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Message no. 1
From: Marty <s457033@*******.GU.EDU.AU>
Subject: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 14:45:40 +1000
Here you go guys; Straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.
.
..
...
....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 18:38:06 -0400
From: FASAMike@***.com
To: s457033@*******.gu.edu.au
Subject: *******************

........[snip; excise]........

>Is FASA a public company registered on the stock market??? A few friends
>want to buy shares if it is.

FASA is privately owned.

>How much of FASA does Microprose/Spectrum Holobyte own? (Feel free not >to
answer this one)

Actually none. M/SH is an investor in our sister company FASA Interactive,
our computer game company, as is FASA Corporation. M/SH has all distribution
rights to FASA Interactive Computer games. It has nothing to do at all with
us paper people at all. M/SH has no money invested in FASA. We are privately
owned by the original owners.


........[snip; excise].......


I hope this all helps -

Mike Mulvihill
Shadowrun Line Developer
FASA
See our web page at www.fasa.com
Message no. 2
From: olafur gunnarsson <olafurg@******.IS>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 04:54:39 GMT
>Snip snip (make space

>>Is FASA a public company registered on the stock market??? A few friends
>>want to buy shares if it is.
>
>FASA is privately owned.
>
>>How much of FASA does Microprose/Spectrum Holobyte own? (Feel free not >to
>answer this one)
>
>Actually none. M/SH is an investor in our sister company FASA Interactive,
>our computer game company, as is FASA Corporation. M/SH has all distribution
>rights to FASA Interactive Computer games. It has nothing to do at all with
>us paper people at all. M/SH has no money invested in FASA. We are privately
>owned by the original owners.

Ok here are my questions 1)who are the original owners and 2)are any of them
single wimen or do they have daughters. If im gona get married i might as
well try and get some free gaming stuff out of it:):):).Warning do not take
seriously :)
-Olafur G
Message no. 3
From: Richard Jury <fro@***.AB.CA>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 23:26:56 -0600
At 04:54 10/18/96 GMT, you wrote:
<snippage>
>Ok here are my questions 1)who are the original owners and 2)are any of them
>single wimen or do they have daughters. If im gona get married i might as
>well try and get some free gaming stuff out of it:):):).Warning do not take
>seriously :)
>-Olafur G

I can think of two off the top of my head, Paul Hume and Tom Dowd. My SRII
book is at a friends and my hardcover SRI is in my locker at school, so I'm
not sure on the others, although I believe there are 6 original owners, at
least, I'm pretty sure there are 6 original writers.

Fro
Message no. 4
From: Dvixen <dvixen@****.SPYDERNET.COM>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 22:41:47 -0700
On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, Richard Jury wrote:

> >Ok here are my questions 1)who are the original owners
>
> I can think of two off the top of my head, Paul Hume and Tom Dowd. My SRII
> book is at a friends and my hardcover SRI is in my locker at school, so I'm
> not sure on the others, although I believe there are 6 original owners, at
> least, I'm pretty sure there are 6 original writers.

According to the 1st ed SR book.
Designers were: Bob Charrette, Paul Hume, and Tom Dowd.
Concept: Jordan Wiseman, L. Ross Babcock III, Dave Wylie, Bob Charrette,
Sam Lewis.

As for who actually owns FASA, didn't Shadowrun come out long after
Battletech? I thought Shadowrun was brought to the folks at FASA, who
deemed it good.

-Dvixen
Message no. 5
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 13:03:12 +0100
Dvixen said on 22:41/17 Oct 96...

> As for who actually owns FASA, didn't Shadowrun come out long after
> Battletech? I thought Shadowrun was brought to the folks at FASA, who
> deemed it good.

BT came out in 1984 under the name Battle Droids, and then they did a
second edition in 1985 called BattleTech (or that's what I think
happened). My 2nd ed BT box set (copyright 1985, so I guess I was right)
has Jordan K. Weisman listed for Concept and Design, as well as BattleMech
Designs, Production Manager, and Graphic Design. He also set up the
Virtual World company AFAIK.

Shadowrun was first published in 1989, 4 or 5 years after BT.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
My words are minimal.
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-

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Message no. 6
From: "Steven A. Tinner" <bluewizard@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 10:22:22 -0700
> BT came out in 1984 under the name Battle Droids, and then they did a
> second edition in 1985 called BattleTech (or that's what I think
> happened). My 2nd ed BT box set (copyright 1985, so I guess I was right)
> has Jordan K. Weisman listed for Concept and Design, as well as BattleMech
> Designs, Production Manager, and Graphic Design. He also set up the
> Virtual World company AFAIK.

Close, but as I understand it, the second edition name change came about
due to a lawsuit threatened by a cetain Mr. George Lucas, who apparently
owns the rights to the term "droid"!!!

Now I read this in 1985, in an old gaming mag who's name escapes me
right now, so I can't confirm or deny this. Maybe FASAMike knows?

Steven A. Tinner
"And a buzz buzz here . . ."
Message no. 7
From: MENARD Steve <menars@***.UMONTREAL.CA>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 11:13:59 -0400
On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, Dvixen wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, Richard Jury wrote:
>
> As for who actually owns FASA, didn't Shadowrun come out long after
> Battletech? I thought Shadowrun was brought to the folks at FASA, who
> deemed it good.
>
Battletech did come out WAY before SR, but SR, like ED, is a pure FASA
product. The game FASA bought then sold is, I think, Legionnaire, or some
such star wars-like game

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--- |\_/| Still The One and Only Wolfbane! ---
--- |o o| " Hey! Why ya lookin' at me so weird? Ain't ya 'ver seen a ---
--- \ / decker witha horn ?" --- Scy, Troll decker with a CC ---
--- 0 Steve Menard menars@***.UMontreal.Ca ---
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 8
From: Steven Ratkovich <chaos@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 15:14:57 -0500
>BT came out in 1984 under the name Battle Droids, and then they did a
>second edition in 1985 called BattleTech (or that's what I think
>happened). My 2nd ed BT box set (copyright 1985, so I guess I was right)
>has Jordan K. Weisman listed for Concept and Design, as well as BattleMech
>Designs, Production Manager, and Graphic Design. He also set up the
>Virtual World company AFAIK.
>
>Shadowrun was first published in 1989, 4 or 5 years after BT.
>

Actually (and I can't find the article right now to give you exact dates,
sorry), FASA put out supplements for several other games earlier than that,
I believe it started as a company around 1981. And Yes, BattleTech was
called BattleDroids at first, until George Lucas (who had a copyright on the
term Droids) threatened to sue the pants off this little no-name company, so
they changed the name (can you blame them?? After all, it was George Lucas!).

I also believe they had gotten themselve in trouble on another front with
BT, because they literally stole Robotech art for their mech designs.

Well, i've played BT a total of twice, and all this is stuff I've picked up
from news articles in Gaming Mags and friends, so I could be way off base,
but I don't believe so...:)

-Bull-the-trying-to-be-helpful-decker-turned-GM
Message no. 9
From: Mike Buckalew <mike_buckalew@******.COM>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 13:20:32 -0700
>> >Ok here are my questions 1)who are the original owners
>>
>> I can think of two off the top of my head, Paul Hume and Tom Dowd. My SRII
>> book is at a friends and my hardcover SRI is in my locker at school, so I'm
>> not sure on the others, although I believe there are 6 original owners, at
>> least, I'm pretty sure there are 6 original writers.
>
>According to the 1st ed SR book.
>Designers were: Bob Charrette, Paul Hume, and Tom Dowd.
>Concept: Jordan Wiseman, L. Ross Babcock III, Dave Wylie, Bob Charrette,
>Sam Lewis.
>
>As for who actually owns FASA, didn't Shadowrun come out long after
>Battletech? I thought Shadowrun was brought to the folks at FASA, who
>deemed it good.

FASA's been around a lot longer than either Battletech or Shadowrun.
They started out by making supplements for Traveller, kinda like Judges
Guild did for D&D. I actually have one or two of these in my old
Traveller stuff (which is still totally cool).


Buck
(Mike Buckalew)
buck@******.com

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Message no. 10
From: Richard Jury <fro@***.AB.CA>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 15:27:51 -0600
** Tab safety line **

In my post last night, I transposed teh words 'Shadowrun' and 'Fasa' in my
head, thinking Shadowrun when hearing FASA. Sorry for any confusion I may
have caused.

Fro
Message no. 11
From: Droopy <droopy@*******.NB.NET>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 19:01:43 +0000
> I also believe they had gotten themselve in trouble on another front with
> BT, because they literally stole Robotech art for their mech designs.

They didn't steal anything. FASA has had a licence for the Macross
shapes since the begining. But, yes, they have gone to court in two
seperate lawsuits over those same licences. The most recent court
battle was last year between FASA and Playmates.


--Droopy
(hoping this gets through)
Message no. 12
From: Marty <s457033@*******.GU.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 11:56:46 +1000
> I also believe they had gotten themselve in trouble on another front with
> BT, because they literally stole Robotech art for their mech designs.
>
They settled that one... I think they had to make a pay-out. which is why
they aren't using the old mech designs anymore. All of the artwork on the
boxes is now licensed or in house stuff stuff.....Does anyone know what
the situation is with VMI these days?? I remember seeing a few of their
designs in the 3057 tech readout or something.

Bleach
Message no. 13
From: Marty <s457033@*******.GU.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 11:58:05 +1000
> > I also believe they had gotten themselve in trouble on another front with
> > BT, because they literally stole Robotech art for their mech designs.
>
> They didn't steal anything. FASA has had a licence for the Macross
> shapes since the begining. But, yes, they have gone to court in two
> seperate lawsuits over those same licences. The most recent court
> battle was last year between FASA and Playmates.
>
They lost that one; I say we nuke the frag out of the Playmates
headquarters....
Message no. 14
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 13:08:51 +0100
Steven A. Tinner said on 10:22/18 Oct 96...

> Close, but as I understand it, the second edition name change came about
> due to a lawsuit threatened by a cetain Mr. George Lucas, who apparently
> owns the rights to the term "droid"!!!

I think I read that somewhere too... About the rights to "droid" that is.
I didn't know that was what caused the name change.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Save the Earth -- eat Jupiter.
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-

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Message no. 15
From: Steven Ratkovich <chaos@*****.COM>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 15:49:02 -0500
>Steven A. Tinner said on 10:22/18 Oct 96...
>
>> Close, but as I understand it, the second edition name change came about
>> due to a lawsuit threatened by a cetain Mr. George Lucas, who apparently
>> owns the rights to the term "droid"!!!
>
>I think I read that somewhere too... About the rights to "droid" that is.
>I didn't know that was what caused the name change.
>
Yup, that was what was behind teh change.:) Lucas was among the first to
coin teh term Droid in Star Wars in 1977, and had teh phrase copyrighted.
It is, of course, an abbreviated form of Android. Normally, this would not
have been a problem with Lucasfilm, probably, except that with Return of teh
Jedi out and the Droids Cartoon series and Toy line in production, he didn't
want any confusion. Had battle driods come out 2 years earlier or later,
the name probably would have gone unchanged, and we'd be playing Droid
Warriors on our Computer...:)

-Bull-the-Star-Wars-trivia-demi-god-decker-turned-GM
Message no. 16
From: big_jake <big_jake@****.COM>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA?
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 14:43:55 -0500
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

There's been a lot of talk lately about who owns FASA and/or
Shadowrun lately, so I thought I'd throw in my two nusen...

Take it for what it's worth -- if you want the Real Story, ask the
folks at FASA, they'll tell you most of it. (But it's filling in the
parts they can't/don't tell us that's fun!)

- ----- BEGIN AFAIK BLOCK -----
Paul Hume, is a free-lance writer/designer, and does NOT own stock in
the company. He wasn't one of the founders.

Tom Dowd, is an employee, and also not one of the founders. He IS one
of the founders of FASA Interactive, and I would guess he has stock
in that venture.

Sam Lewis IS one of the founders, and was president of FASA for a
long time. I'm not sure if he's still president now.

Jordan Weisman, is also a founder. I would assume the founders are
all part owners.

FASA originally was an acronym for Freedonian Air & Space
Administration, and their first products were licensed Traveller (TM)
game aids. Much better than the stuff Judge's Guild put out at about
the same time, IMO.

Shadowrun started as a pure cyberpunk game, but R. Talsorian got
theirs out first. FASA needed to put a different spin on their game
to distinguish it. At the same time, Sam Lewis (or was it Jordan
Weisman?) saw a science fantasy novel with cover art that had an elf
on a chopper. (Sorry, I forget the title.) So he announced that he
wanted a game where someone could play that character. That was the
beginning of the game we know and love today, as well as the Ancients
gang.

FASA has not knowingly stolen anyone else's designs. They're the good
guys. (IMO)
- ----- END AFAIK BLOCK -----

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I am not an owner or
employee of FASA or any of it's subsidiaries. And AFAIK stands for
"as far as I know".

// - - - - - - - john jacobsma <big_jake@****.com> - - - - - - -
// for geek code & pgp public key, visit my web page:
// http://www.inil.com/users/big_jake/
// - - - - - - - f - - - n - - - o - - - r - - - d - - - - - - -

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Message no. 17
From: Marty <s457033@*******.GU.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA?
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 11:44:49 +1000
> Take it for what it's worth -- if you want the Real Story, ask the
> folks at FASA, they'll tell you most of it. (But it's filling in the
> parts they can't/don't tell us that's fun!)
>
That's who I asked..... FASAMike is remarkably approacheable considering
the workload he must have.

> Jordan Weisman, is also a founder. I would assume the founders are
> all part owners.
>
Remember the stuff in the early sourcebooks and stuff about 'Zapper'
Weisman??

AFAIK Jastjack (the legend) is Tom Dowd's character....
Wedge and Dodger are probably characters of the orignal owners or staff as
well.

> Shadowrun started as a pure cyberpunk game, but R. Talsorian got
> theirs out first. FASA needed to put a different spin on their game
> to distinguish it. At the same time, Sam Lewis (or was it Jordan
> Weisman?) saw a science fantasy novel with cover art that had an elf
> on a chopper. (Sorry, I forget the title.) So he announced that he
> wanted a game where someone could play that character. That was the
> beginning of the game we know and love today, as well as the Ancients
> gang.
>
They blatantly stole many of the ideas of Cyperpunk from what I've
read of the other game.....Could just be coincidence. Suits me though; I
like SR a whole lot better.

For one, the Rockers and stuff are a Cyperpunk concept... A pretty silly
one, at that.

> Oh, and just in case you were wondering, I am not an owner or
> employee of FASA or any of it's subsidiaries. And AFAIK stands for
> "as far as I know".
>
Doesn't worry me; FASAMike is currently on the list anyway.
Message no. 18
From: James <james@***.UNM.EDU>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA?
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 21:37:01 -0600
On Sat, 19 Oct 1996, big_jake wrote:

> Sam Lewis IS one of the founders, and was president of FASA for a
> long time. I'm not sure if he's still president now.
He's not. Jill Lucas is the current president of FASA Corporation and it
was announced in Awakenings, in the first Shadowland 2.0 page (Which is
what the Shadowrun website is supposed to look like now.). BTW, Mike, if
you're watching, the clock isn't working.

Homepage: http://www.arc.unm.edu/~james
Message no. 19
From: Droopy <droopy@*******.NB.NET>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 16:02:03 +0000
> > seperate lawsuits over those same licences. The most recent court
> > battle was last year between FASA and Playmates.
> >
> They lost that one; I say we nuke the frag out of the Playmates
> headquarters....

I'm not too sure that Playmates won it either....Jill was still going
through the ruling in July. It's apparantly pretty complicated.


--Droopy
Message no. 20
From: Droopy <droopy@*******.NB.NET>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA?
Date: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 16:02:03 +0000
> On Sat, 19 Oct 1996, big_jake wrote:
>
> > Sam Lewis IS one of the founders, and was president of FASA for a
> > long time. I'm not sure if he's still president now.
> He's not. Jill Lucas is the current president of FASA Corporation and it

Yeah, Sam is now VP of operations at Kesmai. Has been for over a
year now.


--Droopy
Message no. 21
From: Jonathan Hurley <jhurley1@******.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 15:06:35 -0400
MENARD Steve[SMTP:menars@***.UMONTREAL.CA] wrote:
>On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, Dvixen wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 17 Oct 1996, Richard Jury wrote:
>>
>> As for who actually owns FASA, didn't Shadowrun come out long after
>> Battletech? I thought Shadowrun was brought to the folks at FASA, who
>> deemed it good.
>>
> Battletech did come out WAY before SR, but SR, like ED, is a pure FASA
>product. The game FASA bought then sold is, I think, Legionnaire, or some
>such star wars-like game

The various Renegade Legion games were also original FASA products. They
licensed them to Cruchy Frog Enterprises because they wished to concentrate on
Battletech, Shadowrun, and Earthdawn. (Personally, I much preferred Renegade
Legion to the Battletech universe.)



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)``TT_3<``"]"
`
end
Message no. 22
From: Jonathan Hurley <jhurley1@******.STEVENS-TECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 15:09:22 -0400
Steven Ratkovich[SMTP:chaos@*****.COM] wrote:
>>BT came out in 1984 under the name Battle Droids, and then they did a
>>second edition in 1985 called BattleTech (or that's what I think
>>happened). My 2nd ed BT box set (copyright 1985, so I guess I was right)
>>has Jordan K. Weisman listed for Concept and Design, as well as BattleMech
>>Designs, Production Manager, and Graphic Design. He also set up the
>>Virtual World company AFAIK.
>>
>>Shadowrun was first published in 1989, 4 or 5 years after BT.
>>
>
>Actually (and I can't find the article right now to give you exact dates,
>sorry), FASA put out supplements for several other games earlier than that,
>I believe it started as a company around 1981. And Yes, BattleTech was
>called BattleDroids at first, until George Lucas (who had a copyright on the
>term Droids) threatened to sue the pants off this little no-name company, so
>they changed the name (can you blame them?? After all, it was George Lucas!).
>
>I also believe they had gotten themselve in trouble on another front with
>BT, because they literally stole Robotech art for their mech designs.
>
>Well, i've played BT a total of twice, and all this is stuff I've picked up
>from news articles in Gaming Mags and friends, so I could be way off base,
>but I don't believe so...:)

Actually, they licensed the art from the original owners in Japan.

(Can you really believe that Carl Macek wouldn't have sued them if he could
have. Remember why no gaming magazine carries Rifts articles.)

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end
Message no. 23
From: A Halliwell <u5a77@**.KEELE.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 22:03:41 +0100
|begin 600 WINMAIL.DAT
|M>)\^(@<3`0:0" `$```````!``$``0>0!@`(````Y 0```````#H``$(@ <`
<snip>

EEEEEK!!!!!
It's happened again....

Mark, no, put the axe away Mark...
OOOO! I can't look!
>*CHOP*<
--
______________________________________________________________________________
|u5a77@**.keele.ac.uk | |
|Andrew Halliwell | "ARSE! GERLS!! DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!!!" |
|Principal subjects in:-| "THAT WOULD BE AN ECCLESIASTICAL MATTER!...FECK!!!!|
|Comp Sci & Electronics | - Father Jack in "Father Ted"
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|GCv3.1 GCS/EL>$ d---(dpu) s+/- a- C++ U N++ K- w-- M+/++ PS+++ PE- Y t+ 5++ |
|X+/++ R+ tv+ b+ D G e>PhD h/h+ !r! !y-|I can't say F**K either now! >*SULK*<|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 24
From: Tim Kerby <tkerby@***.NET>
Subject: Re: Who owns FASA??
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 23:43:53 EDT
On Wed, 23 Oct 1996 22:03:41 +0100 you wrote:

>|begin 600 WINMAIL.DAT
>|M>)\^(@<3`0:0" `$```````!``$``0>0!@`(````Y 0```````#H``$(@ <`
><snip>
>
>EEEEEK!!!!!
>It's happened again....
>
>Mark, no, put the axe away Mark...
>OOOO! I can't look!
>>*CHOP*<
>--

So young and innocent. He had such potential too... So sad.


==================|======================================================
tkerby@***.net | Never relax. Your run may be over, but someone, somewhere,
drekhead@***.com | is just starting his and the target could be you.
drekhead@*******.com | ---www.aol.users.com\drekhead\home.html---
==================|======================================================
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Version: 3.1
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------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

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