Avalon Hill

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Avalon Hill
legal form Inc.
founding 1958
resolution 1998
Seat Renton (United States)
Branch Game publisher

Avalon Hill was an American manufacturer of board games . He specialized in strategic board games , the games Diplomacy , Civilization , Britannia , Dune , 1830 , Up Front and Advanced Squad Leader are among their best known products. The company name continues to exist as a trademark of the toy manufacturer Hasbro .

history

The company was founded in 1958 by Charles S. Roberts , prompted by the great success of his game Tactics . With this game he made a new type of board game popular, which is based on war-like scenarios and strategies. Over the years Avalon Hill invented a number of game elements that are taken for granted in many strategy games today. Examples of this are the use of hexagonal grids on the game board, the accumulation of units on a field, effects of the type of terrain on the unit, troop morale or the real historical background of a board game. In addition to strategy games, Avalon Hill also made a name for itself with sports games.

In 1962, for financial reasons, Avalon Hill became a subsidiary of Monarch Avalon Printing , which Avalon Hill operated for 36 years. Between 1964 and 1998, the company published The General , its own bi-monthly print magazine that presented the company's board games. In 1976 Avalon Hill took over the game series from 3M and with it such successful titles as Acquire and TwixT . Since 1982, former employees of Simulations Publications have been part of Avalon Hill under the name Victory Games . After a few financial failures, Monarch decided in 1998 to give up the subsidiary. Hasbro then bought the rights to the games and the Avalon Hill name for $ 6 million. Hasbro reissued a selection of the previous games under its own name, while others were sub-licensed to other companies. Because of the high level of brand awareness, Hasbro even reissued some games under the Avalon Hill label, as a board game division of Wizards of the Coast , or changed the manufacturer's name for existing Hasbro games to Avalon Hill, such as Axis & Allies .

In 2004, the award-winning board game Betrayal at House on the Hill was published under the publisher's name Avalon Hill . After a few more individual releases, Avalon Hill / Hasbro has focused solely on the Axis and Allies line in recent years , other game systems have not been developed for several years. Since Axis and Allies was part of the Hasbro range before, the Avalon Hill publishing house can no longer be regarded as active today; the name alone is a reminder of its old meaning.

Computer games

Between 1978 and 1997 Avalon Hill published computer games for home computers and later for Windows and Mac computers, initially only as a publisher . Between 1982 and 1995 the company also produced its own games, some of which were based on the in-house board games.

game year genre developer
B1 nuclear bomber 1980 simulation Microcomputer games
Computer Acquire 1980 strategy Microcomputer games
Planet Miners 1980 strategy Microcomputer games
North Atlantic Convoy Raider 1980 strategy Microcomputer games
Nukewar 1980 strategy Microcomputer games
Midway Campaign 1980 strategy Microcomputer games
Conflict 2500 1981 strategy Microcomputer games
Empire of the Over-Mind 1981 Text adventure Microcomputer games
Galaxy 1981 strategy Microcomputer games
Guns of Fort Defiance 1981 strategy 4D Interactive Systems
Lords of Karma 1981 Text adventure Microcomputer games
Tanktics 1981 strategy Microcomputer games
Voyager I: Sabotage of the Robot Ship 1981 Action Avalon Hill
Computer stocks & bonds 1982 Trading simulation Microcomputer games
knockout 1982 Sports game Microcomputer games
Tactical Armor Command 1983 strategy Avalon Hill

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 3M Bookshelf Games at dazolgames.com (English)
  2. ↑ News archive 1998 at Spielbox
  3. ↑ Company profile at MobyGames. Retrieved August 8, 2015 .