{"id":4947,"date":"2016-05-02T11:46:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T11:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=4947"},"modified":"2016-05-02T11:49:04","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T11:49:04","slug":"beer-and-pretzels-urban-combat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=4947","title":{"rendered":"Beer and Pretzels Urban Combat"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received a nice Email this weekend:<\/p>\n

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A few years ago you were kind enough to send a free copy of BAPUC for my son. I don’t want another free one, but I would like to buy one from you, this time for my brother. I hadn’t realized how much he liked the game until he recently mentioned it and wished he had a copy. It’s going to be a birthday present.<\/div>\n
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Copies are going on ebay for $50, and that’s used, so I would expect a new one to be a fair amount higher. Can you let me know what you’re selling them for and how to send payment?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This weekend at the HARCON gaming day at Harford Community College, I participated in a panel discussion on game design. \u00a0During the panel, I happened to mention this game, which was my first foray into game design. \u00a0At the very bottom of this page, you can seem some images of the game: \u00a0http:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/Buck_Surdu\/Personal.html. \u00a0I was surprised that this game would fetch $50 on Ebay, but here it is:<\/p>\n

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Now, I don’t know if anyone has paid this price for the game, but the person who sent me the Email was right that someone is asking<\/em> that much for a copy.<\/div>\n
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I was really proud of this game in its day. \u00a0The production values were quite good for something done by a high school student. \u00a0I had a lot of help. \u00a0A friend of my dad did the manual color separations, because this was part of what he did for a living. \u00a0Another of his friends, who was an artist, drew the cover and the images for the counters. \u00a0I did the typing myself on a Smith-Coronna electric typewriter. \u00a0The high school vo-tech course needed things to print, so I got it printed for cost. \u00a0Even with all that, the production cost me about $3.50 per game, and they retailed for $10. \u00a0For the past 15 years, I have been giving them to folks free from time to time.<\/p>\n

This experience really hooked me on game design. \u00a0One day I was coming down the hallway of Thayer Hall at West Point to play some war-games with the gaming club. \u00a0As I was walking down the hall, I could hear a lot of whooping, hollering, and cheering. \u00a0I was wondering what game they were playing that was so much fun. When I got there, I discovered that it was BAPUC! \u00a0There were four people playing and six or seven more watching. \u00a0I thought that if I can make a game that gave people that much enjoyment, that was something I wanted to keep doing. \u00a0I didn’t design another game for five or six more years, but the hook had been set.<\/p>\n

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