I started playing Trade Wars 2002 with V0.96, and started sysoping with V0.98. Running a game is far different from playing in it. The first games I ran were very pedestrian (but so were all the other local games). The rule changes that came along as TW2002 grew and matured, put a lot of pressure on players. It also put a lot of pressure on sysops! Customizing your Trade Wars game was a difficult, often thankless job. You'd get it all set up, and then find that the players weren't human - you'd opened the game to a school of great white sharks!
The days from V1.00 through V1.03D were in many ways a golden age. There were a large number of available sysop utilities, allowing for some really radical games. Many of the biggies from the Star Trek universe became part of the Trade Wars universe, including Jean Luc's favourite - The Borg.
And of course I ran the first 20,000 sector game in September of 1992 September 92 you said? But Trade Wars wasn't able to handle 20,000 sectors until V3.06 Gold came out.! Well it's true - I ran a 20,000 sector game using V1.00, and later 1.03D for several years. In many ways it was the wildest thing I've ever done - and while it in many ways was a kludge, I'm proud of it. I'm working on a new version to be used with TW2002 V3.
The Mad Hatter's TW2002 Universe Expander