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Porting old SPI/Avalon Hill board games into computer games?

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benbaked

Folding/SETI/Rosetta Team Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Location
WA
Alright, this isn't half-brianed, but maybe it is. I have a very old SPI wargame called Freedom in the Galaxy that I got many years ago. I've never found others who have wanted to sit down and play it, so it's still in new condition, none of the card pieces are punched out. It looks like it would be pretty fun, but I've never taken the time to sit down and read the 30 pages of the rulebook.

Anyways I got to remembering another old game that my brothers had long ago called Gunslinger, kind of the same thing but featuring old west gunfights. So anyways my question is has anyone ever thought about making a PC version of these old wargames? Or, has anyone already done this, possibly releasing the games under different names? I couldn't find much info about either game last night, except for a couple of ebay auctions.

Thanks.
 
It's a shame SPI and Avalon Hill are gone. Avalon Hill lives on I suppose, but as a shell of it's former self. The board war game genre as a whole is basically DOA.

SPI never ported any of their games to the PC. Avalon Hill started making computer versions of some of their games in 1982, and stopped in 1997 (basically this is when they abandoned war games altogether). All of the ports are pretty good, and some of the later ones even look nice (for Dos games). You can find a list of games that AH developed here however they are all out of print. You have to get creative to find them.

Also, SSI started making good strategy games for the PC in the 80's, and several of their releases in the 90's are classics (Panzer General, Steel Panthers, Clash of Steel, Ghettysburg: The Turning Point II, War in Russia III, etc.). Again, they're out of print and can be hard to find. Ubisoft currently owns what remains of SSI, and they do still publish games but not very frequently and they have lost touch with their board game roots.

But take heart, there is some good news. There are two companies that are live and kicking, and make excellent war games for the PC. Their names are HPS Simulations and Decision Games. I first found HPS Simulations in 1994 with the game Tigers on the Prowl. A most awesome game it is, inducted into the Computer Gaming World hall of fame. Decision Games grew from the legendary publication Strategy & Tactics, in print since the 60's.

Those are the best two, but there are more if you search around. I'll bet there are some projects on sourceforge too.

But about your two specific games, I do not know of any close approximation in the computer world. That's going to be a tall order because of the subject matter. Most of the interest in the hard core war game community is in historical conflicts, as you could probably tell from the earlier part of my post. I know for myself, WWII and the age of wooden sailing ships are the two areas I'm interested in. So finding something like your board game of space combat or western gunslingers will be very difficult I imagine.
 
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