Stephen V. Cole is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 game designer and the CEO of Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.

Amarillo Design Bureau

Amarillo Design Bureau is a company which specializes in tactical and strategic board wargames. The company is a successor to Task Force Games, and is owned and operated by Steve and Leanna Cole, with partner Steve Petrick, and based in Amarillo, Texas...

 (also known as ADB or Starfleet Games) which publishes Star Fleet Battles

Star Fleet Battles

Star Fleet Battles is a tactical board wargame set in an offshoot of the Star Trek setting called the Star Fleet Universe. Originally created in 1979 by Stephen V. Cole,...

, Federation and Empire

Federation and Empire

Federation and Empire is a strategic-level board wargame set in the fictional Star Fleet Universe spinoff of Star Trek, currently published by Amarillo Design Bureau Inc....

, Federation Commander

Federation Commander

Federation Commander is a tactical starship combat board wargame system, produced and developed by Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. It is designed to represent combat between vessels of various factions in the Star Fleet Universe, such as the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire...

, Prime Directive, and other 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...

 set in the Star Fleet Universe

Star Fleet Universe

The Star Fleet Universe is the variant of the Star Trek fictional universe detailed in the series of Star Fleet Battles games from Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. and used as reference for the Starfleet Command series of computer games...

.

Cole, an engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 and former US Army intelligence officer, was founder of the company JagdPanther Publications, which operated from 1973 to 1977. This company published several games, as well as the magazine JagdPanther which featured a complete game, or variant, in each issue.

Later, Cole co-founded Task Force Games

Task Force Games

Task Force Games was a game company started in 1979 by Allen Eldridge and Stephen Cole. Mr. Cole left the company in the early 1980's, but continued to design the company's best selling Star Fleet Battles game. Mr. Eldridge sold the company to New World Computing in 1988...

which first published Star Fleet Battles, designed by Cole in the 1980s. Star Fleet Battles continues to be published by Amarillo Design Bureau and was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming, Arts, & Design Hall of Fame in 2005 where they stated that "Star Fleet Battles literally defined the genre of spaceship combat games in the early 1980s, and was the first game that combined a major license with 'high re-playability'."

Cole is a contributor to StrategyPage that "provides quick, easy access to what is going on in military affairs."

External links

• Amarillo Design Bureau