The Hunan, which Barbara and I have considered “our” place for more than a quarter of a century, is closing on December 29th. We’ve celebrated many anniversaries and birthdays there. We went there the first anniversary of the day I survived my pulmonary embolism. Really, it’s been the go-to place when we wanted a meal out. We were already planning to go Saturday for our 26th anniversary, but after we heard the news, I decided to squeeze out every last bit of Hunan that I can from life, so Barbara and Dad and I headed there yesterday.
“FATEFUL CHOICE [Robert Falcon] Scott’s ship, Terra Nova, carried Siberian dogs and Manchurian ponies, which required bulky fodder and close care. Scandinavian snowshoes of twisted cane helped some ponies; those without waded up to their knees in snow. The best means of transportation was much debated: [Roald] Amundsen’s original Arctic plans had included harnessing polar bears.”
—photo caption, “The Man Who Took the Prize” by Caroline Alexander, National Geographic, September 2011
“‘It is quite true,’ said Capt. Amundsen, ‘that I intend to try polar bears to haul my sleds. Hagenbeck is training four bears and guarantees that they will be perfectly docile.”
—”Bears Will Draw Him to the Pole”, The New York Times, October 16, 1907
* * *
September 1, 1907
Karl Hagenbeck, Hamburg
Herr Hagenbeck,
The polar bear show put on by your circus (which I made a point of seeing while on a recent speaking engagement in Belgium) is very intriguing, particularly the act where some of your bears—75 polar bears!—drew carts. What possibility would there be that I could persuade you to train several bears to draw heavy sleds for an attempt to reach the North Pole? I spoke to your brother Wilhelm about the feasibility of such a plan but despite the obvious facility of the many bears in the circus, he seemed rather dubious and referred the matter to you as the proprietor of your animal purveying operation.
I hope to hear from you at your earliest convenience,
Capt. Roald Amundsen
Oslo
* * *
September 15, 1907
Capt. Roald Amundsen, Oslo
Dear Captain Amundsen,
Your letter finally caught up to me; the plan sounds eminently practicable and the scientific nature of the expedition would bolster my proposal for the Hagenbeck Tierpark as more than a mere zoological garden or circus immobile. Wilhelm is the master in the art of training wild beasts but he is sometimes cautious regarding the introduction of new tricks and routines. I shall cable him to move this project forward or—as you Norwegians might say—Fram.
Sincerely,
Karl Hagenbeck
Hamburg
* * *
15 SEP
WILHELM HAGENBECK VIENNA
NEED BEARS PULL SLEDS AMUNDSEN STOP RETURN HAMBURG NOW BRING CASTANG 25 BEARS STOP
KARL
HAMBURG
* * *
16 SEP
KARL HAGENBERG HAMBURG
BEARS AND REUBEN EN ROUTE STOP CANNOT LEAVE SELF STOP MUST REARRANGE PROGRAM STOP
WILHELM
VIENNA
* * *
September 16, 1907
Karl Hagenbeck, Hamburg
Dear Brother,
I could not in telegram form express the concern I have regarding Amundsen’s plan. He is truly a great explorer but I fear he knows nothing of undomesticated animals save their shooting for safety or ration. His intent is to drift in his ship with the polar ice pack for a period of five to six years then sled for the pole, counting on the Winter hibernation cycle of the bears to reduce the need for provision over the years. As you well know, our circus performs throughout the Winter in Northern climes and the polar bears never hibernate. They do not hibernate if there is a ready food source, such as is available at the Circus Hagenbeck. Presumably, the members of Amundsen’s expedition would also provide a fine Winter food source. At least for a brief time.
Sincerely,
Wilhelm
Vienna
* * *
September 20, 1907
Reuben,
I apologize for leaving town before your return with the bears, but a shipment of animals is due to Paris this week. I have left instructions regarding the particulars of Amundsen’s needs. Proceed with the bears you have brought; he will want the best half dozen of them.
Karl Hagenbeck
Hamburg
* * *
September 22, 1907
Karl Hagenbeck, Hamburg
Herr Hagenbeck,
I see your knowledge of polar expedition is up to date. Yes, we are attempting to secure Nansen’s ship Fram for the venture; it is integral to our plans.
Fantastic news regarding the bears! How long will the training take? I will be leaving for New York via the Oscar II on a lecturing and fund-raising tour early next month. If we can complete negotiations prior to my sailing, our joint venture can be announced in Europe and America before my return, which would no doubt pique the interest of newspapers and expedition underwriters. Please cable any progress reports and let us finalize a contract.
Amundsen
Oslo
* * *
28 SEP
CAPT. AMUNDSEN, OSLO
HAGENBECK IN PARIS STOP CONTRACT ENROUTE STOP 8 TO 12 WKS TRAINING STOP
REUBEN CASTANG
HAMBURG
* * *
October 23, 1907
Karl Hagenbeck, Hamburg
Dear Brother,
Reuben writes that sled training is going well. He hasn’t mentioned how training not to eat people in the Winter goes.
The vision of Amundsen’s pet bears pulling his team to victory in the race for the pole has certainly fired up the imaginations of the popular press. The papers say he is off to America for a seven-month tour to spread the polar ursine gospel.
The gaps left in the performance schedule by the bears working with Reuben have been bridged. I will be returning to Hamburg myself for the final stages of training.
I am worried, Karl. The training of polar bears poses particular difficulties. They are crafty, suspicious creatures apt to turn on the trainer with the least warning. Only a few of our bears truly enjoy their routines. Constant vigilance is our only safety with them in the confines of the Circus. God only knows what would happen over the course of several years on their home territory in the polar ice fields. Actually, I think I have a pretty good idea of what would happen, as well.
Sincerely,
Wilhelm
Vienna
P.S. With Amundsen overseas until the summer, what are we going to do with two dozen bears trained to pull ice sleds? Can I have them back with the Circus?
* * *
6 DEC
KARL HAGENBECK HAMBURG
RECEIVED NEWS TRAINING COMPLETE STOP SENDING PRELIM TEAM HAMBURG STOP WHEN BEARS WAKE UP SPRING SEND TRIAL RUN STOP
AMUNDSEN
SAN FRANCISCO
* * *
February 24, 1908
Capt. Roald Amundsen, Minneapolis
My Dear Captain,
I do hope this missive finds you in a timely fashion; your Oslo office gave us your expected itinerary and I have attempted to allow for trans-Atlantic transit time as well as movement through the American mail system.
Lieut. Nilson and his team have embarked with six bears and customized sleds for Hammerfest, per your orders. I am somewhat ashamed to have to admit, however, that neither my brother Wilhelm or our lead bear-keeper Reuben Castang was willing to accompany them to the edge of the Arctic, so your men are on their own as to the care, maintenance, and management of the bears. I did my best to persuade each man to take the reins—as it were—but they were rather adamant in their refusal and I do not have the gift with their wills that they have with those of the bears.
To the Pole!
Karl Hagenbeck
Hamburg
* * *
April 1, 1908
Capt. Roald Amundsen, New Orleans
Sir, the polar bear sled plan may be less than optimal.
First, while our team was training with the bears in Hamburg, Wilhelm Hagenbeck informed me that polar bears do not always hibernate in winter. Indeed, it was winter while we were there, cold (if not Arctic cold) and the bears seemed as active as you might ever expect. This will necessarily impact our provisioning plans.
Second, it is currently our experience that a carnivore as heavy as a draft horse is not easily swayed to our purpose and that a half dozen of them compound the problem far more than six-fold.
The closer we came to Hammerfest and the arctic ice, the more restless the bears became. As we took the first out of his enclosure, he stood on his hind legs. A fine trick when done in the circus but rather disconcerting when two of you are holding him with control sticks attached to a collar from either side and the effect is to lift you off your feet, swinging into his flank within range of his massive foreclaws. This unexpected behavior startled us so much that Hans and I both let go our grip and the bear took off at full speed North to the ice, with the sticks essentially airborne.
We were particularly careful after that incident, moving the bear-carts into one of the facilities used to process fish before we tried to move the bears out of the carts and harness them to their sleds. This seemed to work well—although it would be a bit impracticable to replicate in the hold of a vessel or on the ice—and we steered our charges out onto the town’s streets, where mid-afternoon gloaming was brightened by the electric streetlamps and the Northern Lights. Onlookers gathered round at a remove as Lars climbed into one of the sleds and took the reins. Then all five bears leapt forward along the path blazed by their brother. Lars could be seen hauling on the reins with seemingly no effect, as the bears passed quickly out of our view. We put a party together to find him, and recovered three of the sleds—though much damaged. Of Lars and the other sleds we have not yet found a trace.
Samurai Avalon Hill, 1980 Diplomacy meets Risk meets lots of cool-sounding names at the height of the ’70s craze for things Japanese. Never got a chance to play it more than once or twice.
Traveller, Deluxe Edition, High Guard, Traveller Book 5, The Imperium, The Spinward Marches Game Designers’ Workshop, 1979 and 1981 Scouts & Assassins Merchants & Merchandise Paranoia Press, 1980 and 1981 Just a portion of the extensive Traveller material in my possession. The Deluxe Edition box was a replacement for well-worn copies of my original books. High Guard covered space navy character generation. The two “Approved for use with Traveller” supplements covered a couple of different classes of citizens, the maps were official supplements, and the computer printout in the lower right was one of apparently dozens of space “sectors” that I wrote a computer program to generate (far beyond the needs of my little game-playing circle) with names created using a Japanese syllabalary (would that I had spent as much time actually studying for my Japanese language class).
Tobruk Avalon Hill, 1975 My grandfather served in North Africa duringWW2, so this had some interest for me early on in my gaming days, it’s one of the earlier real wargames I picked up. The map is completely featureless. It’s a throwback to the days before easy access to photocopiers, when AH made some money selling pads of tally sheets for crew rosters and damage charts.
Alpha Omega Battleline, 1977 Tobruk…in space! Space tactical simulations had it easy as far as maps went, because there’s literally nothing there. I think this title might have been put out to capitalize on the burgeoning sci-fi gaming market that followed Star Wars in the same year, but it sat on the shelves at our shop for many years before I felt sorry for it. The artwork wasn’t particularly catch. Even I never played it.
Mayday Dark Nebula Game Designers’ Workshop, 1978 and 1980 Maybe Alpha Omega was just too early. Maybe the box was too big. Because Mayday came out just a year later (although from an established company with a developer distribution channel) and won awards for what is essentially the same type of tactical space battle game, also with completely-featureless maps. Dark Nebula, on the other hand, is a strategic game with a map that changes from game to game, and it loosely tied into GDW’s official Traveller universe.
TACFORCE Game Designers’ Workshop, 1980 Designed to be used with GHQ 1:285 models to simulate tactical operations in a Soviet/US battle in Europe (weren’t those the days?) this was the serious stuff from GDW. No unit markers or maps included, just indicators for smoke, hits, and other tally elements. Big thick deck of cards with combat statistics for armor and aircraft.
Up Front Desert War Banzai Avalon Hill, 1983, 1984, 1989 Relative Range, Issue Number Two Michael P. Nagel, 1994 Up Front was perhaps one of my favorite games ever. Straddling the line between wargame and role-playing game, it had an enormous amount of complexity and flexibility, but was fast-paced and fun (once you got things set up). If you didn’t want to get sued, you might say a number of elements were ripped off by Magic: The Gathering a decade later. Players set up according to a scenario, placing cards representing individual soldiers, crewed weapons, and vehicles in groups facing each other, then draw from a thick deck for cards representing terrain, obstacles, attacks, and fortifications. They take turns moving and playing cards on their groups (and their opponent’s groups), so you never know exactly what you’re moving into. No dice, the cards are used for random number generation, as well. You could get two sets of cards and set up a multiplayer wide front game, which was a gas. The original set covered the European front’s primary combatants: Germans, English, Russians, and Americans, with Banzai expanding to the Pacific theater, and Desert War adding in French and Italian army units. Ron Shigeta, one of my Reed College gaming buddies sent me a copy of Relative Range, an Up Front newsletter from Princeton long after the last game I played. Atoll was a package of scenarios I wrote for use with Banzai. I see that at least one time we played this, my friends and I were having so much fun (and probably drinking so much beer) that we had to label which side of the cardholder was for discards.
Lord of Hosts, 31 Jan 1990 Robert E. Sack, 1990 Perelandra #76 Pete Gaughan, 1990 World DipCon II / DipCon XXIII / DixieCon IV Newsletter #3 DipCon, 1990 Diplomacy Today, Blue Edition Winter 1903 Darrel Plant, 1989 I was mostly unaware of the wider world of Diplomacy zines when I started up Diplomacy Today. I knew the game was frequently played by mail (and I had my own experience developing a PBM game) but the fact that there were collations of multiple zines was something unfamiliar. When I started it up, desktop color printing was not at all available, and the colophon to this issue mentioned I printed from the Apple Macintosh II (2MB RAM!) to an Apple LaserWriter IINT ($10,000!) that I had access to. When the service bureau I used for work got a QMS thermal-transfer color printer I sent a copy of the first color issue off to Avalon Hill’s magazine, The General. Managing Editor Rex Martin sent me back a proposal that we might run selections from one of the games (to be the Red Edition) in his magazine and he would be one of the players. Regrettably, the whole thing fell apart, as so many diplomacy-related things do. The other material was sent to me by Pete Gaughan, after Rex sent him copies of my newsletter. Neither the Red or Blue games got very far.
Starweb Starlord Flying Buffalo Inc., 1976 and 1981 Lords of Valetia Gamemasters Publishers Association, 1976 Starweb is pretty much Patient Zero in computer-moderated play-by-mail gaming. It was there before the dawn of the personal computer and, apparently, it’s still there. It’s a game of 15 stellar empires competing for 255 worlds (a handy number for old computer systems). You picked one of 6 different players types, who got points for different activities, then you race to see who makes the goal. Send your turns in by mail and get a computer printout. Starlord was a similar game in some ways, but the printouts were in color! Lords of Valetia, I never actually played, and I have no idea what the turns looked like or even how you were supposed to encode what you wanted to do. The rulebook is thick but vague. It does, however have a pronunciation guide, if that was to be of any help.
Oil War Simulations Publications, Inc., 1975 Good ideas never die. Almost forty years ago, this game caught my adolescent eye, and I brought it home to play with my brother. Another of the earliest “real” wargames in the collection, it was one of SPI’s Folio series that brought the price into the reach of kids like myself, essentially repackaging the type of games published in Strategy & Tactics magazine into a folder and shrink-wrapping it; a paperback to the hardcover maps and boxes of Avalon Hill’s products. Lots of familiar names here.
The General Volume 24 Number 4 Volume 24 Number 6 Volume 26 Number 1 Avalon Hill, 1988-1990 Featuring Raid on St. Nazaire, Thunder at Cassino, and Merchant of Venus, respectively (none of which I have).
Wizard Helltank Security Station Metagaming, 1978-1981 Raid on Iran Steve Jackson Games, 1980 A slice of game evolution, these four games are all from Austin. The trend toward inexpensive, fast-to-play titles continued with Metagaming’s early releases, packaged in paperboard boxes with small maps and counters. Wizard built on the huge fantasy market created by Dungeons & Dragons, with the magic component of a combat system initiated by the earlier Melee. They dispensed with the storyline aspect of D&D and got right down to the fighting. Recognizing the fact that a lot of fantasy game players were isolated nerds, releases like Security Station provided scenarios that could be played solitaire (or as part of a group). Helltank appealed to a different aesthetic, particularly those drawn in by Metagaming’s first release: Ogre. The designer of Ogre, Steve Jackson, started his own game company, stayed in Austin, and released Raid on Iran, a speculative piece on what might have happened if the raid to free the hostages at the American Embassy in Tehran hadn’t been aborted) which came out within months of the attempt.
Lost Worlds: Skeleton with Scimitar and Shield Lost Worlds: Dwarf in Chainmail with Two-handed Ax Lost Worlds: Giant Goblin with Mace and Shield Lost Worlds: Woman in Scale with Sword and Shield Lost Worlds: Hill Troll with Club Lost Worlds: Barbarian with Two-handed Sword Lost Worlds: Fighter Mage with Magic Sword Lost Worlds: Wraith with Sickle Lost Worlds: Cold Drake Lost Worlds: Halfling with Sword and Shield Lost Worlds: Lizard Man with Scimitar and Buckler Nova Game Designs, 1983-1984 The success of Nova’s Ace of Aces WWI air combat game led to this expansion into fantasy one-on-one combat, using a similar system of pictorial booklets paired with charts of actions. The series won a Charles Roberts award in 1983, but like many of the other games in my boxes, it was soon to meet the deadly interface of the computer. In some nice cross-marketing, each of the characters was modeled after a figure from Ral Partha’s fantasy miniature collection, and a coupon for 10% off the miniature’s purchase was included in the box.
Ambush! Victory Games, 1983 An attempt to make a Squad Leader-style game playable by a single person, Ambush! used a bunch of 8.5″x11″scenario cards slipped into a “Mission Cartridge Viewer Sleeve”, charts, dozens of pieces, maps, and another deck of cards to make playing a game by yourself feel like storming a beach in Normandy.
Ace of Aces Powerhouse Series Nova Games, 1981 Autoduel Quarterly, Vol. 3 No. 4 Steve Jackson Games, 1985 Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society, No. 10 Game Designers’ Workshop, 1981 Top Secret TSR Games, 1980 A couple of stragglers, I covered Ace of Aces in Box 2, along with ADQ and the Journal. Top Secret was one of TSR’s first non-fantasy excursions, none of which were ever near as popular as the D&D franchise. It was an espionage-based RPG that just seemed kind of lame compared to the fantasy and sci-fi RPGs.
The Strategic Review Vol. 1 No. 1 Vol. 1 No. 2 Vol. 1 No. 3 Vol. 1 No. 4 Vol. 1 No. 5 The Dragon, Vol 2 No. 8 Dragon, Vol 6. No. 10 Tactical Studies Rules/TSR Hobbies, Inc., 1975, 1978, 1982 The first five (possibly the only five?) issues of The Strategic Review came out in 1975, I picked them up as back issues a year or so after publication, completist that I was at the time. There was no useful information in them for a budding D&D player, things were moving much too fast at that point. The first issue listed for sale (besides the original D&D boxed set): Cavaliers and Roundheads (miniatures rules for the English Civil War), Tricolor (Napoleonic War miniatures rules), Warriors of Mars (Barsoomian miniatures), Star Probe (map-based space exploration), Chainmail (medieval miniatures rules that spawned D&D), Tractics (WW2 miniatures), Panzer Warfare (large-scale armor miniatures), miniatures themselves, and polyhedral dice. By issue 5, multiple D&D expansion books were on the list, along with Empire of the Petal Throne, Boot Hill, and games based on football, auto racing, Civil War naval battles, and Lord of the Rings.
The third box is mostly boxed games and includes some titles from the earliest days of my collection.
Richthofen’s War
Avalon Hill, 1972
One of the games from this collection that belongs to the era when I was playing mostly against my brother at home, and one of the first games we had that was more complex (much more so) than the standard kids’ board games. A true “wargame.”
B-17: Queen of the Skies
Avalon Hill, 1983
A fantastic solitare game that could keep you busy for hours. B-17 was originally published by On Target a couple years earlier, but the AH release gave it much wider exposure. It got great reviews at the time and was the perfect way to while away those pre-computer game afternoons, picking through charts and rolling dice. You’re trying to get your bomber crew through their 20 required missions. I remember a computer version coming out at one point, long after I’d played around with writing one for myself.
RAF
West End Games, 1986
Continuing on with the aviation theme, this was another attempt at a solitare game system, but I found it more of a hassle to set up than B-17: the map required a lot more room, there were more counters, etc.The larger scope of RAF lessened the appeal, as well.
Civilization, Civilization: Trade Card Expansion, and Civilization: Western Extension Map
Avalon Hill, 1981, 1982, 1988
Synonymous now with the name of Sid Maier, he had nothing to do with the board game version of Civilization. AH picked the game up from the British company Hartland Trefoil and its original designer, Francis Tresham, after it hit the European market in 1980. A great game with four or five players, but it last seven or eight hours. The Trade Card Expansion added some of the, well, trade cards used to move your civilization up the ladder. The Extension map added Iberia and Northwest Africa. Never got a chance to play it.
Diplomacy
Avalon Hill, 1976 & 1982
Two different editions, with the earlier wooden fleet and army markers and the later plastic markers. Time and color-blindness have made the Italian and English wooden markers virtually indistinguishable to me.
Star Fleet Battles: Task Force Game #4,
Star Fleet Battles: Designer’s Edition,
Star Fleet Battles Expansion #1,
Star Fleet Battles Expansion #2
Task Force Games, 1979-1982
SFB first appeared as a shrink-wrapped game in digest size and quickly proved popular enough that it came out in a full-sized boxed edition. Not that the artwork got particularly better. SFB walked the line between a boardgame and miniatures simulation (see the previous box for examples of some of the ships). The expansions had new ships and new scenarios.
Luftwaffe
Avalon Hill, 1971
Another early acquisition that I played with my brother. I have to admit, I played a lot of games of Luftwaffe against myself, as well. Very well-constructed markers that can be re-inserted into the original card. This wraps up the third box, with a final aerial combat boardgame (and the third from Avalon Hill alone).
This second box of games took a little longer than the first. Lots of little things, stuff mixed together, well, you’ll see.
Traveller 15mm lead miniatures Martian Metals, 1980-82 Obviously, I never did much of anything with these. Too small, for one, and our Traveller games never really seemed to need them. (left to right, bottom to top)
ADDENDUM: Within a year after I posted this in 2013, I was contacted by an airline pilot who was interested in buying all my Traveller miniatures to use for playing with his kids. They’d been sitting in the box for 30 years, we made a deal that was about $5 a pack, and I happily shipped them off to Hawaii. Earlier this year, I was listening to an old episode of The Grognard Files Grogpod where they were discussing old miniatures and their prices, and some of the Traveller packs were going for $50 to $75. I just keep telling myself to think of the kids.
Starline 2000 Miniatures for Starfleet Battles Task Force Games, 1982 I always thought it would be cool to do spaceship battles withminiatures, but we never really got around to it. RPGs and board games sort of stole our time. (left to right, bottom to top)
7013 Federation CL (light cruiser, lead) 7043 Klingon D-7 Battle Cruiser (lead, mislabeled as 7200 Small Freighter)
7081 Gorn CA (heavy cruiser, lead) 7141 Hydran Ranger (lead) 7011 Federation CA (heavy cruiser, plastic)
Gunslinger Avalon Hill, 1982 This game was pretty enjoyable, if a little slow for a gun duel/battle. An innovative card-based action system and quality components (including counters that could snap back into the sheet for storage) make me want to drag it out to a game night somewhere.
James Bond 007 Basic Set Victory Games, 1983 An attempt to cash in on the RPG fad with a non-fantastic (well, a little fantastic) plotline set in the current day. Victory Games was a division of Avalon Hill. TSR had a spy system, as well: TOP SECRET. Not sure how successful either of them were; I know this one didn’t get much use.
Call of Cthulhu, Cthulhu Companion, and Shadows of Yog-Sothoth Chaosium, 1981-1983 You had me at evil creatures from the Nameless Beyond.Cthulhu came around as most of my RPG friends were trailing off into other pursuits, or I’d have spent more time with this series.
Elric: Battle at the End of Time Chaosium, 1981 An Elric board game! It must have seemed like an exciting idea when I bought it.
Oh-Wah-Ree 3M, 1966 I don’t know when this edition was published, but it was an entertaining little board game that included actual rocks in one of the bags. Supposedly based on an old Egyptian game, it has a number of variants, but the basic idea (if I remember it correctly)is that you drop rocks in the pits one-by-one, capturing the stones in the last pit. Or something like that.
Ace of Aces, Handy Rotary Series and Ace of Aces, Flying Machines Aldred Leonardi, 1980 and Nova Games, 1982 The things we had to do in the pre-computer gaming era. It’s not that there weren’t computers (and computer games have been around from about minute 1 of the computer age) but as your grandparents will tell you over and over, they were nowhere near as prevalent. Ace of Aces was a revolutionary concept that was the closest thing to a PSP2 flying game as you could get at the time. Each player had a book (books in the Handy Rotary Series were the Sopwith Camel and Fokker DR1; Flying Machines were the Airco DH2 and Fokker E III), they started on a pre-determined page, then made maneuvers on a maneuver chart at the bottom of the page. The books were cross-indexed so that an intermediate step would put each player on the same page number in their respective books, with views of their relative positions. A pretty fast, fun play. Nova Games went on to do some hand-to-hand fantasy combat books with the same sort of structure.
Pig Mania David Moffat, 1977 They’re like dice, only they’re pigs. Various points awarded for particular configurations of touching pig dice.
Starship Duel II: USS Reliant v Klingon L-9 FASA, 1984 A rather blatant attempt to turn the success of Ace of Aces into a Star Trek-inspired spaceship battle. They couldn’t copy the patented system of AofA, and their attempt to solve the problem with technology (just get a computer, already!) just made it clunkier.
Bushido Phoenix Games, 1980 I was fascinated by all things Japanese in the late ’70s. In fact, the whole country seemed to be a little Japan-crazy. I don’t know if it was James Clavell’s book Shogun that started it (the movie starring Richard Chamberlain was released in 1980) or if it just rode a wave of Japan awareness that washed across the country like a fleet of import cars, but I wasn’t alone in my interest and Bushido made some inroads into our game world. You can just about see the box for one edition of the game in the photo accompanying this article.
Autoduel Quarterly Steve Jackson Games, 1983-87 I owe a huge debt to Steve Jackson, whose games were both entertainment and inspiration to me. We played a lot of Car Wars, which hit right around the time of the Road Warrior film (though it had plenty of other antecedents). I was enough of a fan that the letters page of the very first issue of the Car Wars magazine Autoduel Quarterly was kicked off by yours truly.
Go Taincraft, 1980 (board and counters), Wm. F. Drueke & Sons, Inc., 1951 (rulebook) Despite the interest in Japanese culture, go just never took off in our little circle.
Autoduel Champions and Autoduel Champions Cardboard Heroes Steve Jackson Games, 1983 Crossover rules between Car Wars and Hero Games’ Champions RPG, the Cardboard Heroes counters for the game were twice the dimensions of the regular counters for Car Wars.
Illuminati Expansion Set #1and Illuminati Expansion Set #2 Steve Jackson Games, 1983 More about these later.
The Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society Game Designers’ Workshop, 1979, 1983 No. 2, No. 3, No. 15 The official magazine of GDW’s Traveller RPG.
Uncle Albert’s Auto Stop & Gunnery Shop, 2035 Catalog Steve Jackson Games, 1985 Issues of Autoduel Quarterly had fake ads for Uncle Albert’s, featuring new weapons and accessories you could add to your vehicles. The Catalog collected a lot of them into one place and added some more.
The AADA Vehicle Guide Steve Jackson Games, 1984 A catalog of vehicle designs for people who didn’t want to go through the trouble of designing their own, and inspirations for those who did.
Car Wars Expansion Set #4, Armadillo Autoduel Arena Steve Jackson Games, 1983 Maps only. There’s more coming up.
Car Wars Reference Screen Steve Jackson Games, 1983 Classic Dungeonmaster screen.
Car Wars Expansion Set #7, Off-Road Duelling Steve Jackson Games, 1985 Big color maps and rules for the mud.
Sunday Drivers Steve Jackson Games, 1982 The first of the Car Wars expansions, before they began numbering them, this was a set of maps covering part of the town of Midville.
Car Wars Steve Jackson Games, 1981-83 This represents several of the first editions of Car Wars, which originally appeared as a thin, stapled rulebook and a slick fold-out sheet, along with some cardboard counters which had to be cut apart, all in a ziplock baggie. One panel of the sheet served as the “cover” image for the game. Road sections and charts were printed on other sheet panels, which led to them being cut apart. There are two early plastic boxed versions: the first with tabs for the closure mechanism and the second with a simpler (less prone to fatigue) snap mechanism, which also bears a sticker for awards from Origins and OMNI (1982) and GAMES (1983).
Car Wars Expansion Set #1 Steve Jackson Games, 1983 Road sections and counter sheets. Shown are one of the road section foldouts and the display card.
Car Wars Expansion Set #2 Steve Jackson Games, 1983 More counters and a turning key. Display card shown.
Car Wars Expansion Set #3, East Midville, Steve Jackson Games, 1983 Maps, counters, and scenarios to expand the Sunday Drivers expansion. Is your mind expanded yet? Display card shown.
Car Wars Expansion Set #4, Armadillo Autoduel Arena Steve Jackson Games, 1983 Maps and counters for a stadium. Display card shown.
Sunday Drivers Steve Jackson Games, 1982 Rulebook for the original expansion.
Truck Stop Steve Jackson Games, 1983 Counters and map for big-wheelers. Rulebook shown.
Car Wars Expansion Set #6, The AADA Vehicle Guide Counters Steve Jackson Games, 1984 Cardboard counters to accompany the AADA Vehicle Guide.
Cardboard Heroes, Traveller Set 3: Zhodani Steve Jackson Games, 1983 15mm cardboard characters.
assorted Car Wars counters Steve Jackson Games, 1981-1985
Car Wars Expansion Set #2 Steve Jackson Games, 1983 turning keys
Cardboard Heroes, Cops, Crooks & Civilians Steve Jackson Games, 1982
Cardboard Heroes, Traveller Set 2: Imperial Marines Steve Jackson Games, 1982
assorted miniatures including Ral Partha, Steve Jackson Games, and Martian Metals, various dates
6207 Cycles, Steve Jackson Games, 1983 6209 Sidecars & Turrets, Steve Jackson Games, 1983 2200 Air/Raft, Martian Metals, year unknown Among the items in there are a mounted figure inspired by a Frazetta painting, a Balrog, a bunch of ‘John Carter of Mars’ figures including a couple Tharks, some wizards, hobbits, and ‘Lord of the Rings’ Guard of the Citadel.
assorted miniatures including Ral Partha, Steve Jackson Games, and Martian Metals, various dates
Dragonslayer dragon, Martian Metals, 1981 tie-in with the movie (missing foil provided for wing membrane)
I’ve got a lot of games. More specifically, I’ve got a lot of old games. Mostly not ones you’ve likely heard of, unless you were hanging around game shops that sold something a little beyond Monopoly and backgammon sets back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most of this stuff has been sitting in boxes or containers of one sort or another for nearly thirty years. I had to root around in them a little for some research on my (disastrous) Ignite presentation back in the early fall, and I realized there was some personal stuff——both game-related and not—mixed up in there that I wanted to sort through. In the process, I figured I might as well catalog some of the material. So here’s the first box.
Boots & Saddles: Air Cavalry in the 80’s (sic)
Game Designers’ Wordshop, 1984 Lots of these Russian-tanks-pouring-through-the-Fulda-Gap scenarios made it to wargames back in the Reagan years.
Tunnels & Trolls, 5th ed.
Flying Buffalo Inc., 1979 Nearly pristine copy because my friends and I were already D&D players and the last thing we needed was another fantasy RPG. They did helpfully provide a pencil for players without one.
Twilight: 2000 and The Free City of Krakow
Game Designers’ Workshop, 1985 A world where RPG also means ordnance and “twilight” has nothing to do with vampires. More post-apocalyptic scenarios from the ’80s. Krakow is a scenario for TW:2000; the box is full of computer-generatednon-player characters and some competing Morrow Project stuff, the manuals appear to be elsewhere.
Federation Space Task ForceGames, 1981 How down and out was the Star Trek franchise in the late 1970s? So far down that a minor company like TFG could get the rights to the license for board games, most notablyStar Fleet Battles, which has been revived under a different publisher.
Western Desert: The Campaign in Egypt and Libya, 1940-43 Game Designers’ Workshop, 1983 Number seven in GDW’s Europa series of WWII games, it featured huge foldout maps and never really got played.
Duell
Lakeside Games, 1978 More of a mass-market game than most of the others here, Duell is a sort of chess/dice hybrid.
Triplanetary (2nd ed.)
Game Designers’ Workshop, 1981 Apparently based on one of GDW’s first designs from the early ’70s, it was wildly optimistic about when we’d get done kicking Soviet patootie in Germany (Booth & Saddles) and start the space wars (see also, Twilight: 2000). You get to draw to draw on the map!
Imperium
Game Designers’ Workshop, 1977 Once we’ve moved on from war in Europe and the solar system, on to the galaxy! This came out the same year as Star Wars, not sure whether the cruiser in the box art indicates before or after the movie.
Fifth Frontier War: Battles for the Spinward Marches
Game Designers’ Workshop, 1981 A tie-in with the Traveller RPG universe, I don’t remember specifics about this game, and the only thing in the box was the map.
Bloodtree Rebellion
Game Designers’ Workshop, 1979 One of those games that sat on the shelves of the game shop (along with Triplanetary and Imperium) for years without anyone buying them. I’ve got copies, though.
Azhanti High Lightning Game Designers’ Workshop, 1980 A major adventure package for Traveller, with a stack of big multi-colored maps for each level of an enormous ship (some levels were identical, natch). Dungeons in Space!
Snapshot
Game Designers’ Workshop, 1979 Close combat rules for Traveller that included a small spaceship map. Missing box; inside Azhanti High Lighting (which used the same basic combat system).
Double Star
Game Designers’ Workshop, 1979 Another space game from GDW that tried to capitalize on the Star Wars buzz of the late ’70s and the early success of their Traveller RPG (without actually being a part of the same universe). Also sat on the shelf.
Submarine
Avalon Hill, 1977 The three hard-board foldout maps are completely featureless, it’s just ocean, ocean, ocean in a game much more complex (and slower) than Battleship.
That’s it for the first box. Believe me, I do have something other than GDW games in the others. And there are quite a few of them.
