Chris Crawford on Game Design

Chapter 14. Legionnaire

In February of 1979, besotted with the success of Tanktics, I resolved to design a new game, a design that would take proper advantage of the capabilities of the Commodore PET computer. Tanktics, after all, had been designed to run on an IBM 1130 and was therefore clumsy to use on a personal computer. I wanted something that would really shine in the luxuriant environment of these powerful new personal computers.

I looked at a variety of possibilities: a Battle of the Bulge game, an Eastern Front game, and a Waterloo game. I toyed with designs for these, but nothing seemed to come out well. For three months I fiddled around to no avail. At last, frustrated with my lack of progress, I simply sat down and tossed together ...