From: Jim Vassilakos <jimv>
Subject: GAL: Yakkin' w/ Courtney
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 23:54:53 -0800 (PST)

Just to let you folks know, there is a remote possibility that we
might actually be able to get Galactic distributed by the folks at
Sweetpea. It's very much a long-shot, but with Courtney scrambling
to engender good customer-relations, it's not out of the question.
Here is some recent correspondence which I haven't yet followed up
on. Opinions regarding how we should proceed would be most welcome.

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From: Jim Vassilakos
Sent: Saturday, December 14, 1996 11:29 PM
To: Courtney Solomon
Subject: Traveller software offer

Hiya. Joe Walsh (of the Traveller Mailing List) said I should talk
to you about this, so here goes:

For the past year or so, I've been working on a software package
called "Galactic" which does starmaps for the Traveller RPG. I
made this package freely available over the Internet and
received very positive feedback from both people on Usenet and
from the mailing list. Here is a short bio of the current
version of the program:

        PROGRAM NAME: "GALACTIC" [v2.1] {August 1996}
        GAME SYSTEM: Traveller/MegaTraveller
        AUTHOR: Jim Vassilakos  (jimv@empirenet.com)
        FUNCTION: Sector Viewer/Generator
        OPERATING SYSTEM: IBM (MS-DOS)
        COMMENTS: Allows user to randomly generate sectors,
	      displays the maps in VGA, translates the UWP code
	      to English, and keeps campaign notes in text files
	      which can be accessed directly from the map. The
	      maps all mesh seemlessly. Thirteen Classic
	      Traveller sectors are included complete with jump
	      routes as well as another without. Several world
	      descriptions by various Traveller Mailing List
	      members also also included. Contains enough online
	      help that it can be used by someone who has never
	      before played Traveller and is just getting into
	      it. Note, you must use "-d" option when unzipping:
              >>>>>>>>    pkunzip -d gal21.zip    <<<<<<<<
        AVAILABLE: http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~jimv
        ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/doc/games/roleplay/programs/mapping/gal21.zip
        ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/frp/util/gal21.zip

I'm currently working on version 2.2, incorporating contributions
from several of the list members, and I was wondering if you guys
would like to include ver 2.2 with the Traveller Atlas book due to
be coming out whenever. I am not asking for any money for this, and
I'm practically certain that I could secure statements of permission
to publish from all the people who have contributed material to the
program. The only thing is that I doubt any of them would surrender
their rights to future use of their contributions (what you'd get,
I imagine, is free one-time distribution rights), and I would want
the program itself to remain in the Public Domain (complete with
source). Anyway, please let me know if you are interested. I live
in San Bernardino, which isn't too far from your headquarters. I
could schedule to meet with you if you want to discuss things
further or need a demonstration of the program. Even if you don't
think it's feasible to include actual diskettes with the atlas,
it might be nice to just provide the URL for the program somewhere
in the atlas so as to give the consumer some added value if they
have net-access. Just some ideas for you to consider. Please
contact me if you're interested.

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Date: Sun, 22 Dec 96 03:31:11 UT
From: Courtney Solomon <Sweetpea10@msn.com>
To: Jim Vassilakos <jimv@empirenet.com>
Subject: RE: Traveller software offer

Dear Jim,

Thanks for your E-mail.  We will have a look at your letter over the holidays 
and we will get back to you after the first of the year.  Thanks again.

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[The follow-up produced only a polite brush-off. I'm assuming as of
now that they don't want to distribute the program, but the offer
(at least on my part) is still open. Comments welcome.]

