SPI’s War in the Ice is a near future superpowers conflict game set in Antarctica, which also has a sci-fi alternate history scenario positing the appearance of a subterranean Antarctican race, which tries to push the modern humans out of Antarctica.

Recently on the Internet (which is very much the modern day confessional where there is so much internal pressure and encouragement to reveal deep, dark secrets from the past) the designer/developer of War in the Ice, Phil Kosnett, indicated that this “game” was added, parenthetically and as a bit of a joke, at the last moment to fill out a list of proposed games for one of the S&T feedback sections.

From S&T 62 (May/June 1977): “In 1987, a scientific team near McMurdo Base in Antarctica discovered a subterranean lost city left by a vastly advanced civilization which existed many thousands of years ago ... Two-player (USA/USSR) or four-player (with Greater China/Europa).” The fact that it received a high rating, from the six percent of the readers who responded to these things (six percent of 34,000 is still a respectable 2,040) came as a complete surprise to SPI.

From S&T 64 (Sept./Oct. 1977): “War in the Ice received one of the more ambivalent reactions on record, in that a lot of people really liked it, and a lot of people really hated it; for the time being, that project will be placed on the back burner.” It is interesting, and telling, that rather than admit to the duplicity, SPI chose to undertake a design and development. On the other hand, this is not inconsistent with Jim Dunnigan’s predilections for a challenge.

In S&T 70 (Sept./Oct. 1978), War in the Ice was first identified as a work in progress. In the following issue, War in the Ice was announced as being available on January 1, 1979.