Car Combat Central @carcombat

LOCUST®: The most battle-tested laser in the American arsenal. @SecWar Pete Hegseth's recent live-fire viewing at White Sands Missile Range underscores a massive shift in national security. With the Pentagon signaling a major demand to field directed energy at scale, AV’s LOCUST AMP-HEL is leading the charge with yet another major milestone, providing the low-cost, infinite-magazine capability required for a modern, layered defense strategy. LOCUST is proving that reliable counter-UAS protection is not a future concept. It is here, it is battle-tested, and it is ready to deploy. Read the full breakdown on Laser Wars: laserwars.net/p/hegseth-mili…

“Lighten up, Francis” was too obscure for a TMZ reporter? Forget about Stripes, Deadpool used the same line just a few years ago. But still, how does a TMZ reporter not know about Stripes? It’s a classic!

Naw nerdier than that. Original 1st printing red box Dungeons and Dragons to AD&D 3.5, nearly full sets of alpha Magic The Gathering to 4th Edition, Battletech, 1st Ed Warhammer 40K rules and minis, Gamma World, Steve Jackson Games Car Wars, OGRE, 1st Edition GURPS. Name the game system I probably had it, and probably had the whole collection. Basically enough to fill what would now be a nerd game museum. I have access to the modern versions and digital copies of old ones, but not the same even if they did just sit on my shelves.

@TrapinNotRappin @SusieM414141 Yea was 12 years ago now. Have gun collection almost replaced with some make/models at least equal quality except for 2 firearms + a bunch more. Vintage nerd games though are nearly irreplaceable, and ones I can replace I'm not spending that much money for.

Yep I had a gun collection sold off to various pawn shops and people, and nerd stuff (original 1st printings table top, collectable card, and pen/paper RPG games dating from 1985 to 2005 worth more than my current gun collection) given away, or flat thrown into the garbage while I was an OTR truck driver on the last trip out before she packed up and left. She left, getting rid of my stuff was just out of spite.

While the true microgames faded away by the mid '80s the idea of small games did not, and the '90s and the early '00s saw a number of publishers releasing small board (and even RPG) games. Eschewing the tiny (and highly crushable) boxes of the first games, the packaging was varied, from ziplocs to small (but not small small) boxes and tins. In many cases, while these second wave games no longer bore that unique look, they often carried the spirit of their predecessors, with a focus on odd or infrequent themes. Why did microgames go away? Their publishers either vanished or pivoted to whatever the new thing was at the time, which was not microgames. Almost every game that made its mark on the public came out in a very brief time frame. Consider the last publisher I discussed, Heritage, who released the still played Barbarian Prince, and had a fantastic lineup, published their first microgames in 1981 and then went bankrupt in 1982. We often suffer from a sense of time distortion when remembering the early days of tabletop gaming. SPI existed only thirteen years and yet due to their lasting influence it always feels like they were around for decades. Microgames were the flames that burned twice as bright yet burned half as long. Even if those companies hadn't changed there were other factors that I believe would have forced a change in the genre. As time advances nothing ever gets cheaper, and so these games would have had to deal with rising production costs. With online shopping hitting in the mid-90s, and only growing with each passing year, this led to gamers now having their games shipped to them rather than visiting the FLGS. In turn, it's really difficult to catch someone's eye with an impulse purchase online. There is a world of difference having a $3.95 sci-fi wargame next to the counter versus buried in a terrible '90s web storefront. Next, consider that the world of gaming was radically different from when the original microgames released. From overall production values, to the sheer number of choices, to the mainstreaming in the 2000s as the Europeans invaded the States with their wood and sheep, little boxed games with Trapper Keeper art just wasn't going to cut it anymore. As I started to think about this period and go through my collection I was struck by how few “classic” small games there were. That's not to say there weren't plenty of enjoyable titles. Just mentioning OGRE, Barbarian Prince, or Car Wars will cause someone to instantly switch to nostalgia mode. Is there any one small game from the '90s or '00s that does that? With that in mind for the second half of this series I will probably not cover individual games, and instead do it by groupings by publisher. There may be some I look at separately because either they're a one-off title or there is something special.

My latest project is to learn and setup a Post-Apoc Gaslands game for my weekly group as well as a Mario Kart Gaslands coversion of both racing and battle modes to run at conventions. Everything except the Hotwheels Karts are 3D printed in color or hand painted.

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I have a problem with moderation when it comes to gaming. Friday I began my journey into building two Gaslands: Reloaded Mario Kart boards. Since Friday I have accumulated 37 unique Karts. My Son and I ran around today and found these 9! It's already an addiction! 🤣

@marian_baczal Gaslands!!!!! Książka z zasadami niedroga, a gracie poprzerabianymi na prędce resorakami. Sama rozgrywka to szczelane wyścigi w stylu jakiegoś Mad Maxa. No i jak dzieciaki to kiedyś Marvel Crisis Protocol może wlecieć, ale to przeciwieństwo Gaslandsów jeśli chodzi o cenę.

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@DaddyWarpig Add the Running Man game show, and bring SJG Car Wars to life.

@RG1527 Classic games! I think I have Citytech. V&V was fun and we played early Marvel but ended up more on the Champions and GURPs fronts depending on the GM. Steve Jackson made so many good things; Car Wars is one of them. I'm always surprised that's not been made a video game.

@trollsmyth @scottrkrol This is good. Revolt on Antares from TSR. Car Wars from Steve Jackson.

Magazine Madness 40: Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 1 A retrospective review of the first issue for magazine for Car Wars, published by @SJGames in March, 1983. rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2025/09/magazi… #reviewsfromrlyeh #rpgreview #rpgreviews #rpg #CarWars #SJGames

The Gotham City gaslands/car wars team continues to grow.

昨日はガスランド会！非正規金田バイクデビューです！出ました！開幕ロングテンプレートからの非正規金田スライドが決まり、本日の目的は達成されてしまいました。 #gaslands

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Looking forward to the third edition of Gaslands. planetsmashergames.com/news/gaslands-…

It blew my mind to hear that John Blanche took 3 months to paint that masterpiece. In modern times he would have been fired. Modern world does not reward quality, it rewards quantity and its saddens me deeply it is that way.

What an incredible evening at ‘Il Cinema in Piazza’. This was the first public screening of one of my films in Rome that I’ve attended, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect night to watch Hot Fuzz, a film shot in my hometown. I also loved the opportunity to talk about some of my Italian cinematic heroes: Sergio Leone, Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Elio Petri, and many more. Thanks to @valeriocarocci and everyone at @piccoloamerica for making the event possible. I love you all, and the amazing @cinematroisi staff too, what a beautiful cinema! Huge gratitude as well to moderator @mat.tiberia and my good friend, superstar @alessandro.borghi, for joining us on stage. And finally, thank you to all the fans, some of whom drove for seven hours or even flew in just to be there. I loved every second of it. I’ll be back another year! Still to come in my retrospective: The World’s End, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Running Man, and Last Night in Soho. Enjoy! You can find details for all upcoming screenings via ilcinemainpiazza.it Viva Italia!

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@DaddyWarpig The old Speed Rally blog has a few posts discussing Rollerball (the sport from the 1975 movie) and Rulerball, a set of tabletop game rules to recreate Rollerball. speedrally.wordpress.com

Rollerball, Thunderdome, the Death Race Aaaaaaaaany day now.

Geoff Keighley @geoffkeighley

2 weeks ago

What would you say are your 3 most anticipated games right now?

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