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Simulations Publications, Inc.

February 21, 2023

Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) was an 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. SPI ran out of cash in early 1982 when TSR called in a loan secured by SPI's assets. TSR began selling SPI's inventory in 1982, but later acquired the company's trademarks and copyrights in 1983 and continued a form of the operation until 1987.[1]

Simulations Publications, Inc.
IndustryGaming
Founded1969; 54 years ago (1969)
Defunct1982; 41 years ago (1982)
FateLoan foreclosure by TSR resulting in assets seizure
SuccessorTSR
Headquarters44 East 23rd Street, New York City; later moved to 257 Park Avenue South
Key people
James F. Dunnigan (founder), Redmond A. Simonsen (art director), Howie Barasch (marketing manager)
ProductsStrategy & Tactics magazine, Ares magazine, board games, wargames

History

Origin and early years

Jim Dunnigan had been introduced to Avalon Hill wargames while serving in the U.S. Army in Korea. Upon his return to civilian life in 1964, Dunnigan began to contribute articles to Avalon Hill's house publication The General and independent wargaming magazine Strategy & Tactics. In one of his contributions to The General, Dunnigan criticized what he saw as a lack of historical accuracy in Avalon Hill's 1965 release, Battle of the Bulge. Thomas Shaw, at the time in charge of Avalon Hill, asked Dunnigan to design and submit his own wargame.[2] The result was Jutland, published by Avalon Hill in 1967. Two years later, after designing 1914 for Avalon Hill, Dunnigan struck out on his own after concluding there must be a "more effective way to publish games."[2] He quickly gathered a staff of like-minded designers, including Al Nofi and Redmond A. Simonsen.[2] Dunnigan acquired Strategy & Tactics, which had been in financial trouble, from its founder Christopher Wagner.[2] However, SPI quickly proved that it was primarily a game publisher rather than a magazine publisher; not only did it start to publish a variety of wargames, but each issue of Strategy & Tactics included a complete wargame, comprising a map, rule book 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 card stock. 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.

In 1974, SPI started to ship some of their wargames games to J.D. Bardsley in the UK, who acted as a sales representative using the name SP/UK. Bardsley sold the games either via mail order or face to face at games conventions.[3] Sales increased rapidly, and by March 1976, SP/UK had sold 25,000 units. To handle the increased sales, SPI formed a formal British subsidiary, Simpubs Ltd. in June 1976. Simpubs immediately created the bi-monthly periodical Phoenix with J.D. Bardsley as managing editor.[3]

Commercial success and growth

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 only 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 rule books. 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 games, with DragonQuest and Universe, responses to Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller respectively; the term "Adventure Gaming" also replaced "Wargaming" in company advertising.

Demise and asset acquisition by TSR

In an attempt to expand its customer base, SPI entered into a much-publicized arrangement with Lorimar Productions to produce the Dallas role-playing game based on the soap opera Dallas in 1980. The game proved to be an infamous failure, and Simonsen later remarked that the 80,000 copies printed were 79,999 too many.[4]

SPI had shopped for venture capital providers to take advantage of the perceived expansion of the gaming market in the late 1970s. When the expansion did not deliver the expected higher profits, only higher sales, the money needed to be returned. First efforts led to discussions with Avalon Hill to merge with or acquire SPI, but that did not materialize, partially due to the increasing losses in cash for SPI thanks to the increases in costs from inflation and the decreases in revenue. AH did purchase five of SPI's titles, which helped with operational costs. However, more money was needed.

SPI negotiated a promissory note loan (at the time mentioned as $225,000 but here listed as $400,000 from TSR (the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons). The note was guaranteed by SPI's assets. SPI used the cash to pay their venture capitalists, and were broke but happy. However, less than two weeks later, TSR called in the note.[4] SPI, with no cash available and no options to get the cash, were forced to give over their inventory stock to TSR in early 1982, and were effectively out of business. TSR originally claimed they acquired SPI, but as that would mean they also would be responsible for their debts, quickly changed that statement. Thus, SPI's assets—but not its debts and liabilities—were acquired by TSR in 1983.[1] 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.[citation needed]

Aftermath

In an effort to make money from the SPI intellectual properties that they now owned, TSR released several titles that were ready for publication but had been stranded by a lack of money for printing, such as Battle Over Britain and Richard Berg's latest contribution to the Great Battles of the American Civil War series, A Gleam of Bayonets: The Battle of Antietam. TSR also reboxed and republished several popular SPI titles from the mid-1970s under the TSR logo, including Air War, Blue & Gray: Four American Civil War Battles, and Napoleon's Last Battles. But TSR halted all current SPI game development, and most SPI game designers resigned and moved to rival company Avalon Hill, lured by the formation of a subsidiary specifically for them called Victory Games.[2]

TSR soon learned that one reason for SPI's demise was the collapse of the wargame market in the early 1980s. As a result, rather than becoming a major player in the wargame market, TSR published fewer and fewer wargames. Eventually TSR discontinued all the SPI magazines except for Strategy & Tactics. In 1987, TSR sold the rights to S&T to 3W.

Decision Games, a California company founded in 1988, now has the rights to most of the SPI backlist.

Awards

See also

Bibliography

  • 1977: Wargame Design: The History, Production, and Use of Conflict Simulation Games (ISBN 0-917852-01-X)
  • 1977: War in the East: The Russo-German Conflict 1941–45 (ISBN 0-917852-00-1)

References

  1. ^ a b . Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2005-08-20.
  2. ^ a b c d e Lowood, Henry (2016). "War Engines". In Harrigan, Pat; Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. (eds.). Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming. MIT Press. p. 90. ISBN 9780262033992.
  3. ^ a b "SPI Games Printed in the UK: SPI UK - SPI Games printed in England". spigames.net. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  4. ^ a b Simonsen, Redmond. "Why Did SPI Die?".
  5. ^ . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  6. ^ . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  7. ^ . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  8. ^ a b . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  9. ^ . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  10. ^ a b c . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  11. ^ a b . Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-09-14.

External links

February 21, 2023
simulations, publications, american, publisher, board, wargames, related, magazines, particularly, flagship, strategy, tactics, 1970s, early, 1980s, produced, enormous, number, games, introduced, innovative, practices, changing, course, wargaming, hobby, take,. Simulations Publications Inc SPI was an American publisher of board wargames and related magazines particularly its flagship Strategy amp 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 SPI ran out of cash in early 1982 when TSR called in a loan secured by SPI s assets TSR began selling SPI s inventory in 1982 but later acquired the company s trademarks and copyrights in 1983 and continued a form of the operation until 1987 1 Simulations Publications Inc IndustryGamingFounded1969 54 years ago 1969 Defunct1982 41 years ago 1982 FateLoan foreclosure by TSR resulting in assets seizureSuccessorTSRHeadquarters44 East 23rd Street New York City later moved to 257 Park Avenue SouthKey peopleJames F Dunnigan founder Redmond A Simonsen art director Howie Barasch marketing manager ProductsStrategy amp Tactics magazine Ares magazine board games wargames Contents 1 History 1 1 Origin and early years 1 2 Commercial success and growth 1 3 Demise and asset acquisition by TSR 1 4 Aftermath 2 Awards 3 See also 4 Bibliography 5 References 6 External linksHistory EditOrigin and early years Edit Jim Dunnigan had been introduced to Avalon Hill wargames while serving in the U S Army in Korea Upon his return to civilian life in 1964 Dunnigan began to contribute articles to Avalon Hill s house publication The General and independent wargaming magazine Strategy amp Tactics In one of his contributions to The General Dunnigan criticized what he saw as a lack of historical accuracy in Avalon Hill s 1965 release Battle of the Bulge Thomas Shaw at the time in charge of Avalon Hill asked Dunnigan to design and submit his own wargame 2 The result was Jutland published by Avalon Hill in 1967 Two years later after designing 1914 for Avalon Hill Dunnigan struck out on his own after concluding there must be a more effective way to publish games 2 He quickly gathered a staff of like minded designers including Al Nofi and Redmond A Simonsen 2 Dunnigan acquired Strategy amp Tactics which had been in financial trouble from its founder Christopher Wagner 2 However SPI quickly proved that it was primarily a game publisher rather than a magazine publisher not only did it start to publish a variety of wargames but each issue of Strategy amp Tactics included a complete wargame comprising a map rule book 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 card stock 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 amp 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 In 1974 SPI started to ship some of their wargames games to J D Bardsley in the UK who acted as a sales representative using the name SP UK Bardsley sold the games either via mail order or face to face at games conventions 3 Sales increased rapidly and by March 1976 SP UK had sold 25 000 units To handle the increased sales SPI formed a formal British subsidiary Simpubs Ltd in June 1976 Simpubs immediately created the bi monthly periodical Phoenix with J D Bardsley as managing editor 3 Commercial success and growth Edit 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 only 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 amp 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 rule books 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 amp 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 games with DragonQuest and Universe responses to Dungeons amp Dragons and Traveller respectively the term Adventure Gaming also replaced Wargaming in company advertising Demise and asset acquisition by TSR Edit In an attempt to expand its customer base SPI entered into a much publicized arrangement with Lorimar Productions to produce the Dallas role playing game based on the soap opera Dallas in 1980 The game proved to be an infamous failure and Simonsen later remarked that the 80 000 copies printed were 79 999 too many 4 SPI had shopped for venture capital providers to take advantage of the perceived expansion of the gaming market in the late 1970s When the expansion did not deliver the expected higher profits only higher sales the money needed to be returned First efforts led to discussions with Avalon Hill to merge with or acquire SPI but that did not materialize partially due to the increasing losses in cash for SPI thanks to the increases in costs from inflation and the decreases in revenue AH did purchase five of SPI s titles which helped with operational costs However more money was needed SPI negotiated a promissory note loan at the time mentioned as 225 000 but here listed as 400 000 from TSR the publishers of Dungeons amp Dragons The note was guaranteed by SPI s assets SPI used the cash to pay their venture capitalists and were broke but happy However less than two weeks later TSR called in the note 4 SPI with no cash available and no options to get the cash were forced to give over their inventory stock to TSR in early 1982 and were effectively out of business TSR originally claimed they acquired SPI but as that would mean they also would be responsible for their debts quickly changed that statement Thus SPI s assets but not its debts and liabilities were acquired by TSR in 1983 1 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 citation needed Aftermath Edit In an effort to make money from the SPI intellectual properties that they now owned TSR released several titles that were ready for publication but had been stranded by a lack of money for printing such as Battle Over Britain and Richard Berg s latest contribution to the Great Battles of the American Civil War series A Gleam of Bayonets The Battle of Antietam TSR also reboxed and republished several popular SPI titles from the mid 1970s under the TSR logo including Air War Blue amp Gray Four American Civil War Battles and Napoleon s Last Battles But TSR halted all current SPI game development and most SPI game designers resigned and moved to rival company Avalon Hill lured by the formation of a subsidiary specifically for them called Victory Games 2 TSR soon learned that one reason for SPI s demise was the collapse of the wargame market in the early 1980s As a result rather than becoming a major player in the wargame market TSR published fewer and fewer wargames Eventually TSR discontinued all the SPI magazines except for Strategy amp Tactics In 1987 TSR sold the rights to S amp T to 3W Decision Games a California company founded in 1988 now has the rights to most of the SPI backlist Awards EditCharles S Roberts Award Best Professional Magazine of 1974 5 1975 6 1976 7 and 1977 8 Strategy amp Tactics Charles S Roberts Award All Time Best Fantasy Board Game of 1977 War of the Ring 8 Charles S Roberts Award Best 20th Century Game of 1978 To the Green Fields Beyond 9 Charles S Roberts Award Best 20th Century Game of 1979 City Fight 10 Charles S Roberts Award Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Game of 1979 The Creature That Ate Sheboygan 10 H G Wells Award Best Roleplaying Rules of 1979 Commando 10 Charles S Roberts Award Best Pre 20th Century Boardgame of 1980 Empires of the Middle Ages 11 H G Wells Award Best Roleplaying Rules of 1980 DragonQuest 11 See also EditList of SPI games Operational Studies Group Victory GamesBibliography Edit1977 Wargame Design The History Production and Use of Conflict Simulation Games ISBN 0 917852 01 X 1977 War in the East The Russo German Conflict 1941 45 ISBN 0 917852 00 1 References Edit a b The History of TSR Wizards of the Coast Archived from the original on 2008 09 24 Retrieved 2005 08 20 a b c d e Lowood Henry 2016 War Engines In Harrigan Pat Kirschenbaum Matthew G eds Zones of Control Perspectives on Wargaming MIT Press p 90 ISBN 9780262033992 a b SPI Games Printed in the UK SPI UK SPI Games printed in England spigames net Retrieved 2021 11 27 a b Simonsen Redmond Why Did SPI Die Origins Award Winners 1974 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts amp Design Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 09 14 Origins Award Winners 1975 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts amp Design Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 09 14 Origins Award Winners 1976 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts amp Design Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 09 14 a b Origins Award Winners 1977 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts amp Design Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 09 14 Origins Award Winners 1978 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts amp Design Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 09 14 a b c Origins Award Winners 1979 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts amp Design Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 09 14 a b Origins Award Winners 1980 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts amp Design Archived from the original on 2007 08 30 Retrieved 2007 09 14 External links EditSPI Compendium by Greg Costikyan lists games magazine contents etc A Farewell to Hexes by Greg Costikyan Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Simulations Publications Inc amp oldid 1137153234, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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