Are we really allowed to have a year without numbered sequels, and full of games doing something few had done before or since? What's the catch? Do they all fail horribly?

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Ubiquitous ninjas, millions of XP, and a famous licence help CRPGs sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Following his own path, as always, Richard Garriott argues in favour of child murder, and wins.

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Three years of no Wizardry are met by a shrug, as Ultima IV attempts to introduce role-playing into RPGs, SSI keeps making tactical wargames by accident, while Ghostbusters and Might and Magic bring sex back on the menu. Watching this, the French can't help but join the fun with the strangest games around.

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"It's not that kind of dungeon," say people inspired by Dungeons & Dragons to make games where you get picked up by wenches, or mate with your spouse for the glory of mankind.

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Jim Dunnigan's ruling out gay incest aside, what else was happening in the early years of RPGs?

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Book reviews. It has come to this. EuroWarGames, Cardboard Ghosts, and Wargames According to Mark – which ones are good, and which ones are worth buying?

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Mathematicians keep suggesting games so infuriating that other people rebel against numbers.

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If you've written a novel or two, writing a few pages of rules should be easy… right?

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As the Cold War takes a turn, computer wargames transform into strategy games, where a president does whatever the last person to see him told him to, dudes multiply in castles, and officers ask Napoleon to speak proper English.

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The Cold War continues to terrify and inspire, so say hello to orbital laser strikes, new games of power politics, and the start of a long-running Japanese series. The British are still weird.

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