Author: David K. Spencer
Softcover (5.5×8.5 inches). 193 pages. 2025.
A long time ago, I played in a couple of BattlePlan play-by-mail (PBM) games run by Flying Buffalo. Played out on a Risk-style map of Western Europe, you built your forces, attacked, and tried to conquer NPC neutrals and player countries.
So, I was interested in this new book about PBM-ing. Of the text, pages 1 through 113 covers the history and the rest are lists of companies, games, and footnotes. It’s interesting that some games continue to this day, albeit via e-mail.
As for the history, decade by decade, the book presents a breezy overview of companies that started and failed, games that began or not, and trends in the rise and fall of PBM. The vast majority are turn-based games: players send in a turn by a deadline, the company processes turns within each game, and the results are mailed back.
There’s not a lot of depth for each company. The majority get a sentence at best, and games are often mentioned in passing. Every so often, you’ll get a paragraph or two, but that’s rare.
The problem is much of the documentation is lost. In the early days, one-man companies lasted a short time and folded. Very few live interviews were available for the book, although a 2024 Richard Lockwood interview of Neil Packer (creator of the game Saturnalia) is listed in the footnotes. That said, I’m amazed that Spencer found as much material from the 1970s as he did. I get that Flying Buffalo claimed more than 10,000 players during its heyday, but the book contains references to a multitude of companies and games.
Note: this book does not cover Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games or privately run, non-commercial games. The former is outside the scope and the latter is uncountable with any accuracy.
One typo: “noting that it some found it offensive” (p31) should have the first “it” deleted.
The book contains 15 black and white images.
I enjoyed this stroll down nostalgia lane, even if I had never heard of 95% of the games and companies mentioned. If I have a complaint, it’s that I wanted to read more about the individual games, companies, and creators behind it all. And yet, the sheer number of games and companies he found even sketchy information on is amazing.
Enjoyed it.
–Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
