Time Tripper is a science fiction board game published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1980.
Time Tripper is a game for 1-4 players, where each player controls a Vietnam War era American GI who inaccurately manipulates the time flux and is transported to a significant battle in either the past or the future. If he survives the battle, the soldier then tries re-manipulate the time flux, either returning to his own time, or being randomly transported to another battle. [1]
The game includes a box, a rulebook, a map with two time displays (for the past and future) that include 36 "time locations", and counters for the soldiers, their equipment, and the creatures and soldiers they encounter. [2]
In the September 1980 edition of The Space Gamer (Issue No. 31), Keith Gross admired the refreshingly novel nature of Time Tripper, saying, "[It] is one of the few non-Swords-and-Sorcery fantasy games. Its design is highly innovative. Timetripper is highly recommended for all fantasy or s-f gamers who want to try something out of the ordinary." [1]
In the October 1980 edition of Dragon (Issue 42), Tony Watson also liked the innovative nature of the game, as well as its value as a solitaire game: "Time Tripper is a fun game. The idea is novel, the encounters are interesting without taking themselves too seriously, and the game is varied enough so that it never gets boring. It’s also a fine solitaire game, and that’s a big plus for those gamers who have a difficult time meeting with opponents." [2]
At the 1981 Origins Awards, Timetripper was a finalist for the Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Fantasy or Science-Fiction Board Game of 1980."
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.
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.
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.
A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not follow paragraphs in a linear or ordered fashion. Gamebooks are sometimes called choose your own adventure books or CYOA after the influential Choose Your Own Adventure series originally published by US company Bantam Books. Gamebooks influenced hypertext fiction.
H2 The Mines of Bloodstone is an official game adventure or "module" for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Starfire is a board wargame simulating space warfare and empire building in the 23rd century, created by Stephen V. Cole in 1979.
Grenadier Models Inc. of Springfield, Pennsylvania produced lead miniature figures for wargames and role-playing games with fantasy, science fiction and heroic themes between 1975 and 1996. Grenadier Models Inc. is best known for their figures for TSR, Inc.'s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, collectible Dragon-of-the-Month and Giants Club figures, and their marketing of paint and miniature sets through traditional retail outlets.
Robert N. Charrette is an American graphic artist, game designer, sculptor and author. Charrette has authored more than a dozen novels. His gaming materials have received many Origins Awards. Charrette was inducted in the Origins Hall of Fame in 2003. His work is known for a clean, realistic style that invokes themes from Feudal Japan and Chanbara films and in particular, historical and fantastic representations of Samurai culture. His early work in game design and miniature sculpting set the tone for depictions of Japanese mythology in American fantasy and science fiction. His 1979 role-playing game Bushido was one of the first role-playing games with a non-Western theme and remained in print for more than three decades. Charrette produced gaming products for Fantasy Games Unlimited, Grenadier Models Inc. and Ral Partha Enterprises, FASA and currently operates Parroom Enterprises, LLC, a boutique miniatures game company.
Dune is a strategy board game set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe, published by Avalon Hill in 1979. The game was designed by Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge and Peter Olotka. After many years out of print, the game was reissued by Gale Force Nine in 2019 in advance of the 2021 Dune film adaptation.
Formed in 1975, Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, is now known as Ral Partha Legacy Ltd. and produces miniature figures in 25 mm, 30 mm, 15 mm, and 54 mm scale. The company's products are made by spin-casting metal alloys which depict soldiers, adventurers and creatures that have been inspired by history and fiction. Their miniatures are sold at gaming conventions, in hobby shops, and by internet and mail order for use in role playing games, wargaming, dioramas, competitive painting, and collecting.
Dungeons & Dragons novels are works of fantasy fiction that are based upon campaign settings released for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
The Complete Book of Wargames by Jon Freeman and the editors of Consumer Guide was published in 1980 by Simon & Schuster under the Fireside imprint.
Down Styphon! is a miniatures wargame published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1977.
Demons is a board game published by Simulations Publications (SPI) in 1979 in which players control magicians who conjure demons to aid them during a treasure hunt.
Intruder is a solitaire science fiction microgame published in 1980 by Task Force Games in which a rapidly maturing alien roams a space station, ambushing and killing crew members.
Grail Quest is a solitaire Arthurian fantasy combat adventure published by Metagaming Concepts in 1980 that uses the combat rules from The Fantasy Trip.
Invasion of the Air-eaters is a science fiction near-future board wargame published by Metagaming Concepts in 1979 in which aliens invaders attempt to replace the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere with sulfur dioxide.
John Carter: Warlord of Mars is a two-player board game published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1979 that is based on the Barsoom novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs featuring the hero John Carter.
Survival / The Barbarian is a package of two board games published by Task Force Games in 1979.
Barbarian Prince is a solitaire board game published by the Dwarfstar Games line of Heritage Models in 1981.