1998 was a strange year. It began with Chris Volny, Dave Powell, and I being injured in an airplane crash (not recommended for your next holiday). This single event skewed the entire year. Not only was time spent in pain and recovery--to include operations, physical therapy and the like--but the entire karma of the year had to play catch-up from that point on. Painfully locked in his home during his recovery/Dave spent many hours putting the final touches on what will be viewed as his masterpiece (This Hallowed Ground).

Chris heroically adapted to his wheelchair and showed everyone who cared to notice a level of positive attitude and courage that was simply aweinspiring. I remember my wheelchair time (which gave me only an inkling of what Chris has to deal with), the period with energy enough to work for at most 10 minutes before needing to lie down to rest, and the time I had to have Sara turn the TV off because The Simpsons made me laugh so hard I had tears of pain from my ribs. Rod Miller and his wonderful wife, Ann, took us all under their wing and cared for our every need until all of us were discharged and sent out of North Carolina. I'm not sure what I have done to deserve such big hearted friends as these, but I cannot thank Rod and Ann enough for their incredible support during that difficult time. Heck, your editor (Dave Demko) actually drove up from Atlanta to check in on us!

Back at The Gamers, after getting enough on the ball to go to work, I found myself truly immersed in the work needed to make my Batch Production system take its first steps. In the last six months of the year, I did a full year's worth of work to get the First Batch on track. This transition took all my effort and precluded any additional releases in the second half of the year.

It was a year to grow on. To learn about life the hard way and about the people we all sometimes take for granted around us. I wouldn't ever want to do it over, but I'm not sure I would want to be who I was before the experience again, either. Such is life, I suppose.

Putting 1998 to bed, allowed me to look harder toward the future. The new batch production system has broken the log jam many of you have been able to see in the Up & Coming column. Some of the games listed there are on the "To Do" list for myself and regulars like Dave Powell, Dave Friedrichs, Wig Graves--in other words these are "glimmers in the eye" for guys I trust. What they aren't is games on hand ready to put out. Others on the list have been delivered and are in various conditions (some will require more or less work to be put into a form that can be published). Only the four "regulars" are allowed to put games on the list which have not been physically delivered to me.

My point here is I want to encourage any of you that have had a dream of someday having a game published of your own design to do just that. This is the time when the delay between submission and release will be minimal. Consider this to be a call to arms to design and submit the game of your dreams for any of our series. Contact me when your gem seems close to finished to make sure your submission will conform to the needs we have for production submissions (i.e. the items we need to make your game publishable ... basically what we need in terms of maps, counters, rules, disks, and lists) and confirm that the needed papers are on file here for you (a submission release). Unlike the pre-production limbo which inadvertently was the norm in the past, I'll give your game a publish or no publish decision right away ... and will let you know which batch your game will probably be in. This will work out for the best for all concerned.

I hope to hear from you soon as we move into the future with confidence.

Remember: Good Planets are Hard to Find...Please Recycle!