Simulations Publications
Encyclopedia
Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) was an influential American
publisher of board
wargames
and related magazines, particularly its flagship Strategy & Tactics
, in the 1970s and early 1980s. It produced an enormous number of games and introduced innovative practices, changing the course of the wargaming hobby in its bid to take control of the hobby away from then-dominant Avalon Hill
. It went bankrupt in 1982. TSR
acquired the company's trademarks and copyrights in 1983.
to take over publishing Strategy & Tactics, which had been in financial trouble. SPI, however, quickly proved that it was primarily a game publisher; not only did it produce many regular wargame designs, but starting with SPI's takeover, each issue of S&T included a complete wargame, comprising a map, rulebook and a sheet of die-cut counters.
In SPI's first two or three years, it embarked upon an expensive advertising campaign, including - but not limited to - full page advertisements in Scientific American
magazine. New subscribers received free copies of its most successful game, Napoleon At Waterloo - an "easy to play" pocket-sized game with a foldout map and 78 pieces punched from cardstock. This advertising campaign led to a much larger subscriber base and SPI came to be seen as a serious competitor to Avalon Hill, the company that had founded the board wargaming hobby.
While S&T had started as a wargaming 'fanzine
', under SPI it became more of a military history magazine that included a wargame. So in 1972, SPI started Moves
as a house organ
that talked about current and future SPI games, including a fair amount of information on SPI's game design process.
Like many new wargame companies in the early '70s, early SPI games left a lot to be desired physically. A typical early game came in an envelope with a one-color map and one large folded sheet for the rules. However, SPI quickly set about improving the physical quality of the components with better printing and boxes under the guidance of Art Director Redmond A. Simonsen
. In 1973, they introduced a flat plastic box that was molded to be a counter storage tray with a clear cover. The actual cover of the game was a printed sheet that backed the clear plastic. This allowed SPI to produce the boxes in bulk, as they were identical for each game, the printed sheet provided the cover and could be printed with all the other components of the game. This system became the hallmark of SPI games, and was later emulated by Simulations Canada
, whose early games utilized a smaller storage tray, with the cover of the rules booklet doubling as the cover sheet.
SPI used a unique feedback system, polling the readers of S&T as to which games they would be interested in seeing (and buying). This market research gave SPI a greater likelihood of developing successful games.
Although starting with small to medium size wargames, SPI found an insatiable market, with subscribers clamoring for an ever wider range of wargames, including historical simulations that were daunting in their scope and complexity, such as War in the East, War in the Pacific
, The Next War
, Terrible Swift Sword and Campaign for North Africa
, each with several maps, thousands of counters and multiple rulebooks. Campaign for North Africa was an ultra-detailed and virtually unplayable game, covering the entire North African campaign
down to the level of individual fighter pilot ratings and supply trucks. At the other end of the spectrum, SPI created a new series of smaller games called 'folio' games, often created in groups of four and sold both individually and together as a 'Quadrigame'. Each of the four component games included two rules booklets, one with rules common to all four games, and the other with rules exclusive to the individual game; the component games would each cover a different battle from the same war, era, or genre.
The scale of the games ranged from the strategic to the operational and down to the tactical level. Three of the more popular games were tactical: Sniper!
, FireFight
, and Air War, all of which were later reprinted by TSR.
SPI started out publishing games on historical subjects, but soon started producing games that were more hypothetical (e.g. World War III, Invasion: America
), and a little later, also tackled fantasy
and science fiction
subjects, such as Starforce: Alpha Centauri
and War of the Ring
(a Lord of the Rings
game), eventually starting a new magazine, Ares
which, like S&T, included a new science fiction or fantasy game in each issue. At this time, the company also attempted to tap into the growing popularity of role-playing game
s, with DragonQuest
and Universe, responses to Dungeons & Dragons
and Traveller
respectively; the term "Adventure Gaming" also replaced "Wargaming" in company advertising. In an attempt to expand its customer base even further beyond the "hobbyist" core, after a much-publicized arrangement with Lorimar Productions
, SPI even released a role-playing game based on the hit TV show Dallas
in 1980. The game, however, proved to be an infamous failure, with Simonsen later remarking that the 80,000 copies printed were 79,999 too many.
SPI had increasing financial problems in the late 1970s. SPI defaulted on a loan of over $400,000 from TSR
(the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons) guaranteed by SPI's assets. SPI went bankrupt in 1982 and its assets were acquired by TSR in 1983, but not its debts and liabilities. TSR refused to honor SPI subscriptions and used the "assets, not liabilities" agreement to ignore SPI's debts. This policy alienated many of TSR's potential customers. Avalon Hill hired the majority of ex-SPI staffers to set up Victory Games Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary.
With the quick collapse of the wargame market in the early 1980s, TSR published fewer and fewer simulation games and eventually all the magazines (except for Strategy & Tactics) were discontinued.
Decision Games
, a California company, now has the rights to most of the SPI backlist.
A number of former SPI games (many of them magazine games originally published in Strategy and Tactics) can be played online using software from HexWar, which licenses the rights from Decision Games.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
publisher of board
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
wargames
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
and related magazines, particularly its flagship Strategy & Tactics
Strategy & Tactics
Strategy & Tactics is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue...
, in the 1970s and early 1980s. It produced an enormous number of games and introduced innovative practices, changing the course of the wargaming hobby in its bid to take control of the hobby away from then-dominant Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
. It went bankrupt in 1982. TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
acquired the company's trademarks and copyrights in 1983.
History
The company was founded in 1969 by James F. DunniganJim Dunnigan
James F. Dunnigan is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis.-Career:...
to take over publishing Strategy & Tactics, which had been in financial trouble. SPI, however, quickly proved that it was primarily a game publisher; not only did it produce many regular wargame designs, but starting with SPI's takeover, each issue of S&T included a complete wargame, comprising a map, rulebook and a sheet of die-cut counters.
In SPI's first two or three years, it embarked upon an expensive advertising campaign, including - but not limited to - full page advertisements in Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
magazine. New subscribers received free copies of its most successful game, Napoleon At Waterloo - an "easy to play" pocket-sized game with a foldout map and 78 pieces punched from cardstock. This advertising campaign led to a much larger subscriber base and SPI came to be seen as a serious competitor to Avalon Hill, the company that had founded the board wargaming hobby.
While S&T had started as a wargaming 'fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
', under SPI it became more of a military history magazine that included a wargame. So in 1972, SPI started Moves
Moves (magazine)
Moves was a wargaming magazine originally published by SPI , who also published manual wargames. Their flagship magazine Strategy & Tactics , was a military history magazine featuring a new wargame in each issue. While S&T was devoted to historical articles, Moves focused on the play of the games...
as a house organ
House organ
A house organ is a magazine or periodical published by a company for its customers or its employees...
that talked about current and future SPI games, including a fair amount of information on SPI's game design process.
Like many new wargame companies in the early '70s, early SPI games left a lot to be desired physically. A typical early game came in an envelope with a one-color map and one large folded sheet for the rules. However, SPI quickly set about improving the physical quality of the components with better printing and boxes under the guidance of Art Director Redmond A. Simonsen
Redmond A. Simonsen
Redmond Askel Simonsen was an American graphic artist and game designer best known for his work at the board wargame company Simulations Publications, Inc. in the 1970s and early 1980s...
. In 1973, they introduced a flat plastic box that was molded to be a counter storage tray with a clear cover. The actual cover of the game was a printed sheet that backed the clear plastic. This allowed SPI to produce the boxes in bulk, as they were identical for each game, the printed sheet provided the cover and could be printed with all the other components of the game. This system became the hallmark of SPI games, and was later emulated by Simulations Canada
Simulations Canada
Simulations Canada is the name of a Canadian board wargame publisher established in Nova Scotia in 1977. The company was founded by Stephen Newberg and was one of only a handful of companies devoted to publishing wargames at that time. Other companies such as Avalon Hill and Simulations...
, whose early games utilized a smaller storage tray, with the cover of the rules booklet doubling as the cover sheet.
SPI used a unique feedback system, polling the readers of S&T as to which games they would be interested in seeing (and buying). This market research gave SPI a greater likelihood of developing successful games.
Although starting with small to medium size wargames, SPI found an insatiable market, with subscribers clamoring for an ever wider range of wargames, including historical simulations that were daunting in their scope and complexity, such as War in the East, War in the Pacific
War In The Pacific
War in the Pacific is a 2004 two-player turn-based computer war game published by Matrix games. It is a very large, complex, and detailed simulation of the Pacific Theatre of World War II, at both the operational and strategic level....
, The Next War
The Next War
The Next War: Modern Conflict in Europe is a board wargame that simulates a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe in the late 1970s. It was designed by James F. Dunnigan and published by Simulations Publications, Inc. in 1978...
, Terrible Swift Sword and Campaign for North Africa
The Campaign for North Africa
The Campaign for North Africa , was an unprecedentedly detailed military simulation game of the North African Campaign of World War II. It was designed by Richard Berg and published by Simulations Publications, Inc...
, each with several maps, thousands of counters and multiple rulebooks. Campaign for North Africa was an ultra-detailed and virtually unplayable game, covering the entire North African campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
down to the level of individual fighter pilot ratings and supply trucks. At the other end of the spectrum, SPI created a new series of smaller games called 'folio' games, often created in groups of four and sold both individually and together as a 'Quadrigame'. Each of the four component games included two rules booklets, one with rules common to all four games, and the other with rules exclusive to the individual game; the component games would each cover a different battle from the same war, era, or genre.
The scale of the games ranged from the strategic to the operational and down to the tactical level. Three of the more popular games were tactical: Sniper!
Sniper! (board game)
Sniper! was a board wargame originally released in 1973. Some sources refer to "Sniper/Patrol" as a sort of series of games: a similar game by Simulations Publications Inc. was released at the same time as the original Sniper!, called Patrol....
, FireFight
Firefight
Firefight may refer to:* firefight, a large exchange of bullets between two sides * Firefighting, process of extinguishing destructive flames* A game mode in Halo 3: ODST and Halo: Reach video games...
, and Air War, all of which were later reprinted by TSR.
SPI started out publishing games on historical subjects, but soon started producing games that were more hypothetical (e.g. World War III, Invasion: America
Invasion America (board wargame)
Invasion: America was a wargame designed by Jim Dunnigan and published by SPI in 1976. It depicted a hypothetical invasion of North America by a coalition of three invaders. The game was played on a 35 inch by 42 inch map, with 400 cardboard pieces representing the armed forces in the war...
), and a little later, also tackled fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
subjects, such as Starforce: Alpha Centauri
Starforce: Alpha Centauri
Starforce: Alpha Centauri was a board game published in 1974 by Simulations Publications Inc. as one of their first science fiction games, a departure from their usual historical wargames...
and War of the Ring
War of the Ring (SPI game)
War of the Ring was a wargame based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, published by Simulations Publications, Inc. in the United States in 1977. It was the first wargame to cover the entire conflict depicted in the story , as opposed to a single battle from it...
(a Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
game), eventually starting a new magazine, Ares
Ares (magazine)
Ares was a science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. , and then TSR, Inc., between 1980 and 1984. In addition to the articles, each issue contained a wargame, complete with a foldout stiff paper map, a set of cardboard counters, and the rules.There were a total of...
which, like S&T, included a new science fiction or fantasy game in each issue. At this time, the company also attempted to tap into the growing popularity of role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s, with DragonQuest
DragonQuest
DragonQuest is a fantasy role-playing game originally published by Simulations Publications in 1980. Where first generation fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons restricted players to particular character classes, DragonQuest was one of the first games to utilize a system that...
and Universe, responses to Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
and Traveller
Traveller (role-playing game)
Traveller is a series of related science fiction role-playing games, the first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop and subsequent editions by various companies remaining in print to this day. The game was inspired from such classic science fiction stories as the Dumarest saga series by...
respectively; the term "Adventure Gaming" also replaced "Wargaming" in company advertising. In an attempt to expand its customer base even further beyond the "hobbyist" core, after a much-publicized arrangement with Lorimar Productions
Lorimar Productions
Lorimar, later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American television production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993...
, SPI even released a role-playing game based on the hit TV show Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
in 1980. The game, however, proved to be an infamous failure, with Simonsen later remarking that the 80,000 copies printed were 79,999 too many.
SPI had increasing financial problems in the late 1970s. SPI defaulted on a loan of over $400,000 from TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
(the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons) guaranteed by SPI's assets. SPI went bankrupt in 1982 and its assets were acquired by TSR in 1983, but not its debts and liabilities. TSR refused to honor SPI subscriptions and used the "assets, not liabilities" agreement to ignore SPI's debts. This policy alienated many of TSR's potential customers. Avalon Hill hired the majority of ex-SPI staffers to set up Victory Games Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary.
With the quick collapse of the wargame market in the early 1980s, TSR published fewer and fewer simulation games and eventually all the magazines (except for Strategy & Tactics) were discontinued.
Decision Games
Decision Games
Decision Games is a wargaming company, founded by Christopher Cummins, that publishes Strategy & Tactics magazine. The company has bought the rights to many Simulations Publications, Inc...
, a California company, now has the rights to most of the SPI backlist.
A number of former SPI games (many of them magazine games originally published in Strategy and Tactics) can be played online using software from HexWar, which licenses the rights from Decision Games.
Awards
- Charles S. Roberts AwardCharles S. Roberts AwardThe Charles S. Roberts Awards are given annually for excellence in the historical wargaming hobby. It is named after Charles S. Roberts the "Father of Wargaming" who founded Avalon Hill. The award is informally called a "Charlie" and officially called a "Charles S...
, Best Professional Magazine of 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977: Strategy & Tactics - Charles S. Roberts Award, All Time Best Fantasy Board Game of 1977: War of the Ring
- Charles S. Roberts Award, Best 20th Century Game of 1978: To the Green Fields Beyond
- Charles S. Roberts Award, Best 20th Century Game of 1979: City-Fight
- Charles S. Roberts Award: Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Game of 1979: The Creature That Ate SheboyganThe Creature That Ate SheboyganThe Creature That Ate Sheboygan is a science fiction board game released in 1979 by Simulations Publications . The game was originally designed by Greg Costikyan. It won the Charles S...
- H. G. Wells Award, Best Roleplaying Rules of 1979: Commando
- Charles S. Roberts Award, Best Pre-20th Century Boardgame of 1980: Empires of the Middle AgesEmpires of the Middle AgesEmpires of the Middle Ages is a board game for two to six players which simulates grand strategy and diplomacy in the Middle Ages. It was first released by Simulations Publications, Inc. in 1980....
- H. G. Wells Award: Best Roleplaying Rules of 1980: DragonQuestDragonQuestDragonQuest is a fantasy role-playing game originally published by Simulations Publications in 1980. Where first generation fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons restricted players to particular character classes, DragonQuest was one of the first games to utilize a system that...
External links
- SPI Compendium by Greg CostikyanGreg CostikyanGreg Costikyan, sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X" , is an American game designer and science fiction writer.Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including hex-based wargames, role-playing games, boardgames, card games, computer games, online games and mobile...
(lists games, magazine contents, etc) - A Farewell to Hexes by Greg CostikyanGreg CostikyanGreg Costikyan, sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X" , is an American game designer and science fiction writer.Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including hex-based wargames, role-playing games, boardgames, card games, computer games, online games and mobile...