I have been a wee-bit slow to merge TradeWars.org and The Stardock, but the big chunk of the work is now done. You can now view a big chunk of Trade Wars history from 1997 to present in the Library. Direct Link: [TradeWars.org History](/category/TradeWars.org) Some interesting articles to start you off - [Is TradeWars Dying? Posted April 1998!](/post/1045)

The BLaST OFF Tournament has found a home for this years 2004 version! Thanks to The Stardock...and EleqTrizi'T this years tournament will be held on a great server with a great sysop. The offical ship/planet settings can be found via the tournament web site at: [](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/<https://www.geocities.com/daniel_e_higginbotham>) This tournament is a solo/unlimited/ladder. Basically the winner advances to another round, while the loser gets eliminated! This tournament is going to be great, alot of players are showing up to see who is really the best in Trade Wars! Slim Shady and Alexio are among the better known. With about eight other traders so far. The start date is still TBA, but it WILL be before the end of Corp Wars, and the begging of BOTE 2004. If anyone has any questions please contact me at [](<mailto:daniel_e_higginbotham@yahoo.com>) To sign up for the tournament go to: [](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/<https://www.dreamlandweb.net/blastoff/signup.htm>) ### Thanks to the following for all their help and support: [Dreamland Web Design](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/<https://www.dreamlandweb.net>) Slim Shady - creator of "Enders Game" edits EleqTrizi'T - host of this years tournament ATTAC - sponsor SWATH - sponsor EIS Online - sponsor Thank you all! and sign up quick, spots going fast!

Re-posted from the forums: >[www.tw-cabal.com](/files/Site%20Caps/TWCabal/index.html) updated. new entries in the tip's section, the glossary, and I fixed the links in the Links and strategy pages. For those of you who don't know, [www.tw-cabal.com](/files/Site%20Caps/TWCabal/index.html) is one of the best sources of information about playing TW. <br> -Traitor One of the best resources, no doubt. I freakin' love that site.

There are hundreds of TradeWars servers scattered across the internet, each hosting a multitude of games. Yet, the designers of the TWGS software have failed to include a way to search them all. Until now, no one has bothered to assemble a single comprehensive resource of TradeWars games. In lieu of such a system, [EleqTrizi'T](/) and I set out to build one. Powered by [PHP](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.php.net/), [PostgreSQL](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.postgresql.com/) and [Perl](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.cpan.org/), the new [TWGS Search Engine](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.thestardock.com/twgssearch/) launched today with listings from select servers. Every night, Eleq's search program connects to all of the TradeWars servers in the database and refreshes the list of games. This allows us to index a massive number of games without any (human) effort required. The search engine website, coded by me, allows game searches based on 17 different game settings. Several sorted views are available. An extended display, which lists all of the information about the game, server, and other games on that server, is available, including the raw telnet session converted to HTML. Before this system even gets off the ground, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: We are ** *not* ** in the business of rating SysOps or servers. Our goal is to provide open access to all SysOps and interested players, not to be a [TWLeague](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.twleague.com/). We will not take action against cheating SysOps or refuse to list sub-par systems. This decision comes after thorough consideration: We do not want this system to die a controversial death or become so embroiled in TW‑politics that it does not function as intended. Interested SysOps may submit their server for indexing on [this page](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.thestardock.com/twgssearch/sysops.php).

BOTE 2004 (that's Battle of the Elite), will be hosted here at The Stardock this year. Finally, one of my life-long dreams, hosting the BOTE, will come to pass. Next, I plan to aquire magical abilities of turning things into beer by simply touching them, and I will be complete! I will be posting registration pages very soon.

The sign ups for the BLaST OFF Tournament have been opened. Sign up at: [https://www.dreamlandweb.net/blastoff/signup.htm](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.dreamlandweb.net/blastoff/signup.htm) Check the game settings at: [https://www.geocities.com/daniel_e_higginbotham](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.geocities.com/daniel_e_higginbotham) Game start will be announced soon.

Now that BG3.x is over, I will be banging a new game tonight. I'm going to call it Dock Stock, and the modifications are not too drastic. No planet mods, and some simple but popular ship mods are in place. Game will be easy to figure out, no staring through loads and loads of ships trying to figure out what's best. The ships that were good to use before are still good to use, just easier to use. AND NOW THE BIG NEWS!! Tonight I'm introducing the new turn system, to be put in testing at The Stardock! Dock Stock will have a 800-per-day base, and allow you to store up to 7 days worth of turns. Check it out tonight at 6pm Pacific!

The transition went pretty smooth yesterday. No one seemed to notice. I moved to my favorite distro, [Mandrake Linux](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.mandrake.com), along with updates to all the software. Anything wrong, let me know.

Since "Another Game" has been postponed, and I'm sure many of you were looking forward to playing a game this weekend, I'm gonna be opening a new game featuring all new CK Edits. 3/corp, and you're gonna have to choose between an aggressive red start, or a longer term blue buildup -- both will be feasible strategies. Basics are 20k sectors, 2k turns, best gridding ship is 3 tpw. Plenty of colos, good planet production, citadel upgrades are pretty fast, but also very expensive. Game is NOT MBBS (the mbbs atmo cannon is outrageous, IMO), but very low rob setting means a red can still get back the credits from buydowns. Game Starts 2pm eastern time on Saturday 6/5/04. Extern is midnight eastern. Cherokee https://tavern.homeip.net

Here's a [review](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.ocia.net/reviews/tradewars/tw2k2.shtml) of the TWGS. Here's a [link](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.ocia.net/reviews/tradewars/tw2k2.shtml) to two Trade Wars related projects, which even includes a downloadable [zip file](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.codefortress.com/code/tradewars.zip). Remember TW_ATS and it's maker, Badhouse Software? Lots of porn to be had at [Badhouse.com](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://www.badhouse.com/) these days. What about [TWAR](https://web.archive.org/web/20040000000000*/https://webhome.idirect.com/~twar/). Kind of crooked that you can still order it, tho it hasn't been updated in SIX YEARS!