Car Wars - Publication History

Publication History

Car Wars was first published in a small ziplock-bag format in 1980, and cited Alan Dean Foster's short story, "Why Johnny Can't Speed", as a primary inspiration. The game won the Charles S. Roberts Award (Origins Award) for Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1981 and was named to the Games magazine Games 100 list in 1985.

As the game became more popular, there were a series of increasingly more expensive and elaborate editions. Car Wars also served as the inspiration for the 1985 video game Autoduel, published by Origin Systems. Steve Jackson continues to express an interest in developing video games based on the Car Wars concept.

The game's popularity waned during the 1990s, and in response to slipping sales, Steve Jackson Games ceased support for Car Wars. The last official Cars Wars material for the original game appeared in Pyramid magazine (an article introducing High Torque Motors, by Robert Deis).

Autoduel America, the setting for Car Wars, was developed for role-playing games (RPGs) using Steve Jackson Games' GURPS system (called GURPS Autoduel). That GURPS worldbook has seen two editions. A series of expansions for both the GURPS version and boardgame, the AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guides, were published in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 2002, Steve Jackson Games released an entirely new version of Car Wars. Redesigned for a new audience, it was called version 5.0. The new game's unusual marketing, scattering the game across several redundant products, met with mixed responses and the game's popularity has continued to wane. The 2002 products are still in print.

In October 2009, Steve Jackson Games made the Car Wars Compendium: Second Edition (Fifth Printing) available as a PDF from the e23 online store.

Car Wars (both boardgame and RPG version) was translated into French by Croc.

Car Wars: The Card Game was released in 1991 (with a 2nd edition in 2001), designed by Creede and Sharleen Lambard and published by Steve Jackson Games. Reviewer Shannon Appelcline said (of the 2nd edition game) "It's based on a fun concept--blowing the heck out of each others cars'--the box design is appealing, and there's a matching Battle Cattle game that's compatible. ... when you actually begin reading the rules and playing the game the product starts to lose its luster." He described the game as having an "extremely high" random factor and concluded his review stating "I'm fairly certain there's a damned good game in this box somewhere, it's just not the one described in the rulebook."