rec.autos.simulators

        Just got this fresh off the TEN news site.

                             by Sean Butcher, NROS Producer at TEN

                 May 15, 1997
First, let me welcome you all to the TEN and to NASCAR Racing
Online Series. My name is Sean Butcher, and I am the producer at
TEN working on the NASCAR project.  I'm the guy at TEN  responsible
for getting NASCAR Racing Online Series up and running,
and in this Project Updates section I'll be giving you updates on
where we currently stand on the project.
I know the question you all want answered is, "When will it be
ready?" Well, both TEN and Papyrus have been working on this
project since October last year. This has been a large project for
both groups. On TEN's end, we've made major changes to our software to
support the specific needs of the NROS. Papyrus has had the
 Herculean task of getting NASCAR Racing 2, which was originally
designed to run as a "peer-to-peer" network game under MS-DOS,
running on a Solaris Server as a "client-server" application. Both
efforts are progressing rapidly. So my answer to your question is that
 we are aiming to release in late July of this year. There are still a
lot of things left to iron out, but both Papyrus and TEN are putting a
lot of effort into getting NASCAR Racing Online Series up and running
as soon as possible.

                 Until next time,

                 Sean Butcher

                                                Mickey-POPS-Kerkes

Is this for real!  Now there telling us July!  Why don't they just go
to Beta at no charge and let us N2 folks help them get this thing
online faster.  I'm getting a little fed up with the continued wait.

Be patient.. Do you know how much work goes into developing a system like
this?  I am sure you don't have the slightest idea.  I have been in software
development for over 12 years and I can assure you that the system they are
developing to allow us to compete is an incredible undertaking.  Relax
already.

I'm sure this is a large undertaking. The thing pissing most people off are:
the date keeps slipping! When I bought N2, there was a note in the box about
the NROS, and how it was comming soon. Then dates keep getting pushed back.
They've had the hawaii beta going for what, a year now (and I've spent over
2,000 dollars in phone bills for this! whatta blast), and then this NROS on
TEN seems to keep being delayed. For some reason it seems they've been working
on this long enough to have it ready, I'm just wondering if there aren't some
*legal* issues still being resolved about this.

I'm sure TEN is not the cause for the holdup on this, after all, they really
need the NROS to help them build a customer base. And from what I've seen of
TEN (i signed up for an account, and have canceled it since), the only reason
to be on TEN is for the NROS. Everything else there sucks, and offers no
better gameplay than over the 'net via kali. (which is almost free:)