From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Car Wars is a combat boardgame developed by Steve Jackson Games and first published in a small ziplock-bag format in the early 80s. Within 10 years the game had attained enormous popularity and was available in a series of increasingly more expensive and well-developed editions. The game waned during the 1990s, and in response to slipping sales the publisher all but ceased support for Car Wars. The last official Cars Wars material for the original game appeared in the Pyramid electronic magazine (an article detailing Sonic Cannon, by then-Line Editor S. John Ross).
The world of Car Wars, Autoduel America, was developed for roleplaying games using the company's GURPS system. The GURPS worldbook has seen two editions. A series of expansions for both the GURPS version and boardgame version, the AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guides, was published in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Recently, Steve Jackson Games released an entirely new version of Car Wars, streamlined and re-imagined for a fresh audience. The new game's unusual marketing - scattering the game across several redundant products - met with mixed responses, and the game seems destined for another moribund stretch or total demise.
A fan club, the American Autoduel Association (AADA) supports the game and provides structure for tournaments. Membership in the AADA has waned along with the game's sales.
