The Tankers Homepage Strategic Simulation Gaming and Military History
War games are probably a guy thing. Moving cardboard counters that represent tanks, squads, airplanes, or ships around a board with the intention of outmaneuvering an opponent (commonly referred to as "the enemy"), all the while imagining the smoke and fire of battle, sounds pretty ridiculous on the surface, but it taps into some subconscious death struggle motif. The four or six hours it takes to play a game get swallowed by the intense concentration, the seriousness with which you contemplate moving the right elements of your forces to make a breach in the enemy lines that can be exploited.

Paul J. Calvi Jr. has been war-gaming for more than a decade. He's also a graduate of the U.S. Army Armor School and the Armor Officer Basic Course at Ft. Knox. More recently, he's been working as a Web master. His HTML programming skills and his interest in military strategy have led to the Tanker's Homepage, which is probably the most complete source of war game information on the Web. There are game reviews, club listings, game release information, and articles on strategy and game design. Surprisingly enough, most traditional board war games haven't been converted into computer format. "The conventional wisdom has been that a computer game couldn't simulate the complexity of a board game," says Paul, "but I think that is a bunch of nonsense." Because war games take a lot longer to learn than most games, computer game companies "seem to believe that a realistic war game will not appeal to the masses." But a few recent arrivals on the computer war game scene have given Paul hope that the next two years will see a big expansion in the market.

The Tanker's Homepage has more than just games, however. A substantial portion of it is taken up by military history. Included are book excerpts and papers discussing wars from the Civil to the Gulf. One of the most fascinating areas are the veterans' stories - accounts from soldiers, sailors, and airmen about their combat and non-combat experiences. Rounding it all out is a section with reviews of war-related movies. Following the open discussion nature of the Internet, Paul publishes submissions, and runs two boards where users can post and reply on the site.-WKC

A

CyberMUD
CyberMUD is one of the first Web-based games (i.e., it's been up for more than a year). While it was certainly innovative and entertaining when it first appeared, the game has had no recent updating. It uses links to implement a choose-your-own adventure, whose plot centers around a real MUD gone mad. EEK! Scary stuff. You should skip this game unless it's really, really late at night, or your diet consists of Jolt and Twinkies.-KT

C-

ElendorMush
Ah, Tolkein! Elendor is one of the most active MUSHes in Middle Earth. It is obvious from looking at the graphics on the site, however, that the Web master spends most of his time in a black-and-white, text-only universe. When I Telnetted into the MUSH for the first time, I was almost immediately paged by a friendly person -well, it could have been an orc- who offered assistance should I need it. There is plenty of online help, and new users are encouraged to read newbie news. The Elendor MUSH seems like a great place to hang out, although it could be detrimental to grades or marriages.-KT

B+

NannyMUD
NannyMUD's home page is more extensive than Elendor's. This may be more indicative of long Swedish winters than any real necessity for such depth of content. That, and it's been around for almost six years. NannyMUD is medieval in theme, with magic thrown in for kicks. The home page explains the environment, some of the quests, and the technology used to create the MUD. There are also pictures of most of the wizards and even some mere mortals. The MUD itself seems much more goal-oriented than Elendor.-KT

B+

Poker Variants
When I used to play poker in college, I thought it was a pretty complex game, capable of confusing newbies as each dealer called a different game from a repertoire of about 10. Looking at this site and seeing the many games I'd never heard of has just made me feel like a newbie. Peter Sarrett, who maintains the site, has the games divided up by type, such as "draw"or "stud." The programming is about as basic HTML as you can get, and there are no pictures at all, except for some ASCII diagrams of card layouts.-WKC

C+

Rolling Good Times OnLine
RTG is a gambler's dream. The site has a plethora of articles on all aspects of gambling, from betting on horses to casino games. You can vote on your top 10 gambling sites on the net, read reviews of various casinos, find out about laws governing gambling on the Internet, and follow along with the "Great Video Poker ADVENTURE." The article, "Poker Gets in Touch with its Feminine Side," was especially amusing, with suggestions for alternate names for the game like "Pokthem" and "Prod Them All." If you play too much, though, you may want to check out Gambler's Anonymous (http://www.social.com/health/nhic/data/hr0900/hr0916.html).-KT

A-

The Game Cabinet
The Game Cabinet is a bare-bones zine devoted to board games. Each issue contains rules for various new games, reviews of games, and gaming sites - ones in the real world, you know, smoky cafés where old people sit around playing chess, and a few links to online games. The site could use a bit more organization. I had to scroll quite a bit to get where I wanted to go. Hard-core board game aficionados should definitely check out The Game Cabinet.-KT

B-