Atomic News for April, 1995

Hi folks!  Its April and Atomic Games has A LOT going on!

Watch Us Grow!

First on the list, I'd like to welcome Doug Walker and Jeff Wesevich to the
Atomic Family. Jeff has been working as a contractor for us and has been
the lead programmer for the World at War series. Jeff also worked on V for
Victory:GJS, while in the employ of an evil, unmentionable company. Doug
has also been a contractor for Atomic, responsible for the strategic AI in
the World at War series. In addition to continuing this role, Doug will
also be point man for us in our many Internet endeavors.

Beyond Squad Leader

Next, Beyond Squad Leader is moving right along! Even at this stage of
Alpha testing, several of our testers send back lengthy play-by-play
reports that read like chapters out of Six Armies In Normandy! The
bazooka/panzer faust teams now function properly and the animations for
them are FANTASTIC! We have also tweaked the mortar teams so that indirect
fire is more useful than it was, but still not nearly as good as direct
fire with your spotter. We have completed all the vehicle and crew-served
weapon animations (including tanks with turrest that turn independently of
the chassis and even cast their own shadows!) We'll be adding them to the
game as soon as we and the testers are comfortable with the behavior of
the infantry.

D-Day: America Invades

The next installment in the World at War series is about ready to roll off
the production line! D-Day: America Invades will cover the Utah Beach and
Omaha Beach landings. This will include some of the V for Victory:Utah
Beach scenarios you may already know, as well as a few you've never seen -
plus a combined Utah/Omaha campaign game at the 1 km/hex,
battalion/company scale. Add to that new graphics and graphics routines,
and all the other "standard features" of the award-winning World at War
series. Look for a late summer release.

Patches

For the past 2-3 months, we have been struggling with a nagging problem in
the Stalingrad Mac-to-PC play by email system. We found a couple of minor
things (and fixed them) but the main problem eluded us until just
recently. Without boring you with programmer-speak, the problem dealt with
a difference in the way the Mac and PC compilers we use handle floating
point numbers. Jeff has now removed most of the floating point
calculations from the system (no small task) and is about ready to begin
testing the Stalingrad patch.

The Crusader patch is currently in testing and fixed a few minor things we
found while working on the Stalingrad patch. It also upgrades Crusader to
include some of the new features we introduced in Stalingrad.

All patches will be made available as soon as they have cleared the
testers.

Avalon Con

Hey! Be there or be square! Avalon Hill's own annual convention will this
year feature a World at War:Stalingrad tournament as well as the official
debut of Beyond Squad Leader. Computers will be on site and set up for
attendees to actually play BSL before the public at large. This is your
chance to see what all the nay-sayers haven't seen. In addition, I believe
Avalon Hill is planning tournaments for at least one other of their
computer games as well as the myriad tournaments for their classic board
games. I know *I'm* going to have a busy weekend!

Internet

Atomic has had an Internet server for some time now. This is a machine that
is connected directly to the internet and is always (usually!) available.
If you have a World Wide Web browser, come take a look at our site. The
address is http://atomic.com/. This month will also see Avalon Hill coming
to the World Wide Web, as well as Stanley Associates, Big Time, and
several others. Soon, Avalon Hill will be able to actually take credit
card orders from the Web by using RSA encryption. Isn't technology
WONDERFUL!

In addition, Atomic has set up the following email addresses: (CompuServe
users will have to insert INTERNET: in front of these addresses)

feedback@atomic.com - Send your general comments about our products or
services here. Your mail will be echoed to Atomic and Avalon Hill.

listserve@atomic.com - Send the word HELP in the body of your message. We
will automatically send back to you (within minutes) a detailed
discription of discussion groups - what they are, how they work, how to
join. We currently have email discussion groups for each Stalingrad and
Crusader. Each group has over 300 people on it.

sightings@atomic.com - We often hear that people can't find our products on
the shelves. We'd like your help in assessing the extent of this. If you
are someplace that you think should carry our games, please let us know if
they do. If not, see if you can find out why not. It is amazing what some
sales people have reportedly claimed. Please include enough information so
that we can contact the store directly. ALSO please let us know if you see
any V for Victory CD-ROMs. These are bootlegs and Atomic is trying to get
a handle on just how many are out there and where. Again, please include
enough information so that we can contact the store directly. We
appreciate your help.

Soon, atomic will have our own UseNet groups and we're working on several
other "really cool" Internet projects.

A Personal Note

I have had several magazines call me asking 2 questions that I feel I must
answer publicly.

1) Is Avalon Hill going to stop selling their computer games in the
stores?

NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT! How this rumor got started I can only guess. AH is
doing everything in its power to INCREASE its retail presence. In
addition, they are vigorously pursuing direct mail and, with Atomic's
help, they are opening up the Internet sales avenue. But we do not look at
these as being exclusive of each other. Not at all.

2) Does the departure of Jim Rose cause any concern for Atomic? Is Atomic
moving over to Jim's company?

At the risk of repeating myself, NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT! In fact, HELL NO! I'm
HAPPY he's gone and would never for an instant consider following him.
Avalon Hill has been wonderful to Atomic as a company and to each of my
employees (and my family) personally. I know of no more honest and
genuinely good people than Jack and Eric Dott. Before we started working
together, I had heard some negative things about AH and the Dotts. After
almost 2 years of being friends with them, I can tell that all the
negative things I had heard are FALSE. In short, Atomic and Avalon Hill
are extremely happy with each other and plan a long and fruitful
relationship.

I guess that's it for April. See you next month!

Keith Zabalaoui
President
Atomic Games

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