STAR FLEET BATTLES: OMNIBUS PRESS RELEASE 24 MAY 1999

    You are being sent this press release because you have, at some time in the last several years, contacted Amarillo Design Bureau regarding the game Star Fleet Battles or its associated games, or gave your Email address when registering for a tournament. We are using this "total" mailing list only once; you will not receive further Email unless you ask to be put on a list. We are going to keep this Email as short as possible by telling you where to find the information we have for you.

1. WHO WE ARE

Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc., has taken over as publisher of SFB and the Star Fleet Universe from TFG. Task Force Games will have no further role in publishing SFB products. All future products will be produced and marketed by ADB, Inc. You can get more information on this by pointing your browser to this url: http://www.starfleetgames.com/press.htm. You may want to make a note of the contact information for the new publisher:

Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc., Post Office Box 8759, Amarillo TX 79114
Telephone: 806-351-1950; Fax 806-351-2585
Email (rules questions): design@starfleetgames.com
Email (orders, schedules): sales@starfleetgames.com
Email (offer us a deal): deals@starfleetgames.com
Web Site: www.starfleetgames.com
BBS: www.starfleetgames.com/discus

MAILING LIST: If you want us to email you whenever something important happens, then Email sfb-announce@starfleetgames.com and put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to be put on our "all hands" list.

2. PRODUCTS

We have bought all of the old TFG inventory. (We did not buy TFG; it continues as a separate unrelated company.) As you know, much of the line was out of stock including: Basic Set, Advanced Missions, Federation & Empire; Modules C1, C2, K, R2, R3, R4, R6; Campaign Designer’s Handbook, and the Tactics Manual. We are working to get these and other products back in stock as soon as possible. Basic Set, R2, and R4 have already returned to the active line. We expect F&E to return in June, and Advanced Missions in July.

CATALOG: You can obtain a current catalog at this url: http://www.starfleetgames.com/order.htm.
SPARE PARTS: If you want the spare parts list, you can find it at http://www.starfleetgames.com/spares.htm.
SHOPPING CART: You can order any available product from our shopping cart at: http://www.starfleetstore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv.

SCHEDULE: Our first new product is Captain’s Log #18 (already shipped to wholesalers); the next new one after that (this fall) will be Module R7 Dreadnoughts At War. Captain’s Log #18, the reprinted and updated Basic Set, the reprinted and updated Module R2, and a few hundred Module R4s we found in the warehouse, will be released on 26 May. We are taking mail orders for these products RIGHT NOW. You can order these from the shopping cart above or by sending email to sales@starfleetgames.com.

MINIATURES We are working to bring back miniatures in the 2200 series; when we have solid info, it will be on the web site. The Elite series has been discontinued forever by TFG.

THE FIRE SALE LIST includes fourteen old products. We have plenty of these. They are available for $5 each, or five for $20. These FIRE SALE products include CL10, CL11, CL12, CL13, CL15, CL16, G1, P6, D3, Star Fleet Missions, Uprsing, Federation Sourcebook, Graduation Exercise, and Prime Adventures #1.

PRIME DIRECTIVE: The core Prime Directive Rulebook is in very short supply; when it runs out we may re-issue it, probably with a new game engine and a new design team. You can join the discussion of what engine to use and direction to take on the BBS.

3. A FEW BITS OF INFORMATION:

CONVENTIONS can obtain a box of SFB products to give away in exchange for a full-page ad in your program; see http://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/tournament/tourn_main.htm. We will continue the previous "Rated Ace" program, and will now provide judges with benefits of their own; see http://www.starfleetgames.com/sfb/tournament/tourn_main.htm. We will sponsor and run the events at Origins; we will sponsor events at GenCon but cannot attend.

STELLAR SHADOWS is a new line of products we are launching. These are official but non-historical SFB products produced by their designers and marketed for them by ADB. You can get information at http://www.starfleetgames.com/stellar.htm.

COMPUTER GAME: We have licensed Interplay to use SFB material in their new Star Fleet Command; see http://www.interplay.com/sfcommand. We have no info on their release schedule.

IF TFG OWES YOU products you purchased, contact them and get the order transferred to us. We cannot do anything unless you can establish that you paid TFG. If you have a cancelled check or other receipt, you can send us a copy and we’ll get you what you need. Be advised that TFG never charged credit cards for a whole lot of orders they never filled, so check your statement to see if you were actually charged. If TFG owes you replacement parts or missing parts, contact us with as much info as you can before 1 Sept 99. If you had some kind of "deal" with TFG regarding SFB, it is cancelled. Contact us to see about reinstating it.

WEB POLICY: If you have a web site using SFB items, we are happy but you need to dot a few legal i’s and cross a few t’s; see the policy document at http://www.starfleetgames.com/web_policy.htm. Our policy is designed to legalize the many fan-created sites and keep them going, while adding more sites by players who were unwiling to create them without ADB permission.

ON-LINE GAMING: We have licensed a team led by staffer Gregg Dieckhaus to create an on-line gaming environment; see http://www.sfbonline.com.

ARTISTS: Many computer artists have contacted us looking for work; if you are an artist, you can contact us at design@starfleetgames.com.

4. THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP US GET A GOOD START:

Two choices; it doesn’t matter which you do, but please do one of them right away!
A.    Go to our shopping cart and buy something! http://www.starfleetstore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv
B. Download our Retailer Info Sheet and give it to the manager of your local game store! You can get this at http://www.starfleetgames.com/retail.htm.

ADB INC. would consider it a favor if this press release was reposted and forwarded widely to any interested party or group; you may hand out copies to your friends, your store, or include it in your local newsletter.

IT’S A DONE DEAL!
From SFT #39

Dear Friends:

The long-awaited 'Big Deal' between ADB and TFG was signed on 21 Jan. TFG is now out of the SFB business, and ADB, Inc., is now the sole manufacturer and source of SFB products. Note that we bought all of TFG's SFB-related rights and inventory; we did not buy TFG itself. That company still exists as a separate entity doing various things not related to SFB. ADB Inc. is not a "successor" to TFG in the legal sense.

Many things delayed the deal, the vast majority of which were not the fault or responsibility of ADB, Inc. It would serve no useful purpose, however, to publish the agonizing details of these delays. The point is that the long dark night is over, ADB Inc. is born, and SFB will now enter a new and golden age of enhanced creativity.

We are still awaiting the approval of the transfer by Paramount, but this is a bureaucratic and technical issue and unlikely to become a problem, even if it takes a while to get done. Until Paramount signs off, we cannot send anything to press, but we are making plans for the first products to go to press after this approval comes.

The first product to go to press will be Captain’s Log #18. We will probably release Module R7 Battleships at war as the next new product. Plans are not firmly set after this point, and ADB, Inc. will make it a policy to announce "two products ahead, not ten" in order to prevent frustration and confusion.

There will be numerous new products, even some entirely new product lines, in the future. Some of these (such as the Omega Sector) you have heard of. The new Stellar Shadows product line will eliminate the historical barriers that have kept novel and interesting things from being published. More on that below. The existing tournament and Play By Email system, as well as the Star Fleet Warlord PBM game, will be continued and enhanced. Star Fleet Times will continue, but as promised we will also post each issue on the web site so you don’t have to subscribe if you don't want to. We are rounding up all of the Rated Ace nominations that have accumulated during the Interregnum, and will process these as soon as we can.

As most of you know, Basic Set, Advanced Missions, and F&E are all out of stock and have been for years. We plan to reprint these as quickly as possible, but the printing bills on these three major products are huge and the supply of money is not infinite. We also plan to reprint most of the other out-of-stock products, although not old issues of Captain's Log.

We have not decided what to do about Prime Directive. It never reached the market it was supposed to find, and at least part of the problem was the game system. We are evaluating various options on Prime Directive and may revise it or drop the product entirely. No decision will be made before the fall. If you wish to send your comments, suggestions, and observations on this game system to ADB Inc., we will file them for later review but cannot give individual replies.

MegaHex is all but out of stock (a dozen copies of H2 and another dozen H2s without one of the countersheets are all that remain). The original negatives and art were destroyed a very long time ago, as this product did not sell very well. Should ADB Inc. decide some day to resume this product category, we will have to do the art over again using the computer art you've seen on the insides and backs of many games. Several have suggested to us that the gamer of 1999 wants a more visual game and would buy a new MegaHex, but we have yet to see any outpouring of demand for it.

We are working on a plan to produce a new line of miniatures in the original 2200/2300 scale. If these plans bear fruit, you will read it in Star Fleet Times and on the web site.

TFG is trying to convince us to continue the Elite miniatures. We have yet to make a decision on the Elite line.

We have been very busy getting the new warehouse set up, the TFG inventory transferred, making plans to reprint the out of print products, getting the new computers on line, and the new web site set up.

ADB Inc. is aware of the many fan-created web sites, many of which use copyrighted ADB Inc. property without permission in ways that really are not proper. We are drafting a web policy statement, but recommend that site managers avoid panic at this time and do not remove anything from their sites as yet. No one will be in trouble for any inadvertent copyright violations prior to the announcement of the policy. Generally speaking, we want to find a way for all of these sites to continue more or less unchanged under the current policy. Creating a chain of Authorized Sites across the internet will involve three primary requirements: Sites should be tasteful and generally positive; sites must not advertise or promote commercial "for use with SFB" products done by companies other than ADB, and any posted material must be considered as a submission to ADB and include an ADB evaluation statement.

We will have a "fire sale" of overstocked SFB products from the TFG inventory.

We presume that everyone already knows about our deal with Interplay for the creation of the STAR FLEET COMMAND computer game based on SFB. You can find more information about this upcoming game at

http://feedback.interplay.com/sfcommand/index.html

We will run the usual events at Origins, but that will be the only convention at which ADB, Inc., will actually run events or a booth. We will not be attending GenCon in person but may arrange for another company to sell products for us there.

Steve Cole remains head of the operation and President.

Steve Petrick remains a vital part of the design team and will continue to be in charge of tournaments and playtesting.

Leanna Cole will, for the initial stage, handle the finances. If you want to thank anyone for saving SFB, thank Leanna, as she was the one who had to give the final OK.

We must thank Owen G Riley III, our attorney (who once headed the F&E Department) who was instrumental in completing the deal. Owen will remain a vital part of ADB Inc. as Vice President of Deals.

NEW CONTACT INFORMATION