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Old 10-12-2022, 02:52 PM   #1
Racer
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: London, UK
Default My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

First ever game of Car War , Sunday 10th October 1982 at my Boarding School .

Was given 'The Mafia Mobile' - Bombardier Counter - and design was Midsize Stats : 10 Acceleration & ATG Front .

Game was bit slow , so got to control an 'airdropped' Compact as well .

Played about 3 hours until my Bed Bell ... was second youngest kid in the School & had to get ready for Bed at 9pm ...

Good Times !

Not played since before Covid , but still designing many Vehicles & Gadgets etc .

Written two Scenarios for others to playtest . Younger Nephew has expressed interest in Table Top games , so will see if he's likely to be interested .

Taking him to London's Ork's Nest for Dungeon's & Dragon stuff over Half-Term - they may have a few Car Wars bits still .
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Old 10-13-2022, 01:01 AM   #2
swordtart
 
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

Cool beans mate, you are more of a vet than me.

I started playing in 1987 at university. My first vehicle was a cheap luxury with far too many heavy rockets. It was slow, wallowed had not nearly enough armour and I couldn't get close enough to hit anything. My driver died early and I spent most of the game watching and realising what I'd done wrong.

I played a bit with friends on and off since, and I ran a CW campaign for 5 years via facebook. In that 5 years we covered less than a month of in-game time and the main protagonist was dead at the end of it. It was hard work processing the returns (and waiting for them) but reading it back it makes for a good read and a coherent plot (more so if you knew what was going on behind the scenes).

I was hoping to play it with my daughters, but at the moment they'd spend more time on drawing the car than designing it :)
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Old 10-13-2022, 01:18 PM   #3
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

1984 -- saw _VG1_ on the shelf; looked interesting; picked it up along with the PBs, and later _ADQ 2/1_ (for the solitaire rules in "Green Circle Blues").

Managed some games at the "Chess Club" at high school (pity I wasn't able to run games in 5th-grade's Friday pseudo-city classes -- to see the look on the teacher's face... >:) ). Moved on to college; completely dominated the idiots at NOVA. Then the game died out, and I've been hard-pressed to find players since (driving sims pretty-much killed the genre).
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Old 10-13-2022, 01:55 PM   #4
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by 43Supporter View Post
...driving sims pretty-much killed the genre.
This, precisely.

It used to be enough for a boardgame to be an effective simulation. Indeed, much of the joy in playing early genre boardgames was in experiencing and executing a simulation more complex than anything your 8-bit 64k home computer could ever dream of running.

At some point this stopped being the case. Computers got better at simulating things than humans, and people interested in simulation gaming for whom the expression - computer vs. physical components - was incidental, moved on.

Modern genre board- and miniature- games are designed to play to their unique strengths - the things they do well that can't be done better with alternatives. And that's no longer executing complex simulations - computers do that better. What that is, now, is social face-to-face experiences, physical component manipulation with colorful and highly kinesthetic components, and highly extended OODA loops. These are all very difficult benefits for computer games to deliver effectively, which makes them excellent targets for tabletop games to be intentionally designed to emphasize.

I'm certainly not one to pit older versions of CW against the new one - they're radically different games playing to the strengths of their respective eras, and I have enormous respect for both. Both are excellent examples of the strengths and emphases of their respective eras. Their differences are hugely illustrative of what has changed in genre boardgaming, and what has remained the same.

Last edited by HeatDeath; 10-13-2022 at 04:35 PM.
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Old 10-13-2022, 03:32 PM   #5
Racer
 
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

Yeah unfortunately 'Carmageddon' for PS1 (?) was first 'Cars & Combat' game I thought surpassed general Car Wars game play . I played it twice on PC & it was pretty good but can't recall the details .

Rock & Roll Racing on SNES , actually ENCOURAGED some younger guys to play Car Wars ! "Why just have a Minedropper , when you can have have a Oil Jet too ? AND a *Flamethrower* ... " ��

I haven't a modern PC or good Internet connection (can't afford a Landline anymore ) , so cannot play War Thunder ... But I do enjoy watching videos on YouTube on my phone .
Oddbawz ... crazy Scottish guy posts really great videos & does crazy antics on his videos . Warning : bit sweary & even with captions on , you may have no idea WHAT he's saying ... ��

A hybrid game with Car Wars mechanics & construction rules & similar gameplay to War Thunder - plus elements fromComputer versions of Star Fleet Battles (linked weapon clusters etc) - would be fantastic .

Unfortunately it'd cost a lot to create , test & market ... a pity ...
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Old 10-13-2022, 03:34 PM   #6
Alden Loveshade
 
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Racer View Post
First ever game of Car War , Sunday 10th October 1982 at my Boarding School .
Congratulations on your Car Warsanniversary! How did you keep track of the date?

I'm a role-playing old-timer (ironically, that article was published on your anniversary), but haven't played Car Wars as long as you.

I have three primary Car Wars memories that didn't happen during a game.

1) I was putting away equipment after a wedding, and my mind wandered. I thought of Harlan Ellison's story "Along the Scenic Route" that focused on auto combat. I thought, "Hey, that could be a game!" Then I learned Steve Jackson and co. had long before created Car Wars....

2) I saw Steve Jackson at a gaming convention and asked him if he had been influenced by Ellison's story. He said he hadn't, but had seen and/or read (I don't remember now) other things that involved auto combat.

3) I was trying to get a friend interested in roleplaying, specifically GURPS. He was borderline interested--until he learned that game was made by the same person who co-built Car Wars. Then he hopped on for the ride (and later GMed).
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Old 10-13-2022, 08:51 PM   #7
Racer
 
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alden Loveshade View Post
Congratulations on your Car Warsanniversary! How did you keep track of the date?
It was only my second weekend at Boarding School & also the day a notorious character was made a Junior Prefect & covered in food waste - as per tradition - after Lunch .

Mr Chimpy & Sword Boy were asking if anyone wanted to join in a game at Tea (5pm Meal) & myself & a few of us youngesters aged 10 to 12 did .

I have an almost eidetic memory - for things that interest me at least - and date stuck in my head .

Played on & off my 6+ years at that School & was the Duel Master with all the books etc for my last two of those years .
Had a load of stuff stolen , but 1989 was a book year for Car Wars & replaced all my post stuff , bar 1st Printing of AADA Guide Vol. 1 , ADQ 4/4 & Convoy . Lost some irreplaceable custom Road Sections & Vehicle Counters , but that was just a minor annoyance ...
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Old 10-14-2022, 03:32 PM   #8
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alden Loveshade View Post
2) I saw Steve Jackson at a gaming convention and asked him if he had been influenced by Ellison's story. He said he hadn't, but had seen and/or read (I don't remember now) other things that involved auto combat.
"Drive Offensively" comes straight out of Alan Dean Foster's "Why Johnny Can't Speed".
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Old 10-14-2022, 03:38 PM   #9
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Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

My school friend in the 7th grade introduced me to RP games - CW and Top Secret. it was just the two of us, and he was obsessed with 'kid gunners' - some ADQ article about using children for gunners. I didn't think using children in combat was wrong at the time. In my defense, they were only one space.

Since it was $3.99 I picked up the pocket box and introduced it to my (very separate) neighborhood friends who loved it. Since they were RP gamers, I did a homebrew CW campaign about the local area 50 years later that massively ripped off Judge Dredd.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 43Supporter View Post
1984 -- saw _VG1_ on the shelf; looked interesting; picked it up along with the PBs, and later _ADQ 2/1_ (for the solitaire rules in "Green Circle Blues").

Managed some games at the "Chess Club" at high school (pity I wasn't able to run games in 5th-grade's Friday pseudo-city classes -- to see the look on the teacher's face... >:) ). Moved on to college; completely dominated the idiots at NOVA. Then the game died out, and I've been hard-pressed to find players since (driving sims pretty-much killed the genre).
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Old 10-19-2022, 08:29 PM   #10
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: My 40 Years of Playing Car Wars ...

I am not sure how old I was at the time, but my dad loved hanging out with all the teenagers in the area. One ran some AD+d first ed. Someone brought out car wars and was hooked. D and I could care less after a few years, car wars still is cool though to play.
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