Flying Buffalo
Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with "Nuclear Destruction", a play-by-mail game which started the professional PBM industry in the United States. Loomis added games and players while introducing computer moderation, and soon incorporated into the company Flying Buffalo Inc. The company published games in other genres, including card games such as "Nuclear War" and a role playing game called "Tunnels & Trolls", a game similar to "Dungeons & Dragons". Flying Buffalo acquired its  10,000th customer account number in 1980 and reached its largest size of 21 employees in 1983. In July 2021, Webbed Sphere purchased Flying Buffalo with plans to incorporate Flying Buffalo's products. The PBM games were not included in the sale, and were continued by a separate company called Rick Loomis PBM Games. History. Flying Buffalo Inc. was founded in January 1970. That year, Rick Loomis invented a game called "Nuclear Destruction", a play-by-mail game, for which he moderated multiplayer games. "Nuclear Destruction" is widely considered to be the first commercial play-by-mail (PBM) game. He soon  had more than 200 players in multiple games, and asked fellow soldier Steve MacGregor to write a computer program to moderate the games; they began renting time on a computer near Fort Shafter, using the name Flying Buffalo devised by Loomis. After leaving the military in 1972, Loomis and MacGregor incorporated their PBM company as Flying Buffalo, Inc., or FBI. Loomis and MacGregor pooled their savings to purchase a Raytheon 704 minicomputer to run PBM turns. In 1972, the company began publication of their "Flying Buffalo Quarterly" magazine. Flying Buffalo has also published games outside of PBM. Loomis acquired "Nuclear  War" and began publishing it in 1972; it soon became one of Flying Buffalo's best sellers. In 1975 they published "Tunnels & Trolls", a fantasy role playing game generally similar to "Dungeons & Dragons". Later products included background materials for fantasy role playing games, which became the "Catalyst" series. In 1976 the company started running a space exploration/conquest PBM game titled "Starweb". In 1978 they purchased a board wargame titled "Schutztruppe" from game designer Jim Bumpas. Also in 1978 the company began publishing "Sorcerer's Apprentice". They also produce a range of unusual dice, such as a set to determine  which toppings to order on pizza, and currently hold the printing rights to the "Ace of Aces" and "Lost Worlds" flip book systems. The staff reached its largest size of over 21 employees in 1983. The company also ran a gaming store at various locations in Tempe, Arizona until 1985. In 1985, Flying Buffalo reached a milestone, assigning its 10,000th account number. The company noted that, although account No. 1 went to its founder, Rick Loomis, account No. 10,000 went to a customer from Athens, Alabama. They noted in the 14-years period, some of their PBM games had been  run hundreds of times each, including over 870 games of "Starweb", 930 of "Battle Plan", and 720 of "Nuclear Destruction". The company was also up to No. 50 in its print run of "Flying Buffalo Quarterly", its company magazine. In 1992, the fiction book "Mage's Blood and Old Bones: A Tunnels & Trolls Shared World Anthology" was published by Flying Buffalo. Following the dissolution of TSR in 1997, Flying Buffalo remains the oldest pen-and-paper role-playing game publisher in the world. In July 2021, Webbed Sphere purchased Flying Buffalo Inc. with plans for Flying Buffalo to join its  existing product lines. The PBM games were not included in the sale and a separate company, Rick Loomis PBM Games, continues to run nine PBM games originally published by Flying Buffalo, including "Heroic Fantasy", "Nuclear Destruction", "Starweb", and others. Awards. Various Flying Buffalo games have won awards. The Origins Hall of Fame award is given to game designers who have the best contributions of their field. Multiple Flying Buffalo writers and designers have won this award.