Platform	DOS
Publisher	Avalon Hill
Year of Release	1984
Description: This version of Diplomacy (a.k.a. Computer Diplomacy) was put out by Avalon Hill back in 1984, back in the Stone Age by today’s standards. It came on a 5 1/4 inch floppy diskette (back when diskettes really were floppy), had CGA Graphics and I think it had no sound… gotta love it! The game did not allow multiplayer, and pitted a player against very rudimentary (i.e. lousy) AI computer opponents. Nevertheless, one can’t compare 1984 standards to today’s standards, as it was the winner of the 1984 Consumer Electronics Showcase Award for Outstanding Design. (Minor note: the floppy disk envelope shown in the image below is not the original one; the original one had an Avalon Hill logo on it.)
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Platform	TRS 80, Model I/III/IV
Publisher	Avalon Hill
Year of Release	1984
Description: This game is a port of the DOS version of Computer Diplomacy to the TRS 80 computers by Tandy. The box is nearly identical to the DOS box, aside from an inset that identifies it as being for the Tandy computers (see image below). TRS 80 emulators are available for both Macintosh and PC platforms, so if you get your hands on a copy of this game you can still give it a try just for kicks.
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Platform	DOS
Publisher	Virgin Games (Leisure Genius)
Year of Release	1987
Description: Virgin Games is the only company I know of that licensed the rights to Avalon Hill’s Computer Diplomacy. The game was produced and sold in the U.K under the Leisure Genius name, and may also have been available outside of the U.K. Despite the fact that it appeared three years after the Avalon Hill DOS game, I don’t think this was a new implementation.
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Platform	Commodore 64
Publisher	Virgin Games (Leisure Genius)
Year of Release	1990
Description: I don’t know if this game is any different than the 1984 version of the game for the Commodore 64, or if it was just licensed and re-released. The splash screen looks the same. The map looks nearly the same, except in the screenshot below you will notice that any non-home SC is considered neutral (according to the colors of the provinces) whereas in the screenshot for the 1984 version (above) even non-SC provinces that are within the “homeland” of each the great powers are colored non-neutral. This may be a difference between the two versions, or it is possible that they are both the same game and that the two images are of two different alternative views that a player could use to display a map. C64 emulators are available for both Macintosh and PC platforms, so if you get your hands on a copy of this game you can still give it a try just for kicks.
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Platform	DOS
Publisher	Avalon Hill
Year of Release	1991
Description: I don’t know if this game is any different than the 1984 version of the game for the PC. I suspect it is exactly the same game, just rereleased in a new box. However, the box is different. Instead of looking like the one shown in the listing for the 1984 DOS version, it looks like a small (approximately 8 1/2 inch by 5 3/4 inch) version of the Deluxe Diplomacy box (see below).The label on the diskette indicates a 1991 copyright date, but the instruction manual and Gamer’s Guide are still copyright 1984. If the instruction book did not change, the software itself may be the same as the earlier version despite the updated copyright date on the label. The 1991 copyright date itself is interesting, however. It is possible that this game was sold after 1992 with older components in it, but if it was actually sold in 1991, it means that it predates the release of Deluxe Diplomacy, and therefore that this box design was used for the computer version of the game before it was used for Deluxe Diplomacy.
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Platform	Commodore 64/128
Publisher	Avalon Hill
Year of Release	Unknown, probably 1991
Description: An image of the box can be seen below. I don’t have any additional information, but this is quite likely the same as the earlier C64 version, which is probably the same as the original 1984 DOS version. The outside of the box does not have any identifying date, but it was probably released in (or around) 1991 since that seems to be when the DOS version in the same box came out. As mentioned above, C64 emulators are available for both Macintosh and PC platforms.
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Platform	Amiga 500/1000/2000/3000
Publisher	Avalon Hill
Year of Release	Unknown, probably 1991
Description: This box looks the same as the one for the c64 version shown above, except that the text in the white rectangle at the top right end of the back of the box indicates that the game is for the Amiga and not the C64. I don’t have any additional information, but this is quite likely the same as the original 1984 DOS version. The outside of the box does not have any identifying date, but it was probably released in (or around) 1991 since that seems to be when the DOS version in the same box came out. Amiga emulators are available for both Macintosh and PC platforms, so if you get your hands on a copy of this game you can still give it a try just for kicks.
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Platform	Amiga
Publisher	Virgin Games (Leisure Genius)
Year of Release	1992
Description: In 1992, Virgin Games released Computer Diplomacy for the Amiga in the U.K. The one person I found who had this game no longer had the box for it, but based on the shape of the manual (shown below) I suspect it was sold in the same Leisure Genius packaging as the other Virgin Games versions above. As mentioned above, Amiga emulators are available for both Macintosh and PC platforms.
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Platform	Windows
Publisher	MicroProse/Hasbro Interactive
Year of Release	1999
Description: The biggest buzz in the Diplomacy community following the acquisition of Avalon Hill by Hasbro came after Hasbro’s announcement that it had plans to develop a software version of Diplomacy. The long-awaited game hit the shelves for the 1999 holiday season. Free software adjudicators and mapping programs have been available for quite some time. What was to distinguish this game from those software tools was (1) multiplayer networking, and (2) AI-based software opponents, allowing a user to play diplomacy without having to get a group of people together. Negotiations, with human or AI players, are done through the use of meeting rooms that allow players to negotiate in private, and also allow players not in negotiations to see who is talking to whom.Although the graphics are quite good, the game was marred by bugs (most if not all of which were fixed by a subsequent patch), poor networking capability, and more importantly, a poor AI. I don’t think people really expected the AI players to be as good as skilled human players. But people did hope for AI players that could give enough of a challenge to make playing alone somewhat fun, and they also expected the AI to be good enough that it could be used to fill an incomplete game (6 humans and 1 AI) and hold its own well enough to not severely unbalance the game. The final result, however, was not just an AI that was not as good as a human, it was an AI that would reportedly bounce itself out of neutral supply centers instead of taking them — and not in cases when a self-bounce made tactical sense, in case you were wondering. The criticisms of the quality of the AIs did not just come from the Diplomacy player community, but was noted in many reviews on various computer game review web sites (i.e. reviews from general computer game players, not expert Diplomacy players). Despite high hopes, this game turned out to be a major disappointment among Diplomacy players who were looking forward to its release.Because of its poor sales, the game went out of print almost exactly a year after its release. Interestingly, doing a keyword search for “Diplomacy” at the Hasbro Interactive/MicroProse web site turns up no pages that even acknowledge the existence of the game. Although the game is no longer in print, at the time of this writing the game is still widely available in stores, often at a significant discount.
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Q&A: Why isn’t the Atari version of Diplomacy listed here?

I don’t think there ever was an Atari version of Diplomacy. Here’s why:

• I have searched the Internet extensively for information about the various versions of Diplomacy software. There are numerous references to versions of the old Avalon Hill Diplomacy game for PC/C64/Amiga scattered around the Internet, but I only found two references to the Atari version (one of which is in the old rec.games.diplomacy FAQ).
• I have come across copies of the PC/C64/Amiga versions in various “abandoneware” archives, but despite extensive searching of Atari abandonware sites I have never come across an Atari version.
• I posted inquiries about PC/C64/Amiga/Atari versions of Diplomacy on various newsgroups including rec.games.diplomacy and platform-specific software newsgroups. I received replies from people about all the versions with the exception of an Atari version.
• I tracked down somebody who deals in vintage hardware/software, specializing in the various Atari platforms. According to him, there was some literature from Avalon Hill stating that Diplomacy (and a few other games) were going to be ported over to the Atari 8 and ST, but that shortly thereafter AH discontinued Atari-based development. While Avalon Hill did release some games for the Atari, to his knowledge, Diplomacy was not among them. The fact that Avalon Hill had announced that it would be developing Diplomacy for Atari would explain why a couple of references to an Atari version can be found even if one never was released.