Since most of us have not been gaming much the discussion of games gone by has come up more often. I have been going through boxes of old pictures and came across some I thought many of you might find interesting in fact some of you might find yourself in!
I’m going to start putting them up randomly in post and then on a page of their own. If you have any better info on some of the pictures please let me know in a comment on the site or an email reply. I you have pictures you might want to share of gaming in our area, with us, or are relevant please let me know or send them.
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- Brian Stokes (center) running his Tank Charts at Gamex Los Angeles Airport Con 1984
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- Tank Charts 1984 gamex
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- My first Historical miniatures game Tank Charts at Gateway LA Airport convention circa 1980?
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- First Tank Charts game
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- Tank Charts game 1983 LA airport con
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- Compeitors Castle owner Skip Gardella (RIP) running and ancients game early 90s at the airport AND I believe thats Steve Phenow in the background (long black hair)
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- Remember the giant navel games played on the floor!
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- First computor assisted game I ever saw! He had it calculating hits and damage on a Apple II!
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- Kevin Slimak and Dave running their famous and much loved “Brigade Bash” 15mm American Civil War using Johnny Reb rules tihs is sometime around 1993 if I remember…Tim you were there!
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- Brigade Bash
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- The man Kevin S giving the post game “Brigade Bash” report.
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- Another convention and another Brigade Bash!
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- This appears to be Steve Verdoliva on the right running his Galley game with Bill Hyser (center ACW cap) and ? at left with beard. Bill and Steve going on to become HMGS/PSW officers! Orrcon convention Feb,1993
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- Gary Archer and Steve Lorenz playing Panzer War 1/285 Micro Armor around 1991?
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- Do not have any idea!
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- While working on Magum PI in Hawaii did I go to the beach on the weekend? No! I played Mustangs and Messerschmitts at Hickim field with a bunch of Air Force guys!
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- My ME109 chases a Hurricane away from the JU52. As I recall there was supposed to be a high ranking German officer on board.
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- My first miniature modification back in the Tactica days. Inspired bt Steve V’s army. I think I painted this late roman army of around 400 figures and only used it 1-2 times!
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- Sandtable (built by me) at The Last Grenadier” first at Reseda then moved to Burbank location.
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- Sandtable at the Grenadier again, the trees are foliage glued to toothpicks!
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- Sand-table again.
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- My first atempt to stage a picture on my workbench. Early 1980’s
I think my first historical wargame was circa 1969 ( I ran it), and my first convention the MFCA Wargames show at the Armory in Chester, PA circa 1971. Dick Bryant, Leo Cronin, and Arnold J Hendrick of The Courier were all in attendance, IIRC.
Amazing how blurry photos from back then were compared with today’s cell phone cameras (mine were just as blury).
Very cool Pete! That’s a lot of Games! 1969….geez I hadn’t even had a “real” girlfriend yet! Lol! Well guys in my neck of the woods will get a kick out of these I think. Yes the photography was a lot tougher back then for many reasons, 40 years of working making movies has taught me a lot about it. The big problem was film speed and the fact that you could not see the shot until it was developed. I tried to take shots without a flash as it looks artificial, but to do that you have to use a faster film and thus the resolution will not be as good and if there is any movement it blurs. The digital camera age has been great for wargamers, look at your site, my site, and a hundred others! 30 years ago sharing our “hobby” like this was impossible!
I agree; the internet, even starting with the early “Discussion Board” sites has been a huge boon to our hobby, as has digital photography. Now some of us find ourselves using Zoom and similar during the pandemic (I’ve participated in at least 6 games so far, and host my first in about a week.
I have a few old photos of my own posted in my “Of Dice and Tin Men” series, and they also suffered from chemical degradation, re=scanning, and the like.
In “40 year old virgin” territory, LOL, my first “real” girlfriend wasn’t until I was in my 3rd year of medical school; we’ll be married 38 years later this summer! 🙂
Also the pictures you see have faded over the years, often were not handled very gently, and had to be scanned and resized / resampled before publishing so lost some quality from the originals, which yea were a bit “fuzzy” lol!
Glad you enjoyed them Brian S and thanks for being the first GM at the first convention game I ever played! It was your Tank Charts (the colored card version bought at Paul Frieler’s) and that led to where I’m at today! Two of the pictures here are from that game (where all the T34s are getting wrecked by the Tiger1s I was running!