VGA Planets 3.5 Shareware PBEM From: cocomax@aol.com (Cocomax) Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1996 00:00:00 +0000 New Shareware Release Feb 5th 1996 marks the release of date of VGA Planets 3.5 for MS-Windows Shareware Version This is the first release of SHAREWARE version of VGA Planets 3.5 for MS-Windows. So if you have never tryed VGA Planets 3.5 for windows here is your chance to see and try it. You can download it now from: ftp.wilmington.net/vgaplanets/share/winp35.zip or www.wilmington.net/vgaplanets Currently There are over 28,000 registered VGA Planets all over world, so you should not have a hard time finding a group of people to play with. All last count I have have counted 86 Web sites dedicated to VGA Planets there are even a few web sites that are running games. Like: http://www.islandnet.com/~dafriese/robo.html VGA Planets has its own news group alt.games.vga-planets What is VGA Planets?: VGA Planets is a graphical, multi-player, play by electronic mail, space strategy game for DOS and MS-Windows. This game simulates combat in space between galactic scale empires. The game emphasizes colonization of space and the development of the planets that you will find, colonize and/or conquer. How well you develop these resources will determine what kind of starships (freighters and capital ships) you will be able to produce and how well you will be able to defend your space and attack your neighbors. This game is designed to be a strategic and tactical game of warfare, but you will also need to be able to build an economy and service your empire. With a well developed strong economic base you will have a greater potential for winning the game. As the leader of your empire you are responsible for all of the decisions that effect your growth and production (excluding, of course, being attacked by your neighbor). You will decide how to best develop your planets with the resources available to you. You will decide what type of starship(s) to be built at your starbase(s). You are the mastermind behind your race and you are in a race to see which empire can first conqueror the universe. At the start of the game you are left with a homeworld, a low tech starbase, and two low tech starships VGA Planets is designed to be able to handle from two to eleven players in a play by mail (electronic mail) game format. The game is designed to be played as a Net or Bulletin Board System (BBS) game (as long as file transfers are permitted and available), although it can be played solely on one computer. Many of the Net players are playing using E-mail and UUENCODE. There are over 100 third party add-ons and campaign editors for VGA Planets plus over 40 different BBS door programs to aid in the running of VGA Planets games. Andrew Sterian and Thomas Vogt have even written hosting software for UNIX systems and many other none non-Dos systems. Put simply: VGA Planets is HUGE! At the heart of VGA Planets is a well thought out game system that I designed myself. Here is a short list of the many feature you can find in VGA Planets 3. All planets have 3 types of minerals plus fuel. The minerals are on the surface or in the ground. The rate that the mines can bring the minerals to the surface depends on the density and the race mining bonus. Players can build mines, factories and defense outposts. Factories produce supplies that can be turned into minerals if you run short on minerals using mineral alchemy. There are two types of anti-ship mines WEB and Normal. WEB mines slows your ship down to a dead stop if your ship hits one. Each race has special ablities that makes the game more interesting, things like: Fast ships that move twice as fast as normal. Able to rob enemy ships of fuel and cargo. Turn enemy ships into minerals and store them in the cargo hold. Ships can be send out to perform a preprogramed task at each of the 6 different waypoints you can set for each ship. You get to view the results of your ship to ship battles and ship to planet battles in what I call The "Combat VCR". You can check all this out just by grabbing a free copy of the shareware version of VGA Planets from my ftp site or web page: ftp.wilmington.net/vgaplanets/share/winp35.zip or www.wilmington.net/vgaplanets Up