Firstly, please note our new mailing address (below) - especially those of you seeking to send us money - which is close enough to the old one to cause confusion. Feel free, of course, to reach us by e-mail or phone and visit us on AoL (Keyword: Strategy; the Wargaming section bring your own asbestos). Second, yes, the time between issues does seem to be expanding. Some of this has to do with our recent move, and the concomitant difficulties in finding all of the stuff you stored in what you thought were well-marked boxes (not to mention the massive construction work going on here). However, much of it has to do with the number of games that have (not) come out, lately. The number of boxed games has halved, in comparison to the same period last year, and the activity of a variety of companies has either slowed to a crawl or fallen into some Black Hole. One of the reasons could be the sharp growth in historical computer games. Just leaf through PC Games, or Computer Gaming World, or even Command (the inside cover and the back cover of #45 both feature computer games). Computer game designers - and I mean those who design games which use the inherent values of the computer (e.g., the Talonsoft stuff, Alexander, Pacific General, et al.), as opposed to those that are simply an advanced means of storage for board games (cf. War in Europe, et far too many al.) - are apparently realizing that board games are a remarkable, and readily available, source of information, not only in terms of hard info, but also in terms of systems and mechanics. And, since you are simply transferring information from one medium to another, there are no (well, very very few) copyright or 'tm' problems. (Just remember to exclude General Loutsch.) To wit, we now have an electronic Invasion of the Gettysburgs from the Essigian handful that came out in the past two years, to the newly released efforts by Sid Meier (wonder when Sid will simply drop the topic name and just say "Another Sid Meier game" as the title) and Cannon Fire. Most of the historical computer games seem to be limited to either Eastern Front tank battles or the ACW, where using readily available boardgames as informational sources sure beats sitting in a musty stack of archival shelves. Of course, one must be careful in what one considers as a source: Blue & Gray II is not a source; Zorndorff, for example, is. All the maps come ready to transfer (an easy, albeit tedious, process), and the OoBs are better, and more accessible, than in virtually any book. All you need is a hacker. And THAT, mes amis, is why many wargame companies are asking " for whom the bell tolls." Those not listening can continue to build "the best buggy whips" around. Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. 2 #26 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com