Simulations Publications, Inc.

• 1. Founding And Early Expansion

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  Jim Dunnigan stood in the U.S. Army in Korea when he first encountered Avalon Hill wargames. He returned to civilian life in 1964 and began writing articles for The General, the house publication of that company. His critique of Battle of the Bulge, released by Avalon Hill in 1965, caught the attention of Thomas Shaw. Shaw asked him to design a game himself, leading to Jutland, which Avalon Hill published in 1967. Two years later, after creating 1914 for the same publisher, Dunnigan decided there must be a more effective way to publish games. He gathered Al Nofi and Redmond A. Simonsen into a new staff. In 1969, he founded Simulations Publications Inc. with Simonsen as co-founder. They acquired Strategy & Tactics from Christopher Wagner, who had been struggling financially. SPI quickly shifted focus from magazine publishing to producing board wargames. Each issue of Strategy & Tactics included a complete game with a map, rulebook, and die-cut counters.

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• 2. Marketing And Global Growth

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  SPI launched an expensive advertising campaign during its first two or three years of operation. Full-page advertisements appeared in Scientific American magazine to reach a wider audience. New subscribers received free copies of Napoleon At Waterloo, a pocket-sized game with 78 pieces punched from card stock. This strategy built a much larger subscriber base than competitors had achieved. By March 1976, SP/UK had sold 25,000 units through J.D. Bardsley in the UK. Bardsley distributed games via mail order and face-to-face at conventions. Sales growth forced SPI to form Simpubs Ltd., a formal British subsidiary, in June 1976. The new entity created Phoenix, a bi-monthly periodical edited by Bardsley. Moves became SPI's house organ starting in 1972, discussing current and future titles while revealing details about their design process. These moves established SPI as a serious competitor to Avalon Hill within the hobby.

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• 3. The Dallas Game Failure

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  In 1980, SPI entered into an arrangement with Lorimar Productions to produce a role-playing game based on the soap opera Dallas. The project proved to be an infamous failure that accelerated financial collapse. Redmond A. Simonsen later remarked that 80,000 copies printed were 79,999 too many. The company had shopped for venture capital providers hoping to capitalize on the perceived expansion of the gaming market in the late 1970s. When expected higher profits failed to materialize, only increased sales occurred, requiring money to be returned. Inflation drove up costs while revenue decreased, creating increasing losses in cash for SPI. Attempts to merge or acquire SPI with Avalon Hill did not materialize due to these mounting financial pressures. AH purchased five of SPI's titles to help with operational costs, but more funding was needed immediately.

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• 4. Financial Collapse And Acquisition

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  SPI negotiated a promissory note loan from TSR, the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons. The amount mentioned at the time was $225,000, though records list it as $400,000. The note was guaranteed by SPI's assets and used to pay their venture capitalists. Less than two weeks after receiving the funds, TSR called in the note. SPI had no cash available and no options to get the necessary funds. They were forced to give over their inventory stock to TSR in early 1982. The company was effectively out of business. TSR originally claimed they acquired SPI but quickly changed that statement because acquiring the company would mean taking responsibility for its debts. Thus, SPI's assets but not its debts and liabilities were acquired by TSR in 1983. This policy alienated many potential customers when TSR refused to honor SPI subscriptions.

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• 5. Post-Acquisition Legacy And Designers

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  TSR released several titles ready for publication but stranded by lack of money for printing. Battle Over Britain appeared alongside Richard Berg's A Gleam of Bayonets: The Battle of Antietam. The publisher reboxed and republished popular SPI titles from the mid-1970s under the TSR logo. Air War, Blue & Gray: Four American Civil War Battles, and Napoleon's Last Battles received new editions. However, TSR halted all current SPI game development immediately. Most SPI game designers resigned and moved to rival company Avalon Hill. They were lured by the formation of a subsidiary specifically for them called Victory Games. This exodus marked the end of original SPI creative output while preserving some intellectual properties through repackaging efforts.

• 6. Awards And Critical Recognition

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  Strategy & Tactics won the Charles S. Roberts Award for Best Professional Magazine in 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977. War of the Ring took home the All Time Best Fantasy Board Game award in 1977. To the Green Fields Beyond earned Best 20th Century Game honors in 1978. City-Fight received the same distinction in 1979. The Creature That Ate Sheboygan was named Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Game that year. Commando won the H.G. Wells Award for Best Roleplaying Rules in 1979. Empires of the Middle Ages claimed Best Pre-20th Century Boardgame status in 1980. DragonQuest secured another H.G. Wells Award for Best Roleplaying Rules in 1980. These accolades recognized SPI's peak operational period between 1974 and 1980 before financial collapse ended their run.

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