I keep all of my email. All. Of. It.

Seriously, no matter how small or insignificant the message is, I file away email just in case I need it in the future. Dozens of mailboxes, broken down into even more subfolders, litter my mail program, but because I keep all of that old mail reachable at all times I can identify the first date that we started discussing what would eventually become Car Wars Classic: February 25, 2008.

Yes, almost seven years ago we were exchanging project ideas at the office when the suggestion of a reprint of the 1990 small boxed edition of Car Wars first came up. The idea changed very little from that initial message – “A near-exact reprint of the game, sized to our standard Munchkin box and priced at $19.95.” – and watching the excitement of fans at Gen Con 2014 when the advance copies of Car Wars Classic went on sale told me we had made the right decision in bringing this edition of the game back to store shelves.

~ What Is Car Wars? ~

“The most critical component of Car Wars’ success over the years – and the reason the game remains so damn much fun – goes back to the idea encapsulated in the game’s title: It’s a war...with cars.” - Jeff Tidball, Hobby Games: The 100 Best

First released in 1981, Car Wars was the first blockbuster title from Steve Jackson Games and even today, over three decades later, the classic edition of the game has passionate fans who get together weekly to go up against each other in duels to the death. Using dice, rulers, car record sheets, and the game’s clever turning key gives players everything they need to put the hammer down and race across the arena, blasting and ramming their opponents into oblivion.

Over the years there have been millions of Car Wars games and supplements sold, but with the last big boxed edition of the game being close to 20 years old, the act of finding a copy of Car Wars in stores is becoming more and more of a challenge. As we at Steve Jackson Games prepare an entirely new edition of Car Wars (more information below), it became clear that those initial ideas of a game reprint made perfect sense today: get the classic edition of the game into stores now so that old-school players can replace their battered boxes – and everyone new to the game can get a taste of what it feels like to drive cars...with guns. Machine guns, rocket launchers, even lasers – there are over two dozen kinds of weapons you can unleash against your friends. Add engine mods for extra speed, beef up your suspension for better handling, upgrade your armor, add a targeting computer for improved accuracy – your options are nearly endless. Build your car for speed and quick strikes, or bulk it up with extra armor and “turtle” your way to victory. Pull off your fastest, most furious maneuvers, but don’t lose control or else you’ll crash and burn!

Car Wars is set in a not-too-distant future where the lucky ones are holed up in glittering cities, where the latest in high technology stays one step ahead of the never-ceasing needs of the masses. Some keep themselves entertained following the exploits of their favorite autoduellists – professional (and sometimes amateur) drivers who face off in brightly lit arenas, seeking fame and glory from the driver’s seats of their armed and armored four-wheelers. And out on the open roads between cities, the rest try to scrape by surviving on what they can salvage, or take.

Car Wars Classic, reaching store shelves now, is a slightly modified reprint of Car Wars and includes everything players need to design cars – a significant part of the fun of the game is the option for players to custom-construct vehicles – and then take those cars into battle with their friends.  It’s not the entire game system – this box focuses on cars and motorcycles and leaves out helicopters, tanks, hovercraft, and all of the other add-ons that were introduced as Car Wars grew during the 1980s and ’90s – but it is everything players need to get down to the core of the game: Drive cars really fast and shoot your opponents.

~ Car Wars Classic And The Veteran Autoduellist ~

If you’re an old-school Car Wars fan excited to rip open this box set, then you’ll feel right at home once the shrinkwrap is off and you have the components on the table and ready for play. The rules, counters, turning key, and maps will feel very familiar if you’re a longtime Car Wars player, and the only significant changes between this and the 1990 box are as follows:

And that’s it for significant changes. We made minor errata fixes to the rulebook in spots, but flipping through the game’s rules will definitely take you back to an earlier era and should spark gaming memories from the past.

~ Car Wars Classic And The Amateur Autoduellist ~

If this is your first shot with Car Wars, you’re in for an exciting time. Inside the box is what I consider to be the absolute best introduction to Car Wars that was ever created, taking nearly a decade of rules and experience with the game (at the time) and giving you everything you need for a great play experience.

You will want to read the rules over carefully – especially the movement and combat rules of the game – and for your very first sessions I suggest using stock vehicle designs. Get a couple of games under your belt before you jump into designing your own cars, because I think you’ll create far more combat-worthy vehicles after you see how the cars maneuver and fight on the battlefield.

And if your local store has an open gaming area, your very best way to learn Car Wars is to post a notice looking for players. I guarantee you that someone who visits your favorite local game store is familiar with Car Wars...and who knows, your posting on the store’s bulletin board could uncover a local Car Wars group that’s operating underground. With hundreds of thousands of Car Wars fans over the years, it’s not at all unrealistic to think that there’s an active group near you right now.

~ Where To Next? ~

Once you’ve got your hands on Car Wars Classic, you can enjoy the game for decades – many have! – without ever adding any expansions to the game. Creating your own vehicles, designing your own scenarios, and running local tournaments will let you play for hundreds and hundreds of hours without adding any game supplements to the material inside the box.

But if you’re having a remarkable bit of fun with Car Wars Classic, then we think that you’ll want to keep your eyes open for the new edition of the game. Currently under construction at a secret location (our offices), the upcoming Sixth Edition Car Wars game strips the classic game down to its chassis and rebuilds the entire machine from scratch, streamlining where appropriate and salvaging the best elements of the original game for what we know is going to be an awesome new edition of the game of car combat.

To guarantee that the new game is the best it can be – and to ensure that it is given all of the attention it deserves – we brought in an expert earlier this year, dropping Scott Haring right into the action and handing him the keys to the entire project. Longtime Car Wars fans will recognize Scott’s name from the golden years of Car Wars, when Scott developed and edited the best Car Wars supplements (and even designed some great expansions, including the fan-favorite 1985 Dueltrack box set).

We are still a long way from sending the new edition of Car Wars to the streets, though, so embrace the new (old?) Car Wars Classic game and use the ridiculous amounts of fun packed inside the box to either introduce new players to the idea of cars with guns, or to just bring back those memories of an age when you and your friends would gather around the turning key and push your cars as hard as you can.