Steve Jackson's OGRE

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

OGRE was a smallish hex-based game originally released in 1977. The premise was a single self-aware supertank was assaulting a command post defended by a large conventional force. My Dad might still have the copy that we had years ago - but unfortunately I've only more recently begun to appreciate such games.

Anyone else ever play it or still have it? I'm thinking about turning it into a web-based game for a class project.

Wikipedia entry

[Geezer57]

Played it quite extensively back in the day - a good "beer and skittles" game. I used to take it to work, and introduce coworkers to board war-gaming during lunch break. It was easier for newcomers to play as the single "Ogre" unit, while I played as the defending combined-arms team. Still have it laying around somewhere, in storage in the basement.

[Aurelian]

I used to play "Ogre". Great game. There was also a sequel ("GEV"), an expansion, and a bunch of miniatures made by Steve Jackson games.

The Microgames back in the 80's were a great way to get introduced to gaming. For three to five dollars they were quite a bargain. They were usually pretty simple to learn, had great replay value, and decent artwork.

Metagames was the main player... They produced Ogre, Melee, Wizard, Chitin, Invasion of the Air Eaters, and many other fine games. SPI also got into the microgame business with classics like The Creature That Ate Sheboygan, Demons, Deathmaze, and others. TSR, Heritage and others also got into the market.

If anybody is interested, there is a fantastic Microgame Museum at http://maverick.brainiac.com/cmm/cmm_index.html

Its got pictures of all of the titles of that era. I've still got most of them boxed up at home.

You can get a bunch of free microgames at the following website:
http://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/

The free games are from Dwarfstar, a company that made somewhat more complicated microgames. They were interesting, but not as elegantly designed as Metagames or the ones from SPI.