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                           Star Quest v3.6         
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               A Multi-Player Space Trading Game for TDBS


                  Copyright 1995 BBS Consultants, Inc.
                              919-403-9473


Hi,
   I'm Tom Faulkner, President of BBS Consultants, Inc. and I'm very
   pleased to have been able to purchase the rights to Star Quest, the
   first multi-player game for TDBS, from Jeff Johnson.

   Don't let the version number fool you. With the number of hours that
   have gone into this upgrade and the significance of the changes, I
   probably should have called it Star Quest IV v1.0. Because of the
   heritage of the game; however, I decided to keep the Star Quest III
   series for a while.

   If you've followed the evolution of Star Quest from it's first
   release; then you know it was once a highly popular game. A game that
   brought large numbers of new subscribers to several hundred bbs
   around the world. Something when wrong; however. As SysOps and
   programmers we always want to make a program just a little bit
   better. When the casino was added to Star Quest with the introduction
   of version 3.0, the play of the game changed.

   What happened was that players could win much more money in the
   casino than they could by actually playing the game. By betting only
   one credit, players could win the entire pot in craps. The lotto
   jackpot paid out much more than it took in. Players could bet and
   win unlimited sums by playing Crystals. To get a new game and repeat
   the process, a player only had to leave the casino. They could come
   right back in and do it all over again.

   The ones who realized this would accumulate vast wealth and large
   numbers of fighters. They would destroy any player who ventured away
   from a Star Base. New players were instantly killed and lost
   interest. Without new players, the super rich also lost interest and
   the game withered.

   The casino is still there in version 3.6, but it now has limits.
   Players can only play each game one time on a visit to a Star Base.
   Just exiting the Star Base and re-landing won't work -- they have to
   actually warp to another sector and return. Additionally, the payouts
   have been lowered considerably. I hope I've struck the fine balance
   between making the casino interesting yet still force players to
   actually participate in intergalactic trading.

   There is a new addition in the casino in that BlackJack has been
   added. This version of BlackJack was originally coded by Jeanne
   Nerwinski and was the first TDBS game done by anyone who wasn't a
   beta tester. It's been around awhile and is still very popular. I
   selected it based on it's popularity and the difficulty of anyone
   winning truly large sums of credits.

   Another area where "improving" Star Quest actually hurt it was in the
   size of the universe. When first introduced, Star Quest only had 500
   sectors. In later versions, that increased to 2000 sectors and some
   sysops added even more on the theory that more had to be better. The
   truth is that the excitement of the games comes from player
   interaction. If the universe is too big, players can hide in empty
   sectors and avoid any contact with fellow players. That's not how you
   build a sense of community on your bbs and it's not how you keep
   players coming back again and again and paying to join.

   Starting with v3.6, you can limit the size of universe as well as
   increase it. The default installation only has 125 sectors. You can
   increase this up to 2000 by simply adding a command line switch. You
   can even have a "bunny slope" universe for non-members to tease them
   into joining. Every bbs is different and you'll have to determine the
   optimum size universe depending on the number of players. Now you
   can! As the number of players increase, you'll probably want to
   SLOWLY increase the size.

   A significant amount of time was also spend in an effort to reduce
   the system impact and speed up play. Overall, v3.6 should cause about
   20% less loading on your CPU.

   Getting people to join your bbs is what it's all about. That why you
   purchase enhancements. With v3.6 of Star Quest, I've given you some
   tools. If you'd like to try a demo, you can download it as
   STARDEMO.EXE from my bbs (919-383-4905) or from the GW Associates BBS
   (508-429-8385). It is also "file requestable" to those of you in
   Fidonet from either 1:3641/220 or 1:322/360. It is also FTPable from
   gwabbs.com and, lastly, it should be on the eSoft support bbs.

   If you have any questions, want additional information, or want to
   purchase it now, feel free to call me at 919-403-9473 during regular
   working hours, eastern time or call Pete White at GW Associates at
   508-429-6227 also eastern time zone. You can also order Star Quest
   on-line on the GW Associates bbs and get delivery of your copy in a
   matter of hours. There is special upgrade pricing for anyone who
   purchased a previous version no matter where they obtained it.

   Thank you.
         Tom Faulkner
         BBS Consultants, Inc.


