Balance of Power – By Bradford Morgan White

It's interesting that the ARF post completely skips mentioning Eastern Front (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(1941)) which both revolutionized sim/war games on computers, and the interfaces such as a smooth scrolling map. Compare to other wargames of that time such as https://www.mobygames.com/game/14793/tac-tactical-armor-comm..., early "TUI" text interfaces.

He also had early experiments with simulations of interacting systems with Scram (manage a power grid) and Energy Czar (manage a country's energy policy during an energy crisis).

These showed his deft handling of cramming complexity into the limited resources of early 8-bit systems. Balance of Power was more mature than these, but even these early games showed massive promise of what Sim games could become, and what Chris Crawford could create.

The description of the game sounds really interesting. Is there anything like it on the market today?

> You choose to be either the US or the USSR (In a one-player game, the computer takes the other side. You can also play against a friend.) In brief, you decide whether to support or undermine the governments of each of 60 countries; you can send economic or military aid to either government or rebel forces, conduct covert operations to destabilize unfriendly regimes, apply diplomatic pressure, sign treaties, station troops. The object is to increase your sphere of influence and international prestige-at your opponent's expense-while avoiding nuclear war, in which both sides lose. The dynamics of the game consist of challenging your opponent's moves; at every step the other side takes you can choose to send a diplomatic protest, which can expand into a full-scale crisis. Your opponent has the same opportunity. It's a grand global game of "chicken," played for the highest stakes possible.

Hey, my friend used to play that in elementary school (in the very late 1980s). I never remembered what the game was called.

He was very interested in history and would also play games that simulated the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.

I always preferred Shadow President, the back end simulation seemed more realistic.