(TFT) TSR and SPI. Rivers on hex sides. Rick says hi.

[Rick Smith <rsmith@lightspeed.ca>]

On Mon, 2007-01-10 at 13:13 -0600, Craig W. Barber wrote:
> Hi Eric!
> 
> I dunno!  SPI went broke or got sold a few years later.  Anyone here know?


Hi everyone, Craig.
  SPI was in financial trouble and TSR gave them
a loan with the understanding they would have 
some time to pay it off.

  However, Gygax demanded repayment of it early
and SPI went bankrupt.  TSR bought the debt that
SPI owed others on pennies on the dollar and took
control of SPI's assets.  

  However, TSR refused to honor SPI's liabilities
(especially the life time memberships to Strategy
and Tactics magazine) and screwed over the Grognards 
who bought 15, 25 games a year.  Those people 
basically boycotted TSR.

  TSR raped the core of the wargame industry and 
was the major reason it imploded.  They could never
understand why they could not sell as many wargames
as SPI.


  Greg Costigan was a freelance game designer and
playtester at SPI.  On his website, he has an 
essay talking about those evil days.


  By the way, in Wargames, people have pretty much
standardized with rivers flowing according to the 
hex grid.  Anzio tried to make a pretty map where
everything went everywhere and it was a complete
mess.

  Rick
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