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Text File | 1993-04-10 | 14.3 KB | 284 lines

ROSTER OF DEVONLINE PRODUCTS -- ---------------------------- Unlike many other DOOR authors and DOOR writing groups, DevPal MetroNet Communications places much more emphasis on research and development of new projects and on product debugging and reinforcement than on selling our products. This has fortunately given us a solid reputation for providing top-notch software and friendly, personal support... not just to our customers but to anyone requiring assistance or having questions about our products. Unfortunately, regrettable side effects of this are: a) a certain lack of product promotion, on our part and b) a lack of knowledge concerning all of our product lines, on the part of sysops. This list of short blurbs is a little step in improving our product pro- motions so that you, as an intelligent and discerning sysop, will be more informed concerning our products, both current ones and ones which are very close to completion. We hope that you will continue to send in your suggestions for improving our online games and ideas for the creation of more online games, as we are deeply committed to both the continual im- provement of our own products and the advancement of BBS-related software technology in general. ARM OF THE DRAGON : AotD is the introductory BattleTech(tm) simulations online game that has brought the excitement and complexity of 'Mech warfare from FASA Corporation's combat system to online (and offline) game players the world over. AotD was the first online game released to bring home the action of huge war machines to game players before any other software house, and AotD remains the premier game of this genre. The AotD game itself is now in its third edition, and although development for AotD/3 has effectively ceased, related products and a "successor" to AotD are currently being developed and are going to be released shortly. Our AotD development team is hard at work to match a GUI-like environment for game players with the universality of BBS communications to bring about the same suspense derived from DevOnline's 1984 AotD/UNIX game to the DOS arena. ARM OF THE DRAGON I½ : This is the first product in the new development line of BattleTech(tm) simulations from DevPal. It takes several concepts engendered in AoSS (see "Avatars of Screaming Steel") and expands upon them while placing the game in the context of the BattleTech(tm) storyline in the mid-31st century. AotD I½ will be available soon for beta testing by registrants of the original AotD/3 series... ARM OF THE DRAGON II : AotD II is the long-awaited sequel to AotD/3. It uses the new CKIT programming library to achieve its better performance over its predecessor. AotD II brings back the excitement of the original AotD/3 in a new leaner, definitely meaner, and viciously dark aspect never before seen in an online game. Evil Periphery robber barons, overpowerful Clan warriors, battle- hardened House troops, wealth-hungry mercenaries... they all make a glorious return to the online screen in AotD II. AVATARS OF SCREAMING STEEL : AoSS is DevOnline's entry into the Simple Personal Combat Category of online games, with a post nuclear war holocaust theme and an involved combat scheme. AoSS introduces several new ways of conducting exciting combat, including a revolutionary approach using the concept of anticipating your opponent's moves and offering a special method in which to enter in your combat actions. AoSS will soon sport an online player vs. player mode that will expand the excitement of personal combat to new heights, as well as some cleaner, more crisp playability. Coming soon in the next revision of AoSS! COHERENCE : Coherence is not a single game, but rather a series of cyberpunk online games following an ultra-dark storyline (very much in keeping with the cyberpunk genre). Coherence brings the nightmarish gloss and glamour of the rogue themes of cyberpunk into a cutting-edge sharp focus that will engulf your players in its intimations of the stormy near-future on Earth. Our Earth. Of only a few years away... The Coherence Project originally began in 1988, with the AI guru Alexander Wei at the head of the development team. However, because of unexpected production and integration delays and the even more unexpectedly demise of Dr. Wei, none of the games in the Coherence line were ever released to the public. In early 1992, the Coherence Project was reopened by a some of Dr. Wei's friends and proteges, and the first Coherence game, BLACKJACK 20/40, is due out shortly. FLUMEN MUSAE NOVAE, 2nd Edition : One of the first DOS online games produced under the DevOnline banner, FMN was also the first fantasy wargame and true role-playing game available for play on BBS's. This game was originally produced for WWIV systems (way back when the only BBS program to support "DOORs" was WWIV). Although the original rendition is no longer in circulation, an updated version for all major BBS programs will be making its appearance very soon, bringing back the mystery and magic that -is- Flumen Musae Novae, the River of the New Muse! METRO-ARCHIVES : Hot on the heels of the proposed new Metro-Magazine formats will come the new Metro-Archives DOOR, an external companion program for sysops running Metro-Magazine who want to allow their users to browse through older magazine issues and even be able to download them at will. Metro-Archives will be arriving at DevOnline distribution sites near you. METRO-MAGAZINE : What Metro-Mezzanine (see later) does for BBS carousels, Metro- Magazine does for online magazine reader DOORs. Instead of you, the sysop, having to mess around with an esoteric online magazine for- mat and a lot of disgruntled users who can't understand why there's this terrible need on the part of the magazine editors to encrypt their magazine so that it can only be read online, MMag takes a very user-friendly approach to online magazines: make as much of it easy to handle as ASCII text and leave the indexing technique as simple as possible. By using DOS' own file hierarchy, MMag enables anyone with their own favorite text reader (or the TYPE command) to read any article in a MMag-format magazine. And users can read the magazine online as well. MMag now allows for the selection of articles according to their 8-letter maximum filename allotment, so that the maximum number of articles allowed in any magazine designed for MMag is truly astounding, surpassing the previous 9,999,999 exponentially. There is also the ability to download the copy of the current magazine issue from within MMag using the popular ZModem transfer protocol. And, for the editors of magazines, the ability to create tiered issues is now available, so that there is no need to design one large table of contents; instead, issues may be divided into topical sections, each with their own articles... you can subdivide as far as you wish! Slowly but surely, MMag will be updated with even more easy-to-use controls to make reading and retrieving articles convenient for your readers. After all, isn't that what online magazines should be about? METRO-MEZZANINE : "A BBS carousel? What's that?" Thousands of BBS users from all over the world have paused at the sometimes bewildering and definitely exciting Ghostwheel that has graced the entrypoints to DevPal systems for over a decade. A BBS carousel enables the enterprising sysop to run more than one BBS program on a phone line. It also allows a sysop to add a special flair to his system that makes it truly unique, even though the particular BBS programs used on that system may not have many options that allow customability. Metro-Mezzanine helps to bring together any front-end/mailer program (like BinkleyTerm, FrontDoor, QFront, and many others) and any number of BBS programs which accept command-line options in a coherent manner which enable users, upon login (and at other points) to choose to access one BBS program (and, depending upon the BBS programs, even switch between BBS programs!). No other product offers such configurability at the same registration price, or even beyond! Now available in its fourth major iteration, Metro-Mezzanine operates on thousands of BBS's and metronets the world over, introducing users to the wonders of multiple BBS operations and superb unhampered file downloading everyday. Metro-Mezzanine literally defined and revolu- tionized the BBS carousel concept; Now, Metro-Mezzanine Type IV defines the newest metronetwork standard, that of BBS center/hub, and offers the potential for creative sysops to turn their BBS operations into true works of art. Don't be left behind: get in on the action! MILLIWAYS REVISITED : Back in the early 1980's, there was a fascinating online game called Milliways Casino. Although there was no flashy graphics nor a super-complex plot to help drive the players onward, it offered easy-to-play casino gambling games and a quirky story which nevertheless embodied the American Dream. Now, DevPal has endeavored to bring back Milliways, but flavored with DevPal's distinctive playfulness. Oh, the games are there... but, what are they? And who are those people?!? Milliways Revisited is coming soon to DevOnline distribution sites near you. PEREGRINE, Reforging the Galactic Trust : This is one of the few online games which has a strong following even BEFORE it has been released! Peregrine is currently still in alpha-testing stages, but many sysops and users have "peeked" at technical documents and source literature pertaining to this game, and they have fallen in love with this interstellar conquest/trading game. If your players enjoy the concept of a science fiction online game but are sick and tired of the blandness of Trade Wars and its clones, Peregrine may be your cup of tea. Coming soon to a DevOnline distribution site near you! POWER STONES : This is a simple game with action between two players and a 10 x 10 virtual board. Each player gets eighteen "stones" to move about the gameboard, with the objective of "capturing" his opponent's pieces between two of his/her own to remove that piece from play. The winner is the player with the last piece left on the board. But if you think this game is simple, think again: skewed movement patterns and stones with differing movement allowances make this game much more difficult than it seems! TERACORPS : This is a simple corporation management online game in which players control mighty megacorporations attempting to become the first teracorporation, the greatest among many. Developing resources and eliminating opponents are just two of the interesting facets of play in TeraCorps. A networking module is a new introduction to the TeraCorps system, allowing several BBS's to participate in interBBS activities by allowing players to send agents and/or troops against each across several BBS's! TeraCorps is coming soon to a DevOnline distribution site near you. TOY SOLDIERS : Remember when you (or your brother) played with those toy soldiers? What fun! Lots of "bang-bang" noises and toy soldiers being knocked over after being "shot" by other toy soldiers... DevOnline brings back the game of toy soldiers, with a few twists. Now players can wage war against each other on a simple 20 x 20 virtual board, with terrain that is pre-shuffled for each game. You get to select which pieces to deploy on the gameboard, and you get to dictate the actions of your pieces against your opponent. When you win, you earn experience points that you can spend at the local toy store, to buy more toy soldiers for your chest. And you can play multiple games, so the fun can keep going on and on! UNKNOWN HEROES : Hearken back to the ages of high and dark fantasy with DevOnline's new entry into the fantasy role-playing arena, a game in which the player becomes the controlling force behind a band of hardy adventurers trying to carve a niche for themselves in the rough- and-tumble swords-and-sorcery society of Xene. Battle monsters from minimice to gargantuan dragons and all other critters in-between! Unknown Heroes is coming soon to a DevOnline distribution site near you. WAR CAPTAINS ON THE SEAS OF DESPERATION : This is the game which sets up the galaxy-spanning crises which drive the Peregrine online game... become one of the several fleet captains who must struggle against near-impossible odds to restore order to an interstellar confederation fragmenting from civil war and invasions from nearby empires. This game is the immediate precursor to Peregrine and uses the same starship design and combat systems, making the transition from War Captains to Peregrine very easy! War Captains is coming to a DevOnline distribution site near you. Don't forget to study for the Captain's Exam!