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Star Quest (board Game)
''Star Quest'' is a science fiction board game published by Operational Studies Group (OSG) in 1979. Description ''Star Quest'' is a game of space combat for 2–6 players. Each player represents an interstellar trading house that has sent a spaceship to a newly discovered star system in order to destroy all other ships and take control of the system. Components The plastic bag holds: *11" x 17" paper hex grid map of the star system *100 die-cut counters * plot sheet (to be photocopied — each player requires a clean plot sheet for each game) *4-page rulebook Gameplay Movement The game starts as ships hyperjump into the star system, ending at a random location. The initial hyperjump is quite risky — if the player rolls a 6 on a six-sided die, the ship is destroyed and the player is out of the game. If a ship is moved by hyperjump later in the game (moving again to a random location), there is no chance of destruction. Using "normal" movement, ships travel in a straight l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operational Studies Group
Operational Studies Group, also known as OSG, is a publisher of board wargames. History Kevin Zucker, the Managing Editor at the wargame publisher Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI), left the company in January 1976. He and other ex-SPI employees started to plan a Napoleonic wargame that would be presented as a spiral-bound book. However the logistics of this format were beyond the ability of the group to create economically, and in the end, the group changed the design to a ziplock bag game titled ''Napoleon at Bay''. In order to publish the game, Zucker formed the company Tactical Studies Group, and convinced George Blagowidow, the owner of Hippocrene Books and distributor of SPI wargames, to buy 800 copies. On the basis of that sale, Zucker convinced SPI's printer to print 2000 copies. Zucker went to Origins '78 with the ziplock game and sold 250 copies. Due to the similarity of "Tactical Studies Group" and "Tactical Studies Rules" (TSR — the publishers of ''Dungeons & Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cover Of Star Quest Board Game
Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of copywriting * CD and DVD cover, CD and DVD packaging * Smartphone cover, a mobile phone accessory that protects a mobile phone People * Cover (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums ;Cover * ''Cover'' (Tom Verlaine album), 1984 * ''Cover'' (Joan as Policewoman album), 2009 ;Covered * ''Covered'' (Cold Chisel album), 2011 * ''Covered'' (Macy Gray album), 2012 * ''Covered'' (Robert Glasper album), 2015 ;Covers * ''Covers'' (Beni album), 2012 * ''Covers'' (Regine Velasquez album), 2004 * ''Covers'' (Placebo album), 2003 * ''Covers'' (Show of Hands album), 2000 * ''Covers'' (James Taylor album), 2008 * ''Covers'' (Fayray album), 2005 * ''Covers'' (Deftones album), 2011 * ''Covers'' (Cat Power album), 2022 * ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hex Grid
A hex map, hex board, or hex grid is a game board design commonly used in wargames of all scales. The map is subdivided into a hexagonal tiling, small regular hexagons of identical size. Advantages and disadvantages The primary advantage of a hex map over a traditional square grid map is that the distance between the center of each and every pair of adjacent hex cells (or ''hex'') is the same. By comparison, in a square grid map, the distance from the center of each square cell to the center of the four diagonal adjacent cells it shares a corner with is times that of the distance to the center of the four adjacent cells it shares an edge with. This equidistant property of all adjacent hexes is desirable for games in which the measurement of movement is a factor. The other advantage is the fact that neighbouring cells always share edges; there are no two cells with contact at only a point. One disadvantage of a hex map is that hexes have adjacent cells in only six directions i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinematronics
Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari, Inc. released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look and a greater graphic capability (at the time), at the cost of being only black and white (initially). Cinematronics also published '' Dragon's Lair'' in 1983, the first major LaserDisc video game. Beginnings Cinematronics Inc. was founded in 1975 by San Diego Chargers football players Dennis Partee and Gary Garrison in Kearny Mesa, California. Soon after, they brought in a third partner named Jim Pierce to manage the company's day-to-day operations. Cinematronics' first games, a ''Pong'' clone, a ''Flipper Ball'' copy and their first original game design, ''Embargo'', were released in 1975, 1976, and 1977, but they were not particularly notable. In 1977, Pier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shooter Video Game
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons. Shooter games test the player's spatial awareness, reflexes, and speed in both isolated single player or networked multiplayer environments. Shooter games encompass many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing on the actions of the avatar engaging in combat with a weapon against both code-driven NPC enemies or other avatars controlled by other players. Subgenres Shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Wars
''Space Wars'' is a shooter video game released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1977. Like the PDP-1 program ''Spacewar!'' (1962) it is based on, it uses black and white vector graphics for the visuals. The hardware developed for ''Space Wars'' became the platform for most of the vector-based arcade games from Cinematronics. It was distributed in Japan by Taito in 1978, and a Vectrex port was published in 1982. Gameplay Two players controlled different ships. One button rotated ship left, another rotated the ship right, one engaged thrust, one fired a shell, and one entered hyperspace (which causes the ship to disappear and reappear elsewhere on the playfield at random). The game offered a number of gameplay options, including the presence or absence of a star in the middle of the playfield (which exerted a positive or negative gravitational pull), whether the edges of the playfield wrapped around to their opposite sides, and whether shells bounced. The game had three parti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Play Meter
''Play Meter'' (initially ''Coin Industry Play Meter'') was an American trade magazine focusing on the coin-op amusement arcade industry, including jukebox and arcade game machines. It was founded in December 1974 by publisher and editor Ralph C. Lally II and it is published in physical form by Skybird Publishing on a monthly basis. Together with rival publication ''RePlay'' (founded 1975) it chronicled the arcade industry from its nascency, through market fluctuations like the video game crashes of 1977 and 1983, and the rebirth and maturation of the medium through the 1980s. It is the earliest example of video game journalism, establishing such practices as individual video game reviews and the ten-point assessment scale for video game reviews. ''Play Meter'' served as the parent organization of the first coin-op-oriented spring trade show (forerunner to North America's annual Amusement Expo). It published several bi-monthly and annual special issues throughout its history and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microgame (board Games)
A microgame is a board game or wargame packaged in a small set. Description Microgames enjoyed popularity during the 1980s and have seen a revival with the popularity of tabletop games in the 21st century. The term generally refers to board games or wargames which were packaged and sold with instructions and maps or playing surfaces printed in a booklet format, or as one large sheet folded until it became "pocket sized" (approximately 4×7 inches). Game pieces (also known as chits or counters) were printed on one or more sheets of thick paper which the player sometimes had to cut for themselves. Other microgames had fully die-cut cardboard sheets like those included with most board wargames. Steve Jackson Games used the Pocket Box to package many of their games in this format. While small scale wargames and board games, including Tabletop Games' Micro Series Games, had existed before they began publishing, Metagaming Concepts first used the term "MicroGame" when they release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Space Gamer
''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. The magazine is no longer published, but the rights holders maintain a web presence using its final title ''Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer''. History ''The Space Gamer'' (''TSG'') started out as a digest quarterly publication of the brand new Metagaming Concepts company in March 1975. Howard M. Thompson, the owner of Metagaming and the first editor of the magazine, stated "The magazine had been planned for after our third or fourth game but circumstances demand we do it now" (after their first game, ''Stellar Conquest''). Initial issues were in a plain-paper digest format. By issue 17, it had grown to a full size bimonthly magazine, printed on slick paper. When Steve Jackson departed Metagaming to found his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 creation of ''Dungeons & Dragons'', SJ Games created several role-playing and strategy games with science fiction themes. SJ Games' early titles were microgames initially sold in 4×7 inch ziploc bags, and later in the similarly sized Pocket Box. Games such as ''Ogre'', '' Car Wars'', and ''G.E.V'' (an ''Ogre'' spin-off) were popular during SJ Games' early years. Game designers such as Loren Wiseman and Jonathan Leistiko have worked for Steve Jackson Games. Today SJ Games publishes a variety of games, such as card games, board games, strategy games, and in different genres, such as fantasy, sci-fi, and gothic horror. They also published the book '' Principia Discordia'', the sacred text of the Discordian religion. Raid by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ares (magazine)
''Ares'' was an American science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI), 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. Publication history Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) began publishing ''Ares'' in 1980 as a science-fiction companion to '' Strategy & Tactics''.''Ares'' magazine was similar to ''Strategy & Tactics'', with a game every issue, but it focused on science-fiction and fantasy. SPI suffered financial problems and went into debt, and TSR bought the company and its assets in 1982. Shannon Appelcine stated that "TSR did very little with SPI's roleplaying games. ''Ares Magazine'' #12 (1982), which was prepared by SPI and published by TSR, included a game called 'Star Traders,' which was for use with ''Universe''; it was the last support for that game system ..As TSR turned further away ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantastic (magazine)
''Fantastic'' was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by the publishing company Ziff Davis as a fantasy companion to ''Amazing Stories''. Early sales were good, and the company quickly decided to switch ''Amazing'' from pulp format to digest, and to cease publication of their other science fiction pulp, '' Fantastic Adventures''. Within a few years sales fell, and Howard Browne, the editor, was forced to switch the focus to science fiction rather than fantasy. Browne lost interest in the magazine as a result and the magazine generally ran poor-quality fiction in the mid-1950s, under Browne and his successor, Paul W. Fairman. At the end of the 1950s, Cele Goldsmith took over as editor of both ''Fantastic'' and ''Amazing Stories'', and quickly invigorated the magazines, bringing in many new writers and making them, in the words of one science fiction historian, the "best-looking and brightest" magazines i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
