Decipher.com Star Wars CCG

From SWCCG Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Star Wars CCG archive, January 2008.
Star Wars CCG section index, December 1996.

The Star Wars CCG section of Decipher.com was the largest part of Decipher's website from 1996 to 2001. The Internet Archive holds about 227,000 unique URLs under decipher.com and its subdomains, about 19,000 of them under /starwars/, most of them one-page-per-card card lists.

Early pages (1996)

The first SWCCG pages were at /swccg/ in 1996. They had card lists for Premiere, the Jedi Pack, A New Hope and Hoth (HTML and PDF), a rules FAQ released on 1 May 1996, Hoth rules, strategy and deck-design pages, a "card of the day" and links to Decipher's bulletin boards.[1][2]

/starwars/ (1996–1999)

By December 1996 the game had its own home at /starwars/, with six areas: Product Library, Player Activities, Tournaments, Diversions, Bulletin Boards and the International Lounge.[3] By late 1998 the Bulletin Boards had become Dialog and a Special Events area had been added.[4]

  • Product Library had set histories ("The Collection"), card lists, rules, FAQs, sample games, articles and deck designs.[5] Rules supplements were offered as PDF and HTML, with text and Word copies on Decipher's FTP server at ftp://games.decipher.com/pub/SWCCG/.[6]
  • Player Activities presented the volunteer Rebel Squadron (see Decipher Squadrons), founded in 1996, which by 1997 had more than 90 members in Red and Gold Squadrons. It also profiled the two Rebel Leaders, Jonathan Quesenberry (Red 1) and Kendrick Summers (Gold 1), Decipher demo staff who toured stores and conventions.[7][8] The area also had the player registry, a "Newbie Zone" and a where-to-buy list.
  • Dialog linked the web bulletin boards (general, marketplace, tournament and others). It also hosted the Star Wars CCG Palace, a graphical chat world on The Palace software at palace://starwarsccg-palace.decipher.com. Players downloaded Star Wars art and sound files to use there.[9] The Palace opened with a party on 14 March 1997 with more than thirty rooms and more than two hundred guests.[10] Dialog's listserv page offered Decipher's mailing lists and its faxback and email-back document services.[11]
  • Diversions had fan-designed "dream cards", top ten lists, "clippings" from players and "the attic" of retired pages.[12]
  • International Lounge had pages for Europe, Japan, Australia and about a dozen European countries. In late 1998 only the Japanese Premiere and A New Hope editions were finished; German, Spanish, French and Italian versions were "in development".[13] See Translations of SWCCG.

Redesign (1999–2001)

Section navigation, March 2000.

In late 1999 the section was reorganized into What Is It, Card Lists, Rules, Strategy, Where to Buy, Star Wars Fun, Message Boards, Tournaments and Deck Designs, with product pages for each expansion under /starwars/expansions/.[14]

  • Card Lists covered every set, newest first. Each set had Light Side and Dark Side HTML lists, a PDF and a plain-text version; newer sets also had spoiler and foil lists.[15]
  • Rules held the Rulebook 2.0 and Glossary 2.0 (both November 1998), expansion rulesheets and the Current Rulings Document as PDF and text. It also had an HTML "Combined Glossary & Current Rulings Document" last updated on 1 October 1999.[16]
  • Tournaments linked the World Championship finals, team events, Enhanced Premiere Pack sealed events and tournament-director tools.[17] Tournament support later moved to tournaments.decipher.com.
  • Deck Designs (see Decipher deck designs) listed player and staff decks by month, rated Beginner, Intermediate or Expert.[18] Strategy carried beginner articles by Palace host "Landy" and "classic" articles by players.[19]
  • A /marajade/ promotion presented model Shannon Baksa, cast in 1999 as Mara Jade for the Enhanced Jabba's Palace card.[20]

End of the license

On 28 December 2001 a special Radio Free Decipher interview with chief executive Warren Holland announced that Lucasfilm would not renew Decipher's license (see Decipher Lucasfilm license). It gave a manufacturing and sell-off period through 30 April 2002.[21] An announcement page collected the audio, the transcript, excerpts from Decipher's July 2000 presentation to Lucasfilm, and contacts at Decipher and Lucas Licensing.[22] On 25 January 2002 Decipher named the first Star Wars Player Advocates of the Players Committee.[23] The Committee's Virtual Card Set #1, twelve Premiere cards with new game text, was published on decipher.com as a PDF and became tournament-legal on 9 March 2002.[24]

By 2003 the section's home page said Decipher had stopped publishing Star Wars CCG, Young Jedi and Jedi Knights on 31 December 2001. It pointed players to the Players' Committee site, swccgpc.com.[25] By 2005 it described itself as an archive of "selected web pages ... available for reference purposes" that Decipher was "unable to update".[26] Deck design, strategy and card-list pages were still online in 2006–2007, and the archive page until at least January 2008.[27] By September 2011 the section returned errors (see Decipher after the Star Wars license).

  • Star Wars CCG Palace, 1998.
    Star Wars CCG Palace, 1998.
  • Palace Dialog subhead, 1998.
    Palace Dialog subhead, 1998.
  • Section banner, 2005 archive.
    Section banner, 2005 archive.
  • Section logo, 2005 archive.
    Section logo, 2005 archive.

See also

References

  1. ↑ SWCCG Card Lists, Decipher (1996). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  2. ↑ Frequently Asked Questions, Decipher (1 May 1996). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  3. ↑ Welcome To Star Wars CCG!, Decipher (December 1996). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  4. ↑ Welcome To Star Wars Customizable Card Game!, Decipher (December 1998). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  5. ↑ Product Library, Decipher (1996). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  6. ↑ Rules, Decipher (March 1997). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  7. ↑ Squadrons, Decipher (March 1997). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  8. ↑ Rebel Leaders, Decipher (March 1997). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  9. ↑ Dialog, Decipher (March 1997). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  10. ↑ Special Events, Decipher (March 1997). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  11. ↑ Dialog: Listserv, Decipher (December 1998). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  12. ↑ Diversions, Decipher (March 1997). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  13. ↑ International Lounge, Decipher (December 1998). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  14. ↑ Star Wars CCG, Decipher (March 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  15. ↑ Card Lists, Decipher (April 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  16. ↑ Rules, Decipher (April 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  17. ↑ Tournaments, Decipher (April 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  18. ↑ Star Wars CCG Deck Designs, Decipher (April 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  19. ↑ Star Wars CCG Strategy Articles, Decipher (April 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  20. ↑ Decipher Presents Mara Jade!, Decipher (2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  21. ↑ Transcript of Radio Free Decipher Interview with Warren Holland, Decipher (28 December 2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  22. ↑ The Star Wars Announcement, Decipher (2002). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  23. ↑ The Star Wars Players' Committee, Decipher (25 January 2002). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  24. ↑ Virtual Card Set #1 is Away!, Decipher (2002). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  25. ↑ Star Wars Customizable Card Game, Decipher (June 2003). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  26. ↑ Star Wars Customizable Card Game, Decipher (September 2005). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  27. ↑ Star Wars Customizable Card Game, Decipher (January 2008). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
Retrieved from "https://wiki.swccg.com/index.php?title=Decipher.com_Star_Wars_CCG&oldid=107261"