Web Posted April 02, 2006
Updated March 24, 2007

Reaching a Crossroads

Happy May Day from an old and bold autoduelist. Unfortunately for my enemies, the reports of my demise have been exaggerated. My day job as a laboratory rodent required me to put autodueling on hold for several months.

I hope to have some more time at home in May to be able to complete the final edits to the ADQ HTML Archive and make some badly-needed updates to SWAT HQ.

While watching the time fly past between the first issue of this year launched in January and this issue (the second of 2055), I have been seriously considering making CWIN a bi-monthly or a quarterly magazine. There are several reasons for this possible change. First, my work schedule is always erratic, making the likelihood of getting issues sent to subscribers on schedule very small. Second, although I have almost 200 subscribers, there are few gamers playing Car Wars today. I rarely receive reports of Car Wars events, customized rules or roleplaying materials. Third, news about auto-combat gaming, is not commonly found today.

I really need to know what you would like from this newsletter and from SWAT for your Car Wars and other auto-combat gaming activities. After running this publication for eight years, I really do need your regular feedback and article submissions more than at any point before. Even though I have received few submissions from you during the run of CWIN, I have appreciated greatly the use of the Dueling Debate message board and I hope you will continue to use the forum.

Wishing you a spring of full of burning gasoline and metal,

The Autodueling Lab Rat

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:13:16 -0800
From: "Owen Michael P. (ServNet)" <owenmp@serv.net>
To: CWIN Subscribers <owenmp@hotmail.com>
Subject: Car Wars Internet Newsletter Special Announcement: Project Phoenix

Dear Subscribers,

All 40 issues of Autoduel Quarterly are now available on e23 in Adobe Acrobat format.

CWIN subscribers might remember I mentioned Project Phoenix. This phrase was my code for the HTML conversion of the ADQ Archive.

I completed the project 18 months ago. Several staff at SJ Games have known I was working on getting the project completed.

I have been working on final proofreading since that time while working 60-hour weeks, hence the long delay.

I have not talked to SJ Games in a while about my work, therefore the company might have thought I disappeared and the HTML conversion process stopped. I apologize for dropping the ball of communication.

I have also converted to HTML all of the Car Wars articles from White Dwarf, Dragon, VIP of Gaming and The Space Gamer, including
the legendary The Space Gamer #58.

I expect to complete the proofreading, burn the files to a CD and mail the CD to Austin in February. I have no idea if the ADQ Archive will be accepted by SJ Games because e23 now has all of the issues. The disadvantage of e23 is the (minimal) cost of each issue and the large size (15 MB) of each issue (although I would not paying for electronic copies of ADQ in its original/scanned format).

I was not involved in the Adobe Acrobat archiving of ADQ for e23. My HTML work was independent of that project.

I was planning to announce the end of Project Phoenix next month but with the presence of all 40 issues of ADQ on e23 SJ Games beat me to the punch in a fashion.

I look forward to completing a resource I have been wanting to have for autoduelists for a very long time. Your patience will be rewarded. Without patting myself on the back, the ADQ Archive is going to look great.

Drive offensively,

Michael P. Owen

MILITARY WEAPONS FOUND NEAR LAKE
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/11/guns.found.ap/index.html

Machine guns were supposed to have been disposed of

Associated Press and CNN
Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Posted: 8:37 AM EST (1337 GMT)

FORT RILEY, Kansas (AP) -- Five military machine guns found two weeks ago near a lake near Fort Riley were part of a group of weapons that were supposed to have been disposed of, investigators said.

The machine guns -- an M-240, a 5.56 millimeter and three Browning .50-caliber weapons -- were found near Milford Lake, prompting residents'
concerns.

Investigators from Fort Riley's Criminal Investigation Division said the machine guns were not stolen and had been properly removed from a Fort Riley unit's arms room.

The CID said it was investigating how the weapons ended up near the lake and why they were not given to the Directorate of Logistics, the agency responsible for proper disposal.

The investigators said the guns were not serviceable. Jeff Coverdale, a Fort Riley representative, said the CID did not explain how the guns were not serviceable, but it could mean that they were old or damaged.
 
 

AFRICAN RAT BECOMES LANDMINE HERO
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/01/15/rat.land.mines.reut/index.html

Soldiers in Africa use a rat to find landmines.

Reuters and CNN
Saturday, January 15, 2005 Posted: 11:10 PM EST (0410 GMT)

VILANCULOS, Mozambique -- A giant African rat has become man's second best friend as it joins forces with the dog to sniff out landmines in Mozambique.

The Belgian de-mining research group APOPO has eight of the rodents working alongside dogs and metal detectors on a minefield in Mozambique's coastal town of Vilanculos, some 650 km (405 miles) northeast of the capital Maputo.

The Gambian giant pouched rats are helping to clear a stretch of fertile land that has lain fallow since a savage civil war ended in 1992.

Landmines are an insidious legacy of that conflict that maim and kill Mozambicans to this day, including rural children who were born long after the guns were silenced.

"The biggest problem in landmines is that from the moment there is a mine somewhere, a very large area becomes suspect and has to be cleared before people can go back to farming there," said Frank Weetjens, APOPO's representative in Mozambique.

Enter the Gambian giant pouched rat, the latest weapon in the war to remove more than 100 million landmines scattered in some 60 countries that kill or injure an estimated 50 people daily.

Leaders of 143 countries met in Nairobi in November to plan the next steps in their global campaign.

"We started off in Africa because a very large chunk of mine-affected countries in the world are actually in Africa. And of these countries a lot have really dilapidated infrastructure because of that," said Weetjens.

"For us there is a sense of priority for Africa. That is also why we looked for an animal that would thrive well in Africa," he told Reuters.

And thrive it does. The rat's home range is found throughout much of Africa.

It gets its name from the large pouches on the inside of its cheeks, which it uses for carrying food. Easily tamed, the animal is a favorite in the pet trade.
 

Drawbacks

The methods currently used in mine clearance have drawbacks.

Metal detectors are very slow and tedious because they pick up every single metal fragment in a suspected minefield.

"The de-miner has to approach every little piece of garbage with the same caution that he has to approach a landmine, so you can imagine where that leaves you," Weetjens said.

Of the 26,000 pieces of metal detected so far on the minefield in Vilanculos, only 74 turned out to be landmines.

After World War Two dogs emerged as the most reliable detection method, able to sniff out even those mines buried 15 to 20 cm below ground, which a metal detector will miss.

The pouched rat combines a dog's nose without its bulk. Growing to a maximum weight of 2.8 kg (six pounds) it can scamper around a minefield without the risk of detonating anti-personnel gadgets that can be triggered by its heavier canine colleague.

The rats are attached to little red harnesses and guided down the length of a 100 square meter (1,076 square feet) field by their trainer.

When the rat hits on a suspected mine, it stops, sniffs and starts to scratch.

To most rural Africans, rats are either a pest or added protein for an evening meal.

"It took a while for me to accept the idea at first and even among the villagers near the minefield there is some skepticism about what the rats can do," said Mozambican Samo Manhica, who works as an observer on the APOPO programme in Vilanculos.

But in a country where the problem of landmines has been an obstacle to attempts to re-build an economy ravaged by 16 years of civil war, every single battle plan counts for something.

"The rat is another tool. It's new for us but it is going to be a very important tool in de-mining," said Jacky D'Almeida, director of the Accelerated De-mining Programme (ADP), an organization working with APOPO in Vilanculos, which relies mainly on metal detectors and dogs.

"Every tool has its own limitations. Machines, dogs, men have limitations and so do the rats. What is important is that we have a package that can speed up the process and we can reduce costs and increase productivity."

And for Mozambique, rated one of the world's poorest countries, cost-saving is important. D'Almeida, who fought for the ruling Frelimo movement during the war, now works side by side with Alex Muianga, who took up arms for the rebel group Renamo, to clear mine infested land.

"Before, I fought against him. Now the worst war in Mozambique is the economic war," said D'Almeida, with a friendly slap on Muianga's shoulder.

"Me and Alex can only be in peace totally when we have no mines in this country."
 
 

THEFT OF 1.1 MILLION GALLONS OF GASOLINE LEADS TO TWO ARRESTS
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002163420_webgasolinebust28.html

Michael Ko
Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Friday, January 28, 2005
Page updated at 12:53 P.M.

Two men were arrested this morning in Seattle on suspicion of ripping off about 1.1 million gallons of gasoline, according to Port of Seattle Police and the Washington State Patrol.

The men work for a company called General Transport, which delivers fuel for a company called Kinder Morgan. Kinder Morgan operates a fuel depot on Harbor Island: they store fuel that comes in on barges and then deliver it by truck to distribution or retail points. The company moves about 800,000 to 1.6 million gallons of fuel a day.

According to Mick Shultz, spokesman for the Port of Seattle, one of the men, an office manager for General Transport, used his access cards on weekends to pick up tanker trucks, access the pumping station at Kinder Morgan and take between 10,000 to 20,000 gallons of gasoline, which he would then sell. The other man helped him.

Investigators believe the crime occurred between December 2002 and August 2004. An internal audit at Kinder Morgan turned up the missing fuel.

The men were expected to be booked into King County Jail today on potential charges of first-degree theft, conspiracy to commit theft and state gas-tax evasion. Investigators estimate the gas tax on the stolen fuel is about $260,000.
 
 

PSYCHOPATHS AT THE WHEEL
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=1&u=/nm/20050407/od_nm/odd_peru_dc

Reuters and Yahoo! News
Thu Apr 7, 9:14 AM ET

LIMA, Peru -- Anyone climbing aboard a bus or taxi in Peru should think twice because many drivers have psychopathic tendencies, a university study said on Wednesday.

Some 40 percent of the 640 taxi and bus drivers surveyed by Lima's San Marcos University suffered from psychological problems and showed psychopathic tendencies, such as aggressive, anxious and antisocial behavior, the study said.

"Drivers showed they would not feel any guilt in injuring or running over a pedestrian," the study added.

Peru's capital, Lima, is crowded with aging, pollution-pumping taxis and buses, many of which do not obey traffic rules or stop lights.

Hundreds of people die each year in bus and taxi crashes in Peru because of bad roads, poorly maintained vehicles and recklessness by drivers. In just the last three months of last year at least 85 people were killed in crashes, according to police figures. Prosecution is rare.

(Thanks to Hank Harwell for the notice of this article.)

DARK FUTURE YAHOO GROUP

From: f.e.s.greenaway@bton.ac.uk
To: owenmp@serv.net
Subject: Dark Future Yahoo Groups
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:21:26 +0100

I don't know if you're interested or not, but I've just set up a Dark Future Yahoo Group.

Dark Future Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dark_futuregw

If you're interested, but no pressure, there's no one else there but me at present!

Francis Greenaway
Painted Target
fesg@brighton.ac.uk
http://www.fluency.paintedtarget.org

From: Jason Walters <ckosacranoid@hotmail.com>
To: <owenmp@serv.net>
Subject: Newsletter Piece
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 02:22:25 +0000

I am going to be setting up a championship like the CADC has for their group. The game that I am going to use Testor's Overdrive arena since I am the demo person for the Chi-Town area right now. Anyone that wants to play a team in the up coming events please let me know.

I am going to getting a rotating round at different hobby shops over the course of the year and hope to get some support and prizes from Testors.

I will be running games at hobby shops in the Milwaukee/Chicago area over the next few months and hoping before the end of January to be showing up some where for the first of several demo games. Anyone who wishes to learn the game or have a demo game contact me and I will see what I can do.

In other amusing racing news that may or may not be related to cars and guns, the May or June issue of 2004 from Grassroots Motor Sports magazine has several pictures of yours truly. On page 82, the top photograph is a picture of me and my 1982 Olds Delta 88 at one of the coolest races this past April in Gainesville, Florida. The event was GRM's Annual Challenge to buy, build and race a car for $200. You have to autocross, drag race, and enter concourse judging. This was ths fifth year of the event and it gets bigger every year. In 2005 entrants get a whole extra dollar to spend.

I will beattanding again this year. I am not sure about which type of car I will be bring down, either a stock '95 Subaru Legacy Wagon or a
'74 Plymoth Duster set up for drifting.

Check out the Grassroots Web site has more information. The Challenge section of the Web site has photographs and more information about the event. The message board has been running rampant with everyone talking about who has the better car.

Sincerely,

Jason Walters
ckosacranoid@hotmail.com
sacranoidclub@yahoo.com

P.S. I am officially offering a challenge to the CADC to a game and team event using the Overdrive rules if any of their members would be up for it.

WIL WHEATON DOT NET
http://www.wilwheaton.net
http://www.wilwheaton.net/mt/archives/001753.php

December 07, 2004
I'll be on VH1 tonight

If you've got VH1, you can watch me tonight on My Coolest Years: The Geeks.

VH1 says:

"Nobody gets through high school without feeling like a total loser now and again. But God help you if you were unusually intelligent, gifted in something other than sports, or a little more shy than normal . . . or the geeky kid on Star Trek who knew more about Car Wars vehicle design than talking to girls."

I did about three hours of interviews with VH1, and I have no idea what they'll use . . . but I watched "The Metalheads" last night, and like most of the VH1 nostalgia shows, it was super cool. The show airs at 10/9c.

This entry is from the Just A Geek department. Posted by wil at December 07, 2004 08:55 AM
 

Posted by: Dave on December 7, 2004 09:04 AM

OMG Car Wars! I used to play Car Wars in the stairwells of my high school between classes. Thanks for yet another shove down memory lane, Wil, you rock!
 

Posted by: Erbo on December 7, 2004 09:09 AM

And remember, the American Autoduel Association says, Drive Offensively . . . the life you save may be your own! (Yeah, I played Car Wars once or twice, too, back in college . . .)
 

Posted by: Jason on December 7, 2004 09:29 AM

Car Wars ruled, man! I was unbeatable . . . except by the dice. Last game I remember . . . Pizzas of Death . . . map of the campus . . . The only other guy left rolled it into the campus pond . . . Ahh, those were the days.
 

Posted by: Adam on December 7, 2004 11:04 AM

As for Car Wars . . . we're still playing! In fact, I ran Car Wars 5th Edition at KublaCon 2004 back in May. Here's some pictures.

KublaCon 2004 Car Wars Photographs
http://homepage.mac.com/adambwells/PhotoAlbum6.html

I'll probably be running it again in 2005. Come on by and play!
 

Posted by: Genxcat on December 7, 2004 11:46 AM

Car Wars . . . I wonder why this has never been made into a great video game?

I had the version that was out a long time ago for the Commodore 64, but nothing has been close to it since.

All the rules are there, just digitize them. I wonder what the future holds from Steve Jackson, although I have not heard much of him in some time. Not since the IRS raided his office.

ANDERSON DEVELOPING DEATHRACE 3000
http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=8870

Variety and comingsoon.net
March 22, 2005

Paul W.S. Anderson will write and direct Paramount's Deathrace 3000, a remake of the cult Roger Corman film Deathrace 2000, says Variety. The trade adds that the deal has sparked Viacom into talks for a companion videogame.

Anderson, who last directed Alien vs. Predator and Resident Evil , will join Corman and C/W partners Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner as producers, as will Anderson's Impact Pictures partner Jeremy Bolt.

The Paul Bartel-directed original is considered a B-movie classic, a campy and polemical black comedy that pitted David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone in a race where drivers accumulated points for running over pedestrians. Anderson's got a different vision, planning a mix of Road Warrior and road kill.

"The original was so much about decimating pedestrians that the actual race was almost irrelevant, and I want to restore that," Anderson said. "Set in 2020, ours is an ultraviolent, no-holds-barred race with heavily armed Escalades, Ferraris and Aston Martins."

Anderson, who wrote and produced the sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse, is producing with Bolt and Constantin an adaptation of the videogame DOA: Dead or Alive, which starts production in six weeks. Anderson also is writing a third "Resident Evil" film.

(Thanks to Tony Kontes of the Boneheadz of New Idaho for notice of this article.)
 
 

HOT WHEELS ACCELERACERS

Cartoon Network
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/promos/hotwheels/index.html

Hot Wheels Official Site
http://www.hotwheels.com

Hot Wheels AcceleRacers 1: Ignition DVD
Release Date: Now
Sources: Amazon.com and most electronics stores

Hot Wheels AcceleRacers 2: Speed of Silence DVD
Release Date: August 23, 2005
Sources: Amazon.com and most electronics stores

Hot Wheels AcceleRacers 3: Breaking Point
Broadcast Date: June 25, 2005 on Cartoon Network
 
 

HOT WHEELS ACCELERACERS COLLECTIBLE CARD GAME

Hot Wheels Official Site
http://www.hotwheels.com
 
 

ROCKSTAR GAMES CLASSICS
http://www.rockstargames.com/classics

Download vintage Rockstar PC titles for free.

* Grand Theft Auto
* Grand Theft Auto 2
* Wild Metal
 
 

ROADWAR
http://www.milius-web.de/ri/risk-the-daily-horror-news.php

Metal Made in Germany
http://www.milius-web.de/index.php

Band: Risk
Album: The Daily Horror News
Date: 1988

Turn the ignition key last chance to pray
Speed up your fast battle car
No place for sundaydrivers, blast them away
Today we are all at war
Those that walk are game we'll chase
No speed limit at all
Two big rigs at a breakneck pace
Explode into fireballs

Fast Attack
Lasercheck
Set the gun
Squeeze the trigger

The right of way goes to the gangerous guns
Skid overturn - the highway warriors dance

Roadwar - Roadwar - Roadwar - Roadwar

Smile as the next victim comes into range
Coldblooded black up the street
Look at this idiot driver in front
Let's vaporize him and scream
hell-bent cyclegangs - duels to death
Turn them into whitehots heaps
Vent your frustrations by fighting and shout
On roads a roadhog is free

Fast Attack
Lasercheck
Set the gun
Squeeze the trigger

The right of way goes to the gangerous guns
Skid overturn - the highway warriors dance

Roadwar - Roadwar - Roadwar - Roadwar

APOCALYPSE 2.0
http://uk.geocities.com/theladykillers
 
 

DAVID GRAHAM'S MINIATURES GALLERY
http://www.geocities.com/mccragge/gallery.html
http://www.geocities.com/mccragge/carwars.html
 
 

FALLOUT COMPENDIUM
http://home.ica.net/~mordeth/compendium/fallout
 
 

FALLOUT 2 COMPENDIUM
http://home.ica.net/~mordeth/compendium/fallout2
 
 

JOHN H. KIM'S FREE RPG ARCHIVE: QCARZ
http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim
http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/archive/freerpgs/qcarz
 
 

KUBLACON 2004 CAR WARS PHOTOGRAPHS
http://homepage.mac.com/adambwells/PhotoAlbum6.html
 
 

RPG INDEX: QCARZ
http://www.rpg-index.com/produktdetail.php?id=9257
 
 

ROYAL AUTOMOBILE AND AUTODUELING CLUB (RAAC)
http://nicholaslovell.tripod.com

From: Nicholas Lovell <nicholaslovell@yahoo.com>
To: SWAT HQ <owenmp@hotmail.com>
Subject: SWAT Car Wars Resources
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 18:29:46 +0100

Dear Michael,

I have created a Car Wars related Web site that focuses on an alternate history and set in the UK. The site is fiction heavy, as well as being a
resource for referees (if there any left) looking for some new material.

I would be very interested to get a reciprocal link between the two sites. Let me know if this is something that might interest you.

All the best,

Nicholas

FRENCH AUTODUEL ASSOCIATION
http://car.wars.free.fr

Forum: Dueling Debate <http://forums.delphiforums.com/carwars>
Subject: AADA Events and Tournaments / Chainmail -- FADA's Eighth PBEM Event
From: tdehais
Date: Jan 22, 2005 8:19 am

Check out our new PBEM event's rules.

<http://car.wars.free.fr/2002/rules_event_08.htm>

If you're interested, you can register by answering to this thread or on the Web site.

<http://car.wars.free.fr/index.php?lang=en>

Thierry Dehais
French Autoduel Association
 
 

NEW OMAHA VEHICULAR ASSOCIATION (NOVA)
http://novacw.com/nova.htm

Arena Watch
* Battle Speedway, Flashfire Circuit
* Quebec Arena, Quebécois Circuit
* Kirk Speedway, Canadian Crown Circuit
* Circus Maximus Arena and Dueltrack, Hot Asphalt Circuit
 
 

ST. PAUL AREA ROAD KNIGHTS
http://www.autoduel.org

Forum: Dueling Debate <http://forums.delphiforums.com/carwars>
Subject: AADA Events and Tournaments / BLUD Bowl 2055 at GenCon Indy
From: ParodyMan
Date: Apr 13, 2005 8:36 pm

SPARK is once again organizing a Car Wars Classic Dueling tournament at Gen Con Indy! BLUD Bowl 2055 is a two round tournament with two open qualifiers:

Friday, Noon-4 PM: Division 10 Qualifier (ID# NM00436)
Saturday, Noon-4 PM: Division 20 Qualifier (ID# NM00437)
Sunday, 10 AM-4 PM: Division 40 Finals

Qualifiers are pregen only. We encourage you to design your own vehicle for the Finals, but pregens will be available if needed.

More info is available at the Web page below.

<http://www.autoduel.org/bludbowl.html>

Drive Offensively!

Mike Miller
St. Paul Area Road Knights
http://www.autoduel.org