What games from the early 80's are still being published?

[Wicht]

The problem with being purely on PDF is that they are really easy to delete.

And can be infected with all kinds of nasty viruses.

I think I can say I've never bought a PDF with a virus attached. I doubt RPGNow would think very highly of a company that infected their own PDFs with a virus? Or were you talking about PDFs you got for free from pirates?

 

[jaerdaph]

The problem with being purely on PDF is that they are really easy to delete.

And can be infected with all kinds of nasty viruses.

They also will cause your cows to give sour milk and your crops to fail, so you might want to keep avoiding them...

 

[Garmorn]

Does "still available in PDF" count?
Game Designers' Workshop has put up for sale the mother load of Classic Traveller PDFs:

RPGNow.com - Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) - The leading source for indie RPGs

I am going to say yes. PDFs count as does the Retros. I am just aiming for games that are still close to the original versions that where available in the 84 or earlier.

 

[Wicht]

Toon was published first in 1984. While the original books are out of print, the latest support for it was Toon Munchkin in 2006.

Paranoia was also first published in 1984. I haven't looked at the newest release of it though to know how it has changed.

 

[Wicht]

An interesting website relative to this inquiry.

 

[The Shaman]

I believe Aftermath is still technically in print and hasn't changed at all.

Aftermath!, Bushido, Space Opera, Villains and Vigilantes, Privateers and Gentleman, Psi World, Merc, and my personal favorite, Flashing Blades are all still in print and available directly from Fantasy Games Unlimited.

 

[Ariosto]

Besides the "Classic" Traveller PDFs and compilation volumes from Far Future Enterprises -- e.g., FFE 001 Books 0-8: The Classic Books -- there is theoretically a one-volume edition of the original Books 1-3 material (like several GDW editions from back in the day). As a practical matter, I don't know whether it is in print and shipping. If FFE has taken over from the licensee who was handling it at one time, then that would be encouraging. IIRC, it was/is listed for a remarkably low price (even if it were still in early-'80s dollars).

 

[Ariosto]

En Garde! (distinguished by the exclamation point from the more recent board game) was, last I checked, in print from a UK publisher. The game was first published in the 1970s.

John McEwan's Star Guard sci-fi miniatures and rules (and Warbots and Death Machines) were also still available last I looked. Those debuted about the same time as the original Dungeons & Dragons, I think the same year (1974).

 

[Ariosto]

Tri-Tac Games (Fringeworthy, FTL: 2448, Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic, and others) is selling CDs of PDFs. I don't know when they stopped selling printed and bound product.

 

[Nylanfs]

ShadowRun is still "fairly" close to the original mechanics. There isn't much difference between target numbers and modifying the dice pool.