
Lord IGM Authors Newsletter                Volume 2
March 6th 1997                             Issue  1

This Issue contains:

 1) Note from the editor
 2) Seth's Answer!
 3) Metropolis Joins the Newsletter
 4) Lord 2 IGM Home Page has Moved!
 5) Here comes TAL!
 6) Tal's thought:
 7) Tal's Closing Notes!
 8) OOPS! One more Tal Note!
 9) Looks like Lord1 Help files are done.
10) Mamoosoft
11) Codax with some great news about LORD2..
12) TrentSoft Updates the Lord Page
13) INSANEPRODUCTIONS
14) Lumpenprole Joins up with LIANL
15) Closing!



 *** 1 ***

 Well for those of you that have been asleep, Lord, Lord2, and Planets
 Have been sold. Although I have not found out much about this it is
 true. (I wrote to seth and the new owners of the Programs and it is in
 this letter)

 So what will happen? Only time will tell. If you have any opinions on
 this sale please send them to me for the Next newsletter. NOTE: This
 author has no ties with RTSOFT or Metropolis (the new owners) and
 never will have. I am totally open and bias. Being a player of
 lord I hope that Metropolis will keep up the same support that Seth
 did or do even more!

 I would like to do a Quick "thank you" to TAL. He is really supporting
 this newsletter and I bet I could do one with just his stuff in it and
 he could fill it up. Now if I can get him to quit complaining about my
 Typing. :)

 Ok on to the newsletter.


 *** 2 ***
Seth's Answer!

Here is a quote:

"Just because I sold the doors doesn't mean I'm still not gonna hope you
guys make some other cool IGM's for them... I'll be watching!"

-Seth

Seth A. Robinson
RTsoft, Inc.
http://www.rtsoft.com


*** 3 ***
Metropolis Joins the Newsletter

Regards,

Gameport is a division of Metropolis, Inc.  We have recently acquired the
Lord, LORDII, Planets and T-Lord product line.  We are still getting up to
speed on the day to day operations and making plans for the future.  I
can't really give you any information at the moment except for what I have
just said.  Because this is such an exciting move, we would really like
everyone on your newsletter to know about it.

Thanks!
-=====================-
-= Warren D. Johnson =-
-= Coordinator	     =-
-= Metropolis, Inc.  =-
-=====================-

Authors Note:
   The new support Email address is: info@gameport.com
   The New Web page is http://www.gameport.com
  Good Luck with the Transfer Warren and Please keep us informed of
  what is going on and any Updates ect that you might be working on.


*** 4 ***
Lord 2 IGM Home Page has Moved!

The lord 2 Igm home page has moved! The new address is
http://fly.to/lord2igm

Here is the Latest news from the site!

03/03/98 (Tuesday)
   Okay I finally got everything moved and set up.  So here is the new
home of our site for the time being at least.  Now I will get back to
reviewing those few more IGMs I have tomorrow.  Talk at ya l8er and
thanks for the tip Christian on the site. :)

03/01/98 (Sunday)
   Okay I have finally got some of the IGMs reviewed.  Here they are.
GOOD NEWS!  I have found a new home for the site and hope to have it
moved soon.  Currently it is a FREE site but you know how that goes.
Last month I signed up for a FREE site with 50 meg of space and
they dropped it a few weeks later to 10 megs.  So that spoiled that
plan.  I will announce the new address for the new site as soon as I get
it ready and there will be a link from here to there.  Any donations
sent in will still be going towards getting our own domain name.  I
still want www.lord2igm.com eventually.  And its only $17.95 per
month!
    The Red Dragon's Hide-Out v1.2 3-star IGM is now Reviewed
    University of Greater Arrisville v1.0 3-star IGM is now Reviewed
    RTWED10.ZIP Lord II Utility is now On line

02/28/98 (Saturday)
   Okay I have bad news.  My provider finally made me take the site off
his system or I would have lost my access on the 4th of March.  I will
save the files and all and if someone cares enough to send in some money
to keep the Site alive I will move it intact to another server.  Remember
if you want to send in a few dollars just to help me move the site my
address is:
   Bobby Queen
   1737 Farmville Road
   Shelby, NC  28150-7729

   I just got the bad news from Seth Thursday also that was announced
yesterday, he has sold the rights to TEOS, L.O.R.D. and Lord II.  So now
I have no idea whether there will be another update or not and if we will
have to pay for it.  Thats it for now and I will keep the site updated
here until I can find out something definite on a final resting place for
the site.  I will go ahead and review the new IGMs I have gotten and place
them here for 10 days.  I have been very sick again and may have to go
back to the hospital early Monday morning.  But I will keep everyone
informed as much as possible.

                   Bobby

Authors Note: Help keep this great site ALIVE Send in a few dollars if
you have it!

*** 5 ***
Here comes TAL!

	Another attemptedly concise report from Tal

	Best laid plans of mice and me... most of my IGMs have sort of
floundered. An HD problem ended up wiping a bunch of my IGMs that I
hadn't sent out. Temple of Sharya, Fire Temple, and some other stuff...
the good news is that didn't totally destroy my continued interest in
writing IGMs, although I feel like I'm running out of good material.

	New IGM, currently FINSIHED and in beta testing... has no name,
probably will just go as "SAVE". =) Isn't it bothersome, always going
back to mom's house when you die?  What if you could be resurrected near
Flagcity, Sosen Village, or RockHolm Mts. as well?  "But that'll
unbalance the game!!!" No, it won't -- you have to find and activate the
Temples (where you're ressurrected) before you can be raised there. The
-problem- is that this won't handle any situations that don't call @#DIE
in GAMETXT.REF... which all good IGMs SHOULD! >pokes certain anonymous
IGM authors<

	I've got two or three other things sort of sitting around,
waiting for the next version of LORD2.

	Magi is probably going over to a new format, where its @CHOICE
select from all the IGMs, rather than inputing the number of the IGM.
Makes life easier for morons and tired people. =) YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS,
FELLOW IGM AUTHORS AND IGM USERS, ARE REQUESTED.

	What happened to Angor? Sitting until the next LORD2 version.

	Once again, all my IGMs are available by UUEncoded email directly
from me. Also, check the official LORD 2 IGM web site, as it has most of
them, reviewed.

	The mailing list guy said personal info was requested (in
general, I take it). As I have no idea what this "personal info" could
be, I'll state what I think it is. Muhahaha, clever genius that is.

	I'm a prototypical computer nerd, with odds and ends. 17 year old
male upper-middle class bipolar disorder (manic depression) and ADHD.
Both are a result of a thyroid condition (something like antibodies
overproducing and causing something similar to cellular suicide), which I
take medicine for... its akin to ritalin, minus the bad effects (I lost
my soul while taking that bastardic stuff). I've got third or fourth
belts in five different martial arts disciplines (complimenting styles...
aggressive, defensive, ground fighting, throwing). I've had quite a few
ladyfriends in my life so far, but I'm empty right now. I get about 3
hours of sleep a night, and about once a month, I crash for a solid day
(I aim for saturdays, or if busy, sundays). That amount of sleep is by
choice -- recreational programming. Sort of like recreational drugs, but
not -as- stupid. I'm a high school junior, with plans of one course in my
senior year... and the rest of the year at a local college. I'll
technically be a senior (and be accumulating credits), so I'll be able to
apply in the regular applicant pool the year after.

I have experience for an -awful- lot of things, I just lack the drive to
apply myself into any given situation. I'm the type of person who won't
seek out problems... but I do one helluva bang-up job fixin' 'em. I also
like to pick up mannerisms and habits, its a hobby of mine. I think I
may've left out the kitchen sink...

Okay, back to LORD2 and IGMs... where do I get my ideas?
ha, ha, ha. You think I'm going to give THAT away?

YOU BET!

I think LORD2 sucks. Hence, I fill the vacuum. =) The game is nice, but
there are so many features it lacks. Sometimes, its just nice to add
STUFF. I mean, that huge desert... it seems so... desert-like! Dammit, I
abhor vacuums. Hence, I'm al natural.

Divine Comedy came from the simplest idea in the book -- a once a day
gift. I thought that was too simple, so I added a prerequisite..
something you needed to get/do before you could get the bonus. Skystaff
sounded reasonable enough. Alignment based gifts and the name came from
the fact that I'd been perusing the English (class) textbook recently,
and read Goethe and his contemporaries. The Divine Comedy, or something
similar, took.

 Oh, read the mideval werewolf tale. Its awesome. A man betrayed by his
wife, cursed to wander the woods for years as a wolf... then he meets
upon the king of the area (the werewolf, as a man, was a knight of this
king). He, by his behavior, informs the king that he is no ordinary dog,
and the king orders his men not to kill the wolf ( as they were about to,
for they thought it was a common wild animal ... ). They become hunting
buddies (the king thinking the wolf nothing more than an intelligent and
noble wolf, not the human that he be). Years and years. The wolf is
respected in the court, and all that jazz. He's -never- harmed a person.
Backtracking... the wife betrayed the werewolfguy because of her fear...
and she did it with the help of a man who, theretofore, had a love
unrequited of her. She then gave him her hand (in the figurative sense),
and together they stole the guy's clothes (he needs to get back into them
before he can return from being a werewolf to being a man.... no moon
involved) and hid them.
So, anyway, we're back to the present.. and the king has a royal ball for
whatever reason. As the plot would have it, the lady and her lover show
up. the wolf immediately pounces them, and is most violent with them.
The "men", guards or whatever, are about to flay this werewolf when the
king [again!] calls them off. "Has he ever harmed a man before this day?
Has he not been my faithful hunting companion? Obviously, this knight and
lady have done this wolf some wrong!"... after some investigation, the
court finds out the story. they test it by giving the clothes back to the
wolf, and he just looks at them. the king figures modesty (in more words
than this). throws them into his bedchamber, leads the wolf inside,
leaves, closes door. Sure enough, who emerges, but the knight who has
been missing from court all these years!

Gorilla Villa. Thank PBS for -that- one. Watch the social habits of
Gorillas, and naturally the whole competition for leadership (alpha male)
with a display of strength set the stage. the five own able properties and
their dues just made sense. I'm gonna revise that one -someday-....

Magi, the Teleportationist. I was walking around, thinking what a
blessing the Wizard Wand was. Then I figured, hey, it sucks, what if not
every LORD 2 game has a leader (the top player) as generous as myself?
What if the people have to go without wizard wands? (If you get rid/give
away your wand, you can get another one from the table) Also, I figured,
damn, those IGMs are difficult to get to. Or, sometimes, where are
they?... so, that was an obvious solution. I figure the greentree bar is
a fairly well traveled place at one point or another.

Monastry is MP's, I just scripted it. Ask him.

Paladin's Oasis was wraught from wanting something to balance the game. I
realized how much easier it is for evil players in the game. Beating up
the guys and taking their money, the warrior's graveyard lowering
alignment.. no real reason to be good (except the Moon). So, this made
sense. Its just ... what could I do? So a gem-trade that was better than
the bar came to mind.

Haunted House ... well, think about where it is. Again, the reward
system. Task -> reward. Hidden door just to delay getting there.

Bad Company is inspired by "Ten Little Indians" or "And then there were
none", Agatha Christie. (sp) Just the first block/screen that seemed
available was along the road, so the plot changed for that.

The Visitors... well, I don't even -want- to go there. should be
moderately obvious. If it isn't, see the Sci-Fi channel's movie that has
an alien named "Dos". After watching it, stem to stern, Visitors will
make sense. Especially if you've ever heard that Ufologist (that's the
term, right?) who said "I don't call them aliens because that presumes
they're not from Earth. So I prefer the term 'Visitors'." Makes sense...
even if I don't consciously buy the whole alien thing. But, for those of
you out there who are about to reply because of that -- I don't dismiss
it out of hand.

Talquiz / Scrying Company is a derivative of Socrate's Shop, the best IGM
for LORD1 ever. However, I couldn't think of a way to do what Soc's Shop
does, so I just came up with some other sort of game show concept. The
Sit on It is from a Saturday Night Live skit I saw on comedy central
(eddie murphy era), and O'Bubba is O'Brian parody. If you don't watch
O'Brian (sp), you deserve all the bad things in life that happen to you.
=P

I have NO CLUE where Angor came from.

Save is from frustration. Its an engineer's idea. If its fixed, bust it.
I mean, if its busted, fix it.. yeah...

	Closing: Even though SAVE is beta testing (and has -K-RAP- for
ANSi right now) it, too, is available from me. No FILE_ID.DIZ made up for
it yet, as it IS a beta. READ the SAVE.IGM with it, too.

-Talaphid "Tin Man" Elsdragon (of Werevalia)


*** 6 ***
Tal's thought:

	For those of you who are still awake, LORD 2 has been sold.
The Lord 2 Offical IGM website has gone down for now, it seems. We are
without a home, we IGM authors and seekers. Might I remind anyone of the
promise (in the IGM/3rdparty docs, some LORD2 version, I swear) that Seth
made that he'd provide a DL area for IGMs? Yet he never did... instead we
got the LORD 2 IGM website. I was happy, you were happy, we ALL were
happy. Thats gone, and Seth doesn't own LORD2. Who says we bother
Gameport, who now owns LORD2, until they allot Mr. Queen space on THEIR
server for the site. After all, they now technically are obligated to mr.
Able's promise, and Mr. Queen _is_ promoting their product through
show casing 3rdparty products for THEIR product.


*** 7 ***
Tal's Closing Notes!

	I give notice that I am in the process of applying for a
copyright on each and every one of my IGMs. They will ALL remain
freeware, and that is the point of the copyright -- IGMs are pointless
little joys. Anyone who tries to profiteer off of them is a maggot.
Especially people who do half-assed (pardon the Esperantu) job of making
an IGM an attempts profiteering off of it. So my copyrights will apply to
methods I developed and methods I used. pardon the spelling, but derative
works are encouraged -- just that you can't compile, keep secret, etc.,
those parts which are derative. And a nod of the hat is _appricated_. But
I have -no- intention of making a penny. They all will remain otherwise
as free and unhindered as before, if not moreso.

	On a similar note, I was thinking of developing a COMMON.REF for
LORD 2. A series of more or less common buildings and stuff. Healer,
etc.,. That way scripts could be even smaller than they are, and perhaps
a bit quicker (a ten function common ref being chained, or hunting
through a huge meta-function ref? which is quicker?) Which would also go
along the lines of TOTAL freeware.  Any IGM authors interested in
contributing ideas or things that would go into this COMMON kit, email
me. I'm still talaphid@juno.com.


*** 8 ***
OOPS! One more Tal Note!

	Two clever places to use colour codes:

		choices in @CHOICE commands
		Screen names (Z from World Map Edit)

And if anyone asks, I did #2 first =)

-Tal


*** 9 ***
Looks like Lord1 Help files are done.

 Hi. My son wrote the LORDHELP text files (btw he was the first one to
release them). No updates are planned, but good luck with your idea.

Mike

EMail: MIKE.TROIANO@central.omnibbs.com

*** 10 ***
Mamoosoft

Mamoosoft is about to, or just has (depending on the date of the newsletter)
released The University of Greater Arrisville (UGA).  UGA adds some fun spots,
a new quest, a revision of some old stuff, and even a shameless plug for our
old IGMs.  It's not entirely within the true "historic" mode of the game, but
(we think) it is a humorous take off on academic life.  Students and teachers
should both enjoy it.

As for future projects, we don't have any specifics yet.  As usual, we're
always accepting ideas from our fans.  I'm hoping the proposed new version of
LORD2 will give us new programming possibilities, as our last two IGMs had to
be limited because we couldn't get the LORD2 engine to do what we wanted.

Bryan said you guys are interested in personal stuff too, so here goes.  I'm
real busy now working with the Cub Scouts.  I am an Asst. Cubmaster in my son's
Pack, and have recently accepted a position working with the District Scout
Committee.  This will, unfortunately, take away from my programming time, but I
think it's worth it.  My wife, the Mamoosoft ANSI artist, is about to finish
her coursework on a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, so she's a bit busy as well (you'll
notice a glaring lack of her work in UGA). As for my son, he's busy as well
with school, scouts, and the start of the soccer season.  But he always finds
time to look over my shoulder and point out my mistakes!  He's finally getting
old enough to be of some real help with the IGMs.  In fact, he contributed
quite a few ideas for the new one.

Well, that's the latest from Mamoosoft.  Please feel free to email us with
ideas, suggestions, bug reports, or just so my mailbox won't be empty!


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+             Robby Dittmann             +
+          Mamoosoft Programming         +
+       EMAIL - robbyd@sprynet.com       +
+            FIDO - 1:133/8003           +
+ http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/robbyd +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*** 11 ***
Codax with some great news about LORD2...

Have you wanted to try out a LORD2 Igm before you D/Led it?  Well now you
can!  Dragon's Den Ultd.'s Very First Igm is now ONLINE and ready to be
previewed.  Unfortunately it is only a TASTE of what the real Igm has, but
I plan to have a BEST of the BEST Page up very soon.  All the Igms that I
really really like(mostly, but not limited to, the 5 stars under Bobby
Queen's Rating System).
It will include Screen Shots and small reasons why, so check out my page!
 It should be up very, very soon!

	http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/9982/index.html
		   or go strait to the games area
	http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/9982/games.html

Right now only Dragon's Den Housing is up, but more are going to be added
in the future!  Until Next time watch out for an IGM of titanic
proportions!
Farewell and May the Dragons Protect Your Souls!

38-Codax Dragon-8$
May the Dragons Protect Your Soul
Dragon's Den BBS/ULTD
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/9982/index.html
\,/\,/\,/(oo)\,/\,/\,/---------------------------,_(  )___________.


*** 12 ***
TrentSoft Updates the Lord Page

The Lord IGM Page (http://www.trentsoft.com/igmpage) has been
updated.  Thanks to Donald for forcing me into updating it :)
---
J. Masters
T r e n t S o f t
http://www.trentsoft.com
E-mail: trent@trentsoft.com

*** 13 ***
INSANEPRODUCTIONS

HI

I got my ideas for my IGMs from being bored. I played around with the
Idea of there being stuff in the desert because there was nothing there!
(That is the point though) but, if you were weak and just exploring the
desert you would easily die. So i decided to put something smack dab in
the middle of it.  I wrote Scorpion's Den and Grizelda's House (LORD II
IGMS)  I plan on updating them and adding new stuff.

I am currently involved with multiple projects.

Smoke It V11 (A game that I have been working on for a little over a
year.)

I am also going to make a new game when I get all of my ideas for it
down.

My new web site (I had to take down the Verge Of Insanity is currently
getting redesigned It will be better than ever)

I am brushing up on my HTML and learning CGI.

As For LORD II projects I currently have 6 IGMS to make. Those will
probably be released when summer starts unless I get expressed interest or
feedback.

If you are interested in draw art for INSANEPRODUCTIONS please send me a
E-Mail

INSANEPRODUCTIONS@Juno.com

*** 14 ***
Lumpenprole Joins up with LIANL

Hi, my name is Mike Hutson, aka Lumpenprole, and I am a new subscriber to
Bryan Turner's Lord page. I have gotten into Lord2 in a big way, and I
hope people might be interested in what I have to share.

So far I have only written three IGMs.
The first one is pretty trivial, and I haven't bothered to upload it to
any of the web sites. It does three things- gives the inside of
Stonebrook village surroundings, so the village isn't suspended in a
black void; makes the secret entrance to Flag City two-way; and gives the
unused house in Greentree a message about the Greentree Whorehouse being
closed by the Greentree Health department.

The next two are part of a larger project which I wanted to tell about. I
originally had wanted to create an extremely ambitious IGM that would
have been called The Quest for the Eye of Horus. As envisioned, it would
have been a desert adventure the object of which was to obtain an item
called the Eye of Horus. This would allow the player to see all "hard"
spots on the screen, just like in L2CFG's Map Editor.

However, as I became more familiar with the Lord2 REF language, I became
aware of two problems. First, there was no easy way to add a new item to
the game; and secondly, what I wanted the item to do would require being
able to open and read the MAP.DAT file to get the info needed. This
second requirement eventually sank the whole idea- the Lord2 language
doesn't support the necessary file commands, and the SHELL command isn't
enabled. However, before I realized that, I had set to work on the
problem of adding extra items to the game. This concept became the tail
that wagged the dog. I didn't want to write an IGM where the sysop had to
manually add the item. And at that time the only programming language I
had available was the Lord2 script language itself. Given those
limitations, I set out to somehow make it possible for an IGM writer to
create a custom item to go with his IGM.

The final result was what I call the Externally Defined Items package. It
is a system of .REF and data files that allows up to 30 extra items to be
called from a single entry in Lord2's items menu. The current version is
available at the main Lord2 IGM page as EXTITEM3.ZIP. The two other IGMs
I've written are written to use external items, and are included in the
package. One is just a demo; the other is Blizzard! IGM. It adds a screen
to the Snowy Pass where you find yourself in a total whiteout with an
invisible maze to negotiate. If you have found the Snow Goggles, you jump
to a screen where the maze is visible (Similar to the Condemned Cave
south of Stonebrook).

I did notice in the December newsletter that Talaphid Elsdragon mentioned
that he was working on a way to add extra items to Lord2 as well. He
didn't go into details, so I'll have to see what his take on the idea is.
Sorry to make this whole letter sound like an ad for my package, but it's
pretty much been the entire focus of my Lord2 ambitions for the last
several months. I would very much appreciate hearing any feedback from
anyone who might give it a try. My e-mail is MikeHutson@juno.com

*** 15 ***
Closing!

If you would like to send in an article please feel free to do so send
it to lordml@usa.net!

If you have a Lord IGM or Update Please send that in as well, as some of
you know I am also the main hub for the LORD Dist Network, and when you
send a file to me it gets hatched out to 25k BBS's around the world!
Note: If you send me a file with out a File_id.diz I will create one
from your doc's and some times that is not pretty. So Please zip up a id
file with your programs!

I am not going to say when the next newsletter is coming out. It really
depends on what is going to happen to Lord with Gameport, and all the
authors that submit to this letter!

If you would like to see all the old Issues of this newsletter you can
ONLINE! http://web2.insanitybbs.com/bat Or you can join by sending Email
to lordml@usa.net with the subject of SUBSCRIBE!

Well, Keep Looking up cause' that is where the dragon should be!
                                              bat 98'
