# Yo, old geeks! What SPI games did you play? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 10, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518 "2005-08-10T22:14:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/21 "2005-08-11T23:19:11Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Wow, lots of memories getting stirred up here: > > “Ok. My fortified mountain engineer division attacks across a river hex into light woods against your supplied mechanized infantry division with support indirect artillery battalion. I have support tactical modifiers coming from my fighter-bomber unit, plus supply interdiction on the railway line into the hex. With the winter defense penalty for your mechanized, and blocked zone of control for the adjacent retreat path, plus fire suppression, this comes to…_looks at combat card_…7:2 odds…_rolls die_…a five…_looks at table_…‘NE’, no effect. Damn. Next hex, my corps of artillery supported light cavalry attacks…” LOL! 🙂 Brian ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/22 "2005-08-12T00:57:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Anyone know a good source of hex-map type computer games? [http://www.hexwars.com/](http://www.hexwars.com/) - it’s an subscription site for playing online SPI games. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/23 "2005-08-12T02:39:54Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > oo oo! > Just remembered: > _The Fall of Rome_ > A solitaire in which the player tries to prevent the dissolution of the Empire. The barbarians, meanwhile, keep popping up and crashing the Pax Romana. Hours of fun. Yes, I’ve got that one - it was fun as a solitaire game. The other major solitaire game was Wolfpack - I never enjoyed it as much. ---
**Author:** ![jonnhy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@jonnhy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonnhy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/24 "2014-08-18T15:56:36Z")
I wish I hadn’t wasted my money on those games. $40 or more for a game in a ziplock bag seems pretty steep, and I read that the publisher of the games said that SPI went out of business partly because he thought they sold the games for too little money. Also I didn’t think the games were very realistic. I received “The Desert Fox” with a copy of S&T, and it was impossible for Rommel to take Tobruk if the German player used the historical strategy in the magazine article in the game’s Tobruk scenario. Some of the games take weeks to play so I guess they couldn’t have play tested them as thoroughly as they thought or said. Or maybe it was all the beer and pizza/pretzels at the open test sessions they used to have. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/25 "2014-08-18T15:59:09Z")
Moved Cafe Society --\> the Game Room. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/26 "2014-08-18T17:30:26Z")
Not SPI, but SJ’s **Car Wars** and **GURPS** , **D & D** , **AD&D** , **Starfleet Battles** , **Squad Leader** , and **Air War** were all games I really enjoyed. There was another one that was set in WW2 as a flight sim/combat that I can’t remember the name of. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/27 "2014-08-18T17:40:48Z")
> [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](#): > > Also remember Steve Jackson’s **Car Wars**. Never played Car Wars, but friends of mine were really into it so I sat through many many evenings while they played and I read books and made commentary (and snacks). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/28 "2014-08-18T18:04:45Z")
> [@jonnhy](#): > > I wish I hadn’t wasted my money on those games. $40 or more for a game in a ziplock bag seems pretty steep, and I read that the publisher of the games said that SPI went out of business partly because he thought they sold the games for too little money. Also I didn’t think the games were very realistic. I received “The Desert Fox” with a copy of S&T, and it was impossible for Rommel to take Tobruk if the German player used the historical strategy in the magazine article in the game’s Tobruk scenario. Some of the games take weeks to play so I guess they couldn’t have play tested them as thoroughly as they thought or said. Or maybe it was all the beer and pizza/pretzels at the open test sessions they used to have. The problem was that those old wargames never managed to break out past a niche market. It’s not too surprising - playing them did take a lot of time and space and the game mechanics were complicated. They were never going to appeal to the crowd that liked Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. And while it took a lot of effort to make the games, it paradoxically was an easy business to get into. The old cliche was that every game player had a game designer inside of him. So you had a small market which was flooded with products. Most of these little game companies were doomed to go bankrupt within a year but new ones kept popping up. And SPI and Avalon Hill had to compete against them while selling enough games to keep their business afloat. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/29 "2014-08-18T18:13:29Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Not SPI, but SJ’s **Car Wars** and **GURPS** , **D & D** , **AD&D** , **Starfleet Battles** , **Squad Leader** , and **Air War** were all games I really enjoyed. Air War was SPI. Squad Leader was Avalon Hill. Starfleet Battles was Lou Zocchi, I think. D&D and AD&D were TSR. And Car Wars and Gurps were, as you noted, Steven Jackson Games. Of these companies, Steve Jackson Games is the only one still in business. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/30 "2014-08-18T18:14:44Z")
War in the Pacific Freedom in the Galaxy Rifle & Saber Sixth Fleet The Battles of Bull Run several more I’m forgetting War in the Pacific took longer to play than the war took to fight. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/31 "2014-08-18T18:26:12Z")
Anyone wanting to check out some old school wargames has an opportunity right now. Steve Jackson has republished his first game, _[Ogre](http://www.miniaturemarket.com/sjg1112.html?___store=mmonline&gclid=Cj0KEQjwyMafBRCU7OCRyc2vitsBEiQAKV4H9JtGgeD6ubkfZGRptS8xU9-S77j2IFYXD8bXK4zpTwIaAsY78P8HAQ)_, which he designed in 1977. (Despite its title, it’s not fantasy. It’s a sci-fi game about robot tanks.) He’s selling this reprint for its original price - $2.95. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/32 "2014-08-18T18:28:02Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > War in the Pacific took longer to play than the war took to fight. It was an interesting game is you had twenty people with a couple of years to kill and a spare house to set it up in. ---
**Author:** ![BlueOhio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@BlueOhio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueOhio)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/33 "2014-08-18T18:43:17Z")
I had several back in the day (but was more of an Avalon Hill guy/kid), but have had fun picking up vintage copies of SPI games when I can. Fun to pore over, although my eyes fail me much of the time. The print on the counters sure seemed a lot larger 30 years ago… ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/34 "2014-08-18T19:00:47Z")
Most of my stuff was Avalon Hill or GDW, but my uncle had a S&T subscription that I got a lot of hand-me-downs from when he was bored with them. I definitely had **6th Fleet** , that was a lot of fun. Also had **John Carter** , I played that endlessly, it was a good one to also mod with homebrew solo rules to play solitaire. There was also a S&T game that was based in cold war eastern europe, **RDF** I think. It was fun except that the AH-64 helicopters were insanely overpowered and unbalanced, one pop-up attack with a rack of hellfires was insta-death for the Soviets. edit: Doh! And I zombied myself. Hmm, I’ve put on weight… ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518/35 "2014-08-19T16:25:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Anyone wanting to check out some old school wargames has an opportunity right now. Steve Jackson has republished his first game, _[Ogre](http://www.miniaturemarket.com/sjg1112.html?___store=mmonline&gclid=Cj0KEQjwyMafBRCU7OCRyc2vitsBEiQAKV4H9JtGgeD6ubkfZGRptS8xU9-S77j2IFYXD8bXK4zpTwIaAsY78P8HAQ)_, which he designed in 1977. (Despite its title, it’s not fantasy. It’s a sci-fi game about robot tanks.) He’s selling this reprint for its original price - $2.95. OGRE! I loved that game! It always reminded me of Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker series in some ways. I never got around to it but I always thought doing an OGRE style game with SFB and a Berserker might have been interesting… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yo-old-geeks-what-spi-games-did-you-play/316518.md?page=1)