Tony A. Rowe

I’d have to check to make sure, but I think issue #7 was my first.

It was a supplement for both games. Either add car combat to Champions or add superpowers and helicopters to Car Wars.

Everything about making video games is harder than you think.

illustration: a gleeful dragon is roaring and holding up an orb. red eyes, sharp teeth, sharp claws.

wizardry: scenario #3 - the legacy of llylgamyn, print ad (1987) archive.org/details/logi...

The original English language Barcode Battler rule book is incredibly badly written. I learned more about how to play the game correctly from reading this article. No wonder it was not successful outside of Japan.

I am ready for the return to the Conveni(ence store) Wars. Let the Barcode Battler revolution begin! (Their original post called it “Barcade Battler” and I like that idea too)

It is amazing how badly written the game’s original English rule books are. I learned so much just by reading this article. No wonder Barcode Battler fared so poorly outside of Japan.

Meet Greg Stafford, the best modern fantasy author you don’t know Game designer, shaman, and inspiration.

A very nice appreciation of Chaosium founder Greg Stafford, who passed away 7 years ago this month, but whose influence rates him as "one of the best modern fantasists, worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Moorcock, Leiber, McCaffrey, Martin, and others." open.substack.com/pub/someanci...

We just watched it too. Take my Worf, please!

Just when I thought I had every Indiana Jones computer game…

Imagine being a professional game journalist in 1996 who doesn’t know about the Puyo Puyo series (including Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine and Kirby’s Avalanche in the US).

edited comic panel. Batman is breaking a lump-with-handle cow tool over his knee and saying "this is the tool of the cow. we do not understand it. we will not use it."

it's not FOR us

Also, elves are depraved nigh-immortal chaos aliens and a trip through an enchanted forest is confusing and terrifying. More Lord Dunsany and Poul Anderson than Tolkien.

Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry V, The Tempest, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Red Badge of Courage, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice & Men, Old Man & the Sea, The Crucible. I went all-in for studying Shakespeare.

My brain hurts and I need a Tylenol now.

Both series were designed by Alfred Leonardi, who I met back in 2015! Queen's Blade uses Leonardi's Lost Worlds combat book system, first published in 1983, for duels between fantasy characters and monsters. He started Ace of Aces back in 1980. Unfortunately, he passed away earlier this year.

I had both the Six Million Dollar Man Movie Viewer AND the Bionic Video Center so that Steve Austin could sit in comfort and watch Star Wars and Alien film cassettes with me.

Othello World by Tsukuda Original for the Super Famicom has been scanned in high resolution. Enjoy! www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2025/09/o...

I joined the Otherworlds Club when I got my AD&D Monster Manual

I always liked the original cover art that was created for Apple Lane. However, Chaosium decided to simplify it before publication (from Wyrm's Footnotes #6 (1979)).

A sample of "The Fantasy Game" feat chance rules in question.

Introduction to The Fantasy Game, part 1 As I posted about briefly in my last post , I am currently co-teaching a History of Role-Playing Games course at Drexel University. The cour...

That's exactly what I did! My 0e retro clone "The Fantasy Game" uses the Greyhawk Open Doors rules as a general "feat check" mechanic. I designed the rule set for my students, but I'd like make it available in the near future. crypticarchivist.blogspot.com/2024/05/intr...

English Rules for Rêve de Donjon (Dungeon's Dream) Get the Rule Book on BoardGameGeek.com Rêve de Donjon game ready to start play with my rule book and reference aid I've completed my Englis...

I just posted my translation of Rêve de donjon (Dungeon's Dream), a French fantasy board game with an elaborate M. C. Escher-inspired labyrinth, originally published in Jeux & Stratégie #42 (Dec 1986). Read my blog post for more. crypticarchivist.blogspot.com/2025/09/engl...

Happy 40th birthday Super Mario Bros.

Give me more of your unpopular weirdos, classic game publishers I love seeing Final Fantasy Tactics return with a thoughtful selection of extra bells and restored whistles on top. Of course I’m thrilled at the thought of being able to play Doom, Resident …

"Grit can look a lot like pearls from the right angle."

Got a new article for everyone to read on the importance of easy, official access to a more honest and less polished selection of gaming history:

kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com/2025/09/10/g...

The OG version when Budge published through his own company.

Trip Hawkins wrangled Budge to join in EA's first wave of games and republished it with sick album cover-esque art.

It became one of the most influential computer tools of the 1980s, inspiring countless game-creation tools.

THGR Please visit sites.prh.com/oraphicdeadmanwalkina for Q bibliograpny and footnotes, as well as wealth of resources for schools, colleges, and ạ/j those who want to diq deeper. Penquin Random House collects and processes your personal information. See our Notice at Collection and Privacy Policy at prh.com/notice.

How do we convince publishers to stop doing this? Bibliographies and footnotes matter. They should be printed.

Websites decay faster all the time. Especially in an era of huge mergers like the one that created Penguin Random House, where calls for efficiency see pages culled at every chance.

The definitions of 1st and 2nd generation game consoles date back to Len Buckwalter’s Video Games book (1977, pg. 13). After that, the generations are basically defined by Wikipedia users. archive.org/details/Vide...

And remaster Ogre Battle, too. Personally, I’d love for all three games to be playable for a modern audience.

I spotted a tiny mantis in my garden a few months ago and just encountered a sizable specimen while traveling in Maryland (thumb shown for scale).