gamegrene.com

Ah, the ubiquitous Bucket Of Holding, where press releases frolic in their underwear, game products loudly proclaim their abilities, and lead based miniatures are sourly laughed at by the environment friend pewters. We've got a full kettle for you today as its been awhile.

Steve Jackson Announcements

Despite the announcement of impending layoffs at Steve Jackson Games (read the full story here, Steve Jackson has announced that it's Deluxe Ogre and Deluxe G.E.V. products have been honored with The Wargamer Award by The Wargamer, an online magazine that reviews wargames and boardgames. Read the whole reviews over at Wargamer.com or grab your own from SJ Games.

Also of note is that the GURPS rule system will be powering the Prime Directive RPG set in the Star Fleet Universe of Amarillo Design Bureau's Star Fleet Battles, Federation & Empire, and other best-selling games. The first release in the new Prime Directive, 2nd Edition line is scheduled for late in the year. Gary Plana, a veteran of the 1st edition of Prime Directive, is leading the 2nd Edition team. "We knew we needed to upgrade the system as part of a new edition," Cole said, "and GURPS was our first choice. It's the game that our staff and our fans were begging us to use."

Sack Armies Ready To Ship

Designed by Tyranny Games and distributed by Precedence Studios, Sack Armies: Expeditionary Force is tabletop battle game set in a fantasy world where rival Generals create armies to explore a newly opened continent known as the Tangle. Players become Generals and choose their armies from diverse races including the haughty Fey Court, the resilient human Empire, the brutal Scourge Orcs, the dark Nether Sisters, and the reptilian Shazari. After mixing in powerful Magic and Maneuvers to form an army, Generals face off using Tyranny Games unique Virtual Battleground? setup in which they create the battleground as part of the game play. Sack Armies: Expeditionary Force consists of 120 individual collectible game tokens. These hexagonal game tokens each feature original fantasy artwork. Expeditionary Force will be sold in Army Packs (containing 42 tokens and a limited edition Sack) at a retail price of $13.99 and Reinforcement Packs (containing 18 tokens) at a retail price of $4.95. For more information, check out Tyranny Games or Precedence Studios.

For the Code Monkey

In game development news, if you're into adventure game development, check out AdventureDeveloper.com for the latest news, tips and tricks. If you're looking for a host of your adventure game, they can provide that too.

Need some music for your game? Jesse "Malygris" King has released a large number of songs freely available for use in your games. Although he's stopped producing them due to personal reasons, it's a welcome opportunity for game developers to add some flair (and save some money) to their games.

Or perhaps you need help creating decent levels? Check out Gamasutra.com's Resource Guide - its a wonderful collection of seven articles on creating unique and enjoyable levels for your game. If you've time, check out the entire Gamasutra.com library - there's a lot of good stuff there.

Fantasy Flight Games to Publish LotR

Fantasy Flight Games ("FFG") is proud to announce that in partnership with Sophisticated Games, Cambridge, England, Hasbro UK, and the Diamond-Alliance distribution group, Timonium, Maryland, it will be new U.S. publisher of the LORD OF THE RINGS ("LOTR") board game designed by the master designer, Reiner Knizia, and illustrated by the world-famous Tolkien artist John Howe. FFG will take over publication of the title from Wizards of The Coast (WOTC), Renton, Washington.

In addition to the main LOTR game, FFG will be publishing the first expansion for the LOTR board game entitled "FRIENDS and FOES" (shipping October 2001) and the brand new "THE HOBBIT" board game (shipping October 2001). FRIENDS AND FOES, like the LOTR game, has been designed by Reiner Knizia and illustrated by John Howe. THE HOBBIT board game is a family game designed by ex WOTC employees Micheal Stern and Keith Meyers and illustrated by acclaimed Tolkien artist Ted Nasmith. THE HOBBIT and FRIENDS AND FOES will be manufactured in Germany to the same high quality standards of the main LOTR game.

Check out their website for more information.

Free Junk From Mystic Eye Games

Mystic Eye Games has a good selection of free gaming material in PDF format on their website. Grab adventures, monsters, classes and races, or D20 compatible stats for use in any of your favorite games. Their "Nightmares & Dreams" collection presents a number of abnormal creatures including "The Cat Nap", "The Dancing Dead", "heart Breaker", "Black Lover" and more.

Troll Lord Games Releases Dogs of War

Troll Lord Games announced its latest d20 adventure, "Felsentheim: Dogs of War". being Part III in the action-filled "Death on the Treklant Trilogy" that began in "Vakhund: Into the Unknown" (TLG 1201) and continued in "Dzeebagd: Under Dark and Misty Ground." In this installment, the player characters are fleeing the goblin war parties on their trail, hoping to reach the safety of the borderland town of Felsentheim. For if they do not, no alarm will sound to harken the coming of the Dogs of War! It is a d20 System adventure designed for 4-8 characters of levels 3-5. Check out TrollLord.com for more information.

Warhammer 40k CCG Preview

Sabretooth Games has set up a website with more information on its Warhammer 40,000 Collectible Card Game. You can see preview artwork, development notes, and a FAQ, as well as a free playable sampling of the game in PDF format.

Dinosaur Planet in D20

Goodman Games is pleased to announce that its new d20-compatible world setting, Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex, will be released in November 2001. Featuring cover art by professional paleontological artist Walter Stuart, the 96-page core rulebook will retail for $20. Supplements will follow in 2002. All products for Broncosaurus Rex will be available through the Wizard's Attic.

Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex includes d20-compatible rules for 15 new dinosaurs. The rules cover statistics, society, combat, languages, and training, and include expanded rules for riding, herding, and fighting with dinosaur mounts.Also included is d20-compatible character creation, campaign source material, and new rules for playing in the unique galaxy of Broncosaurus Rex.

Lance & Laser Models Expand Warchest Game

Lance & Laser Models, Inc. is about to release 6 new single figure packs for their WarChest game line at Gen Con 2001. The new figures include a Rakshasa Demon by Clint Staples and a line of 5 Saurids (intelligent fantasy dinosaurs) by Kevin Contos. The new figures can be seen here.

WarChest is a customizable strategy board game of fantasy warfare using pewter miniature figures. WarChest is the brainchild of the UNIgames design studio, and is manufactured by Lance & Laser Models, Inc. For more information, check out the website.

MGM Assaults Asses

One of the most successful Cheapass Card Games to date, Before I Kill You, Mister Bond..., will be going out of print on August 31, 2001. This is part of an arrangement we've reached with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, owners of James Bond 007. MGM feels this game capitalizes too much on its trademarked character, and frankly we're in no financial position to argue with them.

Our tentative agreement grants us until August 31 to sell down the remainder of our inventory. Distributors and retailers will still be able to sell this game after the Out of Print date, but it will be removed from this website and we will no longer honor orders for it after August 31.

Get it while you can from Cheapass.com.

GamePlay Demo CD Set to Launch

Impressions Advertising & Marketing and Lone Wolf Development announced today a joint partnership to produce the GamePlay Demo CD, a free hobby game demo disc for consumers. GamePlay will contain a variety of free playable demo game materials; quickstart rules, card games, tabletop games, mini-modules and much more. GamePlay is not a magazine on disc, it is purely a game demo CD where consumers can grab fully playable game demos from the hobby game marketplace --- all for free! Email Aldo Ghiozzi at impressionsadv@yahoo.com for more information.

StuperPowers Deluxe Coming Soon

Earth's mightiest heroes have vanished but the nastiest, foulest villains to ever walk the planet remain. Now only you stand between Earth and total destruction and all you can do is...TARGET VOMIT?!? STUPERPOWERS DELUXE! is the all-new, fully-revised, second-edition version of the RPG in which you play a superhero endowed with silly, useless, and downright gross superpowers, sent into battle with the only slightly less ridiculous forces of evil. SPD is jam-packed with 100 fully playable powers, the all-new character advancement rules, a full-length, four-adventure campaign, Live-Action rules, and the kid-tested, mother-approved INSTAVENTURES! Random Scenario Generation system! Full color cover, 112 page comic book sized, perfect bound book that does not require the original StuperPowers to play. Coming in October 2001, you can find more information at the Wingnut Games website.

We like Channel 3

Go visit Channel 3 - that pre-cable, pre-satellite dead-air channel between channels that doubles as your home of nostalgia gaming and childhood memories. It's here that you'll find all the games and systems from your youth - the Atari 2600, the Mattel Intellivision, maybe even the GCE Vectrex in all its vector-graphics glory. This is both my own personal site as well as your source for information, history and trivia on the days of video gaming's past. What does that mean to you? Lots of objective content, but with a personal touch - and with plenty of my own opinionated commentary to boot (hopefully, and over time, plenty of yours too). Be sure to have a gander at the latest reviews and features, hop on in and check out the message boards, maybe even submit your own collection gallery or game review for display on the site. Keep in mind this site is a very new creation (June 2001) so it's slowly gaining more and more content - all of the sections, however, are live. Any questions, feel free to ask - we're all friends here.