Battledroids is a 1984 board game published by FASA.
It would be renamed to BattleTech for its second edition in 1985 and spawn the BattleTech/MechWarrior military science fiction gaming franchise and setting with numerous board games, video games, roleplaying games, a collectible card game, comics, magazines, over a hundred novels to date and a television series.
Battledroids is a board game of giant robot combat, which came in a box including a 40-page rulebook on slick paper, an identical pair of 17" x 22" terrain maps, four cardstock sheets of robot miniatures counters, a set of dice and two 3" plastic robot models. [1]
Trevor Mendham reviewed Battledroids for White Dwarf #66, giving it an overall rating of 7 out of 10, and stated that "Overall, this is a well-written, easy-to-understand set of rules. Much of the design is clearly specific to robot combat and succeeds in capturing the flavour of this sort of battle. As it stands, Battledroids is a very good robot combat system, but very little in terms of a 'game'. The production quality leads one to expect more." [2]
Aaron Allston reviewed Battledroids in The Space Gamer No. 75. [1] Allston commented that "My recommendation? Buy Battledroids if you'd like a giant-robots boardgame that has nothing to do with the Japanese cartoons. It's a decent game. You won't throw away any of your other games to play Battledroids full-time, but you'll be adequately entertained." [1]
Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Marc Miller designed Traveller with help from Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman. Editions were published for GURPS, d20, and other role-playing game systems. From its origin and in the currently published systems, the game relied upon six-sided dice for random elements. Traveller has been featured in a few novels and at least two video games.
BattleTech is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark is currently owned by Topps and, for videogames, Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios; Catalyst Game Studios licenses the franchise from Topps.
Robots and Empire is a science fiction novel by the American author Isaac Asimov, published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimov's Robot series, which consists of many short stories and five novels.
OGRE is a science fiction board wargame designed by the American game designer Steve Jackson and published by Metagaming Concepts in 1977 as the first microgame in its MicroGame line. When Steve Jackson left Metagaming to form his own company, he took the rights to OGRE with him, and all subsequent editions have been produced by Steve Jackson Games (SJG).
Cosmic Encounter is a science fiction–themed strategy board game designed by "Future Pastimes" and originally published by Eon Games in 1977. In it, each player takes the role of a particular alien species, each with a unique power to bend or break one of the rules of the game, trying to establish control over the universe. The game was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.
Warhammer is a tabletop miniature wargame with a medieval fantasy theme. The game was created by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley, and first published by the Games Workshop company in 1983.
White Bear and Red Moon is a fantasy board wargame set in the world of Glorantha, created by Greg Stafford and published in 1975. Stafford first tried to sell the game to established publishers, but despite being accepted by three different game companies, each attempt ended in failure; eventually he founded his own game company in 1974, the influential Chaosium, to produce and market the game.
Lost Worlds is a "combat picture book game" designed and trademarked by Alfred Leonardi and originally published in 1983 by Nova Game Designs. The game has had many publishers, including Chessex, Emithill, Flying Buffalo and Greysea.
Battlecars is a simple wargame based upon the Mad Max genre of a post-apocalyptic world dominated by aggressive, warring gangs. It was first published by Games Workshop in 1983 and the game designers were Gary Chalk and Ian Livingstone.
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.
Starfire is a board wargame simulating space warfare and empire building in the 23rd century, created by Stephen V. Cole in 1979.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is a game originally published by Sleuth Publications in 1981. Multiple expansions and reprints of the game have since been released.
Timemaster is a role-playing game centered on traveling through time and alternate dimensions, written by Mark D. Acres, Andria Hayday and Carl Smith and published by Pacesetter Ltd in 1984. Players take on the role of Time Corps agents to fix deviations in the timeline of the game. The primary antagonists are the Demoreans, a fictional race of shape-shifting aliens from another dimension who are determined to mold time to suit their needs.
Grimtooth's Traps is a 1981 role-playing game supplement edited by Paul Ryan O'Connor, illustrated by Steve Crompton and published by Flying Buffalo.
Barbarian Prince is a solitaire board game published by the Dwarfstar Games line of Heritage Models in 1981.
Grav-Ball is a 1982 board game published by FASA.
Curse of the Chthonians is a 1984 role-playing game adventure for Call of Cthulhu published by Chaosium.
Star Trek III Starship Combat Game is a 1984 board game published by FASA.
Thrilling Locations is a 1985 Spy fiction tabletop role-playing game supplement for James Bond 007 published by Victory Games. Originally published as a separate supplement, it was later included with the boxed Basic Set for the game.
Sanctuary is a board game published by Mayfair Games in 1982 that is based on Thieves' World.