''Highway 2000'' is a board game published by
Threshold Games in 1981 that is focused on highway combat.
Description
''Highway 2000'' is a game of armed vehicle combat for 3–5 players that takes place on near-future highways. Players create heavily armed and armored cars, then fight each other in a
battle royale.
The game board comes in three pieces portraying a five-lane highway; as action moves ahead, the back third of the map can be shifted to the front of the map, extending the highway.
The game comes with several scenarios that may also include random non-combat cars entering the highway at random times travelling in either direction.
Publication history
In 1979, the movie ''
Mad Max'', featuring highway combat, proved to be a hit. The following year,
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''.
History
Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...
released ''
Car Wars
''Car Wars'' is a vehicle combat simulation game developed by Steve Jackson Games. It was first published in 1980. Players control armed vehicles in a post-apocalyptic future.
Game play
In ''Car Wars'', players assume control of one or more ca ...
'', a
microgame using the same theme, and it too proved to be very popular. Several other game publishers followed the trend including Threshold Games with ''Highway 2000'' in 1981, a game designed by Russell Neal, with artwork by Neils Erickson and William Johnson. Unlike ''Car Wars'', which was packaged in a slim plastic microgame box, ''Highway 2000'' was packaged in a small box with a folding flap.
Between 1984 and 1986, AutoVentures, an imprint of
Task Force Games
Task Force Games was a game company started in 1979 by Allen Eldridge and Stephen V. Cole. TFG published many games, most notably including both ''Star Fleet Battles'' (currently published by the original designers, Amarillo Design Bureau) and ...
,
published five expansions, including ''
TurboFire'', that were compatible with any of the popular car combat games of the time (''Highway 2000'', ''Car Wars'', or ''
Battlecars'').
Reception
Tom Gordon reviewed ''Highway 2000'' in ''
The Space Gamer'' No. 53.
Gordon commented that "I feel that if rules for expanded movement and 'off-road' scenarios had been included, then ''Highway 2000'' might have lived up to its
..price tag. In its present condition it just doesn't have enough substance for
hat price Unless you have dollars to burn, I would not recommend purchasing this game."
References
{{reflist
Board games introduced in 1981