Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2022-11-02, 03:13
I've been following the newsletters since their beginning.. Greg tells lots of great behind the scenes stories about the New World Computer and HoMM3 days! His plans for Fanstratics to be a spiritual HoMM3 successor sounds cool. Hope it continues to survive the setbacks!
Here's links to all his newsletters, some pics, and some sporadic comments (taken from my posts on other forums)...
The latest newsletter 27 will be of interest to you guys as Greg mentions and links to your Succession Wars mod! The lead designer of HoMM3 knows about you guys!
Quote :
By Tuesday evening, I had put the finishing touches on my revisions to the Heroes3 Adventure Map GUI. Using H2 art, from screenshots I’d taken, I used Photoshop to create a ‘mock-up’. It looked very much like the Adventure Map you can currently see in the Succession Wars mod for Heroes3.
Newsletter 19. Greg reckons Early Access in 2023... hmmmm... righteo.. anyway... there's another 3DO story here where Greg buries Trip and a few other people he clearly didn't think much of lol! https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter19
Newsletter 22... Looks like old man Greg (Mighty Boosh FTW) has got another long story for us about that time he got pizza in 1979... so long in fact this is just part 1 of the story lol. https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter22
Newsletter 23... The 'big' finale to the pizza hut story arrived lol... Man his stories really keep going and going don't they haha.. although he did successfully trigger a lot of nostalgia for me as much like him I remember getting my first 286 computer with no VGA card lol, all the hours I spent tinkering with stuff learning how to edit config sys and autoexec bat to eek out those extra bits of conventional memory some memory hog games like Master of Magic needed lol. Also reminded me of the first time I discovered Might & Magic 3 and then MM4&5 World of Xeen, however by then it was late 90s, so they were less technically amazing but I loved playing them nonetheless. https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter23
Newsletter 25... no stories this time but apparently the next one is gonna be a 2 parter again lol https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter25
Newsletter 26 & 27. Sounds like Greg is still pretty unwell and not making much progress due to long covid messing with his heart. Got a new story though about his first day at NWC and dealing with "Wario" lol! https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter26
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter27
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2022-12-03, 17:57
Newsletter 28 is here... contains Part 3 of the HoMM3 dev story detailing the fall of Wario lol.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter28
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-01-10, 22:24
Newsletter 29 is here. Greg talks about how amazing Fallout 1 was and how no one at NWC was interested in it which he found worrying.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter29
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-02-22, 20:17
Newsletter 30 is here. Greg tells more behind the scenes HoMM3 dev stuff with this one being part 1 of a new story.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter30
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-03-06, 18:08
Newsletter 31 is here. Greg continues with part 2 of his story about... oh man I don't even know it's about anymore lol. Something about takin a dump in the dark and a good game needs a heavy game box lol! Think he's running a bit low on material.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter31
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-04-03, 18:00
Newsletter 32 is here. No HoMM3 stories this time as Greg is still unwell. Interestingly he tackles the scam accusation some have thrown his way.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter32
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-05-09, 21:22
Newsletter 33 is here. Greg tells another story about the joys of working under 3DO management back in the day and what was the beginning of him deciding to leave NWC.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter33
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Roxterat Gargoyle
Messages : 14 Quality Points : 2 Registration Date : 2023-04-02 Age : 37 Location : Terra
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-05-10, 12:32
Blake01 wrote:
Newsletter 33 is here. Greg tells another story about the joys of working under 3DO management back in the day and what was the beginning of him deciding to leave NWC.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter33
Just read that.. holy smoke, that sucks, though it feels like my life as well
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-06-04, 17:47
Newsletter 34 is here. This time Greg tells the story of his first time discovering WinAmp & MP3s and how 3DO being cheap forced NWC to develop their own MP3 decoder for Heroes 3 so they could get the whole thing on one disc.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter34
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-07-05, 20:48
Newsletter 35 is here. This time Greg tells the story of his (uncredited) involvement in the Heroes 2 Gold Edition and how they put all those extra maps in it while trying to get Heroes 3 finished.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter35
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-08-05, 01:56
Newsletter 36 is here. This time Greg talks about the whole lost Heroes of Might & Magic 3 Complete source code situation mentioning how it has actually been found and given to Ubisoft in 2019 (wow I missed the news on that) to fix up their HD remake yet nothing has occurred. Also noticed people seem to be voting for it in this steam thread and getting the usual PR marketing responses from Ubisoft lol.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter36
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-09-03, 01:22
Newsletter 37 is here. This time Greg talks about making the Heroes 3 Demo map.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter37
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-10-05, 19:26
Newsletter 38 is here. This time Greg tells part 2 of the story about making the Heroes 3 Demo map and says that due to his health issues this will be the last of the Heroes Recollection stories for some time so he can focus more on Fanstratics development.
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter38
I've said it before in this thread and was about to say it again "WTH is with so many (normally non-humanoid) creatures being humanoid with a random weapon in their hand?" but Greg actually states here that he's going with anthropomorphic design directive so I guess that explains that. Not a huge fan of it as I just see the below lol.. and I find myself reminded of HoMM5 replacing lots of fantasy creature slots with elf chicks in bikinis and other humanoids sigh.
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Sir Albe Mage
Messages : 852 Quality Points : 452 Registration Date : 2015-07-16 Age : 28 Location : Aalborg, Denmark
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-10-06, 08:05
I am also quite surprised by the anthropomorphic unicorn. It seems like a weird choice as I don’t see what this brings to the table compared to a normal unicorn. If it doesn’t attack with its horn, then how is it supposed to blind enemies and if it does attack with its horn, then why does it have an axe? Still, the art style is great and I find a lot of Greg’s choices and arguments wise.
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-11-04, 21:24
Newsletter 39 is here. This time Greg has stopped the stories for a while making it not really much of a newsletter anymore and more of a memo lol. This months unit reveal is the banshee...
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter39
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Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-12-04, 01:42
Newsletter 40 is here. No stories and as usual another creature from HoMM lore has been converted/anthropomorphised into a humanoid with a weapon sigh... this time it's the War Hog...
https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter40
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Mefista Gargoyle
Messages : 15 Quality Points : 2 Registration Date : 2015-07-19 Age : 31
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2023-12-07, 10:13
He cited Narnia inspiration, but I am pretty sure it only had some anthros, talking horse was horse, and all that.
I am almost sure he got furries in Discord gaslighting him on how popular anthro animals are.
Blake01 Elf
Messages : 149 Quality Points : 30 Registration Date : 2019-06-09 Location : Australia
Subject: Re: Fanstratics 2024-01-03, 20:02
Newsletter 41 is here. Greg has resumed the Heroes 3 story telling however he's switching to a quarterly newsletter now instead of monthly.