Boardame Conversions

[alaric318]

well, greetings, in fact you can surf to boardgamegeek list given, in fact there are some boardgame conversions, i hope you enjoy it...
 
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/8323
 
best regards,
 
murat30.

[Mike Dubost]

ORIGINAL: andym

ORIGINAL: sysrkm

Hi andy,

When were Car Wars and OGRE/GEV done? I seemed to have a faint memory of a single player CarWars game that SJG approved, but nothing like GEV or OGRE...

Regards,

Rob

They werent done i was just saying that they should be done.They are 3 of the most underrated games made in my opinion.

Actually, OGRE was converted for the Apple. One of my amusing memories from a High School graduation party 21 years ago is watching a drunk person try to play OGRE when he no longer had the coordination to use the mouse.

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: andym

I think it all boils down to one thing $$$$$ and £££££, theres too small a market for these games

Distribution of board games requires lots of logistics. Distribution of a PC game, especialy by digital download, requires few logistics.

If you only have a small market it makes sense to distribute by digital download instead of distribution by printing press, planes, trains and trucks.

-

[PBI]

The man stumbling block to a successful port is the AI.  Most AI is not really that great, though can provide some enjoyment learning how to beat it.  I think what many wargamers want is something along the lines of how Decision Games is handling War in Europe: their "game" is a player-aid that does the number crunching, and rule enforcement, but requires another human opponent to make it work.  Unfortunately, seling that model to the larger publishers seems to be a losing proposition, though it's a model I love, especially now that I no longer have the space to set up a game and leave it set up.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Murat30

well, greetings, in fact you can surf to boardgamegeek list given, in fact there are some boardgame conversions, i hope you enjoy it...

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/8323

Woohoo! BattleTech page has lots of Unseen, and it mentions MegaMek! But it's missing ASL

[GJK]

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen
But it's missing ASL

There is no "ASL" computer game conversion. Hasbro released "Squad Leader" which shared the name only (as someone mentioned earlier). VASL is an ASL utility that lets you play ASL over the internet (or via pbem) but it is not a computer game.

[BoredStiff]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

Distribution of board games requires lots of logistics. Distribution of a PC game, especialy by digital download, requires few logistics.

If you only have a small market it makes sense to distribute by digital download instead of distribution by printing press, planes, trains and trucks.

Although I have no personal experience in the operation of a software developer/publisher, I would beg to differ, judging by everything I've seen, heard and read over the years.

At first glance, it may seem that digital downloads are the easiest way to distribute games, but there seem to be some added headaches associated with it.

For starters, there's the maintenance of the registration records. Customers will lose their registration numbers and an archive has to be maintained to be able to retrieve them.

Then there's the upkeep of the download servers themselves. I don't know what all there's involved in this, but there have been issues in this regard when people were not able to download their games, usually after a new release.

Then there's the question of how customers who have downloaded their games should go about selling them at some point in the future, if they so desire. This is another aspect of downloaded games in which the customer will come knocking on the distributors door for advice and something the distributor will have to deal with, even if it's only a matter of answering emails or forum questions.
There are currently two topics (if I recall correctly) in this forum dealing exactly with this issue, where customers want to know how to best go about selling their downloaded games, whether it's even OK for them to do so, etc.

Now, let me tell you what in my opinion is the real reason why we even have digital downloads.

It is largely nothing more than a desire by the distributor to capitalize on the impulse-buyer market. Digital downloads are the software equivalent of the supermarket checkout counter candy and magazine racks.

Granted, the impulse buyer gets the benefit of near-instant gratification and about $10 off the price, but other than that, it's a losing proposition for the buyer, because of the above-stated reasons.

And the $10 off is only because the distributor does not have to physically ship the game. From the distributors viewpoint, it doesn't matter whether their customers download or request a hard copy shipment, because in the case of the latter, shipping costs will simply be charged to the customer.

The distributor gains financially from digital downloads, by capturing the impulse-buyer market, but the added services mentioned above will have to be provided, which is not the case for physical shipment.
So the distributor will offer digital downloads if he feels the added impulse-driven sales will more than pay for the above-mentioned future hassles associated with it. If/when the distributor feels this is no longer the case, digital downloads will no longer be offered.

In my opinion then, the easiest, cheapset and most headache-free mode of distributing games, from the point of view of a developer/distributor, is to simply ship the games in a jewel case, with a pdf manual on the CD. Some developers/distribuotrs might wish to go one step fancier and provide a plastic DVD-type case with a small printed manual, but that is not necessary, just perhaps an option.

But the notion that digital downloads are somehow making the distributor's life easier, is false, imo. It is largely just a another marketing option.

Edit: Kind of a longwinded post above, but all I'm saying is that with digital downloads. the distributor has future issues to deal with, such as maintaining registration records for all their customers who downloaded, maintaining servers and dealing with any number of future enquiries.
With physical shipments, otoh, once the game is out the door, it's gone.

[alaric318]

ORIGINAL: GJK

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen
But it's missing ASL

There is no "ASL" computer game conversion. Hasbro released "Squad Leader" which shared the name only (as someone mentioned earlier). VASL is an ASL utility that lets you play ASL over the internet (or via pbem) but it is not a computer game.

well, there are a project on sourceforge based on squad leader, i have not try-ed it and is a work in progress, only 1 developer, as far as i know but can turn in a good version, you can download and see what is done, do not know if there are other projects about it on sourceforge, here goes the download page link...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jsquadleader/

enjoy!,

with best regards,

murat30.

[GJK]

ORIGINAL: Murat30


well, there are a project on sourceforge based on squad leader, i have not try-ed it and is a work in progress, only 1 developer, as far as i know but can turn in a good version, you can download and see what is done, do not know if there are other projects about it on sourceforge, here goes the download page link...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jsquadleader/

enjoy!,

with best regards,

murat30.

I tried that probably a year ago, not sure if it's been updated since then. It is based on Squad Leader and not ASL as noted.

Probably the closest ASL to computer game conversion that I've seen would be one that the name escapes me at the moment...grr, hate that. Another one is Lars Thurings "JASL". Both are ambitious projects but hardly completed and in my case at least, I found them a bit of a bore to play. Nothing beats the human interaction of a ftf (or even a VASL w/mic) game.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: GJK

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen
But it's missing ASL

There is no "ASL" computer game conversion. Hasbro released "Squad Leader" which shared the name only (as someone mentioned earlier). VASL is an ASL utility that lets you play ASL over the internet (or via pbem) but it is not a computer game.

How about JASL then?
http://www.thuring.com/asl/jasl/index.html

[GJK]

Yes, I mentioned JASL in my post before yours. It would be ASL with an AI when finished, however it is hardly there and unfortunately, Lars hasn't made any updates for over a year (that I'm aware of and I'm on the mailing list for JASL). What he has now is ambitious, but full of rules holes, bugs, lack of units and scenarios, and more - it's hardly in an "alpha" phase IMO.

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Punk Reaper
. I got to wondering why more boardgames aren't converted to computer games.

Just thought of a couple of other ones : Tide of Iron and Wings of War

The quirky thing is that they're not going to be developed for the pc but for the online console market :

http://fortressameritrash-boardgames.co ... enu-id-365

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Grell]

I too would like to see more board game conversions.

Regards,

Greg

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: GJK
Yes, I mentioned JASL in my post before yours. It would be ASL with an AI when finished, however it is hardly there and unfortunately, Lars hasn't made any updates for over a year (that I'm aware of and I'm on the mailing list for JASL). What he has now is ambitious, but full of rules holes, bugs, lack of units and scenarios, and more - it's hardly in an "alpha" phase IMO.

Doesn't Paradox hold the digital rights to a PC version of ASL, or is that only to the regular Squad Leader ? He could have gotten a cease & desist note from them ....

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Kuokkanen]

Found older thread of similar subject: Free Avalon Hill PC Games...

[Neilster]

TOAW 3 has a lot of scenarios that are based on famous wargames. I'm sure many people are not happy/can find fault with them but they either come with the game or can be downloaded for free and as far as bang for the buck is concerned, I think they're great.

As one example, if you want to get hardcore, buy Campaign For North Africa from EBay for about $US450, find 7-9 friends with no life and if you all religiously devote about 17 hours per week to the game (and it somehow survives the usual cat attacks, spills, knock-overs, fires etc), you may finish it in about 3 years (i.e. real time!). Or, you can play it in TOAW 3, with all the annoying paperwork done for you. That's a fairly extreme example but the principle applies to other scenarios.

Take for example the Fall Grun (Case Green) one, based on the Strategy and Tactics magazine game of the same name, depicting a hypothetical 1938 German invasion of Czechoslovakia. It's a little gem and great fun to play either side.

Cheers, Neilster

[PunkReaper]

started this tread writing about how I was playing Twilight Struggle only to discover that this board game is actually a conversion of the old computer game Balance of Power. A game I remember I really enjoyed many years ago.

[GJK]

ORIGINAL: sterckxe

Doesn't Paradox hold the digital rights to a PC version of ASL, or is that only to the regular Squad Leader ? He could have gotten a cease & desist note from them ....

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

FWIU, the digital rights were for Squad Leader and Diplomacy (I believe on the latter). I've never heard mention that it was Advanced Squad Leader. In fact, I recall double checking the announcement on Paradox's site when it was first announced with the specific goal of confirming which it was. Now, they may have grouped it all together as Advanced Squad Leader. Also, at this point, Lars (Thurring) has never posted a message to his Yahoo! group that the project was dead or that he was asked to cease and desist in any way.

The other ASL to PC conversion that I'm aware of (besides VASL of course - which is a tool for playing ASL on the PC rather than a PC version of ASL) is XASL which is a rather nice looking package. Currently he's developing it with the ASL Starter Kit rules/scenarios in mind but I believe he plans for growth beyond that. There's a thread on Matrix here if you search for XASL that will give more details. I understand that there is no AI for it at this point either, however.