Columbia Games is one of the oldest manufacturers of board wargames, and has also produced the Hârn role-playing game as well as various card games and collectible card games. Their wargames are notable for using small wooden or plastic blocks instead of the more conventional cardboard counters. The company, originally titled Gamma Two Games, started in Vancouver, Canada, but after ten years changed its name to Columbia Games, and eventually moved to Blaine, Washington. It is currently run by Grant Dalgliesh son of the founder Tom Dalgliesh.
Gamma Two Games
In 1971, Tom Dalgliesh, Lance Gutteridge and Steve Brewster all graduated from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and decided to start a Canadian games company called Gamma Two Games. They published their first game in 1972, the block wargame titled Quebec 1759. Brewster left the company soon after its formation, and was replaced by Ron Gibson.
The company produced two more wargames, War of 1812 in 1973, and Napoléon: The Waterloo Campaign, 1815 in 1974.
Although Quebec 1759 eventually sold over 20,000 copies, the next two titles were not as successful, and the business partners realized there was not much of a market in Canada for board wargames. Starting in 1975, they switched to more family-oriented games such as Airline (1975), Klondike (1975), Supermoney (1978), Smokers Wild (1978), Foreign Exchange (1978), Maneuver (1979), and ''Score! Soccer Game'' (1980).