The Wargaming Scribe
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wargamingscribe.bsky.social
The Wargaming Scribe
@wargamingscribe.bsky.social
53 followers 18 following 110 posts
Started as "all the computer strategy games in chronological order". Now a bit more.

https://zeitgame.net/
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wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Post-War France caught back the "Anglo-Saxons" in all fields. All? No! One field stubbornly resisted all attempts to break through: computing. I'll cover the history of this failure, starting with the 10 years lost as the CNRS thought they knew better than Von Neumann.
zeitgame.net/archives/19485
November 14, 2025 at 12:51 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Si vous avez aimé lire sur cette machine méconnue de 1977, j’ai aussi commencé une série (en Anglais) sur le début de l’informatique en France et comment on s’est largement raté. Première partie sur le débâcle de la machine de Couffignal.

zeitgame.net/archives/19485
November 14, 2025 at 10:27 AM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Warlords (1978) by Speakeasy Software (Canada) is AFAIK the second PC wargame ever released (after Tanktics). Multiplayer-only, it's well-designed/coded for such an early game but incredibly dry: think Chess with randomness. Screens from my PBEM AAR below.

Read it here:
zeitgame.net/archives/19497
October 29, 2025 at 11:04 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
"Oh, you thought Rome fell in 1453/1461? Cute 😏".

My current tactics is to look appropriately jaded when anyone proposes a date and then assert that the Western Roman Empire finally fell with Wales in 1283 after the battle of Orewin Bridge.
October 22, 2025 at 6:57 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Operation Cerberus (1985) by Colin Bishop is the only game I know about the Feb '42 Channel Dash. The strategic layer is cosmetic; the game is rather a collection of minigames depending on what you attack with (plane, MTB, destroyer or even Dover guns!)
Review here: zeitgame.net/archives/19428
October 18, 2025 at 7:14 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
I published the end of my Gulf Strike AAR. I focused on how the game came to be, from the board game designed by SPI survivors who fled to Avalon Hill, to the port by @nyrath.bsky.social, a Renaissance man to which we also own among others the iconic look of the OGRE.
zeitgame.net/archives/19330
October 12, 2025 at 8:53 AM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Back to traditional cwargames with Avalon Hill's Gulf Strike (1984), with an unexpected US+Iran+Peninsular Arabs alliance against Iraq+USSR. Bad UI (2 icons for everything - check the 4th screenshot) & major design flaws make this early monster game mediocre. Read my AAR:
zeitgame.net/archives/19231
September 29, 2025 at 10:56 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Paul Clansey's Alien (1984) is the first official game of the licence. Quite innovative and supported by excellent SFX, this Alien managed to create really tense moments; alas its many design issues and outright bugs will ruin most sessions.
AAR and context of the game:
zeitgame.net/archives/18838
September 17, 2025 at 9:41 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Just published: Reyes y Castillos (1984) - the first Argentinian game of my blog. It's terrible, but I learned a lot of things researching Argentina & Uruguay, so it's not a total loss. I made sure the 2 last screenshots included lunfardo (rioplatenese argot)!
Read more: zeitgame.net/archives/18350
September 14, 2025 at 8:06 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Back with the article on computing & gaming in Uruguay. There was a weird Coleco ADAM presence, but Brazilian clones TK90S bagged close to 50% of the market. Uruguay also had a Spectrum peripherical that would make the Brits jealous Discover why:
zeitgame.net/archives/18891
September 12, 2025 at 10:54 AM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Just out: my article on the beginnings of computing & gaming in Argentina, from the first computer (1961) to the end of the 80s. What was the first Argentinian game? Why isn't there any famous Argentinian company until the 90s (and even then very few of them). Read here: zeitgame.net/archives/18373
August 10, 2025 at 11:00 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
In theory, Synapse's Air Support (1984) is a game for everyone with an arcade mode (combat-focused) and a strategy mode (where you move infantry around).
In practice, it's jack of all trades, adequate at none. It was also released at the worst possible moment. Read more:

zeitgame.net/archives/18753
July 27, 2025 at 9:01 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
... today I cover another one: PSS' Air Defence, which has a few interesting features that the others don't have, but is so slow and so poorly-designed UI wise that it may be the worst one. Read my review:
zeitgame.net/archives/18677

The best one? So far SSI's Fighter Command, soon on my blog.
July 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
In the "wargame subgenres that did not pass the test of time" category, there is "Air Defense", in which you allocate fighters to enemy bombing squadrons. This subgenre was particularly popular in UK (probably due to the Battle of Britain) - here are four examples below, but there are more (1/2)
Battle of Britain on ZX Spectrum (PSS, 1986) Fighter Command on Apple II (and later C64) - SSI, 1983 Battle of Britain on ZX Spectrum (Microgames Simulations, 1982) Pearl Harbour on BBC Micro, Microgame Simulations (1984)
July 15, 2025 at 11:58 AM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
All I can say about War Zone (1984, CCS) is that it is a wargame. It is the most generic experience I can think of. No salient feature whatsoever, and no huge flaw, beyond its absolute blandness. Still praised at release because there were so few wargames then.

AAR: zeitgame.net/archives/18490
The map was 3x3 sectors, and you could only see the sectors you had troops here. Here is a reconstruction of an early turn.
July 10, 2025 at 11:25 AM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Before Civilization, there was a Civ-like(ish): Incunabula (1984). It included most of the Civ-like staples: Research, Disasters, City-Building, choice of politics, trade and of course warfare. It missed dedicated combat units and stopped at the bronze age. Read my AAR:
zeitgame.net/archives/18543
Splash of the game, with the compulsory volcanic explosion The research screen. Not all technologies are useful - more than half are just prerequisites. Others give real bonuses. The strategic map with the various civilizations indicated by a letter. Tactical map with a large city in the North (the star above the late) and a small city next to the right border of the screen (the arrow).
July 7, 2025 at 6:32 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Siege on the Volga (1984) is the first computer wargame specifically about the Battle of Stalingrad. Great presentation, w/ a map & counters to visualize the battle (unnecessary, as the in-computer game map is good), but shallow and easy. Hard to see why the Germans lost.
zeitgame.net/archives/18269
June 8, 2025 at 7:02 AM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Storm Trooper (1984). There isn't a lot of nice things to say about this type-in game, except that it held in only 3 pages! In any case, squad tactical is my favorite genre, so I had to cover it.

zeitgame.net/archives/18072

I haven't posted lately, but I got stuck on long games. That's over :).
June 2, 2025 at 9:53 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Is it a clone when the game you're cloning was released after you? Colonel Luebbert's Star Trek (1972) is a "Trek73-clone" that predates Trek73. Pretty limited as a game (1972 after all), but I had a lot to say about its author, who introduced computers to West Point.
zeitgame.net/archives/17914
Intro to the game (full text): EXPERIMENTAL ADVANCE VERSION OF STAR TREK MERITSS "STARTKS" REVISED 17 MAY 1973 WELCOME ABOARD CAPTAIN. PLEASE ENTER YOUR NAME IN THE LOG List of options available in Star Trek. The 4 active ones: 1. WARP MANEUVER 2. EVASICE ACTION 3. WEAPONS EXPLOITATION 4. FIRING MANEUVER The rest is used to receive reports Combat phase (in text) between the Enterprise and a Klingon. The Klingon is hit once, but deflects a second photon torpedo. Colonel Luebbert with a "goldcoat" (a computer technician of West Point)
May 13, 2025 at 8:47 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
15 years later, Kroegel/Landrey unheartened Dunningan's design as the computer could now easily referee complex movements with tens of regiments. And so Breakthrough included mind-numbingly complex movements and the capacity to merge/split units - but simple rules for supplies & combat. (4/4)
Attack on St Vith in Breakthrough in the Ardennes Two collated screen captures of Breakthrough showing the same units merged and unmerged.
May 8, 2025 at 10:29 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Bastogne's key-features were the movement rules designed to create traffic jams and how regiments could be merged in divisions (and back into regiments) at a whim. Realistic, but impractical to play. Dunningan concluded: "After Bastogne I decided to emphasize playability in my Bulge designs." (3/4)
List of divisions and the regiments it can be broken into in Bastogne Movement ruleset in SPI's Bastogne. Note that moving into a friendly zone of control costs extra movement points!
May 8, 2025 at 10:23 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
SPI's Bastogne (1969) had been designed by James Dunningan. Dunningan wanted to improve upon Avalon Hill's Battle of the Bulge (1965), which he found good but unrealistic. His focus: German traffic: "The chief factor for the ‘size’ of the German defeat was their inability to control traffic" (2/4)
Box of Avalon Hill's Battle of the Bulge (1965) Cover of SPI's Bastogne (1969)
May 8, 2025 at 10:16 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
SSI's Breakthrough of the Ardennes (1984), by Chuck Kroegel (now CEO of @petroglyphgames.bsky.social) and David Landrey is a good wargame for the era, and another example of how boardgames influenced computer wargames in the 80s - in this case Breakthrough's key feature comes from Bastogne (1/4).
Cover of Breakthrough in the Ardennes, showing German tanks following a narrow path Global map (made of collated screnshots) of Breakthrough in the Ardennes, turn 1
May 8, 2025 at 10:07 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Most of the games I cover are forgotten for good reasons - they're shallow and unrealistic, and superseded by later efforts. This is the case of Redcoats (MC Lothlorien, 1984). Initially developed for the BBC Micro, its Spectrum port turned a bad game into a terrible one.
zeitgame.net/archives/17496
Battle of Freemans farm on BBC Micro. The British (white) are defending two buildings (just green squares) against an American force (blue). The area is surrounded by forest. Opening of the battle of Eutaw Springs on BBC Micro. The British icons (white) are defending against a group of American icons (blue) Opening of the battle of Eutaw Springs on Spectrum. A few white (American) and black (British) icons pepper a largely empty green field. The Americans are defending, when historically it was the opposite. Loading screen of the Spectrum version, featuring a general ,surrounded by 3 soldiers, giving orders.
April 7, 2025 at 8:56 PM
wargamingscribe.bsky.social
Ozark’s founder, Dan [Danielle] Bunten, designed what’s I believe the first RTS on PC: Cytron Masters in 1982.

Between 1982 and 19, there were a lot of real tile strategy gales, but few were notable or remembered, hence Command HQ being described as “one of first ones”
Cytron Masters (1982), a fixed screen with 2 HQs in the side and 4 power centers. The power centers generate the resource to summon units.
March 18, 2025 at 6:39 PM