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Pocket Box Games of the Eighties

Created by Steve Jackson Games

Help us create reproductions of the classic Steve Jackson Games Pocket Box titles of the eighties.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Car Wars, Crash City, Necromancer, Battlesuit + Surveys and Preorders Reopened!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Jul 24, 2019 at 01:29:29 AM

Two bits of news today (as well as more pics).

  • 1. We've received the tooling samples for Car Wars, Crash City, Necromancer, and Battlesuit. Sabrina was busy, so I slipped in before her and snapped some pics of the new components. (And spotted one error that will be corrected.) Sabrina will work on the official checks this afternoon/tomorrow, but we wanted you to see the latest progress on the campaign.
  • 2. We've had enough requests that we have reopened the backerkit surveys and preorders. For those of you who have asked "can I add more to my rewards?" . . . Yep! All you have to do is go back into your survey and add on extra items. We'll close this in early September, so there's time for you to make decisions on what you want to add to your rewards package.

Next week is Gen Con, so there's a good chance that we won't see more components until after that. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.

- Phil Reed

Necromancer tooling samples.
Necromancer tooling samples.
Necromancer rulebook sample.
Necromancer rulebook sample.
Necromancer pocket journal.
Necromancer pocket journal.
Necromancer pocket journal.
Necromancer pocket journal.
Battlesuit tooling sample.
Battlesuit tooling sample.
Car Wars components.
Car Wars components.
Car Wars tooling sample.
Car Wars tooling sample.
Example of the "2019 reproduction" text.
Example of the "2019 reproduction" text.
Crash City tooling sample.
Crash City tooling sample.
Crash City die-cut counters.
Crash City die-cut counters.
Another pocket journal sample.
Another pocket journal sample.
Pocket journal sample.
Pocket journal sample.

Boat Wars, Uncle Al, and More!
over 4 years ago – Sat, Jul 20, 2019 at 02:45:23 AM

A new round of tooling samples this week! Sabrina has reviewed and approved all of the latest tooling samples, some of which were missing parts to titles that we've already seen. Also, even though she is handling the reviews from home, Sabrina was kind enough to snap photos of the latest samples (which include some of the journals and storage box stickers) and send them over for all of us to enjoy. Look at the stuff, gang, and we'll be back soon with even more photos to show the progress that the factory is making on preparing everything for print.

- Phil Reed

Boat Wars components.
Boat Wars components.
Illuminati components.
Illuminati components.
Assorted Car Wars components.
Assorted Car Wars components.
Uncle Al's 2039 catalog, including the false back cover that will be shrinkwrapped to the book.
Uncle Al's 2039 catalog, including the false back cover that will be shrinkwrapped to the book.
GEV components.
GEV components.
Undead components.
Undead components.
Uncle Al's 2038 catalog.
Uncle Al's 2038 catalog.
Uncle Al's 2036 catalog.
Uncle Al's 2036 catalog.
Uncle Al's 2035 catalog.
Uncle Al's 2035 catalog.

Illuminated and Awful Tooling Samples 2100
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 03:06:45 AM

Sabrina has completed another round of tooling approvals! Tooling, for those of you who don't know, is our last chance to make changes/corrections to the material before final manufacturing begins. These four newest tooling samples move the project closer to the finish line, yes, but we continue to be behind schedule. Who would have guessed that re-mastering 30+ classic games and expansions from the company's early years required so much time?!?!?!

Unfortunately, our tests last year didn't truly reveal the amount of time we would need to prepare all of the games and expansions for manufacturing. Still, we prefer to move ahead only when the reproductions are right rather than rush the scanning and cleaning process; the crispy and cleany lines and type of the reproductions is totally worth the time it takes.

For those of you keeping score, this marks 9 tooling samples approved of the 30+ required to complete the project. We continue to receive samples each week and the pace will start to accelerate late this month. While we may not be happy with where we're at in the timeline, we are both very happy with the results and happy to know that more and more samples are going to start arriving soon.

We hope that you understand the reason for the slowness of the progress and, more importantly, we hope that you're as happy with the results as we are. We're unlikely to ever again reproduce these Pocket Box, ziplock bag, and booklet games and expansions in this form, and we want to be sure that they look so much like the originals that your friends will wonder where you got your hands on such a large collection of Steve Jackson Games titles from the eighties.

Thank you for your patience and support, gang. We'll be back just as soon as possible with more tooling sample pics.

- Phil Reed

NOTE: In the pics, you'll notice what is referred to as a "false bottom" cover sheet. These are new; they were designed so that we could add updated legal info, game info, and new UPCs and stock numbers, all without changing the originals. The false bottom sheet will be shrinkwrapped to the back of Pocket Box and booklets (it will be inserted into the ziplock bag titles). Once you open the shrinkwrap, the false bottom falls right off; it's a loose piece of paper. This sheet makes it easier for us to track your rewards -- and sell the games in the future -- without sacrificing our goal of making near-identical reproductions of the originals.

Illuminati Expansion Set 1 reproduction components.
Illuminati Expansion Set 1 reproduction components.
Illuminati Expansion Set 2 reproduction.
Illuminati Expansion Set 2 reproduction.
Reproduction cards.
Reproduction cards.



From left to right: Reproduction cover sticker, new "false bottom" back cover sheet, reproduction back cover sticker.
From left to right: Reproduction cover sticker, new "false bottom" back cover sheet, reproduction back cover sticker.
Kung Fu 2100 counters, both classic and the new die-cut sheets.
Kung Fu 2100 counters, both classic and the new die-cut sheets.
Kung Fu 2100 rules.
Kung Fu 2100 rules.
Awful Green Things reproduction cover and back cover; the new false bottom is in the center of the photo.
Awful Green Things reproduction cover and back cover; the new false bottom is in the center of the photo.

Note the "2019 reproduction" language on the rulebook. Our goal is to make these reproductions look as incredible and clean as possible, but to not make it easy to pass them off as originals.
Note the "2019 reproduction" language on the rulebook. Our goal is to make these reproductions look as incredible and clean as possible, but to not make it easy to pass them off as originals.

Undead and Truck Stop Tooling Samples
almost 5 years ago – Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 02:30:42 AM

New samples came in today and Sabrina has already reviewed and approved them. These look amazing!!! If you've never worked in graphic design, you may not fully appreciate just how much work is going into scanning and remastering all of the games and expansions that are being created as a part of this campaign. It's a monumental task and one that our partners at GPI are accomplishing just as quickly as they can manage.

At the moment, we're definitely slightly behind our original schedule. There are a handful of titles still being scanned and cleaned up, but we're happy to accept slight delays here and there when the final quality is as crisp and spectacular as we're seeing in these tooling samples.

Enjoy the pics and, as always, we'll be back just as soon as we have more news!

- Phil Reed

2019 reproduction added to the rulebook title page.
2019 reproduction added to the rulebook title page.
Die-cut Truck Stop counters!
Die-cut Truck Stop counters!
Undead cover and back cover stickers.
Undead cover and back cover stickers.
2019 reproduction line added to the Undead rulebook.
2019 reproduction line added to the Undead rulebook.
Undead die-cut counters.
Undead die-cut counters.

First Three Tooling Samples!
almost 5 years ago – Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 03:01:00 AM

We have received and approved the first three tooling samples for the Pocket Box project, bringing us slightly closer to completing the project. The tooling samples were created by the factory after a lot of skill and long, long hours went into scanning the games and touching everything up. These look fantastic and, as you can see in some of the pics, we've made sure that the "2019 reproduction" text is small and as out of the way as possible.

We'll see more tooling samples in the next few weeks and, as always, keep you updated on the progress as we work to finalize everything and prepare for manufacturing.

- Phil Reed

One-Page Bulge tooling samples.
One-Page Bulge tooling samples.
In some places, we reproduced the smallest of details.
In some places, we reproduced the smallest of details.
An example of the "2019 reproduction" text.
An example of the "2019 reproduction" text.
The printing is sharp and the colors look great!
The printing is sharp and the colors look great!
One of the back cover labels, created by the factory's team through digital magic.
One of the back cover labels, created by the factory's team through digital magic.
Ogre tooling sample, including the new die-cut counter sheets.
Ogre tooling sample, including the new die-cut counter sheets.
A close look at the Ogre counter sheets.
A close look at the Ogre counter sheets.
Raid on Iran tooling samples, including the new die-cut counters.
Raid on Iran tooling samples, including the new die-cut counters.