***************** 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 #4 16 Oct. '95 WELCOME to this 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 - FTP Site Updated 10/16 Christmas Gifts ......... Receive GAMES for Christmas NEW Games ................ Newly released games PENDING RELEASED ......... Games to be released shortly Games GOING Out-of-Print.. Games known to be low in stock CARD Games ............... Pending Arrivals Available NEW OSPREY Books ......... New Titles Pending Your SUGGESTIONS ......... Suggested Improvements Welcomed F I N E G A M E S N E W S The Fine Games FTP site was updated on Monday, 16 October. Take a peek. A new listing that shows NEW games in publisher/title order is now included; look for New_Gms1.txt. I'm working to further reduce lead times for new game order by establishing relationships with several more distributors, big & small. Already, this has allowed me to fill some standing backorders. I've also found copies of some of the AH games recently, and unexpectedly, discontinued. My 800 # requires that you enter a 4 digit code after the normal 800#. The code is simply 1111. So, to use this #, enter 1-866-690-7879, then 1111 when requested. C H R I S T M A S G I F T S U G G E S T I O N Some of you are blessed with relatives and significant-others willing to give you games as gifts -- you lucky blokes! I'd be happy to help see that you get the games you really want for Christmas (or your birthday). Just pass along my 800# above, and I'll do everything I can to see that you get the gift of your dreams... N E W G A M E S New releases have slowed considerably since August--thankfully! Here's the list of new items to date (see also Card Games, below): ADG Annual 1994/95 w/ Mech in Flames $14 Perhaps the value of the year. Another lengthy annual featuring strategy, analysis & scenarios. Plus Mech in Flames, a World in Flames add-on that includes a full sheet of counters. AH D-Day: America Invades CD-ROM $49 Major upgrade of V4V's Utah Beach, w/ PBEM, inclusion of Omaha Beach, improved mechanics, etc. CD includes both MAC & DOS versions. Gamers Marengo $20.30 2nd ed version of the Gamer's Napoleonic series. Napoleon marches thru the Alps to surprise an Austrian army in NW Italy. Mayfair 1870 $31.50 Another big railroad & stock market game in the 18xx series. This once covers RR expansion in the trans-Mississippi region (Denver to Chicago to the Gulf Coast). Includes beginners rules. PacRim Chosin $21 PR rises from its deep sleep to release another game! The marines try to conduct an organized retreat from around the Chosin Resevior, Nov. 1950, while the Chinese attempt to isolate & destroy them piecemeal. US firepower rules the day; Chinese manuever rules the night. Co-btln lvl. XTR Rommel @ Gazala / Death & Destruction #34 $24.50 RaG is a v.small game of manuever w/ only ~20 units on a normal size map. D&D is a major add-on kit to Proud Monster w/ 1080 units, a Caucauses map, and rules extending the game to Apr'44. A must have for those who like WW2, east front and or PM itself. TimJim 2038 $35 Asteriod mining, exploration and stock market manipulation in space--not in that order! Yes, its 18xx in space. Early reports suggest that this is an exciting addition to the 18xx line tho it adds many new features due to its locale. (S T I L L ) 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 November -- but don't hold your breath for any one date! Esp. for AH titles. AH Beyond Squad Leader PC $56.00 Rels Pending due 10/95 Blackbeard PC $42.00 Rels Pending due 10/95 ? Wooden Ships & Iron Men PC CD-ROM $49.00 Rels Pending due 10/95 CofA From Valmy to Waterloo $30.80 Rels Pending due 10/95 King's War $25.20 Rels Pending due 10/95 Zorndorf $30.80 Rels Pending due 11/95 COLUMBIA West Front, 2nd $42.00 Rels Pending due 10/95 DECISION GAMES Germania #195 $11.90 Rels pending due 10/95 '45: Scottish Revolt $21.00 Rels Pending due 10/95 Emperor's First Battles $21.00 Rels Pending due 10/95 Lords of the Sierra Madre, 2nd $28.00 Rels Pending due 10/95? GRD Second Front $ ? Rels Pending due 11/95? War in the Desert (Torch,Desert War) $ ? Reks Pending due 11/95? PAC RIM Road to Berlin $42.00 Rels Pending due 10/95 The Mayfair game Grand Prix (aka Brick Yard) has been postponed till 1/96 or later. It had been due as early as July. G A M E S G O I N G O U T - O F - P R I N T The most notable passings are two GMT games, Crisis: Korea 1995 and SPQR, 2nd. The latter will certainly be reprinted. An industry publication has mentioned the following AH games as now discontinued. Some are surprises. None have been directly confirmed w/ AH, tho my experience ordering a few of these is consistent with this report. It is also consistent w/ AH's stated intent to move out of board game publishing. In most cases, these games can still be easily obtained. Attack Sub Luftwaffe 1776 Midway Coral Sea Kit Air Force / Dauntless (as individual games) Turning Point Stalingrad Expansion kit By Hook or Crook Ambush: Move Out Hell's Hiway Mosby's Raiders Battle Hymn Aegean Strike C A R D G A M E S My latest NEW game catalogs (New_Gms.txt & New_Gms1.txt) on my FTP site now include a listing of the available Magic, Star Wars and Star Trek card games. None are available as stock items. Yet most can be obtained within 2-4 weeks with a prepaid order. For example, Star Trek Unlimited, decks & boosters, available NOW Star Wars Limited, decks & boosters, avail early November Echelons of Fury / Fire, decks of both avail NOW boosters avail in late October Magic 4th ed, decks & boosters, due late October Ice Age, decks & boosters, due late October Homelands, boosters, due mid-November A complete listing with pricing is included in the NEW game listings at my FTP site (New_Gms.txt & New_Gms1.txt). Please contact me if you're interested in purchasing BOX quantities of any of these collectable card games. N E W O S P R E Y M I L I T A R Y B O O K S 19 books are expected to be published by the end of the year: Osprey Men at Arms 283 Roman Armies 600-300 BC $9.10 284 Imperial Chines Armies 200bc-589ad 285 King George's Army 1740-93 #1 286 French Army 1914-18 287 Byzantine Armies 1118-1462ad 288 American Indians of the SE 289 General Washington's Army 1779-83 #2 Campaign 39 Little Big Horn 1876 $10.50 40 Sekigahra 1600 41 Rorke's Drift 1879 42 Operation Bagration 1944 Elite 60 German U-Boat Crews 1914-45 $9.10 61 Guards 1914-45 Warrior 13 Union Cavalryman 1861-5 $9.10 14 Zulu 1816-1906 15 Late Roman Cavalryman 236-565ad New Vangrd 15 German Flamethrowers 1939-45 $9.10 16 Leopard I Main Battle Tank A catalog of titles is 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. 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, (4) mulitiplayer games, and (5) games sorted by publisher (rather than historical era). 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.