No one else has mentioned this, so I thought I would (and it does have an "on
topic" component).
FASA is closing its doors as of April 30, 2001. There is little in their press
release to explain why they are going under, except to say that the members of
the company are moving on. The "Battletech" and "Shadowrun" licenses are
moving over to WizKids, the makers of the "Mage Knight" collectible miniatures
game. WizKids was founded by Jordan Weisman, one of FASA's founders. They are
going to keep filling orders until the end of April, then they are closing
shop.
The press release is here:
http://www.fasa.com/PressReleases/PRClose.html
FASA started life as a roleplaying game company, creating products for the
Traveller science fiction RPG in particular.
FASA thought it had hit it big in the early 80s when they managed to get the
Star Trek license for Paramount. The "Star Trek Roleplaying Game" was
relatively successful. When the second and third movies came out, they
released a starship miniatures/board game component. With the advent of
"Star Trek: The Next Generation", Paramount started dictating the direction of
the game, causing a mass of red tape. FASA decided not to renew the license,
concentrating instead on their own successful RPG, "Shadowrun".
FASA's first big in-house brand name game was a board game, with stand
up counters, called "Battledroids". It involved combat between giant robots,
based on the machines found in Japanese anime. Due to trademark issues with
Lucasfilm, FASA changed the name and reissued the game as "Battletech". The
resulting game spawned supplements, miniatures, computer games, and its own
roleplaying game. Geo-Hex licenses the "Battletech" name for some of its
products.
There have been a number of interesting games out of FASA over the years. Of
particular interest to the list are the Renegade Legion lines, which followed
the "Battletech" tradition of being a board game with a supporting miniatures
line. A lot of the people here on the list use FASA figures -- old and
new --
with GZG rules. More than one Full Thrust fleet contains "Renegade Legion:
Interceptor", and occasionally "Renegade Legion: Leviathan" miniatures, and I
myself have a number of the plastic "Renegade Legion: Centurion" miniatures
for use with Dirtside II.
More recently there was "Crimson Skies", an alternate history aircraft combat
game that spawned a computer game by Microsoft; "VOR", a science fiction
miniatures skirmish game; "Earthdawn", a fantasy roleplaying game.
There is an implication in the press release that some of the miniatures may
still be produced by Ral Partha.
Nothing is said about the future of "Crimson Skies" or "VOR", or whether or
not anyone will produce "Crucible", their "mass combat" (as defined by
Warhammer") fantasy miniatures game.
It can be implied that Battletech miniatures will still be produced (perhaps
K.R. can comment on the Battletech license), if you are using VOR miniatures
for Stargrunt you may want to start stocking up now.
FASA follows the closure, in recent years, of Game Designer's Workshop
(GDW),
and Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE).
> At 11:55 AM 1/28/01 -0500, you wrote:
Microsoft owns Crimson Skies, actually. If they are planning on doing anything
with it, I haven't heard about it. The rights for VOR reverted to the game's
designer; he says that he has plans for keeping it alive. I do know that xB9
Games (formerly DemonBlade) is going to be producing a product that converts
the VOR armies to their WarEngine system; so far as the folks at xB9 know,
this is still going to happen. Who will be
producing the figures, I don't know -- xB9 already has the rights for
Legions of Steel, and should be selling those figures again soon, so I'm
hoping that they can negotiate to get VOR as well.
Sorry to continue this off-topic item, but:
***
Microsoft owns Crimson Skies, actually.
***
The whole thing? Where is this stated?
As an aside, does anyone know why FASA's attempt at a license for Star Wars
lost to WEG? WEG's RPG seemed much stronger, but RL's board game suite was
impressed me much more than the combination of Star Warriors and SW's
miniatures...
The_Beast
-Douglas J. Evans, curmudgeon
One World, one Web, one Program - Microsoft promotional ad
Since Allan has asked me to comment, let me just say that I was as surprised
as anyone. I spent ALL of Thursday afternoon and Friday trying to figure out
WHAT was going on. None of the owners could be reached for comment (not
unexpected). I suppose I will now have to renegotiate my licenses with the new
owners. Jordan Weisman, creator of Battletech, is the principal at WizKids, so
I feel that the game may get a new look and a relaunch. No mention has been
made of the other licenses, and I could get no one at either company to
comment (good employees there!!)
KR
[quoted original message omitted]
> At 12:26 PM 1/28/01 -0600, you wrote:
When FASA sold FASA Interactive, Crimson Skies was included...I've never known
why. If you look at the figure packs, there's a little note to that
effect on the blister card. The Crimson Skies web page --
www.crimsonskies.com -- has a little Microsoft copyright notice, and
there's apparently a computer game in the works.
The computer game is already out. 24 missions, a dozen customizable aircraft,
and a very forgiving flight model. It's more an
airplane-based shooter than a flight sim, but its realistic enough
that real air combat tactics work, and easy enough that anybody can fly.
I strongly recommend anyone with a 3d card and a joystick try the demo. I
bought a Voodoo 5 just to kill the jaggies and make the game more beautiful.
Its a blast.
> At 2:14 PM -0500 1/28/01, John Crimmins wrote:
> >***
The computer game is available already. I thought that only the computer game
licence went to Microsoft, and that FASA kept the miniatures game
licence - but I could be mistaken!
---
> Kieran Rohan wrote:
> new owners. Jordan Weisman, creator of Battletech, is the principal
No
> [quoted text omitted]
I'm just worried about what exactly a "new look" will mean:(. Different
graphics, fine. Changes to the existing rules and/or history-not so
fine. I can see it now, Wizkids decides to "streamline" the rules, and
abstracts damage and the construction system, blech.
On Sun, 28 Jan 2001 11:34:14 -0800, Michael Llaneza <maserati@flash.net>
wrote:
> The computer game is already out. 24 missions, a dozen customizable
It's been out for a while. When it first came out it was reviewed as being
buggier than an anthill. No review I saw recommended it, mostly for this
reason. Did they knock out the bugs? It seemed like a classic case of rushing
the software for marketing reasons.
> Allan Goodall wrote:
> It's been out for a while. When it first came out it was reviewed as
That's surprising. I've been playing it off and on since it came out, and I've
not run into any bugs (amazing for a Microsoft product, but hey, it works for
me.
> On Sun, 28 Jan 2001, Mark Reindl wrote:
> I'm just worried about what exactly a "new look" will mean :(.
Different
> graphics, fine. Changes to the existing rules and/or history-not so
Three words: Collectable Mech game.
I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.
***
Three words: Collectable Mech game.
I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.
***
After seeing some eBay prices on older Mechs, such as the Cestus, and some
of the house books, I think it already is. ;->=
If it's the Mage Knight model, I hope they tighten up the painting. Some is
atrocious; this from mister ten thumbs. If only they could use the Galoob
equipment for awhile...
Sorry for the continued OT; I have an aversion to anthropomophic mechs anyway.
The_Beast
-Douglas J. Evans, curmudgeon
One World, one Web, one Program - Microsoft promotional ad
I don't wish to continue this OT thread either...but I do have a question...
Did they ever fix the ICE/fusion engine mount bug in the construction
rules?
If you don't know, my original version stated that an ICE engine was twice the
size of a similar strength fusion plant. That's fine, the fusion plant is
better technology. But if you tried to mount that fusion plant in a non mech
vehical (read: tank or wheeled vehical, ect.) you had to include a "Special
power plant mount". This made the fusion plant almost as large as the
ICE...Almost no savings, and little sense. This gave me the impression that
the mechs were made
to look/be
better than anything else. (The first thing I noticed...blow one of a two
legged mech's legs off, and it is vertually helpless and useless. Blow one
tread off a tank, it can still use it's
weapons...for a bit...:-)
Confused
The bonus from upgrading ICE to fusion on vehicles was: 1. ICE was 2x mass,
fusion on vehicles was 1.5x mass for the extra rad shielding. 2. You got 10
free heatsinks for your fusion weapons.
With the 300 rated engine (most common) you went from 38 ton engine to 27.5
ton engine with 10 free heat sinks; giving extra space for 9.5 tons of energy
weapons. An absolute must if you want any energy weapons at all.
Neath Southern Skies -http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernskies/
[MKW2] Admiral Peter Rollins - Task Force Zulu-Beta
[Firestorm] Battletech PBeM GM
> -----Original Message-----
> At 6:48 PM -0500 1/28/01, Allan Goodall wrote:
All the reviews I saw did indeed warn about the bugs. If it'll work on your
system, you'll enjoy it immensely. Otherwise, forget it. Try the demo. That
might even be enough for some people.
It works splendidly on a (my) Pressario 5660 with botha Voodoo 5 and an 8MB
ATI card. Definitely a joystick game tho.
Doesn't it also fail to mention that mechs don't need the "extra rad
shielding"...(I don't have my rules book handy...)
Donald Hosford
> "Robertson, Brendan" wrote:
> The bonus from upgrading ICE to fusion on vehicles was: