'The Gamesmen of Earth Prime' 

Epic Illustrated Fall 1980

  

The  Fall 1980 issue of Epic Illustrated has an illuminating look at the state of Geek Culture at the time, with an article about the Dungeons and Dragon and wargaming  scene titled 'The Gamesmen of Earth Prime'.

In the magazine's 'Overview' section, which provides capsule comments by editor Archie Goodwin about the contents of each issue of Epic, he describes how a fateful encounter with a Klingon planted an idea in his head ....

This in turn led to the commissioning of a lengthy article on the D&D and wargaming world, which I've posted below. (Although I doubt anyone under 40 will find this stuff all that intriguing).

Remember, this is the Fall of 1980, and there are no such things as 'personal computers' as we now know them, although some of my friends are taking classes in their electrical engineering curricula on 'microcomputers'. 

Video games exist, but they are the large coin-operated consoles, like 'Space Invaders', that are found in bars and arcades along with foosball tables.  

The idea that a D&D game, or an SPI wargame, could be played on a computer seems promising, but still a ways off ....