task force games
task force games released the first of their pocket games, the second major sci - fi / fantasy microgame line, in 1979 .
kuala lumpur: the fire and rescue department has formed a special task force to ensure everything goes smoothly during the upcoming sea games .
kuala lumpur: the fire and rescue services department has formed a special task force to ensure everything goes smoothly during the coming sea games .
task force games was an american gaming company that was co - founded by stephen v. cole and allen eldridge in amarillo, texas in 1979 .
many of the games task force games published were issued as pocket games that were packaged in a resealable baggie without a box. some were later published in a larger folio edition or produced in a typical game box .
the task force will be in charge of the department’s preparation and response to any fire, disaster or terrorist threat that may arise during the games next month .
the task force will take charge of the department' s preparations and response to any fire, disaster or terrorist threat that may arise during the games here next month .
the roots of microgaming: the classic games of metagaming the classic games of metagaming: ogre the classic games of metagaming: chitin i: the harvest wars melee and wizard by metagaming the lords of underearth by metagaming the awful green things from outer space by steve jackson games valkenburg castle, by task force games swordquest, by task force games barbarian kings by spi barbarian prince, by heritage games return of the barbarian prince at empire’s end, by dark city games s. o. s, a complete legends of time and space game by dark city games the island of lost spells and wolves on the rhine, by dark city games a survey of dark city games solitaire gaming by howard andrew jones
we’ll continue our tour of task force pocket games next time with a look at cerberus: the proxima centauri campaign, star fleet battles, and prochorovka: armor at kursk .
from april / may of 1982 until 1987 task force games published their own magazine, nexus magazine, that mainly covered their own games but also games of some minor publishers. it ran 18 issues, that can be consulted by going to the nexus index page of by the cross indexed list of articles in the pages of tfg games .
the pocket games were digest sized games packaged in a ziplock bag. some games were sold shrinkwrapped with the ziplock folded inside the rulebook .
( tfg). many of their early games were “pocket games” published in ziplock bags. the first was
one of the great things about task force’s pocket games was that they were sort of a testing room for innovative game designs. designers could try out all kinds of things, without the heavier pressures that came with a $ 20 boxed game. when these simple games were a hit, as they were with starfire and star fleet battles, the designers expanded the rules with sequels — also pocket games, naturally. starfire had two pocket games sequels before being released as a boxed game .
task force games is generally acknowledged as the second major player to jump into the microgame industry, following metagaming, who released ogre in in 1977. they were followed by spi, tsr, steve jackson games, and fasa, before microgames eventually died out at the end of the 80s. there’s a nice survey of the entire microgame genre at the maverick’s classic microgames museum here .
joint task force is the real - time strategy (rts) game where you command the frontline forces in tomorrow' s most hazardous conflicts. lead twenty dramatic missions in explosive war - zones including the middle east, central asia, and the balkans .
task force games was created in 1979 by stephen v. cole and allen eldridge. stephen v. cole left in the early 1980' s, but continued to design the company' s best selling star fleet battles game. allen eldridge sold the company to new world computing in 1988. the company is currently out of business .
but also cover a lot of their other games as well as some games produced by other companies, have been unavailable but long sought after by fans .
in most cases, boxed games and box sets do not come with dice .
the second task force pocket game, asteroid zero - four, was also released in 1979. unlike starfire, it’s generally forgotten today, but it was a fun little two - player game that extrapolated the cold war into space, simulating a battle between russian and american asteroid bases .
starfire was followed by two pocket games sequels before being released as a boxed game .
of course, who could afford big games like that? not me, that’s for sure. but that’s okay, because task force games was also a pioneer in the microgame market, with a line of truly stellar pocket games, starting with starfire in 1979. starfire was one of the most successful microgames ever released. it sold a zillion copies, went through six different editions, and is still being sold today by starfire design studio. it was so popular it eventually inspired a series of novels by david weber and steve white, including the new york times bestseller the shiva option .
steve jackson games e23 warehouse (steve jackson is a long time friend of steve cole. )
anyway, task force games had a huge hit with their pocket games line. shipped in zip locks bags (eventually shrinkwrap), and priced at $ 3. 95, the games were designed to be easy to learn and quick to play. all told they released twenty - two, all but three with science fiction or fantasy themes, including many that are still highly regarded today. the most successful, like starfire, star fleet battles, armor at kursk, and swordquest, eventually graduated to full - fledged boxed editions, but the zip - lock versions were fully playable (and a lot more portable) .
please note that i am not affiliated with amarillo design bureau and am not trying to market these games. i am merely a fan wishing to share with others the availability of some great old games .
soiman was speaking after officiating an
emergency response team
readiness seminar for hotels involved in the games .
amarillo design bureau, steve cole’s new company, is also keeping a number of the old task force microgames afloat, some with the aid of sjg’s warehouse 23 outlet. so, asteroid zero - four (which i swear must be related to the movie moon zero two), valkenburg castle, prochorovka: armor at kursk, and a few others are digitally available, too .
the star fleet battles series of games is currently published by the original designers, amarillo design bureau, inc. .
along with the rights to sfb were transferred the copyright to a number of other games, many of which steve cole had been the designer. adb has now made some of those games available for purchase as downloadable pdfs which are listed below .
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task force games, based in amarillo, texas, was one of the very best board game companies in the business in the 80s, especially for science fiction fans. they published the majestic federation & empire (and its follow - up, federation commander), kings bounty, godsfire, battlewagon, armor at kursk, musketeers, and the rpgs crime fighter, prime directive (based on star trek), and the glorious heroes of olympus — among many, many others — before the company was sold to might & magic developer new world computing in 1988, and then went out of business .
the company was also the publisher of the non - star trek starfire series of games which were later novelized by david weber into such books as in death ground, the shiva option and insurrection. they also published historical games such as battlewagon and history of the second world war .
not all of the games are at every location but most are at e23. adb is continuing to release more old tfg games. exactly which others they have the rights to and when they will be released i have no idea but i will attempt to update this list when that happens .
starfire wasn’t even the most popular task force pocket game. that honor belongs to the ubiquitous star fleet battles. everybody owned a copy of star fleet battles in the 80s. i think it was required by law. i’d tell you how many editions of star fleet battles exist, but no one truly knows. academics around the world have gone insane, just trying to figure out how many editions of star fleet battles there are. it’s like writiing your ph. d. thesis on the necronomicon .
flat trays for spi games are not graded, and have the usual problems. if excessively worn, they will be marked as
tray worn .
the 29th sea games, to be held from aug 19 - 30, will see athletes from 10 asean countries competing in 405 events and 38 sports .
“this is to help the 5, 000 personnel already working in the states that will be hosting the games, ” he said at a press conference yesterday .
back in the 70s, when hobby boardgaming largely meant wargaming, a number of small games companies started up. one of the more successful of these was formed by
( sfb). they produced many more games but these two, particularly sfb, were the company’s bread and butter. sfb’s popularity led to steve cole leaving tfg to form
this is to help the 5, 000 personnel already working in the states and cities that will be hosting the games, including kuala lumpur, selangor, putrajaya, and terengganu .
this actually predates tfg. jagdpanther was a magazine created and published by steve cole. each issue contained various wargame discussions, variants for existing games, and a complete game. issue 5 contained the game
near mint. like new with only the slightest wear, many times indistinguishable from a mint item. close to perfect, very collectible. board games in this condition may be played but show little to no wear .
department deputy director - general (operations) datuk soiman jahid said that an additional 690 personnel and 91 fire engines would be stationed at the hotels where the participants and members of the media would be staying as well as at the games venue .
the company produced a number of star trek gaming products including star fleet battles and federation and empire until going into bankruptcy in 1999. the star fleet battles series of games is currently published by amarillo design bureau, the game' s originating designer .
i had a bunch of these. few were great, but all were good solid games and good value. starfire, thought, was (and is great). i haven’t played in ages but i do look at the page for the current version of the game. urltoken
the department' s deputy director - general (operations) datuk soiman jahid (pic) said that an additional 690 personnel and 91 fire engines would be stationed at the hotels where the participants and members of the media will be staying, as well as at the games' venues .
humans were ready to colonize the planet cerberus. the problem? cetians, a reptile - like species had arrived there first and didn’t want to share! so on june 10, 2096, the human force arrived at cerberus, ready to take over the planet. can they do it? return to 1979 and try an exciting, two - player game of fast maneuvers and action, sure to excite new and experienced gamers of all ages. cerberus was the first game to cover combat over the entire surface of a planet. a new and unique system is used to depict the curved surface of the planet. the 108 multi - colored playing pieces depict the bases, spaceports, mobile battalions, and special forces platoons that landed and fought on cerberus. this was scanned from the best - available, second - edition copy and contains the rules and images of the counters and map .
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star fleet battles became one of the first microgames to grow into a full - fledged boxed set when it was rerelased as such in 1979 .
battlewagon was rereleased in a larger format folio edition. the earliest pocket game version had double - sided counters .
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( adb) whose sole product was sfb material which tfg would publish. tfg went through a number of changes and owners over the years and finally closed its doors in the 90s. a deal was struck which transformed adb into the legal publisher of sfb and it immediately revamped the franchise and has continued to develop it to this day .
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although often credited to steve cole as a designer he distances himself from it and maintains that he contributed the background and little more .
was later published and remains in print but this smaller game is still popular in some quarters .
prime directive was tfg' s roleplaying game set in the star fleet universe. it has its fans and its detracters but lived long enough to produce a handful of expansions which are also available .
adb later chose to license existing rpg engines for their universe such as gurps and d20. traveller is currently in development .
the tale is told that someone at tfg saw this photo of an iowa class battleship and thought it would make a great cover for a game. since sfb was such a hit and it had been inspired by naval battles, why not reverse engineer it to create a naval wargame? thus was battlewagon born .
also available are six articles and scenarios for the game copied from nexus, tfg' s magazine .
this was a very popular early dungeon / castle fantasy game. heroes must be lead to explore the dungeon and capture the castle .
a tactical game of robotic warfare where players designed there own robot warriors which they then used to conquer territory and gain resources to build more robots .
an operational level wargame about the wwii battle of kursk, the largest tank battle ever fought .
a battle between two asteroid based fleets involving strategic attacks on the asteroid bases as well as tactical strikes against the fleets .
spellbinder is a fantasy wargame of wizards and armies designed for two - to - four players. use spells, make and break alliances, and command your armies. only one wizard can be the most powerful wizard in silomant and lay claim to yof - pintre ,
the pinnacle .
this has been scanned from the best copy available. includes counter images and map .
two player game based on h. g. wells war of the worlds .
mars is invading earth (well england and in particular london and the surrounding countryside). you play as the martians or the humans .
have recently begun releasing scans of this old magazine as pdf. this is particularly good news as many of the articles, which include a lot of
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experience the evolution of warfare firsthand as you bring superior tactics and military technology to bear against dangerous and unconventional forces. no game has been so gritty or immediate .
use the principle of combined arms to your maximum advantage. all battlefield units - including infantry, tanks, artillery, reconnaissance and helicopters - are strongest when used together. your men' s lives depend on your level - headed strategy .
multiplayer modes will be able to handle 8 players over lan and internet. with a brand new multiplayer mode .
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every item in our inventory has been inspected, very strictly graded, and bagged for its protection .
shrink wrapped. still in the original factory shrink wrap, with condition visible through shrink noted. for example ,
sw (nm )
means shrink wrapped in near - mint condition .
excellent. lightly used, but almost like new. may show very small spine creases or slight corner wear. absolutely no tears and no marks, a collectible condition .
vg very good. used. may have medium sized creases, scuff marks, very small stain, etc. complete and very useable .
very well used, but complete and useable. may have flaws such as tears, pen marks or highlighting, large creases, stains, marks, a loose map, etc .
extremely well used and has major flaws, which may be too numerous to mention. item is complete unless noted .
boxed items are listed as
code / code
where the first code represents the box, and the second code describes the contents. when only one condition is listed, then the box and contents are in the same condition .
a
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boardgame counters are punched, unless noted. due to the nature of loose counters, if a game is unplayable it may be returned for a refund of the purchase price .
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looking for the fine folks at black gate publishing? their website is here .
( which, unlike the first two, wasn’t numbered). here’s a scan of the backs of all three :
apologies for the plastic distorting the image a little on valkenburg castle. my copies have all been in the shrinkwrap for over 30 years, and i’m not taking them out now .
the boxed version, containing the original and both expansion, was released in 1984 (at right) .
much more memorable is valkenburg castle (1980), a surprisingly faithful board game adaption of a traditional dungeon crawl. players take the role of young lord hobart van valkenburg, rightful heir of the abandoned valkenburg castle, returning at last to his monster - infested ancestral home in an attempt to wrest it away from the sinister creatures who now inhabit it — including the powerful boss monsters who lair at the deepest dungeons levels. valkenburg castle never had an upscale boxed edition, which i think is a shame .
here’s a few pics to show you all the goodies you got for $ 3. 95, starting with starfire, which came with a counter sheet and a rather boring hex map :
i liked starfire more than star fleet battles, mainly from the custom - building of ships aspect. nice to know that it is still available, even digitally .
john – i think there was but i’m can’t remember if anything came of it. that could have been a blast .
> john – i think there was but i’m can’t remember if anything came of it. that could have been a blast .
11 / 23 / 2002 – its been a while so i better add some updates on starfire: starfire design bureau and digital gamers plan to release starfire online consisting of 4 new online products for the starfire system starting in mid 2003. starfire tactical combat – an online version of the tactical game, space master aid – generate star systems and all the other functions of running a campaign, premium space mastered campaign – play the full starfire system in a private campaign of up to ten players, and starfire rts – experience the challenges and rewards of running an interstellar empire in real - time in a shared, persistent universe with thousands of other players. elite, the galactic starfire expansion is almost done, just a bit of rewriting left and it will be available as a purchased pdf. elite takes the science levels out to sl - 25, adds some new optional tech, and re - writes some gsf rules for clarity .
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elements of the star fleet universe are the property of paramount pictures corporation and are used with their permission .
the additional personnel will be from the neighbouring states like melaka, negeri sembilan and perak ,
he told a press conference at the royal chulan bukit bintang hotel here on wednesday .
he said all 66 hotels that will host the various athletes have been approved by the department and given a
fire certificate
.
we have also inspected all the venues and given them all the same certificate ,
he said .
the seminar was attended by 200 representatives from the hotels, as well as the fire department' s assistant director - general (fire and rescue operations division) datuk zurkarnain mohd kassim and city fire and rescue department director khirudin drahman.
task force games was a game company started in 1979 by allen eldridge and stephen v. cole . eventually eldridge sold the company to new world computing in 1988 . the company went through an additional change of ownership and is currently out of business . the star fleet battles series of games is currently published by the original designers , amarillo design bureau . tfg published many games , including the starfire series of games which were later novelized by david weber into such books as in death ground , the shiva option and insurrection . this game series was taken over by the starfire design studio . tfg also published historical games such as battlewagon and history of the second world war . task force games also published a series of pocket games , their version of microgames . several of these microgames were later expanded and released as board games . tfg microgames include : valkenburg castle starfire asteroid zero-four cerberus star fleet battles and later expansion # 1 , expansion # 2 , expansion # 3 prochorovka : armor at kursk ( later released as the board game armor at kursk ) intruder operation pegasus starfire ii spellbinder robots ! battlewagon survival ultrawarrior starfire iii empires moon base clavius the warriors of batak boarding party escape from altassar city states of arklyrell checkpoint omega many of the games were considered cutting edge for their time . one distinct feature that many of them had was that unlike many wargames of that era , players often had a degree of customization over their armies — for instance , in the starfire series , a player could design every component of his starships , and in robots ! , a player could build his individual robots from a modular design , making tradeoffs in price and functionality between different movement and weapons systems . 
task force games was a game company started in 1979 by allen eldridge and stephen v. cole. eventually eldridge sold the company to new world computing in 1988. the company went through an additional change of ownership and is currently out of business. the star fleet battles series of games is currently published by the original designers, amarillo design bureau. tfg published many games, including the starfire series of games which were later novelized by david weber into such books as in death ground, the shiva option and insurrection. this game series was taken over by the starfire design studio. tfg also published historical games such as battlewagon and history of the second world war. task force games also published a series of pocket games, their version of microgames. several of these microgames were later expanded and released as board games. tfg microgames include: valkenburg castle starfire asteroid zero-four cerberus star fleet battles and later expansion # 1, expansion # 2, expansion # 3 prochorovka: armor at kursk (later released as the board game armor at kursk) intruder operation pegasus starfire ii spellbinder robots! battlewagon survival ultrawarrior starfire iii empires moon base clavius the warriors of batak boarding party escape from altassar city states of arklyrell checkpoint omega many of the games were considered cutting edge for their time. one distinct feature that many of them had was that unlike many wargames of that era, players often had a degree of customization over their armies — for instance, in the starfire series, a player could design every component of his starships, and in robots! , a player could build his individual robots from a modular design, making tradeoffs in price and functionality between different movement and weapons systems.
task force games was a game company started in 1979 by allen eldridge and stephen v. cole. eventually eldridge sold the company to new world computing in 1988. the company went through an additional change of ownership and is currently out of business. the star fleet battles series of games is currently published by the original designers, amarillo design bureau. tfg published many games, including the starfire series of games which were later novelized by david weber into such books as in death ground, the shiva option and insurrection. this game series was taken over by the starfire design studio. tfg also published historical games such as battlewagon and history of the second world war. task force games also published a series of pocket games, their version of microgames. several of these microgames were later expanded and released as board games. tfg microgames include: valkenburg castle starfire asteroid zero-four cerberus star fleet battles and later expansion # 1, expansion # 2, expansion # 3 prochorovka: armor at kursk (later released as the board game armor at kursk) intruder operation pegasus starfire ii spellbinder robots! battlewagon survival ultrawarrior starfire iii empires moon base clavius the warriors of batak boarding party escape from altassar city states of arklyrell checkpoint omega many of the games were considered cutting edge for their time. one distinct feature that many of them had was that unlike many wargames of that era, players often had a degree of customization over their armies — for instance, in the starfire series, a player could design every component of his starships, and in robots! , a player could build his individual robots from a modular design, making tradeoffs in price and functionality between different movement and weapons systems.