am I able to download the twgs and play it via my own computer without have a twgs online? would love to make some of my ow nedits if possible =-)

I'm not exactly sure what the free version has to offer, but with a regular TWGS licence you can do the following things.

1) Turn server off
2) Click on the "Configure" tab
3) Click on the "Server" tab
4) There's a little box at the end of the IP address that says "local". Make sure there's a check mark inside the box by clicking on it.
5) Turn server back on.
6) You can then connect locally by using the IP address 127.0.0.1 plus the port number that you specified for telnet connections. (port 23 is default)

I don't know if the archive feature is available in the demo version or not.

From some of the reading I have been doing following JP's new layout for pricing. The new version once completed will have the ability to do what your asking. But the free version you can get from here http://www.eisonline.com/tradewars/2002v309.zip is very limited for size of universe turns and more as Big D mentioned above.