CTF 2187 (also known as CTF2187) is a closed-end, computer-moderated, play-by-mail (PBM) game that was published by Advanced Gaming Enterprises in the 1980s. It involved teams of robots, of varying size and capabilities, battling on a hex-grid arena with the purpose of defeating the opposing team or their command post. Players assumed the role of a battle robot pilot. The game was tactically-focused, with combat action beginning on the first turn. Games lasted 5–10 turns, or about six months. Players began at the rank of cadet but could spend experience points earned from a completed game to increase in rank (or statistics) for future games, up to the rank of General.
Various authors wrote works of fiction about the game in the 1980s to the 2000s in publications such as Paper Mayhem and Sabledrake magazine. CTF 2187 received generally positive reviews in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In Best Play-by-Mail Game results published in the PBM magazine Paper Mayhem, the game placed No. 4 in 1989 and No. 2 in 1996. The game placed 10th in Flagship magazine's best Wargame category in its 2002 Flagship PBM Ratings list.
Play-by-mail history
Some games have long been played by mail between two players, such as chess and Go. PBM play of Diplomacy—a multiplayer game—began in 1963. The emergence of the professional PBM industry occurred less than a decade later. Rick Loomis, "generally recognized as the founder of the PBM industry", accomplished this by launching Flying Buffalo Inc. and his first PBM game, Nuclear Destruction, in 1970. Professional game moderation started in 1971 at Flying Buffalo. Chris Harvey started commercial PBM play afterward in the United Kingdom with a company called ICBM through an agreement with Loomis and Flying Buffalo. ICBM, followed by KJC games and Mitregames, led the UK PBM industry. For approximately five years, Flying Buffalo was the single dominant company in the US PBM industry until Schubel & Son entered the field in about 1976 with the human-moderated The Tribes of Crane. Superior Simulations was the next significant PBM company to enter the US market. They did so in 1978 with the game Empyrean Challenge which one observer stated was "the most complex game system on Earth".
The early 1980s saw additional growth for PBM. The player base grew and game moderators were plentiful. The most popular games in 1980 were Starweb and Tribes of Crane. The PBM industry in 1980 comprised two large companies and some small ones. In 1981, some PBM players started another company, Adventures by Mail, with the "immensely popular" Beyond the Stellar Empire.
The proliferation of PBM companies in the 1980s supported the publication of a number of newsletters from individual play-by-mail companies as well as independent publications which focused solely on the play-by-mail gaming industry such as the relatively short-lived The Nuts & Bolts of PBM and Gaming Universal. The PBM genre's two preeminent magazines of the period were Flagship and Paper Mayhem. It was within this environment that CTF 2187 was launched.
Development
The game's original designer was Duane Wilcoxson, with development by Debbie Leonard. The game was first copyrighted in 1987 by Advanced Gaming Enterprises of Sacramento, CA. By 1994, the game was available in Australia, North America, and Europe, in multiple languages. In the late 1990s, Harlequin Games also published the game.
CTF 2187 was computer moderated, with programming by Duane Wilcoxson. The publisher, Adventures by Mail, also provided players The Command Post, a newsletter that provided game updates and commentary.
Gameplay
At the outset, each player created a character—a pilot. New players, or cadets, could distribute fifteen points among the following six characteristics: intelligence, intuition, precision, reflexes, constitution, and luck. Secondary characteristics were also used, such as experience points, which could raise the six other characteristics.