> Tim Jones wrote:
OK, I'll do a bit of surfing/data mining. Not much hope though.
According to http://www.erols.com/mrboone/wg_home.html the Star Trek
Game was called "Star Fleet Battle Manual", and was put out by Gamescience in
1976, with Alien Space from 1975.
Address according to http://www.w-s-o.com/L1_160.htm
Gamescience: 1512 30TH AVE. GULFPORT, MS 39501
Tel: 601-863-0215
Fax: 601-863-0323
E-mail: zocchidist@aol.com
Alan:
***
And you hit PAY DIRT! And at that price, I'd be very tempted to get it myself.
***
I've seen copies go for fair, not awesome, but large, prices at auction, which
is weird to me because Lou Zocchi, at GenCon, sells them from his booth. No
problem getting him to autograph a copy while you're
there, too. ;->= I'm pretty certain Sleeping Dragon's price is better,
tho'.
You can also pick up the Alien Space game from Lou. I'm certain that there
were ads calling them compatible, even though the AS used a 360 degree
rosette, and Battle Manual 400 tics to the circle. 400 tics were the standard
put in the Technical Manual, from which Lou got his designs and license to
produce. Before Paramount realized the market potential.
Good point about the ring and stand on the Gamescience ships. The ring took
advantage of the taper of the stand uprights; a little slack to the string,
and ring slipped down and centered itself for accuracy. Well, that was the
theory.
The_Beast who promises to now return to his defender of ON TOPIC
paladinhood
I was one of the few who went to a seminar Lou Zocchi had on Alien Space at
last year's GenCon which billed Alien Space as the first space game. (History
or space miniature gaming, on topic?;) I'm not sure the '75 date from the web
page is correct since I found an early edition which I think is dated before
that but will have to check.
The story is (as well as I can remember it), Lou wanted a game of spaceship
combat based on Trek so he created one where you had a miniature on a disk
with degrees marked around the edge of the circle (based on a paper plate).
The player would then try an visually sight the target ship and state what
weapon fired at what heading. Then a string tied to the ring around the post
was stretched out at the stated heading and if it hit the ship, you did
damage. This was a skill and not a random dice thing. Lou said people were
playing this on gymnasium floors and still hitting most of the time with some
practice. The rest of the game is simple power allocation with very free form
movement rules.
This game was first called "Star Trek Battle Manual" but without a license, he
had to stop. So he renamed the game and the ships (the stats stayed the same)
and "Alien Space" was born. The when Task Force Games got a license for "Star
Fleet Battles" (through Franz Joseph and the Technical Manual), they contacted
him about his miniatures for the game (I can't remember exactly when they came
into being and how) and in return he somehow was able to get in on their Trek
license and the "Star Fleet Battle Manual" was released.
Lou is a unique guy and will talk as long as you let him, you might not be
interested in most of it though when he is making sense. The latest versions
of the game can still be found (those with the color covers) but the early
versions especially the "Star Trek Battle Manual" are hard to find.
> I was one of the few who went to a seminar Lou Zocchi had on Alien
Is this earlier edition pre-'73? I think that Dave Rotor's "Galactic
Warfare" rules (published in the UK by Skytrex) came out in '73, though I'd
have to dig out my original copy to be sure. It was this ruleset that prompted
me to start developing what eventually became Full Thrust, so it's got a lot
to answer for....!
[snip]
> This game was first called "Star Trek Battle Manual" but without a
I actually thought the Zocchi Star Fleet Battle Manual predated Taskforce and
SFB, but I could be wrong....
> Lou is a unique guy and will talk as long as you let him, you might not
but
> the early versions especially the "Star Trek Battle Manual" are hard to
On Mon, 15 Mar 1999 21:03:34 +1000 Alan E & Carmel J Brain
> <aebrain@dynamite.com.au> wrote:
> According to http://www.erols.com/mrboone/wg_home.html the Star Trek
Sorry, but AS dates back to _at least_ 1974. How do I know? 'Cause I
was playing it (or a modified version) with the Melbourne Uni SF Club then.
The first SF wargame that I ever played (as opposed to owned) and lotsa fun,
particularly with our house rules (and the typos!).
The SFBM did come out in '76, after Lou got a license from Franz
Joseph -- in a move of perhaps questionable legality which was only
sorted out some years later, the SFBM wasn't a "Star Trek" game, it was a game
based on FJ Designs' "Star Fleet Technical Manual" (which, of course, was
licensed from Paramount, but it took them
several years to notice) -- and included rules to make the two games
compatible (in fact, the cover of the SFBM showed Federation ships in
combat with AS Kuzis -- but then, we always knew that they were Klingon
wannabes, anyway <g>). There were only small differences between the
games -- except for the movement system, perhaps -- but enough to give
some flavour to combining the two.
The minis came out at about the same time, although the metal ones (the
"K-type", "R-type" and "T-type", a.k.a. the Klingon BC, the Romulan
Warbird and the Tholian PC) were much harder to find (at least in
Australia) than the plastic Fed stuff -- which is why I ended up with
such a large Federation fleet!
Note that this pre-dates SFB by several years (at least 3). SFB was
_also_ licensed by Franz Joseph, and it was only later (about '82?)
that Task Force began marketing the Gamescience minis in its own packaging.
Meanwhile, Gamescience continued to sell them themselves, including the
luminous and clear plastic ones, which TFG didn't bother with.
Of course, the Alien Space minis that Lou mentioned on occasion never
eventuated, much to my dismay. I wanted Kuzis and Dorts -- oh, and a
Rux or two.
Phil, Gapper Zapper ace of bygone days....
> Phillip Atcliffe wrote:
> Nyrath the nearly wise wrote:
I brought my copy of Alien Space to the 1998 ECC Convention, just for kicks.
The young guys didn't have any idea what it was. :-)
The ships were a bit unbalanced. Let's face it. The Gapper Zapper? If both
beams hit an enemy ship, the target was completely vaporized. Range on the
Gapper Zapper was 36".
There were some interesting weapons in the game, such as the Stalker pod and
javelin torpedo. Lots of fond memories on the living room floor.