Stephen V. Cole
| Stephen V. Cole | |
|---|---|
| Born | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Game designer |
Stephen V. Cole is an American game designer and the CEO of Amarillo Design Bureau (also known as ADB or Starfleet Games) which publishes Star Fleet Battles,Federation and Empire, Federation Commander, Prime Directive (a RPG), and other wargames set in the Star Fleet Universe.
Stephen Cole was an engineer and former Texas National Guard intelligence officer. In 1973, while a student at Texas Tech, he founded the company JagdPanther Publications, which published JagdPanther (1973-1976), a magazine which featured complete small games in every issue as well as scenarios and variants for existing games. A few years later, Allen Eldridge, who Cole met at a local game club in Amarillo Texas, joined Cole at JP. Cole and Eldridge decided to close down JP in November 1976, and the company shut down in spring of 1977. JP Publications operated from 1973 to 1977.
In the fall of 1978, Cole and Eldridge co-founded Task Force Games which they used to sell only to wholesalers and retailers and not to individuals. They started a "Pocket Games" line, with four science-fiction releases in 1979 designed by Cole: Starfire, Asteroid Zero-Four, Cerberus, and Star Fleet Battles. Cole had first conceived of Star Fleet Battles in 1975, and finally published the game after obtaining a license from Franz Joseph. Cole's Valkenburg Castle was also released in 1979, and was the company's first fantasy game.
In 1983, as the Pocket Games line game to an end, Cole left Task Force Games to form a new company, Amarillo Design Bureau, which would be his design house for future Star Fleet Battles products. Through Amarillo Design Bureau, Cole offered heavy support for Star Fleet Battles. After Task Force Games was sold to John Olsen in April 1990, Olsen moved the company back to Amarillo to better coordinate with Cole. Task Force Games published Cole's Star Fleet Battles Captain's Edition Basic Set in 1990. Cole took over Star Fleet Battles in 1990, turning Amarillo Design Bureau into a corporation in the process.Star Fleet Battles continues to be published by Amarillo Design Bureau and was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming, Arts, & Design Hall of Fame in 2005 where they stated that "Star Fleet Battles literally defined the genre of spaceship combat games in the early 1980s, and was the first game that combined a major license with 'high re-playability'."
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