It was early 1978, just after the cartoon version of "The Hobbit" had been on TV. I was already into Avalon Hill war games and I thought of myself as a brainy strategy gamer at the age of 11.
One day news spread that another boy, Mike, had gotten this cool new game. That afternoon we all descended on his house to play B1: Adventures into the Unknown. I DMed for a couple of years and left when I thought the rules were getting in the way of fun.