revision for a very long time, and hopes of starting work on the sequel faded. After awhile, it became clear that I could not continue working under the current arrangement without bringing in more revenue. I designed the Gold upgrade as an attempt to continue funding my efforts. Gold has sold at a slow, steady pace since it was released, but it never generated the kind of revenue spike that we needed to proceed, and a few months after Gold had been released I was forced to leave Martech. In an attempt to forge my own path without completely ditching everything I had done and was doing, I conceived the game server idea. I formed my own company around the general concept of persistent, multiplayer game design, and started development of TWGS as the first step toward my goals. Luckily, TWGS has done well enough to allow me to continue working full-time on these projects. v1.00 was released the same month I married Angel, and the revenue has been enough to keep her from shutting me down ;) At this point, I'm trying to turn my focus to the online game server concept in general, and perhaps to other game designs. In order to free up more time, I have chosen a programmer who can continue Trade Wars support in my place, in a role similar to my earlier role with Martech. Trade Wars will continue to require a good deal of support in the near future, and I want to provide that. But the reality is that I can't continue to focus so much of my time on it if I want to make any real progress with EIS. **There you go folks, John got a job by getting into a damn traffic accident! If only that opportunity landed into MY lap when I crash someone's car. All I get is higher insurance. :/ But you threw in there that Gary didn't approve of your judgement. where didn't you see eye to eye with Gary and what was it like working for him when you were on contract?** It really was an unusual set of coincidences that led me to this. The coincidences go even further. When I was in college, I published two cartoon strips, one at my college and one at the college my friend attended. He was an editor at that newspaper, and the managing editor was a guy named Ed. I spent a few late nights at the staff offices playing Lemmings with the guys, including Ed. About a year and a half later, after I graduated and interviewed at Multi Service, one of the interviewers seemed oddly familiar. It was Ed from the newspaper. And as it turns out, this was the same person who had approached the Martins about 6 months earlier with the idea of bringing their BBS, Metropolis, to Multi Service. He had convinced the owner of the company that there was a future in online entertainment, and was made the head of the new Metropolis BBS project. In hindsight, I can remember one night while playing Lemmings he had been playing some strange, text-based game on a BBS. He explained briefly what it was, but I wasn't very interested. This was about two years before I met Gary and Mary Ann. But getting to your next question. It wasn't so much that Gary didn't approve of my judgment, but that I added a great deal of complexity to the code. It wasn't a simple task to convert the game to multiplayer. It would have been much simpler in hindsight to rewrite the game with a true multiplayer model. But to continue working with the original code, I created a complex file sharing system. After Gary looked it over, he commented that I had created a nuclear warhead to hunt a rabbit :) I honestly believe it would be impossible to do what I set out to do in a simpler way. The mistake was in not doing a rewrite in the first place, and that was a mutual decision. We had no idea what we were getting into! If we did, I doubt we would have undertaken the project at all. What has kept me interested in the project for this long is R&D.; Quite a bit of what I have put into TW and Gold has been in the spirit of experimentation, and will be useful in future projects. But this was not a feeling that Gary shared with me. It was always clear that I was looking toward a bigger picture and Gary was just interested in finishing Trade Wars. This was never more than a hobby for the Martins. Despite our disagreements on the way the project should have progressed, it was always great working for Gary and Mary Ann. I appreciate their willingness to let me take such a controlling role in their game. I honestly wish that things had progressed as we first intended, because I would love to have written a game with Gary. The TW sequel design we collaborated on is one of the most interesting game concepts I have conceived. Maybe it'll see the light of day yet :) **Now that Gary has sold you the rights to Tradewars, he's pretty much out of the picture in this industry. Why do you think he wanted to leave?** I wouldn't presume to speak for Gary about that. I do know that he loves gaming. But as I said before, he has never allowed himself to view it as more than a hobby, and at this time there are more important things in his life. I believe he could work up a project in the future if he decides to put his energy into it. He has turned down opportunities to work with game companies in the past. I wouldn't say this is the last we'll hear of Gary in the online game industry. In a way, having Trade Wars out from under his control opens him up to consider completely fresh projects. He put a lot of years into Trade Wars, and it's no wonder that he reached a point of burn-out. **[To Be continued....](/post/1155)**

### TWGS v1.029 Released [The TWGS center](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://eisonline.classictw.com/) has released a new Beta of TWGS. Here are a few of the new changes: **Optimized menu display code.** Added Total Server Connections, a value that tracks connections since the server first went online. Under Configure, Server, you may specify the number of connections to start tallying from (in case there was a reinstall) as well as the start date for tallying. Login name is now required in TWGS (gameop configurable). You can enable this requirement in Configure, Settings, Require Login name. It defaults to OFF. Limpet mines no longer turn rogue if abandoned. Rogue limpets are not consistent with the game's design. In other words, a rogue limpet has no function since it cannot be tracked. Added player's IP address to the sysop log. Enabled Trade Wars Turbo support. ### Stories retired The [TW Stories](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.tradewars.org/stories.shtml) has been permanently retired to the Articles section. ## Saturday, April 29, 2000 ### New IP for the Home Sector The Home sector had an IP change to 24.30.120.240. It will take a while until everyone's DNS updates the regular address. ### Ha ha ha...*cough* Timberwolf thinks he's funny. no, really: **Mana Knight just learned how to copy and paste!! OH WOW!! The man has talents we never knew he had. He copied the below article regarding the BOTE and pasted to his website cuz he claimed he had to take a test and therefore did not have time to write his own article ..** Ok Seinfeld, Ha ha ha...No. I'd really think you'd be working on [your roof](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.egroups.com/message/tw2002/15114?&start=15086) instead of your webpage. Somehow I don't think that Practicing your "Mad r00fing skillz" is going to win you the WTC. ### TW Turbo Announced [Go see it.](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.thestardock.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?twt.htm) You're still here? Go. Thoughts: Looks good! What impact will this have on the players? I can't imagine anyone using a broadband connection like Cable or DSL would see any real improvement if they're playing from a fast server. However, they should see improvements if they're playing from a slower server. 56k users should be improvements no matter where they play. But the main impact will be on the servers themselves. Fast servers will probably see little improvement with their speed. But the program would still signifigantly lower the bandwidth usage and help out the slower ones. Will it lower CPU usage? I don't know, but it looks like it should. I'm really interested to if I would be able to have 10 people on a server that runs off a 56k modem. A server running from a cable modem could have a tournament with 100 people on it simotaniously. Possible? Maybe. ## Friday, April 28, 2000 ### Interview with the John Pritchett... with more spelling errors! John Pritchett who now owns Tradewars, was kind enough to take a few minutes from his work at McDonald's to give me a interview. [Read Part 1.](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://tradewars.org/articles/jpinterview.shtml) Part 2 will be posted whenever. Read on as you learn how John gets a job at Martech: By destroying Gary Martin's car! If you don't want to read it now, then you're lying to yourself! ## Thursday, April 27, 2000 ### BOTE - um, yay? The BOTE 2000 has been announced. Since it doesn't have a webpage and I have a test in a hour, I'll just take what [someone else](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.webcntrl.com/timberwolf/) said: **"The BOTE (Battle of the Elite) is a tournament in which many top TW game servers and BBS's send their best players. It will be held at Fament this year on July 4(subject to change). I would like to send a team to respresent Intergate and will hold a closed tryout game on May 13 (5K sectors, 1K turns, stock ships and planets) as I will be playing in it as well and evaluating players to choose the team. To play,just show up. It will be a closed game but I will have already added intergate regulars to the list and even if I do forget someone, I will be online at big bang and for a bit afterwards to add anyone i may forget. I want to see players kick each other's asses and how you perform in actual game situations. Also I want to see how you behave attitude-wise. That means, no whining..no bitching..no swearing.. you lose ,be a good sport..I want us to show some class in the BOTE even if we get our pods handed to us. Next year , the BOTE 2001 will be held at Intergate so wouldnt it be cool to bring the BOTE title to Intergate where we can defend the title on our home turf next year. :)"** With some luck, the BOTE is hoping to get Gatoraid to sponsor the event. Also in the works is the BOTE Tri-Lypithon channel witch will offer **3** channels of BOTE action. Call your cable operator for more information! ### Guardian updates, News at 11. [Guardian](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://home.columbus.rr.com/dragonelite/) announced that for the first time in 26 days, he **UPDATED HIS PAGE**. Let's take a look at why he didn't update: 1) I have fallen for someone and you know what that means ... TW usually gets put on hold. 3) Was on Vacation on the 9th - 15th of this month If you consider working on your webpage actual "Work" and not "Goofing off" like everyone else in this country, I'd probably agree with that. But since you consider it "Work", I'd like to see what your boss says if he ever caught you updating. I can see it now: "Ho peon, what are you doing?" "I'm updating my web page sir!" "Good work! Keep it up and you'll be promoted!" Or maybe because you DON'T update your page at work [like everyone else](/)is the reason you don't update. Hell, even >I< was on vacation, and still did things on this page. It wasn't updating, but I was working on two features which you might be able to see before the universe ceases to exist if John ever returns my mail. (Hint, Hint) ## Tuesday, April 25, 2000 ### Tachyon released I did a small post about Tachyon last month. It's a graphical space trading game taking elements from TW. It's been released and the extra month seems to have helped the reviews. There's one at [https://www.dailyradar.com/reviews/game_review_666.html](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.dailyradar.com/reviews/game_review_666.html) Since it didn't completely blow, it looks like I'll be buying it to give you people a review myself instead of Thief II. The things I do for you people.... ## Monday, April 24, 2000 ### I'm talkin' bout some PHAT Rosaries, fool! I've possibly found the greatest online comic strip ever: [Sinfest](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.sinfest.net/). This [episode](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.sinfest.net/d/20000121.html) has touched me in a way no woman ever can. Here's a quote: "GENESIS - and when he created the 'Hood, the almighty Bro-God sparked up a Phat Doobie and said: "That's Some Kind Shit!"" ## Wednesday, April 19, 2000 ### What a sad sad little newsgroup.... "So Sad, so strange, the egroups that is no more...." -Lord Tennyson egroups, (also now known as "the little usenet") has recently had two groups fighting for control: [The people bitching](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.egroups.com/message/tw2002/14813?&start=14812) about the TW awards and the [people bitching about the people bitching](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.egroups.com/message/tw2002/14864?&start=14836) about the TW awards. It's quickly become the most outrageous argument this side of [Barefoot](https://eisonline.classictw.com/). If I were to compare this with movies, it would be the same as asking which one had the greater philosophical meaning: [Monty Python and the Holy Grail](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6302293553/qid=956186060/sr=1-1/102-5868573-2249658) or [Strange Brew?](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004RF9M/qid=956185965/sr=1-1/102-5868573-2249658) Before you even think of sending me hate mail calling me a hypocrit, I state it now: I don't give a damn that I didn't win Eleq's award. I posted what I did because I thought it was funny. But What ever happened to the egroups that was coherent most of the time? It's been completely obliterated, much like my virginity should be by now. Unfortunatelly, not everything goes as planned. ### I need some new ideas to put up in the titles [Boo!!](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://web.frogland.net/boo/default.htm) "We r0x0r j00" Inc has announced they're joining the [twleague](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.twleague.com/). I'd add witty commentary here except I'm too sleep deprived to say any....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz ### The dictionary knows him well I looked up the term egotist in the dictionary today and came up with this: **e·go·tist n.** 1.A conceited, boastful person. Also see: Eleqtrizi'T ## Tuesday, April 18, 2000 ### The 3rd annual Awards now listed [The official 3rd annual awards](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://home1.gte.net/jack8662/twawards.htm) have now gotten totaled and the winners announced. Congrats on all who won...and didn't complain! I'd post my own snippy commentary, but it seems a lot of people have already done that for me. If you don't agree with the award, then just join the bitchfest on [egroups](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.egroups.com/list/tw2002/). ## Sunday, April 16, 2000 ### HS announces...um, more awards. Eleqtrizi'T has announced his own brand of justice to be released upon the gaming public: [The Home Sector Awards](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.thestardock.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?awards.htm). Since Nobody cares who's the best TWGS gameop, (Sorry Timberwolf, who loves ya?) I'll just skip to the only category that matters: **BEST WEBSITE - Dragon's Elite** This one tore me up. How can I even **THINK** about giving the award to anyone but Mana Knight? But fact is Mana Knight keeps **wasting his life in school** instead of giving us website updates. Plus, Guardian has the coveted guides of Shell's that I was trying to get. Bastard. This decision comes after the epifany that Eleq actually, "put a lot of thought into this." I think it'd be pretty easy to give me the award, and I didn't even have to think about it. Simply replace all refrences of Guardian with Mana Knight and "wasting his life in school" with "answering the call of his midlife crisis" and you got a winner. Here's how the description should have looked: **This one tore me up. How can I even **THINK** about giving the award to anyone but Guardian? But fact is Guardian keeps **answering the call of his midlife crisis** instead of giving us website updates. Plus, Mana's great skills destroyed me in the last tradewars game we played. Bastard.** As far as **Wasting my life away at school**, next time you have to program a linked list within a linked list within a linked list that is dynamically allocated, feel free to [give me a call](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.dialpad.com/). So go back to writing those articles about Britney Spears for wherever it is you work at and we'll see how well you do after I take over the entertainment industry. At least I have my own [TV show](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.nickjr.com/bluesclues/). ### Ah, the mad bomber returns It's been a pretty slow weekend, but [egroups](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.egroups.com/list/tw2002) got mailbombed yesterday, so I guess everything is back to normal. ## Thursday, April 13, 2000 ### Speaking of domain names.... Ironically enough, The TWleague announced that they had just bought [https://www.twleague.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.twleague.com) and [https://www.twleague.org.](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.twleague.org.) Why two domain names? I don't know. But you can now get a snazy @twleague.org mail address or if you're really r33t, you can get a @twleague.com addy. Ooooh. Note to self: Add supportive comment here. ## Tuesday, April 11, 2000 ### Let's talk about Domain names. I really hate the way Domain names are handled. Especially more so since potentially usable ones will just sit in the hands of domain name squatters looking to make a buck. Since the beginning of time, Tradewars.com (And more recently Tradewars.net also) has been held by people who don't use it. Domain name squatters. Tradewars.com is most recently held by [DNSbank](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.dnsbank.com/), and a few months ago, the whois information said it was owned by [tucows](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.tucows.com/). That's right, the site that rates downloadable software held it. William Smith who first came by a few months ago (Who will only be refered to as 'Will Smith' from now on since they both have the same size egos) tried to save tradewars but [failed](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.egroups.com/message/tw2002/13949). However, his legacy lives on since his company registered tradewars2002.com, .net, and .org. Thanks buddy, your really helping us by taking these names. Who really needs three domains for one tradewars/TWGS site that still hasn't materialized? More importantly, why does a company need a .org address? What pisses me off is that these domains are just SITTING. sure, they could be used for the greater good, but that would mean that greed would have to go out the window. There's a simple solution in my book: simply make a bill that disallows the selling of domain names for more than what was originally paid for it. This usually amounts to a whole $75. While this won't keep all the selling from stopping, it will be a big deterent and will stop people who sell their domains to big corporations for a million dollars. (Which has happened) I got my domain, good luck to the rest of you. ## Monday, April 10, 2000 ### New TWGS revision released The latest version is 1.01.28.1947.274672.621687487778b or something like that. Here's what "fixed:" **Located several minor bugs in the mail system. These bugs were responsible for the mail file lockups that required that TWMAIL.DAT be deleted. Mail file corruption should be much less common after .28.** Removed mail maximum until further notice. Previously, I had imposed a 1000 message maximum per player. I want to see how the system functions over the coming months without this maximum. Fixed bug that allowed non-corp players to escape the Interdictor Cruiser of other non-corp players during an attack. With all these gameplay bugs being fixed, how am I supposed to compete with people who don't use bugs? ### A strange, quiet week It's been strangely quiet the past few days. Bad Girl hasn't been flirting with anyone, and Egroups is actually NOT acting like a "Usenet group, but sent to your mailbox." Isn't this one of the signs of the apocalypse? But [Eleq](/)is still asking for donations so not everything has changed. Everyone has a hobby, I guess. ## Thursday, April 6, 2000 ### We're shutting down? Hee Hee If you haven't figured it out yet, The Post I made on **April 1st** was an...April Fools joke. Imagine that. However, Tradewars.org will be closed for a while. It's my 21st Birthday today, so I will not be making updates until I run out of money. ### Mr. T Takes over EIS Tradewars Forum! That's right sucka...er, People! Mr. T invaded EIS today. [CLick here for the full story!](https://eisonline.classictw.com/) ## Wednesday, April 5, 2000 ### 3rd Annual TW Awards The voting has begun on the [3rd Annual TW awards](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://home1.gte.net/jack8662/twawards.htm) has begun! Let your voice be heard, because the old people ALWAYS vote, and you younger ones need to keep up! The voting process is very steamlined. Just vote for random people in every category until you reach Best Webpage. In that one, you vote for tradewars.org. Yes, Simplicity is good. ## Tuesday, April 4, 2000 ### Your chance to bother John Prichett! I'll be conducting an interview with John Prichett next week about...stuff. Anyway, I'm looking for people to send in any questions they might have about Tradewars, Cerial, or whatever. I'll take the best ones and have John answer them....weather he wants to or not. Send your questions to [mk@tradewars.org](mailto:mk@tradewars.org) ## Thursday, April 1, 2000 ### Tradewars.org to cease operations This has been a while coming. As of next thursday, April 6th, Tradewars.org will cease operations. I'm sure you are all asking, "What are you doing! Stop messing with our minds, man!" The truth of the matter is that I lead two lives. "Joel Gonzales" who attends college at the University of Louisiana is my pseudonym. He doesn't exist. My real name is Steve Burns. I host [Blue's Clues](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.nickjr.com/bluesclues/home.html), which can be seen five days a week on Nick Jr. I used the other name simply as a cover as I like my privacy. Now on to the reason I'm quitting: as it stands, one Blue's Clues episode takes five months of work to complete. (Multiple episodes are done at the same time) However, my role in each episode will be increasing and I no longer have the time to run this site. On the left is a picture I sent to Cruncher. On the right is a picture of myself. It's suprising no one has sent me an email saying, "You look like that guy from Blue's Clues!" Maybe it's because I'm wearing a hat. Next, I will be selling the tradewars.org domain for $75 (The price I paid for it) under the following conditions: a) [The Home Sector](/) is unaffected b) I keep the mk@tradewars.org email address If you are interested, contact me. Lastly, I'll be making my goodbyes on Thursday.

My modem decided to break down into it's component parts last night. Great job, Zoom! I also notice that sneaky bastard John Pritchett archived the posts used in the below news article a few hours after I posted it. I'll eventually move the posts to this server... after I get a new modem! Right now I'm answering mail through my Dreamcast. At least it's good for something till I get Code Veronica.

Seems everyone's favorite TradeWars forum Troll, Barefoot has once again been making [posts](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.eisonline.com/TWForum/messages/3882.htm) boarding on the "Who cares?" side of things. But alas, the real reason I post this is the fact that he mouthed off to Cruncher for no reason. That's right, he mouthed off to everyone's favorite Pixie and completely [destroyed her virginity](https://web.archive.org/web/20000000000000*/https://www.eisonline.com/TWForum/messages/4180.htm). Alas poor Cruncher, for I knew thee well. It's sad really. She had just gotten a 15" monitor and was about to experience the web like it should be too....