***************** Fine Games for Players & Collectors ***************** ** now located at: 2078 Madrona St., North Bend, OR 97459-2143 USA *** ******* 541-756-4711 866-690-7879 M.Dean@FineGames.com ******** Update #3 8 Sept '95 WELCOME to the third installment of the Fine Games electronic newsletter. These updates by email contain news and other info of interest to active gamers and collectors. They also explain how you can download copies of any of the many Fine Games' catalogs at your convenience. C O N T E N T S Fine Games NEWS .......... What's going on at Fine Games -Not avail week of 9-17 Sept. -Shipping charges -800 # -WWW Site Shipping PERFORMANCE ..... Stats on speed in which we ship NEW Games ................ Newly released games TIM JIM Games ............ Now available thru Fine Games PENDING RELEASED ......... Games to be released shortly Games GOING Out-of-Print.. Games known to be low in stock CARD Games ............... Yes, we have no Magic! OSPREY Books ............. Osprey Military Books @ 20% off FTP SITE ................. Fine Games' catalogs OnLine ! FTP Q & A ................ Problem-Shooting FTP problems USING A WWW BROWSER ...... Using a Browser to read FTP Files Your SUGGESTIONS ......... Suggested Improvements Welcomed F I N E G A M E S N E W S Of most immediate concern is that, thru 17 Sept., I will be in eastern Oregon bicycling thru 430 miles and 20,000' of elevation gain. So, please be patient in awaiting a reply to any email or voice messages you may send. During the week, a special message # is available: 800-421-9570. Shipping charges for all types of orders have changed. Domestic orders including boxed games are now $6 per shipment; a surcharge applies to orders including a large (LB) or weighty game. (For example, 1856 weighs 7# all alone.) Orders of UNboxed games & magazines are $4 per shipment. International charges increased as of 9 July due to the Postal Service's rate hike. A rate chart is available with each order or on my FTP site. You can use an 800 # to place orders: 866-690-7879 . Please use the standard # to discuss trades or game content. A WWW site is planned for this fall. The press of other demands has delayed the implementation of this elaborate site until after the summer. I am still seeking wargaming-related graphics suitable for the Web and free of copyright restrictions. S H I P P I N G P E R F O R M A N C E PROMPT SHIPMENT of your game orders is important to you -- as it is to me. So I've tracked my performance to see how I'm doing & where I can improve. During all of 1995, 68% of used/OoP game orders are shipped within 3 days of receipt of payment; nearly half are shipped within 1 day. Orders involving new games require longer to obtain the games. Still, 80% of all orders are shipped with 14 days. I invite you to compare the speed in which you receive your gaming items from Fine Games to that from ANY other game seller, professional or not. N E W G A M E S The dam finally broke in July and a couple dozen of excellent games were finally released. These include the blockbusters of the summer, Empire of the Rising Sun (AH) and 3 Days of Gettysburg (aka TSS 3rd) (GMT). PUBL TITLE F G's PRICE ADG World in Flames: Ships in Flames $21.00 AH Acquire Deluxe $21.00 ASL:Annual '95 Winter $14.00 Empire of the Rising Sun $35.00 Geronimo $27.30 CofA Command At Sea REFEREE'S GUIDE $9.10 Kolin: Frederick's Defeat, 2nd $30.80 COLUMBIA Bobby Lee, 2nd $31.50 Bobby Lee, 2nd Rules $6.00 Dixie: Shiloh Card Game $6.30 EuroFront $24.50 West Front, 2nd Rules $7.00 DECISION GAMES Across the Suez, 2nd $9.10 Alamo, 2nd $11.90 Antietam Campaign $21.00 Blue & Gray Quad, 3rd $21.00 Four Battles of the Ancient World,V.2 $21.00 Indo-Pakastani War #174 $11.90 GAMERS Down in Flames: 8th Air Force Kit $24.50 Great Battles of Alexander: Diadochi $11.20 Great Battles of Julius Caeser: Dictator $11.20 SPQR: Art of Warfare...War Elephnt 2nd $12.60 Three Days of Gettysburg $41.30 Typhoon $31.50 MAYFAIR 1856 $31.50 PAC RIM Chosin $21.00 SPEARHEAD Bloodiest Day [Antietam] $29.40 T I M J I M G A M E S I am now able to offer most of the Tim Jim (Prism) line of games. Until this week, I'd be unable to do so because of TJ's limited distribution. The available line includes: 2038: Tycoons of the Asteroid Belt $35 Release due in 2 wks Age of Exploration: 1492-1543 $28 Fast Food Franchise $24.50 Suzerain $17.50 P E N D I N G R E L E A S E S The following games should be released by the end of October -- but don't hold your breath for any one date! ADG / CWJ World in Flames '94/95 Annual $14.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 AH Beyond Squad Leader PC $56.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 Blackbeard PC $42.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 ? Wooden Ships & Iron Men PC CD-ROM $49.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 CofA From Valmy to Waterloo $30.80 Rels Pending due 9/95 King's War $25.20 Rels Pending due 9/95 COLUMBIA West Front, 2nd $42.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 DECISION GAMES '45: Scottish Revolt $21.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 Emperor's First Battles $21.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 Lords of the Sierra Madre, 2nd $28.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 GAMERS Marengo $20.30 Rels Pending due 9/95 MAYFAIR 1870 $31.50 Rels Pending due 9/95 Grand Prix $17.50 Rels Pending due 9/95 PAC RIM Road to Berlin $42.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 TIM JIM 2038: Tycoons of the Asteroid Belt $35.00 Rels Pending due 9/95 XTR (Command) Gazala / Death & Destruction Kit #34 $23.10 Rels Pending due 9/95 G A M E S G O I N G O U T - O F - P R I N T The following games are heading out the door. They are available at the moment but may not be for too much longer. CofA La Bataille Preussisch-Eylau, 3rd La Bataille Auerstaedt, 3rd La Bataille Wavre Mississippi Fortress Marching thru Georgia Gamr Guderian's Blitzkrieg (I have 1 copy at $27.30) 3W Blitzkrieg in the South Crimean Shield Run Silent Run Deep Last Blitzkrieg GDW Fire in the East (GRD selling remain stock for $40/ea) Mayf North American Rails C A R D G A M E S : Yes, We Have No Magic I will try to help the card gamers among you in two ways. If you are interested in ordering Magic or other card games in BOX QUANTITIES and waiting the necessary 3+ months to receive your cards, I'll sell these under my normal terms (30% off, etc.). Also, card games OTHER THAN MAGIC may be available by the individual deck or booster. Please inquire. O S P R E Y M I L I T A R Y B O O K S Fine Games offers many books in Osprey's series at 20% off list. Shipping charges vary for 5+ books. A catalog of titles is available with any order or for a SSAE. It is also available on my FTP site (see below). Alternatively, you can refer to Osprey's own catalog. I need each book's title as well as its series ID and number. For example, the Normandy book is CAMP #1 Normandy. Since the last update, 8 new books were published: CAMP 37 Boston 1775 $12.00 CAMP 38 Colenso 1899 CAMP 39 Little Bighorn 1876 CAMP 40 Sekigahra 1600 MAA 283 Early Roman Army $10.40 MAA 284 Imperial Chinese Army 200BC-589AD MAA 285 King George's Army #1 Infantry MAA 286 French Army 1914-18 Also newly published is the ATLAS OF THE [AMERICAN] CIVIL WAR, a hard- cover atlas that maps each and every engagement of the ACW. Published by MacMillian. $32. F T P S I T E An ever wider variety of catalogs is available to you online at my FTP site. Look for the ".read_me.txt" file at the following address: ftp.FineGames.com/pub/vendors/finegms/ In particular, you may wish to download the "all_cats.zip" file (450k) which contains a copy of ALL my catalogs. Also, if you haven't noticed it, there are specialized catalogs that list (1) only newly-listed used/out-of-print games, (2) family & sports games, (3) solitaire games, and (4) mulitiplayer games. F T P Q U E S T I O N S & A N S W E R S I'm happy to attempt to solve FTP-related problems. But keep these points in mind especially when using any text-based FTP tools: * If your FTP program looses its connection prematurely, try setting your program's time-out threshold to at least 60 seconds. Or try contacting the site at times OTHER THAN evening hours PST. * My FTP site, like most, is CASE SENSITIVE. Use lower case letters unless a directory listing shows the use of upper case letters. * Most FTP sites use a FORWARD slash ("/") rather than the backslash ("\") that DOS users are familiar with in path statements. * Signon via Anonymous FTP. That is, signon with an account name of "anonymous" and a password which is your actual, complete email address. * Use a BINARY TRANSFER mode when copying ZIPped files of any sort. You can use BINARY or ASCII transfers with TXT (text) files. * You must use the current version of PKZIP to UNZIP compressed files. The current version is 2.04g. Earlier versions probably won't work. U S I N G A W W W B R O W S E R WWW BROWSERS such as NetScape can access these files using the path given above. Just enter the URL "ftp://ftp.FineGames.com/pub/vendors/finegms/". This will provide a menu of of available files. Point to any TEXT (.txt) file to read it. Or use your browswer's ability to download any file directly. Y O U R S U G G E S T I O N S YOUR SUGGESTIONS influence the range of catalogs I make available here. I've added two new formats in response to earlier suggestions. If you'd like to see stuff listed in a way more useful to you, please let me know. Any comments, for better or worse, are welcome. Again, any comments you may have to improve the service I provide to you via this Update or in any other way are greatly appreciated.