The Power Of Crowds Meets The Power Of Archives

Toward the end of August, there was a call for information from Owen KC Stephens (RPG writer with too many amazing credits to list, but I will gladly note he was a columnist and frequent contributor for the HTML era of Pyramid magazine). Over on Facebook, he was looking for a particular bit of gaming ephemera:

"I'm trying to find a specific game ad. I'm pretty sure it was for a small wargame, in the early 1980s, and I saw it in a game magazine. Maybe Dragon. It has a retro-style robot with a rifle, and one or two people in lab coats. I feel like it was a mutants-are-attacking kinda game, but I can't be sure. Ring a bell with anyone?"

I felt like I vaguely remembered the ad Owen was talking about, but I wouldn't trust my memory with what I did last week, let alone an ad I last saw back when there were only three Star Wars movies. Still, I had a trick up my sleeve: He mentioned "the early 1980s."

Now, as it so happens, Steve Jackson Games published The Space Gamer right around that time, and we have a complete archive available. Our first issue was cover dated March/April 1980 – about as "early 1980s" as one can get.

So, I started searching. Since I knew what I was looking for, it was quick and easy to flip through the digital pages. Less than an hour after the original question (and probably less than 15 minutes after I started searching), I'd found the original ad – for Attack of the Mutants – in Space Gamer #38, cover dated April 1981. (Knowing now what to look for, I believe it first appeared a couple of issues earlier, in both Space Gamer #36 and Space Gamer #37, but I just missed them in my "do it quick" archive search.)

Anyway, it was a fun manifestation of a phenomenon I've noticed in the past, where it's often quicker and easier to ask my friends than muddle through an online investigation alone. This is especially true in recent months, as search results have gotten more difficult to parse.

For those who are curious and have the archives, there's even a capsule review of Attack of the Mutants in Space Gamer #43.

-- Steven Marsh