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I was curious if anyone had ever played the old Trade Wars game (BBS door game), and would it be something that would interest you in playing in one of three modes:

1) Text--completely free, etc., etc.

2) 2-D graphics--small fee for the client, free to play.

3) 3-D engine: full on 3-D client and world, perpetual (both persistent and never ending), with a client fee and a (low) monthly subscription.

I played Trade Wars back in the day. Along with Telearena and Majormud.

I wouldn't want to see any of them redone. And I don't think any of them held up well to the test of time. They were all grindfests back before we were all jaded.

Played TW and loved it.  Yeah it was grindish, but it never took more than 10 min or so to blow through, and once you ran out of turns for the day you were done.  Compare that to people playing MMOGs for 40h+/wk - and having to compete with them. 

I wouldn't really want to see it redone, because what made the game fun wouldn't translate into a MMOG-ish game.  It didn't have more than 20ish people playing, and they were all from within a few miles of me.  It was new, and fit the 'culture' of a BBS (you only have x minutes to play/day).  See, it's not just having a ship and going between starports that was fun, it's the whole package, and I don't see that being doable in todays game environment.

There are a ton of different "options" that could be done to keep the "time focused" concept as well--text based messaging being one of them, as well as email/web page driven--something you could play at work for example for a small portion of your day, or in the morning while checking email, etc., etc.

Good inputs though, and a touch surprising, but not incredibly--thanks for the info so far, and keep it coming!

Man TW was like crack back in the day. I would log on and plot my turns then be jonesing for the rest of the day untill I could log on and take my turns again. Much fun. Between that and L.O.T.R.D I had a good 30 min of grind and 23.5 hours of sleep and withdrawal.

Never played it, know of it somewhat though.

I played Ultracorps feverishly for about 3 months before M$ shut it down, that was a hell of a turn based browser game in my opinion.  But the time for such things may have passed as others have said.  I always wanted forums I have visited to have their own little goofy browser based game that only registered members played and would give everyone another thing to do that isn't working while at work.

Yeah I was hardcore into Trade Wars for some time. Pretty much the only text game I ever enjoyed.

Played it.  Loved it.  Spent waaayyy too much time on it. 

I'm not sure how much our standards have changed since the days of the leet 6400 baud modem.

I can't remember there evr being a 6400 baud modem. I know I went from 1200 to 2400 to 9600.

Played some tradewars way back when, was more in to LotRD though.

2400 baud is all you need. 

I can't say I would ever play a text based TradeWars again though it was fun back in the day. I might give 2D or 3D a shot but at the moment the only thing that is holding my interest is real time non-grind games like Planetside and Guild Wars. I do think there is a market for "time focused" (turns per day) trade games but I would probably base it on something like Merchant Prince (http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/merchant-prince) in space instead. Merchant Prince+TradeWars?

Man, I used to spend a few hours every day doing all my turns on 4 or 5 BBSes a day for TW.  I loved it, and would definitely play it again, although I think a 2D iteration might be more true to an "updated" version of the game.

I'm with Krakrok.  Had a lot of fun with it back in the day, loved being able to lead a corporation, had a great time leading local teenagers to victory.  Can't see doing it again, and it's hard to picture how it would translate to a 3D MMO.  I do think that the concept of time limitation is ripe for a return, and would be a huge hit with those of us busy with jobs and family.

I'm currently paying $2 every two weeks to play a text based strategy PBEM named Eldritch, which is like going back to 1990 for me, only with a semi-graphical order parser.  I've always thought it would be neat to have a 2D graphical front end that could be used to animate the game from any point in time that you had data for.

However, I only got into Eldritch because old friends asked me to, and I wouldn't be much interested in another such activity at this point.

I've always enjoyed web-based turn-based games like Archmage (http://www.magewar.com) (url defunct). You have a turn every day and can make moves to capture and destroy other mages and their territory. It was free, but it was awesome because you spend about 30mins to an hour doing everything you can and then call it a night and see what happened the next day.

Of course, if you didn't do your move every day you eventually got behind and dessimated by the other mages. But since it reset every month, not a big deal.

Roac pwns all, subtly. (http://howtos.linux.com/howtos/Modem-HOWTO-22.shtml)

I think it'd be really easy to screw up.

If you translated it to 2d or 3d it would not be TW.  It might be fun, etc, but the door game concept is really part of the TW signature.  Both from a perspective of turn management being part of the game, and the perspective of a level playing field for all participants regardless of their catass score.

I think there might be space for this in the BBSes of the 21st century - forums like this one.  It would also have the advantage of a built-in place to get to know your allies and enemies instead of playing with random_internet_asstard_03 - 178.  It would also discourage multi-accounting, because it'd be obvious which accounts are multis: they're the ones with < 10 posts but who play every day (and have the same IP as someone else).

For those of you interested in a 2D version of Trade Wars you might want to check out the Starport Galactic Empires game that's being advertised on this site right now.

Yeah I remember playing it. I'd only play it again under option 1, and even then I don't know how in to it I would get.

Give it the game physics of Jumpgate but with squad leader mechanics for fleets and I'd be all over it.  TW was the bomb in its day but I would not be interested in a straight port unless it had excellent AI delegation to planet governors etc.

Truth be told I'd be gosh darn happy with a port of Elite I, again with the physics of JG.

I played way too many MP BBS games in those days, especially the Amiga games.  My LD bills were partly why my first wife is my ex-wife... :-)

TeleArena is a great text RPG, I was the first one I played on BBS's, I spent so much money on credits I finally decided to buy my own system. The short lived TeleArena II was a graphical version, but it had a very small realm, I think i heard only 15 or 20 of these were even sold...I did spend part of the winter beta testing a new version of TeleArena and WOW its great, a lot of changes in the hard coding. Great fun with a group of people on a weekend night and haveing a few cold ones :)

Your first post is to be a shill with a damn 1 year old+ necropost?

I like where this is going.

You know why no mods had a problem with it? It was a decent post. The guy didn't say COME PLAY MY GAME IT'S REVOLUTIONARY. He said, hey, I worked on some old school stuff. And you know what, a lot of people like TeleArena.

Back off.

Plus, he didn't make his own thread gotta respect that these days...

Strazos you officially suck at hazing, l2h   :-P

1 year old necro-post ?

So there IS a search function ? Who knew ?