ABSOLUTE! Online

ABS/SD News

The Anthrax threat has been over for some time now, and I have lost my excuse for getting the zine out. I have been very busy. It seems like yesterday when the last issue came out. Truth is that it has been over a year. And there has been some very sad news also. One of the players in one of our games, John Schultz, died in a motorcycle accident. John died in September, 2002.

Deadlines for all games in ABS/SD was, June 25, 2001.

Yes. ABSOLUTE! is late. There are a lot of reasons for this.
I am slowly working on the zine. The problem is with all the computer problems, parts of the zine are cattered on three hard drives on three computers, one (the K6-II) which is in pieces in the basement. I haven't had the time to fix it. Fortunately, the new computer (the P4) we have is ROCK SOLID and working well. I am slowly migrating my stuff to this one. And thanks goes to Paul Milewski, Fred Davis and John Boardman for sending encouragement. I was thinking of foldig early, but now I want to get the next issue out. Besides, I've been too busy to send my stuff to Michael Lowery.

The Anthax scare here seems to be over, and the U.S. Postal service is more or less back to normal.

I also have been sending issue of the zine to Bowling Green Universty for their popular Culture Library. It will be nice to know someone will be archiving it.

ABS/SD now has 2 regular Diplomacy games.; ABS/SD's subzine, The Dragon also has a game of regular Diplomacy running.
There is an openning in ABSOLUTE!'s subzine, The Dragon (see below).
There is also always room for a standby player.
The zine is reducing the scope of the games. I will run the two regular Diplomacy games until they finish. The zine ABSOLUTE! is scheduled to conclude on issue 100. It's fun to produce, but the family is taking up more and more of my time.
To join a play by (POSTAL!) mail Diplomacy game or to be a standby for this regular dip game, contact Chris Trent, <-!There is a $10 game fee for the regular Diplomacy games that are good for the life of the Regular Diplomacy game and covers the subscription. (This really doesn't even cover postage.) The first 7 people who send in a check for $10 are part of the game. -> (Variants are free).
Please note that while I do not have any game offerings at this time, ABSOLUTE!'s subzine GM's does. Please contact them for details.

GAMES UNDER A GUEST GAME MASTER:

- Either regular Diplomacy or the new NorCal Dip varient Diplomacy (need 7, contact Chris Trent). Chris is going to run these games in his subzine, The Dragon.
Regular Diplomacy started. the players: Mark Brush, Phil Reynolds, Brad Wilson, Ed Kollmer, Andrew Wetzel, Guy Hoch, and Ed Kollmer.
Actually, I haven't heard from Chris in a long time. I would contact him first.

GAMES STATUS:

Reg Diplomacy Robert H. Goddard 1999A. Last turn run: Fall 1905. Winter 1905/ Spring 1906 due.
Reg Diplomacy Albert Abraham Michelson 1999E. Last turn run: Fall 1905. Winter 1905/ Spring 1906 due.
Reg Diplomacy Charles H. Townes 1996C, This one is over, France has won. Congrats to Andrew Wetzel! (Charles Townes invented the Laser.) Last turn ran: Fall 1909.
The Robert Oppenheimer 1994 II game is now finished. Congrads to England, with one of the most convining wins ever at 22 supply centers! Contains Englands Endgame Statement. Last turn run: FALL 1910.
Axis & Allies. A replacement GM could not be found, this one is over.
Varient anarchy diplomacy Ann Arkey W00, 1994ACrh01. This one is now over! Lokiland (David Partridge) Won! The Whining Kent Pig Empire (Doug Kent) returned causing Lokiland to grab everything! WELCOME BACK DOUG KENT!!! Poor ishkibble II. But he (John Schultz) did survive. So did Abyssinia (Jim Burgess). The Portuguese Man-O-War (David Burgess) and Iberian Burbers (Lane Hess) lasted right up there until the end. Last turn ran: Fall 1918.
In both the postal verson and the web version of ABSOLUTE!/Standard Deviation was the varient gunboat Diplomacy game nicknamed " Swiftsure Soliloquies." This game is now over! It was the known longest running gunboat diplomacy game in postal history. This is now the record for the longest played gunboat game: Last turn played: SPRING 1934.

(note: Seeing the text underlined depends on what viewer you are using.)
.->
I may be rewriting my house rules soon. One big change I may make is the way I handle separation of seasons. Like Andy Lischett in Cheesecake, I have been allowing a separation of seasons when ever at least one player requested it. I may change that to a request from two players. More on this later.

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ABSOLUTE! issue 85 is out. What may we expect for ABSOLUTE! issue 86?

Actually, the real question is WHEN will we see the next issue of ABS!
Home news, and the Diplomacy letter col.
My thoughts of the September 11th attacks.

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Special History: ABSOLUTE Online's first webpage. ABSOLUTE! 49 1/2

Contains the "How to make beer" article.

OTHER NEWS:

SUPERNOVA:

SUPERNOVA is a 36 page booklet explaining the Postal Diplomacy Hobby. To get a booklet on an intoduction to Postal Diplomacy, send $1 to: Mr. Fred C. Davis, Jr.: 3210-K Wheaton Way; Ellicott City, MD 21043. Send for yours today!

GAMES STORE NEWS!:

All Things Fun, a store in Berlin, NJ, and dedicated to face to face gaming as well as comic books is local, and on Route 73 North, just north to where the circle used to be. It is a little hard to see, as it sits back from the highway and there is a Ice cream shop that blocks the view. If you pass the Sears hardware you have gone too far.

EPGS News

This is a brief reminder that every third Saturday is the meeting day of the Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Society. Bring your favorite games and a few friends then enjoy the competition at our Game Club Saturday. Note the new meeting place.

When: Third Saturday of each month
Time: 9:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.
Who: The Eastern Pennsylvania Gaming Society (EPGS)
Where: Oxford Valley Mall *
For additional information, contact:
Bob Hranek, or
http://www.epgs.org

(disclaimer, check this with Bob Hranek at rhranek at comcast.net as this info may now be old)

* Directions: Currently meet at Oxford Valley Mall every 1st & 3rd Saturday of the Month. Meetings run from 9:30am to 9:30pm. Inquire for Dues per meeting.

Meeting Schedule:
We meet every third Saturday of the month.

Michael Lowrey is the U.S. Diplomacy Game Orphan Custodian. His e-mail link is on the diplomacy players links page.

The Avalon Hill Game Company is now owned by Hasbro. They are now a division of Hasbro, for their statgic games. Hasbro has stated they plan to continue some of the games. (They have also bought Microprose, so maybe there is some hope that they will revive Civilization. Hasbro has released Avalon Hill's COMPUTER DIPLOMACY under the Microprose brand. I've received a copy of this game, and unfortunately, it isn't very good in that it doesn't follows the rules of the game well. The game I played looked good, and didn't crash, but it wouldn't let me support an attack. The problem is that not enough gamers are programmers. Hasbro has resently sold it computer division, so all it's computer titles may be gone.
The new board game is now in stores. It uses Monopoly style pieces, but the Battleship is actually kind of cool. Avalon Hill now is the brand which Axis & Allies is published, as well as Aquire, and a few others.

Hasbro has either sold or given the rights of it's Squad Leader game to pro baseball player Curt Schilling, a big gamer himself. The new company is call "MultiMan Publishing." They have released a computer version of the Squad Leader game.

Note: The telephone area code for the New Jersey side of the Delaware Valley has changed in 1999. The former (609) is now split with (856). Please change this in your phone diectory. (609) is still good for the South eastern side of New Jersey, like Medford, Toms River and the shore, (Atlantic City, Avalon, Long Beach Island, Ocean City, Cape May, Wildwood, etc.) and the old South Jersey AT&T Wireless cell phones, (like mine).

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