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Avalon Hill Game Company (Microcomputer Games)
Avalon Hill became an early publisher of computer games in 1980 with its video game division Microcomputer Games, Inc., adapting some of its boardgame titles to various computer platforms (TRS-80, Vic-20, Commodore 64, Apple II, etc.) on several data formats (cassette tape and 5¼" disk). Sales of these products were decent, but the only outstanding success was Achtung Spitfire!, published relatively late in the company history.
Gulf Strike was introduced by the company in 1983 and was based on the Iran–Iraq War then updated after the cease-fire in 1988. AH published The Dr. Ruth Game in 1985 which sold initially well then dropped off.
Facing an economic downturn in 1990 and a three year period of losses, Monarch Avalon closed its New York office, sold its toy division and reduced inventory. AH also published its timely game expansion, Desert Shield, that sold out in weeks after its October 1990 release such that a second print run hit the market in December 1990. In 1991, Hobbycraft Canada was sharing office space with Monarch Avalon.
AvalonCon World Boardgaming Championships was first held by AH in 1991.
AH reentered the computer game market in 1994 with a good review of "Flight Commander 2". The company added Pogs to it game line up in 1995. In 1995, Monarch Avalon placed Avalon Hill up for sale but later withdrawn.
Hasbro subsidiary
Monarch sold Avalon Hill to Hasbro Games on August 4, 1998 for $6 million. Hasbro, largely seeking a computer gaming software company and known games to convert to interactive computer games per an Arcadia Investment Corp. investment analyst, purchased the rights to the Avalon Hill trademarks, copyrights, inventory, tooling and divisions, Avalon Hill Software and Victory Games. Hasbro Hill Games, Inc. was incorporated by Hasbro on March 2, 1998.
Avalon was transferred to the control of Wizards of the Coast, another Hasbro subsidiary, in 2004.
Hasbro has released new titles under the Avalon Hill name, and added the Avalon Hill name to older games such as Axis and Allies that were not originally made by Avalon Hill. The games published under Hasbro ownership have been targeted for a wider general audience, and are less hobbyist-oriented.
Game rights
The rights to many of Avalon Hill's more complex games have been licensed or sold to other game publishers, or have reverted to their original owners and been republished by other companies:
Multi-Man Publishing acquired a license to Advanced Squad Leader and the Great Campaigns of the American Civil War series, and has since published new materials for these. (It also had the rights to Up Front for many years, but never released a new version of the game.)
Valley Games published new versions of Titan, Hannibal: Rome versus Carthage, and Republic of Rome.
GMT Games published new editions of Avalon Hill's early card-driven wargames We the People (retitled Washington's War), Successors, and For the People, and a descendant of Advanced Third Reich/Empire of the Rising Sun named A World at War.
Mayfair Games now has the rights to 1830 (one of several 18XX games they publish).
Victory Games
In 1982 Avalon Hill hired some of the design staff from Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) after that company was purchased by TSR, Inc, and formed them into a subsidiary company, Victory Games. SPI had specialized in wargames that were more complex and realistic simulations than those that Avalon Hill published. It also published games more frequently than Avalon Hill, which stayed with its two-a-year schedule of releases long after SPI began publishing boxed games monthly and as inserts via the magazine Strategy & Tactics. When Victory Games released a line of SPI-style games, it met with critical and commercial acclaim. As staff members gradually departed Victory Games for other companies, they were not replaced with new hires. The subsidiary was disbanded in 1989, though existing Victory Games designs were published under that imprint in subsequent years.
Main article: The General Magazine
Avalon Hill also had its own house organ which promoted sale and play of its games, The General Magazine, which was published regularly between 1964 and 1998. The magazine offered a wide array of features, including articles on both strategies of play and tactics for specific situations, historical analyses, semi-regular features devoted to individual games, columns on sports and computer games by AH, listings of vendors and opponents, answers to questions on game rules, ratings for both games and players, discount coupons for mail orders, and insider information on future AH projects.
Heroes
In early 1984, on the occasion of the release of third edition RuneQuest, Avalon Hill included in all RuneQuest boxes a single advertising flyer (see image, right) announcing the launch of HEROES, its own role-playing magazine. HEROES ran for ten issues from 1984 to 1986 and had the main purpose to promote all four of Avalon Hill's role-playing games: James Bond 007, Lords of Creation, Powers and Perils, and RuneQuest.
Location
Avalon Hill moved its corporate offices to 4517 Harford Road in Baltimore in the 1960s, while maintaining a second address on Read Street, where play-testing was conducted and inventory maintained.
Gulf Strike was introduced by the company in 1983 and was based on the Iran–Iraq War then updated after the cease-fire in 1988. AH published The Dr. Ruth Game in 1985 which sold initially well then dropped off.
Facing an economic downturn in 1990 and a three year period of losses, Monarch Avalon closed its New York office, sold its toy division and reduced inventory. AH also published its timely game expansion, Desert Shield, that sold out in weeks after its October 1990 release such that a second print run hit the market in December 1990. In 1991, Hobbycraft Canada was sharing office space with Monarch Avalon.
AvalonCon World Boardgaming Championships was first held by AH in 1991.
AH reentered the computer game market in 1994 with a good review of "Flight Commander 2". The company added Pogs to it game line up in 1995. In 1995, Monarch Avalon placed Avalon Hill up for sale but later withdrawn.
Hasbro subsidiary
Monarch sold Avalon Hill to Hasbro Games on August 4, 1998 for $6 million. Hasbro, largely seeking a computer gaming software company and known games to convert to interactive computer games per an Arcadia Investment Corp. investment analyst, purchased the rights to the Avalon Hill trademarks, copyrights, inventory, tooling and divisions, Avalon Hill Software and Victory Games. Hasbro Hill Games, Inc. was incorporated by Hasbro on March 2, 1998.
Avalon was transferred to the control of Wizards of the Coast, another Hasbro subsidiary, in 2004.
Hasbro has released new titles under the Avalon Hill name, and added the Avalon Hill name to older games such as Axis and Allies that were not originally made by Avalon Hill. The games published under Hasbro ownership have been targeted for a wider general audience, and are less hobbyist-oriented.
Game rights
The rights to many of Avalon Hill's more complex games have been licensed or sold to other game publishers, or have reverted to their original owners and been republished by other companies:
Multi-Man Publishing acquired a license to Advanced Squad Leader and the Great Campaigns of the American Civil War series, and has since published new materials for these. (It also had the rights to Up Front for many years, but never released a new version of the game.)
Valley Games published new versions of Titan, Hannibal: Rome versus Carthage, and Republic of Rome.
GMT Games published new editions of Avalon Hill's early card-driven wargames We the People (retitled Washington's War), Successors, and For the People, and a descendant of Advanced Third Reich/Empire of the Rising Sun named A World at War.
Mayfair Games now has the rights to 1830 (one of several 18XX games they publish).
Victory Games
In 1982 Avalon Hill hired some of the design staff from Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) after that company was purchased by TSR, Inc, and formed them into a subsidiary company, Victory Games. SPI had specialized in wargames that were more complex and realistic simulations than those that Avalon Hill published. It also published games more frequently than Avalon Hill, which stayed with its two-a-year schedule of releases long after SPI began publishing boxed games monthly and as inserts via the magazine Strategy & Tactics. When Victory Games released a line of SPI-style games, it met with critical and commercial acclaim. As staff members gradually departed Victory Games for other companies, they were not replaced with new hires. The subsidiary was disbanded in 1989, though existing Victory Games designs were published under that imprint in subsequent years.
Main article: The General Magazine
Avalon Hill also had its own house organ which promoted sale and play of its games, The General Magazine, which was published regularly between 1964 and 1998. The magazine offered a wide array of features, including articles on both strategies of play and tactics for specific situations, historical analyses, semi-regular features devoted to individual games, columns on sports and computer games by AH, listings of vendors and opponents, answers to questions on game rules, ratings for both games and players, discount coupons for mail orders, and insider information on future AH projects.
Heroes
In early 1984, on the occasion of the release of third edition RuneQuest, Avalon Hill included in all RuneQuest boxes a single advertising flyer (see image, right) announcing the launch of HEROES, its own role-playing magazine. HEROES ran for ten issues from 1984 to 1986 and had the main purpose to promote all four of Avalon Hill's role-playing games: James Bond 007, Lords of Creation, Powers and Perils, and RuneQuest.
Location
Avalon Hill moved its corporate offices to 4517 Harford Road in Baltimore in the 1960s, while maintaining a second address on Read Street, where play-testing was conducted and inventory maintained.