Notes on the Timelapse Email game.

I am the designer and owner of the Timelapse game. Currently the game is running
commercially for play by paper and play by disk players, moderated by Allsorts PBM
Games. This purpose of this playtest game is to test out the mechanisms for playing 
by Email.

It is intended to run the Timelapse Email game from a Wildcat Bulletin
board system, based in Paisley, Scotland. Players will be able to dial in and pick 
up their turns, exchange messages etc; dialing back later to upload their turn
input. Initially only IBM PC owners will be able to take part in the playtest, but
Atari ST and Atari Falcon owners will be able to join later.

The players will download a DOS program, which can be installed on their PC hard disk,
to allow them to view their turn (offline), and key in their turn input for the next
turn. Full details of this program are in the PBEM_IBM.DOC file. This file is in 
MS Word Version 2.0 format; if any of you have difficulties reading this please let
me know.

The playtest game will have a deadlines every 7 days, processing of the game being 
carried out on the Sunday, with players being able to dial in from 10pm on the 
Sunday to pick up their turns. Details of the phone number, and access times, will 
be sent to you when the playtest begins.

The turn ouput file, which players will be downloading, will be compressed using 
PKZIP and will be approx 30-40k in size. The bulletin board modem is a Hayes Optima
288, so high speed transfers will not be a problem.

In the same ZIP file you received this document should be a TLAP.TXT file, which is
the Timelapse rule booklet as supplied to paper and disk players. To keep costs to 
a minimum I don't intend to provide paper copies of this booklet.

I will Email you all when the BBS is ready.

Thank you for taking the trouble of answering my Email, if you have any questions
on the game prior to starting please let me know.

gmcphee@cix.compulink.co.uk

