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Last update: 97/04/18

    The News Flashes Archive

    Here's the full list of all the news flash messages up to now. (Note that some links may not work any longer.)

  • 18 Apr 97: David Reiss has sent me an updated version of his AD&D Combat Database program for Windows 95. Version 2.0 has numerous bug fixes and extra features. It's available from all the GNBA sites in the USA and Europe, in the Programs & Utilities / Utilities section.

  • 10 Apr 97: From Roger Mast comes the Magnificent Monstrous Database 3rd Edition. It contains information about 500+ new monsters from your favorite settings, for a grand total of more than 1800. Available in Access 2.0 and 7.0, and ASCII versions from Olik's Netbooks section at the new-style GNBA mirrors.

  • 10 Apr 97: Amazing news: Wizards of the Coast to acquire TSR. This may well spell the end of TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game - and civilization as we know it. Here's the official press release.

  • 7 Apr 97: It turns out that the machine of the ISP hosting Olik's site had been cracked - the evil ones deleted, amongst other things, the homepages of 11,000 people. Things are almost back to normal now, though.

  • 5 Apr 97: I just noted that for some weird reason Olik's web site is gone and my mirror program faithfully deleted all those files! I have restored the files on this machine from another mirror and disabled the mirroring program while I find out what's up with Olik's site. Sorry for any inconvenience.

  • 5 Apr 97: The GNBA mirror at MIT is now also serving the new pages and archive.

  • 4 Apr 97: Tal Barkey has sent me a bug fix update of his WinSpell spellbook manager. It's available from his homepage or the GNSB section of the Great Net.Book Archive.

  • 4 Apr 97: From Andrew Ward comes the NetBook of Books v1.0, a compilation of book titles that can be found on various campaign worlds; some books have descriptions. Also included is a shelf generator for determining the contents of a library. Available in ASCII and Word 6 versions from the net.books section.

  • 2 Apr 97: The net.books section of the GNBA is now a mirror of Olik's Archive. It is one of the biggest and best collections of net.books on the Net, so take a look at it you haven't done so already.

  • 2 Apr 97: I've just finished the new GNBA web pages. They are currently propagating to the various mirrors, and some problems with dangling links are to be expected. However, the sites in California (the new home site), Belgium and the UK (a new mirror - kudos to Andrew Ward) are already offering the new pages. Each mirror site is now self-contained, so there should be less need to visit the home site.

  • 17 Feb 97: The net.books section of this archive will soon be replaced by a mirror of Olik's Archive. (I have started forwarding all net.books submissions to him.) Interesting new additions to his collection are the NetBook of Poisons (edited by Adrienne Mills), the Cults NetBook (edited by Juan Camilo Rozo) and the Guide to Herbs for RPGs 5th Edition (edited by Shaun Hately). For all this and more, visit his archive or its California mirror.

  • 17 Feb 97: There is now a beta version of the new Tome of Vast Knowledge for Windows available. Already available from the Utilities section of all the RPG mirrors but the one in South Africa. Check it out and send feedback to Douglas Webb.

  • 14 Jan 97: I am now hosting a USA mirror of Olik's great net.books site on my machine in California. It has a large number of net.books which I don't offer at this archive, so it is worth checking out.

  • 10 Jan 97: Xeno has pointed me at two new net.resources of his: Xeno's Heretic & Hexen NetBook for RPGs and the Puritan character class. Both are available from his site in the USA.

  • 10 Jan 97: There is a new RPG utility available from David Reiss: the Combat Database v1.0. It is an Access 7.0 database program for storing combat information about creatures and even letting them fight. Available from all the mirror sites and his homepage.

  • 26 Dec 96: There is finally an African mirror of the complete Great Net.Book Archive! Many thanks go to Alvin Otto for providing this mirror in South Africa.

  • 26 Dec 96: Martin-Gilles Lavoie has recently started work on the Great Book Of Tinker Gnomes Inventions. He is looking for creative and mischievous submissions to add to this new net.book, so check out the announcement .

  • 8 Dec 96: From Pscion comes an update of the 2nd Psionics Net Book. Available both on-line and in an ASCII text version, you can find it at its USA home site.

  • 8 Dec 96: I've added a number of new links below. If you're interested in a great variety of net.books you should definitely take a look at Olik and The Halls of Justice.

  • 16 Nov 96: Good news for our friends Down Under: the Australian mirror site should be completely up to date again.

  • 16 Nov 96: The Word 6 versions of the Great Net Spellbook and Prayerbook have been improved again by Keith Pepin. Besides correcting a number of formating errors, the files were also restructured (more info). The new versions are available from Belgium, USA 1, USA 2, and Australia.

  • 9 Nov 96: Juan Camilo Rozo has started writing the Cults Net.Book. Take a look at an example, write up your own, and contribute to a new net.book.

  • 6 Nov 96: Good news for DragonLance (r) aficionados: Derek Thompson has started work on the Fifth Age Net.Book. If you're interested, read on to see how you can help.

  • 5 Nov 96: Michael Hermann has sent me a new version of GenChar. It's now at 1.53 and still allows you to generate characters for all kinds of world. Currently available from Belgium, USA 1, and USA 2.

  • 27 Oct 96: It's finally here: a web version of the Great Net Spellbook and Prayerbook. All kudos go to Ben Cordes for making this new port. And, yes, there is even a search engine. Currently already browseable in Belgium, USA 1, and USA 2.

  • 27 Oct 96: Roger Mast has finished version 2 of the Magnificent Monstrous Database. It includes the stats of just about all official TSR(r) monsters, so it's a DM's dream come true. Available in Access 7, Access 2.0, and ASCII formats. On offer in Belgium, USA 1, and USA 2.

  • 10 Oct 96: Good news from Pscion: there has been an update of the new Psionics Net Book to make it compatible with TSR's (r) latest releases. If you are interested, hop over to its home site in the U.S.A..

  • 2 Oct 96: For DNS admins only: is there anyone out there who would be willing to provide a primary and/or secondary name server (optionally for a fee of say $10/month; I'll pay the Internic charges of course)? I intend to register a domain for this site in the near future, but I currently only have one machine to run a name server on. (reactions)

  • 1 Oct 96: There is a new auxiliary program for spells and psionics from Tal Barkey. This sequel to SpellView runs on Windows 95 machines and allows you to display, edit and manage collections of spells (e.g. the ones in the GNSB and GNPB). WinSpell v1.0 is available now from Belgium, Australia, USA 1, and USA 2.

  • 27 Sep 96: Jason Seeley has made on-line versions of the five Net.Plots.Book up to now. So, if you're looking for some original ideas to spice up your own campaign, hop over to his page in the U.S.A. and just start reading.

  • 17 Sep 96: There is new information about the history of the Great Net Spellbook available. Paul Walker recently sent me a message which describes how he contributed to the growth of the net.book grew in its early days.

  • 13 Sep 96: A new Psionics Net Book is currently being written by Pscion. There's already a lot of useful information available, but new ideas are always welcome.

  • 13 Sep 96: I have added a number of new links which people have sent me while I was relocating. Nearly all of them are worth a visit, especially Macray's Keep.

  • 10 Sep 96: My apologies for being off-line longer than I had anticipated, but the facilities in the department here are pretty poor. But, I'm now living in sun-kissed La Jolla, CA so I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly. Updates to the archive will, however, remain difficult until I have bought my own computer to do the serious work. Sorry.

  • 20 Aug 96: I am not dead or anything but it has been a very quiet period. Anyway, Qubrak Shata is now looking for contributors to a new world which he is creating: Ilnyaupe. If you have some ideas about how to shape a world, check the introductory text.

  • 21 Jul 96: I've made an on-line version of The Guide to Herbs for RPGs as a preparation for the on-line version of the Great Net Spellbook / Prayerbook. So, please send feedback if you would like to see things presented differently. Caveat: The pages contain colored tables (for nice esthetic effects without large images) so you're advised to use a browser which supports them (e.g. Netscape 3.0b?). Here's the entry point.

  • 18 Jul 96: The Australian mirror is up to date again: it now also has the Guide to Herbs and the TGNB patch.

  • 12 Jul 96: There's a new patch available for the Great Net.Book Browser (see below; not yet in Australia).

  • 12 Jul 96: There's a new net.book available: The Guide to Herbs for RPGs (Fourth Edition), which has been compiled and edited by Shaun Hately. Check the readme file and download from Belgium, or the United States.

  • 12 Jul 96: The ASCII versions of the Magnificent Monstrous Database v1.0 are now also available from Australia .

  • 10 Jul 96: A partial Brazilian mirror is now being hosted by Guilherme Quaresma: it contains a selection of the files available from the Great Net.Book Archive as well as a number of other programs. Hence, take a look at what's available from Brazil.

  • 9 Jul 96: Ouch! I have spent the past few days as a full-time network administrator after the main server here (mailhub, gateway, NIS master) went down hard with a disk failure. I hope to resume my work on this archive tomorrow.

  • 29 Jun 96: Did you ever wonder about the history of the Great Net Spellbook? I did, until I was contacted last week by Jim Lewallen, who edited the First Edition many years ago. This is what he had to say about how it really began. (If someone can add information about the early history of the GNSB, please mail me.)

  • 29 Jun 96: Roger Mast's Magnificent Monstrous Database v1.0 is now also available in two ASCII formats. (The Access 2.0 version is expected in the Fall.) You can take a look at the formats and download the zip file from Belgium, and the United States, with Australia to follow later.

  • 23 Jun 96: There's a new spell browser/editor from Chris Bock: The Great Netbook Browser is currently still in beta, but can be downloaded from Belgium, the United States Australia. (Don't forget to check the readme file and send Chris feedback.)

  • 15 Jun 96: Michael Hermann has sent me a new update of Gchar, his character generator program for DOS. It's now at version 1.52. Check the readme, and download from Belgium, the United States, or Australia.

  • 15 Jun 96: The new Word 6 version of the Great Net Prayerbook 6 is now also available from the mirror in Australia.

  • 8 Jun 96: Interested in a free map of your own world? Arman Ameen currently has a very nice offer indeed (there's also a sample map on this page).

  • 6 Jun 96: Thanks to Keith Pepin, a new Word 6 version of the Great Net Prayerbook 6 has become available. The Word file is much smaller, and the lay-out has been improved as well. Currently available from Belgium and the United States.

  • 30 May 96: There's been a hard disk problem in Belgium, but running fsck manually got me the files back. I've done a quick check and everything looks OK again - but please mail me if you encounter any problems.

  • 25 May 96: The Magnificent Monstrous Database v1.0 is now also available from the Australian mirror.

  • 20 May 96: Roger D. Mast has compiled the Magnificent Monstrous Database v1.0. It's an Access 7.0 file with the essential stats of 900+ official monsters - check the readme file. Currently already available from Belgium and the United States, with Australia to follow soon I hope.

  • 11 May 96: The Australian mirror is up to date again. (And I am close to finishing my M.Sc. dissertation - things will be moving faster after that.)

  • 26 Apr 96: The Net Book of Plots version 5 has been released by its Keepers. It's available on the web in HTML from Austria and via FTP from the United States.

  • 24 Apr 96: There's an update for WinItem from Tal Barkey and Yaron Gur. Available now from Belgium, and the United States.

  • 16 Apr 96: Some bad news: Jeff Gentry has informed that he will provide no more updates for the legal section.

  • 15 Apr 96: Erik Trimble, who amongst other things, also takes care of the GNSB / GNPB LaTeX editions and maintains the The Net Magic Items Encyclopedia, has just pointed me at his web site. He may even host another GNBA mirror soon.

  • 15 Apr 96: Javi has sent me Rwanda's Spellbook, a useful DOS spellbook maintenance program which can read the ASCII Great Net Spellbook and Prayerbook files. It's small, efficient, and will make you laugh as well. Here's the readme file. Available from Belgium, the United States, and Australia [problems with this one again].

  • 7 Apr 96: Qubrak Shata has started working on a new Neutral Good Net.Book and is looking for your submissions. Here is his announcement with all the details.

  • 7 Apr 96: I have received not a single message about the gzip versions of some files. Hence, they will be disappearing real soon now.

  • 7 Apr 96: Work on the Seventh Edition of the Great Net Spellbook and Prayerbook is progressing much more slowly than anticipated. My apologies. The good news is that an HTML version of the Sixth Edition should become available soon.

  • 14 Mar 96: I'm considering dropping the .gz files which can be found in the GNSB / GNPB section of the archive. The logs show that they are hardly ever downloaded, as opposed to their counterpart .zip files. I much prefer gzip myself (there's no life outside of UNIX, is there?), but that's no reason to fill disk space with unused files. Hence, if you can't live without the .gz files, tell me so before I remove them.

  • 24 Feb 96: Michael Hermann has sent me a new bug-fix release of the Generic Character Generator. It's now at v1.25, and available from the United States, from Australia and from Belgium.

  • 20 Feb 96: The Australian GNBA mirror is completely up-to-date again. I don't know about its mirroring frequency yet, but you can visit its GNSB / GNPB mirror, its RPG Programs mirror, its Legal Stuff mirror, or its Net.books mirror.

  • 18 Feb 96: There is a new Realms Net.Book in progress - it is being collected and edited by Lazaryth. Take a look at the announcement and contribute if at all possible.

  • 11 Feb 96: I have closed the Scottish GNSB mirror site, because it wasn't very popular, and because I was feeling a bit guilty about using the resources of a place I've left many moons ago. If someone else in the UK wants to host a mirror site, please contact me.

  • 10 Feb 96: Michael Hermann has sent me a new bug-fix release of the Generic Character Generator. It's now at v1.24, and available from the United States and from Belgium.

  • 3 Feb 96: Michael Hermann has sent me a new bug-fix release of the Generic Character Generator. It's now at v1.22.

  • 1 Feb 96: There's a new North-American GNBA mirror site, which is updated automatically every night. So, please give my server a break, wait another day (if necessary) and visit its GNSB / GNPB mirror, its RPG Programs mirror, its Legal Stuff mirror, or its Net.books mirror.

  • 1 Feb 96: Cesar's Net Book (see below) is now also available in Word 2.0 format. And if you don't mind hopping to Australia , you can also get in A4 format.

  • 1 Feb 96: It turned out that I was one of the only people to have the Complete Net Psionics Handbook 2.0 stored somewhere accessible. It was compiled and edited by Charon The Boatman and is available as a huge Word or PDF file from the GNBA home site in Belgium.

  • 29 Jan 96: Lord Phantos (a.k.a. Christopher Brooks) has finished editing The Gallery of Magical Blades v4.0. It's a Word for Windows 2.0 document which contains more than 300 magical and bladed weapons. It is mirrored in Belgium, but it has its home page in Canada.

  • 26 Jan 96: Jean Beland has sent me a copy of an entirely new netbook, Cesar's Net Book. It is a collection of original spells, monsters, classes, items, and more. (At the moment, this net.book is only available in WordPerfect format.) You can download it from the home site in Belgium.

  • 23 Jan 96: It has taken me some time, but Douglas Webb's Tome of Vast Knowledge version 1.13 (that's still the latest one) is now available from the home site in Belgium. This collection of DOS programs offer an anthology of the best monsters, items, kits, and spells the Net has produced so far, and is a must for those who don't know it yet. Here's the readme file.

  • 18 Jan 95: Michael Hermann has sent me a new release of the Generic Character Generator. It's now at v1.21. GCHAR is a DOS shareware program for automatically creating characters for many types of games. Check the readme file, and download it from the home site in Belgium.

  • 3 Jan 96: Wayne Pafko has sent me Choose v1.01. It's a small DOS program which can generate buildings, lists of magic items, ... or anything you are willing to put in short file. You can check the Readme file, and download it from the home site in Belgium.

  • 21 Dec 95: Brennan Brooks has finished the Tome of the Damned v1.666. This net.book is filled with materials which your favorite Necromancer must be eagerly awaiting. So, check it out from its home site in Canada, from the Belgian mirror, or - in A4 format - from an Australian mirror.

  • 19 Dec 95: The mirror site in Australia is back, and with a vengeance to boot: it now offers both a GNSB mirror and an RPG Programs mirror. It is also updated automatically so it should remain up-to-date from now on.

  • 11 Dec 95: The Generic Character Generator (see below) is now at v1.04 after some more bug-fixes.

  • 9 Dec 95: Here's the latest release from Taron Gur and Tal Barkey: WinItem v1.00. It's a Windows program which allows you to easily view, create, and manipulate lists of items. The example list contains numerous magical blades. Check the readme file, and download it from the home site in Belgium.

  • 9 Dec 95: Michael Hermann has sent me a bug-fix release of the Generic Character Generator v1.03. It's a DOS shareware program for automatically creating characters for many types of games. Check the readme file, and download it from the home site in Belgium.

  • 24 Nov 95: There is a new North-American mirror for the programs section! If you've been having problems downloading one of the generator programs, you should definitely try the new mirror as well. Many thanks go to the Jester for making this new mirror possible.

  • 20 Nov 95: Michael Hermann has finished the Generic Character Generator 1.0. It's a DOS shareware program for automatically creating characters for many types of games. Check the readme file, and download it from the home site in Belgium.

  • 17 Nov 95: The GNSB mirror in the United States is fully up-to-date again. (The one in Australia seems to be down.)

  • 10 Nov 95: Version 1.00 of the Tome of the Damned, edited by Brennan Brooks (The Dark Paladin) is now mirrored at the GNBA site in Belgium from its home site in Canada. It's a net.book filled with necromantic materials.

  • 4 Nov 95: A new complete GNSB mirror site in Holland has opened.

  • 26 Oct 95: The GNSB mirror in Sweden is fully up-to-date again, as is the one in Scotland.

  • 25 Oct 95: The GNSB mirror in Sweden is fully up-to-date again.

  • 13 Oct 95: Yaron Gur and Tal Barkey have done it again! Here's SpellView 5.0 which includes Windows and DOS versions, and also the psionics from the Psionics Net.Book. All the spells from the GNSB and the GNPB are of course still included. Currently available only from the home site in Belgium, but will be distributed to the mirror sites as well. (Here's the readme file.)

  • 13 Oct 95: Ron Heuse has sent me the Reaping the Dungeon shareware game (DOS only). It's based on the old NetHack games, but certainly looks a lot better than those. It's only available from the home site in Belgium. (Here's the information file.)

  • 28 Sep 95: Morten Helles has sent me the complete Spell Searcher v.6 package, the most powerful spell search engine for both the GNSB and GNPB ever created. The package includes the ANSI C source code, as well as a ready-to-run DOS program. It's already available from the home site in Belgium but the mirror sites will follow shortly. (Here is the information file.)

  • 22 Sep 95: I am testing out a new httpd on this site (Spinner, for those in the know), so it's possible that some links are broken. Please mail me if you find anything which is even remotely fishy.

  • 12 Sep 95: The GNSB mirror sites in Sweden, the United States, and Scotland have all been updated to carry the latest additions to the archive. (The mirror in Australia will take another month, because of a temporary shortage of disk space.).

  • 5 Sep 95: Joe Delisle has finished the ASCII version of the Great Net Spellbook, the largest and most difficult convertion in the history of the GNSB - thanks a million, Joe! It is already available from the home site in Belgium, but the mirror sites will finally be brought up-to-date in the near future.

  • 1 Sep 95: Jeff Gentry has sent me an updated version of his legal pages section detailing TSR's (r) trademarks (both AD&D (r) and other). I have recently had to mail the previous version of this list to a TSR (r) net.rep because it was more exhaustive than anything they had!

  • 18 Aug 95: Brennan Brooks (a.k.a. The Dark Paladin) is constructing a new net.book: the Tome of the Damned. If you like all things evil, read the announcement and send a contribution.

  • 17 Aug 95: Yaron Gur has made a few extra improvements in his spell-viewing program (see below). Hence, the introduction of SpellView v4.0. It's a short patch for v3.0 (Here's the accompanying revision information file.)

  • 27 Jul 95: Denrandrien has written three useful generator programs for Windows computers. You can take a look at the readme.txt files for the three programs: the Magic Shop Generator readme, the Thieves' Guild Generator readme, and the Jewelry Generator readme.

  • 27 Jul 95: A major reorganisation and expansion of these sites is currently in progress. I intend to offer more than just the Great Net Spellbook - all net.books and auxiliary programs are welcome if and only if they contain no copyright infringements and acknowledge all TSR's (r) trademarks, as well as those of other companies of course.

  • 26 Jul 95: SpellView v3.0, the latest version of the Great Net Spellbook viewer is being made available. It is a DOS program written by Yaron Gur and Tal Barkey which enables you to comfortably read and search spells in the Great Net Spellbook and/or Great Net Prayerbook. (Before downloading, take a look at the revision information file for SpellView.)

  • 1 Jul 95: SpellView v2.11, a small patch file to fix some minor bugs in v2.10 of the Great Net Spellbook viewer is being made available. It is a DOS program written by Yaron Gur and Tal Barkey which enables you to comfortably read and search spells in the Great Net Spellbook and/or Great Net Prayerbook. (Before downloading, take a look at the documentation file for SpellView.)

  • 27 Jun 95: All the sites except for the one in Australia have now been updated to offer the Word 6 edition of the Great Net Spellbook, the new SpellView, and the Small Net Spellbook. (The Word 6 version on the mirror in North America uses US Letter formatting; the one on the European mirrors A4).

  • 22 Jun 95: SpellView v2.1, an improved version of the Great Net Spellbook viewer is being made available. It is a DOS program written by Yaron Gur and Tal Barkey which enables you to comfortably read and search spells in the Great Net Spellbook and/or Great Net Prayerbook. (Before downloading, take a look at the documentation file for SpellView.)

  • 22 Jun 95: the Small Net Spellbook has become available on the home site. It is an anthology of the Great Net Spellbook: much smaller and with a much higher signal-to-noise ration. It also does not contain any spells which people may find obscene or vulgar. Oh ... it was compiled by none less than Boudwijn Wayers. (Before downloading, take a look at the prologue of the Small Net Spellbook.

  • 22 Jun 95: there will be more than one Word 6 ports, with different regions receiving different ports (US Letter vs. A4, etc). The bad news is that this will delay the transfer of Word 6 versions to other sites.

  • 21 Jun 95: a Word 6 port of the Great Net Spellbook has been completed and is already available from some sites (Belgium and Scotland). The other sites will follow shortly.

  • 3 Jun 95: SpellView v2.0, the Great Net Spellbook viewer is now available. It is a DOS program written by Yaron Gur and Tal Barkey which enables you to comfortably read and search spells in the Great Net Spellbook and/or Great Net Prayerbook. (Before downloading, take a look at the documentation file for SpellView.)

  • 3 Jun 95: Spell Searcher v6, the Great Net Books Spell Searcher is now available for testing. It is a powerful program written by Morten Helles for selecting spells from the Great Net Spellbook or Great Net Prayerbook on the basis of every reasonable criterion imaginable. It is written in ANSI C, so it should compile on all architectures. (Before downloading, take a look at the documentation file for Spell Searcher.)
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Archiver: Ezra Van Everbroeck - ezra@snow.ucsd.edu