Ludography and article by Michel Boucher ([email protected]).
December 31, 1992 (Updated March 1997)
See also the index for Interplay magazine, Metagaming's house organ.
It should be noted that Metagaming tried to modify TFT after Jackson left. They created (well, Keith Gross did) the Lords of the Underearth concept which was supposed to have many more games. In fact it only has two (Lords of the Underearth and Dragons of the Underearth), the first being a boardgame, the second being a microtactical combat system for use with further modules that were never produced.
DOTU is, in fact, a slightly modified Melee. Mind you, I assume it's slightly modified although I haven't really looked at it carefully. There was much made in Interplay of upcoming material (two additions to the Air-Eaters game series, one western RPG, more LOTU stuff), and it all disappeared when Metagaming went under.Sich is liff...
Here is the list of the material that Metagaming was working on but never marketed (as per Interplay Magazine):
The following were requested from designers:
With respect to Games Research Group, I was able to find the following information (in Interplay?):
Games Research Group was the games design branch of Metagaming; the two were separated by incorporation on Jan 1, 1982. Only four items were released by GRG.
I was lucky to get more information on Gamelords. In private correspondence dated 03JAN1993, Walter Hunt ([email protected]) said:
...do you have the two books we (Gamelords) did after Howard cancelled the contract? The other two pieces of the TFT series were altered to become City of the Sacred Flame and Within the Tyrant's Demesne.
With respect to Gamelords (and the fact that I thought they had mutated into Digest Group), Walter replied 05JAN1993:
I thought Gamelords became Digest Group...or am I mistook?
Mistook. What was left of Gamelords was to be transferred to Tadashi Ehara (Chaosium) in 1986, but he was supposed to pay some money for us to write the rest of Haven, as well as some other stuff. No money, no supplementary writing. Glub glub glub, lost beneath the waves.
The two main principals of Gamelords were Rich Meyer and Kerry Lloyd. Rich and I are close friends and have co-operated on several works under the name Adventure Architects; we wrote the original MechWarrior system. Kerry died in 1988.
A few more links of interest: